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Announcement
To comprehend more of what had happened in this story, readers are advised to first read Come As You Would Be by Trismegistus Shandy (which is a 2,830 worded short story.)
Sir Andy
“Mary? Do you think you are a bit too old for that?” Our mother referred to the teenager in a little girl's dress.
I watched my big sis -- that was Mary -- look down at me with a smile and my rosy cheeked face smiled right back up at her. Then as a response to our mother, we smooshed our cheeks together to make a bigger smile. “Nope! It's Halloween and we can be as silly as we want.”
Our mother shook her head as she added: “And what is Ann wearing?”
My big sis laughed as she gave me a great big hug! “She's being my male chaperone tonight. Isn't that right, Sir Andy?” Before I could respond, my sis placed her hand on my short red head of hair and nudged my head down to yield an agreeable nod of confirmation for our amused mother to witness.
As I always do around my big sis, I simply kept quietly smiling.
...It felt weird, though. That was, the costume felt unnatural.
The knightly outfit my sis bought for me was made of a soft and thick fabric: a steel-grey outfit. But I could feel a weight to it.
A warm, welcome comfort.
A newborn purpose.
A responsibility.
And I couldn't complain: she had said it was special ordered specifically for my size. It was different, and I enjoyed mixing things up. Especially compared to the last few years of Trick-or-Treating.
The armor appeared brilliant on me. Absolutely every single moment, I believed more that the knightly getup was becoming hardened steel!
Ridiculous, but... I felt a lot less soft and squishy. Now I was... formidable? My big sis made a big deal about me being her protector tonight. And that had blossomed remarkably stalwart senses in me the likes of which I'd never experienced in my life!
For the sake of my new sense of pride, I kept my waterworks in check and remained smiling as always.
For my big sis tonight, my life would soar to any heights to be what she wished me to be.
For a profound honor that my big sis forged into my heart, I would always be there for her!
I honestly felt as if I was a knight in shining armor! Even the little blade buckled at my hip had a certain weight of responsibility -- my sword was only for my big sis.
With my new sense of standards, my sword being drawn for any cause other than in defense of Mary would be a petty excuse for bravado.
“Okay, you two.” Mom shook her head again as she looked us over in disbelief. “Be sure to be back no later than ten.” As we turned to leave, Mom yelled at us: “And don't go down any strange streets. Also none without more than one porchlight on.”
That last rule struck a chord in us. “But Mom, it's already late as is. If we cut --”
“No buts or cuts, or I'll smack you one across your butt.” When I heard that, my cheeks turned a brighter red! My big sis getting spanked wasn't a common occurrence at all. “Do I make myself clear? Porch lights-s. More than one light on, and walk with a crowd.”
“Mom, I'm not alone. See?” Mary grabbed my sword... okay, to be honest, it was actually a letter opener. Anyways -- sis grabbed it and my hand to force me to do a strikingly gallant gesture of dignified fealty with the magnificently gleaming blade. “Sir Andy will protect me with his legendary Opener.”
“And who's going to protect Sir Andy tonight?” In response to mom, Mary rapped her knuckles on my fitted 'breastplate' of steel-grey fabric. “Oh, whatever! Seriously... be careful.”
“We will, Mom! Happy Halloween!” Mom waved at us as we went out into the night...
Mary didn't listen...
I remembered it clearly, and forever would. We were finished down one block with a bag half full and saw the lit porches on the other -- but we would have to walk through a dark corner before we reached it.
It would've been our last line of houses! When we would finish there, we'd head back. Mary had promised and I would ensure that she kept that promise.
I failed my duty.
We heard a conversation, which we thought meant there were people nearby. We thought we were safe in a crowd!
We didn't know it was a prowler listening to a talk show from inside a van!
Once we began to walk alongside its dark and bulky silhouette, we realized what we were hearing --
-- and the trap was sprung before we could ever react! The side door slid open so fast that we froze with fright!
He pulled us in and slammed the door shut. A very big and dark outline of a man hovered over us and clapped so loudly to get our attention that we submitted by fearful instinct. He brought his chubby finger up to his lips to shush us before wedging himself back into the front seat and driving us off into the long night...
We had driven a far way out and for far too long. Mary was crying by the time we felt the van jerk and throw us against the back of the driver's seat. I was too frightened to say or do anything.
But not my big sis!
The driver had huffed and parked the van before he squeezed back to where we huddled together. His great expanse loomed dangerously over us, as if we would be crushed at any moment... but I couldn't be certain if it would be his weight or body odor that did us in first.
The bullish shape of his head came down to level with us. “That's funny. I'd thought you were bigger when I saw you walk up to my humble abode.” He laughed hard and loud before he made a statement: “That's sweet! Nice and small are just the way I like my little girls.”
“Let us go!” Mary's voice squeaked. At first, I thought it was because she was frightened, but no... she was smaller, younger.
My big sis was a little girl!
She tried to fight him... I felt so horrible, not knowing how to fulfill my new role as he grabbed my sister and tossed her around like she was nothing!
When he reached for her, she kicked out at him in a last ditch effort --
-- and he grabbed her leg to savagely bite her!
To have bitten my big sis, he was nothing but a rabid animal!
And there I was, petrified in my protective steel cage! Not worth worrying about to the bestial man...
In the eyes of that feral predator, I was a scared, rosy-cheeked, little boy in a tin can.
We were subdued, but not before Mary reached out and we hugged each other closely. I felt such deep shame as I watched him tape my big sister's mouth shut just inches above my yarn-thick red hair.
Again he picked us up like we were insubstantial, without care how or where he recklessly carried us, and used his monstrous bulk to force the van's side door popped open. And again with the fenced gate. And again with his broken front door.
He grunted with a fetid air of satisfaction as he carried us into his filthy den. The horrid condition inside our captor's home reflected the image we had of the depraved Beast! We were set down and aside for a moment to be appraised, ogled.
The beast had eyes that were too close to each other. They were the kind that never hid what he laid his eyes on.
And he focused specifically on my now less developed big sister!
The grotesquely fat man had zip-tied Mary's ankles together to immobilize her, but she was also tied around the arms in a way to keep her hugged to me tightly. If she were to hop up and attempt an escape with my augmented weight of real armor, I would accidentally cause us to topple over.
...prone and exposed to the beast.
And it appeared that was how he preferred us. He threw us on his stained mattress and prepared for a most dishonorable night.
Before he sat down, his pants came off in an excited jiffy. The dark marks on his tight briefs...
The TV was already turned on, and he cranked the volume to the max.
And he reached out to us with a steamy look in his eyes --
-- but his attention was grabbed by the television's breaking news, replaying a piece of footage of crazy and bizzare creatures facing off against superheroes and magicians in the streets! What followed was the announcement of a widespread outbreak of transformations!
“Holy shit!” We were startled at his exclaimed curse. “No way... fuck me! Maybe I should put on my Superman costume and join in the fun? ” He removed his shirt and struck a disgustingly heroic pose in his underwear. What hair had abandoned his head had migrated all over his sagging flesh. “Nah, for the sin I'm about to commit, I should be Jesus and suggest you turn the other cheeky.” The deranged lunatic barked a note of laughter and turned his lecherous face toward us. “Cheeky. Get it?”
To provocatively hint what he meant, I saw him reach out at us --
-- and Mary screeched behind the tape as she jerked us both up to escape his perverted violation!
He removed his hand and stared at us from across the bed with a lewd smile. Then his face contorted in an ugly snarl as he viciously shouted: “That was supposed to be funny, you fucking bitch! Laugh!” He grabbed the unlit lamp from the TV stand and held it over his head.
He was going to throw it at us!
Despite the armor, Mary squeezed me so tightly that I squeaked! She was startled by the noise I made, but my face buried down on her shoulder. Carefully with her bound hands, she lifted my face from her shoulder to turned toward the light emitted from the TV to inspect me --
-- and I heard a crash met with a muffled scream!
My big sis had unintentionally shielded me! That wasn't supposed to happen!
I was her knight in shining armor...
Tears welled up in my eyes.
Within that instant, I was filled to the brim with a righteous fury!
“Enough fucking bullshit!” I heard his heavy weight on the squealing mattress springs and felt our unbalanced roll toward him as he pulled Mary over onto her back. I tried to glance behind me --
-- but I heard my big sis whimper. My attention had been drawn up to see Mary's eyes, which had grown wide with terror.
A massive shadow fell over us.
“When I tell you something, you obey. When it is funny, you laugh.” He had to be very close because I could smell his miasmic breath pouring over my shoulder. Then I felt his meaty hand on my shoulder. “What the fuck --”
Mary's muffled cries grew intense as I was pulled straight out of her tight embrace. Without me, my big sis was now entirely vulnerable...
He turned me around violently, shook and rattled me, and stared directly into my face with contemptuous distaste.
I was scared. But that was to be expected with my new role as protector. Courage overcame fear. And my big sister gave me what I required to be brave.
It wasn't because of my armor. Not my sword. Nor the fantastic wonder the magical night had gifted me.
There was someone very precious to me who was more exposed to danger than I was... and he'd hurt her!
In devotion to all the big sisters I always looked up to, I would become her sworn sword!
In a flash, I drew out the Opener and... well I created a contradiction and closed one of his eyes for good! He jerked back before I could do more than rupture the eyeball, however.
As he screamed bloody murder, I felt the rush of air and the impact of being thrown against the wall. I dropped to the floor and remained shockingly motionless.
In all my long years, I'd never felt pain before.
Not when Mary's great-grandmother had sewn a lock of hair from her lost sister into me. And to complete me, she'd embroidered me with her sister's likeness from an enchanted spool of thread. To be shared and loved as I once was when I had a heartbeat. To be handed down the line over the century.
Never as I gradually dried over the weeks after her grandmother's house flooded and I emerged soaked to the stuffing.
Nor when Mary's mother -- our mother -- had unintentionally cut my red-yarn hair at a too-young age to understand I couldn't grow it back.
As a cherished household icon, I was always proud to be the family's Raggedy Ann.
Tonight was the first time I'd ever felt a swell of pride; I couldn't feel more proud for serving my family as its protector.
The night was not over...
Mary looked at me in shock as I stood up and approached her. With the Opener, I cut the bonds around her ankles and freed my big sis's wrists when she knelt down for me to reach.
Meanwhile, that big tub of lard finally shouted a word of disbelief before he figured out the trouble he would be in when Mary escaped. I heard him charge us --
-- and luckily for us, I was in his stampeding path! I turned immediately around and braced myself for impact as I thrust and held the Opener out before me in both hands.
I would slay the foul beast before he ever laid a hand on my precious big sister ever again!
There was a blur of motion above me --
-- the large beast cursed as something crashed over his head as he fell forward face first --
-- and I lanced him fully in the other eye as he dropped.
The dreaded beast was dead.
I tugged at my sword, but I couldn't pull it out... I left it buried in the ugly man and turned to a more important matter, Mary.
She looked down at the dead predator with well placed vindication in her eyes and determination in her stance; she held the lamp up high and ready to fell the horrible beast again. Just in case we were wrong about his demise by our hands.
After a minute of Mary doing no more than holding the lamp high and readied for another head-bashing, we were feeling assured of our safety from the Beast's lack of activity. Not even so much as a twitch from him.
To impart that there was love and security to be had, I raised my arms for my big sis and smiled like I always had and would.
Her gaze shifted from the dead to the wondrous new boy in armor: me. It wasn't fear in her eyes, but disbelief in what she saw.
I kept my open arms raised in welcome, which had prompted a reaction from her to slowly lower the lamp. As she drifted her attention down to where she could set the lamp, her eyes popped open wider at the thin pair of arms she had. And the rest of her magically acquired youth.
“Ann...? Andy...? You're alive!” Mary sobbed.
“I was always alive,” I said, testing out my new voice. “But now I can move and talk.”
Trembling in shock, Mary dropped the lamp. I was frightened that I scared her, but then she slid down to her knees --
-- and when she embraced me, I added: “And hug you back.”
She bawled her eyes out as we held each other.
The terrible encounter was nearly over. Now all we had to do was leave it all behind us and continue on with our lives... and my new role as Sir “Raggedy” Andy.
| {
"subset": "scribblehub",
"lang": "en",
"series": "4460",
"id": "4462",
"q": 0.91,
"title": "Sir Andy - Sir Andy",
"author": "mrsimple",
"chapters": 1,
"rating": 5,
"rating_ct": 1,
"genre": [
"Action",
"Gender Bender",
"Horror",
"Mature",
"Supernatural"
],
"tags": [
"Abusive Characters",
"Aggressive Characters",
"Appearance Changes",
"Appearance Different from Actual Age",
"Caring Protagonist",
"Character Growth",
"Child Abuse",
"Childcare",
"Childhood Promise",
"Complex Family Relationships",
"Conditional Power",
"Confinement",
"Cross-dressing",
"Cute Children",
"Death",
"Determined Protagonist",
"Dolls/Puppets",
"Family",
"Famous Protagonist",
"Female to Male",
"Humanoid Protagonist",
"Kidnappings",
"Magic",
"Modern Day",
"Weak to Strong"
]
} |
Announcement
To comprehend more of what had happened in this story, readers are advised to first read Come As You Would Be by Trismegistus Shandy (which is a 2,830 worded short story.)
One Night as the Queen
When did it start? Dunno. I supposed a long time ago. Maybe way back in school?
On the high or low borders of my vision, I'd experienced bright flashes. Instantly there and gone, and I would wonder if I had imagined it. The years rolled by and they became more frequent.
By then, I hadn't given it a thought. I ignored stuff like that. There was no pain or impairment, and nobody ever mentioned anything odd about me. Maybe they ignored me too if I was a regular oddball to them?
...Never thought I was odd. I looked funny, but what giant didn't?
The flashes would just come and go. These were not everyday occurrences. Maybe monthly? Weekly?
That was what happened when I considered my illness normal. In fact, I didn't know I was sick.
Since I was a kid, I was dying and no one ever realized it -- and I included myself in that lot.
How had I found out? By accident.
I was a really tall guy! Nearly seven foot with a weight close to three hundred, I was a genuine giant. But I was tall, not big. That triple-digit weight sounded heavy, but pack that weight vertically and the pudge doesn't stand out nearly as much as it would've on someone normal sized.
Anyways, I'd worked on machinery. I sometimes have to fit in tight spaces to stretch and flatten myself for certain out-of-reach parts. A very tight and uncomfortable squeeze.
Every day, I'd leave with lined impressions in my skin from how hard I was laying or wedging myself into steely cases, pulling densely plated gears or wheels until they turned, gripping pistons and plungers before they moved again, and all manner of other machinery I was tasked to perform maintenance on.
One day, I nearly got my head crushed because some asshole machine operator thought he'd come in early and run the damn hardline. All it took was for him to use a pair of snips and cut off my lockout tag.
He hit the big red E-stop button when I screamed.
That day was a curse and blessing.
On the one hand, a very happy lawyer handed me a very nice paycheck, and an awesome disability was electronically deposited in my account on a bi-weekly basis.
On the other hand... what other hand? I only have one now and that makes my living difficult.
But that's getting ahead when I should've focused on what was wrong with my head.
Back then, I had other injuries that required looking at. Other than the ground meat hanging off my wrist, I was evaluated on how severe the rest of my booboos were. So one of the tests the doctors conducted was on priority number one: my head.
They honestly reminded me of modern art images, but they were of the inside of my head! I had to wonder if stuff like that could make a quick buck?
On another note, apparently there had been something steadily growing over the years in the back of my thick skull. And it was also apparent that the mass was inside of something very squishy and delicate. Someplace I never wanted anybody to be touching.
When I saw it, I heard an imaginary Arnold Schwarzenegger tell me his famous line from Kindergarten Cop: ”It's not a Toomah!” Wishful thinking... instead, I had a few doctors and specialists explain the prognosis to me and what they could do about it.
So how long did I have left to live? That made me laugh because no one had any fucking idea. They gave me a range, but the width of that scope was fluctuating down around a year or up to double my age... incredible guesses.
Nowadays, I tried to enjoy life however I could, but without a whole lot of wandering around due to my driving privileges being revoked. On the one hand, my driving had become impaired. On the other, now being aware that I could clonk out at any moment while on the road scared the shit out of me. Even if it was by accident, I didn't want to be responsible for ruining someone's life.
No more driving for me.
Unless someone was right underneath me if I fell, walking was simple and safe. So I did a lot more of that.
Now onto something that was a bit odd for most folk. Back when I was a whole man, I was interested in visiting conventions and doing costume roleplay. These costumes weren't something I could purchase from a store or order online. They were handmade.
Crafting the costumes I wore was a way to show off my enjoyable work. My size caused a variety of characters to really stand out.
But I only won a trophy on one costume.
Conventions weren't going to be a possibility for me. At least, not anymore as they distanced themselves from my location. Could anyone imagine lugging around my monstrously great costumes to those centers?
That meant I should do something with my costumes. Selling them would be a nice bet. I could earn some cash. What would I have done with the money?
Likely travel. If I couldn't do any countryside driving, then I'd go on a worldwide trip as a tourist! That'd be a grand way for me to get out of the house.
In the meantime, I had sold a good portion of my handmade costumes. I had sentimental value in a few, but not enough for me to irrationally keep and never use.
Except for my gorgeously prized possession. I had something in mind for that majestic beauty...
Halloween Day!
I stood and stared at my costume. Even in pieces, I gave each part a creative appreciation for how they would fit back together. These were graceful and stunning. A bit perverse too, but not because of anything I had done. A beautiful aesthetic, but weirdly intentional from the source material and from the original designer.
In jest, I respectfully bowed to her majesty.
It had been awhile since I'd excitedly pranced around in that thing. In the condition I was in, I had to wonder if I had what it took anymore to carry it, let alone wear it. I'd have to so single-handedly...
I couldn't. Not in complete uniform. But in parts, I'd pull off one last hurrah for the Queen.
The Queen? I'd imagine a lot of folk would be questioning me on that one. Thing was, I had in my hand the biggest and baddest Momma to ever rock the galaxy. At least, I had her crested head under my arm.
I'd have to take the head crest outside, then the bottom half of the head. The torso would come around the front of the house in three parts: shoulders with two dominant arms, the bust with secondary shorter arms, and the waist with the spine. There were four supportive rods that the bust and then torso would slip onto the waist. The spine connected the three after each segmented piece was fitted.
But I'd have to slip in first, which was easy. The hard part was lifting the pieces up over my head and carefully dropping them on. And I haven't told you about the lower half of my costume!
To quote a very famous man, John Wayne, I said to myself: “Life is tough. Even tougher when you're stupid.”
I needed help...
When I paid my friendly neighbor a visit, we had our pleasant greetings, informal gossip, and then got down to business. I showed the neighborly man what we were dealing with and he choked.
“You're gonna traumatize the kids!” I had to laugh at his observation.
“I want to give them something to remember.” And I did too. With no children of my own, I wanted some legacy to leave behind.
After awhile, we noticed the sky wasn't as brightly blue as it once was. And the shadowed outline of the mountains was creeping up on the big yellow sun.
A very infamous concept crossed my mind, but it was spoken in so many ways that there was no one way on how to say it. To be safe, we slowed down, but hurried the Hell up to get the job done.
With a little time to spare, he congratulated me on getting the suit on, but in a wary manner. “You'd never catch me in one of those. Must be heavy as the mountains and hot as Hell.”
He was right, but I had an idea how to solve those two issues.
The Queen had four arms. I had two, and only one was going to be working. That meant we could strap a pair of arms up, the dominant ones, and have them hung up. When he'd strung them up, the Queen would be in a pose that suggested she was ready to pounce on someone.
I never saw what he tied the arms up onto, but for the time being, they held.
He suggested that I sit in a chair. I wasn't sure how the suit and chair would fit together, but he pointed out that the kids wouldn't see past the doorway. So anything beyond the door would be for comfort. I still wore the leg pieces and had the tail, otherwise the spinal column wouldn't keep the full torso attached with the waist. The shoulders and bust would've rode up the rods, which could've caused damage to the four supports.
So I sat and used the back of my chair to support the long tail.
As for the couple of hours directly under the porchlight, also being a roasted nut in the suit, we had an idea. To keep a steady airflow, he connected a simple extension: a vent. He provided the vent from his garage -- a suped up dryer, I supposed -- and got the long connection laid and aimed at the back of the chair, but rigidly aligned beneath the tail. My tail directly pointed the vent away from the front door to the kitchen window behind me.
No need for air conditioning; the Autumn breeze would be pleasantly cool enough for my sorry ass.
Now the problem with those two improvisations was I would require my neighbor's help again to get out. Once our neighborhood's Halloween festivities concluded, he'd agreed to come back around and get me out of my alien prison.
I had been about to let him go, but I realized I'd forgotten one of the most important props to the whole display: the bait. Why would any kid come here if there wasn't some treat?
So we had a quick debate on what to do and he offered me an awesome idea. Since my theme was an Alien Queen, he'd provide an egg. One wicker laundry basket, a bit of shiny Saran wrap, and some more of that wrap to cradle the candy; we'd produced a sweet egg!
After I told him where the candy was and he'd positioned the egg before me, he'd flick on the lights and my back was bathed in their glow. A very foreboding shadow fell over my egg.
He'd returned to his house and prepared his own fashion of trick-or-treating by turning his own porchlight on. Pretty normal.
My night was about to be far from normal...
Halloween Night!
For a little while, I was worried no one would show up.
But then, the first kids arrived.
They were considerate how they wandered up to me. These munchkins weren't toddlers, but still small compared to me. Maybe just barely teens? Anyways, they walked up my driveway and turned to keep on the stone walkway between my garden and lawn. Very considerate where they stepped.
Their eyes were on the Queen, but technically on me. Then they directed their attention to the egg. My secondary alien arms were holding the shiny top of the egg protectively, but really it was to hold the Saran wrap down.
As the group of kids inched closer, I hissed. The sound echoed inside of crested head above me.
The brave kids reached for the candy --
-- and I pushed out the secondary pair of chompers from the Queen's mouth over their heads.
A simple rod in the bottom half of the head with a handmade puppet on the end. It didn't chomp, but the appearance was menacing. All I had to do was tilt the front of the crested head down slightly for the puppet to slip out. Yarn was tied to an eyehole at the very end of the rod and kept it from falling out of the Queen's mouth.
A tilt back, and the Queen would slurp her bitey tongue back in. A sudden jarring stop told me something: the back of the crest had hit the door frame... I'd have to be careful about that.
Back to the kids.
They jumped and at least one of the kids made a break for it back to the safety of the sidewalk. I couldn't keep myself from laughing at the sight. Unfortunately for the other kids, my laughter boomed rather than be muffled inside of the suit.
They had their quick pickings of candy and ran!
The next couple of hours was a bit of the same. Only a few kids laughed back at my jumpscare. We chatted some and they went on to the next house.
I had fun.
Then something very strange and scary went through me.
My vision flashed, blinded me, and changed significantly in an instant. At that time, I was worried my condition had worsened or I'd experienced a seizure and was waking up from it.
I didn't move. The fear of what had happened was overpowered by what could be the cause. If I was about to croak, I didn't want it to be in front of kids!
As if my thoughts had summoned them, teenage kids turned to my house, but they stood on the sidewalk. They appeared confused and a little frightened?
Had they already been to my house and seen or heard something while I was out? Had I made noises while having that epileptic episode?
I watched and tried to listen, but it wasn't easy to pick up their voices from my distance across the lawn. But we all heard the screams.
All the kids turned to face the direction of the screaming, but somehow I didn't have to turn to see. Oddly enough, I could see in every direction except two: directly down and behind me.
We could hear the screaming, but not exactly see what was causing -- them? More screams, shouts, and a lot of yelling. Then came the alarmingly familiar sirens...
An incredible disorientation came over me when I tried to wave at the kids. It was like I had fumbled at catching an imaginary ball! I gave it another go and felt a sense of vertigo.
So I figured I'd actually had a seizure and maybe my brain had done something screwy with my once finely tuned motor skills. First thing was first, to test what I could do.
A simple twitch of my index finger confused me. The sense of that finger curling wasn't right. I focused on it and tried again. That time, I found out what was the problem. My attempt to curl just one finger wasn't possible. Curling one wasn't, but I could grip my fingers into a fist.
Something snapped around the doorway when I pulled my arm down to inspect it. I hadn't noticed what had broken, but I supposed that meant it wasn't something important.
My attention shifted down to my arm... arms?
The Queen's dominant and secondary arms had both come down in front of me. I had my arm slipped inside of the secondary, but the dominant one shouldn't have been capable of moving with my movements. Maybe if I had kept the rods bridged between the two, but I'd removed them since I had no need to manipulate both sets.
I reached my secondary arm up -- the one I had thought my arm was still inside -- and grabbed the dominant arm.
I felt that. The grip and grab.
My mind was buzzed with a terrible sensation as I tried moving my arms separately. Like how everything functioned was being rewritten, rewired, reprogrammed... whatever you wanna call it.
Extra limbs!? I had another pair of arms!?
That realization drove me to experiment with my maimed limb.
I could feel my fingers. My hand... make that hands. That was so weird, but I wasn't complaining about it.
With a tug, the other dominant arm snapped the binding my neighbor had put on. And then I stretched out all four arms to only see and inspect them in front of me. I turned my palms up, made fists, and swung a punch -- or two. I'd have to work on the control of four limbs rather than the movement of two arms as if they were one.
I had no idea what had happened, but I liked it.
Then I tried to sit up. Of course, the crest of the Queen's head hit the doorway... except it felt like I had hit the back of my head against a wall?
Turning a little, I felt the door's frame bite into my waist and hips. I felt that if I could wiggle, the attachments from the spine could come undone and I'd squirm my way out of the torso. But that wasn't the case for a couple of reasons.
For one, the chair was beneath me. If I kicked it out, then I'd collapse under the weight. Especially now that the dominant arms weren't -- well, I somehow had control over them. That wasn't an issue anymore!
The second problem was the vent. When I tried to wiggle, the vent felt as if it had gotten in the way. Like the chair or tail was somehow tangled around it?
...If I could move the dominant arms and feel the crest when it hit, I supposed the tail could be manipulated too? Had I become the Queen?
For now, I let that thought go and prioritized the tail. If it could move, then I could perhaps be one step closer to freedom.
I focused on my posterior. That was very damn strange, but didn't do the job I wanted. Instead, I felt my legs strain under my weight when I tried to lift my ass up.
Before, when I had wiggled, it had felt as if the attachments to my spine could come undone. I gave that a shot and felt my tail move. That was very interesting to feel, but a bit sickening too as the attachments weren't where I thought.
The tail's movement made a noise. Like I had ripped something. Then a squelched pop later, my tail flung up and I heard it smack off of the ceiling. And a crash, after the ceiling fan broke and dropped with my tail back to the floor.
The back of my chair was a ruin, but I felt like my tail's freedom had given me more wiggle room. I didn't feel as stuck to the floor anymore.
But I was stuck in the doorway. It didn't matter what way I turned my hips, pushed back against the door's frame, or pulled back in -- I was stuck.
With a heavy sigh -- which sounded real damn weird -- I gave up on getting out. I focused my attention instead on those kids once more.
While I wasn't paying attention, they'd stopped to watch me flop around in vain for freedom! I was thankful they'd stuck around, but I felt ashamed of my feeble display. If I was correct, I was an all powerful and mighty Alien Queen, but with a royal ass firmly stuck on the throne.
First thing I had done was give the kids a friendly wave -- or two. One of the group of kids bravely stepped forward and came running up to me.
He, or she, had a Jack-O-Lantern for a head, but spoke with its carved tooth mouth insync with the voice. “You okay? Did your -- ah, the costume, you know...?” Jack crossed a pair of fingers and implied a merge or some kind of transformation from that gesture.
Since I hadn't tested my voice yet, I only nodded. Who knew if I could speak, but I was frightened of what would shoot out of my mouth if I tried.
Jack told me the same thing happened to the rest of the group and apparently it wasn't an isolated occurrence. One of the kids had a cell on hand. Almost all costume goers had transformed to a degree and nearly the whole world was going bonkers.
When Jack waved the rest of his crew over, I was shown what the one kid's cell could explain. Not much, but at least we knew we weren't alone.
“Ah, yeah... anything we can get you?” Jack, and everyone else, took note of my predicament.
There was someone who could help me, but I didn't want to speak. So I pointed at my neighbor's house.
A rabbit wearing a hypnotic, swirling blend of colors hopped away to alert the neighbor of my situation. Soon enough, my neighbor had arrived and was getting the gist of what had happened from the kids -- and the cellphone helped support our claims.
The kids had made a call -- I assumed their parents -- and waited by the street to be picked up.
Meanwhile, my neighbor had gone around back to figure out how to get me out. I waited in silence before I heard him swear something fierce behind me.
When he came back, he told me about the destruction my tail had caused and the icky mess that used to be his laundry vent. My guess was the tail had smashed it and whatever I could reach had smeared over the tubular chute.
In my current scenario, I was informed the only way out would be to break the door frame. That wasn't an appealing plan. So we called and waited for authorities to arrive.
And waited... it was obvious the world was turned upside down and the emergency responders were overwhelmed with all manner of chaos tonight.
Some hours later, my neighbor showed me an interesting tidbit on his cell's headlined media. All of the transformed would revert back to normal come the morning. We just needed to keep whatever our costume had come with on. And not become pregnant.
Both of those sounded easy to me. Nothing could come off of me and I wasn't capable of becoming pregnant. Alien Queens laid parasitic eggs that did the whole impregnating shabang.
Almost all night had gone by before a response team arrived. With the new information, they recommended I rest and wait until the morning instead of breaking my house apart. That was sound advice and I had no reason not to take it.
Then the sun rose its shiny yellow face up in the sky and basked me in a welcoming warmth. Despite how happy I was to have my full arm back -- and perhaps nothing wrong with my head -- I eagerly awaited the end of my one night as the Queen.
And waited...
When the dawn had almost passed, I panicked. What if those magicians or whatever were wrong? What if a costume that had nothing to take off was by default a permanent transformation?
Then I remembered something my neighbor told me. The vent was a icky mess...
I was a Queen that laid eggs.
I had an ovipositor... which I'd broken free from when I lashed my tail around and off the egg layer.
Looked like I'd be stuck for awhile...
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2082 Planet Earth the Fracture War, after a sudden fracture in our dimension unidentified beings with advance technology and unknown abilities invaded Earth with one desire to conquer. Due to Human beings insatiable hunger for greed and power even after many centuries Earth was still divided. Underestimating the first wave of attack which was a but a small fleet of scouts. Each power rather than joining together to fight the unknown threat, schemed against one another. Then when the 2nd attack arrived attacking from different sudden fractures around the world, each country fell one by one. Even though Earth was divided they still struggled, knowing that this war could lead to extinction to all life, finally they at last moment stood together and fought, but it was far too late. The only weapon Humans had that could do any damage was nuclear arms, and the unknown beings knew that, so all they had to do was disable them. Would you believe it or not this was how the Humans got lucky, the unknown beings thought that since every thing on earth ran on one primitive power source electricity, disabling electricity world wide would destroy their last defense. The unknown beings weren't wrong, with no advance weapons except weapons that didn't run on a electric power source the humans were defenseless, the 2nd attack ended up wiping 65% of the human population. With the victory at hand, the unknown beings finalized the last attack, but during this time whether it was the grace gods or just a coincidence this gave the humans a chance to counter attack.
During that time when the unknown beings restock their ships across each fracture for the 3rd attack, the humans launch an all out attack on each fracture with old air crafts that ran on fossil fuel. Like a clockwork gear, how the humans underestimated the small wave of the 1st attack, so did the unknown beings underestimating the last attack of the humans. When they saw how the humans air crafts didn't even penetrate their energy shields they continued to restock and organize while only using a small force to handle the attack. At this very moment was their demise, when the humans realize that their atomic weapons couldn't be launched why not just self detonate it themselves, so they advise a plan, around the world each human power organization that was left will commence an attack on each fracture, no matter what means they must come close to the fracture and self detonate their nuclear arm. At that moment when the the barrage of attacks stopped for a single day, they attacked, sacrificing themselves using what ever means of vehicles and air crafts just to get close to the fracture. It started with one, then another, like a thunder of booms on a stormy night, across the world where ever you were you could hear it. The result was that the fractures on the other side couldn't contain the explosions and disappeared. For the cost of 7 billions lives, the war finally ended.
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The Dire Situation
My hand dropped.
I stared at the image of the battlefield and flipped it upside down to observe the stars.
"A-- Is that a ship?" It was an odd vessel. Like those of the great seas, but with no sail. It had a mass that rivaled the great leviathans that slumbered deep on the ocean's floor. "How do I fight that?"
I stumbled backwards and fell into my throne. Bowing my head down, I cradled the top of my flaming hair with both my hands to keep myself from screaming up at the ceiling. This was hopeless.
"What if we sheltered here? The light can't touch us inside --" I paused and recalled that I had died twice inside this chamber, killed by something I’d never seen. Could the beam of light travel through my halls?
For the first time, I felt the flow of hot tears streak down my face. I was in utter terror and didn't know what to do. The last of us were to be wiped out, literally. Not a trace of us would exist after that light touched us.
"Death... Death, please help me?" There was no response. Of course, the living had no deals with the dead. Death included. I would have to die once more to beg for Death's assistance.
Letting go of my head, I raised my gaze back to the image of the stars and that ship. Reaching out, I spread my fingers outward to expand the image to the entire cosmos. Death had said that humanity had laid claims on other worlds.
They had. This one ship was a single drop of water in the torrent of rain showering the dark void.
I laughed. Rubbing my eyes, I stared at it again and laughed harder. What help could I gain from Death to fight a legion that could wipe out legions with just one of their number?
Standing back up, I gradually began to make my way out of my chambers. Soon I was at the same window I had jumped from last time. I leaned forward and took a single step out of it.
When I landed, the fissure being replicated as last time, I stood up. Turning to face the shocked faces of my legions, I shook my head. There was no winning this. No survival.
Looking away from them, I walked forward in silence towards the armies of humanity.
After a little while, I could hear the footsteps of my legions following me. There was a murmur among them. It wasn't difficult to guess they were confused about my actions.
Before me, I could see the brightly shining armor and flashing banners of a blended palette of colors. They would be a fair fight, but not what waited up above our heads. The true enemy was watching for the biggest and juiciest target to show itself before it dug in.
I stopped walking.
Looking up at the dark clouds of smoke filling the red sky, I screamed. This time, I didn't hold my head down in defeat. I knew where they were and showed them all I wasn't going to hide from it.
It took a single split second for me to be nothing once more...
"Hey there! Had a goo-- Whoa, okay. I'll give ya a moment."
Curling up in a ball, I cried. Burying my head between my knees, I kept my expression from the sight of this omnipotent being surrounding me.
"Ah, look... You can win."
Muffled, "I can't."
"Sure you can. Just ask me and I'll make you a deal."
Dealing with Death? That sounded like a horrible idea, but I was far beyond desperate. "What do I need to do?"
"You sure? I mean --"
Upset, I lifted from my knees and screamed at the empty space around me. "You offered, I'm taking it."
"Okeydokey. You'll have to change. What you are now isn't enough."
Letting go of my shins, I looked down at my hands as I wondered what changes I would need to make. "Do it. Whatever it takes, do it." I lifted my palm up to brush away the tears so I might face Death without the shame showing. "Please! I'll do whatever it takes!"
"It will take more. Once you see the change, you'll start getting clues to how to defeat them."
I nodded and waited for Death to give me another chance. "Please?"
"I want you to do something this time. Instead of jumping out of windows, would you go out the front door? There are actually important people you should get to know before going kablooie."
Again, I nodded in acceptance. "I will. Please, Death?"
"On it! I'll catch you in a little while."
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Once or Twice...
With the flick of my wrist, I gestured for my legions and garrison to sally forth.
Then I became aware of what I’d done and where I was.
Summoning a reflective image of myself before me, I gazed at it for a moment. Twirling my finger in the air, I gestured for my phantom to rotate and display my form.
“How did you do it?” I asked myself this as I searched for any weakness this hero may have exploited. Everything about me surged with formidable power and a flame that could rival the conflagration outside my tower. Again, to myself, I asked: “What did you spot?”
Long and glowing hot orange flame of hair that never touched any without scorching their flesh black. My own skin was pale, but it had the residual ash of many enemies coating me from head to toe. It made me appear oily, as if I had been working in a furnace all day and I was drenched in sooty sweat.
Those inspecting eyes glared with a bright molten light. There was nothing but a disc of bursting hot ember in the center of those whites in my eyes. Bison-like horns protruded and curved out from the lower back of my head to come around my crown and hold these licking flames of hair out of my eyes.
Everything else about my appearance was covered in the flowing black coat of armor that was flexible as leather and too hard for even my own strength to penetrate. It had once been the hide of another Lesser Evil. One that I could not defeat head-on, but had done so through treachery. All it took was one drink and he was devoured from the inside out. His very skin was the only token I wanted from that horrible death.
How then? How did I die last time?
Appraising my form for any weakness was frustrating me. Casting my image away, I brought up the image of the battlefield. The lines had shifted in favor of the humans. Somehow they had found a way to best our kind in their crusade to vanquish us. What did they have?
I searched for hours before the last of my legions fell. The doors to my chambers were blown open...
"Hello again! Did you miss me?"
Silently, I shook my head. There was no disrespect in my response. I simply did not have a desire to meet with Death. Who did?
"That's too bad. Did you learn anything?"
Thinking back, I recalled I had no obvious weaknesses and that my legions had practically been stomped out there. "No. Not that I could tell."
"You do remember everything?"
I nodded. "I saw how the battle went."
"No. You didn't. Once again, you stayed inside."
Sighing, I knew what Death was getting at. "Will you permit me to go back?"
"Of course! As much as you want. See you again soon!"
Clenching my fist, I prevented myself in time before gesturing for my legions to sally forth.
Turning to the doors, I stormed out of my chambers to find the nearest window. From this great height of my tower, I jumped.
Upon the ground, a great fissure formed along one of the crags. Its sharp glass-like structure crackled into so many pieces that it appeared as dust beneath my feet and fist.
Lifting myself up to stand, I turned about to see my own fortification and those who would do battle under my command. Many of their faces were surprised to see me. I felt it too. None had ever seen me before, but they knew who I was by my mere presence of power that I exerted in all directions.
Still looking upon all of their shocked faces, I blindly pointed out at the enemy and shouted my order. "KILL THEM!"
With the greatest roar I would ever hear in this life, my legions charged. I stood and watched as they closed the distance and smashed into the forces on the other side of these crags.
A blinding white light beamed down from the heavens and cut through my minions like they were nothing. Again and again, scores of Demons were erased without so much as a struggle. Each time that light passed by, my legions vanished. Not even their ashes remained.
Gazing up into the sky, I searched for the source of this great light. It found me instead...
"Why, hello there! Any chance you discovered something new?"
I nodded, but I had no way of knowing how to fight this. "It must be a god on their side. Some Divine support that wiped us all out."
"Oh, uh, no. Nothing about that was -- You know, try again and look a bit harder. You might be surprised to find out how advanced humanity has become in the last few thousand years. Did you know they’ve colonized other planets?"
This confused me. "What are you talking about?"
"Oh, humanity dropped some kids off and forgot about them. Now that they remembered, they came back to check and see how they were doing. Kind of like a parent watching their kid at school, but they think you are a bully. So, uhh... yeah. You're getting your ass kicked."
I was dumbstruck.
"Never mind. It isn't relevant to this battle. Want another go?"
I nodded once more. "Please?"
"Go get 'em, Tiger!"
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"Fantasy World",
"Gore",
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"Male to Female",
"Nudity",
"Second Chance",
"Time Loop",
"Wars",
"World Invasion"
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Unexplained Changes
Involuntarily, I dropped my hand.
Dropping to the floor, I screamed out in agony. Fiery flames burst from within my blackened armor to the point that the coat could not contain the rising temperature. In seconds, I wore nothing as I laid on the floor. My boiling blood pooled around me as I felt bones shift and muscle rope around my limbs and anatomy in different angles and curves.
Slowly, as the pain subsided, I weakly got up onto all fours to crawl and climb into my throne. Sitting, I took a while to recover from this agonizingly gory shape shift. What had changed?
Shaking like a leaf, I raised my hand to summon my reflective image. What I saw was myself, but not. I had the same qualities of my former self, but my figure was slender, curved in places that would otherwise be fit for a woman. I inspected myself more closely; I had to make sure that I was still male. My face wasn't very masculine anymore and the very skin on my body appeared softer.
Only one last place to be sure I still could call myself a man.
Lowering my gaze to the joining of my thighs, I saw how I was there. It took me a few seconds to register what I was seeing. Then I stared down at myself and shoved my hand down between my legs.
"What the FUCK! How does this defeat mankind!?" Through deep and rapid breathing, I looked down at myself in disbelief. What did me becoming the opposite gender have to do with warfare? Did Death expect me to seduce the enemy? A Demon, no matter how attractive Death made me, would never tempt these crusaders from their path to purify all of us with that vanquishing light.
Death had said I would have a clue. I had none. What would this solve?
Clapping the heels of my palms up to my forehead, I sat there. It was all so very hopeless. I thought over all the possibilities that I could accomplish as either man or woman, but nothing changed. The battle would not be any different.
Sobbing, I went over my last meeting with Death. There was only one other item that I had not investigated. Before I died one more time, Death wanted me to go out the front door and see someone.
Wiping my face clean, I stood up from my throne and headed for the door. I stopped and gazed down at myself. Searching around, I grasped the post on the wall, that held my banner, and wrapped myself in its fiery colors like a cloak over my bare shoulders. The flames of my hair tried to burn it away, but with a simple thought I prevented its incineration.
Outside my chambers, I took one glance at the window that I had been jumping from and turned from it. Descending the stairs, I viewed the spiral staircase over the rails and saw the many doorways that led to other chambers in my tower. Each one was the home of an evil like me, but I was on top then.
Now, they were empty and I was the final one for mankind to face.
Down on the bottom floor, I gave the great doors to the front of my tower an appraisal. It would take a giant effort of power to budge into motion. No sweat for me.
Slipping my hand out from under the makeshift cloak, I pressed my palm against the great door and gave it a single push. It moved effortlessly as I gradually walked with it until fully opened. Beyond the gates stood my legions.
Many faces turned to see who had opened the gate and gave me surprised expressions. How they expressed their shock was different. The times before, they had acted surprised at my presence on the battlefield. This time, it felt like they couldn't believe I was their Master. That I was the last Lesser Evil.
They all knew very well I was. Just as before, they could feel the same exertion of my power spread across them all.
What shocked me into walking no further was those of my legions that stood in the rear. Children. They were not soldiers at all. Little things that wore leathers, pots and pans, and wielded their cleavers to do all they could. Real ankle-biters.
I didn't know. Should have, but didn't. How else were my legions growing? They didn't spawn like mushrooms from the darkness...
... And it would be the light that would wipe them out.
With trembling lips, I screamed at those little freaks. "Get in here!" None moved, frozen to their spots. Eventually, they started looking at each other in confusion. I crouched down and screamed louder this time. "GET IN HERE NOW!" Then I flapped the cloak open to point them into the tower.
All of those demonic children ran in with shrieks of fright at my supposed fury.
As they all fled inside, I rose back up. I didn't let one of them leave my gaze until the very last of those youngsters were inside. With a swift backward kick, I slammed the door closed behind me. The very force of the door swinging closed sent a gale to assault my back and the legions in front of me.
Was what I did even going to matter? When all of these legions were gone and I was no more, the light would enter and finish what it had started outside. Even if the light didn’t erase them, those children still wouldn't stand a chance against those crusaders.
It was still hopeless.
Frowning, I stared at my legions. What could I do from this point? Who were the important people I was supposed to see out here? It couldn't have been those kids. There had to be someone out here that was capable of assisting me in turning the tide of battle.
In the corner of my eye, I saw something I’d never recognized before. Not because I’d never noticed; I just hadn’t cared about it before now. There was a village outside my tower. No. Not just one, but several that surrounded the whole structure. Just like a keep and its surrounding community.
Would I find them in one of these villages?
Walking away from the legions, I took the path to the closest of the villages. Their buildings were made of the same black stone, but melted down to fuse into corners or reinforced joints. It was interesting to see this. I’d never knew they were capable without the help of a Lesser Evil. We normally had to erect structures with our imagination, like my tower. That took several Lesser Evils, but still it took a mere thought to make.
Each house I visited was empty, but inside I saw all signs that lives had recently been lived there. Hard work, labors, play, and even some signs of love were in these vacant homes. Were all the villages like this one?
Something was wrong with me.
Placing my hand to cover half of my face, I knew these feelings were not my own self. Death had changed more than my body. My mind. What was wrong with me? Why did I care about these minions? They were below me to such a degree that they were less than dirt. I would trade them for the very soil to grow crops. We could flourish with a supply of food if this land was only richer with that fertile earth.
Shaking my head, I had no idea why my thoughts were straying to the landscape like that. I was a Lesser Evil. Not some farmer!
Looking back at my legions, my body dropped to the glassy crags like a doll whose strings were cut. The beam of light had begun to tear everyone apart. I waited for my turn...
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"Demons",
"Depictions of Cruelty",
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"Evil Protagonist",
"Fantasy World",
"Gore",
"Hated Protagonist",
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Announcement
To comprehend more of what had happened in this story, readers are advised to first read Come As You Would Be by Trismegistus Shandy (which is a 2,830 worded short story.)
Zodiac
A powerfully rhythmic beat played in the distance.
The drumming thunder echoed through the dark alleys.
Earth itself shook and the monuments of man trembled.
Throughout the night sky, the darkness fled from the brilliant firestorm.
Alarmed shouts and desperate screams escalated louder over the city's nightlife.
With a monstrously volcanic roar, all were forewarned of the approaching danger, but none expected how menacing it would be!
A day earlier
Alex stared at the collosal pile and asked: “How is this going to work?”
Kneeling by the blinding collection of colorful props and costumes was Zhen. “I've friends coming,” he said. “They've practiced this sort of dance before --”
“This isn't a dance! We have to scare everyone, not treat them to a fucking moonwalking Thriller!” Richy wasn't very amused. His concept of a haunted fundraiser was setting up a haunt and spooking the guests.
I personally thought Zhen's idea was unique. A week ago, we'd had no idea how to pull it off and Zhen was the only one to voice a plan. All Richy wanted was a place to hang out and yell at people... kinda like what he was just doing.
“What are we gonna do if they don't show?” As much as I hated Richy's smirking at that question, Alex did have a good point.
Zhen smirked back. “If they don't show, what else do you all have in mind?”
“A hayride across the countryside or one of those old jails would be creepy enough.” Richy stepped toward the bright colors piled on the floor and nudged the jaw of the mega-costume with his boot. “It won't fucking work. I looked it up --”
“Looked what up?” Zhen offered Richy a chance to explain, but step-by-step. Not Richy's outright pessimism.
“This so called 'Dance' uses poles to hold the thing up in the air, like it's flyin'.” He pointed down at the pile. “Nothing here but pretty rags.”
“There's more than one variant. The one you described, that could be Shenlong. Storm, wind, and thunder... Weather. It's supposed to fly.” Zhen pointed out the pile. “This is Dilong. Earth and river. It's supposed to remain on the ground... plus this is its year.” He stood up and laid a hand on Richy's shoulder. “Trust me. We know what we are doing.”
Richy brushed Zhen's hand off. “No offense, but I'm gonna laugh if this shit hits the fan.” Then he walked away and out of the warehouse.
I blinked a few times when the outside light poured in. Then I turned back to Zhen and Alex.
Alex squatted and lifted up the expansive fabric that made up the earth dragon. “What do we do while waiting for your party to arrive?”
“We make certain that what we have here is the whole thing.” Across from Alex, Zhen knelt next to the pile. Without even glancing my way, he called out to me. “Edna, you want your credits?”
Shyly, I said, “Y-yes.”
“Come over here and help me with the other end.” Zhen did glance at Alex and instructed: “When we pull it up and out, I want you to run your hand over the edge. You're feeling for any tears, nicks or thinning in the hem.”
“Got it. Coming, Ed?” When Alex called me over too, I couldn't refuse.
I got off of the bottom of the stairs and carefully walked over to them. As I bent over to pick up the other end of the fabric, I felt a stitch in my back. I kept my mouth shut and endured the muscle pain.
Bending over was all I could manage. My kneecaps had experienced a crippling accident a few years back. Only in the last year had I been walking.
To be honest, I had no idea why I was with these guys. The credits were an excuse for school. I could have gained those points behind a desk.
Zhen was a dark-golden, black haired, short and wiry guy with the biggest and roundest glasses I'd seen on anybody's face. He was very sure of himself.
Alex had the same golden tone as Zhen, but he was Hispanic. He was thick-limbed and strong. He had a barrel chest, but his stomach was a bit more pronounced.
Richy was a farm boy in the big city. He was of average build and had decent looks, but behind that face was a jerk.
Then there was me: the only girl.
A crippled girl with no future except as someone who sits down all day and fills out paperwork or answers phone calls. That was my goal. My only goal...
We had finished inspecting one of the expansive sheets and had been about to pick up the next --
-- but as I bent over, my back seized up and I unintentionally hissed.
Zhen immediately took control. “Edna, go sit down. Alex, help her and I'll be back. I'm going to the truck.”
One man went one way, the other approached me and I froze. Alex gave my back a small pat with one hand and pointed to the stairwell. “Let's take you back to your corner.”
“My corner?” He smirked at me in amusement and nodded. “Am I on a timeout or something?”
We were walking to the stairwell as he answered: “Yes. This is a timeout for you to get better.” He shrugged. “I don't know what Zhen is up to, but I'm sure it'll help.”
I grinned as I grabbed the stair rail for support and asked: “Help me or you guys?”
“Maybe both?” He shook his head. “Zhen only knows.”
Our curiosity didn't last long before Zhen reappeared. He carried a big box and set it down. When he opened it, he pulled out an odd article of clothing, golden-framed and with a bright red inlaid draconic decoration surrounding the midriff...
It took me one second to recognize what he had in his hands. “Is that a corset?”
“No. It's a back brace... a fancifully embroidered back brace.” Zhen held the brace out to me. Once I took it, he knelt back down and pulled out a strange, thick cylinder.
He shook it and the bottom of it extended down to the floor. He turned it upside down and shook it until the other end reached the floor too. With a clicking noise, both ends locked in place.
I asked: “What is that?”
“A staff. Instead of wasting your time here, you can rely on this and come back with us to sort everything out.” I gave him a deadpan stare as he held the extension staff out to me. “Here. Take it.”
I took it. “I thought we didn't have any poles?”
“That's a staff. And I never said anything about not having poles. Richy was the one who mentioned not seeing any.”
“That's not going to collapse on her, is it?” When Alex said that, I immediately became self-conscious of my weight. I wasn't big, but I wasn't model material.
And Zhen snapped open the back brace for me. He gave me a straight-faced look and nodded for me to enter the brace.
I used the staff to hold myself up and Zhen put the brace on me. I'd never worn one before, and had no idea how the thing should be secured.
And that was when I realized my terrible mistake!
He shifted the thing around my middle and strung together the harness on the sides --
-- and yanked! I hissed. He yanked again, eliciting another hiss.
“Fucking Hell! Zhen! Take it off.” It had hurt being put on and I felt constricted by the brace... no, that was definitely a corset.
He yanked on the third harness around and under my bust.
“Zhen!!” In case he hadn't heard me, I put all the pain he was inflicting into the yell.
“It's on. You'll be fine and now you can help us.” He laid his hand on my shoulder and stated: “No more pain. Trust me.”
I mumbled and grumbled as we went back to the colorful dragon hoard. After an hour of assisting the two, I discovered Zhen was right.
I felt no pain.
The next day
“Jesus H. Christ. They actually showed...” Why Richy seemed pissed about Zhen's party showing up, I had no idea.
On second thought, that was a lie. I knew why Richy was upset. He wanted Zhen to be wrong about something for once. I kinda did too, but not at the expense of others.
On a third thought, I wound up wearing Zhen's damn corset again. I appreciated the staff, but when I looked in the mirror and saw how I appeared with the corset, I looked funny. Like I was only wearing one piece of a set.
To myself, I said, “Maybe I am?”
While Zhen's party was figuring out how to put on the dragon suit, I walked over to the big box by the stairwell and looked inside.
Gold and red.
Whatever I was wearing was a part of a set.
My gaze drifted to the extension staff. It was a ruddy-red.
“Zhen!?” He appeared surprised when he saw me looking through the box.
With a smile on his face, he raced over. “Do you want to try it on?”
My mouth partially opened, then closed. Looking back in the box, I picked up some of the pieces to inspect them.
“What is it for?”
Instead of telling me what it was, he gave me a history lesson... or a mythology lesson. “Dilong is an earth dragon, but also a dragon of the river. A friend of the Sea Kingdom. The costume in there is the Sea Dragon Armor.”
“Okay.” To be sure, I asked: “So it's armor?”
“Yes. I told you that was a back brace.” I rolled my eyes when he said that.
When I laid my eyes back on him, his smile grew. And I didn't like it! “What?”
“Try it on. I'll help you.” He was quickly on his knees and taking out each piece of the gold and red set.
“Zhen... please, no.” In exasperation, I tried to protest, but he pulled out everything and became assertive with sliding on certain parts. Like armbands and gloves, a big coat, shoulder guards, thigh-knee-shin pads, and more. He even put a long feathery crown on my head that had to be secured with an elastic string beneath my jaw.
I stood there in silence, leaning on my staff and gazing into empty space with a mile-long stare. When I turned to look at Alex and Richy, they snickered!
Then Zhen turned and waved his crew over. He spoke to them in a hushed voice before he waved back to me.
Zhen's party appeared to be enthusiastic about something as their chatter escalated excitedly.
When their little party broke, Zhen came back and told me: “You're going to be a part of the attraction.”
“...What?” I couldn't have heard that right. “Say that again?”
“You'll be fine. The role you will take is dainty, shifts back and forth, titters behind a limp wrist... oh yes, definitely hold the staff like this from now on.” He took my hands and manipulated them in an odd angle around the staff.
I felt like I was giving the staff a monkey's grip.
Zhen backed up and said, “Now I want to hear you laugh.”
“Laugh?” He gestured for me to commence with the laughs. “Ah, okay.”
For a moment, I had to work up the courage to laugh at nothing. Then I laughed.
“Ed, come on. You can do better.” I narrowed my eyes at him and tried louder. “That's not what I meant. Try a real laugh. The kind that would snap you out of that corset.”
My jaw dropped. “You said it was --”
“Edna! Laugh for me! Show me how a King would laugh!” That was a strange request.
But I did what he asked. I pulled in lungfuls of air, and laughed boisterously. He was about to speak again, but after confirming my suspicion about the corset, I didn't give him a chance to speak.
I laughed in his face, loud. Laughed until my stomach really did hurt!
I had to hold my side and lean on the staff at the same time by the time I finished my ruckus.
Zhen's smile was absolutely genuine. “You're perfect. Young boyish face --”
“Boyish?” I gave him a glare with that remark.
But he continued as if he hadn't heard or paid me heed. “-- slender and small, light and clear skin, bright blue eyes, and excellent short hair... we need more hair.”
“More hair?” I was more baffled at him commenting on my short hair and demanding more!
He turned away from me while I caught my breath.
Zhen pointed at me and I only caught one word as he spoke: “Wukong.”
That name sounded familiar. I could have sworn my little brother would play an online game with a monkey character with that name. “Wait a sec... isn't he in --”
“Come over here and allow them to work on you.” I stood my ground and stared at Zhen with both shock and defiance. “Or they can work on you there.”
I practically screeched: “Work on me?!”
And I had no opportunity to escape with my disability. His party surrounded me and began a series of applications to my hands, neck, face... they even worked between the outfit to have the costume blend in with my casual clothes beneath!
As shy as I was, I kept very still while they worked on me. I didn't enjoy strangers touching me, but they'd already begun their work on me. Plus Zhen's always-right streak grounded me.
“Good, good. Excellent!” While Zhen appraised and admired whatever was happening to me, Alex and Richy were besides themselves with barely contained guffaws!
I don't know how long I stood there, but I began to absolutely rely on the staff to keep up. My legs began to buckle at my knees... I squared my shoulders and gripped the staff between both hands as I endured the party's administrations to my makeup.
I supposed it was my posture that brought Alex rushing over to me. “Zhen, call them off.”
Zhen appraised me again. “Just a minute more and she's done.”
Alex squeezed past the group around me and gave me a shoulder to lean on.
“...Thanks,” I whispered.
“Sure... you look flushed.” I wasn't surprised, but Alex remarking on that made me conscious of the fact.
I was hot in the outfit. “I should go outside. Get some air.”
“Yes. That is a good idea.” Zhen nodded and quickly ran to the door. He opened it for me and elaborated. “We can get an idea how you would look in the light.”
I gave him a baleful smile. He smiled back, then jerked up in a jump as I stabbed down on his toes with the bottom of my staff.
My laughter rang into the evening as I walked out.
Later that night
The warehouse we'd rented was transformed easily into what appeared to be a cave. We relied on Richy for the decor: black tarps and plenty of his country leftovers from before he'd moved to the city.
Zhen's crew had thoroughly familiarized themselves with the dragon costume. At least four people were acting as the dragon's four two-toed-feet. The legs were like cloaks to those feet-men.
The head had to be manipulated by two people. Zhen volunteered to hold up and blink the eyes, so he could coordinate where to go. Richy was to open and close the dragon's giant mouth. At first, I thought that would have been difficult with Zhen in there too, but they showed me how the head was supported on both their shoulders.
Along the serpentine body, Zhen's crew crouched or raised themselves when the dragon would move about. The tail was being swung around and moved about by Alex alone.
When the cars began to show up, I would greet them with a limp wave and a little titter as I saw children.
“Monkeys?” I had to question that.
One of the grownups informed me their school had an event. The teachers and their classes had drawn tickets on what animal to dress as. Some were kitties and doggies, others fishies and froggies, and more... and these were monkeys!
I should've been collecting money, but I was distracted by the little monkeys jumping around as they saw me! They were so cute!
As the kids first approached me, I discovered my costume had a tail -- one of the little tots pulled it and my pants almost exposed cheek!
I shouldn't have, but by instinct, I whirled around on my staff and gave the little guy a playful snarl while comically pulling my pants back up. The kids around me laughed, but my targeted kid hadn't...
So I painfully crouched down, crossed my legs, and offered him a look at my staff in offer of apology. He appeared interested and more cheerful, and that was enough for me to appreciate some triumph.
I made a mental note that I had better get a decent amount of credits for tonight.
The kid with my staff had his parents calling for him, so I took my staff back. Unfortunately, I had trouble standing back up.
Instead of going through the ordeal, I slumped my shoulders and frowned a comically grumpy face...
A moment later, my back, legs, and skin felt tingly --
-- and I heard screams! Not the scared kind I was expecting when the show would start.
Real and terrible screams.
I looked at the many butts of the crowd in my face and wondered what was going on.
Then I saw a few of those cheeks clench just a split second before the crowd turned in all directions to flee!
Without a thought, I climbed up my staff to stand and see for myself what had happened. My short stature didn't help.
In a few seconds, I had no need to see to know what was going on. I heard it. A series of thunderous crushing noises. Something massive was moving around in the warehouse.
Then I felt it. An earthquake of a colossal creature smashing through the warehouse wall. I didn't understand what I saw.
A dragon!
Our dragon. But it was real. Alive!
Once that thing burst out of the warehouse, chaos followed. Everyone was running and slamming into each other. A free for all to escape.
I would've been one of them too --
-- but I'd caught sight of a little monkey boy sprawled out on the ground. The kid who'd held my staff. And his parents weren't about to pick him back up.
Once again, without any thought, I slipped against the flow and through the racing crowd to the kid. I had a sure grip on my staff as I climbed to sit down and cross my legs.
I don't know what I was thinking. Maybe I had thought it was impossible for me to pick the kid up. But I guarded the kid and blocked the stampede with my staff held across and above my head. I was like a red guardrail!
So many people... they couldn't have all come from the attraction. Something else was causing a mass panic in the streets.
More and more, the flow of people came and I was barely holding onto the staff. People pushed and shoved until some fell against or over my staff.
I was amazed to not have been crushed under the weight, but I supposed adrenaline gave me the strength to keep the masses away from the kid. With him in mind, I glanced behind me to check up on him --
-- and saw children had gathered behind me without my notice!? My jaw dropped and a squawk of shock escaped me as I took in how hairy they were!
Monkeys. They were kid monkeys!
I tried to ask them about their parents above all the shouts and screams. But the moment I made the attempt, they rushed and clung to my back as a roar silenced me and everyone.
My attention went up. Wa-ay up!
If my jaw had dropped at the sight of those kids, then it unhinged and hit my lap at the terrifying image of the dragon just feet away!
The sky had changed color from the night blue to a fiery orange. I didn't know if the dragon had breathed fire or if there was something else in the city setting it aflame.
But I didn't take a chance when the dragon opened its huge mouth!
I swung the staff at it --
-- and the extension stretched further out than I'd thought possible!
The dragon flinched away and shook its mighty head. Those eyes were crazy... like googly eyes. They weren't focused on a thing!
And as I observed it, the dragon wasn't coordinated at all. Its legs kept stretching out in different directions, but it mostly slithered on its stomach. Like it didn't know how to walk... or had no control of its legs.
Everything about the dragon appeared to be in chaos, as if it was having a seizure.
I tilted my head to the side and laid my cheek on the shoulder pad in confused wonder. “Did I do that?” I lowered my staff and gave it a renewed appraisal.
My attention was brought back to the dragon as I heard the warehouse crumble behind it. The incredibly long tail had aimlessly swung and smashed into the structure.
“Okay. Time to go.” Over my shoulder, I saw the kids were still there. “Give me a hand, will ya?”
Two of the bigger kids came to my rescue --
-- and I yowled in pain! Someone had stepped on... on...
“Tail?” I reached back and yanked on my tail. I actually felt it slip out from under a kid's foot before the two helped me stand up. I quickly turned around and followed my tail before I stood still. I felt around my pants, dug into them, and --
-- my head shot straight up when I felt I had more than one head and tail down there. With a sheepishly nervous grin, I pulled out and ended my exploration.
Right now was not the time to figure out what was going on with me. Not with a crazy dragon looming over our heads!
I used the extension staff to keep the crowd from stomping the kids flat as we made our escape. In a couple of minutes, we managed to get far enough away from the dragon --
-- but there were other dangers nearby.
I had just seen a wolfman run from one alley and into the next.
A large droid of some kind bumped into a door before blasting it open.
A school of little fishpeople were running and screaming after an old lady across the street.
And countless characters of various kinds... with our nasty rare bird.
The earth shook. I looked back and saw the dragon had come closer, but blindly collided with the nearby apartment building.
It didn't stop trying to go that direction, either! The dragon was digging through the building, smashing its way through and destabilizing the whole thing.
My eyes drifted up the height of the apartment building. “Uh-oh.”
I immediately turned and made the kids scramble across the street!
We all managed to make it across.
My attention shifted to the collection of tots. I took a moment to count the little monkeys.
Then my focus changed back to the sudden silence.
With a yip from me, I turned and saw why as everyone and everything had quieted. We all watched the destroyed apartment building tip towards the rented warehouse. I really hoped that Alex, Richy, Zhen, and the whole crew were long gone by now.
At least, I hoped they had been before the dragon appeared... our dragon...
In an insane way, the uncoordinated movements of the dragon began to make sense to me. I gulped when a sickening theory entered my mind about how that dragon may be comprised of multiple people.
From beyond the rubble of the building, I saw the long serpentine tail swish back and forth. That dragon was still on the move...
For now, I had to get myself and these kids to safety. The only place I could think of going was a police station.
As the crazy Halloween night continued, I fended off one abomination, another lunatic, a hysterical crowd, and so much more.
When we made it to our destination, I took note of the huge assembly of frightened people waiting for police to take action. Some of those officers were directing a number of citizens to shelters.
The night felt like it would never end, but I decided a shelter was better than out in the open with who knows what else went bump in the night. Punching my heroics out, I called it a night before I ran into something climactic. Those sort of things could be left to the superheroes I'd caught strutting their stuff out there. With my life and the kids' on the line, I decided to follow those going to the shelter.
Down in the shelter, I made a more startling discovery than my inhuman transformation or gender change; I was pain free. And because of that, I welcomed those who clung to my back.
All night long, I kept an entertaining vigilance up for my little monkeys...
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"title": "Zodiac - Zodiac",
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"Appearance Changes",
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"Beastkin",
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Alex stared at the matte silver of his prison cell, no thoughts ran through his head, just the desire for all of this to end. He didn't truly care how that happened, whether he died on that blasphemous dissection table or something went wrong and caused this entire place to go up in a fiery explosion.
He didn't even know how long he had been held here for, but if they experimented on him once a day, then he had defiantly been here for over a year, but he had stopped counting after the 431st time, it was just too mentally draining to keep count. Alex raised his hand to the ceiling and spread his fingers wide, and slowly took in the sight of all the scars across his arm. This was the most he could do these days, most of his muscles atrophied by lack of use during his stay.
He remembered his first months here, where after the experiments he would complete a physical workout routine, to keep himself healthy and pass the time. That hadn't lasted long though, as his captors didn't supply him enough nutrients and food to keep up with his body's demand. It was slow, but the physical exhaustion eventually caught up and made it impossible to do the routine.
A low-pitched whine, that lasted only a second, dragged Alex out of his memories and sped up his heart for the briefest of moments. They had Pavlov's dog-ed him to what came next. He couldn't stand or walk anymore, his leg muscles deteriorated as they were, so he stayed lying down on the metal gurney that served as his bed as several robotic arms descended from the ceiling to move him to The Chamber.
Alex didn't have a clue as to what they actually did to him in The Chamber, what he did know what that whatever it was caused him tremendous pain. As the arms moved him down the hall another descended, except it had a syringe attached to a chamber filled with a transparent blue liquid. The arm proceeded to inject the serum into his thighs, biceps, abdomen, pectorals and the base of his skull.
The arms came to a stop as the wall to the left of him gave way and seemed to vanish into the floor before the arms proceeded to drop him in the middle of the room. The arms were pulled back up into the roof and the wall that had vanished was back, leaving him in a room that had no discernible exit.
The room was almost identical to his cell; the floor, walls and ceiling were made of the same matte silver alloy. The only exception is the large black horizontal rectangle that covered the majority of one of the walls. If he had to guess, Alex would say that is where they watched the experiments from. He had tried on many occasions to try to break the glass, he wasn't even sure it was glass, but had no success.
He stared at the black rectangle waiting for the experiment to start. It took longer this time, he would say he waited about 10 minutes, compared to the usual minute wait. Maybe this time would be the last, it was certainly the longest time he was left to wait.It was false hope as he felt the tingling in the back of his neck. The tingling slowly increased from goosebumps inducing to slight itch, it didn't stop there and Alex didn't expect it to. As time passed the itch grew in intensity and spread down his spine before branching off and moving down limbs.
The power of the itch increased from a slight tingle to something that might have been caused by concentrated itching powder. Alex didn't mind the itch, after having experienced it a couple hundred times on a regular basis, it was something that he had mentally adapted to. The first couple of months he had ripped open his flesh several times to scratch it, but now it barely bothered him.
The itch slowly transformed into direct pain, it was a small amount of pain, like an overworked and bruised muscle, but he knew it wouldn't stay that way for long. The pain grew slowly like the itch had, becoming concentrated and pure. Alex was struggling to keep his breathing even at this point, it was only a matter of time before he started screaming, or at least attempting to scream. He had slowly destroyed his voice box, he could use it, but his voice was low and gravely and it hurt when he spoke, he failed to produce any sound above a certain pitch, making screaming impossible and the attempts only added to the pain.
Alex couldn't keep the attempt to scream back, the pain had grown bad enough to feel like someone was hacking bis body apart with a rusty saw-blade, every inch, all at once. What little of his atrophied muscles were left, all seemed to cramp, rapidly pulling in all his limbs until he looked like a ball of skin and bones. His muscles would then do the opposite, occasionally sending one of his limbs flying in a random direction. His spine curved back as far as it could as his back muscles cramped. It was similar to having several volts run through his body.
Even through all of this they didn't stop the experiment, continuously turning up the intensity of whatever it was that was being used. The worst part though, was that Alex couldn't pass out, no matter how bad the pain got. There were times where he mentally collapsed and wouldn't respond to anything for weeks after due to how high the pain got. Alex wasn't even sure if he was the same person that was taken, but he usually avoided such philosophical questions about self. It was much easier just to fantasise about ending it all, not that he could no matter how much he wanted it.
Naroth went over the information one last time before the operation. A research ship belonging to a group of Xin't-Ther scientist, they needed 50 grams of a rare metal so they attempted to buy it from a nearby merchant and things went south. The scientist attempted to steal the metal, got caught but managed to run away without leaving any evidence besides a single witness, the merchant.
A single witness can't stand in court so the merchant put a bounty on their heads, a kill order. It seemed simple enough but it just didn't quite add up. Why would a bunch of scientists need 50 grams of Arsonium? Something about this operation seemed to set Norath's instincts off, something that wasn't taken lightly considering his species, the Misteloth, were known for their almost prophetic instincts.
Naroth left his cabin of the ship for the main helm, no doubt where he would find the rest of his team. Entering the main helm he found his group sitting on the couches, each holding a drink of their own, discussing the upcoming operation. He stopped by the mini fridge they had installed next to the main entrance and grabbed a cold glass of juice.
"Alright," He said as he joined them on the couches, the group went silent, "This mission is setting off my instincts." The moment he finished his words the group snapped to attention, preparing to barrage him with questions. He raised his hand to stop them before they even started.
"It's nothing dangerous, nothing good either. Just keep your eyes sharp, ears open and stay on your feet." That seemed to calm them down as most of them slipped back into their couches. There have been many instances where his instincts had saved the lives of the group, it was why he got the responsibility of picking jobs.
"Alright, our course is set and we're expected to arrive in 15 minutes, make sure that you have everything ready for the drop." On that note, he finished his drink and left his crew to make sure that he had everything he needed. Didn't want to make the mistake of leaving something behind after reminding your crew to pack it, it's an embarrassing situation he would rather not be in again if he could avoid it.
Kathida was merely an assistant to one of the glorious scientists aboard their research ship, furthering the intellect of species everywhere. This was supposed to be a regular research exploration testing the effects of deep space travel and trying to make it more efficient and faster, however they stumbled upon an adamantium mine, striking it rich. When they came out of deep space they had landed near a habitable planet, so they sent down a probe to test the atmosphere and check for life.
What they hadn't expected was that the prob would return with a life form, especially not a sapient creature. The creature was unconscious, probably from the teleportation of the probe, it wasn't meant to transport life after all.
They moved it to isolation to better record it. As per protocol, when they found an undiscovered sapient species an alert was sent to the council, although it would probably take them 1 cycle, or 3 years of this planet's rotations. However, before that they needed to gain as much information about them as possible. So they decided to experiment on the captured subject.
They started with giving him 9 injections of D901-34.2701, a chemical compound that allowed the D-radiation scanners to pick up more useful and specific information about the skeletal and muscular structure, as well as any other systems this creature might have. It did have a side effect of increasing the chances of a genetic mutation, however that risk is minute it's effectively ignored.
It was decided that they would start with the ESP chamber to test levels of sensitivity, control and lethality. The specimen reacted with a surprising level of ignorance, it was only once they started to increase the level that they got a reaction. First the skin broke out in what appeared to be tiny raised bumps, then it started to scratch. They had to cut the experiment once it started to rip into its flesh.
They decided then that they would operate afterwards to get better scans and practical experience, and they also healed the self-inflicted wounds.
As the days passed they were able to raise the level of ESP radiation further without getting any sort of reaction, as if he was growing immune. The scans and monthly lobotomy shows significant growth of the overall organ as well as extreme growth in specific locations.
During the dissections they removed several parts of it body and kept them out for a 24 hour period to see how it would cope when it lacked certain body parts, they did however never preform this with what they presumed were vital organs as they only had 1 test subject.
As the months passed the subject stopped scratching, that's when the screaming started as well as the convulsions, but still has time passed they needed to increase the levels of ESP radiation ever higher until it started to reach levels that would kill any of the scientists that were on board. That didn't stop them as they continued to test its limits on how much it could handle.
The creature's muscles began to deteriorate, either from a lack of use or an improper diet. They weren't certain, they needed a larger sample size. However, by the time 9 months had passed they had dissected it enough to understand how everything worked without doing a full autopsy.
Instead, what they did was instead of taking things away, they added things to the creature. They surgically removed the top sitting vertebrae and instead replaced it with a closed circuit nanite core to make sure that all it's organs were functioning properly so that it wouldn't suddenly die.
After that was the new Mk.IIX ESP Flight System that fused with the creatures skeletal and skin system. No particular reason, they had it on board for some reason, plus they got to see how the creature would react. It didn't seem to notice besides some back pain. Which Kathida supposed was a good thing, it wouldn't try to use it to escape.
They fused an ESP Thrust system down its spine about 2 months later, and just to see if would notice anything they installed Mk.V ESP Weapon Gauntlets, but it didn't seem to notice. She had to admit though, by this point they were just seeing what would happen and when it would notice, not really paying attention to what they fusing to it.
It was 14 months in when the screaming slowly stopped, the convulsions and pain didn't. A scan and dissection revealed that the strain to the sound producing organ had become too much, it just stopped producing sound anymore.
It was sometime at the 17th month when they got into a scuffle with a merchant. They needed a particular ore that could be combined with a multitude of different substances that would create clouds with specific traits. They were going to use it test trace amounts of poisons and acids in the air and see how they affected it.
Today they were going to push the limits of what it could handle in the ESP chamber, she watched as the lead scientist, Max'Drali, fiddle with a few dials and levels. She recorded the reactions of the creature as the flesh bumps broke out at ESP 11.4, a level of radiation high enough to kill her. The creature started to show irregular breathing at ESP 19.7, and the contractions started at 23.3 a level of radiation and power that was enough to kill everyone on the ship in a matter of minutes. Except the creature.
She was recording her observations at ESP 26.7 when the ship gave a little shake before the alarm sounded for intruders. All scientists were herded towards the main hall, where there was enough space for all of them and enough for the guards to do their job, limited in number as they may have been.
The screaming started a lot sooner than one should have cared about. She watched as a Thilarkian drop from the ceiling with a PSY blade before it turned three of their guards into minced meat. She watched with bated breath as it turned to face them and began to cut down all that were in her way, guard and scientist alike.
The last thing she saw was the purple blue glow of a PSY blade.
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"Mecha",
"Sci-fi"
],
"tags": [
"Aliens",
"Dark",
"Human Experimentation",
"Kidnappings",
"Outcasts",
"Outer Space",
"Politics",
"Torture"
]
} |
The Price for Victory
"Welcome back!"
Silently, I looked down at myself. My form remained in the female guise. Looking around me at the surrounding space, I wondered why for a moment, but dropped the thought. I didn't care anymore.
"So, learn anything new this time around?"
A weight lowered me down into a ball and I curled back up like I had once before.
"I take it you still don't understand?"
Between my knees, I buried my face and kept quiet.
"Sulvon, you might want to review what all happened and take into account what all you're capable of. It isn't rocket science... Well, actually, it kinda is, but fuel isn't required."
I didn't cry, but I wasn't feeling any emotion either. Lifting my face out from my legs, I sat my chin on my knees. "Death. Leave me alone."
"C'mon! It was only a handful of times that you died. I know of mortals that did a Groundhog Da-- er, a time loop and never quit. They didn't have as big of a burden as you did. Your goal is to save your race from being wiped out. If you don't, there won't be anyone to step in the path of humanity from purging each world of life for their own gain."
I shrugged. "Let them. They are obviously better at everything than we are."
"That's the point. Their superiority will become their downfall. If they continue on this path, eventually they will make a mistake that will backfire so damn badly that they wipe themselves out... I'll be out of a job!"
No more life in the universe? Sounded cold. Right now, that was exactly how I felt despite the supernatural flames.
"Oh now, don't make me beg you. I can't do anything except send a champion in to fix this. If you can't do it on your own, then pick someone who can help you."
Lifting my gaze up, I wondered what Death meant by that. "What do you mean?"
"Pick someone of power that wouldn't balk at impossible odds."
There was someone, but I had killed him. Now even his precious skin was ashes in my chamber. A memory. "I defeated him. He's dead."
"Yeah, and..? I'm Death, remember?"
Taking this into consideration, I still hadn't a clue how he would be capable of defeating that ship or the countless others beyond our skies. "Bosillur the -- the Undefeated."
"...That's irony. On it."
There was a guttural bellow behind me and I straightened to look over my shoulder at the figure emerging into my view. "Bosillur?"
"Uh, why do you sound surprise? I told you I'd nab someone to help you. Just have to convince him to come back with ya."
That would not be possible. He knew who had betrayed and killed him, took his skin as a trophy, and ruled his tower. At least I’d ruled until this impossible task was set before me.
Black as the void surrounding him, but charged with the blue and white energies of electric fire, he appeared clear to me. His massive size was twice mine. Both of his arms were corded with wiry muscle that wrapped around a mass that could double the width of my now slim waist. Those hands would easily crush me if those crackling sparks for eyes spotted me.
He shook his head, whipping around thick locks of lightning to loosen them down to his tapered waist. Those awesomely broad shoulders and thick chest expanded when he took his first breath and purred a sigh as if in relief.
Bosillur spoke calmly. "Never thought I'd have a body again." A dark hand lifted in front of him, turned this and that way in appraisal. "Feels nice. Much better than being some cosmic fart."
"I do take great offense to that remark! I do not fart!"
Those lightning white eyes turned to search out the voice for a moment before he settled on me.
"Not her. Me. Death! I'm all around you and not at the same time. She's just visiting. Oh, but do thank her. She's the reason you have a body again."
Bosillur rolled his eyes around to see the void of space for what it truly was, a cosmic entity. Then he settled on looking at me and smiled. "Thank you for bringing me back my form. May I know who it is I should remember for giving me this gift?"
"Hold it! Not a gift. She wants to ask your for a favor in exchange. Don't'cha, girly?"
I couldn't say my name. Not to him. To take and give back wasn't going to make this a fair trade. It still bewildered me how he could possibly be of help. Yet here he was, and I had a chance to use him somehow.
"Wait a minute." Bosillur tilted his head and closed his eyes. That smile dropped. "Sulvon?" Those eyes crackled back open with a great spark. "Fuck this. You -- I should consume you piece by piece in strips of flesh from the bottom up."
All I did was hug my legs tighter and lean back down to my knees. He could. It was too late for this ploy to work and nothing still came to mind for how to win the day.
"Bo. Can I call you Bo? Okay, Bo, here is the deal. She brought you back and intends to return life to you, but you've got to help her out."
I heard the sound of Bosillur's lightning crackle closer to me. Somehow he was moving through this void.
"C'mon, Bo? It's for a great cause!"
"Shut it!" I didn't bother to look at Bosillur, but I heard his yell. It was right over my shoulders. He was towering over me and the charge of his static proximity caused my flesh to shiver. "Mmm... Might have some fun with you before tearing into you."
His skin, nothing could penetrate it. When his great hands clapped me on both shoulders, I tightened up smaller into a ball.
"Bo! Stop. If you push this, I'll send you back and be damn sure that not even your essence remains. You'll really be a venerable and stinky gas giant."
Those shocking hands sent currents through me, but didn't do any more than that.
"Okay, Death. You want a deal? I get this bitch, my life, tower, and Hell, the whole fucking universe in exchange." His face lowered down next to mine and generated sparks against my cheek with a single brush.
"Uhhh... How about we start with the world and go from there?"
"I'll take the world, but she's still mine to do with as I please. Doesn't look like Sulvon is that great anymore." That smile he gave me was all the reason I needed to bury my face down into my knees once more.
"Hmmm... Hmmmm.... HMMMMMMM... Bo, may I have a word with you? In private?"
That was possible?
"I'm listening." Bosillur's face stopped nuzzling into the back of my neck.
Knowing he could tolerate my heat was disheartening, but if we could never survive the light, then it didn't matter. In exchange for winning against mankind, I would gladly accept whatever fate awaited me. If it was being torn to pieces, then so be it. At least it meant there would be some trace of my existence remaining.
"Really?" That was Bosillur. He didn't sound angry. More surprised than anything.
"Yep! If you can take it easy, I'll do it. Besides, you died once. She died... uhh -- What number are we at? Five? Six times?"
I shook my head. I didn’t care how many times I was going to die.
"Death, did you make her into a mute or some shit like that?" His proximity could be felt close to me again. That static jolt of each spark dancing between us was lighting up my bare body from shoulder to hip.
"No. Death and Despair kind of go hand-in-hand. She's got both going on right now."
He huffed and slipped his arm between my legs and waist to grab me. With one pull, I was tightly pressed to his steel-hard chest with my now pliable-soft flesh. "Despair, huh?" Looking up at him, I saw that his white eyes were lured to roam down my figure. "I'll give you something to despair of after I finish fucking mankind up." With one glance away from me, he commanded Death. "Send us back."
"Nope."
He blinked and stared out into the void. "Say that again?"
"Nuh-uh."
"Death. If you want me to be gentle with her, I expect you do as I say." His grip squeezed around me to the point that I gasped.
"She's the one who made the deal. Which means it was her exchange to suffer by your hands to help me. I'm only going to listen to her, sooo... Stuff it!"
With a growl, Bosillur glared down and ordered me in a very slow and low toned voice. "Tell Death to Send Us Back or Else."
I opened my mouth, but Death spoke before I did.
"Sulvon. If you obey him now, your suffering will never end."
My lips sealed and I stared in terror at Bosillur.
He flashed his long sharp teeth at me as he said, "Do It."
What did I have to lose? I’d lost my life. My identity was no more. I had my power, but what was that compared to the light, let alone Bosillur? If he could win, then I would submit.
Opening my mouth back up to speak, I directed a trembling voice to Bosillur instead of Death. "If you win in this life, I'll submit. If not --"
"I'll win. Just tell Death to send us back!" Flinching, I recollected my resolve before resuming.
"If -- If not, I'll listen to you. I'll obey, but not --"
"Not as what? A slave? No, you are not worthy of that station. You're food that I just choose to play with." Clenching my teeth shut, I stared up at him and wondered how it was I’d had the courage before to poison him.
It wasn't courage. I’d done it in fear and worked up that courage one day.
"Bosillur. If I don't, someone else will kill you like I did. You can never trust anything you see, touch, or taste. Even if one day you decide to eat me, I'll be certain to use all that I am to be your downfall from the inside out. Just like before." After I had told him that, I had no more strength of will to fight.
He was silent.
His gaze flicked to the void once more. "Are we going or not?"
"Up to her, not me."
Those crackling eyes returned their attention onto me. "Well?"
I didn't have it in me to deny him anymore. With one nod, I gave Death the gesture to send us back.
"Okay! Y’all come back now, ya hear!"
| {
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"lang": "en",
"series": "4169",
"id": "4176",
"q": 0.8436363636363636,
"title": "Reset - Chapter 5: The Price for Victory",
"author": "mrsimple",
"chapters": 5,
"rating": 4.6,
"rating_ct": 8,
"genre": [
"Action",
"Fantasy",
"Gender Bender",
"Mature",
"Sci-fi",
"Supernatural"
],
"tags": [
"Aggressive Characters",
"Apocalypse",
"Appearance Changes",
"Army",
"Arrogant Characters",
"Character Growth",
"Conflicting Loyalties",
"Cosmic Wars",
"Death",
"Demon Lord",
"Demons",
"Depictions of Cruelty",
"Elemental Magic",
"Evil Protagonist",
"Fantasy World",
"Gore",
"Hated Protagonist",
"Immortals",
"Leadership",
"Male to Female",
"Nudity",
"Second Chance",
"Time Loop",
"Wars",
"World Invasion"
]
} |
Reset
My race was to be mistrusted. Labeled as evil and cruel. Destruction was always our calling card wherever we visited. All those who would see us knew that there soon would be death and mayhem. It was not an existence that they could tolerate.
Nor could we. We fought each other countless times for dominance. Never had there been a single one of our kind to top us all as a whole. Always, there had been a contender that would trump the lesser evil.
Demons. We were called Demons.
It was true that we grew horns, our flesh was of different shades that ranged from the deepest blacks to the molten bright yellows, and we had our share of features that were not always pleasant. Sharp teeth, scales, tails, claws, wings, crowns of horns, or more variations. We had so many that it was hard to discern if we were one race or a congregation of many lost tribes.
If we were a gathering of different peoples, it was a divided one. No one chose to willingly follow. It was based on threats, fears, or punishment to coerce those lesser evils into action.
From across the steaming crags, to the raised heights of razor-edged stone hills, a lake of lava was kept inside a bowl made of those dangerously sharp hills. Any who approached would be swept away, leaving no trace of life as the fiery waves washed all away. And that same burning current splashed against a raised peak of one tower made entirely of obsidian, and I sat, observed, and anticipated the formation of mankind's greatest assembled army.
The whole lot of them were ready to die in an effort to at last wipe us all out. Our last bastion. Me, the final lesser evil of all Demons. Being the last one, I suppose that would make me the Greater Evil by default?
It made me laugh.
"So be it. Let's show them Hell tonight." As I flicked my wrist to gesture for both my legion and garrison to sally forth, I laid back in my throne and watched. Waited. There would be a Hero.
A final battle...
"..." Looking around in the darkness, I was a little perplexed at what had just happened. A peek down revealed that there was no floor to stand on. I was hovering in some kind of void, or this was one very deep chasm I was falling in… on second thought, I didn’t sense myself falling. Not in the natural sense.
"Hello?"
Swerving my head left and right, I searched for the voice.
"Ah, hello? Do you speak?"
Cringing in irritation and anger, I spoke. "You dare to assume I am a simpleton without a tongue!"
"Whoa, okay! Sorry for the mixup there. Not a simpleton. Check."
There was a silence between me and this mysterious voice.
"Do you, uh, have a name?"
With my sharp teeth bared, I announced myself in a righteous shout. "I'm Sulvon, the Lesser of all Evils!"
"Sulvon the Lesser of all -- Hey, wait, why lesser?"
In frustration, I lashed out into the darkness with a coil of flames to light this place up. Searching wildly, I tried to find the source of this voice. "Where are you! Show yourself, coward!"
"Mhm, yeah, I see now why you want a humble title with that attitude. Lesser Evil, got it."
I wasn't a Lesser Evil. Not after being the last of them. Enraged, I billowed out a surging inferno that had ever been present within my being. It fanned outwards in a great sphere. From a distance, I watched it wave outwards until the ball of power could no longer be maintained. It broke apart, but it had reached out so far that I could no longer depend on its illumination to see.
"You like playing with fire, don't'cha?"
This hunt was not over. Darkness was a friend and there was plenty of it. Tapping into a neglected vein, I entered the shadows with my senses to feel out for this voice.
When I touched the darkness, the Darkness touched back.
"Hey! No touching!"
I choked in shock. The voice was the Darkness. This entire Void was what was speaking to me.
"Sulvon, a Lesser Evil who likes to play with fire and has a real temper. Sounds like a good summary. At least, it's a start."
My mouth went dry. Where was I? "Who are you?"
"Well, since you gave me your name, I guess it would be polite to return the greeting. I'm Death."
Seriously? This was Death? "Are you joking?"
"Right now? No. Do you want to hear one?"
I shook my head. "No." After hearing who this was, I didn't feel like hearing anything amusing anymore. This was Death. That meant I had died and I’d forgotten how it happened.
"Oh, you'll come around. I'm sure a little joke won't hurt? For you, how about the effort you put into that final battle? That was a real hoot. Sitting on your throne doing nothing until there was just you. C'mon! What did you call that strategy? Last Man Standing? Great for a free-for-all, but you had legions under your command --"
"SHUT UP!" Lowering my head, I shook it and felt true despair for the first time. What he said was what hurt. I was not just the last Lesser Evil, but the very last of my kind that had died. There were no more Demons.
"You know, if you are that broken up about it. I could give you another crack at it? Maybe this time put a little effort in it?"
Did I hear that right? "You will give my life back?"
"More than that. I'll send you back before you sat down and awaited your demise."
Nodding, I was more than willing to do something different this time around. "Please. Send me back."
"Ah, wait. Before you go, there is one little catch."
I quietly waited to hear what this was. When nothing was said, I closed my eyes and bowed as low as I could to my dangling feet. "Please. I beg you. Send me back. I will offer anything in return."
"Oh, I'm not taking anything. It is a gift. Knowledge. Each time you fail to avert the events of this battle, I'll grant you knowledge of how to prevent this calamity."
This didn't sound like a bad catch at all. Why was it that I had the impression a warning was hidden in this? "Ve-- Very well? Please, may I go?"
"Sure! See you in a little bit."
| {
"subset": "scribblehub",
"lang": "en",
"series": "4169",
"id": "4172",
"q": 0.8436363636363636,
"title": "Reset - Chapter 1: Reset",
"author": "mrsimple",
"chapters": 5,
"rating": 4.6,
"rating_ct": 8,
"genre": [
"Action",
"Fantasy",
"Gender Bender",
"Mature",
"Sci-fi",
"Supernatural"
],
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"Aggressive Characters",
"Apocalypse",
"Appearance Changes",
"Army",
"Arrogant Characters",
"Character Growth",
"Conflicting Loyalties",
"Cosmic Wars",
"Death",
"Demon Lord",
"Demons",
"Depictions of Cruelty",
"Elemental Magic",
"Evil Protagonist",
"Fantasy World",
"Gore",
"Hated Protagonist",
"Immortals",
"Leadership",
"Male to Female",
"Nudity",
"Second Chance",
"Time Loop",
"Wars",
"World Invasion"
]
} |
Most everything I tell you from here on out's truthful. Some names've been changed and I filled the gaps in my memory with what I think happened, but aside from that, this story is the truth. As much as some of it might seem like bullshit, nothing here's an outright lie.
I'd've liked to tell you more about my baby years, but ain't nobody's around who remembers anything about that anymore. Even if there was, I don't care much to ask. All you gotta know is that my name's Hosea. Hosea Fisher, born to the bravest woman I know and the man who was meant to father me in the charmingly crummy fishing village in Virginia named Menhaden Bay. Now that John guy decided to sing about our neighbors out west, but I kinda wish he sung about down here instead ‘cause nobody who ain't here to buy something ever stops by. It's a shame, really. There ain't no other smell than ocean and fish here, but it's a nice place, especially for fishing. Don't let the name fool you, menhaden ain't the only thing you're gonna catch here. There's a buncha striped bass swimming around and even some sturgeon. It really is a nice place.
Anyway, you don't need to know too much about my hometown. What you gotta know though is that my good friend who told me to write this shit in the first place also told me to not reveal things until they're important ‘cause even though I wrote this for myself, he said it'd do me good to read a halfway decent story. I'm keeping things a secret, but I ain't telling no lies. He also told me to start the story at a point closest to the ending and with lotsa important things going on, so with all that in mind, I guess the best place to start would be the summer of nineteen seventy-three, when I was eight.
It must've been a midday in August ‘cause it was hot as hell, at least a hundred degrees. The roads were blistering. The heat must've gotten to my head ‘cause before I even realized it, I was a hair's breadth away from drowning by the pier near home. It's all become a blur to me now, but I'd never forget drinking more river water than most anyone's ever drank in their life. It was a bitch of a feeling, but I'll never forget it as long as I live. In the first place, I shouldn't've even been in water deeper than my knees ‘cause I couldn't even swim, for Chrissake. I thought to myself that day "Shucks, since I can't swim, how 'bout I just learn to swim!" and so I tried to, without any grownups or floaties. We were all dipshits when we were kids, but I was a special brand of moron, and I still am. I thought I was just about a goner. I thought I was gonna be the haunting spirit of the river like the grownups said I'd become if I fell in with nobody around.
Right as I was about to drown, a hand and a voice reached out to me. It was a girl's and she yelled "Grab on!". Most everyone in my village knew each other, but I'd never heard her before. I took a glance at my would-be rescuer once I got my head outta water and I saw the most beautiful girl I had ever seen in my life, and she still is too. She had on this adorable little sunhat over her dazzling head of red locks. In fact, I was so swept off my soaked feet by her that I didn't even think to grab the hand she reached out to me.
"Grab my hand, darnit!" she yelled once more.
I finally snapped back to my senses and grabbed her hand. She struggled to pull me out of the water, even almost falling in herself at one point, but by some miracle she managed to pull me up to dry land where we both laid spread out and out of breath.
"*pant* *pant* are you... all right?" she asked.
"Just about... I think. Thank ya, missy. I woulda *pant* died if it wasn't fer you."
"What were you doing anyway...? Can you even *pant* swim?"
"W-well..."
I hesitated to answer. My cheeks were more flushed than a good toilet and it ain't ‘cause of the heat, I assure you.
"You don't even have *pant* to tell me. You obviously can't."
"That ain't true!" I was a liar then, but I promise I ain't one now.
"Rubbish!" she yelled. "You had no idea what you were doing! You were flailing all about, clear as day!" she furrowed her brow and stared straight into my eyes.
Her eyes were like lil emeralds, but anyway I couldn't hold her gaze and stood up.
"Yeah, yer right. I can't swim. Make funna me if ya want!" I crossed my arms and pointed my nose to the sky.
"What's that you got in your hand there?" she asked as she got up.
"This thing?" I held it out to her. "A necklace. Them here's pearls, from the ocean."
If I remember correctly, which I ought to'cause I kept it for quite some time, my necklace was technically a pearl necklace, but it ain't like any you've ever seen before. For starters, there weren't pearls all around it. There were just a few, maybe around five, with two shiny big white seashells flanking one of the pearls while the rest of the pearls flanked them. The one in the very middle was especially gorgeous. It was the shiniest, roundest, and whitest of them all.
"Hmm..." she studied my necklace real intently.
"Purty, ain't it? It's one of a kin-"
"I'll buy it off you!" she exclaimed as her warm, lily-white hands clasped mine. "How does eighty sound?"
"Eighty..."
"Yep yep yep, and it'll be all yours. Just say the word!"
"I... I'll try and think about it."
The girl turned away from me, took off her hat, and went to sit at the end of the pier. She looked up at the sky while swinging her feet back and forth. I finally managed to get a good look at her without getting all flustered. She was wearing an elegant white sundress with some yellow flower-shaped embroidery at the hem. She was a bit shorter than me and really skinny. She also had these rosy little kneecaps that caught my eye when she was swinging her legs back and forth. In fact, she swung them so hard I thought her sandals were gonna slip off, but thank God Almighty they didn't. I was already so head-over-heels for her that I probably would've jumped in after them.
She noticed I was staring and looked back at me, so I quickly tried to think of something to say.
"Say, do ya know how to swim?" I said while approaching her.
"Yeah, I've been taking lessons since I was five." she pulled her legs up, probably realizing her sandals were slipping.
"How 'bout we play a lil game?" I said as I took off my necklace and squatted down.
I pulled the two seashells and one of the pearls off of the necklace's string and arranged them over the wooden pier. The girl watched me, much to her amusement.
"I'll put this 'ere pearl under this shell over 'ere and after that, I'll start movin' 'em around real fast and you'll have to guess where the pearl is once I'm done. If ya guess right, I'll hand over my necklace for free, but if you guess wrong, you gotta give me swimmin' lessons."
It looked like she was about to say "yes", but she shook the amusement off her face and frowned.
"I'm not in the mood for games. I'll give you eighty-five for that necklace."
"What's to lose, missy? Ya can get the necklace for free and even if ya don't get it right, all ya gotta do is teach me to swim. Or don't tell me, have ya gotten a lil yeller?” I said with a smirk.
I swear I wasn't usually this provocative as a kid. Girls, especially the pretty ones, they just get to your head sometimes. They make you not yourself and ‘cause of that, you do stupid shit that you'd never do otherwise. But even so, I gotta give my child self credit where it's due ‘cause my simple provoking riled her up real good. It took her a while though. She probably didn't know I was saying yellow.
"I'm not 'yeller'. Come on, I'll show you! I got good eyes, you know, and not just for jewels."
Thus, the game began. I placed the pearl under one of the near-identical seashells, the one on the left to be exact, and then I swapped them around. I started swapping them slow, but I eventually went faster. At the end of it all, I gave a little bow to the girl. I guess I thought all my fanfare would've impressed her, but she was more interested in the shells.
"Now, where do ya think the pearl is?"
She took a moment to think. She tapped on her chin, her freckled cheeks, her temple, and finally her sweaty forehead before making her choice. She pointed her dainty finger at the shell that was to the left of her. You could see in her eyes that she knew she was right.
"Final answer?"
She said nothing and simply nodded. Little did she know, she fell right into my sinister trap. If I had a mustache, I'd be twirling it right about now.
I slowly lifted the shell she chose up into the sky, revealing that there was nothing under it but her crushed hopes and dreams. I saw the color drain from her pretty little face as her smirk slowly flipped upside down. I probably laughed like a maniac, but I don't remember really. She tried to protest and showered me with “buts”, but the fact of the matter was that she just lost the bet and had to give me swimming lessons. Oh, Hosea, your dear old Ma didn't raise you to be this way. You were supposed to protect them little girls, not cheat and lie to them.
"Well, if it isn't there, then-" she lifted up the other shell, another dud.
She was completely hysterical and tears were trickling down her precious little eyes. I swear would've slapped child me in the goddamn face if I was sent back in time. No, I'd fucking throw that bastard into the river. The little asshole.
I looked at her dead straight in the eye with a grin so full of shit you'd think I ate my three meals a day in a pigsty. I then did a bit of over-the-top gesturing like I was some two-bit third-rate street magician ‘cause shit, that was pretty much what I was on this fine summer day under the scorching sun. I don't know what made me act like this, the girl, my near drowning, or the damn heat. After I finished gesturing, I reached into the back pocket of my shorts and pulled out a shiny white pearl. It was a trick I learned from the few older kids that I hung around with. I ain't gonna tell you how I did it though, as even a two-bit third-rate magician never reveals his secrets.
"Ta-da!" I shouted like a damn moron.
I saw the girl's face regain color, but this time she was red with rage. She grabbed me by the collar of my still soaked tank-top and yanked me towards her.
"Y-you... You cheated! You cheated! Cheater! Cheater! Cheater!" she cried at the top of her lungs while throttling me.
My near drowning had already made me all light in the head, but her shaking straight up made me wanna hurl. She was so vicious I damn near dropped the pearl that was still in my hand. It would've bounced right off of the pier and dived straight into the river where nobody'd ever find it, even if they could swim.
"Hey, I told ya to guess where the pearl was. I didn't say nothin' 'bout it bein' under a shell. It ain't cheatin'. It's a strategy. Ya gotta put yerself in a place where ya ain't likely to lose." I smirked.
Maybe my sudden big-headedness came about ‘cause I wanted to talk down to a rich girl. I didn't even know if she actually had eighty-five bucks on her, but I decided to talk all big about strategies anyway.
"Yeah, yeah *sniff*, whatever... Now that I look at it, those pearls aren't even that good anyway. It's worth half of my original guess." she said as she let go of my collar and used her now free hands to wipe her tears.
"Hmmmm...?" my shit-eating grin somehow got even shittier "Sounds like ya got a bad case of the sour grapes, ya sore loser."
"S-sour grapes?! Are you doubting my eyes? You're just a bumpkin kid, what do you know about the price of jewelry?!" likewise, her face somehow turned even redder.
"Yer right, I don't know much, but what I know is that this here necklace is priceless! The string, the shells, and the pearls all cost more than ya could ever pay me. My Pa made this necklace by hisself before he left for the war in... whatistcalled? Anyway, ya could never ever forever put a price on it." I stared her dead in the eye, my grin wiped off.
The color on her face slowly returned to as it was, white like the sands on a beach. She took a deep breath.
"Whatever, I guess. I'll teach you to swim or whatever it is you want, but you mentioned a war? You mean in Vi... Vitami-" she chuckled to herself. "No, no, no, Elise, that's not right. Ah, Vietman."
"Yeah, that's it." I nodded.
"But... if he's a married man, the army wouldn't want him. Father said he avoided service because he had kids. If he wasn't drafted, then was your father already in the military?" she said while still staring at my necklace.
"Nah, Pa was a fisherman. He went out once with Old Man Hawthorne once and caught a sturgeon thiiiis big!" I said as I stretched out my arms.
The sturgeon was much longer than my outstretched arms though. I saw a photograph.
"A sturgeon? What's that?"
"It's a giant fish. You don't see 'em often 'round here anymore, but they can grow longer than a bike!"
"A bike..." she paused for a bit "That's huge!"
"Yeah, yeah, I always wanted to catch one, but they're real strong. They'd pull me into the river and I'd sink!"
"So that's why you were out here drowning? You wanted to learn to swim so you could catch a sturgeon?"
"Yep, and I also wanted to try and swim across the sea. Maybe I'd end up in Vietma-"
"That's it! How about I teach you to swim and we go catch a sturgeon together. I'll be around for the rest of summer vacation, so that'll be enough time for you to learn to swim and for us to go catch ourselves a water bike!" she raised her arms in front of her, clenched her firsts, and began pretending to ride a bike.
"That's right, ya ain't from around here, right? Nobody 'round here 'cept for the school teachers talk like ya, and even then, most of 'em don't." I said as I skipped a rock over the river. She applauded.
"I'm here on vacation. I'm from up north." she pointed away from the pier. "It isn't quite here, but my family's got a summer home not too far from here."
"That so? Then why're ya over here instead of with yer folks?" I asked while reaching for another stone.
"The car broke down and I got bored while waiting for the butler to fix it. It probably would've taken a long time, the engine made an awful sound." she said as she grabbed the stone I was aiming for before chucking it into the river without so much as a bounce.
"I mean, if we got time to spare, then how 'bout we get started with those swimmin' lessons right now? I can even teach ya to fish if ya want, but I ain't gonna teach ya my pearl trick though."
"I’d have to pass for today. Old Maurice ought to be done with the car by now. I'll try to be back here tomorrow though, if I can remember the way." she said as she stretched her arms.
"Sure, tomorrow then." I started walking away from the girl towards my home, which was not far at all from the pier. She walked in a different direction from me.
I spent a lot longer on that pier than I ever imagined I would. My Ma would have hell waiting for me at home. I didn't have a watch, so I didn't know what time it was, but I knew that it was way past lunch time. This'd all be hell to explain to Ma once I get home. Not only did I almost drown, but I also made a girl cry and then promised her I'd go catch a sturgeon with her if she taught me to swim. Chrissake, if there's one thing that hasn't change since then, it'd be that girls really know how to get into my head.
"Wait!" the girl hollered out in a voice that I could hardly hear. "I haven't got your name yet! I'm Elise, Elise Maxwell."
I looked back at her hazy figure and took a deep breath.
"Hosea! Hosea Fisher! If ya can't find me, just ask around fer me. Most everyone in this village knows each other, they'll help ya find me!" I yelled at the top of my lungs.
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"title": "The Journal of a Young Fisher - The Summer of 1973",
"author": "ShrimpShady",
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"rating": 5,
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~~Fearleader~~
Chem-teach Russel yelled out, "Get'yer asses ready! Ten minutes or lose the credit!"
"Fuckfuckfuck, why didn't he say we had to participate?" I was more than frustrated, beyond panicking, and further from ready than anyone else here. Still in my school uniform, I’d wanted only to make sure that the props and lights were set for tonight. Instead, I learned at the last minute that we had to be here for the class Haunted School event.
"Dude, chill. Just put something on real quick and your creds are in the bag." Wayne, ever relaxed, leaned back on one of the lamps. It was not screwed down or anything, so it fell, and him with it. "Ouch! Damn, uh...mind giving me a hand, Shane?"
"Yeahyeah." Reaching down, I grabbed the hand he threw up at me. Immediately, I let him go when I saw the strobe lamp’s broken neck.
"Hey!"
"You broke—Never mind. If the bulb’s still good, we can set it up on a shelf. It's powerful enough for the whole room." Turning towards the door, I saw that the hall was clear. "Go set that on the closet shelf. Don't close the door! I'll be back after I find something to put on."
"Really? You gonna go to the store with what, nine minutes left?"
"Maybe eight, but no. I'm sure I'll find something in the closed-off section."
"The construction site?"
"De-construction site, but yeah. There may be nothing but garbage in there, but it might be garbage I could throw on."
"Go for it."
A class project with only two participants. That was how well Mr. Russel, our homeroom-slash-chemistry teacher, communicated with us. I wasn’t too sure how he’d react to everyone bitching at him tomorrow, but I wasn’t going to take the chance that he’d fail us all.
Getting my mind off of that, I ran down the halls, down the spiraling steps, hitting the ground floor and racing for the other end of the school. It took three minutes. I had maybe a minute to find something and change.
I burst through the unhinged doors, clipping my head on one of the bars holding the door shut and bruising my shoulder. I didn't care. My grades were more important than minor injuries.
"Okay, thirty seconds. Wherewherewhere?" Inside the wreckage, I could see the old rooms, nothing more than cubical husks. There were a few desks, twisted and snapped in different directions from the wrecking crew. Other rooms had stationary desks for the teachers, but all that was left of them were the bolted-down legs.
Nearly every closet was absolutely destroyed. I crossed my fingers, praying that there would be a hoodie or something left behind. I could use this dust and debris to look like a zombie, or at least someone in really bad shape. I could finish it off with some of the red paint back in the classroom.
But I didn’t intend to ruin my own clothes for that shit.
After a minute, I still hadn’t found a thing. I was about to call it quits and head back, maybe ask Wayne to switch clothes with me, like he'd care. Besides, I felt he owed me something using my family’s cozy indoor pool almost every day.
Something flashy caught my eye in a pulverized closet. Kneeling down, I uncovered it.
"Oh, you've got to be kidding me." Holding it up, I could make out what I’d found: a cheerleader outfit. It had our school’s name and mascot, but the colors were wrong: Brown and red instead of blue and yellow. There were a pair of pom-poms, too!
I didn't have time to complain. I got undressed in record time, then whipped the costume around to make sure there were no bugs or fiberglass on it, and put it on.
"Holy shit, this is tight! Come on..." I tried, but the damn jersey wouldn’t go around my ribs and waist. I finally managed to get it down when I sucked in my stomach. Wiggling my hips, I got the pleated skirt to fit around my bare thighs. I nearly broke the zipper yanking the zipper up, but the whole thing fit. Barely. "Time to rock 'n' roll!" I threw my shoes on and high-tailed it back.
I was late. I could already hear the doors opening and the muffled voices of the guests coming in. If anyone saw me leaving the closed-off section, I could get into serious trouble for messing with stuff back there or, like, secret drug deals, I dunno! That was what went through my mind.
I had to think quickly. "Well, they came for a scare." Sucking in, puffing out my chest, and clapping my pom-poms, I ran out. Screaming!
Everyone was startled to see me charging at them. They actually backed off and clustered in the front doors, preventing anyone else from coming in. I ran around the corner and raced up the spiral staircase. I raced to my room and collapsed in a huff.
"Whow! Uh, hi?" Wayne looked just as startled as the neighbors. I grinned and waved a pom-pom at him.
"Hey. Found something." Okay, this could give me some time to catch my breath. Then what? Do I start screaming again? No, they already got that from the front door, and I didn't like repeating the same trick twice.
"Wait, Shane? That you?" I nodded. He looked me over, then shook his head. "Dude, that is some wicked costume. Where the Hell did you get all of that and the time to put it on?"
I waved him off, gesturing that I still needed to recover my breath.
"Okay, I get'cha. That was quick work." He was laughing as he pointed to the light on the closet shelf. "That good?" I nodded, gulping, finally relaxing a little.
"Yeah." I looked around to make sure that there wasn't going to be anything obstructing the flashes. If something caught, its shadow would ruin the effect.
Another minute had gone by, and we could hear the sound of voices echoing up the staircase. Beneath us, we heard other classes initiating their own chorus of scares. It would be our turn soon enough. I wondered what the rest of our hall had in store.
Lifting my ass off the floor, I peeked out the classroom door. Some people came into our hall; doors popped open and students burst forth for a jump-scare.
"Okay, that's ruled out." Had to think of something. I scanned the room for something that would work. Paint! Nearly forgot about that. "Wayne, grab me the paint!"
"...Dude, your voice sounds funny."
"We don't have time for this. They're outside! Come on, just throw it—FUCK!" Wayne threw it alright. All over me and onto the door and floor. It was pooling, a red mess on my hair and face, running down my front to puddle beneath me. I had to use the door handle to get up in fear of slipping.
When I did get up, my eyes widened and my shoulders sagged at the sight of my regular clothes, splattered with the red paint. I reached down to pick them up, but decided against it. Instead, I glared at Wayne, shaking my head. He gave me this sheepish smile and shrugged. That just pissed me off more.
"Turn the fucking lights on." I had something in mind now. If I was going to be a painted-red cheerleader, I might as well add a little flair. Besides, I could work out the anger by dancing it off. Maybe I could do something with Thriller.
The strobe light’s first flash blinded me for a second. I turned to face the door, then stepped towards it without recollecting the little slip-hazard on the floor. My foot slid forward and kicked the bottom of the door, just as I reached for the handle to open it. The door creaked open with my weight pulling on the hinges.
Keeping still, I worried that I might have ruined our first scare. There were hemispherical mirrors in the hall; I glanced to see what the grown-ups were up to. My accident had caused some people to look for the source of the creepy noise, and they apparently noticed the red pool seeping out from the classroom.
"Lucky," I whispered.
Watching the mirror, I waited for those people to get closer. The strobes of light found their rhythm behind me, flashing faster and stronger. They threw strange shadows onto the wall. That gave me the best idea yet.
Maneuvering in front of the light, I stood still for only a second before stretching out my arms. The pom-poms in my hands looked almost like severed heads, held by their hairy scalps. I started dancing like a cheerleader at a football game. Taking a pose, I whirled one pom-pom over my head. I kinda regretted that as some of the paint began to shake and shower down on me.
I threw my arms out, flicking paint off the pom-poms. Unfortunately, the guests were a little too eager to see what was going on. Flecks of red hit them, causing them to back off and look at one another.
"Oh shit!" Now I was in trouble. I knew they would complain about the paint getting on them. All I could do was keep up the act and hope I got a good grade to balance out whatever punishment I had coming.
I twirled around, keeping my back to them, hiding my face. I heard the folks walk in...
The first person slipped on the floor, and I heard someone curse as they shuffled around. It sounded chaotic behind me. I knew the strobe-lights were flashing them blind, which could help me, but it was probably just pissing them off. I didn't like jump scares, but I needed to improvise something, and fast.
When they reached me, I felt a hand touch my shoulder for a moment. They pulled away, saying: "Eww, wha–blood?" Oh, that was really good! In that moment of confusion, I jumped and faced them with a big beaming smile. That was when the disgusting paint ran down my lips into my mouth. I almost cringed, but seeing their wide-eyed, speechless response, I started laughing instead.
They actually ran, slipped, and scrambled out of the door. I couldn't believe it! "We did it!" Then I spit out the paint.
"Oh, fuck!” Wayne said. “Okay, Shane, we have our number. Keep this up and we'll score big time!"
I ran to the sink and rinsed out my mouth. "Do you think they’ll let the paint slide?"
"Who the fuck cares ma—ma'am." Glaring at him over my shoulder, I flipped him the bird before going back to shut the door. We turned the light off and readied for the next wave.
After a few hours, we finally heard the bell signal the end of the night. I collapsed on the floor, tired as fuck, my head pounding. Wayne flipped on the light switch. Despite my eyes adjusting to the strobe-lights, the overhead ones still made me flinch. I blinked to adapt, then looked around at the splattered paint.
"We need to clean this up." I gestured for Wayne to grab a rag from the sink. I restrained myself from rubbing my irritated eyes, in fear of getting paint in them. It took me a moment to realize Wayne hadn't moved.
Looking up, I saw the odd expression on his face.
"What?"
"Shane?"
"Yeah?"
"Okay, just checking." He turned on the faucet to dampen the rag. I got up to wash this sticky paint from my hands. True, they’d probably get stained again when I washed the floor, door, and walls, but I just needed to feel clean, if only for now.
Scooting next to Wayne, I put my hands under the faucet to rinse off the paint. I managed to clear them up well enough before applying the first couple squirts of soap. Again, I noted that Wayne was watching me, up close this time. In fact, he was inspecting my hands.
"Hey, what's up?" His eyes met mine. He looked over my face for another second, then he just kept on looking at me. Like, really looking at me from head to toe. He gave me a nod, as if he’d come to some conclusion, but I hadn't a clue. "Wayne? You okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. Hey, just hang back and get cleaned up. I'll take care of the mess. Okay?" That surprised me. He was usually more laid back.
"You sure?"
"Of course. You were the one prancing around for hours. I just flipped the light switch." That was very fucking true. I nodded and accepted the offer by soaping up my arms.
"Hey, use the shower," Wayne said.
"What?" I nearly laughed. Looking over my shoulder, I saw the safety shower. It was designed to be pulled, so a student or teacher covered in chemicals could quickly strip and wash them off. I really didn't feel like taking a cold shower, but noticing how these clean arms felt compared to my sticky red body, I could probably tolerate it.
"Don't worry, I'll lock the door so nobody comes barging in. Besides, I don't want someone slamming the door in my face while I clean up that puddle you made."
Glaring back at him, I said: "You’re the one who threw it at me."
"You told me to!"
"I didn't mean for you to literally throw it!"
"What, you wanted me to toss the can at you?"
"No, I meant for you to bring it over!"
"Why didn't you just say that?" He threw his hands in the air and turned around to clean that puddle with a soaked rag. His shoulders drooped; he looked back at me and said, "Sorry."
I shrugged. "It's cool. It added a special effect to the whole event." I headed for the shower and yanked on the trigger. Brown and rusty, the water spurted out a few times before coming out more clear. I waited until it was pure before getting under it.
I pulled the zippers down, expecting to feel relief from the constriction. Not really. I guess the outfit had stretched out to fit better. With a shrug, I took hold of the band around the skirt and pulled it off. I easily removed the jersey, too.
Breathing out a little laugh, I threw the outfit into the shower drain so it could rinse off while I did. First, I leaned over and poked my head under the stream to get the paint out of my hair. I shivered when the cold water flushed down my bare back. I gritted my teeth; there was no way to get accustomed to it, so I’d have to bear it all at once.
Stepping forward and straightening up to stand tall under the shower, I muttered a curse and allowed my whole body to get the freezing treatment. I scrubbed at my hair and the back of my neck before I opened my eyes again.
Wayne was staring wide-eyed at me.
"What?" I asked, spitting water off of my lips.
"...Nothing," he said, shaking his head. He looked me up and down, then turned his bright red face away to work on the equally red floor.
Now I felt a little self-conscious about being in my underwear to shower. This felt very different from showering after a dip in the pool. It was like he...was he checking me out? As if tonight didn’t give me enough of a migraine.
Keeping my eyes on him, I ran my hands over one shoulder, then the other, getting the last traces of the paint off. As I did that, my hands brushed down each arm, but I also felt my chest get in the way. That caused me to glance down and stare at myself.
No amount of cold water could compare to the chill I felt at seeing a pair of breasts.
I began to inspect myself and saw my figure had slimmed in an odd way. Well, it would be an odd way for a guy, but perfect for a girl. It became obvious why the cheerleader outfit slipped off more easily than when I put it on.
I ran a palm over the subtle firmness of my flat stomach before reaching down around my hips. They were more flared than before. Maybe it was because my waist had tapered to my pelvis? Running my hand around, I felt a more pert tush than I recalled.
Now, I wasn't a thick-set guy before, but I wasn't anywhere near this trim. I now definitely had an athletic build. Specifically, a cheerleader's attractive figure for the fans to appreciate. It took a moment before something in my head clicked.
At that thought, my hand shot down into my underwear to feel around. I stood up on my toes and fell back against the slick wall, not caring about the cold water any longer. What should have been in my drawers wasn't. It wasn't there! I felt around the coarse hair, but something else was there, and I didn't have any appreciation for it.
My chest seized up like I was choking. My breathing became tougher, shorter, almost down to a gasp. I removed my trembling hand and stood still. I hugged myself, trying to calm down and stop shaking. I don't know how, but a very big something had gone wrong tonight. And my greatest worry had been getting a bad grade or splashing paint on somebody.
"Wa-Wayne?" He looked back up at me. For a moment, he didn't do anything. I kept shaking, not sure what to do or how I should respond to anything. Then his expression changed and he scrambled to stand and run towards me, nearly face-planting in the process. If I’d been okay, I'd probably laugh at him. I was not okay!
He didn't say anything. Taking one more look at me, he hesitated for only a second before holding his palms out, as if to show he didn't mean any harm. After shutting off the water, he carefully pulled me away from the wall, then drew me into his arms and held me. He hugged me, keeping me steady, even though I felt my whole body shake like a leaf in the wind.
I don't think he knew what was going on either, but his earlier interactions with me made a little more sense now. Keeping his cool, like he always did. That thought made me smile. In fact, I felt a little better, soothed, as he stroked my back. Swallowing a gulp of air and closing my eyes, I relaxed in his arms.
"Sorry," I heard him say.
"For what?"
"I didn't know you'd freak out like that. I figured Shane...uh, you, I guess, were playing a prank."
Thinking it over, I guess it would look that way. Running out on him and coming back looking like this would be highly suspicious.
Gently, I returned his hug. "I...I'm—"
"Shane, yeah, I know. With the light on, I can tell. You look like you could be your sister, but I know you don't have any. Unless you’re his cousin?" I smacked the back of his head to clear that thought out. "Ouch! Okay, definitely Shane."
"Awrrrright! Who's dah asswipes that threw paint on the guests!?" We both went rigid in each other's arms when we heard Mr. Russel yelling down the hall. Wayne yanked me off to the side and down onto the floor. Reaching up over our heads, he flipped the light off and shushed me.
We sat still, waiting in the dark, as Mr. Russel went around asking questions. I peeked through the door window to spy on him via the mirrors in the hall. He wasn’t stopping at every classroom door. It was like he was only selecting classes with a chick participating.
He completely skipped our classroom.
I didn't realize I’d been holding my breath until after I gasped. Apparently Wayne had too. We both tried to keep quiet while nervously laughing.
We celebrated a little too soon. The door to our classroom rattled as Russel jiggled the locked handle. He knocked a few times and tried the door again, and I watched through the mirror as he turned to probably ask the class across the hall about us. Again, we held our breath.
After a minute of talking, Russel left the door alone to head off somewhere else. Our gasp was much louder this time, and my forehead sunk onto Wayne's shoulder. This was all a bit too much for me. I was exhausted from tonight's event, stressed by the trouble I was in, wet and cold, and feeling trapped and out of breath. I’d probably had a panic attack. I needed a break. And Tylenol.
I felt Wayne's hand come up behind my drenched hair and smoothly rub the back of my head; my headache melted away. Closing my eyes again, I simply let him continue massaging my head. I appreciated it. His touch drove away the pain and stress besieging me.
"Shane? Let me give you my shirt." I opened my eyes and nodded before pulling off of him enough to allow the space he needed.
In the dark, I watched him unbutton the front of his shirt. It had never occurred to me how in shape he was, especially for someone who took it so damn easy during gym. It amazed me. Like he didn't feel like putting any effort into anything physical. It kinda made me jealous. I guess it wasn't that he lacked motivation, but rather that he didn't have to apply himself to meet the requirements. Maybe visiting my family’s pool almost every day had something to do with that?
Still, I watched the faint shine of the hall light glistening on his smooth chest. He’d probably gotten wet from hugging me. Looking down, I saw how prominent his abs were. They didn't have that body-builder appearance, but I could see them tighten when he curled back against the wall, then vanish when he straightened up to loosen the shirt from his invitingly-warm torso.
When he finished unbuttoning, I reached a hand out to the sleeve of his shirt—just to hold it. I didn't intend to grab his arm. Nor did I mean to pull him closer to me. In that moment, I should have said something, apologized and let him finish getting his shirt off, but I froze. My thoughts were still stuck trying to sort out what trouble I was in, what I’d become, and how much colder and more uncomfortable I felt when he stopped holding me.
In the next moment, he wrapped his arms back around me and embraced me more actively. I felt better. I’d intended to lay my forehead down on his shoulder to rest. I felt his arms lift me, and I moved with his effort to straddle his lap.
I asked myself what I thought we were doing. Each time I tried to answer, I felt less comfortable. When he held me, without my thoughts getting in the way, the soothing warmth and grace of his half-bared body brought the comfort back. After this troublesome night, I really wanted what he was offering me. I relaxed in his arms and leaned on him.
I wasn’t really sure how long we held each other like this, but I knew something changed when I shifted over his lap. I felt him below me. It was one thing to feel comforted by him, another to have any kind of attraction... I didn't! It was obvious he found me attractive now. As for me? I wasn't feeling any kind of attraction to him. I mean, he's a guy and I certainly had been a guy. I’d had no choice in what had happened to me. Why would I choose to further this girly problem by feeling something for him?
I lifted my head from his shoulder, but paused as I brushed along his jaw and cheek. His hand went over the back of my head again, and that soothing touch took away the stress of my thoughts. Instead, without trying to concentrate on it, I breathed him in and sat still. Then I inhaled more deeply when his raised hips pressed a hard length along me.
All I could manage was to pull a little further back from his face. What stopped me this time was his lips pressing against mine. If I had felt warm in his arms before, now I felt hot. There was a fuzzy feeling at first, but it melted away with my yielding lips. He pressed, an assault of his tongue against my mouth, and for some strange reason I opened the gate for his entry. By reflex, I held onto him much more tightly than I ever had done to anyone before. I crushed myself against him.
I’d known Wayne for so long, I didn’t even remember how we’d first met! It was like we had always been together. Now we were more attached than we had ever been. We’d never thought of something like this. Then again, I couldn’t think of anything other than what he had managed to give me: A resolve against this overwhelming night. With him, I felt free from any burdens.
We went with the flow of the darkness. Whatever we had done in that classroom stayed in that room, and it wasn't until morning that we made our escape. Of course, I did wear his shirt, and we sneaked back to his home. It would take until later in the day for us to figure out what to do about my current condition, but for the moment, I enjoyed dreaming and snuggling under the covers with him.
Announcement
Special thanks to Trismegistus Shandy and Lenal for the amount of time and effort teaching me to become a better writer. :)
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"Acting",
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"Bickering Couple",
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Once upon a time, there was a king and queen, strong and wise, ruling over the small kingdom of Jusinaff. They had a prince, whose strength was envied by men far and wide and a princess whose beauty was unrivaled in lands far and wide. Together with the council of nobles, they commanded respect from even kingdoms thrice their size.
However, this story isn't about the king, the queen, the prince, the princess or even their dogs. This story happens far, far in the future. About 200 years roughly, or 227 years to be exact, in the reign of King Tacki the Bleeder. This story is of a merchant's boy named Albell and his betrothed Prince Cole. This is a story of how they put each other down before the date of their wedding.
Good day. My name is Albell Sentnaria, 15 years old. I am a 4th generation Sentnaria, a merchant family based in A' Tartima, a port city in the southern region of Jussinaff. My great-grandfather, the great Roberys Sentnaria the First, started the family empire that spanned decades, reaching as far as the far eastern kingdoms. By the time of his death, the name Sentnaria became synonymous with silk trade in Neropa.
Unfortunately, his son, my grandfather Roberys Sentnaria the Second squandered his wealth, chasing skirts across the continent. His brother, Adolphus Sentnaria wasn't any better. He took a big chunk of the family's wealth and went off chasing skirts in the opposite direction, across the great sea. The difference was, Adolphus never returned. Meanwhile, instead of trying to save the family wealth, my grandfather ignored our family's crumbling empire and gave his favourite mistress a dining set made of solid gold.
That prompted my father, Josephus Sentnaria, 12 years old, to kick his own father out of the house. He sent my grandfather to the family mansion deep in the wilderness with a small annual pension, a small staff and ignored him. When my grandfather tried to escape and reach his hidden stash outside the town, my father threw him back in there and erected a tall and thick brick wall around the mansion. That wall was built as much to keep robbers out as to keep my grandfather in. That was when father truly forgot about grandfather.
It didn’t seem to matter much to our family, as father was blessed with good business acumen from an early age that probably rivaled my great grandfather. He had taught me all he knew about business from the moment I could read and write as well as his personal business philosophy so I wouldn't become like my grandfather. He demonized my grandfather so much that when I was younger, I imagined him to look like a demon from hell who had a hundred naked women on each of his arms and ate ema bills for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I have never seen the old man even once in my life, father and mother seemed to think that meeting him even once would corrupt me for my entire life.
That brings us to my mother. Father met her on one of his travels as he attempted to find new business opportunities to revive the family business. He first saw her beating up a pair of thieves who were trying to rob her with her parasol as he was taking a break from a stressful business negotiation. It was love at first sight, or rather, love at first heels. She kicked him, beat him up and dug her heels on the back of his head when he went to talk to her, thinking that he was another thief who was after her money. Mother was from a family of small-town crafts, making textiles and selling it in their small shop in the town of Se Alinop. It was after a short period of courtship that they got wedded in a chapel in her hometown. Father took advantage of the fact that mother's family made textiles to expand into the textiles business meant for the commoners. It was a departure from my great grandfather's business strategy that was aimed at only the rich colonial masters and the Neropan populace who grew wealthy from stealing from the natives of the colonies.
His gamble worked. The family business was revived. We no longer had a monopoly on silk trade, but father's good business decisions slowly increased our capital and our reach, allowing even our cotton and flax based textiles to gain acceptance even among the wealthy.
When I was born, both my father and mother stayed together at our mansion in A' Tartima until I was 6. That was about the time when Neropan economy faced a crisis from the open rebellion of their oversea colonies. Due to the rebellion, cheap goods stopped flowing in, gold stopped being shipped to Neropa and our criminals could no longer be taken away. Neropan economy suffered a depression that had not been seen for over 400 years. Our small kingdom of Jussinaff, as one of the colonial powers, suffered greatly from the rebellions. Before the open rebellion, Jassinaff controlled one of the two biggest colonial territory known to man, rivaled only by the territories of the much bigger Alton. When the rebellion started, Jussinaff had to abandon the farthest crown dependencies in favour of saving money to deal with rebellion in the more profitable colonies.
Because of the economic crisis, both father and mother had to travel separately, trying to reach as many of our suppliers and retailers as possible. Father even gave mother free reign to make decisions as she saw fit without consulting him. The only time I could see them was when they came home every half-year to compare notes and arrange business planning for the next half-year. So since I was 6, I could only see them twice every year. Sure, they always spoiled me while they were home, but when I was younger, it always felt lonely as my only company were the servants. As I got older though, it started to become less and less lonely. Not having my mother constantly breathing down my neck every single time taught me to be independent and I was more mature than most children my age. Despite that, the days when father and mother came home was always the days that I looked forward to.
That day is today. Mother will arrive later in the evening by carriage. Father will arrive in two more days as he had to finalize a business deal in the faraway kingdom of Rostisse. Imagine my surprise when I came home after school and saw my mother coming out of her carriage.
“Mother!” I shout out as I drop my bag and run towards her.
“Bell,” mother says as she smiles and takes me into her arms. At 15, I am still about a foot shorter than mother, and she has to bend down a little to hug me.
“I thought you will arrive in the evening, mother. How come you’re here early?"
“The train ran earlier than scheduled. I was lucky I was already on the train when they departed, otherwise I would've arrived tomorrow morning,” mother says as she turns to our house servants, “Please have these delivered to my room, if you please.”
“Of course, Madam,” the servants bow as they start to pick up mother’s luggage one after another.
“Not that,” mother says suddenly as she points at a box that one of the maids is carrying, “Put that in the living room.”
“Ahh, I haven’t seen this place for tens of years,” an elderly man walks out of the carriage, helped by two of the coachman.
“Bell, this is our distant relative from the colonies, please take him to the living room,” mother commands as she turns back and sorts out her remaining luggage.
“Yes mother,” I say to mother’s back while offering to help hold the elderly distant relative by his left arm, while his other arm carries a walking cane that clicks clacks on the ancient marble floor.
I help the shaking elderly distant relative sit on one of the expensive, ornately carved and generously padded wooden armchairs, a remnant of my grandfather’s womanizing ways that my father once debated selling to cover the family debts. I felt glad back then when he chose not to sell, as these chairs are very well made and comfier than any chairs I had ever sat on, despite their advanced age. When I see the old man has settled down, I call one of the maids to prepare drinks for us, including mother.
Unlike other merchant families, the only indication of our wealth are our two mansions, our factories that produce silk from silk threads and a section of ports at the town’s harbour as well as the only drydock in A’ Tartima. We have no money, save for those meant for daily household expenses and the pittance we pay our servants. Our daily expenses and worker wages are paid for by rents from ships that use our docks, so if there were no merchant who would come to use our facilities, we would be in serious trouble.
Our trading business, on the other hand, does not contribute to our income, as all profit are used directly to pay the businesses and to settle the enormous debts that father took to restart the company. When I was younger, whenever I asked for something fancy, father would scare me by telling me that he needed all the money to pay the debts or the moneylenders would come and sell me away as a galley slave. Maybe because of that reason, we only have two maids, one cook and two manservants, with father’s friend coming over every Monday, Wednesday and Friday to do the accounts. That friend of father’s, Mr. Jarson, always looked at me in such a way that made my skin crawl, though.
“Oh good, you prepared my hot coco,” mother says as she took a seat next to me, sipping her hot coco once she is settled.
“Before I forget, this is our distant relative from the colonies, Adolphus. He’s here on business with our family.”
“How do you do, sir? I am Albell Sentnaria, son of Josephus Sentnaria.”
“I am feeling better, young man. I never thought I would ever see this house again before I die. How do you do, Albell?”
“I’m fine. Thank you, sir.”
“Very good, very good. You will need your health for the coming days.”
“Uncle!” my mother scolds.
“Excuse me?” I ask, slightly confused by his words.
“I’m sorry. I am getting ahead of myself. Please forgive this old man for being a little too excited,” Adolphus chuckles.
“Mother?” I ask, wishing for an explanation.
“Damned you, Adolphus. I wanted to wait for my husband before we say anything,” mother curses.
“The child deserves to know, Carmina. The earlier he finds out, the more time he will have to make a decision. This concerns him greatly, Carmina.”
“Mother, what’s going on?”
Mother sighs, then she places her hands on mine, “This is a hard thing to say. I’d prefer if we wait until your father comes home.”
“Are we bankrupt?” I ask.
“No.”
“We lost the silk trade entirely?”
“No, we’re still in the running.”
“Your family is pulling out?”
“No, I would’ve beaten them up half to death if they even try to.”
“Father’s dead?” I cover my cheeks with my hand as my mouth forms a long ‘O’.
“No, you idiot son. I just told you he’s coming home! Weren’t you listening?”
“Then what?” I shout, losing my patience.
“You’re getting married!” mother shouts back.
“Pardon?” I ask, not quite understanding how that came to be.
“Let’s just say that someone of very high birth is asking for your hand for his child,” mother states as she brings a small jewelry box of gold and bronze from one of her luggage.
“Mother, I’m not getting married to a girl I don’t even know. Are you even going to show me how she looks like at least?”
“Of course,” mother says as she opens the box and takes out a photograph of a dark-haired young girl.
“Ohhh, she’s beautiful. Eyes look kind of dead, though. Am I really getting married to her?” I ask, feeling a little excited at the prospect of marrying such a beauty. Of course, I will have to meet her a few times before I can decide. What if her face is her only redeeming feature? What if she has a rotten personality? What if this photograph was taken before she became fat?
“That depends,” mother says as she produces another photograph, this time of a young boy with the same-coloured hair. They look quite similar in a way, that one can be forgiven to say they're twins.
“Who’s this?”
“Your possible husband,” she states.
I look at her trying to see if she’s joking. “Sorry mother, you lost me there.”
“They’re both your possible candidates. The boy is Prince Marcus Cole and the girl is Princess Mary Collette.”
“Prince? Princess? Are you pulling my pants, mother?”
“I am not joking. Our king himself asks for your hand to be wedded to his child.”
“Our king? They are our prince and princess?!”
“Correct, didn’t you know?”
“I didn’t. I’ve never left this town, remember? So what, do I marry both of them? Or do I pick one?”
“You will only marry one,” mother answers.
“Then I choose the princess!” I say quickly.
“Not so fast, I never said you will be the one to choose, didn’t I?”
“Right… so they will be the ones who choose?”
“Correct.”
“Mother, I find it disturbing that you’re allowing a boy and a girl equal right to marry your SON!”
“You don’t need to worry about it. I have thought of marrying you off to a rich old man who will help pay off our family’s debt. So marrying you off to royalty is a nice alternative,” she says with a mean smile.
“Mother???” I say as I push my butt backward, inches by inches. Mother is looking very weird today.
“It’s about time that you do something for the family, Bell. You don’t want to marry old men, do you? So far, I’ve got three proposals from old men, would you prefer those instead?” mother says as she makes a wicked grin.
“Mother, come on. This isn’t funny anymore,” I say as I move back a little further away. Not that it was funny from the start.
“I’m serious, Bell. With those men, I will have to dress you up and make you act like a girl until they die. After which, I expect you to take all their assets and money and bring them home. Of course, they know you’re not a girl, so it’s not like we’re trying to cheat them or anything, at least not before they die. But with the royalty’s offer, you at least get the chance to choose between becoming a girl full time or remaining a boy. What you do and how you manipulate matters so that you marry the princess and remain a boy will be entirely at your discretion. The only thing I care about is that you seduce them and you seduce them so well they want to marry you the next day. Do you understand me?!”
“Ye-yes ma’am!”
“Good, now are you going to accept this proposal or not? Don’t worry, it’s purely business. You won’t be expected to fall in love or any of that bullshit.”
“Umm, okay?”
“Good, now open that box,” mother points at a box of hard paper the size of a small table-top.
I walk unsteadily towards the box on the other side of the coffee table and kneel down as I open it. The contents of the box make me confused. What does this mean?
“Mother, is this a present for the princess?” I ask as I look at the blue jacket, plait blue short skirt and white shirt inside it.
“No silly. That’s your uniform. You’ll be attending St. Carina’s School for Graceful and Elegant Ladies in the capital.”
“EXCUSE ME!!!?”
"You will crossdress as a girl for the duration of your school life from now on.”
“Is this princess bent? Why would she marry a crossdressing boy?”
“That's actually up to you!”
"What do you mean, mother?”
“When this prince was asked to get married, he stated that he will only marry a crossdressing boy.”
“Wait, so if I crossdress, then I marry him?”
“Correct.”
“If I don't crossdress, then I marry her?”
“Correct.”
“Then I'm marrying her!”
“Not that easy.”
"How hard can it be???”
“The prince's father also gave the prince a condition. If he wants a crossdressing bride, he must crossdress as well so that he understands what his bride goes through. Personally, I think the king was just pissed and tried to push the prince to find a bride by giving him an outrageous condition. I can’t imagine how the king must’ve looked when the prince accepted. So he'll also be crossdressing as a girl for the duration of his school year. He will graduate first though, being a year older.”
I’m starting to feel something bad coming. "Wait, don't tell me... this gorgeous girl is the prince!?”
“Correct. Though please call her Collette when she's in that form. It will cause a misunderstanding that we would rather not have.”
"I want to commit suicide.”
“Please do so only after we got the monetary reward.”
"What monetary reward?”
“The crown will give me, I mean us, a reward of 100,000 ema if you managed to get either Prince Marcus Cole or Princess Mary Collette to marry you before the prince turns 19.”
Ema is the form of currency that is used in Jussinuff. It comes in denominations of 1, 5, 10, 50 and 100 ema banknotes. In the past, one ema equals to a gold coin which was also called ema. When the rebellions started, our king stopped using the gold standard and now one gold coin (called gold ema) equals six ema. Considering that 1 ema is enough to buy a basket of the softest loaf of white bread, even having 1,000 ema makes a man rich. Our king, who has gone broke from the rebellion, is willing to pay our family one hundred thousand ema? Why do I feel like we’re being scammed?
“Does father know about this?”
“He does. He gives his blessings.”
“I find that hard to believe.”
“You don't need to believe it. Just do it.”
“What do I get from this?”
“Why, you get to marry a prince... or a princess. You'll be set for life.”
"Ha ha, I mean it, what do I get from all this?”
"Great anal sex?" mother says with an amused smile.
"Please don't joke about that, mother.”
"You have to admit, it was a funny thought.”
"Seriously, mother. What do I get?"
"A title?"
I growl at her. "I'm gonna run away from home just to spite you, mother."
"Do that and I'll make sure my goons catch you and touch you all over the place. Your choice,” mother says in a tone that removes all doubt from my mind that she will actually do it.
"Urgh, you don't pull any punches, do you, mother?"
“I believe in tough love, dear child of mine. As you well know,” she smiles that sinister smile again, one that pretty much foretells a coming doom.
“I want half of the reward, then.”
"Not in your dreams.”
“You're getting 100,000 ema, what's wrong with giving me, who's taking all the risks, half of it?”
"You seem to misunderstand. I'm not going to use it for myself as your grandfather did. That money will be used to revive our family empire. It's not enough, but 100,000 ema will pay off all our debts.”
“Half, or there won't be any wedding.”
“None, and there will be a wedding whether you like it or not.”
“Then you marry him, mother!”
"I would have, but I'm too old for him."
“You would leave father?”
“He'll understand.”
I don’t even want to imagine it. “Half, or I'll seduce him and we’ll commit lover's suicide the day before the wedding.”
Silence...
“You drive a hard bargain. 10,000 ema and not a catty more.”
Catty is another currency we use in Jussinaff. It comes in denominations of 1, 5, 10 and 50. It was based on the silver catty, but it had been over a century since it had the same value as its silver counterpart. When the rebellions started, the value of gold skyrocketed while silver remained floating not much higher than its previous average. Nowadays, the value of 100 catty coins (made of tin and nickel) equals 1 ema note, though when the rebellions just started, 1 ema note was equel to 80 catty coins.
“40,000 ema.”
“10,000 ema.”
“35,000 ema.”
“11,000 ema.”
“32,000 ema.”
“12,000 ema.”
“Mother, let's just cut the bullshit, shall we? I'm tired of arguing with you. Won’t you agree that it's better if I cooperate with this hare-brained scheme of yours? Besides, we both know the crown doesn’t have 100,000 ema to give us. So it’s a moot point, isn’t it?”
“Of course they don’t. Any gold they have are being used to suppress the rebellions. It doesn’t matter if they can’t pay, we’ll still profit.”
“No way, what will happen to my part of the reward?”
“You won’t be getting any part of the reward, as I said earlier. However, we will be getting something better,” mother says as she throws a folded piece of paper at me.
I read it silently, going over several lines over and over as my eyes go wider and wider. “They’re giving us the Karka region if they can’t pay the 100,000 ema a month before the wedding?!”
“Yes, Karka region is the easternmost part of the crown overseas territory. It is the home of the spice trade and smack dab in the middle of the silk trade’s water route. If we get it, we control a hell of a lot more than 100,000 ema,” mother said, looking very satisfied.
“Wait, why would the crown release such an important region to us? Unless… don’t tell me. This region is under open rebellion!?” I exclaim after realizing that possibility.
The old man Adolphus chuckled after being silent for so long. “He’s a sharp one, this boy. You sure you want to sacrifice him to the crown?”
“You don’t need to worry about the rebellion, dear son. Your father can sell water to dolphins while demanding them to pay in gold. Besides, haven’t I told you how your father managed to buy the ceremonial sword of the King of Arriga at a fair price before selling it back to the king for six times the price he bought it the day after? You don’t need to worry about his ability to calm the rebellion, my dear son. By the time you become the prince’s bride, people will call you the Princess of Karka.
“You already have all this planned out, don’t you, mother?”
“Oh yes, I have. Your acceptance of the terms of the proposal was already planned well in advance.”
“Why do you even need to wait until father’s home then, mother?”
“I was hoping that you'd blame him for it,” mother says with a grin.
“Fine, I will be your sacrifice. But you will give me my share of 10,000 ema, mother, if you wish for me to cooperate.”
“Agreed. But you will do your utmost to seduce him in whatever gender he fancies. I don't care if you do it as a boy or a girl.”
“Aren't you worried that the family line will die with me?”
“Not a problem. I'm carrying your little brother or sister.”
“Wait, you're pregnant?”
“Yes, indeed.”
“Is it father's baby?”
“How rude!” she smacks me on the head, “Of course it’s his child!”
“But you never see each other apart from those times twice a year when you come home,” I say as I rub my head.
“We met a few times the past few months. I think this one happened when we met in Dushlan.”
“Well, congratulations then, mother,” I say to her, hugging her at the same time. Suddenly something clicks in my mind. “Mother, isn’t there a law that states that the prince of Jussinaff can’t marry a common girl? The bride must be of noble blood?”
“I was wondering when you would ask that. Of course, such a law exists. That’s what he’s here for,” mother says while pointing at the old man Adolphus.
“Hohoho, judging from your reactions and your confused expression, I assume that you have not yet guessed who I am. My name is Adolphus Sentnaria. I am your grandfather’s younger brother, who ran off with a big chunk of the family wealth. Over the years, I have made quite a name for myself. I am now the Count of Maurice, that small island colony in the south seas.”
“That no good drifter is a count?!”
Mother smacks me on the head. “That’s rude!”
“Hahaha, that’s quite alright. To tell the truth, I am glad that I can still meet the family like this, in the house that I grew up in, no less. It is good to come home at last. I’ve been looking for an heir for my county and my title. I’m so glad I found someone worthy at last.”
“But wait, what will your children think if you suddenly hand the title over to a distant relative?”
The old man Adolphus gives me a sad look as he says, “I do not have any children. An accident that happened during my younger adventuring days rid me of the ability to have children. You and your father are the only two who can inherit the title. Your father refused, though. He said dealing with nobility is bad enough, becoming one of those pompous jackasses will torment his soul forever.”
“Just like father to say that,” I chuckle as I extended a hand, “Well sir, if you have nobody else to inherit the title, then I will gladly take it off your hands. Albell Sentnaria, Count of Maurice, I like that.”
“Unfortunately, you will become Countess of Maurice, my dear Belluca,” mother says as she writes something on a piece of telegram paper.
“Who’s Belluca?” I ask, suddenly feeling cold shivers all over my back.
“You, of course. Your name will be Alya Belluca Sentnaria, Countess of Maurice. When commoners address you, they must address you as My Lady the Countess of Maurice, or Countess Alya of Maurice if the one addressing you is a noble,” mother says as she writes on another piece of telegram paper.
“Mother!” I whine at the injustice.
“We want you to seduce the prince, so it’s only fair that you use your new title to secure a private room on the topmost floor, the same floor as the prince.”
“But aren’t private rooms in private schools very expensive, mother? How can we afford it?”
“Don’t worry about that,” mother raises the quill in her hand from the paper and points the feathers at Great Uncle Adolphus, who's waving his right hand at us, “He’s paying for it. About time he does something for the family after running off with our money. Your weekly allowance will also come from him. It won’t be much, so do try to limit your spending to cute accessories, affordable foods, and sexy lingerie only, will you?”
“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you, mother?”
“I do, very much. It's too amusing,” mother says as she puts all the telegram papers into its envelopes and hands all three envelopes to me, “Would you be a dear and make sure these reach the telegram office? Make sure they give you the stamped token. You should never trust anyone entirely.”
Ai-chan
So... this was one of Ai-chan's older stories that never managed to be completed because Ai-chan was stuck at the currency. So let's try this again, shall we?
| {
"subset": "scribblehub",
"lang": "en",
"series": "4557",
"id": "4560",
"q": 0.860909090909091,
"title": "The Bride’s Groom: The Tale of Love Between Two Crossdressing Straight Boys - Chapter 1: My Greedy Mother’s Terrible Scheme",
"author": "Ai-chan",
"chapters": 2,
"rating": 4.7,
"rating_ct": 7,
"genre": [
"Action",
"Boys Love",
"Comedy",
"Fantasy",
"Gender Bender",
"Romance",
"School Life",
"Supernatural"
],
"tags": [
"Academy",
"Aggressive Characters",
"All-Girls School",
"Androgynous Characters",
"Appearance Changes",
"Arranged Marriage",
"Arrogant Characters",
"Artifacts",
"Forced into a Relationship",
"Magic",
"Magical Girls",
"Nobles",
"Poor Protagonist",
"Psychic Powers",
"Reluctant Protagonist",
"Royalty",
"Succubus",
"Trap",
"Witches"
]
} |
End of preview. Expand
in Dataset Viewer.
Dataset Card for ScribbleHub17K
The BigKnow2022 dataset and its subsets are not yet complete. Not all information here may be accurate or accessible.
Dataset Summary
ScribbleHub17K is a dataset consisting of text from over 373,000 chapters across approximately 17,500 series posted on the original story sharing site Scribble Hub.
Supported Tasks and Leaderboards
This dataset is primarily intended for unsupervised training of text generation models; however, it may be useful for other purposes.
- text-classification
- text-generation
Languages
- English
Dataset Structure
Data Instances
{
"text": " \n2082 Planet Earth the Fracture War, after a sudden fracture in our dimension unidentified beings with advance technology and u...",
"meta": {
"subset": "scribblehub",
"series": "3811",
"id": "3812",
"q": 0.91,
"title": "The First - Prologue- The Fracture War",
"author": "RobotLove",
"chapters": 1,
"rating": 5,
"rating_ct": 1,
"genre": [
"Action",
"Martial Arts",
"Romance"
],
"tags": [
"Kingdom Building",
"Loyal Subordinates",
"Male Protagonist",
"Organized Crime",
"Scheming"
]
}
}
{
"text": " For anyone that may see this, thanks for reading. I'm just here to see if a story can spill out of my mind if just start writin...",
"meta": {
"subset": "scribblehub",
"series": "586090",
"id": "586099",
"q": 0.82,
"title": "Just writing to write…i guess? - I’m here now",
"author": "BigOofStudios",
"chapters": 1,
"rating": 4.5,
"rating_ct": 2,
"genre": [
"Action",
"Comedy"
],
"tags": []
}
}
Data Fields
text: the actual chapter textmeta: metadata for chapter and seriessubset: data source tag:scribblehubseries: series IDid: chapter IDlang: alwaysen(English)q: quality score (q-score) between (0.0) terrible and 1.0 (perfect); anything with a score> 0.5is generally good enoughtitle: chapter and series title in the format<chapter title> - <series title>chapters: total number of chapters in the seriesrating: Scribble Hub rating between 0 and 5 starsrating_ct: number of ratingsauthor: author namegenre: array of Scribble Hub genres for the seriestags: array of tags for the series
Q-Score Distribution
0.00: 0
0.10: 0
0.20: 0
0.30: 84
0.40: 718
0.50: 3775
0.60: 22300
0.70: 72581
0.80: 137982
0.90: 135800
1.00: 59
Data Splits
No splitting of the data was performed.
Dataset Creation
Curation Rationale
Scribble Hub is a home for original web stories, effectively a smaller, English version of Japan's Syosetuka ni Narou. As a result, it is a good source for reasonably well written creative content.
Source Data
Initial Data Collection and Normalization
TODO
Who are the source language producers?
The authors of each novel.
Annotations
Annotation process
Title, ratings, and other metadata were parsed out using scripts that will be provided in the BigKnow2022 GitHub repository.
Who are the annotators?
No human annotators.
Personal and Sensitive Information
The dataset contains only works of fiction, and we do not believe it contains any PII.
Considerations for Using the Data
Social Impact of Dataset
This dataset is intended to be useful for anyone who wishes to train a model to generate "more entertaining" content. It may also be useful for other languages depending on your language model.
Discussion of Biases
This dataset is composed of fictional works by various authors. Because of this fact, the contents of this dataset will reflect the biases of those authors. Additionally, this dataset contains NSFW material and was not filtered. Beware of stereotypes.
Other Known Limitations
N/A
Additional Information
Dataset Curators
Ronsor Labs
Licensing Information
Apache 2.0, for all parts of which Ronsor Labs or the Ryoko AI Production Committee may be considered authors. All other material is distributed under fair use principles.
Citation Information
@misc{ryokoai2023-bigknow2022,
title = {BigKnow2022: Bringing Language Models Up to Speed},
author = {Ronsor},
year = {2023},
howpublished = {\url{https://github.com/RyokoAI/BigKnow2022}},
}
Contributions
Thanks to @ronsor (GH) for gathering this dataset.
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