AnimeCon Harem 12: Fallout (Patreon)

   “Okay. Okay. So, that’s a thing that just happened,” Andrea said to no one in particular, clutching at her head and slowly dragging her fingers down her face at the unbelievable situation.

   Kelly shot the staffer a glare, and then quickly returned her attention to Stephanie. 

   A minute had passed since the violent incident, and Chloe was gone. The miserable cunt had scrambled up to her feet and shoved everyone back the moment Stephanie was pulled off of her. At that point, Chloe was in wailing hysterics, clutching at her bloody nose with one hand and thrashing for anyone within reach with the other. Everyone backed away when she fled the scene, and Chloe left behind only a spotting trail of blood droplets in her wake that led out the nearby exits.

   “Hey—please, people, don’t step in that—” the pudgy male staffer with the ginger neckbeard called out, holding up his hands in warning as he tried to dab up the blood with a single wadded up napkin he’d happened to have on hand.

   The other staff guy had run off to grab more napkins or look for a mop bucket, but it seemed like a futile endeavor—the moment the big commotion was done and over with, most of the rubbernecking crowd that had been drawn over began to dissolve in every which direction. Despite the remaining staffer’s efforts, the line of blood splatters had already been stepped on and tracked across the tile in several places.

   “I’ve got you. It’s okay, everything’s okay,” Brian stroked Stephanie’s hair and attempted to console her.

   Immediately after getting a hold of Stephanie, Brian tried to encapsulate her in a comforting hug, but something was seriously wrong—Stephanie was sobbing and panting with rage and completely beside herself and wasn’t responsive to his words whatsoever. Kelly found herself at a loss, standing back and just watching. Stephanie was glaring through her tears senselessly into Brian’s shoulder as she struggled to breathe, almost as if she was locked into some berserk rage she couldn’t pull herself out of.

   Seeing the normally soft-spoken and somewhat timid girl snap like that on Chloe had been a shock, and witnessing the effect it was having on her and being unable to do anything about it was infuriating. Despite their apparent victory, the momentary glee and pride Kelly felt was rapidly evacuating in an alarming fluster of red slivers as the cost was revealed.

   Chloe crossed every fucking line, Kelly clenched her teeth hard enough for her jaw to ache. Shouldn’t have even bothered trying to keep up some sort of pretense of us being civil. I know the convention thing’s important to Brian and we don’t want thrown out, but… Chloe just needs her face completely beaten in. Steph had the right idea. There’s no other way this was going to end.

   “Stephie? Stephie it’s okay, it’s okay, it’s over,” Megan repeated from the side, trying to stick as close to her friend as she could. “She’s gone—Stephie, it’s over.”

   “Hey—you guys should just go,” Andrea spoke up again, fidgeting with her hands in a nervous way. “Before Mr. Gary comes back.”

   Emily had been nervously hovering over Brian and Stephanie, but her head snapped to face the remaining volunteer staffer and it was clear the little Latina was about to launch into an angry tirade when Andrea hurriedly continued.

   “I mean like, to the vendor’s room or whatever!” Andrea quickly added. “Just go, Mr. Gary will be back through here in a minute if he’s kicking people out for fighting upstairs.”

   “Oh. Okay,” Emily mumbled, glancing awkwardly back at her friends. “Uhh. Thanks?”

   “This all here was clearly, well, uh, she had you guys stopped on false pretenses or whatever and then was just trying to instigate things,” Andrea said, bringing her fingers to her lip to check for blood again, and then gesturing towards Stephanie. “This girl here was just acting in self defense of, um, this guy here, so. No actual problem. Technically. I guess. Anyways, that Chloe girl ran off and out of the convention, so—situation… resolved?”

   “Resolved,” Emily repeated, turning back towards Stephanie. “Right.”

   Through the errant tufts of her fluffy pink bangs, Stephanie stared forward at nothing with tear-filled eyes. The girl’s face was fraught with strain, her normally adorable features were pulled into a mask of fear and rage as she panted for breath. Their confrontation had pushed Stephanie past the breaking point, and the stress and pain and overwhelming emotion she was afflicted with seemed to be tearing her apart inside.

   This… fuck, this is… what do I do?! Kelly could only stand by helplessly as apprehension began to gnaw in on her.

   She wanted to rush in and comfort Stephanie—but literally everyone else was better suited for that than she was. Kelly wanted to hold Stephanie in her arms and show her that everything was okay, tell her how great she’d been smashing Chloe in the face and how she didn’t need to cry—but, Kelly didn’t have the right words. For as confident and even domineering as she could be in the right situations, Kelly was not someone versed in consoling someone who was completely distraught like this.

   Never really dealt with Skyler crying, even, Kelly remembered, biting her lip. Passed it off to Chelsea, or just waited it out ‘till he was done—Christ, I’ve been a cold bitch. But, now Steph’s like this and… I can’t even do anything. I’m fucking useless. I should have been the one to hit Chloe. Not Stephanie. Not like this, not if—

   “Kelly,” Emily called, taking several sudden and impatient steps away from Brian and Stephanie and over towards the broad glass window panes of the pavilion that made up the entrance structure. “Over here. We’ve... gotta talk.”

   “What,” Kelly tried not to sound like she was snapping at the girl, but she was feeling on edge.

   “Over here. Okay,” Emily said as soon as Kelly had followed her a small distance away from the others. “Steph’s not okay. We have a serious problem. Like, um— how much self-control do you have? Can you completely stop being angry right now?”

   “Can I stop being angry?” Kelly echoed, shooting Emily a look of indignant disbelief. “Are you fucking serious right now? I’m fucking furious, and if—”

   “I am completely fucking serious!” Emily hissed, grabbing Kelly by her Rolling Phones shirt and yanking her in uncomfortably close so that the others wouldn’t overhear their outbursts. “Stephanie didn’t just fucking punch Chloe out of the blue! She’s an empath! Her empathic thing! All of us were extremely pissed off, and Stephanie had no way of blocking any of it out. She got completely, dangerously fucking overloaded with the hateful feelings of multiple people, and she was in no way emotionally equipped to handle all of that. Okay?”

   Whirling in alarm, Kelly turned to look towards Stephanie and the raw heat of her own anger felt like it was icing over into dread—because Emily was right. Stephanie’s shoulders were stiff with tension, her breathing had quickened until the rise and fall of her chest looked like she was having a panic attack, and her once-lovely blue eyes were dancing with out of control murderous rage, unable to even focus in on anything.

    Oh no—no no no no no no! Not Stephanie, not like this—this isn’t fucking fair!

   “Okay? Do you get it?” Emily growled. “Everything’s fine and dandy when she’s just soaking up everyone’s love and happiness, but this? This isn’t good for her. For her, her mental health, and I’ve no idea what experiencing this on this level might do to her psyche, like, long term. Okay?”

   “Okay. Okay,” Kelly agreed quickly, swallowing. “So—what do we do about it?”

   “That’s on you,” Emily held her gaze. “Dead serious—I’m uh, I’m making you aware of the problem, because I cannot fucking fix this. When she nailed Chloe in the face, it might as well have been my fucking brain signals pushing her into it. Hell, for all I know that’s exactly what fucking happened. I cannot fucking calm myself down. I need to scream and fucking cry and beat the absolute living shit out of something. So—yeah, if we don’t figure something out, I’m gonna go.”

   “You’re gonna leave?” Kelly couldn’t keep the accusation out of her voice. “Like, leave us? You’re going to bail on the group?”

   “Well what the fuck else do I do?!” Emily’s voice rose. “Do we do?! Distance might help. As I am now, I am not in any fucking state to help things improve. If I take a long walk to, I dunno, cool off or something, maybe—”

   “You’re not fucking leaving,” Kelly decided. “I’ll—I don’t know, I’ll distract you or something. Take your mind off of what’s going on. You’re not leaving. Not like this.”

   “I… okay,” Emily stared. “Gonna be completely honest with you, if you mean sex or horny stuff, I really just don’t think I’m in the mood. I don’t think that’ll work.”

   “Yeah, well we don’t know if distance would work, either,” Kelly scowled. “You gonna let me at least fucking try?”

   “Um,” Emily wavered, her face lapsing back into a frustrated frown as she stole a glance back towards where Brian was failing to snap Stephanie out of it. “Sure, whatever. Yeah. But, what about Brian?”

   “Brian doesn’t even seem that mad,” Kelly pointed out. “I don’t think—”

   “Brian is royally fucking pissed right now,” Emily clarified. “Maybe you can’t tell, but I can. Jaw’s set, distant eyes—this is what Brian’s like when he’s furious. He’s not like whatever other guys you know, he bottles it all up and shoves it down and goes kinda... cold.”

   “Okay, cold. I get that,” Kelly flicked a glance in his direction. “And you think Stephanie can still sense that?”

   “I don’t fucking know!” Emily hissed back, throwing up her hands. “Do I look like I’m holding the fucking rulebook on all this magic power shit?!”

   “Fine, then the both of us will find someplace private and calm Brian down together,” Kelly proposed.

   “Oh, you think he’s gonna be in the mood?” Emily retorted.

   “We’ll fucking make him be in the mood,” Kelly argued.

   “We all need to split up,” Emily shook her head. “Split up and cool down. He’s not gonna go for getting his dick sucked, or whatever you were thinking of. He’s worried about Steph, he’s pissed off, he’s not in that state of mind and honestly? Neither am I.”

   “We’re not splitting up,” Kelly snapped. “Why’d you even fucking ask me if you already have all the fucking answers? If—”

   Kelly stopped herself and took a deep breath.

   “No, I—I’m sorry. Temper’s running short,” Kelly said. “I’m pissed, too, here. We’ve got a problem you can’t handle, and I’m not really the right tool for the job, either. Rebecca is. With her passing bluff or hugging shoelaces or whatever power. She can fix this.”

   “Passive buff,” Emily corrected absentmindedly. “That could—I don’t know. I don’t think we can put Rebecca up to calming all of us down at once. Maybe if we have her get us like, one at a time, or—”

   “Something’s wrong with Stephanie,” Megan interrupted, hurrying over towards them. “She can’t calm down at all. It’s like a panic attack or, or—”

   “It’s her charm power thing,” Emily explained with a grimace. “She’s empathic. We think she receives like, second-hand emotion emissions from the rest of us. And, yeah—we’re all extremely fucking upset.”

   “Empathic,” Megan blinked. “Okay. Empathic means she reads emotions? Can she turn it off?”

   “Don’t know,” Emily gave her a helpless shrug. “We’re fucking figuring this all out as we go, here.”

   “We have a maybe-healing-thing back at Brian’s car,” Kelly reminded Emily. “We can grab it while we try sending Brian and Steph to Rebecca, see if her power can help. Or, we can all split up and go our separate ways and just get ourselves more frustrated and pissy.”

   “Rebecca’s thing is, what, dreamwalking?” Megan asked.

   “She’s able to see our… connected network or whatever,” Emily said. “It feels like she gives us a very small passive buff.”

   “Passive buff to what stat, exactly?”

   “Unclear,” Emily huffed. “I mean, fuck, Meg! We literally just first started talking about all this this morning.”

   “And your power?” Megan pointed towards her. “What are we working with?”

   “Don’t know, hasn’t developed enough,” Emily said, making a face. “Or something. Haven’t figured it out yet.”

   “And you?” Megan turned to Kelly.

   “I get warnings from future me,” Kelly said. “And I can send back warnings. Well, not now, though. My sense is running on empty, still.”

   “Okay, so—you wait ‘till your cooldown’s finished, and then you warn past us not to run into Chloe at all,” Megan proposed. “Problem solved, right?”

   “No, it’s…” Kelly made a face. “It doesn’t work like that. This here has already happened in this timeline, and I can’t change that. It’s complicated.”

   “Different time rules, okay, got it,” Megan nodded. “Okay, you said healing thing—will that work on Stephanie?”

   “It might,” Kelly said. “I think it’s worth a shot.”

   “I’m gonna say probably not,” Emily rebutted. “Might even make things worse? The—um, ‘potion’ we have stashed progresses the charm effect on us. Right? That’s what that stuff really does. We don’t want Steph more empathic, we want to shut everything out for her for a bit. Reset, power cycle—I don’t fuckin’ know.”

   “Could we knock her unconscious?” Megan proposed. “Like, gently?”

   “That only works in TV dramas,” Emily shook her head. “Knocking someone out in real life is like, bad. Like potential brain damage bad. You don’t safely or gently knock someone out.”

   “Sedatives?” Megan tried. “Do we have anything that—”

   “We’re not fucking knocking her out or drugging her,” Kelly silenced Megan with an aggravated look. “The stuff we have might be like a magic fix-all. It makes you feel amazing, it heals bruises, it’s a big blast of like, endorphins and magic power shit. It could work.”

   “Whatever we’re gonna do, can we hurry up and do it?” Megan urged, glancing back over at Brian and Stephanie. “She’s uh, she’s not calmin’ down.”

   Kelly found herself inwardly seething, because she wanted to take Stephanie into her arms and smother her with affection and reassurance until she was calm again. But she couldn’t, because seeing how angry Stephanie was in turn made her angry, deep down inside. There was no gritting herself and just putting on a strong front while she eased Stephanie down from what she was experiencing, because she had no way of hiding her true feelings from Stephanie’s empathic power.

   This is—this is bullshit. How do we fix this?

   “We try the potion, then try everything else,” Kelly decided.

   “No—no way,” Emily crossed her arms. “If the potion makes things worse, makes her more empathic, then all our other options are super fucked.”

   “Alright, fucking listen,” Kelly growled. “One of us needs to be in charge and make the decisions, okay? Is it gonna be me, or is it gonna be you?”

   Emily glared, gritting her teeth but remaining silent.

   “Stop, stop,” Megan butted back in. “If y’all are right about the empath power stuff, you need to not be getting each other more angry. Right?”

   “It’s fine,” Emily bit out with a glare. “Kelly, just. Make a fucking decision, then.”

   “Okay. Thank you,” Kelly sighed, pressing a hand to her temple in aggravation. “I’m not trying to be a bitch. Alright? I’m—”

   “Make a decision,” Emily fumed.

   “You get Brian’s keys,” Kelly started. “We both go back to the car, grab the ‘potion.’ Megan, you make sure Brian and Steph go to Rebecca—try to explain to her, discreetly, what the fuck is going on, see if she can do anything.”

   “Right, okay,” Megan nodded. “Are we meeting up afterwards, or, like—how do we even—”

   “We’ll text Rebecca,” Kelly said. “Emily, you’ve got her number, right?”

   “I—yeah, I’ve got her,” Emily confirmed with a skeptical look. “So, that’s it? We’re just trying everything at once, and seeing what sticks?”

   “Not exactly,” Kelly growled. “Let’s get his keys first and—”

   “Don’t need Brian’s keys,” Emily cut her off, taking out her phone. “I can get into his car without them. Gonna text Rebecca now.”

   The three girls separated, Megan going in one direction while Kelly led Emily away by the arm in the other as the shorter girl tapped out a message into her digital keyboard. It felt wrong just walking away like this, just going without even saying anything. But, they weren’t rich on options—she didn’t dare approach Brian and Stephanie right now, because she knew it was going to set her off. Simmering rage was rising up within her, and it was all Kelly could do not to shove bystanders out of the way as she yanked Emily with her out the double doors.

   Hell, feel like if I look back and see her then I’LL fucking snap and lose it, too.

   “Still don’t think this is a good idea,” Emily grumbled, hitting send as Kelly led her down the length of the plaza just outside AnimeCon. “The potion’s gonna make her more empathic. Think about it.”

   “We’re not feeding it to Stephanie,” Kelly said, steering them around the meandering groups of people pouring in towards the convention. “We’re feeding it to you.”

   “Me?! What? Why?!” Emily stumbled forward to catch up with Kelly’s longer stride and pulled her wrist from the girl’s grasp.

   “Might help you get your power,” Kelly continued. “I figure there’s a fifty-fifty chance that you’ll get something that helps our predicament here.”

   “Fifty-fifty?” Emily asked. “What? How, why? How do you figure?”

   “Because it either will help, or it won’t,” Kelly explained in a frustrated tone. “That’s fifty-fifty; it’s either one or the other.”

   “That’s not how probability works,” Emily groaned. “Why would we give the potion to me?”

   “S’how probability’s always worked for me,” Kelly shrugged. “What, squeamish at the thought of sucking cum out of a used condom?”

   “No—I mean, at least not if it’s Brian’s,” Emily refuted. “I just. I’m… I don’t see how this helps us right now. It’s a waste of our potion.”

   “Fine, look at it this way—Steph’s thing is fire and your thing is water, right?” Kelly stepped up to the crosswalk. “I’m not even a real weeb and I know water always beats fire.”

   “That’s… okay, so we’re just grasping at straws, huh?” Emily crossed her arms.

   “No, we’re not,” Kelly insisted, turning to face her. “We’re doing everything we can. Brian’s car is a plaza, an intersection, and part of a hotel parking lot away from Stephanie. That’s a little bit of distance—when we get there, you’re gonna check in with Rebecca and see if that did anything. Then, I’m going to turn you on ‘til you can’t fucking even remember your own name, let alone who you’re mad at. You slurping from his spunk sock is like, magically guaranteed to make you super horny, so that’ll help. We’ll see if that does something. If Rebecca’s dreamscape thing is for real, she’ll be able to tell. Maybe.”

   “Not tryin’ to be insulting or anything, but I really don’t think you can turn me on right now,” Emily groused. “Sex doesn’t fucking solve everything, Kelly. It’s not the kind of release I need. Feel like maybe I need to like, scream and shout and get into a long rambling vent right now. And then maybe just cry for a good long while.”

   “That kind of venting isn’t really my thing,” Kelly said. “And, it sounds time-consuming— we don’t have a whole lot of convention time left together.”

   “Maybe we should just call a quits for this year?” Emily said in a bitter voice. “Say our goodbyes, go our separate ways. We already almost got thrown out.”

   “First of all—I am not saying goodbye to Steph while she’s still like this,” Kelly snapped. “Second of all, that’s like letting Chloe win. Fuck that.”

   “It’s like, practically noon already,” Emily remembered with a groan. “There’s just a couple hours of con left. It’s Sunday. It’s basically over.”

   “No,” Kelly said. “No. It’s not fucking over until we fix this.”

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