AnimeCon Harem 12: Rebecca to the Rescue (Patreon)

   “Lot less headache having one of the organizers handy, here,” Mr. Gary commented. “Thank you for making this less difficult.”

   “I’m so sorry again for their conduct!” Rebecca tried to focus past the positively apocalyptic developments that were jarring her sixth sense. “Things were going so well this weekend!”

   “Bound to happen in any sort of sport that gets competitive,” Mr. Gary gave her a forgiving shrug.

   “Yes, but still… it’s never nice seeing it happen in your own groups,” Rebecca let out an apologetic sigh. “It was easy to forget that the Order of the Sovereign Swords was made up of several very, very different organizations coming together. With different rule systems, and, and hierarchies, and each of them little ponds with their own ‘big fish.’ We’ve been, um, very fortunate that there haven’t been many conflicts, this year.”

   The security officer and Rebecca had arrived at the upper level atrium to a scene of dozens of people shouting over each other at one of the sparring rings—thankfully, no one was still actually brawling it out by then. Instantly assuming the mantle of Mara, Rebecca intervened by calling everyone in the gigantic room to order, and the stark change in demeanor—and the immediate silence and obedience of everyone present—seemed to surprise Mr. Gary.

   Mara wielded respect and authority in almost all of the individual LARP and battlegaming groups present here, and as one of the members of the Order council who had put the event together, the volunteer organizers here deferred to her right away. Though she was increasingly distracted by the incredible goings-on within her dreamworld connection to the others, Mara kept on an imposing stern mask as she questioned the herald who’d been in charge acting as a referee of the padded-weapon match gone awry. It was a predictable conflict; a LARPer who thought of himself quite the hero and a brash battlegamer with a competitive streak had been matched up. Both were more intent on winning than they were abiding by the honor system of taking hits and respectfully limiting the amount of force they put into strikes.

   Before Mr. Gary could even intervene, Mara had the offenders turn in their weapons and start doing push-ups. As both combatants had violated their waivers in failing to heed a ‘hold’ safety order from the herald presiding over their match, both would be ejected from this Order of the Sovereign Swords event here. In addition, the LARPer had instigated the unsafe conduct and would thus be passed over to the security officer to remove from AnimeCon entirely and be escorted out of the convention center.

   She gave the guilty party a rather thorough dressing down on the spot, and although he was a veteran player, his future participation in any LARP would be pending penance arbitration from the ruling council at a later date! Mara was definitely no stranger to resolving these kind of conflicts, and since the Daegonhir injury forms on hand doubled as incident reports, each of the offenders filled out paperwork before leaving the atrium. Mr. Gary maintained his silent no-nonsense expression throughout, but Mara thought he seemed pleased to not have to step in personally.

   After a long moment letting the Mara in her steam back off, Rebecca was now slowly walking with Mr. Gary alongside the railing of the long overlook. The security officer wasn’t quite escorting out that offending LARPer, instead both him and Rebecca were following a fair distance behind the dejected teen in the medieval tabard, watching to make sure the kid obediently complied with their instructions and left quietly.

   “Well, for me it’s an occupational inevitability when you work these larger venues,” Mr. Gary chuckled, drawling out the words like they’d become long since familiar to him by years of repetition. “Put a bunch of people together, some of ‘em are bound to not get along. I don’t like it, but it does put bread on my table.”

   “You’re good at your job,” Rebecca gave him a sad smile. “Thank you again for being so understanding with my friends downstairs.”

   “Seemed like much ado over nothing,” the security officer waved her off. “Couldn’t tell ‘em to take a hike if I wanted to—out of our jurisdiction, whatever nonsense happened, didn’t happen here at the convention center.”

   “You gave my friend a day-pass, though, and you’d given us two of them just yesterday…”

   “Always ask for a little stack of them for whatever event that’s running, trick of the trade,” Mr. Gary confided. “Lot less pissy phone calls from whoever feels like they got slighted by whatever. Anyhow, it was a pleasure to meet you, Miss—you keep yourself out of trouble, and enjoy the rest of the convention.”

   “I will, and thank you!” Rebecca said, slowing her pace and letting Mr. Gary continue on his way.

   The man was keeping his eye on the LARPer who’d gotten kicked out, and Rebecca found herself instead looking down to carefully watch each step of her viking toggle boots across the carpeting of the convention pavilion’s upper level. The flooring here was extremely stable and she knew she didn’t have to mind her footing quite so much, that she was being overcautious. All the same, she couldn’t help but tread carefully. It was hard to keep her balance at all if she didn’t focus.

   Because the foundations of the dreamscape were in total chaos, with the ground breaking and crumbling away from her grasping roots in a continuous rolling landslide of upheaval. The atmosphere was ablaze, everywhere there was searing, painful pink fire. It burned, it really  burned now, the air was absolutely choked with billowing hatred and the infernal heat of it felt like it was baking Rebecca alive. The rough resilience of her brown dreamscape bark was splitting beneath the onslaught of furious temperature and was quickly blackening into cinders and ash, and Rebecca was already reaching for her phone when she felt the device begin to buzz and throb with a slew of incoming text messages from the pouch on her belt she kept it in.

♥ iXi Cerulean iXi ♥: ok so

♥ iXi Cerulean iXi ♥: chloey went BALLISICTIC

♥ iXi Cerulean iXi ♥: hitting Brian n screaming

♥ iXi Cerulean iXi ♥: stephi jumpt in

♥ iXi Cerulean iXi ♥: now she cant calm down

♥ iXi Cerulean iXi ♥: stephi cant alm down

♥ iXi Cerulean iXi ♥: calm

♥ iXi Cerulean iXi ♥: mite b charm thing?

♥ iXi Cerulean iXi ♥: evrythngs all messed

♥ iXi Cerulean iXi ♥: can u dreamscape??

♥ iXi Cerulean iXi ♥: wats going on in dscape

♥ iXi Cerulean iXi ♥: stephi cant calm

♥ iXi Cerulean iXi ♥: we think shes like

♥ iXi Cerulean iXi ♥: asborbed evryones angaryness

♥ iXi Cerulean iXi ♥: ***angreyness

♥ iXi Cerulean iXi ♥: ***ANGRYNESS

♥ iXi Cerulean iXi ♥: and cant calm down bcause of that

♥ iXi Cerulean iXi ♥: is there anythng can do??? txt me

   Rebecca was familiar with deciphering Emily’s bizarre mixture of txt-type shorthand and blatant misspellings, so it only took her a few read-throughs to glean the gist of what Emily was trying to convey to her. Pausing to lean against the nearby railing, Rebecca carefully typed out a reply.

Mara Thorferra: Well

Mara Thorferra: Everything is on literally fire

Mara Thorferra: So thats probably not good

♥ iXi Cerulean iXi ♥: dscape on fire

♥ iXi Cerulean iXi ♥: ok yeah that fits

Mara Thorferra: What happened, though

Mara Thorferra: Is everyone ok??

♥ iXi Cerulean iXi ♥: chloey hit brian

♥ iXi Cerulean iXi ♥: so

♥ iXi Cerulean iXi ♥: steph hit chloey

♥ iXi Cerulean iXi ♥: it was a whole thing

♥ iXi Cerulean iXi ♥: chloey gone now but yeah

♥ iXi Cerulean iXi ♥: kelli and i r crossing street away from Animwcon now

♥ iXi Cerulean iXi ♥: at crosswalk waitin

♥ iXi Cerulean iXi ♥: going to Brian’s car

♥ iXi Cerulean iXi ♥: also 2 see if we can get out of steph’s range

♥ iXi Cerulean iXi ♥: of her thing

♥ iXi Cerulean iXi ♥: so that theres not as much angryniess

♥ iXi Cerulean iXi ♥: effecting her

♥ iXi Cerulean iXi ♥: effecting her

♥ iXi Cerulean iXi ♥: stephi i mean

♥ iXi Cerulean iXi ♥: is it helping?? at all

♥ iXi Cerulean iXi ♥: in dscape i mean

♥ iXi Cerulean iXi ♥: steph fire stuff

♥ iXi Cerulean iXi ♥: REBEECAA ANSWER ME1111

   Frustrated with trying to understand what in the dickens Emily was talking about, Rebecca instead thumbed the call tab, and Emily immediately picked up.

   “Rebecca, geez this—”

   “I can’t understand whatever it is you’re trying to text me!” Rebecca said in a fluster. “What’s actually going on, what happened? Is everyone okay?”

   “No, we’re not okay!” Emily hissed. “We’re all freaking out. Stephanie’s charm thing receives emotions from us, like we’re broadcasting them. Right? Chloe threw another shitfit like she did at the hotel room yesterday, like, tried to make a big scene so we’d all get thrown out. Kelly stepped up and like, shot down all her bullshit and that just tipped her more over the edge. So, Chloe’s like, shrieking bloody murder right in Brian’s face and she’s fucking actually slapping him. Across the face. Stephie fucking snaps, and just all out decks her. Decks Chloe. Brilliant windup, beautiful punch, like, I’m talking the money-shot big slow-mo hit from right out of a Balbroa movie. Knocks that cunt flat on her ass, just—”

   “...Is Chloe okay?” Rebecca asked.

   “No Chloe’s not okay, and I hope she fucking dies!” Emily snarled. “Rebecca are you fucking serious right now?! You fucking realize what she was trying to do? She was trying to make it out like Brian raped her, talked it up to a big crowd of people, trying to fucking— Rebecca, Chloe is NOT our friend. She’s not your fucking friend, she’s a fucking psychopath and I really really can’t even believe you’d even still fucking—”

   “Hold on—I see Brian and Stephanie,” Rebecca interrupted in a tense voice. “They’re coming up the escalator towards me right now. With Megan.”

   “Okay, okay, good,” Emily said. “Does Stephie seem any better, or—”

   “Stephanie does not look like she’s okay,” Rebecca reported, eyeing the girl’s expression and posture in growing alarm as the escalator carried the group closer.

   “See if you can get through to her,” Emily requested. “Like, I mean in both ways—actually talking to her, and also if there’s anything you can do about the dreamscape fire thing. You said everything’s on fire?”

   “Everything’s on fire,” Rebecca confirmed in a grim voice. “It’s very, um. End of the world in there, right now. Hurts to even start to check.”

   “Yeah, not good,” Emily groaned. “Not good. Kelly and I are gonna try something, so that at least we’re not feeding more bad mojo or whatever into Stephanie. Fueling the, uh, literally fueling the fire there, I guess. Can you do anything about her there in person? Her and Brian?”

   “I’m... going to have to call you back, bye-bye!” Rebecca said, hanging up and stowing her phone just as the escalator finished carrying her friends to the top of the landing. “Emily just called—she told me everything.”

   In what might have been the least appropriate timing of magical interference she’d experienced to date, Rebecca met Brian’s eyes, and immediately felt herself getting incredibly turned on.

   Ummmm um um um yes wasn’t this is why I was trying to AVOID him, today? Rebecca remembered several moments too late.

   The normal affable, laid-back and somewhat dull Brian was easy for her to resist because they were just friends, and they would never be anything more than that. This Brian here before her had a tingle of anxious excitement blossoming in her tummy, it was stroking her fancy in a seriously attractive way, it weighed her tongue with calming words she’d love to impart to him and had her hands itching to place themselves upon him in a comforting but possibly also suggestive manner.

   Whether it’s a maybe... lingering effect from my indiscretions in the restroom before, or—no, no, THIS sudden onset of arousal is definitely new, Rebecca decided as her body lit up with color.

   It felt like rich umber browns and burnished russet hues were creeping up the shape of her fertile and now very willing body. Brian’s eyes had always been pretty to her before; pretty, but not interesting. Now, they were so interesting! This edge of anger and tension she saw in them now was the apparent missing ingredient, because now they were beautiful and sexy and just completely mesmerizing.

   Okay, yes. Fine. Fierce-looking Brian is indeed very, VERY yummy, Rebecca conceded with an inward sigh of exasperation. Are you happy, magic? I GET IT, you don’t have to, to, to beat me over the head with it! Now is totally not the time!

   “—what happened, they both just. Took off, said something about a trip back to the car,” Brian was saying, and Rebecca blanched at realizing her lapse in attention. “Was about to bring Steph and try to head after them, but Megan said—”

   “They said they’d be right back!” Megan protested. “I told you that already. They just had to run out and uhhh yeah, and they’ll be back in a jiffy. They said so. To me. To tell you that. I did tell you that.”

   “Stephanie, you’re cradling your hand—may I take a look at it, please?” Rebecca rescued the awkward floundering Megan who was desperately trying to signal her with her eyes.

   After guiding them a private distance away from where the escalator’s upper egress was steadily putting more people on the upper level, Rebecca tried to properly assess the situation. Stephanie didn’t react to her words, and she also didn’t offer her hand when Rebecca gently pried the girl’s arm out away from her body to take a better look.

   “Stephanie?” Rebecca asked in a slow voice, searching the girl’s watery blue eyes for any response. “Stephanie? Stephie? Does this hurt?”

   The slight-figured sweetheart with the vibrant pink hair was not in a good state. Having completely retreated somewhere into herself, Stephanie’s body was on auto-pilot. She moved in halting steps to follow along when ushered to do so by Brian or Rebecca, but there wasn’t any real awareness in those unfocused eyes—just a formless, desperate sort of rage and hopelessness. Her difficulties were all the more apparent by the way she struggled to breathe properly, the rise and fall of her chest locked in the short-cycle of someone on the edge of hysteria or in the grip of a panic attack.

   “She’s—I, I don’t know what to do,” Brian admitted with difficulty. “Everything just—”

   “You’re holding her, and here for her and that’s all you can do right now,” Rebecca assured him, sharing a glance with Megan before turning back to Stephanie. “Stephanie honey, you’re going to be okay. You’ve maybe sprained your wrist, and that’s all. It’s all over and you’re okay, now. Stephie? Stephanie?”

   It took almost a full minute of further coaxing to get Stephanie’s attention at all, and when those blue eyes finally did slide over to seemingly register her presence, Rebecca’s heart leapt up into her throat. It was bad, both inside and out—Stephanie was a cornered animal in her own mind, trapped in with so much hate and terror and raw, helpless pain that Rebecca immediately moved in to embrace her and Brian together. Pink fire was burning completely out of Stephanie’s control, and the girl had no way of checking the pink flame or stopping them from ravaging herself and everything near her.

   Rebecca imagined she could hear the faint sound of Brian grinding his teeth in frustration at the situation, and as she leaned back far enough from the pair she was hugging to see his face, her heart fell all the way back down.

   Of course, right. Brian’s furious, and that feeds right into Stephanie as magic, because of her thing, Rebecca understood what Emily had meant before with a single glance. Not sure if we can separate them, and we can’t just let this keep burning away at her, so… someone needs to vent some of this out. No, not some of this, a lot of this. A lot.

   “Brian,” Rebecca said, looking deep into his eyes. “This is going to sound strange right now, but... have you ever swordfought before?

   “...Swordfought?” Brian gave her a hard look. “Like, a LARP thing? Emily told me about it a couple times. Never tried it myself.”

   “Why don’t you come take a look at things in the Atrium, while we’re getting some ice for Stephanie’s hand?” Rebecca proposed, carefully watching his eyes. Hmm. He’s still too closed off to get drawn into a match, I think.

   “The Atrium—that’s where all the medieval peoples get together at AnimeCon, right?” Megan asked, looking from Rebecca to Brian and back again. “I took a peek back on Friday when I was explorin’ around and I was like whoa. I didn’t want to get in the way or nothin’ though so I didn’t really check it out then.”

   “I’m actually one of the organizers there!” Rebecca flashed Megan an appreciative smile. “We do live-action battlegaming stuff and it’s supposed to be light-contact, but accidents happen so we always pack a big medical kit and have ice on hand for things.”

   “Thank God,” Megan said with apparent relief. “Stephanie—let’s go get you taken care of a bit, alright? Or like, we at least need to make sure it’s not sprained.”

   “This way, this way,” Rebecca gently ushered Brian and Stephanie in the direction of the Atrium with a hand on the small of his back. With an awkward jolt she quickly withdrew her hand again.

   Whoa whoa, BOUNDARIES, Rebecca, BOUNDARIES! A tree was beginning to fall in the woods, and she was thankful no one but her would be able to hear it crashing down. Just because you hugged him and Steph doesn’t mean it’s now okay for you to just put your hand on him whenever!

   It was hard not to start feeling incredibly self-conscious of her actions here when she had flagrantly masturbated to the thought—or more than just the thought—of these two having sex earlier this morning. Rebecca swallowed uneasily and couldn’t help but absentmindedly rub her fingertips together as she walked to ensure that they currently dry and clean. Okay, yes, no need to linger on those thoughts. Moving on, MOVING ON!

   “You’re really into the swordfighting and live action roleplay stuffs, then?” Megan prompted.

   “I am! It’s my life, really,” Rebecca said. “Always has been.”

   “Gosh, that’s so cool,” Megan sighed. “I roleplay online—uhh but yeah it’s not that same kind of roleplay, and I’d just be way too terrified to try to like, be in character and stuff in person, I think. Especially the fighting! Any sort of conflict stuff just makes me shrivel up and die and look for a hole in the ground. I’m not even good at dealing with arguments online, and that’s like, I dunno. Easymode, right? Confrontation in person is like, ughh. I don’t deal with it. Anytime there’s—”

   Megan chattered away as they walked across the upper level, and Rebecca couldn’t help feel indebted to her for her help here. With Stephanie still so absolutely agitated and Brian gloomy and not talkative, the atmosphere had been incredibly strained. Under more normal circumstances Rebecca would have been perfectly suited for calming the situation down and helping everyone feel better all by herself—but circumstances were anything but normal.

   Because… it’s like my candle’s burning from both ends! Rebecca thought in dismay as she struggled to keep her composure.

   Attraction was so intense that it was stirring up that maddening itch of horniness within her. Russet roots thirsted deep into the ground, the canopy overhead was groaning, saplings were eager to push up and unfold new sprigs of interest—while at the same time, the air was completely choked with smoke, landslide upheavals of the earth toppled trees in a bewildering crash of breaking limbs, and everywhere the blistering scorch of burning pink was devouring life in a hateful burn of agony.

   To say Rebecca was distracted would be an understatement, and having Megan on hand to provide a constant stream of background noise to combat the strained silence between this little group here was a Godsend.

   “—so I’m basically a side character in my own life, you know? But like, I don’t want to be that way,” Megan rambled on. “That’s just how it always turns out. It’s like there’s just nothing I feel so strongly about that I’d ever—”

   “You’re not a side character, you’re a supporting character!” Rebecca cajoled Megan. “Just like me!”

   “Oh, come on—there is no way you’re just a supporting character,” Megan chortled.

   Together the foursome stepped into the Atrium, with the seated staffer checking badges giving Rebecca a curious look. After all, just a minute ago she’d walked out of here with Mr. Gary and the two rough-housers who were getting booted from the event. All of their lanyards were visible, so without breaking stride Rebecca led them over towards Marina’s table where the waivers and the medical kit were.

   “Miss Marina—baggie of ice for a small sprain, please,” Rebecca asked. “Has there been any big boo-boos today?”

   “Of course, one second,” Marina hurried to open up the travel cooler. “And, no—not really. Less than usual. Twisted ankle from yesterday that got wrapped up better today, and a fighter got his bell rung pretty hard this morning. He sat it out and then walked it off okay. Mostly just band-aids on scrapes and scuffs and people wanting ibuprofens for headaches or hangovers or what have you today. It’s so nice having an event indoors, for once!”

   “No dirt, no thorns, no splinters,” Rebecca gave her a knowing nod.

   “No kicking up a nest of yellow jackets,” Marina chuckled as she bent over to scoop ice into a plastic bag. “That was fun. No heat stroke from fighting out in the sun, no watching for stormclouds. I could get used to air-conditioning instead of weather.”

   “Hopefully we’ll run this event here every year,” Rebecca nodded, accepting the bag of ice from her friend after it was tied off. “Thank you.”

   Turning back around, Brian was helping Stephanie extend out her possibly injured hand, and Rebecca carefully pressed the ice bag to where her skin was red. It had been several minutes seeing her like this and still there were no signs that she was calming down, which was worrying. The girl was somehow still completely worked up into a wordless frenzy, short of breath and with teary eyes that didn’t quite land on anything.

   After a moment of carefully probing Stephanie’s wrist and searching her blue eyes for a reaction, Rebecca conceded the girl’s hand and the ice pack to Brian. The crack of cloth-covered foam weapons against each other and the call of heralds occasionally echoed across the enormous space beneath the dodecahedron of glass that made up the Atrium’s roof, and despite being Sunday there were still quite a few crowds here watching the event. Nervously struggling to collect her thoughts into some plan of action, Rebecca gestured towards a row of unoccupied seats that were out of the way and they made their way over to get out of everyone’s way.

   Okay. Okay. SOMETHING needs to be done, here. Rebecca steeled her nerves, took a deep breath, and turned towards Brian.

   “Brian, we’re friends, but we don’t actually know each other that well,” Rebecca said. “I mostly know you through Emily, both from all the things she’s said about you, and... all the things she wasn’t able to say even though she wanted to.”

   Brian looked up from where he was hovering over Stephanie with a complicated expression on his face.

   “I know that you really suffered because of the way things were with your parents, and that you still take everything that hurts you, and kind of... lock it away deep inside,” Rebecca continued. “You’re like a big castle. Emily stole her way in, and for years she’s wanted to get in even closer, and she even had all the right keys, I think!

   “But, she couldn’t bring herself to try unlocking doors. Because she knows behind some of them, you’ve locked away all the hurt and pain you’ve been through. She couldn’t bring herself to ever open those up without your permission, no matter how much she wanted to. Well, and she’s also something of a hot mess herself.”

   “Uhh—” Brian gave her an uncertain look.

   “Wait wait wait, keep hearing me out with the crazy metaphor here—somehow or other, our princess here Stephanie, she got all the way to the center of the maze, deep, deep in your castle. Past all those locked doors and very, very close to you. This is, um, this is very good for both of you, and I couldn’t be more happy for you, for all of you! At the same time… because you have people so close to your heart now, people in your castle, it’s not a place where you can stash away the hurt and pain anymore. Stephanie’s in there. Emily’s in there, and I think Kelly is, too.

   “Your castle is basically on fire right now,” Rebecca finished with a wince. “Does… does any of that seem like it makes sense to you?”

   “...You’re saying I should have dealt with the whole Chloe thing before getting everyone else dragged into this,” Brian said with a grim face. “With the way things—”

   “No,” Rebecca interrupted him by putting her finger on his lips, and the intimacy of her action made her wince again and quickly withdraw her hands to nervously brush them against the skirting of her tunic. That’s not something that us perfectly platonic just-friends do, Rebecca! “That’s not what I’m saying. I’m saying—um. Okay, castle metaphor, castle metaphor…”

   “You’re king of Castle Brian, and you’ve locked away a lot of your bad feelings, let’s say in a dungeon somewhere. Things you don’t want to think about, or things you aren’t comfortable dealing with—sittin’ in the dungeon,” Rebecca felt silly trying to illustrate this with her hands but attempted it anyways. “Over time, the dungeon’s really full, and you have other, um, guests in your castle now that aren’t prisoners. Steph, Emily, Kelly. But, the dungeon’s so packed full that you can hear them all throughout the castle, and it’s becoming a problem.”

   “You’re really good at this,” Megan said. “Like—wow. I mean…”

   “Please don’t make fun!” Rebecca squeaked, wincing again. “Um, so—what I think you need to do, is empty out your bad thoughts dungeon. Put the things that’ve hurt you through, uh, trial, or otherwise decide what you’re going to do with them. Hang them, pardon them, exile them forever from Castle Brian. You need to deal with them in some way, rather than locking them away forever.”

   “I mean…” Brian made a difficult face. “I get it, and yeah, I really don’t know how to resolve stuff sometimes. Just close it all off so that I can get by with life. But, I don’t feel like it’s me we should even be worrying about, here. Not now. Stephanie is—”

   “This is about you. Kinda,” Rebecca said. “Stephanie is in your bad thoughts dungeon. Your castle’s on fire with bad thoughts, there’s so many bad thoughts that your whole castle is now the bad thoughts dungeon. With Stephanie in there.”

   “So—” Megan was completely engrossed in the metaphor already, “how do we get Stephanie out of the bad thoughts dungeon?!”

   “We don’t take Stephanie out,” Rebecca shook her head. “She has a right to be there—she’s become one of the princesses of Castle Brian. You can’t throw her out. She fought for her place there, and wants to stay, I think.”

   “Right, right!” Megan smacked a fist into her opposite palm. “We evict all the prisoners, not the princess. Er, the bad thoughts. Trauma. Something! You’re so good at this!”

   “Look, it’s not that I don’t… appreciate what you’re trying to do,” Brian held up a hand to stop them. “Or whatever whatever therapy Emily asked you to try here. But, I don’t think trying to work me through some sort of catharsis or break through is going to help Stephanie’s issue right now. Can we just focus on— ”

   “You’re hurting, and so Stephanie’s hurting,” Rebecca said in a blunt way, deciding she needed to tag Mara in if this was going to see quick resolution. “I want you to open up and talk about things. Your you problems became us problems when you got involved with everyone.”

   It was incredibly embarrassing realizing after she’d spoken that she’d slipped and accidentally included herself into the involvement, and she hurriedly retreated back out of Rebecca and the rest of the way into her Mara mindset before her cheeks could start burning.

   “I… yeah okay, I guess that kind of makes sense,” Brian frowned. “Sort of. But, I mean—easier said than done. If I really knew how to just let myself open up, I would’ve done it ages ago, and I wouldn’t be like this.”

   “Brian,” Mara asked, working her lips against one another. “I want you to swordfight with me, in one of the rings.”

 ( Previous: Fallout | AnimeCon Harem | Next: Me Grandmother has a Scar )