#that being said though it's super gorey and stuff and if you need any other specific trigger warnings let me know because there's...a lot

[svartalfhild]

Delighted to report that the Fallout show fucks severely.

The writing is good. The music is good (the leitmotifs!!!). The lore and the vibes are on point. The references are not too many, not too few. I can actually say this sincerely for once: thanks, Todd.

[herofics]

found this from your tfp blog and I rlly gotta say love your writing!! I'm hoping to request something akin to the human with size-shifting powers that you did on your other blog, (reader has a quirk that lets them change the size of people and things) and just some hc's for Dabi, Bakugou, and Hawks? Like reader just shrinking them down and putting them on their shoulder if they're annoying them or something, but anyways luv your writing ok byeeeee!!!

Aaaw, thank you very much, this was fun to write btw. I did it as romantic, because I felt like that was a better fit for this. Tbh this was about to turn into some sort of fucking size kink thing at so many points but I resisted bravely lol. A bit of a violence tw for the Dabi one but it’s not bad so I decided not to tag it

~Hawks/Takami Keigo~

•Hawks thinks your quirk is quite cool and useful in everyday stuff

•You didn’t go into the hero business, but you’ve found other good uses for your quirk

•Like when you and Hawks moved in together, you could basically pack everything you owned into one bag, because you could just make everything super small

•He thought that was super handy

•Hawks has a bit of a thing for people who are bigger than him, so you pushing him against the wall and just towering over him is definitely something he likes

•You like to change your size depending on the situation, but you’re usually just your normal height, since it’s not usually necessary to change that

•A lot of your clothes are made from material that can accommodate you changing your size so them tearing isn’t usually a problem

•And of course you can just change the size of your clothes with your body if you feel like it

•Hawks doesn’t really mind if you make him small, it’s honestly kinda fun sometimes, but you’ve made a deal you only do it to him at home, so if something like a villain attack happens he doesn’t need to be changed back

•Hawks has a few of his feathers scattered around the apartment, so if he doesn’t feel like flying he can just sit on the feather and control it, getting around that way

•It’s honestly pretty adorable

•Also if he’s being really annoying and whiny like he can sometimes be, especially when he doesn’t get enough affection, you can just shrink him down and he sit on your shoulder

•When he’s sitting there, he likes to lean against your neck and play with your hair or whisper things into your ear

•You usually can’t stand that for very long, because his wings tickle your neck and ear so you just give in and return him to his normal size and go cuddle with him

~Dabi~

•Dabi thinks your quirk is pretty useless, at least until you got creative with it when you were doing some stuff for the League

•Let’s just say that the bottom of your boot is often pretty bloody and gorey

•If you shrink Dabi, at all, like even a little bit, he would most likely threaten you with a very painful death

•He doesn’t like when people have any kind of control over him, so being so small someone could step on him? Big fucking no

•It’s more often that you make yourself small and sit on his shoulder, though it’s pretty rare that he’d let you do that

•He does think it’s incredibly funny when you use your quirk on Spinner or Toga though

•If you want attention or he’s been a bitch you shrink his clothes sometimes, but you do it just enough that you can claim it shrunk in the wash

•Dabi of course doesn’t believe this and complains about it until you make his clothes the right size again

•Doing this to his shoes is also fucking funny, but then you’ll have to to be good at dodging said shoe when it comes flying at you, possibly burning

~Bakugou Katsuki~

•Bakugou is often a victim of a bit of a “time out”, which means he gets shrunk down to small enough to sit on your palm

•You can’t exactly just put him a high shelf, because his quirk would allow him to just basically fly down from there

•So what you do is you get the “time out shirt”, which is a shirt with a breast pocket, so he just has to sit in there until he calms down

•His head is just peeking out from the pocket and he’s glaring at everyone else

•It’s a miracle he actually agrees to stay in there, but miracles happen sometimes

•He can listen to your heartbeat when he puts his ear against your chest, which is actually the only reason why he doesn’t argue with you too much about the whole “time out” thing

•Afterwards he’s a bit huffy thought, because of course he has to act like he hates it

•He does love being so close to you though

•He’s strong of course, but your quirk makes moving and rearranging furniture a breeze

•You’re not exactly a hero, you’re more of a search and rescue worker if that makes sense, since you basically do hero work but you don’t actually have the qualifications to be called a pro-hero

•It’s easy for you to get into small places and search for people on collapsed buildings and such

•Bakugou also thinks it’s super cute when you make his shirts too big for you so you can just go around the apartment in a big hoodie or t-shirt

•Depending on the piece of clothing, you don’t even always need to change its size

[lucifer-is-a-bag-of-dicks]

Thank you for asking people to back off on the op of that vivisection post, but I think it needs to be more visible than in the tags. I get that the phandom is a friendly bunch, but it seems no one has actually read deeper than the notes on the post (as most people on tumblr are wont to do) and seen that the op on their blog has stated they don't like the constant "this is what DP is about!" and "sorry for ruining your innocence/you had to find out about the phandom/angst/gore this way" responses when they are (1) a fan of ACTUAL non-DP-related gore and therefore not "innocent" (and that they're a bit freaked out by the constant implication that they are/the phandom acts as if they invented gorey fics) and (2) did not ask for anyone to tell them why they should watch it (and has in fact said they are NOT interested in DP). Like, I get that the phandom is super enthusiastic and wants to share their love of the show/fandom with others, but at this point it's like unsolicited advice from a stranger--unwanted, unasked for, probably irrelevant to their own interests, and annoying. All the unsolicited badgering only seems to make them more adverse to getting into DP, it's not like a best friend saying they're ok with listening to you ramble about your hyperfixation. I feel bad for OP. The phandom IS one of the friendliest and well-behaved people though, and you're really well-articulated (unlike me, look at me I'm rambling), so can you maybe help come up with a way to curb this kind of thing in the future? Maybe encourage people to pick up the behavior of not only checking the notes but checking the blog to see if the OP already got answers or even wants them? Making sure others know to do that too?

you know what, I'm glad you sent me this because that post really bothered me too

I actually added those tags as a direct response to the op telling people to stop

yeah like this stuff really doesn't happen to us very often so it is really funny and exciting to see 'outsiders' react to our weird shit, but it got very excessive very quickly, and a big part of that is something that bothers me about MOST of the internet tbh and that is

people don't check the comments before commenting

what that means, is that you get fifty people commenting the exact same thing, and that is not fun, in fact that can be very frustrating, especially for someone who isn't actually interested in the topic to begin with, op's activity would be drowning in this content they don't actually want to see

the first couple of responses to that post were VERY funny, and even op was playing along! but seeing them be dogpiled like that was really upsetting and I hate to admit, kind of embarrassing to watch

our fun shouldn't come at the expense of other people, I love this phandom to death (ha) but we do tend to get overexcited about things and that can lead to people being unintentionally inconsiderate, this is one of those times

also? some of those comments were just kind of... hm, 'not like other fandoms'-ish? which personally does not sit very well with me, it's a somewhat toxic mindset, yes our phandom is remarkably discourse light, it's a very friendly and cohesive place to be and I LOVE it here like no other fandom, but we shouldn't be acting like we're... special, we're no more special and important than any other fandom

just, no shame to anyone to be clear, this so rarely happens to us and was clearly a matter of people getting VERY overexcited and just lapsing in judgement, but I would ask people to be considerate of this in future, this would have left a really bad impression of us and that's something none of us want

[toukenramblings]

Video Games: Mutsunokami Yoshiyuki, Aizen Kunitoshi, Atsushi Toushirou

Oh ho, a fun lil headcanon set like this is so funnnn~!

Warnings: Not much I suppose?

Mutsunokami Yoshiyuki

Sweet MuMu adores video games where we can travel the world. Fantasy world, modern world, past, present, future, he don’t care! An open world game will suit him best! There’s so much to do, and like a lil puppy, MuMu want’s to explore it all!

Extra bonus points if there’s a part of the game where there is something to do with the ocean. He adores the sea after all! Boats, driving them, exploring the ocean, exploring the unknown, oh this TouDan will drink that shit up.

The games that come to mind are Assassin’s Creed: III, Black Flag, Syndicate, Origins, Odyssey, and Valhalla. Why? Most of them deal with exploring new lands and some of them deal with piloting ships! III, Black Flag, Odyssey, Origins, Valhalla to be more specific. Syndicate has guns and classy fashion. A little too much for Mutsunokami but he loves playing with the guns in the game - they are very similar in make to his own after all. he also rly likes the sea shanties in odyssey because i rly like them too

If Mutsunokami wants to relax and not play Assassin’s Creed where he goes around stabbing everything that moves, he will play Subnautica or Abzu or Journey to relax. Maybe even Animal Crossing! He loves the cute little animals but I personally think that games where he can just explore the world and meet new people and learn lore just make him happy the most.

Games MuMu would never play are horror games or anything with spiders in them. So Bayonetta and Devil May Cry are out. He loves the idea of gun-toting protagonists but nope, nope. Spiders? Bye fam.

Now that I think about it, he would just be Blathers. He can play Animal Crossing but Gods help him the minute he sees a spider in that damn game. “I THOUGHT THIS WAS A PEACEFUL GAME, WHY ARE THE SPIDERS TRYING TO KILL YOU” cue controller thrown at the television.

Oh MuMu adores party games! Can’t play Smash Bros or Mario Kart for shit. Watch him pay too much attention to the background and yeet himself off of the stage because he saw something shiny. He can kinda play though, but again he gets distracted the most. Buuut ask him to play Mario Party with the rest of the swords and damn right he will play!

Can and will make video games turn into a drinking game. MuMu adores competitive gaming with the rest of the citadel. Will start taking bets on who is gonna win and lose, and sure he may be a pouty loser but he’ll be fiine. But damn right he’ll yeet a tantou to ensure his win. No he won’t he’s not that cruel.

Mutsunokami also adores rhythm games! Taiko no Tatsujin because of Don-chan and the idea of playing with a lil taiko drum as a controller. He’s very much into music after all. There are times when he stops playing a game to just listen to the music and take it all in!

A guilty pleasure game he plays is probably Ghost of Tsushima. No he’s not checking out Jin’s ass whenever they go to a hot spring, what are you talking about? MuMu enjoys it because sometimes just going back to your roots and stabbing a ho is just what you need. dear khotun khan, eat shit

Aizen Kunitoshi

Aizen is also super big on rhythm games. As said above with Mutsunokami, Taiko no Tatsujin will be a favorite of his. He has a secret collection of Don-chan merch, no one is stopping him damn it. Just fucking tRY and take away his precious Don-chan(s). The only ones that can touch his prized collection are the rest of the Rai swords, other peeps he is close to, and maybe you if you two are close/you ask nicely. Get him some Don-chan pajamas and he’ll cry.

Aizen is also pretty good at fighting games, Street Fighter coming to mind because he adores over the top bullshit and the colors! The colors! He mains Ryu though, but he’s more than willing to try new characters!

He’s also pretty competitive at times, so he would adore playing fighting games with the rest of the swords at the citadel. Hotarumaru and he are always playing Smash Bros or Mario Kart, which ends up with a lot of broken controllers. Hotaru has been slightly banned from planning highly competitive gameplay though.

Other games that I know Aizen will be into will be Animal Crossing when he wants to relax. He loves the little yearly festivals and events in the games and it kinda mirrors how life works in the world. Of course he adores Digby and Isabelle, and has threatened Tom Nook with Hotarumaru before. “Don’t you cheat me you stupid tanuki, don’t make me get my brother in here.”

Games that Aizen cannot play are puzzle games. He doesn’t mind them, he just finds them really boring. He watches Akashi play them sometimes but even then, Akashi will conk the hell out. If you play them and have Aizen on your lap watching, Aizen will be amazed at how you are so good at them!

Aizen cannot deal with horror games or sad emotional games. He’s pretty emotional himself and will need a lot of hugs after. He will refuse to play Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons as they remind him of Hotarumaru and himself a lil too much. Horror games is because he’s too scared to. Hotarumaru doesn’t mind them, he likes playing them while Aizen and Akashi cling on to each other and scream in terror.

Aizen also loves games that not only have great music but the visuals and colors just catch his eye. Katamari Damacy comes to mind and he loves the main character a lot. The music! The colors! Ohh man its the best.

A guilty pleasure game he would love is the monster catching genre, Pokemon is an idea but he also loves Yokai Watch. Yokai Watch feels a lil more closer to home, plus Yokai Watch had a crossover with Taiko no Tatsujin! He immediately wasted no time and effort to try and recruit Don-chan. iM STILL TRYING TO GET DON-CHAN ON MY TEAM U LIL SHIt but also im rly biased towards yokai watch and digimon

This lil guy will also love collecting plushies of any characters of the games he plays! Don-chan is his first choice of course but catch him and Hotarumaru in a little cuddle puddle with 70 other plushies from various games!

Most of all, Aizen loves games where he can play with others! Friends, family, you! It doesn’t matter to him! He’ll drag you from your office to relax and just cheer anyone up with something fun! “Come play with me! You promised after all, master! I’ve found a rEALLY cool and fun game to play together with Hotaru!” bless him he’s trying his best

Atsushi Toushirou

Like Aizen, Atsushi will mostly enjoy multiplayer games because of his multitudes of brothers, younger and older. He’ll pick out games like Mario Party, Mario Kart, classics for sure. But then there’s games like Wario Ware or Smash Bros. He wants to play games with as many people as possible! He loves it when he can play with you and his brothers!

If Atsushi wants to play something more solo, he will play something along the lines of Cooking Mama. Houchou got him addicted to it gee i wonder why Houchou loves the game so much but Atsushi just loves the dishes that he can prepare and it almost feels like he can cook! He once tried to follow exactly what Cooking Mama did in the game for cooking once uh...it did not end up. But none the less, he loves the colors and the music of Cooking Mama!

He is also a big ol fan of life simulation games, Animal Crossing being his favorite. Again he and his siblings can all play together and the calm atmosphere almost lulls him to a peaceful sort of sleep that he adores the most. He loves the relaxing vibe and sometimes wishes to live there, wherever the hell these guys live.

Next to Yagen, I think Atsushi will lowkey adore horror games. Yagen does it just to get a rise out of the rest of his siblings and Atsushi is kind of the same. Sure Yagen finds the most gorey and atmospheric based horror to scare the crap outta his siblings, Atsushi will probably play the more jumpscare based horror games just to get a scare outta them too! What good is a horror game if you’re not scared as well??? Damn right he’ll wait until it’s night time to play these games!

Atsushi also does love RPG games! Star Ocean, Final Fantasy, Legend of Zelda, come to mind first. He just loves going on big adventures! Exploring new worlds, meeting new people, learning new things! Bonus points if the game has a really emotional story, catch him and his brothers crying about whatever happens on screen.

Atsushi has a secret fondness for rather childish games. Pokemon, Yokai Watch, so on and so forth. YEs he’s trying his best to be mature and stuff, supporting you his saniwa and all, but sometimes he just wants to be himself and have fun! He has a few mascot plushies from his brothers too, shhh.

Atsushi is also terrifyingly amazing at turn-based strategy games. Mario + Rabbids being a favorite because of the colors and overall fun atmosphere. Fire Emblem is a close second. He knows exactly how to keep his units and characters alive, what upgrades to give them, so on and so forth. “General! Come look at what I did in my game! Wouldn’t it be cool if we could also do something like this?!” he says that as Rabbid Luigi yeets himself off of normal Mario and soars through the air like a bird, landing gracefully without hurting himself. Atsushi no.

He’s the most likely of the TouDans to get into the indie gaming scene, looking at new and upcoming content creators to see what they make! He wants to support them as much as he can!

He’s also one of the more responsible of the TouDans in terms of games. Others will start buying them on a whim but Atsu knows there’s a budget to be had! He isn’t as money crunching as Hakata or anything but he knows his damn limits!

Another game genre he’s secretly into are visual novels. He loves the budding relationships between characters, romantic or not, he loves seeing where they end up! It’s like he’s growing with them!

[infinitesimalyerkesdodsons]

Me: okay im feeling kinda good about the el noli au time to work on i--

Motivation: JANUS SILANG AU CONCEPT

Some messy bullet point explanations for the characters under the cut (since they contain spoilers and might get too long to read and scroll past lmao)

Warnings: death mention, cannibalism, gorey descriptions, betrayal

Thank you for considering reading this explanation lmao 🍪 have a cookie!!!

- so what i wanna say here is that the janus silang stuff has themes that revolve around twins and duality

- I'll also refer to janus sanders as deceit here so as not to cause confusion with his namesake

- there are three sets of people that have something to do with twins: miro and mira, the tiyanak and tala, and probably Janus himself, given his name and some stuff about his character that gives him this sort of dual nature thing

- i was actually tied between whether I make thomas or janus as Janus Silang in this, because thomas' red shirt with the star on it looks similar to the one Janus usually wears, but Deceit and Janus are essentially namesakes

- i decided to go with both of them because of how i saw Janus as a character. His duality in my opinion is brought by the fact that he used to know and be super close the main baddie of this story, the tiyanak, and was used by the tiyanak to gain important information (sorry remus!!!) and yet he's also the only one that has the power to help the counterpart of the tiyanak, tala (roman)

- it's also interesting to note that I also think that Janus' duality will fully come out in the fifth and final book in the series

- during the fourth book he was fated to die in order to set the world right, however this death wasn't just physical death, but an existential death in which his sacrifice reset the whole timeline and created a world wherein he never existed in the first place.

- only one person, who used to be a diwata, now human, remembered him. I hope that Janus returns in the fifth book and things are set back into place.

- anyway, the fact that this happened shows a big duality; his past existence saved the world and his nonexistence created an alternate world in the future that didn't need saving at all

- the timeline where Janus existed (2015 when things went down), I assume is simply an alternate universe where magic exists and is based on Philippine Myth and belief. The nonexistent Janus timeline (which is 2018), I assume, is this world we live in right now, a more realistic version of the original timeline.

- i want to think that janus, tala, and the tiyanak disappeared permanently from existence in order to set the world right

- it was said that only tala and the tiyanak can match each other in power, but in order for one to die the other must die as well.

- meaning that whatever happens, both tala and the tiyanak will disappear to save the world, but janus still has to die permanently in order to make tala's existence possible.

- which brings us to the other twins, tala and the tiyanak

- some important stuff in this is that the tiyanak and tala were twins born from a curse from humans in the Tabon cave.

- the tiyanak was cursed as a baby to be a man eating baby who eats the innards of people who neglect their family (or so i remember???)

- their very existence as cursed magical twins was a mistake, so bringing back to the saving the world part, in order to set the world right they both have to yeet out of existence

- as for their duality

- the tiyanak as i said earlier is a cannibal, and can create creatures to do his bidding. These creatures are from Philippine Mythology and each have their own abilities. He emerged from his mother's womb fully able to walk and talk, and can shapeshift into a child. (He cannot shapeshift into an adult though, so his underling creatures, the do-ol, do it for him)

- the tiyanak during the first book, disguised as Janus' brother in order to gain information about his twin, since Janus was supposedly the only one that can help Tala reach maturity to counter her twin.

- tala on the other hand was born without enough physical maturity, and is said to age by one year every 1000 years. When the events of the story play out tala is nearing her true maturity and only needs janus to do so.

- interestingly, before she appeared as her true form, before Janus' whole dying from existence thing, she looked like the tiyanak.

- anyway this is an abrupt end to this part of the explanation but let's get to the third set of twins

- miro and mira

- the thing with miro and mira is that they're not polar opposites unlike tala and the tiyanak. they have the same ability of switching and seeing between a purely magical world and the lesser magical earth.

- i chose logan and patton based on their personalities and the dynamic of the duo

- miro is more extroverted of the two, which seems like a good fit for patton

- mira is more reserved and quiet, and less open with talking about her ability. She preferred to figure things out on her own, retreating into the pure magic world in order to experiment with her ability.

- they die tho, miro by literally getting vertically cut into half in the middle of teleporting to the pure magical world, and mira by the hands of a mambabarang in the fourth book.

- the thing about these twins is that they don't necessarily completely oppose each other, and only their personalities seem to be different.

- i can see a similar thing happening with logan and patton, how they're not moral opposites but differ with how they work.

- next up is mica and renzo

- they're not twins but their characters are really important to the story

- mica is janus' crush, who gave him a usb necklace in the shape of a star (at the same time, star can be translated to "tala" in Tagalog, and the usb necklace played an important part throughout the series as well.

- she also played an important part in the third and fourth book, being a regular human without any power gave her advantage to magic (and lack thereof) related problems.

- And finally renzo

- did i mention that janus was orphaned? Well he was and another important character took him in. Renzo was also an orphan and he and janus had a brotherly relationship.

- that is, until janus got stuck in a dilemma where he could only save either Mira or Renzo from falling off a literal cliff, at the very end of the third book. Janus saved mira and renzo was left hanging and eventually fell (Well that was a cliffhanger amirite heheehe)

- one bit of lore about renzo is that he was a creation of the tiyanak as well. The tiyanak saved renzo from his doom and revealed this and I dont exactly remember why but it definitely had something to do with Janus as well.

So uh that's it i think hsjdjs this is kinda messy but yea if you made it here 🍪 have a second cookie!!!

[theskyeandsea]

Tangled Weeb of Lies || Orion, Winston, and Skylar

Location: Skylar’s Apartment

Trigger Warning: Chronic illness symptom mentions

Backdated: Friday, February 28th

Glancing around her apartment, Skylar let out a sigh. Everything looked good. She’d cleaned up a little bit, gotten some snacks ready to go in case Winston and Rio wanted to eat something while they watched, and had a large mug full of fresh coffee. Swiping her forehead, she glanced at her hand with a grimace before wiping the slight sheen of slime against her jeans. Nope, she wasn’t going to deal with this right now. She was going to have fun anime night with her friends and it was going to be fun and she wasn’t going to even think about the pelt that was draped over the chair in her room. Nope. Totally not going to think about it. Hearing a knock at the door, Skylar hurried across her apartment and smiled, hoping she didn’t look too exhausted. “Hey! I’m glad you could make it, come in.” She said.

Winston stepped through the front door as Skylar let them in and rummaged in their rucksack for the snacks and soda that they had brought as their own donation to the anime night snack fund. They looked at Skylar and was pleased to discover that she looked relatively healthy all things considered. They didn’t know exactly how long it had been since she’d last changed but she was definitely running down the clock on it again. “Hey! Thanks for having me,” they grinned and had to admit that they were a little excited, it had been a while since they’d just hung out with friends and enjoyed some anime, “am I the first person here? I didn’t know what snacks to bring so I got a selection…” they didn’t know if they were at the stage with things were hugging Skylar was appropriate so they didn’t even try it, just kind of awkwardly waved. 

“Of course,” Skylar said, though her eyebrows scrunched together at their slightly odd wave. Brushing it off, she continued, “Mhm. But, it’s a small group. Just you, me, and Rio. Orion-- do you know him? He’s really sweet.” She was honestly glad that it was a small group. She wasn’t totally sure she could handle hanging around many people, her nerves were a little fried after everything she’d been through. The past two months had been hard enough, but the onslaught of magical garbage affecting her life had hit a fever pitch last Friday. She’d just wanted to go on a quiet date. And now poor Shiloh had been roped into things too. Ugh. Pushing the thoughts from her mind, she nodded, “And please, don’t even worry about the snacks. I’m not going to be eating any.” Before she could say anything more, she heard another knock at the door. “Ah, sorry. That must be him.” She said and headed to the door, “Hi! Welcome in.”

Orion stood near the door awkwardly trying to convince himself to go up and knock on it. Of course, the idea of having an anime night with people he didn’t know well was scary enough in itself, but the underlying meeting was just as terrifying. Rio had never purposely tested someone before to figure out if they were a species other than human. In all other cases, he had been with his family and praying that the tests would fail, refusing to do them himself. But tonight had been a special case. If Skylar was a Fae or werewolf or anything, Rio would have to come up with a plan b to keep her protected. But one thing at a time. Rio had snuck into his sisters room, stealing a silver ring as well as an iron ring, to cover both bases. He had slipped them onto his right index and ring finger and grabbed ahold of his bag of snacks and ran out of the house before his parents or sister had the chance to ask where he was going. Rio finally decided that it was now or never, so he took a deep breath and went to knock at the door. When they answered, he lit up with a genuine smile, “Hey! Skylar! So nice to meet you in person! I’m Rio. Or Orion. I don’t know if you’re a hand shaker or a high fiver?” Rio asked curiously, holding his hand out, rings exposed and ready to test the waters. From the doorway, Rio could see who he assumed was Winston. “Hey there! Nice to meet you!” He might as well test both, just to be safe.

“Nice to meet you too, in person.” Skylar said with a smile before opening the door to let him inside. Tilting her head a little bit in confusion, she blinked. “Um, hand shake, I guess? Do you prefer Rio or Orion?” She asked as she shook his hand quickly, hoping that her hand didn’t feel too slick in his. Shutting the door behind him, Skylar gesture over to Winston and the small offering of snacks she’d set up for the get together. “I’ve got some snacks over there, popcorn and some chips and things. There’s also Mountain Dew in the fridge, so help yourself to that. There’s also beer in the fridge for you, Winston.” She nodded in their direction, “Or help yourself to anything on the bar cart. It’s all fair game.” She really hoped that she was making a good impression on Rio-- he seemed really nice and she could honestly use some nice, nerdy friends.

Winston made their way over to Rio and gripped their hand firmly but politely. They hate it when the cops in the station would crush your hand in a hand shake. “Hey, I’m Winston, it is nice to get to meet a fellow weeb.” They laughed at their own joke before heading back towards the couch. “I’ve also brought some stuff,” Winston said and nodded for Orion to help themselves. “Thanks Skye thats sweet of you, can I get anyone else a drink while I’m at it?” They headed towards the fridge, the thought of an ice cold beer playing fresh on their mind. “Are you a big anime fan?” 

Orion shook both of their hands! Without either of them burning! “Wooh!” Orion exclaimed excitedly after successfully acquainting with his new friends. “Uh sorry... just excited to be here.” He laughed nervously, scratching at the back of his neck and holding up the assorted bag of little Debbie snacks that he had brought along, “These are open to anyone. Uh thanks for inviting me! I’m super excited to meet you both and have some people to watch anime with! People call me both, but most people outside my family go with Rio.” He was clearly nervous and rambling. Winston had called Skylar, Skye. Should Rio do the same? Too much overthinking. “Oh! I’m a big anime fan! But I’ve never really had anyone to watch it with. I’ll take a Mountain Dew while you’re in there. Thanks!” He needed to calm his nerves if he had any chance of being invited back for another anime night. “So what are we watching?”

Eyebrows scrunching together in mild confusion, Skylar stared at Rio for a moment, but her expression quickly shifted back to normal after his apology. He was probably just a little nervous. She’d known her fair share of introverted people in college and there were always a few people who sort of overcompensated when they wound up meeting people. Poor guy. With a welcoming smile, Skylar nodded, “Rio it is. And thanks! I accidentally ate a large lunch so I’m not that hungry.” She said as she took a sip from her coffee mug. “I’m glad you two could make it, I haven’t watched things with people like this in a long time. Um… I know we talked about Haikyuu, but I’m also open to pretty much anything. Maybe nothing super gorey or gross?” She said, “Do you have any preferences, Winston?”

“Sure, I’ll stick with Rio if that is what you prefer,” Winston replied as they inclined their head gently, “So how did you too meet? I thought that after I met Skye I would know all the nerds in town but it is always a blessing to add another one of us to the hive mind.” They hadn’t been able to say something like that in a while, too much hanging out with people because they knew stuff about the supernatural world and not enough hanging out with people so they could play D&D together. Winston shrugged. Before grabbing some Mountain Dew for Orion and a beer for themselves. Skylar seemed set with her mug of coffee. “I’ve never watched Haikyuu and I’ve never really given any sports anime a go, but I am down to try something new. If we get bored we could always try something new. I don’t really have a preference it’s just cool to meet some new people and find some new anime to watch. Could always do with new recommendations if possible.” 

“Oh, we met online and started talking about anime and stuff like that. Then we decided to try to meet up and have a little anime night. So here we are!” Orion explained, noting Skylar’s mention of not being hungry. One of the tests for supernatural creatures was diet. Many species had specific dietary restrictions that hunters could use to exploit and expose the creature’s secrets. Was that what this was? Or was she just truly not hungry? But Orion laughed at Winston’s comment, “Hive mind. I like that!”  He grabbed the Mountain Dew from Winston and popped the tab open, taking a long drink. “Thank you! I really enjoy a lot of sports anime! It’s actually been around a really long time too. There was a Japanese animated short film back in 1928 called Animal Olympic Games! Most critics credit that as the first sports anime.” Orion mumbled off the top of his head, not sure why he thought that would be important information for either of them to know. “But I’m, among the few that I have seen I would say that Haikyuu is my favorite. It’s just really cute. But exciting.” Oh boy, they needed to start quickly so Rio could shut up apparently.

Rio seemed a little bit more excitable than Skylar had expected; or maybe she was just feeling more out of it than she had thought. It had been a little over two weeks since… Ricky and Remmy had forced her to change. She should be fine. She should still be okay. But the way she was feeling, it was worse than normal. “Mhm! It’s really neat that White Crest has a system for people to connect like this. It’s been really nice as someone who’s not super extroverted.” She said as she walked over to the TV and connected her laptop to the HDMI cord. Listening as the other two hashed out the details, Skylar waited for her computer to boot up. “Really? That’s neat, I didn’t know that!” Tilting her head at Winston, she spoke up, “If you want, we could start from the beginning of the show, so you have an idea of what’s going on? It’s totally your call, I’m not up to date.”

Raising an eyebrow, Winston passed the can of Mountain Dew over despite the fact that they couldn’t help but wonder if perhaps Orion had a bit too much energy already. “Are you guys both relatively new to White Crest then?” Winston had been using the messaging boards since they could type and had been as such benefiting directly from there. Orion however seemed to really know their stuff about anime and Winston was starting to wonder if they might not be the most nerdy person in the room. They would obviously have to work harder to establish themselves as the apex nerd. “Sure, we can start from the beginning or you can throw me in at the deep end and I can tell you if I start drowning. Whatever you guys want.” They were starting to wonder if they needed to have someone here to help them make decisions since they all seemed to nice to do that.

Orion was talking too much. He knew that. But he figured it was either talk too much or cower back into his shell and not talk at all. Honestly he couldn’t be sure which one they would prefer. His nerves about the Fae testing hadn’t helped either. “I’ve actually lived here my whole life.” Orion shrugged at Winston, “But um... I didn’t get out much when I was younger. So.” Orion took another drink from his can, shaking it absent-mindedly to find that it was already more than halfway gone. “I’m fine with starting at the beginning. I think it’s important for context.” Orion eyed the hallway that he assumed led down to the bathroom and bedrooms. He tapped on his soda can idly and considered his options. Was he the kind of person to try to rummage through somebody’s personal possessions? Was it justifiable if it was to try to protect said person? “We should definitely get started before I start boring you guys with the history of Japanese volleyball.”

“I moved here back in August, so I’m the only newbie here.” Skylar said with a small smile before taking another sip from her coffee mug. Winston’s off-hand metaphor made her wince slightly at the thought of swimming, of having to-- nope. No, she wasn’t going to think about that right now. This was all about nerdy, normal people things. Not crazy, magic seal things. “Sounds great to me!” She said pulling up the first episode of Haikyuu before pausing. “You guys don’t have a problem with subs, right? It’s just easier for me.” She said, brushing her hair as casually as she could so Rio could see her hearing aids. It was a bit more subtle than saying “hey I can’t understand what’s going on because lip reading doesn’t work on cartoons” and tended to work. “And hey, I’m a fan of random trivia. I’d be happy to hear all about that.” She nodded.

“Oh, I guess we must have missed each other at high school or something,” Winston felt somewhat guilty for just assuming that Rio was brand new to town, but they seemed to have gotten away with it to some extent. “I am more then happy to have subtitles on,” Winston honestly was kind of lazy at paying attention to everything that they were watching, and as a result they often had subtitles on so they could back read anything they didn’t quite hear.” They popped their beer open and drank a mouthful, before settling into a sofa. “Is volleyball a big thing in Japan or something?” they asked casually, feeling themselves grow slightly hot under the collar as they felt somewhat embarrassed by their apparent awkwardness.

“Probably, I was pretty quiet in school. Mostly kept to myself.” Not everyone could be as outgoing as his sister, but Orion hadn’t thought much about it since high school. It hadn’t been a very fun four years of his life anyways; he’d rather just forget it ever happened. “Subs are perfect. I prefer them actually.” Orion agreed, catching a glimpse at the hearing aids that Skylar was wearing. He remembered her mentioning it online when they talked about ASL. “Sports in general are really popular in Japan,” Orion began, surprisingly thankful that the two didn’t seem annoyed by his random bursts of nerdy knowledge, “About 85% of kids in Japan are involved in some type of sport at school, it’s a little less nichey than sports in America tend to be. There’s even a national Holiday in japan specifically dedicated to sports.” Taiiku no hi. Orion decided against saying the name in case that was a bit too far on the nerdiness scale. “But volleyball has been around in Japan since the 1920’s. The debut of Volleyball in the Olympics was even in Tokyo. The women’s Japanese team took home gold.” He felt bad that he seemed to be monopolizing the conversation and decided to settle down into an open spot near the television. “Okay, sorry. We can get started now. I’m done I swear.” Orion laughed nervously and hoped that someone would put him out of his awkward misery.

Taking a seat on the sofa farthest away from Winston so as not to crowd them, Skylar hummed in amusement-- strange, how White Crest could feel like such a small town with so many coincidences, and yet stuff like this happened. Two people who had similar interests, had grown up here their entire lives, had never crossed paths. Well, she was happy to bring the two nerds in touch, she was happy to have more dorky friends who were into the same things she was. “Thanks, I appreciate it.” She said with a smile as she settled into the couch, tucking her legs underneath her. Oh wow, Rio really knew his stuff. And Skylar liked to think she was a bit of a trivia dork, but she had nothing on him. The most she knew was silly random fun facts about… bananas and things about sign language. “You’re all good, really. The more you know, you know?” She said, jokingly making the sign for rainbow, mimicking the meme. With a laugh, she started the first episode and watched as the animated characters appeared on-screen.

Orion could calm down long enough to enjoy a few hours of solitude and nerdy company, right? He couldn’t control his outright laugh at Skylar signing rainbow to reference the meme. “Clever” Orion laughed, settling back into his seat when she hit play so they could jump into the first episode. Orion quietly sang along to the opening theme song, hoping that he wasn’t too loud to disturb the other two from watching. Once they had gotten into the groove of the show, Orion could feel his anxiety finally start to calm down. But he kept catching himself eyeing the hallway. Against his better judgement, he couldn’t stop thinking about what more he could do to make sure he could keep Athena away from his new friends. Eventually after a couple of episodes of distraction, Orion couldn’t take it anymore. “Hey uh – Sorry. Could I use your bathroom really quick?” Orion asked, waiting for the permission to be granted before hopping up from his seat. “Please don’t pause it for me! I have seen this episode a hundred times. I can jump right back in! Be back in a minute!” Then he ran off down the hallway and towards the bedroom doors.

Skylar grinned, quietly pleased that Orion had understood her joke. It was kinda nice to have someone around who understood ASL more than the generic alphabet and question words. As they got into the show, she noticed that he had relaxed a little, something that honestly made her feel better about her hosting ability. Rio had seemed so nervous being here and she really didn’t want him to feel that way. He was super sweet, in person as well. As they made their way through the episodes, Skylar just felt… off. No matter how often she tried to focus on the anime in front of them, her mind drifted, cycling through worries. What did Shiloh really think of her? Would Remmy be okay? How was Nadia doing with her post-possession situation? Why was Nic out killing vampires? Was it really okay for her to take Alain’s self help books, what if he needed them? Why was Evelyn asking her all those questions? What about Blanche, was her magic nightmare situation still going on? How was poor Morgan dealing with her curse, did she need someone to talk to? Was Ricky ever going to forgive her? Would he even want to? All the questions weighed heavily in her mind, and her shoulders slumped deeper into the couch. The Karkinoids, the giant lobster boy, the eyeball that she still saw when she closed her eyes-- what were they? Why had they appeared? What had she gotten herself into, what had she gotten Shiloh into? It was-- It was too much. Dimly aware that Rio was saying something, she glanced over to where he’d been sitting and realized he was no longer in that seat. The episode they’d been watching had long ended. How much time had passed..? “Um, okay! I’ll just keep it going.” She said with a slight shrug at Winston. Where had Rio said he was going?

Though they were ignorant of this, unlike the other two, Winston was completely engrossed in the anime. They were drawn in by the detail, the art style, the tone. It was a difference from what they had previously been involved in in terms of their anime viewing experience but variety was the spice of life and honestly it was nice to do something that didn’t involve Ghouls, Fairies or Magic. Glancing over at Skye, they noticed the glazed look in their eyes and sat up gently as Orion left the room in search of their bathroom. “Hey,” they whispered, “you doing okay? You look like you’re a million miles away…” they gave her a reassuring smile before leaning back in their seat and placing a few kernels of popcorn into their mouth and chewing thoughtfully on the snack, “Orion seems like a cool dude.” 

Orion rushed as quietly as he could into the hallway and gently pushed open the first bedroom door, peaking inside. Upon inspection, he wasn’t convinced that that was Skylar’s room. And pulled the door shut as quietly as he could and moved past it, eyeing the bathroom and then moving for the other door. He eased it open, noting the blue walls which stood out from the rest of the place. Against one wall stood a bookshelf that held stacks of comic books and manga along with a few pop figures. Bingo. Orion squeezer through the small opening and suddenly found himself standing in the middle of Skylar’s room. This was wrong. He knew how wrong this was. Maybe he didn’t deserve friends in the first place, if this was what he would have to do. But it was too late in this case, so he pushed himself forward, forcing himself to inspect the bookshelf and then the closet. He wasn’t exactly sure what he was looking for, but figured he would know if he found something. Ingredients for a spell, a pool of blood, being a Fae for dummies, anything. He moved to the bed and found nothing before finally inspecting the desk. He searched through the drawers, trying to be thorough in his search while also maintaining some level  of privacy. He was ready to give up his search on account of not finding anything until he bumped into the desk chair. Clothes were tossed over the back of the chair, a detail Orion had completely ignored until he was up close and the bottom of the pile caught his eye. He carefully lifted the other clothes on top and his eyes widened at the discovery. Skin. He moved his hand to touch it and felt the leathery surface. Finally, all the pieces seemed to finally click together. Skylar was a selkie.

What if there was nothing she could do about all of this? What if Ricky was right, what if she had to confront-- Skylar forced herself back into the present and realized that Winston had said something to her. “I-- Sorry. I’m fine. Just a little tired, that’s all.” She said with a shake of her head before bringing her coffee mug to her lips. She’d refilled it twice over the course of the episodes, which would usually be enough to bring her energy levels up to normal at this time of the month. But… it wasn’t working. She still felt drained, the coffee wasn’t helping, and she couldn’t get out of her head. “Rio seems really nice, mhm. I’m glad he had this idea. Maybe if we could make this a regular thing.” She said before glancing down the hallway. Wait… “Didn’t he say he was looking for the bathroom?” Skylar asked, her expression shifting to one of confusion. “Why’s the bathroom door open?”

Raising an eyebrow at Skylar’s response, Winston counted backwards in their head to the date that Ricky and Remmy had forced Skylar to change. “You sure?” they asked with a frown, not willing to push the issue considering that it was obviously an issue for Skylar, but they wanted their friend to be safe and well. They forced themselves to take a long breath and watch the anime. Skylar was her own person and she had her own level of autonomy. She had her own life and she could make all her own decisions without Winston’s help. Rising from their chair, Winston made their way over to the living room door and looked around. “Why is the bathroom door open?” they asked in agreement, “Maybe Orion just went the wrong way or something?” 

The news couldn’t have been any more relieving, and Orion had to physically force himself from cheering aloud or prancing around like an idiot. Skylar was a selkie! A selkie! Sure,  being human was the safest bet for Skylar, but this was better, no, safer than the alternatives. The only thing Orion could think of to test a Selkie would be their dietary restrictions, and that would be easy enough to work around. Plus, Orion had befriended a selkie! How cool was that? He placed the clothing back on top of the skin and made his way back towards the door. When he slid back out into the hallway he looked over to realize that both Skylar and Winston had apparently realized that Rio had not just gone to the bathroom. “Uh- wrong door” he laughed awkwardly, semi thankful that he had been an awkward disaster the entire evening so that he had that excuse going for him. Without another word he made his way into the bathroom, splashing his face with some water from the sink. He would sit in there for a few minutes, try to calm himself down. He hadn’t done anything wrong per say. Technically he had, but for the right reasons. This was totally forgivable, right? This was good. Maybe now that he had learned the truth he could finally just enjoy the anime night with his friends. The stress of dealing with his sister would have to wait another day. But just to be safe he was going to spend another minute or two in the bathroom practicing some breathing techniques.

“I’m sure,” Skylar said with a rather forced smile on her face, ignoring the way that her body was starting to ache in that familiar, ever-present way. The way that followed her around, day after day, no matter how much she rested or slept. The way that shouldn’t be happening right now. She should have had more time, she’d needed more time to just be normal. Why couldn’t she just be normal? Reluctantly, Skylar shifted from her place on the couch and followed after Winston to peer down the hallway. But, even as she looked over, she saw Rio scurry into the bathroom door with an awkward laugh, shutting the door behind him. He’d been awkward all evening, poor guy. “I don’t know how he could have gone into the wrong door-- it’s just our rooms and the bathroom down the hall.” She blinked with a shake of her head. Rio wasn’t some kind of pervert was he..? Had she made a mistake inviting him here?

Raising an eyebrow as Winston spotted Orion leaving Skylars room and promptly making a beeline for the bathroom. “I mean maybe check your room to see if anything has gone missing,” though they had to admit that Orion wasn’t exactly the type that seemed suspicious and this may well have just been an extension of their awkwardness but Winston didn’t want to take the risk that there was something more going on there. It seemed unlikely that someone like Orion was not human or was even aware of the supernatural, but then again Winston hadn’t known about it. “I can try and keep him distracted if you want, it was probably just an honest mistake though…” Pausing Winston looked to Skylar to see what she wanted to do, this was her place after all. Her call.

Grimacing, Skylar nodded. Winston had a point, there was an easy enough way of dealing with this. “Thank you. If he comes out before I do, just try and distract him somehow?” She asked before hurrying down the hallway. She slipped inside her room and glanced around-- her bookshelf looked normal, her sheets was still haphazardly tossed in an attempt at making the bed, and her chair. Eyes widening, she hurried over to her chair. Her skin. Her pelt. Shit. How could she have been so stupid to just leave it lying out? Had he found it? Had he taken it? Was he going to sell it on the black market like Ricky had said people did? Oh god. But, there it was. Under the clothes she’d hidden it under. Letting out a small sigh, she relaxed a little. Hang on. That still didn’t answer the question-- why had he been in her room? Oh no, he wasn’t actually a pervert, was he?

Footsteps down the hall made Orion’s heartbeat even faster. His hands were shaking and he could feel sweat collecting on them. He flushed the toilet, never bothering actually using it. He washed his hands and wiped them dry on the hand towel. He pushed back out into the hallway, glancing back quickly at the bedroom door. Skylar wasn’t in the living room anymore, she must have gone into the bedroom. Orion felt light headed from the guilt and his stomach began hurting. He wasn’t going to throw up in Skylar’s home, right? No... he needed to remain calm. Or as calm as possible for him. “Hey!” Orion muttered casually as he walked back into the living room and reclaimed his original spot. “Is Skylar okay? She looked a little out of it earlier.”

As Skylar left, Winston quickly came up with a lie. They weren’t sure why they had decided to suggest that they lie to Orion because they were perhaps the worlds very worst liar. They hoped that everything was in order. “Hey!” they replied jumping a little as Orion appeared once more, “I think she’s doing okay,” they replied their brain doing their best to churn out a lie that was plausible, “she just went to get changed, she was sat here and there was a … a …” their brain was blank, “a spider!” They paused for a sharp intake of breath because Skylar didn’t seem the type to be bothered by arachnids. “Anyway, there was this … uh spider and I hate spiders they give me the skeeves and so I spot this … spider and I kinda jumped and that made Skylar jump and as she jumped she was about to drink some of her coffee so it was in her hand and I think some of it spilled on her and she went to sort that, probably just cleaning up now or maybe she’s getting changed… i don’t know because I’m here with you and not out there with … her.” 

With one final, troubled look around her room, Skylar grabbed one of the sports mangas from her bookshelf and walked back out to the living room, holding it up at her guests as she returned to the living room. Rio was back in his spot and Winston seemed… a little out of sorts? What had they said? “I… remembered that Haikyuu is kinda similar to Koroko No Basket and decided to grab the book my room, in case you wanted to borrow it?” She said, holding the book out to Rio to look through. But, her eyes were trained on Winston. Did her story match with theirs..? What had they said to Rio to distract him? Oh god. They should have lined their stories up before she’d gone into her room. Her stomach churned slightly, she hated lying, she hated making things up so much. Particularly when it was over something that could be easily found out. Dammit.

Orion followed along with Winston’s story to the best of his ability. Admittedly, it seemed pretty obvious that they were lying to Orion. “Oh... uh I get it though, spiders scare me too.” That wasn’t a lie, Orion was terrified of the things. Though he was terrified of a lot of things so spiders didn’t necessarily make the top of the list. “Yeah, that makes sense. I hope she’s good. Is the spider gone?” He confirmed that it was a lie when Skylar came out giving a completely different excuse wearing the same clothes. Orion laughed nervously. They all knew each other was lying, but how did Orion explain to the two that he had a (semi) legit reasoning for glancing through the room? Especially in front of Winston; who knew what they knew about Skylar? Orion wasn’t willing to out her just to save his own skin. “Oh! I haven’t read that yet!” Orion smiled as wide as he could and tried to sound casual. Did his voice just crack? Jesus. “Thank you! I really appreciate it. I can get this back to you soon, I promise. Uh-“ he motioned to change the subject, “are you doing alright? You look a little out of it.” Why did he have to ruin every good thing that happened to him?

Winston’s eyes went wide as they realised that Skylar hadn’t changed. “Hey, you managed to … get the stain out already, you really must give me that recipe you know to do that. I spill … stuff on me … all the time.” They really needed to get better at lying, this was not going to work out if they were going to continue putting themselves in these situations. Glancing up at Skylar, Winston frowned as they realised that Skylar didn’t really look herself. She didn’t look ill per se, more that there was something off about the way she viewed the room. A weird sheen in her eyes. “Do you want to come and sit down, maybe you should have a drink or something?” they looked at Orion and hoped that their lies would be forgotten. They wondered what was really going on here, was it possible that they were in danger. Winston would’ve normally written it off as simple miscommunication and misunderstanding, but suddenly they were so sure. After everything that had happened maybe they were getting a little paranoid. 

Struggling to not just blink at the two of them in confusion, Skylar nodded slowly, “Uh huh… it was just a little spill-- not a huge deal. And I got distracted by the book because it was on the shelf next to me. Mhm!” Nailed it. Before she could say anything else that could make things weird, Skyar nodded and sat down on the couch, taking her spot once more. As the two of them asked her if there was something wrong, she frowned at them. What was going on? Was it that obvious that she wasn’t feeling her best? Glancing down at her hands, she saw that a thin film of slime had developed on her palms, but she did her best to hide that by folding her arms across her stomach. “I’m fine, really. Just a little tired, but that’s nothing super uncommon. Um… Are we still going to watch?” She asked, gesturing to the anime boys that were running around on her tv screen. The sooner they just dropped the question, the better. She didn’t want them asking her questions she couldn’t really answer.

Orion wasn’t convinced that Skylar was alright like she claimed, but it was hardly Orion’s business. There must have been some reason why she was trying to convince them that she was fine. Maybe she was just tired. Orion shrugged towards Winston as if to say, I hope she’s fine. Then at least, Skylar offered to continue watching the show. Things couldn’t be too messed up if they were going to be jumping back into the tv show, right? Orion let out a sigh of relief, falling back into the chair and trying to force himself to relax. Everything was going to be fine. Orion was going to befriend both of them despite the awkwardness of tonight. He needed some friends like this. “Yeah we should jump right back in. Sorry for holding things up.” He welcomed anything to change the subject from their obvious lies and hopefully give some room for the three to forget everything and bond over anime like they had been doing before. 

Winston knew that they were all aware that there wasn’t something quite right here. But apparently all of them were way too awkward to confront it. Winston’s tenous grasp over their magic was not something that they wanted to test now. So they sat there, and watched several more hours of this anime. In doing so, they had to admit that they really came to enjoy Orion’s company, despite the weird situation that was hanging over them. When it eventually got to the later hours of the night, Winston realised that they had work in the morning. Stiffling a yawn at the end of their current episode, they forced themselves from the couch. “Look, guys, I’ve got to go home,” they said as they pulled their glasses off an rubbed their eyes, “I’ve got to be at work in a few hours and I need to get some sleep, but … yeah I had a great time.” 

The next few hours of anime passed Skylar by in a slightly listless haze. She was aware of what was going on, but the tiredness was getting to her in a way that her normal methods of just weren’t handling. But, she did her best to seem as engaged as possible. She laughed when the other two did, she nodded along to the opening music, she tried to just be normal. When what she was going through was anything but. And, to top it all off, there was the matter of Rio… poking around in her room. As Winston stood up to walk out the door, Skylar nodded. “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize it’d gotten that late. Thanks so much for coming by.” She said, walking them to the door. Fingers twitching at her side nervously, she glanced back at the couch. Mmmmmm. She really had to know why he’d been in her room and this was as good of an opportunity as she was going to get. Speaking as casually as she could, Skylar asked, “Since they have to get to work tomorrow, Rio… do you mind helping me clean up a little?”

Orion was able to settle down enough to enjoy the anime for a few hours. He usually used anime when he was stressed out as a distraction. It got his mind off of reality and gave him some time to unwind and relax. That actually seemed to be working, despite the awkwardness of the night. After a while, Winston mentioned it getting late and began to pack their things. Orion hadn’t even noticed all the time that had passed. “It was super nice meeting you. I’m glad we got a chance to do this.” He smiled at Winston, nervously fumbling with the rings he had stolen from his sister. His little ploy had been so stupid. He should have just come for the anime night and left it at that. “Oh yeah of course. I’d love to help.” Orion agreed nervously.

Yawning, Winston collected the remainder of the snacks that they had brought with them, stuffing them into a rucksack and pulling their jacket on. Rubbing a finger behind the lense of their glasses, they nodded and smiled at Orion. Despite all of the weirdness earlier, Orion seemed cool. “Hey, dude, you too, we should definitely make sure that we do this stuff again, maybe on a weekend or when I’m not working.” With that they double checked that they had the last of their belongings and headed out into the night. 

Skylar smiled as Winston said their goodbyes and shut the door behind them. Just the effort of getting up and going to the door was draining, but she hid it as well as she could. She had no idea why she was feeling so awful. She'd been trying her best to take care of herself, reading the self-help books, and doing whatever she could to ease some of the stress that had been thrust upon her. This was part of why she'd wanted to have anime night-- it was meant to be something fun and normal and cool, but her body was just... ruining it for her. Letting out a sigh, she did her best to offer a genuine smile as she turned around to face Rio. "Thanks again for offering to help clean up, I really appreciate it." She said with a nod, putting a chip clip on one of the open bags. "Um... did you have a good time?"

Winston left for the night which just left Orion and Skylar alone in her place. Despite a few hiccups, Orion had enjoyed himself and hoped that the other two had as well. He was in the kitchen, throwing out the cans and bottles from the night and trying to organize the array of snacks that they had brought over. Orion couldn’t help but wonder what was on Skylar’s mind. His fingers drummed against the countertop nervously. “Hey, yeah of course it’s my pleasure.” He answered suddenly, realizing that he had spaced out for a moment. “I had a great time! It was really cool to have people to talk to about the shows I like to watch. Thanks again for inviting me over.” Were they going to talk about the bedroom incident? He didn’t want to, but he was afraid things would be worse if they didn’t. What would Orion even say? What excuse did he have, really? Aside from the truth, which was completely out of the question.

Skylar blinked at Rio's answer, a little confused by his body language. He'd been a little antsy all night, but there was something else about him. Why was he being so... odd? He almost seemed like he wasn't fully present, if that made any sense. But... she couldn't really judge. She hadn't been feeling like herself in a long time. "I'm glad that you had fun. I'm really hoping to make this a more regular thing." She said with a nod. But... she still wasn't a hundred percent sure how she felt about Rio. There was just something... off. Grimacing, she stared at the stovetop of the kitchen before turning around to face Rio. Looking him directly in the eyes, Skylar spoke up, "Um. Do you mind if I ask you something?" She could feel the sweat trickling down the side of her face; or, at least, she hoped it was just sweat. Either way, she really just wanted to ask him and get it over with. "Why were you snooping around in my room?"

Skylar did not look great, but Orion wasn’t sure that it was his place to make a comment on it. She had been lethargic the entire night and had looked a bit out of it, but Orion had hoped it was just exhaustion. But now, standing up with her in the kitchen instead of glancing from a chair, he could see that it was more than just Skylar being tired. It didn’t help that tension sunk between the two, both thinking about the same incident without either saying anything about it. But then finally, Skylar asked the question. What had Orion been doing in her room? All night, he had convinced himself that it was justifiable. That he had a good reason for doing what he had. But was it truly necessary? He was so stupid. “I- uh wasn’t snooping.” He began, but it didn’t feel right coming off his lips. They tasted bitter, “Sorry that’s not right- I didn’t mean to snoop.” That was closer to the truth. Sure, he had walked into that room on purpose, but he had never wanted to do it in the first place. “I walked in and I should have left immediately but I-“ He couldn’t explain to her the truth, not without explaining his family to her. “I saw the skin.” He finally settled on. That was what this entire night had boiled down to and it was a conversation the two would have to have eventually. He just hadn’t expected it to happen so soon. “I didn’t know what it was at first, so I went in because I wanted to know what it was.” He shut his eyes tight, not wanting to see her facial reaction just yet. “Which was wrong. And I shouldn’t have done that and I’m really sorry.”

The tiredness Skylar had felt all night had sunk into her bones as she listened to Rio. Folding her arms across her chest, her fingers gripped at the sides of her shirt, as though she could just physically hold herself together. If she could just keep it together, she would be okay. But, the second he mentioned skin... Her blood ran cold. What? He'd seen her skin, had he gone in there purposefully? But, it was still there, it was still there. Wait. Her eyes widened as she realized that he'd said skin, not pelt. Not something that... a normal person who saw a seal pelt would say. "You... you went into my room, and you saw my skin. And you don't think that's snooping?" Her voice shaking with both anger and fear. What was he going to do now? Why did he know. "How, how do you know what it is? Rio, why were you looking for things in my room? Why... why are you here?"

This wasn��t going well. Understandably, Skylar didn’t seem to take the news that Orion found the skin very well. “No, no. You’re right I’m sorry. It was snooping. But.. I didn’t want to snoop. ” Orion couldn’t seem to find the right words to say. Were there any right words to say? “Listen, there are some bad people in this town.” How did he tell her the truth without telling her the truth? “They want to hurt people that are… different.” His mouth was dry, but his palms were sweating and he wiped them against his jeans. He didn’t feel like he could make eye contact. He may start crying on the spot. God, that would be embarrassing. “I’m here for the anime night! I swear. But while I was here… I needed to know. So I could make sure you were safe. I- I don’t care that you’re a Selkie. I just don’t want others to find out and hurt you.”

Skylar shook her head slowly from side to side, as though that would make any of this situation less real. No, no, no. She'd been so careless, so stupid. She'd sent back the safe to Ricky and now she only had herself to blame for this. If she'd just kept the safe, then Rio would have never known that she was a Selkie. "Why did you need to know? Why couldn't you have asked me? If-- if you'd asked me, if you'd said that you were trying to help me, I would have told you." She said, trembling. "Who are these people? How do you know about them, and who-- who are they? If you're trying to help me, I need to know. I deserve to know if someone tries to hurt me for being something-- something I don't even want to be!" Her voice broke and tears began to streak down her face as she stared at Rio, still trying to comprehend what he had told her.

“I couldn’t just ask.” Orion whined, not proud of the emotion slipping into his voice. He hated crying. He definitely didn’t cry in front of people. “I didn’t- I couldn’t know if you were going to tell the truth. It’s why I wore these stupid rings.” He held his hand up as evidence. “There are hunters!” He couldn’t bring himself to tell her the whole truth. Knowing about his family would only put her in more danger. Not to mention himself. If he were to over tell them the truth about him then… well that might be his family’s final straw. “I’ve seen the awful things they can do and when we became friends I just- I just wanted to keep you safe.” But then Skylar broke Orion’s heart. She hated being a Selkie? All she was trying to do was live her life. Orion was the one that should hate what he was. He did hate what he was. “Skylar… There is nothing wrong with wha- with who you are. You deserve better than that.” Dang it. He wiped at his eyes with his forearm. This was definitely the worst.

Blinking through the tears, Skylar sucked in a deep breath and attempted to calm herself down. But, the more Rio kept talking, the more questions came to mind. What was he talking about? Hunters? His rings? What did he mean by this? What did any of this mean? "Are you a hunter? What are the rings, what are they?" She asked, trying to work through the thoughts racing through her mind. There was just so much that she couldn't even begin to understand with what he'd just said. "I--" She held up her hand, signing for him to stop. She didn't need someone who had just... outed her to try and reassure about what she was as a person. "Don't. Don't tell me that, I don't want to hear that. What I need to know," Skylar took in another shaky breath, "Is are they going to attack me? Are you going to hurt me?"

The words hurt Orion. They weren’t even accusatory, more questioning than anything. But it didn’t make the question hurt any less. Was he a hunter? “No. God no. I’m not a hunter.” That wasn’t a lie. Genetically, maybe he was but he would never become his family. He refused to accept that title as one of his own no matter what his family tried to force upon him. “I don’t- It doesn’t sound good. But I want to be honest here. The rings are silver and iron. It’s a way to test if a person is a werewolf or Fae.” He wanted to try to explain more to her, to try to make her understand or at the very least make her less afraid. But he had ruined it. He stopped talking immediately after she signed at him, freezing in his tracks. “Ok. I’m sorry.” He held his hands up in surrender and crossed them back over his chest. “No! No! No. I would never hurt you. Or anybody. I don’t want anybody to get hurt. Nobody is going to hurt you.” He was going to make sure of that. Whether Skylar could forgive him or not. Whether she ever spoke to him again. She would make sure that his sister stayed away from her.

Swallowing through the lump that had formed in the back of her throat, Skylar nodded. Okay. He wasn’t a hunter. But he knew about this? He knew about werewolves and fae and how to tell what they were? He knew about Selkies? How could he… Rubbing her fingers together, she shook her head again before unhooking her hearing aids from her ears, shoving them into the pockets of her jeans. She didn’t want to hear any more of this, she really didn’t. She couldn’t handle finding out about all of this. Focusing on reading his lips to compensate for her lack of hearing, Skylar’s hands clenched at her sides. “How do you know that no one is going to hurt me? I need you to leave. Right now. I can’t deal with this right now.” Skylar signed, pointing at the door.

Maybe Orion had still kept some hope alive. Maybe, despite the tears and the anger and the fear, Orion still wondered if a friendship was salvageable. Maybe, just maybe, Orion had deluded himself to believe that he did deserve friendship. But Skylar took out her hearing aids, and Orion knew that the conversation was over. The door had closed and Orion was locked out. At least the one benefit was that Skylar probably couldn’t hear his sniffling any longer. At least she was safe, and Orion knew that Athena’s initial tests wouldn’t show anything.”Yeah, of course. I get it.” He signed back at Skylar. He thought about leaving the bag of snacks on the counter for Skylar, but remembered that her diet wouldn’t exactly allow for that. So he grabbed onto the bag and made his way towards the door. He held onto the knob for a long moment before turning around to sign at her again. “Thanks for inviting me. I’m really sorry. Again.” Then he was gone.

[houseofvans]

ART SCHOOL | MICHAEL C. HSIUNG | VANS US OPEN 2018

Michael C. Hsiung has a special imagination, one filled with mermen, dragons, creative landscapes and intriguing narratives. His humorous illustrations will evoke your inner child and leave you wanting more. If only everyone could see the world through his eyes, maybe we’d live life a bit more light-heartedly. Now let’s dive into who this creative genius is and what he created on this year’s Vans US Open skate and BMX course.

Photographs courtesy of Ginger Caranto

What is your background? I was born in Chinatown, Los Angeles and raised in the San Fernando Valley. My folks emigrated from Taiwan to the US in the mid-late 70’s, and I grew up in Northridge where I discovered art, comic books, fantasy, skateboarding, Dungeons & Dragons and heavy metal. Now, I’m a self taught artist who has been lucky enough to draw and show my art to folks who hopefully like a good chuckle or two.

How did you get into art? My childhood was always filled with drawing, scribbling, and coloring books. I was always really stoked on comic book art, Dungeons & Dragons artwork, Pushead, Frazetta, Gorey and anything with skulls or dragons.

How did you start making art / what drives you to continue to do so? I grew up doodling, coloring, and using my imagination to play and have fun. So naturally I always kept a sketchbook or journal to record my thoughts through drawings or doodles. Tried endlessly to draw my own comic to no avail. Eventually I stopped drawing for a long time because I just didn’t think my drawings were good enough. I didn’t think I had the talent for it, so I stopped. Years passed . . .  I didn’t find myself drawing anymore, not until, I moved back to Los Angeles in 2007. I was hanging out with my old skate friends, and one of them was making art (Mike Stilkey - amazing artist), as was my sister, Pearl. They both encouraged me to draw with them while we chilled out from nights out on the town or when we were killing time. It was the perfect window for me to create and revisit drawing.

Eventually with enough encouragement through my friends and various random folks on the internet, I started to draw more and more. This eventually led to me showing work, taking on projects, and ultimately finding a purpose for myself. That was about 10 years ago, and it has been quite the ride. What drives me to continue has changed over the years, as I think it does for most folks who try and make a living doing art or freelance. It isn’t a easy career, though it may seem super fun and exciting, which it is of course. But also there’s what the reality is too– it is a lot of work, sacrifice and constant ups and downs. That being said, drawing is so much a part of who I am that while it has its challenges I know if I stopped, I’d be unsatisfied with life. I draw and make art to keep my sanity, and hopefully bring joy to folks who come across it.  

Who are your biggest influences? Hands down my older sister Pearl who is an amazing artist and painter. She was always drawing me things or painting my door with cool comic characters. Later on in life, she encouraged me to draw again, just for the therapy side of having an outlet.

What does your creative process entail? My process has changed over the years.  I used to just sit down, draw immediately, form ideas, and BOOM – that would continue for many years. Nowadays, I really have to find time and a spark or inspiration, then spend the hours sitting, pondering, sketching, and erasing before I even get to the point of wanting to pen in the lines. Sometimes I chuck things before they have even been half way finished. It is hard not to overthink what you do when you’ve been doing it for a bit, but I try and stay fresh by focusing on ideas and interests that inspire me. I also try and create a fun and relaxed environment in my studio with little to few distractions–almost as if to take me back to when I was a kid drawing just for drawing’s sake.

What is your most important artist tool? Is there something you can’t live without in your studio? My most important artist tool is my imagination. Growing up I was lucky to really have to use my own imagination to play and create worlds, which has helped me as an artist. Imagination and creativity is what gives life to my art.

Many of your drawings feature a hybrid animal. Who is this character and what does he represent to you? I think the first hybrid animals I started drawing were merman. I am fascinated by mythology and old tales, so I wanted to re-imagine what these creatures were like, who they were, and why the mermaids left them. I started to create these stories in my head, so I wanted to draw out my own narrative. I love reading and exploring the origins of mythological creatures such as centaurs, harpies, satyrs and then re-creating my own tales about them in the modern world or with modern vices. They allow me to explore the world in a different way as well as express my passion for cryptozoology, mythology, and fantasy.

Where do you find inspiration for your work? Inspiration is a strange thing, but I get inspired by things I read, strange facts, old books, sometimes movies, adventurers, old tales, friend antics, mythology, fantasy, crystals, nature, skateboarding and the list goes on. I try and let my mind find other interests that can inspire my work in a new direction.

How has your style changed over your career? When I started drawing again in 2007 my art was looser, naive, and more freeform but thematically I was drawing what I touch upon now. I was and am still drawing mermen, weird animals, and strange people. I’ve worked on honing my ideas, drawing with intention, and making my art cleaner, straighter and well executed. That’s what happens when you start to show art with other amazing artists - it makes you up your stuff!

Can you tell us about the mural you created for the Vans Park Series course? This year for the Vans Park Series course I created four different painted illustrated pieces–a bear skating on all his paws, a Slip-On shoe wizard, a mustached dude on a log board, and a bear with a sun hat on one as well.

The bear on the board is a character I’ve been drawing for a few years. She’s kind of a combo of a California State bear, a friend and a reference to my last name, which in Chinese translates to BEAR. Bet you didn’t see that one coming ha.

Well I’m super into wizards and super into Slip-Ons, so it was just a natural thing that came to being hah. I did that piece for my wife Rachel too! I even added some crystals for her since she’s a total rock hound.

The last character is just a rad cruiser dude who I imagine seeing all over town just laying back on his deck with his road soda. Just enjoying life.

What is your favorite part about painting a mural? My favorite part about painting the mural is when you see it getting shredded by all the amazing skateboarders!

What was the painting experience like working with multiple artists on the course? It’s such a great bonding experience when you’re painting a huge skate course in 3 days with other artists. I love seeing everyone’s approach, style and learning about their art and who they are.

It was my first time meeting Benjamn Marasco and Ellen Rutt, and I have to say those are some inspiring folks. They tackled their massive murals within tough conditions and never flinched.  I love that.

It is always fun to work alongside Jack Graydon! He’s the best. You wanna learn about spray paint? Jack’s your man. You need help with a color choice, Jack is the man!

Then it was a special treat to work with artist and bud Phil Morgan. I don’t know how to explain it, but it was real special. We helped keep each other on track and just like always bounce ideas off each other. Lots of time I feel like you’re working out your problems in the bowl with other artists. It’s fun!

Do you have a favorite memory from your time spent at the US Open? So many fun and memorable moments, but my favorite memory from the time in the park was definitely the last day when we were all finished with our murals and sitting together on the spine looking around and checking out each other’s pieces.  I mean you spend most of the time there focusing on your mural and painting that you don’t actually get to see each other’s work before it gets skated - so that end moment is special :)

What was the most challenging part of the mural you created? The most challenging part of the mural really is the weather (super hot in the bowl!) and painting on the transition. You don’t realize how many muscles start working until you wake up the next morning. Standing and balancing while trying to paint a straight line is probably the hardest part, but you learn to get loose and go with the flow. Let it flow!

Do you have any advice for people who have dreams of becoming an artist? My advice to people who have the dream of becoming an artist–if you have a great imagination, feed it with books, music, art, and play a board game once in a while.

Follow Michael on Instagram and check out his online shop here.

[rwbyremnants]

THIS CHAPTER: Ladybug (Ruby/Blake): asexuality discussion, PDA, kissing lessons, making out, frenching, grinding, sixty-nine, exploration, cunnilingus, fingering, handjob, fellatio, deep-throating, swallowing, coitus interruptus, voyeurism, awkwardness, panty-sniffing.

AUTHOR NOTES:  Building up to some future fun now! Thanks for sticking with this fic, I know it's super long but I promise we're into the second half now and there IS an ending!

=Chapter 23

"So I ran out of books, and Yang mentioned you know where the best ones are, and mentioned you know what genres go where, and which you'd recommend and..."

Ruby Rose had been babbling on for the last five minutes. This evening, she was with Blake in the library, desperately trying to seek new books to read. As good as she thought her own books were, reading just about heroes saving the day was becoming rather… tiresome. Besides, it wasn't the story of heroes saving the day that she needed. It was books on romance. How else would she figure out the perfect way to confess her love for the heiress? To ask her to be her own? And…

How else could she surprise her in the bedroom? Any books that went into detail in that department would be greatly helpful.

"Ohhhkay," Blake laughed as she pulled a book of world maps out of her hands and set it on the coffee table. There had still been a few other people in the library when Ruby started, but they had all filtered out, partly due to the late hour and partly due to her ceaseless chattering. They probably assumed they could get more studying done in their dorms. "You've been asking me all this stuff for a while but never specified what you want this book for. I mean, what kind of story are you after? Or are you trying to research something?"

"Well... Uuuum..."

That was when Ruby seemed to be getting rather defensive. She couldn't just out right tell Blake that she was after a specific genre, could she? How embarrassing would that be to admit she was after a smut book!

Although... There was a more socially acceptable option. "Romance! It's… about the only genre I haven't read much of."

And Blake was prepared to take Ruby's insistence at face value... but something about her nervous disposition was telling her that there was more to this story. Looking at her fidgeting hands where she sat on the far end of the comfortable sofa, she leaned in very slightly - not sure why she was doing so when they were alone. "Ruby, are you after romantic stories , or… advice?"

Seemed the books weren't the only thing Blake could read so easily. The innocent asking of a book recommendation had backfired dramatically. Blake knew her game already. Or did she? Perhaps she could still pull the wool over her eyes.

"Well... If you think I'm looking for advice, I do not want to be following in Twenty Shades of Black 's example, heh."

"Oh, that's a relief," Blake snorted. "I've never read a bigger collection of bullsh... I mean, unsafe ideas in my life." With a shrug, she laid her own book aside and crossed her legs primly, trying to look completely at ease and open for discussion. Not that she was, but Ruby was nervous enough for the both of them; she didn’t need to make it worse. "Can you be more specific? Like, bedroom advice, dating, buying a present?"

"…All three?" Nervously hunching her shoulders, she grinned innocently, tilting her head in the hopes that Blake would drop the subject that she needed help. But it wasn't to be. She needed help. Reluctantly sighing, she looked to the ground, trying to keep the blush off her face. "I guess ‘bedroom’ is the one I need most urgently."

"That's totally fine, okay? Ask me whatever you need." Of course, Blake only had the tiniest bit of experience with Yang and Carm, and Weiss just the once, but she had read a lot more about this subject than Ruby had. "Do you want to learn some new, um, positions, or what?"

"Positions, tricks, anything that'll keep someone interested!" she came out with. This seemed to be a bit more dire than just curiosity. And the following confirmed it. "Okay, so… you know Weiss and I are… intimate, right?"

The Faunus nodded. "So I've heard." To be entirely honest, when she first heard little Ruby was intimate with anyone it had thrown her for a loop, but after what happened with Carmine that would be awfully hypocritical. "Why do you think you need to get Weiss 'more interested'?"

How was best to explain this? It wasn't like explaining it to Yang, there was nothing holding her back from going into gorey details around Blake. But would she want to hear it?

Nothing else for it. Clenching her eyes shut, she began to explain. "Cause my sex drive only picks up once in a blue moon, so I want when I am in the mood… I want it to be good . Y’know?"

"What has Weiss complained about? I mean, if she has," she amended hastily. "We can work on those areas and make sure you're an old pro at them next time!"

"She hadn't complained at all... but I just…" With a deep sigh, she stared down at the ground. This was going to be harder to explain than she thought. "I don't want her to be bored with me, I guess? If I'm barely in the mood to do anything, then surely she'd get bored, wonder off and do things with Yang instead. I like Weiss a LOT. I just wanna be good enough for her."

"Oh, Ruby..." She reached to her side and picked up a stack of books and papers from the couch, moving them onto the table. Then she placed her own rear end where the books had been so she could reach over and put a hand on her friend's shoulder. "I'm sure Weiss knows how you feel. She's not going to leave you just because of… bedroom situations."

Unable to help herself, Ruby leant her head against the Faunus's shoulder, wrapping one hand around her body and resting it on her hip. "How can you be sure, though? With you two it seems easy, you guys can be in the mood any time. I just seem like I'm too much trouble, considering sometimes I have to jump through mental hoops just to get turned on..."

"Well... you could always just pleasure Weiss without being turned on, give her what she wants as long as it's nothing too demanding or past what you're comfortable with. Sometimes that's part of being in a relationship." With a slight sigh, she looked down at her boots. "I'm... kind of like that myself, to be completely honest. Sometimes I'm all ready to go, and sometimes my libido needs a little convincing."

"Is it weird that even seeing her naked doesn't even trigger anything?" It sounded almost like she was going off her lover, by the way she was describing it. But that was never the case. Ruby just simply didn't work that way. "Not her specifically… anyone. I never have, really."

Digesting that, Blake tapped her chin with the free hand for a moment. "Well that's fine. It's not about visuals for you, it's about... connecting with the one you love." Dropping her voice slightly, she said, "I think that's really sweet, you know? Maybe it's causing you problems right now, but you and her... I think you clearly care about her more than anyone else if you're willing to ask me about this."

"... Maybe." Not wanting to say much more on the subject, Ruby let Blake's hip go at last so they could get back to looking through the card catalogue.

An hour later, the two teammates stared at the selection of books over on the table. They'd picked a few of Ruby's typical genre, but also a small batch of romance novels. Not that the particular advice within them was too useful. It seemed Blake was more useful in getting that information.

“Sorry,” Blake sighed at last. “We tried. But hey, maybe those two on top will still be helpful.”

"Maybe. So... How do you think I could please her without getting myself off too?"

"Well... okay, you know how to use your mouth, right?" Not even waiting for her to respond, she went on, "And there's always hands. You never know, touching her and smelling her, hearing how much pleasure she's getting from you... it might bring you around. And even if it doesn't, that's still fun for both of you because Weiss gets off, and you get to get her off. Get it?"

She nodded, understanding what exactly Blake was explaining. She did enjoy getting Weiss off, even if the deed wasn't returned. That was how their first few encounters went in the first place, especially the very first when she had used her mouth. But there was one slight problem.

"Still... Doing things with fingers and hands isn't exactly… the same, you know? It's fun, but I don't know if it really shows how…" This was becoming dangerous territory. As far as she knew, she had never told anyone her true feelings for the heiress. This would become the first time, and to one of her other lovers no less.

No harm in trying.

"...How deep I feel about her."

And that did make Blake suspect. Maybe Ruby felt about Weiss the way she herself felt about Yang. However, she wouldn't dream of assuming any such thing.

"Well, let's see... thing is, I don't think during sex is when you're going to show her your true feelings. It's going to be other ways. Surprising her with flowers, or taking her to one of her favourite places." Then she tilted her head slightly. "Do you guys kiss very often?"

That question made Ruby think. When actually was the last time she and Weiss kissed? Properly kissed? She kissed her shoulders and neck when they were playing, licked other places... But an actual full-on liplock?

"... Not really. I d-don't think I'm very good at it."

"Come on, I highly doubt you're not very good. You're Yang's sister, after all."

Which was when Blake had the idea that they should kiss.

Immediately, she tried to dismiss it, to pretend she hadn't been hit with such a crazy, intrusive thought, but it was too late. What if they did kiss? Would it be weird? She was only even considering it because she wanted to give Ruby some feedback about her technique... but once that thin mental barrier had been punctured, she also couldn't deny that the short, energetic redhead was adorable, and was also the only member of her team she had never had a non-platonic encounter with.

No, that was stupid. Stupid and dangerous; it could lead somewhere that neither of them intended. Shaking out her head, she went back to waiting patiently for Ruby to respond.

"Hey, it's not like she kisses me. That would be weird!” The comparison was somewhat expected. Ruby knew very well that Yang was highly experienced with many different partners in such matters. It made sense that she would be a good kisser. “And I can't exactly make out with someone random and ask for tips. Except maybe Jaune."

"Jaune?!" Blake burst out, then cleared her throat. "I m-mean... yes, I know you two get along fairly well. Then again, given the type of person he is, he would definitely read more into it than just a simple 'test'."

"Yeah... I guess that's true. And Pyrrha would probably hit the roof!" Now that image was in her mind. Jaune Arc kissing her, making out with her. Good lord, why couldn't there be such a thing as mind bleach?! Shaking her head, she went back to the subject. "Y-you get the idea though, I'm not exactly going to have anyone else to compare to."

The increasing desperation in Ruby's voice was making her feel less and less sure that she should abstain. What if they threw caution to the winds? What real harm would come of it?

"You could... practice on me."

"Maybe I could practice on my own ha- wait what?"

Eyes widening, she quickly looked around to Blake. She offered to kiss her. Her teammate, her sister's girlfriend , just offered to kiss her to give her tips. Wouldn’t that be a problem? Highly awkward? Then again, at this stage, she thought not. After all, in their team, it seemed kissing and even more intimate things were becoming a group activity. And it wasn’t as if they were going to do anything more in the library…

"…Would you be okay with that?"

"Y-yeah," Blake said, even though clearly she still had some misgivings. "I mean, it's not like we're going to both drop our current partners just because of one kiss. Besides, you're my teammate. I want to help." To make her words sound less hollow, she edged a couple of inches closer, moving her hand from Ruby's shoulder to the middle of her back. Not overly flirty, but definitely inviting her into her personal space.

Already, the smaller redhead was beginning to blush intensely. She really was thinking about this. Blake was certainly very good-looking, and there was something rather alluring about kissing someone so much taller than her, in comparison to the mere inch Weiss had. It could certainly teach her some things.

"M-maybe we could…"

Half as much trying to convince herself as to convince her teammate, Blake shrugged and said, "No big deal. But I want you to be the one to kiss me. I'm not going to do much so you can show me how you normally kiss, and then we'll go from there. Think of it as... an aptitude test, okay?" And with that, she leaned down slightly and pursed her lips, waiting.

"Alright... okay…" Taking a few deep breaths, the smaller girl tried to calm herself as much as possible. She was going to start the kiss this time. Had that ever actually happened before?

And so, Ruby slowly started to lean forward, closing her own eyes as her lips made contact with her friend's. From there, she slowly allowed her lips to begin kneading against hers. Very gradually, her lips began to open all the more, and she allowed her tongue to press into her lips slightly.

"Whoa, whoa," Blake laughed breathlessly as she drew back - but only just enough to speak. Their lips still very slightly brushed each other when she talked. "So that wasn't... right away, but it was still a little soon for tongue. Maybe not for you and Weiss, though... does she usually go straight for that?"

Resting her forehead against the Faunus's for a short moment, she couldn't help but continue to stare at her lips. How was she supposed to keep thinking rationally through all this?

"She... Um…" Swallowing, she attempted to think back to previous kisses. What exactly did Weiss do? "U-usually we kiss when we're about to do t-things… so we kinda get excited."

Blake made sure to caress her cheek for a few seconds before answering, trying her best to reassure the poor thing. "That's understandable. Okay, try it again, but move your lips slower... and try to do something with your hands. Go on."

Taking another few deep breaths, the redhead slowly leant in again. This time, when her lips reconnected with her teammate's, she left them there for a short while. Things slowed right down, especially the kneading against her lips as she very gradually moved them against hers. And one of her hands then rested on her thigh, gradually rubbing up and down. It was all she could think of doing.

Against her will, Blake began to feel her body responding to these new tactics. So far, it was only vestigially, but that could change if Ruby's technique improved much more. Without breaking the kiss, she took Ruby's other wrist and guided the attached hand onto her neck, then left it there. Hopefully, her pupil would take the hint.

Which she did. Ruby was indeed a practical learner. And through this practice, she was learning where to put her hands. Slowly rubbing both her thigh and her neck, she found herself beginning to lean forward, deepening the kiss more. Finding she had nothing else to instruct so far, Blake simply melted into the kiss, opening her mouth slightly and tilting to one side to allow Ruby free reign. The girl was quite skilled, as it turned out; yes, she had more to learn, but she was no beginner. Almost as a sort of reward, her own hands came to rest on Ruby's waist, a gentle reassurance.

"Mff…" She found herself pulling away very slightly. The embrace was wonderful, as was the kiss! But the girl had more questions, and it made for a good excuse to hit the “abort” button. "S-so... When do you think I-I'd use tongue?"

Eyelids fluttering, the Faunus had to take a moment to gather her wits. "Um... you could have by now, actually. When I put my hands on your waist, it was kind of a green light that you could do more."

"O-oh... Um... Well this is awkward." Hunching her shoulders nervously, she kept her hands where they were on Blake, gently rubbing again. "Can we continue from where we were? O-or has the mood gone?"

"Not gone,” she said with a slight chuckle and a warm smile. “We’re only practising, anyway; you can jump right in."

And she figured she would take some pressure off Ruby by initiating the next kiss herself; they had already gone over that part, after all. Her lips met the soft ones of her teammate and kneaded very gently, still waiting for the next move to be made onto her instead of making any herself. Now that they returned to the same point, Ruby was ready, and she had clear instructions on how to take the next step. So from there, she parted her lips, poking her tongue forward and into the other woman's mouth. Rather than barge right in, she ran her tongue gently over the woman's lips, a way to ask permission.

The kiss was making something else appear, however. Seemed Blake was right in that and kissing or touching, more emotional connections, did the job in getting her arousal going. And thanks to not taking a certain antidote, that arousal would soon be visible.

A sigh escaped through Blake's nose as she parted her mouth to allow the tongue access. This was going quite well, wasn't it? Both of them were enjoying themselves, and Ruby seemed to be smoothing her rough edges. All in all, a success. So what if she was beginning to feel her body awakening? Nothing would happen - and even if it did, Weiss and Yang could hardly fault either of them after the way they both handled their relationships.

Perhaps it was time to try something more, Ruby thought. As her body continued to awaken, she found her mouth parting further, and her tongue brushing against another. The Faunus was a very good kisser, even if the main person she learnt from was Yang – not a thought she enjoyed, but she could ignore it . How far could this go? Could she perhaps ask for other critiques if she did try to go further? But before she could even think about the consequences, she found her body leaning forward, falling gently onto the other woman's body as she pressed her chest against the Faunus's.

That was when the game officially changed - when Blake felt another set of soft breasts connecting with her own, flattening each other's as if locked in battle. The thigh had been easy to ignore, but this less so; Ruby was slowly pushing her onto her back. And she was letting her.

Did she want to actually "make out" with her lover's little sister? Was that okay? Yes, Ruby was technically old enough to make this decision by the laws of Sanus, but she was also innocent of the ways of love - as evidenced by her asking for advice. Nevermind that both Weiss and Yang would probably have something to say about it, even if they forgave her this indiscretion. But they had agreed to this training session, and Blake felt committed to keep it going until Ruby called things off.

But as Ruby continued to kiss her deeper, continued to push Blake down as she laid on top of her; she found her legs parting, allowing one of her friend's to slide between them. And that's when she felt her arousal coming into contact with her, and it only made such a thing grow more...

Blake was just on the point of breaking the kiss to ask if Ruby had some sort of new weapon, when something registered in her mind: Dust. The formula. Apparently, Weiss had taken it once, and then Yang had given her the full demonstration. What if Ruby was experimenting with it now?

Was she feeling her lover's sister's magically-male organ against her thigh?!

And yet she could not stop kissing, could not pull back to inquire about it or to protest. Ruby's kiss was still earnest and true, and she desired it, even if she was slightly wary of what might happen should they continue.

However, the leader herself was wary. No matter how much she wanted to continue, how much she felt her body getting further and further aroused, she couldn't. Weiss could have multiple lovers, as could Yang, as could Blake. But Ruby could not. She was too emotionally invested in her partner to go any further. Slowly parting her lips, she gradually looked up into Blake's eyes, finding she couldn't shake that feeling at all.

For a long moment, Blake simply looked back at her, breathing hard and licking her lips. That look of shame and uncertainty was clear as day; poor conflicted Ruby. She ran a hand through her soft hair and asked, "What... else do you need help with? Feels like you have a pretty good start."

Her eyes continued to dart between the eyes and lips. Kissing her felt good, no matter how much she didn't want to admit it. But she couldn't keep going. Something was holding her back from doing the actions she wanted to whilst she was kissing Blake. "I-I'm sorry… can we stop k-kissing? I... I think I got it, but I just..."

"Just what?" Blake asked gently, allowing her hands to slide down Ruby's back. Then they perched on her waist, not going further down for fear of that being deemed too far. "Just... could use some help? Down here? It's okay if that's something you need."

Not that she was entirely comfortable with the idea of that anatomy. Maybe it would be alright this time, maybe it wouldn't... but she couldn't honestly imagine Ruby hurting a flea. It felt a lot less threatening when attached to their diminutive leader than it would have any other girl - or guy, for that matter.

"N-not exactly my lower half I need help with…" That wasn't entirely right. Ruby did want to admit that she stopped kissing for one main reason; she was too in love with Weiss to keep going with that aspect. But that was one thing she was struggling with. She had only been intimate with Weiss on one occasion when she was biologically female. She knew nearly nothing on how to please that part of her anatomy when she had it.

"H-how much do you know about Weiss? About the... Dust stuff?"

"Not a lot in detail," Blake told her calmly, manually shifting Ruby's hips up and down, grinding her leg up against the erection. She had the feeling she wanted to stop out of fear of judgment, but that was the last thing Blake wanted - if she wanted to pull away completely because she truly did not want this anymore, that was another matter, but she would not have her teammate shaming herself out of a pleasurable experience. "Just that Weiss used to have... wh-what you have right now. Because of the accident. She didn't when I was intimate with her, though."

As the leg began to grind against her hardness, she couldn't help but moan out loudly. So much so that she quickly slapped her hand over her mouth. How ridiculous was that?! Licking her lips to compose herself, she tried to edge away from the leg. It was driving her too mad to think!

"W-Weiss... Has only ever had… what you have… once. When we've done things, that is."

Smiling gently, Blake stopped moving her hands, though she did not withdraw her leg. "I think I know what you're after... you want to know more about how to please the female anatomy? That's not so hard, I can give you a few pointers. Or show you."

Now it was Blake's turn to bite her lip and look regretful. She hadn't really meant to say she would SHOW Ruby! Her internal thought process was that she would find a diagram in a book, but that definitely wasn't how her words had sounded!

"Oh! I... Uh…" Was it possible for her face to turn any more red?! Blake had offered to kiss her, give her tips, and was now offering to teach her about this? How could she return the favour?

Except… she could feel Blake's legs constantly rubbing against her hardness. Over and over. She was interested in learning about this part of the anatomy, as well.

"Maybe we can teach each other?"

"W-well, I don't really..." But perhaps she was being too hasty. She would much rather practice on a friend with a vagina because it held more appeal to her, but it was true that she would like to know what on earth she was doing should Yang ever partake in the Dust again.

"I don't... really know what I'm doing in that area, either. I've never taken the Dust."

"You don't have to. I mean, if it's not your thing of course, you don't have to. Yang would never force you, either. But, if you want to practice on me for when Yang has…" She offered once more. Truth be told, if this teasing continued, she may have to wonder off and satisfy herself. How did teaching Ruby how to kiss end up with her turned on completely?

There was only the briefest of pauses as Blake considered the pros and cons. If they did things this way, clinically, then there would be less chance of things getting out of control. Besides, she really should give herself a chance to really examine one; last time she had been so dead set on getting things over with that she hadn't stopped to really look at it.

"Okay. Why don't we, um, do it at the same time? I'll lay back and you can turn around." At least she already had that much figured out.

"So like a 69 type of pose?" the leader asked, hands both on the waistline of her skirt to get things ready. This time she could have a good look, and learn the best ways to please. She felt a little self-conscious about doing it in the library, but it really was completely deserted…

"Um... yeah, exactly. Where did you learn that term?" Then she raised a hand. "Not important."

Her other hand was already unzipping her shorts as she leaned back on the couch, legs still off to one side until Ruby moved so she could stretch them out. Part of her was dreading this, but part of her was undeniably curious. Would Ruby's be just like Yang's? Would she be just as squeamish about it this time, or would the second encounter be easier than the first?

"Okay…" Taking more deep breaths, Ruby finally pushed her skirt downward even further, until it hit the floor beside them. After that, she kept her underwear where it was. There was no way she wanted to pressure Blake into looking at it if she didn't want to. That wouldn't be fair.

Turning around so she could better see the Faunus's body, she looked down at her underwear now that it was visible. It seemed she wasn't the only one becoming aroused, considering the wetness she could see soaking the fabric.

It turned out Ruby's consideration was well-founded; Blake glanced at the taut bulge in Ruby's underwear and then away again, cheeks redder than they were a second ago. Clearing her throat, she finished sliding her shorts off and kicked them onto the floor next to the discarded skirt.

"So, um... do we want to be more naked than this, or do you want to get started?"

"J-just get started, please!" In truth, she feared if she got any more naked in this public place, she would probably faint from sheer embarrassment. But to begin things, she placed one hand against Blake's inner thigh, very slowly stroking the soft skin there to begin. If their kissing lessons had taught her anything, it's that slow and steady always won the race.

Nodding to herself and trying to relax into the sensation, Blake reached over and began to tug at Ruby's thigh, encouraging her to straddle her face. Even just thinking about anyone straddling her face made her bow twitch anxiously. Blake found herself wishing she had worn cuter underwear today, or trimmed the hair beneath it more recently, but then again this wasn't supposed to be perfect. Just an object lession.

Ruby complied. Placing her legs either side of her face, she slowly began to lower herself into a better position. This would indeed not be the best, but that didn't matter. It was a chance to learn for their partners. A chance for them to have more fun in the future with a better understanding of anatomy. Feeling brave, Ruby placed one hand on her underwear, gradually lowering it down her legs to expose the softness below...

Which had Blake straining not to freak out. Once Ruby had nixed the idea of disrobing further, Blake had somehow mentally convinced herself that she wouldn't be exposed at all, despite the knowledge of what they were doing. Squeezing her eyes closed, she obediently lifted her hips up to allow Ruby to take them off, then lifted her feet so she could finish the process. A small, shaky breath escaped her when she felt her bare rump touch the couch. They were going to get in so much trouble!

Somehow, the possibility of getting caught was both horridly embarrassing... and wildly erotic to Ruby. What if someone did come in and see what they were doing? What if... Weiss came in, and joined them both? Such an idea only caused her sex to embarrassingly twitch, made her try and focus on what was below. Blake was rather pretty down there. The soft set of lips was very inviting, and the visible wetness was all the more wonderful to look at. No wonder Yang was so eager to do things with her all the time.

Being one step braver again, she found a hand slipping between her legs, allowing one of her fingers to push between the folds...

The moan that issued from Blake was mostly from feeling Ruby touch her, but also from seeing the bulge in the underwear throb. Without the skirt in the way and it hanging over her face, it was a lot harder to ignore.

"Okay," Blake sighed shakily. "S-so now you're looking at me... touching me. You'll probably want to stroke along the lips, pushing in about as much as you are now but going all the way down and back up."

The redhead's breathing was becoming shakey. This was so exciting! Even if it was with Blake rather than who she was seeking the advice for, the idea of being able to send her over the edge was so appealing. Pressing her finger firmly between the folds, she began to stroke the length of them between her lips, feeling a particular bump at the top...

"HHHAH! Oh, th-that's good! Great job, A plus!" It was really embarrassing how much she was enjoying such simple actions, but she couldn't help it - Ruby was a quick study. She had even found the clitoris on her first try, without having to ask about it! The way Ruby was poking it made her suspicious, though. "So... that's the clit. Did you, um, do much with that before?"

"Weiss did with me... I kinda just dove in." She laughed nervously again, continuing to stroke the length of her wet folds. Occasionally, when she went by her clit, she found herself rubbing to the side of it. Even if it was tiny movements , she awaited response.

Now raising her own hands to the backs of Ruby's thighs, she began to stroke smoothly and gently, wanting to give Ruby more time to explore before she started her own lesson. Even if she was beginning to get more and more curious about the thickness hovering directly over her face. Without the shock of finding out girls could have actual functioning penises from exposure to Dust fresh in her memory, having one nearby wasn't so intimidating. In fact, it had been warm and soft under her hand last time. Nowhere near as disgusting as she had been expecting.

"That's g-good. Now you might want to circle it with a finger, or... or your tongue. That's pretty enjoyable." Of course, nothing Ruby was doing was unenjoyable, but that didn't mean Blake wasn't going to help guide her a little at a time. "And you can usually start pushing y-your fingers in a little at a time after a minute or two. Mostly, you just… want to listen to your partner for changes in her breathing, or tone."

Nodding again, Ruby took Blake's advice. Or more… she took the second option. Leaning her head down even further, she pressed her tongue against the clitoral hood, beginning circling movements around gradually. The hand that was once stroking the length of her was getting into position, this time stroking around the entrance.

"Mmmhhh," Blake moaned with a little shiver. That was so good! Of course, Ruby was used to putting her mouth on something much larger, but that wasn't the only thing her tongue could tease. So smooth and wet!

But she could give as good as she got. "M-my turn," she breathed as her fingers reached up and tugged the fabric of Ruby's underwear aside, sending the tender flesh swinging down toward her face.

When she felt her arousal gently swing once it was released from her underwear, she sighed against Blake's sex. Already fully aroused and ready, the girl's equipment was slightly smaller then her sister's. And definitely nowhere near as hard. If anything, it was very similar in appearance, aside from the size. A less intimidating Yang-wang, almost.

"O-okay…" she spoke softly a moment, breaking away from her. "D-do you wanna look first, or shall I tell you what's what?"

"Um..." Then Blake realised something: she really might need a lesson in what was what. Even though she knew the basics from reading, it would be different learning how they looked in person, how they moved. "If you don't mind, y-you could... tell me what I'm touching and what it feels like as I go. Is that okay?"

"Y-yes... That seems like a good idea. That's easiest way really." Of course Ruby was nervous. Blake was staring right at her male sex, examining it. And soon she would be touching it. Only Weiss was the one who did such a thing before.

"Okay, so... so let's start here." Blake laid her index finger along the thick shaft, feeling its pulsating warmth. Feeling her own stomach clench when she did it.

"Oooh…" the smaller girl sighed contently, breathing out against her current partner's sex. "T-that's the shaft. It's way more sensitive on the underside, so where you're stroking is nice."

"Oh," Blake breathed quietly. That was new information; she had just assumed the whole thing felt about the same. Trailing downward, she poked the thin seam between where the shaft met the head, feeling a thin bit of skin bridging the two. "And... here? What's this do?"

"HNN!" At first Ruby groaned quite loudly, soon biting her lip to quell any unwanted noises. How embarrassing once again. "T-the head? Things start to feel REALLY good there… but you gotta be careful, it’s also kinda sensitive…"

"Okay!" Blake squeaked, drawing her hand back and away. That was more than she had been bargaining for. Then she looked up and saw the two small orbs hanging in their sack between shaft and tiny puckered anus. The loose skin around them had been so inviting before...

"How does this feel?" Trapping some skin between her thumb and forefinger, she pulled it away very slightly, watching the objects within shift and the member swing back and forth slightly from the nearby movement.

It certainly made the younger woman sigh contently, but wasn't a moan of sorts. The sensation was... Nice. It was pleasant. But not necessarily pleasurable. It was more like a gentle caress than anything else. "It feels kinda nice… not as good as the head, though."

"Okay, good, because I..." Blake had been on point of saying she was glad because she had done that to Yang and was worried it hurt more than the blonde let on. Luckily, she had realised that would perhaps be information overload for the young leader. "Because I think I like the feeling of this stretching." Leaning in, Blake did what she had done before, pulling a fold of the skin between her lips and laving over it with her tongue.

"Hmmm..." Ruby further enjoyed the sensation. The woman certainly was skilled with her tongue! Not even in a way to cause pleasure, but to relax her. All of the pent up fear she had of doing this seemed to melt away, and she allowed herself to relax fully.

Then finally, she leant back down to Blake's clit again, drawing her tongue back out to re-perform the small circles around it.

"MMmhh!" That spread throughout Blake like fire. Since when did Ruby need any lessons when she had already mastered everything?! Almost as if solely to delay any more pleasure to her clit, she said, "W-wait, how is... how's this?" A second later, she began to slide her loosely-closed hand up and down the shaft, hoping her movements weren't too awkward due to the angle.

"Aaaaahhh..." Such actions were turning her to jelly. It was difficult to hold herself up away from Blake's face, rather than either sit to one side and let her get on with it, or even sit on her face and hurry things along that way! It did make her back away from her clit a moment though. "Oh... Yeah, that's nice. R-Really nice. Squeeze m-more on the underside… ooh , not that much!"

Blake thought on that for a moment. Did she mean more pressure, or to move her hand? Her palm was already on it, so she decided to squeeze slightly tighter as she stroked, feeling it somehow grow even harder since she had began.

"Like this?" Both cheeks were still aflame, both from the knowledge of what they were doing and Ruby's recent laving of her own sex.

"Yeah! S-So good!" Another slightly embarrassing moan sounded out from her. It was the perfect amount of pressure on her, and as she felt it tighten all over her sex, she couldn't help but thrust her hips slightly against the hand.

"Yeah? Then good, I... that's g-good to know." She forced herself to phrase it that way, to remind herself that she was only doing this to learn how best to service this type of organ. And even though she still preferred the other kind... she was starting to enjoy herself. Something about how bouncy and soft it was made the activity fun.

To that end, she began to tug Ruby slightly lower; it was easy given what she had her hand around. Then she leaned her face up and captured as much loose skin from between the two balls as she could within her mouth, rolling it around on her tongue, massaging it with her lips. Her stroking hand was just barely grazing her chin with every backswing, but it was worth it - she still inexplicably loved doing that!

Cheeks burning, the team leader had completely and utterly submitted. Even though Blake was a bigger fan of the other version of sexual anatomy, she was exceedingly good at learning fast. This would have to be something she would try with Weiss when she would choose male parts again!

That being said, she wanted to please Blake just as much. And so, tongue returning to her clit again, the smaller girl then trailed her fingers around Blake's entrance, soaking up whatever juices she could get to prepare two of them for entry. Two seemed the right number; it wasn't as big as a male sex, but was still certainly satisfying.

"Hmmnnhhh!" Blake moaned again, this time all over the soft folds in her mouth as she stroked. Finally feeling brave enough to do so, she reached up with her free hand and used one finger to begin to push very gently against one of the orbs right beside her mouth. Merely testing.

"GNNN!" If Blake were to be any firmer with that area, she would be in a lot of pain. That certainly would not be a turn on. With Ruby, if she was injured in that area she would simply keel over on the floor. If it were Yang however, it could mean a punch back. It was best to tell her now.

"Gently! Be very very gentle with those..."

"S-sorry!" Blake panted as the sack fell from her mouth. Of course she knew they could be hurt, but didn’t think the little poke would be enough to do so! Then she thought for a second before proceeding. "If... it gets to be too much, tell me, alright?" Not waiting for a response, she took the very same sphere into her mouth, gently moving it around and carrying it on her tongue as if it were made of glass.

"WAITWAITWAITWaitwai… oh, ooh…" The frantic squealing was quelled right away, as she felt the tongue glide over her sensitive sack with extreme care and caution, she melted once more into the Faunus's actions. How on earth was she so fantastic at this?! She decided to stop any further movement down there, for now. If she startled Blake, it could hurt, a lot. This way, she would have something to work for.

And of course, the Faunus felt all of Ruby's actions come to a halt. They really were sensitive, weren't they? Experimentally, she drew her current project even further into her mouth, feeling the skin between her lips growing more taut. She also began to trace her fingertips around the very base of the head, feeling the tiniest little bumps there. Weird as a cock was, so long as she was being given free reign to explore she was finding herself fascinated with all the ins and outs.

All the while, the girl continued to moan over and over. Such delicate movements were something she had yet to experience. Her last venture was rough, extremely rough. And in it being so rough, she had missed out on what it was like to feel someone pamper her, spoil her. It was marvellous.

"Keep going..." she couldn't help but beg, head now resting against one of Blake's legs. Even having Ruby's face so close to her sex was enough to make Blake feel inflamed, but Ruby wanted her to keep going - so that was what she would do. But perhaps not quite in this fashion.

"There's... one other thing I want to try." Gulping as she began to stroke her again, she left a tender kiss against the sphere before saying, "I'm a little afraid to do it, and I might react kind of... badly, but if I could try it on you... I mean, that's what we're supposed to be doing, right? Figuring stuff out?"

Having to lick her lips to re-calm herself again, Ruby tried her best to look down to her friend. She was curious, very much so. But being so close was making her afraid to try anymore. What if it turned her off just as she was about to? But then again... Maybe it would make things even more intense.

But she was right. This was experimenting. And she had to let Blake do as she desired, since that was the whole point of starting this in the first place. "G-Go for it… if I don’t like it, I’ll s-say something."

"Okay, good. Then… here goes." Without further delay, she slid just a bit further down along the couch, resituating herself for a moment. Then she began to kiss along the thick length above her, breath increasingly shaky with nerves as she did so, her thigh muscles twitching visibly.

"Aaaah... Aaaah…" As Blake began to kiss her way upward, Ruby was also beginning to shiver in nervous anticipation. What was Blake doing down there? She had an idea, but couldn’t be sure. Either way, she was completely given over to her own desires.

When Blake's lips reached the sensitive head, she hesitated. What would this be like? Would she enjoy it? If she did, would that mean she wasn't quite as much of a lesbian as she first thought? Or would it mean nothing? After all, apparently one could switch back and forth with no ill effects. Maybe she just liked women regardless.

'In for a penny...' Taking a deep, shuddering breath, she angled the phallus down and took the entire head into her mouth.

"OH!"

Instantly the girl quivered, hands gripping at whatever fabric of the sofa she could get when she felt Blake take her. By slight reflex, her hips eased forward, accidentally pushing more of herself into the Faunus's mouth.

A blast of air erupted from Blake's nostrils. That was unexpected - she wasn't ready for more! Still, it slid in easily enough, and didn’t go deep enough to gag her, so she merely swirled her tongue around the surface, testing how it felt within her mouth. Not awful, and the flavour wasn't altogether different from that of a vagina. Not identical, but there were similarities. The sweet sounds coming from Ruby's throat went a long way toward helping her enjoy the whole process. Maybe she could do this for Yang, after all.

And that tongue was relentless over her sex. Each movement sent tingles up her spine, made her quiver again and again. All she could do was let Blake get on with it. Deeper and deeper, she began to penetrate her throat, and the skilled Faunus took her with relative ease; there was a choking noise once or twice, but it never lasted more than a second. All else was bliss and pleasure.

After a minute or so, Ruby began to feel her muscles tightening. But what could she do? She couldn't do that in Blake's mouth, Blake was so new to this she could choke! But she couldn't do it on the floor, or the sofa, they had no way of cleaning it. All she could do was warn her.

"I-It's coming... I-I'm... Sorry!"

Really, that soon? Yang had lasted a bit longer than that, if not by much. Perhaps it was the thought of being with someone new, or the positioning. Or maybe just the feeling of the inside of a mouth. Regardless, it was clear that something was about to be loosed inside of her mouth.

This was the final test. Clearly Ruby wanted to warn her, and she appreciated that, but she needed to know if she could handle this act from beginning to end. Therefore, she simply opened wide to allow Ruby's modest length to continue sliding into her throat over and over, feeling the two soft orbs grazing her face in the doing. Part of her felt slightly degraded, but most of her only wanted her friend to derive maximum pleasure from this moment.

The moment was imminent. Blake wasn't making any move to stop or to make her go elsewhere. She wanted to try this. Was it really just for the experiment? Or was it to please her? Such questions could be asked later, as she could feel her muscles tightening yet again.

With one more thrust forward, she let out a loud cry in pleasure, body quivering as the length released plenty of of thick white fluid into her mouth. Thanks to how deep she was, most went straight down her throat, but a small amount did land on her tongue. Enough for her to sample.

Once finished however, the leader found herself flopping her upper half down onto the girl's body, panting heavily as she rode the pleasure out.

There were many muffled gagging sounds from deep in Blake's throat. Oh, but that was unpleasant! Or was it? The more she weighed it, the more she decided it wasn't anything she wanted to repeat just for the sheer fun of it, but it was very easy to manage the mild discomfort. As for the flavour... there wasn't much to speak of. All of it was worth doing for Ruby's enjoyment - and Yang's, in the future.

Even after Ruby stopped moving, Blake started to shift her around in her throat and mouth, feeling the strength slowly ebbing from the instrument. Soon, she would desperately need to withdraw her from the mouth so she could breathe more properly, but Blake had training in holding her breath against water and smoke during her time in the White Fang. This was a cakewalk compared to that.

Ruby, of course, was unaware of that fact. Whilst she was laid there panting heavily to regain her strength, she'd cut off her friend from breathing, full stop! "S-Sorry!" she quickly called, hauling herself upward so she could pull her length out of the woman's mouth.

Although, that's when she heard the noise of a door shutting. Right at the other side of the library...

So did Blake, of course; her supernatural hearing was more than capable of catching such noises. Her eyes flicked regretfully to the slick member hanging above her face, thinking that just maybe she wanted to play around with it a few more minutes, before she allowed her hearing to zero in on the voices that might be too far away for Ruby to catch.

"...really think we're going to find anything in here?" That was Pyrrha. It was Pyrrha in the library!

"Maybe... Surely it has to be something minor. Dust Properties section is just after Romantic Fiction, right?"

Jaune was with her. And what was worse, they were headed for that exact section of the library! There was only one option Ruby could possibly think of.

"Under the couch, quick!"

"Under the couch? Are you insane?!" But there was no time to debate a better hiding place - they were headed their way. Grabbing her shorts and Ruby's skirt, Blake dove underneath along with her, reaching back out to grab Ruby's underwear as an afterthought.

"Should be," said Pyrrha as they drifted between the shelves, running their fingers over the spines. "What if there's nothing here that can help us, though? I hate to think of how far we've come, only to be stopped here by… this ."

The gesture couldn't be seen from where the two girls were hiding. Although it was a good place, it wasn't convenient. Ruby found herself having to snuggle up as close as she could to Blake's back in order to save space, and keep herself hidden. Curiosity however made her try and keep her head above Blake's.

"There will be a solution. Weiss may have just... got the mixture slightly wrong! C-Can happen to the best of us, right?"

Finally taking a book from the shelf, there was an even more alarming factor for the girls. He was headed their way! But if one was to look at the book, they could easily see the title. "Dust and You: Biological Dust and its uses."

What did they need such a book for? Ruby’s eyes narrowed above her teammate’s hair, but she honestly didn’t know what they were talking about.

Meanwhile, Blake was trying not to say anything about the fact that a wet-with-saliva, semi-hard member was up against her bare behind. Obviously there wasn't enough time to put their clothes back on, but now she wished she had taken that time anyway. Pyrrha and Jaune were too close to risk all the rustling now! So all she could do was feel embarrassed and silly.

"Perhaps." Pyrrha paced closer and closer until she was standing in the dimly-lit seating area itself, though still pulling out book after book to peruse the titles and tables of contents. "Should we ask her or Yang for more details? I'd hate to be more of a bother to either of them after all they've done for us, but... we may have no choice."

"I-It could be a good idea... Perhaps they'll know something. I'm still a little… scared of them knowing about me; but it might help them figure out things if they know I'm the one it worked on."

What on earth were they talking about? Weiss and Yang knew of what they were planning to do with Dust? From the sounds of things, they had even helped them with something...

"What's to know about you now?" Pyrrha said gently as she looked over her shoulder at Jaune, closing the book that had been in her hands. "You are now completely and fully male, we don't have to ever tell them otherwise."

As she contemplated that, Blake began to flex her hindcheeks against Ruby's half-arousal, unable to totally keep still. What did they mean that "now" Jaune is fully male? That almost made it sound as if he had been...

Which was when she fully understood. Yang had hinted that the Dust wasn't purely for Pyrrha. Jaune had been born with a vagina.

"I know, but what if it could be important information? Like, I hadn't started hormones before I took it, but you've been on them for a while now. If they need all that information, I'm happy to give it to them. Just… nervous in case anyone other than them found out, that's all."

And then, Jaune took a seat on the sofa, the area below indenting just by the two's legs. Thankfully, they were out of the way enough, but it was a close call.

However, now Ruby was also trying to figure things out, as well. They needed Dust, something obviously hadn't worked for just Pyrrha, Pyrrha had been taking hormones? Of course. Blake had understood Jaune was a trans man, and Ruby had figured out that Pyrrha was a trans woman. However, there was no way for the two to compare notes with Jaune so closeby.

"What do you have to be nervous about?" Pyrrha sighed softly as she crawled into the seat next to him, legs crossing at the ankles as the "ceiling" above the two girls sagged onto Blake. She held as still as possible. "You've always been a man, and there's nothing they could even argue with about you being one now. Besides, they are our friends. I trust them."

"Of course. I trust them, too - just expect Weiss to laugh at me, you know. I was kind of a jerk when I didn't stop asking her to the dance." But upon reading this book in particular, there was a particular page he had flicked to. 'Reversing Dust's effects'. Of course, he would have flicked right by, if he didn't read the particular phrase, which he read aloud. "Hey, here we go: ‘While antidotes for the physical effects of Dust are safe for consumption, they will cause no effect on the user whatsoever. IE -- If the antidote for a tail-growing mixture was consumed by a Faunus with an already existing tail, the antidote will have no effect.’"

"Oh." That was all Pyrrha said at first, absorbing the impact. It was all too clear: both tails and penises were appendages, and neither one would be affected by an antidote intended for something else. She needed a completely new mixture all her own. "I... see."

Blake also saw. Put together with what they had been talking about, and what Yang had told her before, it meant that Pyrrha was born male and was still in possession of that part of her male anatomy. The two lovebirds were only halfway through their journey to being the ‘perfect heterosexual couple’, since that appeared to be the end goal.

"Is it just me," she breathed so quietly that only Ruby could hear, "or am I the only one in this room without a dick?"

Unable to help herself, the smaller girl instantly chuckled, immediately slapping a hand across her mouth to prevent the other two from hearing. That would have been a disaster. But it seemed they were too invested in the book to have heard such a thing. Especially as Jaune read forward in silence. Until finally piping up.

"You... had two vials of different stuff. You had the vial itself, and the cure." And then thinking on even more, a smile was beginning to grow. He'd figured it out! "One doesn't make a dick and one doesn't make a... lady garden; one changes what’s already there to the opposite thing, and the other reverses that effect. You just need the same one I took!"

While Blake was trying to decide whether or not to laugh at the phrase "lady garden", Pyrrha was excitedly saying, "Really? Do... do you think that's how it works? That would be such a relief!" There was the sound of a kiss on a cheek. "I'll go straight to the nurse tomorrow and ask if she has any more!"

"From the looks of this, I think so… but it makes sense now! We were taking a mixture and an antidote. Just seemed like we were shooting at a bulletproof vest, right?" Of course, when there was silence from that awful metaphor, Jaune eventually gave in, leaning in to kiss her cheek right back. "Yeah, that sounds like a brilliant idea. Just think... You're gonna be who you are on the inside, outside. Really soon."

"Yes, I will. Finally! Oh, Jaune..." And with those words, she leaned in and took his mouth, humming with joy and positive prospects. Although at first he was surprised, Jaune instantly sunk into the kiss. As was made evident as the area above the two's hiding area was gradually getting smaller and smaller...

Although at first Ruby's thought was to wait this out, she leant closer to Blake, whispering, "We'd better leave, before he kisses it goodbye for her..."

Of course, Blake was still wildly aroused, but she had to agree; if Jaune and Pyrrha didn't slow down, this was about to get much worse if nothing stopped those two lovers. But should they try sneaking away as they were, or try to struggle into their clothes first?

"How are we going to do this?" she hissed as Pyrrha's boots began to slide back and forth and her moans got louder.

Simple. If they could get to the horrendously boring sections of the library before leaving completely, this would be a breeze. But to do that, they would have to sneak away. The small readhead poked her head out from underneath, checking it was the side their legs were on, before she started to shuffle out and make a break for it, even without her underwear or skirt!

"R-!" That was about to be a very loudly-squeaked "RUBY", but Blake just managed to catch herself and instead slid out behind the couch, catching up her shorts and Ruby's skirt, along with both sets of underwear. However, she was a few seconds too late to stand and dash.

"What was that?" Pyrrha whispered as her lips parted from Jaune's.

"Does it matter?" Jaune smirked, taking such an opportunity to bring his hand quickly down onto one of the soft cheeks of Pyrrha's backside. "We're kinda busy here..."

Thank goodness Jaune's somewhat awful flirting was a distraction for the two; it bought the Faunus more time to get to where Ruby needed her. Waiting for the couple to say parting words to that part of Pyrrha would have been an awfully awkward task. She stayed crouched until they were totally involved with each other again, then sprinted away to join her teammate.

"Whew!" Blake breathed once she and Ruby were several rows of shelves away, holding out the skirt. "Did... did that really happen? Did we really come that close to hearing them, uh, do what we did?"

"If we don't head out of here soon, I think we still will. I don't expect Jaune to be the quiet type!" Ruby whispered, quickly taking the skirt from Blake and forcing it on, quickly pulling it up her legs. Then the arm outstretched again. "Panties?"

Blake reached into her other hand, and came up with both pairs. A thought came to her - one probably mostly spurred on by her currently aroused state. Raising the cute little pink ones of her teammate up to her nose, she inhaled slowly and deeply, eyes closing in feigned bliss. Actually, mostly closed; one of them was just barely slitted open, watching Ruby for a reaction.

Right away, Ruby's once determined look vanished. And it was replaced with that very same crimson blush all over her face. And a few surprised blinks. Why was that so hot?

In truth, the panties mostly just smelled of perspiration and a very tiny amount of "male" arousal... but it still managed to stir Blake's passions a tiny bit more. Therefore, she quickly lowered them and began to put on her own underwear. "I'm gonna keep these as a souvenir. You'd better run along. Thanks for helping me out, though; I learned a lot."

"Wait... WHAT?!" She had to try her very best to keep herself from shouting, walking much closer to Blake as she began to continuously fidget with her skirt. With what was poking upward to create a slight tenting. Why did it stay up now, when she DIDN'T want it to?! "I-I need those!"

"And I needed... you to finish your lesson," Blake said delicately, currently zipping her shorts back into place with a grimace; she still really, really needed somebody to go to town on her! "But since you didn't, I think this is fair. And you don't really need them, unless you're going to be walking back to your dorm on your hands!"

"I... Well... Hnnn..…" It was a good point, more than suitable revenge. Ruby had left Blake practically begging for release, to the point when she was uncomfortable. Just because it wasn’t her fault, and that of two other blissfully ignorant students, didn’t matter. Having no underwear until she got to the dorm seemed like a very minor sacrifice compared to such a thing. "Okay okay... You win. I'll head back to the dorm like this, and I can take care of you there, if you want."

Suddenly feeling a little shy, Blake smiled and whispered, "Maybe I’ll take you up on that. Just don't-"

"MMhhhh, JAUNE!!"

Blinking, Blake glanced over her shoulder briefly before shaking her head and turning back to Ruby. "Just don't forget that you've got a dick. A nice-sized one covered in me." But then she started to feel like she was being too mean. "And... who knows? Maybe it will feel nice, letting it all hang out. Never know until you try, right?"

"Says the girl who's never had to deal with an erection," Ruby muttered, clearly struggling with said erection as she obviously fiddled with her skirt more and more, trying to make sure it would stay down. But it was only getting worse when overhearing the two on the sofa.

"So quick, huh? Usually it takes me a while to keep you going!"

"I'm sorry!" Pyrrha announced. "You just feel so good, and I'm so in love with you that... that I need you right away!"

"Okay then!" Blake hissed, goose-stepping toward the exit as she tucked Ruby's undergarment underneath her vest, steps noticeably shaky. "We'd better go before we become the worst kind of voyeurs of all time!"

"You can say that again!" the leader agreed, quickly running through the exit with Blake, leaving the members of team JNPR to satisfy one another. Without their input.