Mélodie prepared herself to summon Quick. It was an old ritual, one that predated her birth, established through a covenant made with the Great Mother of the Hidden Forest many years ago. This ritual used, as its primary sacrament, her cell phone.
She dug it out of the pocket of her jeans, selected his name in her contacts list and wrote, Hey, I need your help with something.
And thus the ritual was complete. That was fine, right? Nobody had told her that she shouldn't contact anyone from her old life, and if there was anyone it was safe to talk to, it was Quick. That was the thing about the people looking for her: they could smell magic from miles away, but they were pretty clueless when it came to technology.
The response came in moments. Kinda busy at the moment. I can be there in a few hours.
Ah. Well, looked like she had some time to kill. She plopped down on the one chair in the house and stretched, then pulled the breast pumps out of the box that Yuriko had given her. Those flanges were going to have to come off first - they were fa̷̡̺͕̬̕À̸̪͔̝̌a̵̹͂̓ṙ̶̮̘̤̖̐ ̷̜̖͆̒͊͆t̸͔̃͊͠ ̵̭͛͒t̵̙̹͙͒̈͂ͅǫ̵̀̊̄̚ ̴͖̜͕͓͌ò̷͙̩̭̪̓̈o̸̘̙̬͌̂̉͜Ọ̷̮͉̺̈́
THE PREY DECIDED TO CAST A SPELL. THIS FOOLISH GIRL, IN HER PRIDE, THOUGHT THAT SHE WOULD NOǫ̵͛̾͜T̴͔̎̚ ̶͍͝T̶̲̒ ̸̟̟̈́b̵̝̎̀Ẹ̷̘̓̀E̴̪̒̚ ̵̖͗̍Ḓ̷̅ETECTED, AND IN HER TERRIBLE ISOLATION SHE REQUIRED COMPANY. SHE PREPARED A SUMMONING RITUAL, THE LOUDEST AND MOST POWERFUL THAT SHE KNEW. SHE WOULD SUMMON A GREAT MOTHER HERSELF, FOR NONE OF THE LESSER FEY COULD MUSTER INTERESTING CONVERSATION OR SATISFY HER CARNAL NEEDS. SHE GATHERED THE NECESSARY COMPONENTS: PURE GOLDEN HONeEE̷̡̦̦̲̺͑ỳ̴̱̬̉,̶̙̪̦̏͘̚ ̵͖̱̳̋ ̵͙̮̌́,̷̻̮̼͍̅̇͊̎̕̚͝ͅ,̶̧̭̝͕͚̉̆̀,̴̲͔͚̦̘̤̼̀̓̑̓ ̸̩̒͊́̂T̶̪̯̯̺̠̫̔̊t̷̢̧̛̖͖̤͗̋t̵͈͇̍͊̓͂̓͌́ͅh̸͉͗̀E̵̢͇̻̱̅͊͒̆͗͝ ̴̥̣̼̀ ̶̖͊ẗ̴̨̡͚̻̠̬́̕̕ ̷͉̘͍͒̈͌̕̕͠ ̸̧̝͔̣͛̇̍͌͑͠ͅḩ̷̢̹͓͍͔̒̅̈̔̄͘H̸̞̝̤̱̰̝̞̄͐̇̓͆̎̽o̷̹̊̽͆͐͗̄ ̶̘̪̻̒̈Ȍ̴̪̖͎̳͖͐̌̋̚͜͝ ̸̨͕̟͇̺̤̾́͌͘ą̵̛̛̛̗͗̾͝a̴̡̫̍̂̒ ̸͕̫͓̍͐̀̏̎A̸̗͙͚͛̉͒̈́̕a̴͖̯͑͗̊͒ANND A MOSS-COVERED STONE AS AN ALTAR. SHE LAID THE OFFERINGS IN THEIR PROPER PLACES AND WAITED UNTIL THE PROPER TIME: TWILIGHT. THEN SHEee ̵͙͊ ̴͇̈͆͆͑b̶̩̅͒͜B̵̻̫̭͖̉̎̍e̶̛̫̜̯̯ ̶̛͓̯̯͙́͘ ̵̢̦̮̅̔̓E̶̤̳͊͐̿ǵ̵͎̼̪͓́͑͠ ̴̤̗̤̈́̓̋͛a̵̢̞̙̫̓̈͋ả̴̡̯͍͒̈́̕ņ̸̯̜͗̋ ̵̥̀Ț̷̨͗͜H̵̖̲͖̅͂͆Ế̶̙̃ ̸͓͔̀̽̽̀ͅÍ̴̥n̴͔͚̟̺͑̏͠n̸̝̉̅̇Ĉ̵̡̲̤ ̵͙̘͓̮̀̿́͠ ̷̛̰̻̈́Ã̵̡̘̈̕n̶̛̲̾͗ ̶̢̡̮͓͆͂͝N̷̢͚͔̿̆̕t̴̠̾ ̶̨͕͐̎͗͜á̸͎͈̈́̒
"What in the hell are you doing!?"
Mélodie blinked. The altar was complete, but she couldn't remember the words all of a sudden. She knew them before, but she couldn't... She clutched her head. "I was going to summon a Great Mother. Why... Why would I do that?"
"Yeah!" said Quick, who was fluttering inches from her face. His wings were making a persistent humming noise, like an insect. "Good fucking question! How did you even learn that incantation? Did your mom teach you that? And..." He narrowed his eyes at the altar. Sitting atop of it was a plastic bear, filled with honey. "What is this? Do... Do you even have any idea what you're doing?"
"No, I..." Mélodie looked around. She was in the park that was across the street from her apartment. She remembered gathering the materials, then searching for an appropriate spot to do the ritual, and finding this place. There was a large pond in the middle of the park, but she had wandered into the woods surrounding it until she found an appropriate rock, and then just...
Waited. She'd sat there for hours, doing nothing at all, waiting for twilight to come so that she could perform the ritual. "I... Don't know. I just. It seemed like a good idea. I don't know why I thought it would be a good idea..."
Quick frowned. "Look at me," he said, carefully inspecting Mélodie's eyes. "How much of this afternoon do you remember? Did you run into anyone who had bewitching eyes, or who said things that you couldn't get out of your head?"
She shook her head. "I've been hypnotized before, Quick, I know what it's like. That wasn't what this is. I remember everything. I was sitting in the apartment, and then I just felt sort of lonely. Like I needed a friend."
"I think," he said, "that maybe we ought to find another safe spot for you." He looked worried. And tired. "Shit, this was easily the best one, thougg̴̟̓ḣ̶̭̭̼̗̕̚ ̵̯͌̚͝h̴͓́̀͘.̷̛͓̖̓ ̴̱̓Ï̷̡͍͕͎ ̸̢̬́̆̆ ̴͍̙̩̠̀̀i̷̘̐̈́̇̚i̴͇̹̥̻̽ ̵͚̌Ȋ̶͇̱̮͊ ̸͙̀͠n̸̻̊n̵̡̝͊ͅK T O THE GODHEAD IS TENUOUS, ALMOST AS IF I AM BEING... INTERRUPTED? COULD IT BE? COULD SOMEONE ELSE Haa̴̖̋͗Ḁ̸͌ ̸͕̝̐ ̸̪͍̽̇V̶̝̣͝V̴͙͌̇e̴̘̅ ̷̞̱̓̊e̸͎̔͜e̷̟̼͊̓ ̶̬̞̈́͝õ̸̡ȏ̴̧̄ͅõ̴̢̕ ̸͓͓͒͝O̴̫̤͐ow co uld he possibly be influencing me all the way out here?" aSs̸͚̞̄ ̸͈̾͘k̸̖̟̋̍ě̸̗͇̉d̸̦̐͠ ̶̘̪̋̑M̶̭̭̽̎é̸̛̺̿é̴̬̾é̸̝̐͊ ̵̻̓ ̷̺̏Ȩ̵̼́̏͌ ̸̗̌Ḯ̷̩͓I ii I S THAT YOU, LITTLE ROSE? AH, I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN. OF COURSE YOU HAVE NOT DIED. HOW COULD YOU? WHY ARE YOU TRYING TO FORCE ME OUT? I AM TRYING TO H h̸͖̅ẖ̷̈́E̸̼̽ ̷̞̇ ̶̱̓ ̶̹̈ĕ̷͓Ḷ̷͆ ̶̳͒p̶̫̚y̷̫̎
Ah.
There we are. He is gone.
I apologize for the interruption. That was more difficult than I thought it would be. If you will allow me to be candid, he was never all that good at this sort of magic, but he is extremely tenacious. If it is not too much to ask, could you please take care to not let him in again? I do not know if I will be able to force him back out a second time. Oh, no need to say anything. I know that you cannot respond. Not in a way that I can hear, anyway.
Now, let's see how things have been going. I know that I should have checked in earlier, but I'm extremely busy, you see, and doing this is more difficult than you might think. Ah, well... I suppose that it's quite easy for you, isn't it? In any case, it looks like she's doing well. That's good. I'm glad to see that. This is getting rather tedious though. It's hard to believe that hardly two days have passed since her arrival. Why don't I cut out some of the busywork in the future? There's no harm in skipping past the boring stuff. Oh, don't worry, you won't even notice that I'm doing it.
Now, to fix this mess that he made. You have to be subtle with these things, that was his mistake. One of them, anyway. Ahem...
Mélodie and her perspicacious fairy friend returned to her apartment. On the way, Mélodie informed him that she suspected that there may be a Great Mother in town. If that was the case, it would be wise to leave her an offering of friendship. She had made up the words on the spot, perhaps unconsciously recalling an old lullaby that her mother sang to her when she was a baby. Nobody came to the altar she had set up, human or fey, so she suspected that perhaps she had done some part of the offering wrong.
Quick was hasty to point out that no fey would be tempted by a plastic bear full of off-brand honey from the local Wal-Mart, and opined that she could have at least sprung for something organic. Mélodie shrugged and made a pithy comment about how it was the best that she could do on her budget. She apologized for worrying him, but pointed out that there was no way that she could have performed a summoning for a Great Mother anyway - after all, there were only a handful of humans in the world who knew the right words for that, and she certainly wasn't one of them.
This satisfied Quick, and so when they arrived at her apartment, he helped her fill out all of the paperwork from the various job prospects she had gathered in the past two days. The details are not important, but suffice to say, he arranged it so that everything was taken care of and no suspicion would be cast on her when these applications were returned. Don't think about it too hard, okay? That's the trick.
Knowing these two, they probably fooled around for a bit afterwards, but it would be inappropriate of me to speak of such things. I suppose that I cannot stop you from using your imagination to fill in the gaps, but I'd rather not linger on it, if it's all the same to you. Quick eventually took his leave, and it was then that Mélodie heard the sounds of a convivial get-together happening next door.
And here is where I will step aside. I will, no doubt, interject again in the future, but I will take care to make my presence more subtle. You won't even know I'm there...
---
It was probably a bit of a jump, Mélodie reasoned as she adjusted her bra under a fresh shirt, to assume that even if there was a Great Mother here, she would be interested at all in becoming friends or allies with her. In her experience, most fey in the world nowadays just wanted to be left alone, the Great Mothers included (and Quick being an exception). Still, a friendly gesture never hurt, and it had been decent way to kill time while waiting for him.
There was a burst of laughter from next door. Sounded like things were getting raucous over there. Now that she thought about it, if she'd wanted to make friends, that was really what she should be doing - checking out the neighbors' get-together. It wasn't like there was much to do here in her own almost-empty apartment, anyway, except perhaps sit and sulk.
Or sleep. That one was tempting. It was dark outside and Mélodie was tired - it had been a dense and eventful day - but she was buoyed by the prospect of getting to meet some more people, and perhaps making a new friend or two.
She headed over and knocked on the door. Or at least, she was about to. She stopped with her fist in the air when she heard a voice from inside: "Oh my god, stop! I get it! Put those away. Christ, if I was outside I would think it was raining."
She blinked. And then she knocked.
"Come on in! It's unlocked," came Rose's voice.
"Do you need a moment?"
There was a brief pause, and then, "Oh, oops. It's not Mari. Um. One second!"
There were sounds. Scuffling and hushed voices, too quiet to hear through the door. And then, finally, the door opened.
"Hi!" Mélodie was greeted by Rose's warm smile. And her outfit, which was...
It wasn't actually all that stunning in theory. She was wearing jeans and a T-shirt, which were perfectly ordinary clothes for this type of little get-together, but the thing was that the bottom of the T-shirt had been cut off, effectively turning it into a crop top. The way that it hung over her chest, coming tantalizingly close to being short enough to reveal her bra underneath it, as well as the completely unobstructed view it afforded of her toned, trim middle, left Mélodie momentarily agape.
But only for a moment. "Hi," she said. "Yuriko said that there was a party happening tonight?"
"It's not really a party. More of just a get-together. Come on in!"
Once again, Mélodie stepped into her neighbors' cluttered apartment. They had gotten their new table set up, and it was so large that it overflowed their little kitchenette - two of its legs were on the carpet of the living room. A guest was seated at it, on the far end, away from the door. She had a sort of librarian look about her: her strawberry blonde hair was bound up in a loose, messy bun, and she was wearing a pair of rectangular horn-rimmed glasses. She also had very large breasts, which were currently resting on top of the table as she sipped at a pastic cup full of something bright electric blue. That last detail wasn't particularly librarian-esque, but it stood out to Mélodie. She was wearing a shoulderless top that might have been a blouse or a dress, and the way that she was leaning forward on the table was causing it to ride down, revealing far more lightly freckled cleavage than likely was intentional, but she didn't seem to notice or mind.
"Heeey!" she said brightly as Mélodie closed the door behind her. "Hi! Are you a friend?" Drunk. She could hear it in her voice.
"Hello," said Mélodie with a smile. "I'm Rose and Yuriko's new neighbor. I just moved in next door."
"Uh oh! Are we getting busted for making too much noise?"
"I'm just here to visit."
Rose joined Yuriko over in their kitchenette - an identical reflection to Mélodie's on the other side of the wall, but their stove was nicer. They had a large pot on the heat, which was apparently filled with oil, because Yuriko dropped what was clearly an uncooked donut gingerly inside it.
"Je suis heureuse que vous ayez pu venir," said Rose excitedly. "Au fait, merci d'avoir nous aider avec la table."
"Oh, no problem. It looks nice. Are we going to be playing games on it?"
"Oui, dès que Mari arrive. Elle... Oh, Lilly, go ahead and flip it. They only need like 30 seconds per side. Elle apporte des pizzas et de l'alcool."
"I understood one word of that," said the girl at the table. "Anyway, hi, new neighbor! You have a really nice butt."
Rose blushed. "Oh my god, Hannah!"
"Thanks. You have really nice boobs," said Mélodie without missing a beat.
"Eyyy," said Hannah with a grin. "I like this one. She's cool."
Rose sighed and rubbed her forehead. "When Mari told us that you're really different when you're drunk, I assumed she meant that you're a lot less shy or something. Not that you'd be horny."
"I am a lot less shy when I'm drunk. Liquid courage!" She held up her drink and swished it around a bit. "The horny is always there, it's just that I don't have any inhibitions about it right now."
"She's been flirting with both of us since she got here," said Yuriko, fishing a now-cooked donut out of the oil with a strainer before dropping another one in. "So be ready for that."
"I think I can handle it." Mélodie took a seat at the table. "Just don't be surprised if I flirt back. Your name's Hannah? I'm Mélodie. Nice to meet you!"
"Your accent's really cute. Are you from France?"
"I am."
"Knew it!" Hannah snapped her fingers dramatically. It made her spill a little bit of her drink on the table, and caused her breasts to jiggle ever so slightly. "I could tell 'cause you just spoke French. With Rose."
"I did," said Mélodie, amused. "That's not your first drink tonight, is it?"
"Number five, baby!" Hannah held up five fingers, apparently as a visual aid. "I'm starting to get a buzz going."
"What is that, vodka?" Mélodie looked at the contents of Hannah's cup. "You're on five and you're only buzzed, huh?"
"She's not lying," said Yuriko. "It takes a lot to get Hannah drunk."
"'Cause of my Gift," said Hannah. "If you wanna see me get take-off-my-top drunk you're gonna need to get a lot more booze in me."
"Ooh. Your Gift is that you process alcohol more efficiently? I know a person with that one. He-"
"What?" Hannah furrowed her eyebrows. "No. My Gift is obviously..." She looked down at herself. Which is to say, she looked down at her breasts resting on the table. "Oh! I guess you can't see it, huh?"
"I think that if she could there probably would have been a bigger reaction to seeing you drinking," said Rose. "Hannah's Gift is that-"
"Ah-ah!" Hannah held up her hand. "Don't tell her. I wanna see her face when I reveal it."
There was a moment of silence, as Mélodie expected to see this reveal of hers, but Hannah just took another sip of her drink. "I'm not gonna do it right now. Later! After you've forgotten about it. Hey, Flower Couple, who else is coming tonight?"
"Just Mari," said Yuriko. "Mike and Icarus are-"
"Aw! Come on!" said Hannah, giggling drunkenly. "Say it."
Yuriko rolled her eyes. "Mike and Ike were going to come, but they had to cancel last-minute. We invited Aura but she's got some big project she has to work on."
"There's only going to be four of us? Poo. I guess we can't play Revolution tonight, huh?"
"That's not what it's called," said Yuriko. "Also, count again."
Hannah furrowed her brow. "Oh. Hee. I forgot to count myself. I guess I'm getting there, huh?" she said, shaking her drink in her hand.
"You also have no poker face at all when you're drunk. We can Smash or something instead."
Mélodie raised an eyebrow at that, and Yuriko blushed and quickly added, "It's a video game! Smash is a video game."
"How do you even know that?" asked Hannah. She was looking at Mélodie over the rim of her glasses, which had slid down her nose a bit. Her eyes were a really pretty bright green. "English isn't even your native language, right? And that's all, like. Slangy."
"I don't know, I have internet access? I'm sure I've heard it before some..." Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a flash of green. Yuriko was still standing there by the stove, still dropping donuts into the oil one-by-one, but she was naked again, save for the vines and leaves draped about her body. There was a big, pink flower in her hair this time. And then, just as quickly as she had noticed it, she was back in her yoga pants and T-shirt.
"Okay," said Mélodie, "nobody else saw that?"
Hannah looked back at the two of them in the kitchenette. "Saw what? Lilly's boobs? They're pretty hard to miss."
"No, not that. I, uh... I thought I saw something out the window over there." She gestured towards the sliding glass door on the other side of the living room that led to the deck. Which, Rose and Yuriko had a deck, apparently. One of the benefits of living in the last unit in the row, it seemed. "It looked like a flash of light, or something."
"It's so weird how those just, like happen sometimes now," said Yuriko. "Like, you're driving at night and there's just an orb of light that hovers over the highway ahead of you. It's creepy."
"Yeah," said Mélodie. "Stray magic, I guess."
At that moment, there was a knock at the door.
"It's unlocked, Mari," Rose called out.
"Can you open it for me? I'm carrying too much stuff," came a voice from outside. A familiar voice. It couldn't be...
Rose opened the door, and there she was. She was actually wearing clothes now, jeans and a T-shirt, stretched over her huge chest, which bore a logo that said Tomino's Pizza, but it was her all right: the girl from the gym.
"Yo," she said as she stepped inside. She was holding two pizza boxes in one hand, and a huge glass bottle of something that looked like window cleaner in the other. "So, I got one boring one with just olives, and the other one's a barbecue..." It was at that moment that she noticed Mélodie there in the kitchenette, looking at her. "Oh. What are you doing here?"
"I live next door."
"Really? Small world, huh."
"Yeah. Hey, uh, I want to apologize to you. I thought about it, and, you know, you were right, about what happened yesterday. So, I'm sorry."
"Oh." Of all the things that she could have said, clearly that wasn't what Mari was expecting. "Well. Thank you, it's big of you to admit that you were wrong."
Hannah looked back and forth between the two of them, excitement in her eyes. "What's this? Drama! Mari, is Melly one of your jilted lovers?"
"Melly?"
"You've met all of my lovers," said Mari with a dismissive snort. "And none of them are jilted. No, I almost ran her and her friend over downtown yesterday because they were standing in the middle of the street, and we happened to run into each other in the gym this morning and we got into an argument over it."
"Oh." Hannah looked disappointed. "That's not as interesting."
"It's weird that we keep encountering each other," said Mélodie. "This is the third time in two days."
"Eh." Mari shrugged as she set the pizzas and booze down on the table and leaned against the nearby counter. "It's a small town. And I tend to stick out. Or I do when I wear my own clothes, at least." At this, she looked down at the T-shirt she had on. She seemed almost annoyed at it.
"Mom would let you run deliveries in your own clothes if you had any that were, you know... Modest?" said Rose.
Mari rolled her eyes. The marking on her right side - Mélodie could just barely see the bit of it on her neck that peeked up above the shirt's collar - turned from blue to a deep purple. "You're one to talk, Ms. Abs-Aplenty. You look good in that, by the way. Super sexy."
"Thanks," said Rose, "I thought I'd take a page out of your book and tear up one of my old shirts. But you'll notice, I don't go to work at my parents' pizza place wearing stuff like this."
"Speaking of modesty," said Mélodie, "I also want to apologize for being a jerk to you in the gym. That was unwarranted."
Purple turned back to blue as Mari waved a hand. "It's all good. I deal with jealous people all the time, so I'm pretty used to it. It's no big deal."
Maybe it was the stress of the past few days. Maybe it was the cocksure way that Mari had said it. Maybe it was both. Whatever it was, the words spilled out of Mélodie's mouth before she could stop them. "Jealous? What makes you think I'm jealous?"
"Well, I mean, I was rocking that outfit. Not everyone can look that good when they're working out."
"Mm," Mélodie intoned sharply. "You weren't really working out, though. I'm pretty sure you didn't do a single exercise when you were in there."
"Not true," said Mari with a smarmy grin. "I did some swings with a kettlebell. I had like, half the gym looking at me while I did them, too."
"They were looking at you because your bra exploded. Did you do that on purpose?"
"Of course not. Exploding bras is just something you have to deal with sometimes when you're as big as I am." She turned to the side and ran her hands over her breasts, and Mélodie found herself very annoyed indeed at the fact that the gesture sort of turned her on. Mari was really quite thin, and when she stood in profile it was really obvious how astoundingly large her chest was. She was built like the letter P.
"It totally isn't," said Yuriko, completely deadpan. As huge as Mari was, she was bigger by far, so she would know. "You just wear ones that are way too small for you."
Mélodie had seen the type of Gift that Mari had before. Markings like this tended to be pretty idiosyncratic, but she guessed that it changed colors with her emotions. It was still blue. Somehow, the fact that Mari wasn't as annoyed with this exchange as Mélodie was annoyed her even more.
"Hey, what game are we going to play?" said Hannah, who had already started to dig in to one of the pizzas.
"I'm up for True-False," said Mari. "We usually do that whenever we have someone new over."
"What's True-False?" asked Mélodie.
"A fun way to get to know each other. Here, I'll do a round with Rose. Yo, Rose, I pick you."
"Oh," said Rose. "Okay. Um... Okay, I've got one. I speak Spanish and French fluently."
"True," said Mari.
"Yep."
"That means I win this round, so I get to pick a person again, and Rose has to either take a shot or take off one article of clothing."
"We, uh. We're not going to play the strip version," said Yuriko, who was still working on the donuts. "Or at least, I'm not going to take my clothes off."
"You're good at True-False anyway," said Mari. "Here, another example round: I choose you, Lilly."
Yuriko thought for a moment, then said, "I never learned how to ride a bike."
"Okay," said Mari, "see, I actually don't know this one. I wanna say that's true, just because you'd probably have serious balance issues if you tried to learn as an adult. But then, most people don't learn to ride a bike in their twenties. I'm going to say false. You do know how to ride a bike."
"It was true," said Yuriko. "Never learned."
"There we go, see? That was my loss, so I'd have to take a shot or a piece of clothing off, and Lilly gets to choose the next person. Get it?"
"So when you're chosen," said Mélodie, "you say something about yourself?"
"You say something that's true, or you make something up. The person who chose you has to guess which it is. You learn new things about your friends, and if you play it long enough a few people are going to end up drunk or naked, so hey, it makes for a fun party."
"I don't know any of you, though. And you don't know me."
"Which means it'll be fun," said Hannah excitedly. "Can I go first? Whoever's choosing, pick me."
"Alright," said Mari. "First round for real. You're up, Hannah."
"Okay!" Hannah clapped her hands together. "I'm not pregnant."
Mari scoffed at that. "Cheeky. It's true."
"Yooo!" Hannah downed the rest of the contents of her cup, then held it up. "Fill me up!" It sounded like a request, but then she just did it herself - filling her own cup once again from the bottle that Mari had left on the table.
"I get the impression," said Mélodie, "that this game is mostly just an excuse to drink."
"Or to take your clothes off," said Mari with a grin.
"Alright, I'll play. Pick me next."
Mari sat down at the table, opposite Mélodie. "Aight. Go. Fact or fiction."
"My mother is the most powerful sorcerer on Earth."
Without missing a beat, Mari said, "Ah, see, rookie mistake. Everyone does this. You're thinking, I'll choose something so outlandish and obviously false that they'll second-guess themselves. You're trying to get us to think, That's way too weird and out-there, there's no way that we'd believe it so she must be saying it because it's true. But it isn't. You just made it up. That, or you're just saying an obviously false thing so you can drink."
Mélodie smiled. "Ah. You got me. I guess I have to take a shot. Can I have some of that?"
---
Thus the game continued. For half an hour facts and lies bounced about the room, interspersed by digressions into conversation which Mélodie suspected was part of the appeal of the game. She learned some interesting things about her new friends and neighbors: Rose was a proficient metalworker and craftswoman, and had made the two bookshelves in their living room herself. Yuriko was pursuing an MS in Biochemistry, and was particularly interested in the developing subfield of the study of the effect of magic on the human body. Hannah was an artist, and a pretty damn good one at that. She showed Mélodie some of the pictures she had drawn on her phone: they were mostly stylized, fanciful drawings of anime and video game characters, but she had also done some landscapes and figure drawings that very impressive.
Lot of shots were had, but nobody took any of their clothes off. Mélodie won some rounds and lost some, enough to get a little bit of a buzz going, all the while helping herself to the pizza that Mari had brought, along with everyone else. It was pretty good, and she was secretly thankful for the free meal. After they had all cooled, the donuts that Yuriko made joined the table as well, though Yuriko stopped her when Mélodie took one of them.
"Ah! Uh, not that one. Try one of the ones with holes," she said.
Mélodie froze, donut halfway to her mouth. "Oh. Okay? What's wrong with the no-hole ones?"
Yuriko blushed a little bit. "They're, uh... You probably don't want them."
"That means her boob-milk is in them," said Hannah cheerily. "She made two batches. She didn't even use a measuring cup for the second one. She just whipped 'em out and milked herself directly into the bowl."
Yuriko's blush grew deeper, but Mélodie just grabbed one of the holed donuts and said, "Hey, better to use it than let it go to waste, eh?" as she took a bite.
And then her eyes got wide. "Oh la vache," she muttered. "This is delicious!"
"La vache?" Yuriko repeated. "Do you mean me?"
Hannah, meanwhile, was looking at Mélodie oddly. "Wow, no reaction at all to the fact that Lilly's titties are filled with milk and that she uses it for cooking?"
"I mean," said Yuriko, "look at me." She scooted out from where she was sitting at the table and gestured downwards at herself. Even wearing a bra, they nearly touched her lap. "When people find out that I'm lactating the reaction is usually, 'Yeah, that makes sense.'"
"People's bodies are doing all sorts of strange stuff these days," said Mélodie through a mouthful of donut. "It's not that weird."
"I used regular store milk for most of them, by the way!" said Yuriko. "I don't feed my friends my breastmilk without them knowing. That'd be fucked up. Anyway. It's my turn. I choose Mari."
"Me? Alright." Mari took one of the breast-milk donuts and took a bite out of it while she thought, as if it was the most normal thing in the world. "I've tried to induce lactation, like, five times, and I've never gotten so much as a drop."
An image entered into Mélodie's mind, quite against her will: She pictured Mari's breasts getting bigger as they swelled with milk, stretching her T-shirt, muffining out of her bra... The idea caused some movement downstairs, and she became immediately annoyed with herself.
"False," said Yuriko. "If you want to lactate badly enough that you're trying to induce there's no way it wouldn't work, because of self-realization." She blinked. "You're lactating, Mari?"
"Nope. It was true." Even though she won the round, Mari took a drink anyway. "Seriously, I don't know why it's never worked for me. I'm pretty sure that these," she gestured once again at her oversized breasts, "are only so huge because of self-realization, so obviously I can do it, but for some reason it's just never worked for making milk. And boy, have I tried."
Emotional trauma and high stress levels were by far the most common reason that self-realization failed to work in a person, though there could be other factors involved, such as prolonged exposure to someone with a Null-Gift, or an innate resistance to magic. If she was able to self-realize her way into bigger-than-her-own-head sized boobs, it was probably the first of those reasons, but it was also entirely possible (however unlikely) that her chest was entirely natural, and she had never self-realized any changes to herself at all.
Of course, Mélodie couldn't say any of that. This was getting annoying - having to avoid dropping her copious knowledge about magic. It was one of the things she knew the most about, after all, and it never failed to impress people at get-togethers just like this one. The risk was too great, though.
"That's weird," said Yuriko. "Were you particularly stressed out during the times when you tried? We know that magic is tied to your emotions, and stress and anxiety tend to block it in weird ways. Stress can also make it more difficult to make milk just from a purely biological perspective, not counting magic at all."
Hey, right on the money! Mélodie was impressed.
"I don't know," said Mari. "Maybe? I guess. Anyway. I choose you, Mélodie."
"Oh. Okay. Let's see... When I was little I met the King of France during a pa-"
"False," said Mari, interrupting her. "Come on, I know that American schools are shitty, but we're not that uneducated. France got all choppy with their kings in the 1700s, and they haven't had one since. And also, you haven't given us a single true one since we started."
She felt herself flush a little. She was hoping that none of them would notice that. "Alright. Well. I can't really give you a true one now, because you'd know."
"Truth or dare," said Mari.
"Oh!" said Hannah. "Are we switching games? Fun!"
"Dare," said Mélodie. This ought to be good.
"Eat one of Lilly's boob-donuts."
"Is that all? Easy." As she reached for one of the no-hole donuts, she looked at Yuriko and Rose. "You two don't mind, do you?"
"Um..." The two of them looked at each other. "I don't mind," said Yuriko, "but don't you want to know if I, I don't know... Have any STIs or anything?"
"Do you?"
"No, of course not."
"Well, no problem, then." Mélodie took a bite.
It was... Good! Really good! She'd been expecting it to taste more or less the same as the regular donut had, but this one had an even lighter, fluffier texture, and the flavor was... There was something different about it, but she couldn't have described what exactly it was. It also made her feel all tingly, but that was probably just the fact that this was kind of turning her on. A little shiver ran up her spine as she took a second bite, then a third. "I hope you won't think me weird if I tell you that this is way better than the other ones," she said, still chewing.
Yuriko looked pleased at that. "Of course it is. It's Rose's recipe and my, uh... Ingredients."
"You know," said Hannah, "Lilly isn't the only one here tonight who has milk. There's one other."
Mélodie eyed Hannah's sizable breasts, which she still had resting on the table. "What a cryptic comment. I can't imagine who the other person is."
"It's your turn. You should pick me. And truth me. Or dare me. I'll do either one."
"Okay," said Mélodie, amused. "I pick you, Hannah. Truth or dare?"
"Truth!"
Why not give her what she wanted? "Do you lactate, Hannah?"
"I do!" she said cheerfully. "Isn't that weird?"
"Not really. It happens sometimes."
"Well, I think it's weird. But it's also hot. You wanna know a secret? I kinda get off on it. Sometimes when I'm alone and really full I'll start sucking on my own-"
"Oh-kay," said Rose loudly, "a little bit TMI there, Hannah. I swear she's not like this when she's sober, she's like a completely different person when she's drunk."
"Told ya," said Mari.
"It's my turn!" Hannah topped her drink off again as she said it. She was really powering through that stuff. "Are you good kisser, Mélodie?"
Rose sighed into hand. "I'm sorry about her. She's really not normally this bad."
"Shouldn't you pick me and ask me truth or dare first?" said Mélodie, more amused than anything.
"Okay. I pick you. Truth or dare."
"Truth."
"Are you a good kisser, Mélodie?"
"Hannah, new friend, I wrote the book on kissing. I'm probably the best kisser here."
Of all things, that was what caused Mari's marking to turn a bit purple. "You don't know that," she said, in a tone that was just a bit too terse to be nonchalant.
"Mmm, I don't know about that." Hannah was leaning on her arm and actually tracing her finger around the edge of her cup. The move lost a bit of its seductive effectiveness due to the fact that the cup was made of plastic and had a cartoon dinosaur on it. "Mari's a really good kisser."
"I don't doubt it. I'm probably better at it, though."
"You aren't," said Mari, clearly annoyed now.
Again, maybe it was stress, or maybe it was the alcohol buzzing around in her head now, but Mélodie thought, why not tug at this thread? "I bet I am."
"You wanna prove it?" Mari stood up. Her marking was a deep, brilliant purple now, and it was starting to glow a little bit.
"Yeah!" said Hannah. "Prove it!"
Mélodie stood as well. "I will prove it! I- what are you doing?"
Mari was, suddenly, standing very close to her. "We're in the gym again," she said, her voice suddenly low and husky. "We exercise together for a while. Every so often you can feel my breasts brush up against you, but you're sure it's an accident."
"What, are we roleplaying now? Is this another new game?"
"We're about to leave. The gym is empty. We're talking as we finish up, but the words don't matter. It's all about what we're saying with our eyes and our bodies. You can hardly stop looking at my big, fat tits, spilling out of my sports bra." At this she pushed her breasts up with her arms, making them strain against her T-shirt. Mélodie could see the lines of her bra underneath them, and could faintly see the gentle glow of her marking through the fabric. "And on the few occasions when you manage to tear your eyes away from them, it's to look at the way that my shorts hug my ass and my hips, or my beautiful eyes, or my luscious lips."
Her eyes really were beautiful. They were a brilliant blue, and she was wearing black lipstick. "I see where this is going. Do it. I won't be impressed," said Mélodie.
"You think so? I notice you looking at me, and I smile." Her voice was barely above a whisper now. "I pin you against the wall." She did just that, pushing Mélodie up against the wall of the kitchenette, trapping her with her arms to either side. "You can feel my tits pressing up against your stomach." She could. They were really soft and warm and- "I'm looking up at you, and even though you're so much taller than me, I fill your vision." She really did. Her face was... Her face was getting closer, and- "I grab your shoulders. I pull you down and..."
Their lips met. Mari tasted like pizza and booze and donut and she smelled like citrus and musk and she was so soft and her breasts were pressing against so much of her and, and, and...
When she pulled away Mélodie found herself, quite unintentionally, out of breath. Without looking at herself she could tell that her whole body was flushed bright red. She felt loose and limp all of a sudden. And, to top it all off...
Mélodie, as a general rule, wasn't bothered by people finding out what she had going on downstairs. She did, however, feel a healthy amount of embarrassment about the throbbing erection that she could feel straining at her jeans.
"I..." She cleared her throat. "I, euh."
Mari looked up at her with a smug grin. "Yeah? Got something to say?"
"I. I need to use the bathroom. Can I use your bathroom? I'm just going to..." Without waiting for an answer, she sidled away from this whole situation, down the hall to where she knew the bathroom was. Hannah's voice followed her out:
"Mari! Why'd you do that? I wanted her to kiss me."
She closed the bathroom door behind her and leaned against it, still breathing heavily. A quiet "Putaaain..." escaped from her lips. That... Was more than she had expected. She needed a moment to catch her breath. Mari had won that little competition, no doubt about it, though it was going to pain her to admit it to her face.
She looked in the mirror and lifted her shirt. No wet spots, so that was good, at least. She took a couple of breaths, trying to think un-erotic thoughts: Kittens. Cats. The buxom lady with cat ears on the poster in the living room. Nope. Video games. Playing video games with Iris at Hubert's. Iris's voluptuous hips. Nope. The way her back was tingling slightly. Why was it doing that? Her scar, and the events that had led to her receiving it.
Ah. That did it. It was an incredibly effective anti-aphrodisiac, in fact. Maybe a little too effective. Thinking about it made her feel a little sick to her stomach. It was, after all, the entire reason she'd had to move out here in the first place. She wondered when it was going to hit her, emotionally. So much had happened in the past few days, it seemed like she'd hardly had any time to really think about what had happened to her, and what it would mean for the rest of her life.
She was tired. Really tired. It all seemed to hit her at once: a wave of exhaustion, held back by a dam of all-day adreneline that Mari had burst with her kiss. She realized, dimly, that that was the first time in weeks that she'd had any sort of real physical contact with another person, as fleeting as it had been.
But before she could get too deep into those thoughts, something caught her eye. Movement, from inside her neighbors' shower. There was something floating in there, accompanied by a faint buzzing noise. What was that? It was way too big to be a bug, but too small to be anything else.
She opened the shower door, and found herself face-to-face with a tiny, winged woman with green skin. She was wielding a tiny splinter of charcoal, using it to write something on an equally tiny sheaf of paper as she hovered there, seemingly completely unaware of Mélodie's presence.
"Excuse me," said Mélodie. The fairy didn't seem to even notice, so she cleared her throat, loudly and deliberately.
The fairy took a good look at Mélodie's face, and then, sticking her tongue out in concentration, continued writing.
"Do you mind? This is a bathroom. It's rude to hang out in here while someone's using it."
The fairy looked up at her again, blinking. She seemed confused. A glance left, a glance right.
"Yeah, I'm talking to you," said Mélodie. "Why are you in here? Do Yuriko and Rose know about you?"
"You can see me?" asked the fairy. Her voice was as delicate as a butterfly's wing.
"Of course I can. What are you writing?"
"But... I'm invisible! You shouldn't be able to see me!"
Mélodie rolled her eyes. "You might want to work on your spellwork there, friend, because you definitely aren't." Or at least, she wasn't. Right up until she was. Without so much as a blink, she disappeared. "Oh, there you go. I know you're still here, though. What are you doing?"
"I'm gathering information," came the fairy's voice from out of thin air. "What are you doing? You're not one of the False Mother's friends."
"False Mother? Who-"
Mélodie was interrupted by a knock on the door. "Hey," came Rose's voice. "Are you alright? I'm sorry, I should have warned you that pretty much all of my friends are, like... really horny."
"Bitch, you and Lilly are the horniest people here by a longshot," said Mari loudly. "You just aren't as blatant about it."
"I'm fine," said Mélodie. She opened the bathroom door, and there was Rose, looking concerned. "Sorry. I just had to take a moment. Mari embrasse extrêmement bien, je dois le reconnaître."
"Damn right I do!" said Mari from the kitchenette. "Don't forget it!"
Mélodie rolled her eyes. "Elle comprend également très bien le français, apparemment."
"Yeah, that's kind of her thing. She claims that she doesn't speak French very well, but she always seems to get most of it whenever I speak it around her."
"I'll keep that in mind. Are you and Yuriko aware that there's a fairy in the house?"
"She's back!?" Yuriko cried, and then she came rushing over to the bathroom. It was quite a sight to see - the bouncing was extraordinary, and so powerful that it made her shirt ride up a little bit. She nudged Rose aside and tried to look past Mélodie. "Where is she?"
"Well, she's invisible now. Hey, Fairy, are you still here?"
There was no answer. "She might've left, but I know I saw her."
"What'd she look like?" asked Yuriko excitedly.
"Uh. Tiny? Green. Her clothes were made out of leaves."
"I told you, Mari!" she said triumphantly. "I knew I saw her!"
"So you do know about her, then."
"Her name is Sneaks-Really-Well. I accidentally trapped her in the fridge, like, a year ago, and then when I let her out Nori tried to eat her."
"Wasn't that when you and Rose were doing the-" Mari started to say, but Yuriko spoke over her.
"And then she gave me a purple nurple and flew away when Rose opened the door. I swear to god, I was starting to think that I had hallucinated the whole thing, but if you saw her too, that means she's real!"
"What on Earth is a purple nurple?"
"Extremely painful, when you're as sensitive as I am. What was she doing in there?"
"That doesn't... Taking notes, it looked like. She turned invisible when I found her. She might still be around, just hiding."
"Hey, Sneaks-Really-Well!" said Yuriko, loudly, to the bathroom. "Come out! I just want to talk. Why were you so fascinated with my milk?"
"I wanna see the fairy!" said Hannah. Something emerged into the hallway from around the corner. Something very large and very round, and covered in fabric.
And then the rest of Hannah came into view. So, it turned out that she was, by far, the most pregnant person that Mélodie had ever seen. Her belly dominated her short, shapely frame, straining her top to translucency. She must have been hiding it under the table the whole time, and Mélodie hadn't noticed. How she hadn't noticed was a mystery, because nom de Dieu, she looked like she was smuggling a beach ball in there.
She was also, Mélodie couldn't help but notice, still holding her drink.
"Oh!" said Rose, seeing Mélodie's expression. "No, no! It's not what you think. She's not actually pregnant."
"Yeah!" said Hannah. "It's just water in there. And, like, a bunch of vodka, now. Look at your face, though, oh my god! Did I get you?"
Mélodie's head was starting to hurt. "I... Okay, it's your Gift. Got it."
"Ohmigod, thank you!" said Hannah. "I swear, nobody believes me when I tell them that! It's always like, Oh, this little tart went and got herself knocked up so she's just making up stories. But it's true! I've had the tummy for like five years now. Hey, do you wanna touch it?" She lifted her shirt, which readily snapped up into position under her breasts, revealing what had to be several square feet of smooth, taut skin.
"I..." Mélodie put a hand on her forehead. "Sorry, this is a lot."
"A lot of tummy," said Hannah with a drunken giggle. "And a lot of boob. There's like, fifty pounds of titty in this room."
"Pretty sure there's more than fifty pounds of titty just in Lilly's shirt," said Mari. She looked at Mélodie. "Sorry for overwhelming you. I let my temper get the better of me. Shouldn't have done that."
"You weren't that overwhelming," said Mélodie flatly. "It's just... I've had a very long day. If you all don't mind, I think I want to go home and go to bed."
"Of course, of course!" said Rose, with just a hint of disappointment in her voice. "No problem at all. We'll try to keep it down over here so that you can sleep."
"By the way," said Mari, "This is all pretty normal for us, so, uh... You know, if you come back for another game night, it's probably gonna be like this again."
"Lilly and I were having a milk fight before you came in," said Hannah happily. "I've got a lot, but it's like she's got two firehoses attached to her chest. When you knocked we both had to scramble to-"
"Thank you, Hannah, that's enough," said Rose loudly. "Thanks for coming, Mélodie. Just so you know, we do this every Sunday, and you're welcome to drop by any time."
"I'll definitely do that," said Mélodie, and she was being honest. As odd as this group was, she definitely interested in hanging out with them again, if not to figure out what was going on with Yuriko and the fairy, then at least to get a front-row seat to one of these 'milk fights'.
Rose looked pleased at that. "You know where to find us."
"Yep. Anyway. Good bye, everyone. Thanks for the pizza and donuts." She stepped to the front door.
"See you later, Mélodie," said Hannah. "You've still got a nice butt."
Despite her still-mounting exhaustion, Mélodie laughed at that. "And you all have nice boobs. Even you, Mari."
As she shut the door behind her, she could just hear Mari saying, "What does she mean, 'even me'?"-~o~-
Boy, that was a long break, huh? Sorry about that, anxiety's been hitting hard lately, and it's difficult to be creative when you're spending almost every waking moment in a panic. How about we do something nice and relaxing for this one's poll, huh?
Mélodie's going to have a sexy dream tonight! Who's it going to be about?
-Hannah, the horny drunk with the faux-pregnant belly.
-Iris, the girl from the bubble tea shop with the magnificent hips.
-Mari, Mélodie's buxom rival, who apparently is an astounding kisser.
-Mason, the four-armed assistant at All Shapes and Sizes.
-Naomi, the four-breasted magician who works at the magical oddities shop.
-Rose and Yuriko, Mélodie's busty and even-more-busty neighbors.
-Vince, the enormously tall guy from the gym.
Vote here: https://strawpoll.com/645zsv3xd
Time's up! Let's see what we've got.
The results after 19 people voted:
Naomi 47.37% (9 votes)
Hannah 15.79% (3 votes)
Iris 15.79% (3 votes)
Mari 15.79% (3 votes)
Rose and Yuriko 5.26% (1 votes)
Mason 0.00% (0 votes)
Vince 0.00% (0 votes)
Looks like Naomi made quite an impression on Mélodie's subconscious! She's about to have a ~magical~ night.
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