Dreamscape Geography
“Awesome, okay, awesome!” Emily leaned over the quick illustration Rebecca had doodled into her phone. “Is all of this to scale?”
“Maybe?” Rebecca pondered. “Kinda? I don’t have a real frame of reference, Emmie.”
“S’cool! This is plenty to work with, for now!” Emily praised. “Okay, everyone—gather ‘round! This is gonna be… uhhh, I guess our first official harem party meeting?”
Rebecca dutifully clapped her hands in a small round of polite applause.
“I’m just happy to be here,” Megan said as she clapped along. “Actually, am I allowed to be part of the meeting? If I’m not part of the harem?”
“Of course!” Emily said. “You’re our control case, we need you here. If all of us are being like, hypnotized or brainwashed or affected or whatever by harem charm magic, how would we be able to tell? We need you here to speak up if you think our thinking is skewed, help give us an outside perspective.”
“Wait, I’m actually useful?!” Megan sounded shocked. “...And, how brainwashed are we talking, here?”
“This isn’t gonna be an official harem party meeting,” Kelly argued. “Not without Steph.”
“That’s… okay, fair,” Emily conceded. “We’ll have our first official meeting later, when she can be here for it. I mean, we need to agree on a cool team name and everything, we’ll do that then. When everyone’s present.”
“We’re not going to have a team name,” Kelly flatly rejected, visibly cringing at the idea.
“Hey, you haven’t even heard my ideas, yet!” Emily pouted.
“Um-um-um,” Rebecca raised a hand. “Motion to table any and all team naming discussion for that later meeting!”
“Okay, motion passed,” Emily nodded. “We’ll do that, then. After all, Steph might have ideas, too.”
“That’s not actually how motions work,” Megan spoke up. “In parliamentary procedure, a proposed motion needs to—”
“Objection!” Emily interjected, slapping her hands on the chaise lounger.
“I’m just sayin’—” Megan shrugged.
“It’s whatever!” Emily groused, rolling her eyes and letting out a dramatic sigh. “Anyways, time to talk shop. Dreamscape Geography 101! Dreamscape geography; fact or fiction? Dreamscape geography, a metaphor for interpersonal relationships?”
A smart phone with a hastily drawn up map sat on the end of one of the chaise lounges for sunbathing arrayed alongside the patio of the hotel’s fenced in pool area. Emily straddled the lounger with the cardboard box and small pile of things hastily collected from the room at her back, while Rebecca and Megan sat on their knees to either side of the piece of outdoor furniture so that they could huddle close. Only Kelly was keeping to herself, relaxing back instead on the adjacent lounger and glancing over in amusement.
As a group, they had waffled for a moment on whether or not to head over to the convention ahead of Brian and Stephanie, finally deciding unanimously to wait on their friends. What exactly those two were getting up to in there had become an animated discussion before Rebecca started chiding them for it, but there were still plenty of other interesting topics for the girls to explore before delving back into the distractions of AnimeCon itself over at the convention center.
“Rebecca either is this forest, or she explores the forest,” Emily began. “Accurate so far?”
“Yes,” Rebecca gave her a serious nod. “I feel that the forest represents me, but also it exists as something I can navigate. It’s very dreamlike.”
“Okay,” Emily used her finger to pan across the image. “Zig-zagging throughout the forest is a blue river—that’s me. I’m blue. And a river. My being threaded throughout the forest—throughout Rebecca—would seem to indicate how close we are. Or, that we’re intertwined somehow, ‘cause we’re good friends. Right?”
“Right,” Rebecca nodded again. “Good friends!”
“Now, you just kinda drew me as kind of a scribble—in the dreamscape, is there any solid indication of where my water originates or terminates?”
“Um,” Rebecca closed her eyes for a moment and furrowed her brow as she seemed to search deep inside herself for answers. “No? Not that I can tell. You do definitely flow in a direction... but in the dream state, that doesn’t translate to mean anything, really. When I follow the path of the river, there is no beginning or end—but, it’s not like you’re in a loop, either.”
“Okay, yeah—very dream-like, so far,” Emily said. “How big a river would you say I am?”
“Not big!” Rebecca reported, wincing when she saw Emily’s expression fall. “Err, that is, I mean—not huge. Normal-sized, for a river? Too big to jump across, but not so big that I couldn’t throw something to the other side.”
“Wait, I’m small enough that I could throw something to the other side?!” Emily appeared aghast. “That’s like, barely even a river! Am I just a creek?!”
“Well, no. You couldn’t throw something across, silly,” Rebecca gave her a helpless smile. “I’m really good at throwing things!”
“...I really hate you, sometimes,” Emily facepalmed.
“But I love you, Emily!” Rebecca protested in a sweet little voice.
“Moving on, the for-sure fixed feature we have is Kelly, way over here.”
Emily zoomed in on the edge of Rebecca’s scribbled-in trees to where she’d drawn what looked like a small volcano. While the simple forest of trees were done in the color brown and the river drawn in blue, the entire crater had been illustrated in bright red.
“How big is Kelly, in this?” Emily asked. “Is this to scale?
“I… don’t know,” Rebecca said. “It’s not clear.”
“Well, can you throw something across her?” Emily retorted.
“I don’t know,” Rebecca replied after a moment of thought.
“What do you mean?” Emily asked. “Actually try it, try throwing something over her.”
“Mmm, no,” Rebecca shook her head in confusion. “It doesn’t work like that. It’s a dreamy sort of thing. Even when I’m there I’m not completely there.”
“Could you jump across her?”
“I don’t know. I don’t think so?”
“So, she’s at least kinda big.”
“I don’t know. Reply hazy.”
“Since you can obviously also jump so freakishly far.”
“Reply hazy. Ask again later.”
“Rebecca, you drew her way over here off to the side—am I right in assuming that your forest does not surround Kelly’s crater?”
“That’s… right,” Rebecca answered after a moment’s thought. “Kelly’s crater feature is adjacent to the forest, but not within or inside the forest itself.”
“Kelly?” Emily probed. “Anything you’d like to add?”
“I’m not a crater, for one,” Kelly frowned. “Not really. I’m just the bit in the dead center of it. The crater, it’s… stuff around me, but it isn’t me. Stuff displaced by my impact. I feel like it also represents... I dunno, keeping you and Rebecca at arm’s length right now.”
“That makes sense!” Emily said, flicking back through the app’s draw tools so that she could paint bucket the color of the crater to a neutral gray. With a few quick taps, she switched back to red and scribbled some red in the center. “Rebecca, what’s the crater boundary like for the forest? And, is the river separated from the crater by forest, or is there interaction?”
“Hold on,” Rebecca said, closing her eyes and retreating into herself to focus on the dreamscape again. “Uhhm. It’s complicated? Kelly—you said earlier that your representation was starfall?”
“Uhh, it was stars,” Kelly clarified slowly. “I think my initially... keeping myself aloof, holding myself back from getting closer to people, that represented me being out in space. Alone. Then, I got drawn into stuff, this orbit… and I couldn’t escape, came crashing down.”
“Wait, you were stars, plural?” Emily tapped her lip. “But now, you’re just one fallen star?”
“I don’t fucking know, Emily,” Kelly said in exasperation. “It’s like a dream. It doesn’t always make consistent sense, alright?”
“Hmm,” Rebecca mused thoughtfully, closing her eyes in concentration. “Kelly, I feel like… you’re definitely still keeping yourself apart from Emily and I. Dream-speaking, at least. The displaced... earth? Material? From your impact is still very raw, and my forest doesn’t encroach upon your direct surroundings. That may change as we grow closer? Maybe?
“Likewise, this crater caldera formed around you creates an uplifted rim of displaced material—Emily’s ‘river’ isn’t able to flow into the impact basin and fill it with water. Or, maybe she can? I don’t know, she goes downhill and uphill, Emily’s Emily, she doesn’t make a lot of sense. I can feel that there’s a place for her there, in the basin. If we take the dreamscape geography as a metaphor for our interpersonal relationships…”
“I’d… what, I’d flow into Kelly’s direct surrounding space because I’m… impressionable?” Emily made a face. “I’m not that impressionable. Right?”
“It could also mean you’ll fill in something I lack,” Kelly guessed. “I think we’re going to become close. Maybe I’m the impressionable one?”
“Seems… doubtful.” Emily quirked her lip. “Wait wait, do you think that or do you know that? From your… prophecy thingamawhatzit.”
“Maybe?” Kelly said.
“Aggh, whaddya mean, maybe?” Emily groaned. “You don’t like, have to be super cryptic about that stuff. Just lay it out, whatever you know.”
“Okay, listen—my life’s fucked,” Kelly revealed. “Out of options, burned all my bridges, got into some bad shit and fucked everything up. Brian offered to… try to help me. Set me up at his place for a bit, maybe... talk your mother into mentoring me somehow, or something.”
“Whooooa fuck,” Emily’s hands shot to her temples. “Seriously? You’re moving in with Brian? You guys want Mom to… holy shit. Holy shit. I mean, yeah that’s brilliant, but—why didn’t anyone bring this up earlier?!”
“I mean,” Kelly frowned, looked down at the surfacing of the pool area. “I don’t know. It’s weird. Weird and I don’t like it, don’t like really relying on people, or taking handouts, or forcing myself into your life or anything like that. Super uncomfortable. They kinda just sorta talked me into it somehow, last night.”
“So, you’d say you’re acting out of character to how you’d normally be?” Megan jumped in. “Like you were maybe influenced or affected by something?”
“I guess?” Kelly fidgeted. “It’s—I don’t know. It was like, back then before, whether or not I was right about everything was... more important than what was actually going on? Or something. I can’t fuckin’ explain it. Don’t even want to. Fuck.”
“Mrs. Emily’s Mom is very nice,” Rebecca assured Kelly. “I think she’d be a great mentor figure for you, and, whatever’s going on, she’ll be able to help you get somewhere. For sure. She’s helped me tons and tons!”
“She did?” Emily blinked. “What? How?”
“Is it true that she’s an actress?” Kelly questioned. “That she played Hannah Hudson on Criminal Lives?”
“Ugh. Yep, that’s her,” Emily made a face. “Hate that show, could never ever stand to watch her in it.”
“What?” Kelly asked. “Why?”
“She’s too good at acting? I guess?” Emily threw her hands up in disgust. “It’s like, you see her all your life as Mom, and then you see her one day on TV, and she’s someone else. She’s not Mom, she’s in love with some guy who’s not Dad, she’s this whole other gross person but wearing my mother’s face. Traipsing around in her body. Unnatural. It’s like—thanks, I hate it!”
“Huh,” Kelly remarked.
“I do see Emily’s perspective,” Rebecca murmured. “But at the same time, I think that just makes me admire Mrs. Emily’s Mom’s dedication to her craft even more. She’s really amazing when she—”
“Thanks, I hate it!” Emily said again, crossing her arms.
“Why are you referring to her as Mrs. Emily’s Mom?” Kelly arched an eyebrow.
“Because that’s who she is,” Rebecca blinked. “She’s Mrs. Emily’s Mom.”
“Wait, Criminal Lives like that old cop show?” Megan interjected. “The soap opera thing?”
“It was a TV drama, not a soap opera,” Emily sighed. “But, yeah, yeppers, that’s the one.”
“That’s so cool…” Megan mouthed. “She’s your mom? You do kinda look like her!”
“Yeah, except without her good looks and great figure,” Emily scowled. “But, otherwise? Yeah, totally!”
“No, I meant—”
“I think you’re hot, Emily,” Kelly said, creating an awkward moment of silence.
“Uhhh,” Emily floundered. “Thanks, I think? Just…”
“Wait, would you have thought she was hot before, or is this a new thing?” Megan inquired.
“I was bi before, but no,” Kelly answered. “Wouldn’t have thought of her as my type. More and more though, it’s like I can see myself being really open to… you know. More types. Petite little Latina bitches with cute faces and dirty minds.”
“Uhhhhh—” Emily looked mildly alarmed.
“Goodness!” Rebecca covered her mouth, trying not to laugh. “Goodness Gyratos!”
“So, that’s a magic charm thing! Right?” Megan turned from girl to girl for support. “Totally has to be. Right?!”
“I think so, yeah,” Kelly said, eyeing Emily carefully. “I’m not like, against it, though.”
“You wouldn’t be, that’s the point,” Emily countered. “That’s how brainwashing works.”
“Could be?” Kelly shrugged. “I don’t buy into that stuff too much, though. I mean, I almost flipped out on Brian yesterday when we were having pizza. We’d argued about stuff earlier, too, I even bailed on them a bit to go take care of some of my own stuff instead. Don’t feel super compelled by some magic power or anything like that.”
“You do, though,” Emily argued. “You totally do feel compelled. I mean, the whole overpowering attraction thing. That’s a compulsion right there. You say you almost flipped out on Brian—maybe back before, the old you would have flipped out him. Well? Would you have?”
“I…” Kelly paused to consider it. “I dunno? Steph was there, too, so I don’t think—”
“Stephie’s super duper fucking charmed,” Emily shot back. “Like, head over heels. Eyeballs deep. Pink hearts in her eyes, the whole shebang. C’mon. When I brought up that maybe we were getting mind-controlled or whatever, she was like ‘that’s fine. This is fine.’ Thought that being charmed was still way better than going back to how she was before.”
“I get what you’re saying, but also—that’s valid for her,” Kelly said. “She’s right to say that either way. You never saw her on Friday, back before her hair turned pink. She was totally different, was this... super-shy little fucking blonde girl with a really bad stutter and a crippling case of social anxiety.”
“Her stutter wasn’t that bad,” Megan huffed. “I’ve known her for longer than any of you—I’m her best friend!”
“Nah, it was really bad, sorry,” Kelly shook her head. “And, friends? You were like, her only friend, I saw her address book in her phone—there were like five entries total.”
“We’re, we’re working on that!” Megan blustered. “I got her to come to the convention, I got her to cosplay! She’s not that shy, she just needs—”
“—She just needs a little bit of magic in her life, and some support—yeah, that’s us—who love her and want the best for her,” Kelly interrupted. “Right?”
“Her stutter wasn’t that bad,” Megan insisted, crossing her meaty arms.
“Kelly are you arguing in favor of us getting charmed?” Emily questioned. “Because if that isn’t indicating brainwashed bias already for you, then—”
“Fuck it, then. Yes, I am,” Kelly admitted. “Like I said, my life’s all kinds of fucked. You know what Brian said when I laid it all out for him? He said it was like I was heading towards a bad end. He was fucking right. I was. Am I supposed to see living this charmed life instead as some kind of bad thing? For any of us? Steph’s so much better off with Brian, I’m better off with Brian, what about you, Emily? Don’t you think you’ll be better off with Brian—with us?”
“Uhhhhhh, shit,” Emily flailed her arms and spun to face Megan. “Control, control case! Control, tell us why being mind-controlled harem slaves is bad!”
“Being mind-controlled harem slaves is bad!” Megan called out.
“No no, like tell us why—”
“Emmie, I don’t think you have to worry so much about it,” Rebecca pointed out with a sleepy smile. “Look at you—your hair’s just as blue as Kelly’s is red and Stephanie’s is pink. But, you still have the free will to doubt things, to argue against being a... mind-controlled harem slave.”
“Well yeah, but that doesn’t count!” Emily pouted. “I’ve been crushing on Brian for forever, obviously I’m totes gonna be his harem slave no matter what. That was always my thing. I was just making a case for you guys, since I’m the brains of this here—”
“Except, you weren’t his harem slave?” Kelly countered. “Crush or not, seems to me like you were dicking around getting nowhere at all with Brian—‘till you got charmed. Am I right?”
“Uhhhhh,” Emily seemed at a loss and abruptly turned to Rebecca. “So yeah anyways, Rebecca I noticed you didn’t draw Stephanie’s fire on the map, was there a reason for—”
“Am I right?” Kelly repeated with a smirk.
“Kelly, be nice,” Rebecca scolded. “She was trying… just. Well, she’s very Emily sometimes.”
“Wha—what the, what the hell’s that supposed to mean?!” Emily exclaimed in a fluster. “Rebecca—”
“It’s your name, Emily silly!” Rebecca explained with a sleepy smile. “I couldn’t think of how to draw Stephanie in, because it never seems like she’s in the same place. She just kind of roams around, always moving. Like a wildfire. She’s not as big as the forest, but she has a lot of intensity, the same way Kelly does. I think that may matter more than attributing size in the dreamworld, because—”
“Say that to begin with!” Emily jumped to her feet in aggravation. “Here I am trying to figure out what’s even—so you’re saying things rank by intensity in the dreamworld, and Steph’s the intensest?”
“‘Intensest’ is definitely not a word,” Megan chuckled.
“Neither is ‘scare-ified,’” Emily retorted, sticking out her tongue.
“Actually, I think ‘intensest’ is a real word,” Kelly added. “Isn’t it?”
“Hmm-hmmm…” Rebecca closed her eyes and fell deep into thought again. “Kelly might be the most intense by a little bit—but, she has the smallest area. Stephanie’s forest fire is maybe… one tenth of my area, but she’s also very very intense. I have the largest area by far, but absolutely no intensity at all. Emily, your little river is pretty lively, so I’d say—”
“What?” Emily cocked her head in disbelief and bewilderment. “No, no, that doesn’t make any sense at all. You’re like, by far the most intense person I’ve ever met.”
“I… what?” Rebecca’s eyes fluttered back open in surprise. “No, I’m not!”
“When you’re—you know what I mean,” Emily made striking gestures. “When you’re in your gung-ho sword valkyrie of death mode. You’re one hundred percent the most—”
“Yeah yeah yeah!” Megan agreed. “Like when you guys were fighting in the hall, Rebecca stormed in and like, threw you aside, slammed that Chloe girl to the ground and had pinned her right away—”
“Oh,” Rebecca blinked. “I... never even thought to try—”
“Think I might’ve just made a kinda big discovery,” Kelly interrupted, clawing a brush through her hair and then examining the tines. “This stuff doesn’t come out.”
“What doesn’t come out?” Emily asked. “The color? Or the hair itself?”
“The hair itself,” Kelly answered. “Look, watch...”
The scene girl carefully portioned out an almost invisible single strand of brilliant red hair, twirled it around her fingers like dental floss, and then pulled it taut. The gathering of girls watched with interest as the hair pinched the skin of her fingers at the applied tension. The single strand refused to break, even after Kelly’s hands began to tremble from the amount of force she was trying to use.
“Yeah—nothing,” Kelly said, staring intently at the hair. “Pretty sure we can’t separate even a single hair of the new color stuff from our heads. Emily, there’s a little disposable lighter in my purse somewhere, can you—”
“On it!” Emily chirped, lunging forward to unzip the purse.
After a quick moment of rifling through jumbled cosmetics and junk, Emily found the lighter. She flicked it in her hand until a little flame appeared, and Rebecca let out a small noise at the sight.
“Well, fuck me,” Kelly murmured, holding out a strand of bright red hair to the open flame of the lighter. Nothing happened.
“Do you know the one thing that makes hair completely fireproof?” Kelly smirked, glancing at Emily.
“Uhhh. I don’t… think so?”
Kelly moved the lit lighter back and forth, drawing the flame across the hair, but there was no result. The single strand remained an unflinching persistent line even when held continuously through the little tongue of flame. When she released it, the hair swayed back down to join her other locks of red.
“Me either,” Kelly said. “It all burns. Hell, wet hair held up to a flame like this will still burn up in a split-second. Even the thickest human hair is like, one five-hundredth of an inch wide, so there’s no way it can stand up to open flame, like… ever.”
“What does this mean?” Emily asked, stunned. “Could it be the lighter’s just not… hot enough, or something?
“Hell if I know?” Kelly laughed. “Doesn’t explain why I can’t snap a hair with my fingers then, now does it? Wish we had a pair of scissors. Hey, maybe it’s just the red—you want to see if your blue burns?”
“Kinda?” Emily looked uncertain. “But, also kinda not? Like what if my thing is waterproof hair instead since I’m blue and water? We like, don’t even know if the special color hair even grows normally anymore or whatever. For all I know I could be stuck with damaged hair for forever.”
“I bet you’d just rub in Brian’s cum like shampoo, since it’s all magic,” Kelly suggested with a smirk. “Right? Really lather it in there, and—”
“—Kelly?”
Stephanie’s voice startled all of them, and all four girls twisted over to see Stephanie across the pool area from them, leaning partway out of Brian’s hotel room door. The tufts of her pink hair were askance, she was blushing furiously, and a slight sheen of sweat was visible on her pale skin.
“Kelly, um—can we see you for a moment?” Stephanie sounded incredibly embarrassed. “If you’re not busy? Is your purse out here?”
“My purse? Yeah—here,” Kelly called back, grabbing her purse and rising up off the lounger. Keeping her cool always came easy to Kelly, but an excuse—any fucking excuse—to escape these girls and this awkward and meandering conversation came as an enormous relief.
Kelly was thoroughly adapted towards fighting upwards in a social hierarchy, and this different group dynamic was making her feel directionless, amorphous. Uncertain as to just how the fuck to express her own persona in the absence of all the scene clique social pressures that shaped her temperament in the first place. She couldn’t jeopardize things with her usual aggressive antagonism, because things were different. There was no reason to constantly assert her presence in conversation here, and more than once Kelly found herself forcibly reining herself in and lapsing into silence. There was no real need to establish herself as baddest bitch.
It was a strange feeling.
“Everything alright?” Kelly asked, crossing the pool area and letting herself out through the surrounding courtyard gate to meet Stephanie at the door to Brian’s room. “What do you guys need?”
“We, um. I think I… gave you back that condom that you gave me, last night. To use,” Stephanie said in a small voice, her face flushed red. So, I was wondering if you maybe had any other ones…?”
“Oh, shit,” Kelly remembered. “Yeah, sorry—wasn’t even thinking about this when I needed one last night! Here, here.”
Embarrassed herself at her own lapse—she’d been completely desperate for dick in the heat of the moment and simply demanded Stephanie grab her a condom from somewhere—Kelly snapped open her purse and hurriedly rummaged for the familiar packet shapes. There turned out to be two remaining, still connected to each other along one edge. Two rubbers left, and there’s two of us girls here… no, NO. This is Steph’s moment. Gotta let her have this. Especially after Emily and I hogged all the Brian last night.
Stephanie opened the door wider and stepped back, ushering Kelly into the room. Obliging her by following after, Kelly couldn’t help but notice Brian laying on the bed with only a sheet draped over his midsection. The ambiguous scene conjured all sorts of sordid imaginings about what he and Stephanie had been getting up to, and Kelly couldn’t help but give Stephanie another look. Dressed in only that nightshirt from the previous night—the one that Stephanie definitely hadn’t been wearing earlier and had probably been hurriedly shrugged on mere moments ago—Stephanie gave her a shy look in return.
“Take ‘em both,” Kelly pressed the condom packets into Stephanie’s hands. “You guys might need them.”
“Thank you so much,” Stephanie said with a weak smile. “And—sorry again.”
“No, totally my bad,” Kelly fought the urge to nose in and make some suggestive remark or sneak another leering peek over at Brian. She was feeling incredibly antsy, right now. “You guys... doing okay?”
“Yes, it’s been so...” Stephanie paused beside the doorway, quirking her head and searching Kelly’s expression. “Kelly? What’s wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong,” Kelly assured her. “Have lots of fun with Brian. Give him some kisses for me, alright?”
“Kelly…” Stephanie frowned. “You’re—anxious?”
“No? Anxious?” Kelly blinked. “I’m not anxiou—wait a minute, you can do your thing from a distance, now?!”
“Kind of?” Stephanie gave her a worried look. “A little bit? Just little hints and traces, it’s like following smoke to a fire. Kelly—what’s wrong?”
“Uhhh—fuck,” Kelly made a face.
She’d never considered how troubling Stephanie’s magical power could turn out to be— Kelly hadn’t realized exactly why she was anxious until Stephanie pointed it out. Once it got pointed out, that made her focus in on exploring the errant feeling, which only made her feel even more tense and uneasy, because she hadn’t had a chance to broach some of these sensitive topics with Stephanie yet.
“Was just—I really wanted to check on you. I guess,” Kelly admitted. “Was getting a little jealous. I mean, I know you wanted to be alone with Brian for this, and it’s totally your turn for some action, but—”
“I know you’re not jealous—I can tell,” Stephanie asked, raising a hand to gently trace Kelly’s brow. “May I?”
“Uhhh. Okay, yeah,” Kelly felt a pang of relief at not having to explain herself. “Please. Go for it.”
After only a moment’s uncertain hesitation, Kelly latched onto that elusive sentiment her future self had dangled in front of her—the sense of fond familiarity, the longing ache of total love she felt for Stephanie. Kelly opened herself up, and Stephanie poured in. It was the blinding pink brilliance daybreak within her mind all of the sudden, and Stephanie’s beaming brightness seemed to light up every dark corner and illuminate every hidden recess of Kelly’s brain. The sensation of pink fire flooding her mindscape and intruding into very private portions of her mind would have had her recoiling in shock at the sheer spectacle of it, but not anymore—this was her Stephanie.
“Kelly!” Stephanie exclaimed with a surprised breath, looking at Kelly in amazement. “Um. Your feelings for me, they’re… um. Your feelings for me are really, really strong. It seems like, anyways. Did... did something happen?”
“I’m... in love with you,” Kelly confessed in terror. Fuck me, I just came out and said it. Blurted it out. After giving them the whole fucking ‘NAH, I DON’T DO LOVE’ spiel like, yesterday. Fuck fuck fuck, FUUUUCK.
“It, um, it has to do with my power,” Kelly quickly added. “Yeah, I have a power too now, sorta. But, it’s not even because of the power, really. I just—Stephanie, I love you. I’m in love with you.”
It didn’t matter that Kelly was able to keep most of her composure, because Stephanie was still connected to her, in under her skin and beneath any facade she could put up. Tapping directly into Kelly’s emotions right from the source. The mortified feeling, the wash of guilt and fear, that spike of terrible anxiousness that threatened to bring her to tears in this moment—Kelly knew that Stephanie was reading them all.
Jesus, and two fucking days ago, SHE was the stammering mess, The absurdity of their reversal of roles really beggared belief, and Kelly didn’t know whether to laugh or cry thinking about it. No, not a reversal. We equalized, somehow? I was just SO goddamn proud that I knew what was what. Even when that was putting me on a path towards porn where I was for sure gonna wind up back getting trashed every day on whatever substances there were to abuse, and now it’s like… I gave away that excess confidence to Stephanie, and now we’re both… it’s...
“Kelly, it’s okay!” Stephanie rewarded her with a huge smile. “I love you too! I’m—you’re, you’re, you’ve made me so happy with this! I love you!”
“You do?” Kelly asked, feeling dumbfounded. “Really?”
She mentally reeled as her sense of that pink fire expanded again and again and again to fill everything in sight with fiery emotion,almost if Stephanie was resolute on confirming all of those feelings to her. In response, that metallic meteorite in the center of Kelly’s mindscape was practically vibrating, so red-hot with searing joy that the crater walls about her began to glow and liquefy into magma.
I love her. She loves me. I love her and she loves me. We love each other, Kelly’s mind raced with jubilation. This is love.
It felt like more than just a major accomplishment and a personal milestone for them, it felt to Kelly like she was on the cusp of another grand epiphany.
I helped give Steph some of my confidence, Kelly thought as she captured the shorter Stephanie in a crushing hug. But just now, when she gave it BACK to me—it was MORE. Just from her having held it, from having been a part of it. Like, I was always skeptical of the whole ‘two people being more than the sum of their parts’ stuff, but… it’s real, isn’t it? It’s love. I’m totally, hopelessly in love. And maybe not even just with Stephanie...
To his credit, Brian appeared only surprised and concerned by Kelly’s sudden outburst of emotion.
“Sorry, Brian,” Kelly laughed, giving him a guilty glance over Stephanie’s shoulder as she wiped tears with the edge of her hand. “Randomly interrupting like this, when you guys’re tryin’ to... you know. I’m going, I’m going.”
Feeling more flustered and elated and giddy all at once than she remembered ever experiencing, Kelly gave Stephanie one last squeeze and then released her, turning to make her escape. She didn’t get anywhere at all. As Kelly felt herself being tugged to a stop she realized that Stephanie had taken her by both of her wrists and wasn’t letting her go anywhere.
“Baby,” Stephanie looked up at her with a sweet smile of adoration. “Kelly baby. Why don’t you… won’t you please stay with us and help? If you want to?”
“Vwaif a mwinute!” Emily abruptly stood up. “Vwhe twotally—”
“Don’t talk with your mouth full, Emily,” Rebecca reminded her friend in an absent-minded tone. “Eating etiquette is—”
“Vwhe twoh—” Emily quickly swallowed her mouthful of food, “—she totally went in there with them, and then they closed the door! They’re gonna be in there all banging together, without us!”
“No no no, you stay. Sit!” Rebecca instructed, guiding Emily back to the poolside lounger before the little Latina could attempt to rush over to the hotel room door. “They’re having a thing. A moment? You don’t want to interrupt, it feels like it could be important!”
“They’re just in there having sex without me!” Emily pouted, dropping heavily back down onto her seat. “I want to have sex. I haven’t gotten laid properly in hours!”
“...Hours?” Megan regarded her with wide eyes. “Like, you mean—”
“Don’t be greedy, dearie,” Rebecca teased her, dotingly patting Emily on the head. “There’s this big Kelly and Stephanie commotion in the dreamscape. I think they’re having a thing.”
Rather than immediately return to their discussion after Stephanie interrupted them to call for Kelly, Emily had remembered the food cartons—or rather, Emily’s tummy growling had reminded them of breakfast. The three girls had placed the take-out cartons on the foot of the lounger, distributed wrapped plastic cutlery, and popped open the styrofoam containers so that they could dig in. Kelly had been gone for less than a minute, and Emily thought it’d be funny if after just turning away for that one moment, Kelly would come back to find them all just casually having breakfast without her all the sudden.
“I want to have a thing too, though,” Emily playfully griped, stabbing her fork so that it stood up in her eggs and taking up her coffee again. “I wanna have all the things!”
“What do you mean they’re having a thing?” Megan asked Rebecca, taking a sip of hot cocoa to clear her throat. “What does ‘having a thing’ look like, in your dream thingie?”
“Welllll,” Rebecca mused, making a thoughtful gesture with her fork. “I suppose kind of like they’re making a volcano?”
“A volcano?!” Emily nearly spit out her drink. “They’re making a volcano together, and without me?!”
“It’s very prettiful!” Rebecca nodded cheerfully. “With all the pink and red erupting out together. They’re—oh. Oh. Oh, my.”
“What?!” Emily demanded. “What’s happening?!”
“They’re—oh, oh my goodness,” Rebecca commented, raising a hand to cover up a small grin. “They’re—it’s nothing, Emily. Eat your food.”
“I’m going over there,” Emily decided, standing up again.
“You sit your hiney right back down, young lady!” Rebecca gestured in mock anger with her utensil. “They’re having a moment, and I don’t want you going and wrecking it!”
“I want to have a moment, too!” Emily protested in exasperation, plunking herself down again. “I wasn’t gonna wreck anything…”
“Ummm, what kind of moment are we referring to?!” Megan giggled. “Like, a scene fades to black sorta moment?”
“It’s quite a bit more colorful than that, I’m afraid,” Rebecca said with a sly laugh. “They’re—oh. Oh, goodness!”
“Now you’re just messing with me, aren’t you?!” Emily growled. “Aggh, just you wait. Soon as I figure out whatever the hell my magic charm power is, I’m gonna use it to play pranks on you. See how you like it.”
“You were going to do that anyways,” Rebecca pointed out.
“Well, yeah, but—” Emily paused. “Wait. Wait a minute. Do you think you can help me figure out what the fuck my charm power is?”
FortySixtyFour
Huge thank you to my supporters for making my writing possible! Aihnman, alethiophile, andy may phan, Angel Sworn, Anonguy, Aodean, Bill Johnson, Brian Czisny, Caleb, Chris, Conner Nay, Davin Taddeo, faraday, Garen McGhee, godoffaer, I. Ronical, jb qspam, Jeanie6754, jmundt33a, Joel Robinson, Julius Cheeser, JustAChair, Kibbleguy, KingofClubs8129, Kimu Taka, kognar, Lety Does Stuff, Luke Mofford, Miss Stephanie, Montugar, MountHermon, Mundane, NyarlathotepB, Overlord_Grimm, Paul Wirtz, Phillip Rayne, QuietDistress, Scarnem, Th1Alchemyst, The Epitome of Eccentricity, TiAM325, Tomas Wood, venef, Vowron Prime, William Foster, YellowLotr and especially Foxy!
“Maybe?” Rebecca pondered. “Kinda? I don’t have a real frame of reference, Emmie.”
“S’cool! This is plenty to work with, for now!” Emily praised. “Okay, everyone—gather ‘round! This is gonna be… uhhh, I guess our first official harem party meeting?”
Rebecca dutifully clapped her hands in a small round of polite applause.
“I’m just happy to be here,” Megan said as she clapped along. “Actually, am I allowed to be part of the meeting? If I’m not part of the harem?”
“Of course!” Emily said. “You’re our control case, we need you here. If all of us are being like, hypnotized or brainwashed or affected or whatever by harem charm magic, how would we be able to tell? We need you here to speak up if you think our thinking is skewed, help give us an outside perspective.”
“Wait, I’m actually useful?!” Megan sounded shocked. “...And, how brainwashed are we talking, here?”
“This isn’t gonna be an official harem party meeting,” Kelly argued. “Not without Steph.”
“That’s… okay, fair,” Emily conceded. “We’ll have our first official meeting later, when she can be here for it. I mean, we need to agree on a cool team name and everything, we’ll do that then. When everyone’s present.”
“We’re not going to have a team name,” Kelly flatly rejected, visibly cringing at the idea.
“Hey, you haven’t even heard my ideas, yet!” Emily pouted.
“Um-um-um,” Rebecca raised a hand. “Motion to table any and all team naming discussion for that later meeting!”
“Okay, motion passed,” Emily nodded. “We’ll do that, then. After all, Steph might have ideas, too.”
“That’s not actually how motions work,” Megan spoke up. “In parliamentary procedure, a proposed motion needs to—”
“Objection!” Emily interjected, slapping her hands on the chaise lounger.
“I’m just sayin’—” Megan shrugged.
“It’s whatever!” Emily groused, rolling her eyes and letting out a dramatic sigh. “Anyways, time to talk shop. Dreamscape Geography 101! Dreamscape geography; fact or fiction? Dreamscape geography, a metaphor for interpersonal relationships?”
A smart phone with a hastily drawn up map sat on the end of one of the chaise lounges for sunbathing arrayed alongside the patio of the hotel’s fenced in pool area. Emily straddled the lounger with the cardboard box and small pile of things hastily collected from the room at her back, while Rebecca and Megan sat on their knees to either side of the piece of outdoor furniture so that they could huddle close. Only Kelly was keeping to herself, relaxing back instead on the adjacent lounger and glancing over in amusement.
As a group, they had waffled for a moment on whether or not to head over to the convention ahead of Brian and Stephanie, finally deciding unanimously to wait on their friends. What exactly those two were getting up to in there had become an animated discussion before Rebecca started chiding them for it, but there were still plenty of other interesting topics for the girls to explore before delving back into the distractions of AnimeCon itself over at the convention center.
“Rebecca either is this forest, or she explores the forest,” Emily began. “Accurate so far?”
“Yes,” Rebecca gave her a serious nod. “I feel that the forest represents me, but also it exists as something I can navigate. It’s very dreamlike.”
“Okay,” Emily used her finger to pan across the image. “Zig-zagging throughout the forest is a blue river—that’s me. I’m blue. And a river. My being threaded throughout the forest—throughout Rebecca—would seem to indicate how close we are. Or, that we’re intertwined somehow, ‘cause we’re good friends. Right?”
“Right,” Rebecca nodded again. “Good friends!”
“Now, you just kinda drew me as kind of a scribble—in the dreamscape, is there any solid indication of where my water originates or terminates?”
“Um,” Rebecca closed her eyes for a moment and furrowed her brow as she seemed to search deep inside herself for answers. “No? Not that I can tell. You do definitely flow in a direction... but in the dream state, that doesn’t translate to mean anything, really. When I follow the path of the river, there is no beginning or end—but, it’s not like you’re in a loop, either.”
“Okay, yeah—very dream-like, so far,” Emily said. “How big a river would you say I am?”
“Not big!” Rebecca reported, wincing when she saw Emily’s expression fall. “Err, that is, I mean—not huge. Normal-sized, for a river? Too big to jump across, but not so big that I couldn’t throw something to the other side.”
“Wait, I’m small enough that I could throw something to the other side?!” Emily appeared aghast. “That’s like, barely even a river! Am I just a creek?!”
“Well, no. You couldn’t throw something across, silly,” Rebecca gave her a helpless smile. “I’m really good at throwing things!”
“...I really hate you, sometimes,” Emily facepalmed.
“But I love you, Emily!” Rebecca protested in a sweet little voice.
“Moving on, the for-sure fixed feature we have is Kelly, way over here.”
Emily zoomed in on the edge of Rebecca’s scribbled-in trees to where she’d drawn what looked like a small volcano. While the simple forest of trees were done in the color brown and the river drawn in blue, the entire crater had been illustrated in bright red.
“How big is Kelly, in this?” Emily asked. “Is this to scale?
“I… don’t know,” Rebecca said. “It’s not clear.”
“Well, can you throw something across her?” Emily retorted.
“I don’t know,” Rebecca replied after a moment of thought.
“What do you mean?” Emily asked. “Actually try it, try throwing something over her.”
“Mmm, no,” Rebecca shook her head in confusion. “It doesn’t work like that. It’s a dreamy sort of thing. Even when I’m there I’m not completely there.”
“Could you jump across her?”
“I don’t know. I don’t think so?”
“So, she’s at least kinda big.”
“I don’t know. Reply hazy.”
“Since you can obviously also jump so freakishly far.”
“Reply hazy. Ask again later.”
“Rebecca, you drew her way over here off to the side—am I right in assuming that your forest does not surround Kelly’s crater?”
“That’s… right,” Rebecca answered after a moment’s thought. “Kelly’s crater feature is adjacent to the forest, but not within or inside the forest itself.”
“Kelly?” Emily probed. “Anything you’d like to add?”
“I’m not a crater, for one,” Kelly frowned. “Not really. I’m just the bit in the dead center of it. The crater, it’s… stuff around me, but it isn’t me. Stuff displaced by my impact. I feel like it also represents... I dunno, keeping you and Rebecca at arm’s length right now.”
“That makes sense!” Emily said, flicking back through the app’s draw tools so that she could paint bucket the color of the crater to a neutral gray. With a few quick taps, she switched back to red and scribbled some red in the center. “Rebecca, what’s the crater boundary like for the forest? And, is the river separated from the crater by forest, or is there interaction?”
“Hold on,” Rebecca said, closing her eyes and retreating into herself to focus on the dreamscape again. “Uhhm. It’s complicated? Kelly—you said earlier that your representation was starfall?”
“Uhh, it was stars,” Kelly clarified slowly. “I think my initially... keeping myself aloof, holding myself back from getting closer to people, that represented me being out in space. Alone. Then, I got drawn into stuff, this orbit… and I couldn’t escape, came crashing down.”
“Wait, you were stars, plural?” Emily tapped her lip. “But now, you’re just one fallen star?”
“I don’t fucking know, Emily,” Kelly said in exasperation. “It’s like a dream. It doesn’t always make consistent sense, alright?”
“Hmm,” Rebecca mused thoughtfully, closing her eyes in concentration. “Kelly, I feel like… you’re definitely still keeping yourself apart from Emily and I. Dream-speaking, at least. The displaced... earth? Material? From your impact is still very raw, and my forest doesn’t encroach upon your direct surroundings. That may change as we grow closer? Maybe?
“Likewise, this crater caldera formed around you creates an uplifted rim of displaced material—Emily’s ‘river’ isn’t able to flow into the impact basin and fill it with water. Or, maybe she can? I don’t know, she goes downhill and uphill, Emily’s Emily, she doesn’t make a lot of sense. I can feel that there’s a place for her there, in the basin. If we take the dreamscape geography as a metaphor for our interpersonal relationships…”
“I’d… what, I’d flow into Kelly’s direct surrounding space because I’m… impressionable?” Emily made a face. “I’m not that impressionable. Right?”
“It could also mean you’ll fill in something I lack,” Kelly guessed. “I think we’re going to become close. Maybe I’m the impressionable one?”
“Seems… doubtful.” Emily quirked her lip. “Wait wait, do you think that or do you know that? From your… prophecy thingamawhatzit.”
“Maybe?” Kelly said.
“Aggh, whaddya mean, maybe?” Emily groaned. “You don’t like, have to be super cryptic about that stuff. Just lay it out, whatever you know.”
“Okay, listen—my life’s fucked,” Kelly revealed. “Out of options, burned all my bridges, got into some bad shit and fucked everything up. Brian offered to… try to help me. Set me up at his place for a bit, maybe... talk your mother into mentoring me somehow, or something.”
“Whooooa fuck,” Emily’s hands shot to her temples. “Seriously? You’re moving in with Brian? You guys want Mom to… holy shit. Holy shit. I mean, yeah that’s brilliant, but—why didn’t anyone bring this up earlier?!”
“I mean,” Kelly frowned, looked down at the surfacing of the pool area. “I don’t know. It’s weird. Weird and I don’t like it, don’t like really relying on people, or taking handouts, or forcing myself into your life or anything like that. Super uncomfortable. They kinda just sorta talked me into it somehow, last night.”
“So, you’d say you’re acting out of character to how you’d normally be?” Megan jumped in. “Like you were maybe influenced or affected by something?”
“I guess?” Kelly fidgeted. “It’s—I don’t know. It was like, back then before, whether or not I was right about everything was... more important than what was actually going on? Or something. I can’t fuckin’ explain it. Don’t even want to. Fuck.”
“Mrs. Emily’s Mom is very nice,” Rebecca assured Kelly. “I think she’d be a great mentor figure for you, and, whatever’s going on, she’ll be able to help you get somewhere. For sure. She’s helped me tons and tons!”
“She did?” Emily blinked. “What? How?”
“Is it true that she’s an actress?” Kelly questioned. “That she played Hannah Hudson on Criminal Lives?”
“Ugh. Yep, that’s her,” Emily made a face. “Hate that show, could never ever stand to watch her in it.”
“What?” Kelly asked. “Why?”
“She’s too good at acting? I guess?” Emily threw her hands up in disgust. “It’s like, you see her all your life as Mom, and then you see her one day on TV, and she’s someone else. She’s not Mom, she’s in love with some guy who’s not Dad, she’s this whole other gross person but wearing my mother’s face. Traipsing around in her body. Unnatural. It’s like—thanks, I hate it!”
“Huh,” Kelly remarked.
“I do see Emily’s perspective,” Rebecca murmured. “But at the same time, I think that just makes me admire Mrs. Emily’s Mom’s dedication to her craft even more. She’s really amazing when she—”
“Thanks, I hate it!” Emily said again, crossing her arms.
“Why are you referring to her as Mrs. Emily’s Mom?” Kelly arched an eyebrow.
“Because that’s who she is,” Rebecca blinked. “She’s Mrs. Emily’s Mom.”
“Wait, Criminal Lives like that old cop show?” Megan interjected. “The soap opera thing?”
“It was a TV drama, not a soap opera,” Emily sighed. “But, yeah, yeppers, that’s the one.”
“That’s so cool…” Megan mouthed. “She’s your mom? You do kinda look like her!”
“Yeah, except without her good looks and great figure,” Emily scowled. “But, otherwise? Yeah, totally!”
“No, I meant—”
“I think you’re hot, Emily,” Kelly said, creating an awkward moment of silence.
“Uhhh,” Emily floundered. “Thanks, I think? Just…”
“Wait, would you have thought she was hot before, or is this a new thing?” Megan inquired.
“I was bi before, but no,” Kelly answered. “Wouldn’t have thought of her as my type. More and more though, it’s like I can see myself being really open to… you know. More types. Petite little Latina bitches with cute faces and dirty minds.”
“Uhhhhh—” Emily looked mildly alarmed.
“Goodness!” Rebecca covered her mouth, trying not to laugh. “Goodness Gyratos!”
“So, that’s a magic charm thing! Right?” Megan turned from girl to girl for support. “Totally has to be. Right?!”
“I think so, yeah,” Kelly said, eyeing Emily carefully. “I’m not like, against it, though.”
“You wouldn’t be, that’s the point,” Emily countered. “That’s how brainwashing works.”
“Could be?” Kelly shrugged. “I don’t buy into that stuff too much, though. I mean, I almost flipped out on Brian yesterday when we were having pizza. We’d argued about stuff earlier, too, I even bailed on them a bit to go take care of some of my own stuff instead. Don’t feel super compelled by some magic power or anything like that.”
“You do, though,” Emily argued. “You totally do feel compelled. I mean, the whole overpowering attraction thing. That’s a compulsion right there. You say you almost flipped out on Brian—maybe back before, the old you would have flipped out him. Well? Would you have?”
“I…” Kelly paused to consider it. “I dunno? Steph was there, too, so I don’t think—”
“Stephie’s super duper fucking charmed,” Emily shot back. “Like, head over heels. Eyeballs deep. Pink hearts in her eyes, the whole shebang. C’mon. When I brought up that maybe we were getting mind-controlled or whatever, she was like ‘that’s fine. This is fine.’ Thought that being charmed was still way better than going back to how she was before.”
“I get what you’re saying, but also—that’s valid for her,” Kelly said. “She’s right to say that either way. You never saw her on Friday, back before her hair turned pink. She was totally different, was this... super-shy little fucking blonde girl with a really bad stutter and a crippling case of social anxiety.”
“Her stutter wasn’t that bad,” Megan huffed. “I’ve known her for longer than any of you—I’m her best friend!”
“Nah, it was really bad, sorry,” Kelly shook her head. “And, friends? You were like, her only friend, I saw her address book in her phone—there were like five entries total.”
“We’re, we’re working on that!” Megan blustered. “I got her to come to the convention, I got her to cosplay! She’s not that shy, she just needs—”
“—She just needs a little bit of magic in her life, and some support—yeah, that’s us—who love her and want the best for her,” Kelly interrupted. “Right?”
“Her stutter wasn’t that bad,” Megan insisted, crossing her meaty arms.
“Kelly are you arguing in favor of us getting charmed?” Emily questioned. “Because if that isn’t indicating brainwashed bias already for you, then—”
“Fuck it, then. Yes, I am,” Kelly admitted. “Like I said, my life’s all kinds of fucked. You know what Brian said when I laid it all out for him? He said it was like I was heading towards a bad end. He was fucking right. I was. Am I supposed to see living this charmed life instead as some kind of bad thing? For any of us? Steph’s so much better off with Brian, I’m better off with Brian, what about you, Emily? Don’t you think you’ll be better off with Brian—with us?”
“Uhhhhhh, shit,” Emily flailed her arms and spun to face Megan. “Control, control case! Control, tell us why being mind-controlled harem slaves is bad!”
“Being mind-controlled harem slaves is bad!” Megan called out.
“No no, like tell us why—”
“Emmie, I don’t think you have to worry so much about it,” Rebecca pointed out with a sleepy smile. “Look at you—your hair’s just as blue as Kelly’s is red and Stephanie’s is pink. But, you still have the free will to doubt things, to argue against being a... mind-controlled harem slave.”
“Well yeah, but that doesn’t count!” Emily pouted. “I’ve been crushing on Brian for forever, obviously I’m totes gonna be his harem slave no matter what. That was always my thing. I was just making a case for you guys, since I’m the brains of this here—”
“Except, you weren’t his harem slave?” Kelly countered. “Crush or not, seems to me like you were dicking around getting nowhere at all with Brian—‘till you got charmed. Am I right?”
“Uhhhhh,” Emily seemed at a loss and abruptly turned to Rebecca. “So yeah anyways, Rebecca I noticed you didn’t draw Stephanie’s fire on the map, was there a reason for—”
“Am I right?” Kelly repeated with a smirk.
“Kelly, be nice,” Rebecca scolded. “She was trying… just. Well, she’s very Emily sometimes.”
“Wha—what the, what the hell’s that supposed to mean?!” Emily exclaimed in a fluster. “Rebecca—”
“It’s your name, Emily silly!” Rebecca explained with a sleepy smile. “I couldn’t think of how to draw Stephanie in, because it never seems like she’s in the same place. She just kind of roams around, always moving. Like a wildfire. She’s not as big as the forest, but she has a lot of intensity, the same way Kelly does. I think that may matter more than attributing size in the dreamworld, because—”
“Say that to begin with!” Emily jumped to her feet in aggravation. “Here I am trying to figure out what’s even—so you’re saying things rank by intensity in the dreamworld, and Steph’s the intensest?”
“‘Intensest’ is definitely not a word,” Megan chuckled.
“Neither is ‘scare-ified,’” Emily retorted, sticking out her tongue.
“Actually, I think ‘intensest’ is a real word,” Kelly added. “Isn’t it?”
“Hmm-hmmm…” Rebecca closed her eyes and fell deep into thought again. “Kelly might be the most intense by a little bit—but, she has the smallest area. Stephanie’s forest fire is maybe… one tenth of my area, but she’s also very very intense. I have the largest area by far, but absolutely no intensity at all. Emily, your little river is pretty lively, so I’d say—”
“What?” Emily cocked her head in disbelief and bewilderment. “No, no, that doesn’t make any sense at all. You’re like, by far the most intense person I’ve ever met.”
“I… what?” Rebecca’s eyes fluttered back open in surprise. “No, I’m not!”
“When you’re—you know what I mean,” Emily made striking gestures. “When you’re in your gung-ho sword valkyrie of death mode. You’re one hundred percent the most—”
“Yeah yeah yeah!” Megan agreed. “Like when you guys were fighting in the hall, Rebecca stormed in and like, threw you aside, slammed that Chloe girl to the ground and had pinned her right away—”
“Oh,” Rebecca blinked. “I... never even thought to try—”
“Think I might’ve just made a kinda big discovery,” Kelly interrupted, clawing a brush through her hair and then examining the tines. “This stuff doesn’t come out.”
“What doesn’t come out?” Emily asked. “The color? Or the hair itself?”
“The hair itself,” Kelly answered. “Look, watch...”
The scene girl carefully portioned out an almost invisible single strand of brilliant red hair, twirled it around her fingers like dental floss, and then pulled it taut. The gathering of girls watched with interest as the hair pinched the skin of her fingers at the applied tension. The single strand refused to break, even after Kelly’s hands began to tremble from the amount of force she was trying to use.
“Yeah—nothing,” Kelly said, staring intently at the hair. “Pretty sure we can’t separate even a single hair of the new color stuff from our heads. Emily, there’s a little disposable lighter in my purse somewhere, can you—”
“On it!” Emily chirped, lunging forward to unzip the purse.
After a quick moment of rifling through jumbled cosmetics and junk, Emily found the lighter. She flicked it in her hand until a little flame appeared, and Rebecca let out a small noise at the sight.
“Well, fuck me,” Kelly murmured, holding out a strand of bright red hair to the open flame of the lighter. Nothing happened.
“Do you know the one thing that makes hair completely fireproof?” Kelly smirked, glancing at Emily.
“Uhhh. I don’t… think so?”
Kelly moved the lit lighter back and forth, drawing the flame across the hair, but there was no result. The single strand remained an unflinching persistent line even when held continuously through the little tongue of flame. When she released it, the hair swayed back down to join her other locks of red.
“Me either,” Kelly said. “It all burns. Hell, wet hair held up to a flame like this will still burn up in a split-second. Even the thickest human hair is like, one five-hundredth of an inch wide, so there’s no way it can stand up to open flame, like… ever.”
“What does this mean?” Emily asked, stunned. “Could it be the lighter’s just not… hot enough, or something?
“Hell if I know?” Kelly laughed. “Doesn’t explain why I can’t snap a hair with my fingers then, now does it? Wish we had a pair of scissors. Hey, maybe it’s just the red—you want to see if your blue burns?”
“Kinda?” Emily looked uncertain. “But, also kinda not? Like what if my thing is waterproof hair instead since I’m blue and water? We like, don’t even know if the special color hair even grows normally anymore or whatever. For all I know I could be stuck with damaged hair for forever.”
“I bet you’d just rub in Brian’s cum like shampoo, since it’s all magic,” Kelly suggested with a smirk. “Right? Really lather it in there, and—”
“—Kelly?”
Stephanie’s voice startled all of them, and all four girls twisted over to see Stephanie across the pool area from them, leaning partway out of Brian’s hotel room door. The tufts of her pink hair were askance, she was blushing furiously, and a slight sheen of sweat was visible on her pale skin.
“Kelly, um—can we see you for a moment?” Stephanie sounded incredibly embarrassed. “If you’re not busy? Is your purse out here?”
“My purse? Yeah—here,” Kelly called back, grabbing her purse and rising up off the lounger. Keeping her cool always came easy to Kelly, but an excuse—any fucking excuse—to escape these girls and this awkward and meandering conversation came as an enormous relief.
Kelly was thoroughly adapted towards fighting upwards in a social hierarchy, and this different group dynamic was making her feel directionless, amorphous. Uncertain as to just how the fuck to express her own persona in the absence of all the scene clique social pressures that shaped her temperament in the first place. She couldn’t jeopardize things with her usual aggressive antagonism, because things were different. There was no reason to constantly assert her presence in conversation here, and more than once Kelly found herself forcibly reining herself in and lapsing into silence. There was no real need to establish herself as baddest bitch.
It was a strange feeling.
“Everything alright?” Kelly asked, crossing the pool area and letting herself out through the surrounding courtyard gate to meet Stephanie at the door to Brian’s room. “What do you guys need?”
“We, um. I think I… gave you back that condom that you gave me, last night. To use,” Stephanie said in a small voice, her face flushed red. So, I was wondering if you maybe had any other ones…?”
“Oh, shit,” Kelly remembered. “Yeah, sorry—wasn’t even thinking about this when I needed one last night! Here, here.”
Embarrassed herself at her own lapse—she’d been completely desperate for dick in the heat of the moment and simply demanded Stephanie grab her a condom from somewhere—Kelly snapped open her purse and hurriedly rummaged for the familiar packet shapes. There turned out to be two remaining, still connected to each other along one edge. Two rubbers left, and there’s two of us girls here… no, NO. This is Steph’s moment. Gotta let her have this. Especially after Emily and I hogged all the Brian last night.
Stephanie opened the door wider and stepped back, ushering Kelly into the room. Obliging her by following after, Kelly couldn’t help but notice Brian laying on the bed with only a sheet draped over his midsection. The ambiguous scene conjured all sorts of sordid imaginings about what he and Stephanie had been getting up to, and Kelly couldn’t help but give Stephanie another look. Dressed in only that nightshirt from the previous night—the one that Stephanie definitely hadn’t been wearing earlier and had probably been hurriedly shrugged on mere moments ago—Stephanie gave her a shy look in return.
“Take ‘em both,” Kelly pressed the condom packets into Stephanie’s hands. “You guys might need them.”
“Thank you so much,” Stephanie said with a weak smile. “And—sorry again.”
“No, totally my bad,” Kelly fought the urge to nose in and make some suggestive remark or sneak another leering peek over at Brian. She was feeling incredibly antsy, right now. “You guys... doing okay?”
“Yes, it’s been so...” Stephanie paused beside the doorway, quirking her head and searching Kelly’s expression. “Kelly? What’s wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong,” Kelly assured her. “Have lots of fun with Brian. Give him some kisses for me, alright?”
“Kelly…” Stephanie frowned. “You’re—anxious?”
“No? Anxious?” Kelly blinked. “I’m not anxiou—wait a minute, you can do your thing from a distance, now?!”
“Kind of?” Stephanie gave her a worried look. “A little bit? Just little hints and traces, it’s like following smoke to a fire. Kelly—what’s wrong?”
“Uhhh—fuck,” Kelly made a face.
She’d never considered how troubling Stephanie’s magical power could turn out to be— Kelly hadn’t realized exactly why she was anxious until Stephanie pointed it out. Once it got pointed out, that made her focus in on exploring the errant feeling, which only made her feel even more tense and uneasy, because she hadn’t had a chance to broach some of these sensitive topics with Stephanie yet.
“Was just—I really wanted to check on you. I guess,” Kelly admitted. “Was getting a little jealous. I mean, I know you wanted to be alone with Brian for this, and it’s totally your turn for some action, but—”
“I know you’re not jealous—I can tell,” Stephanie asked, raising a hand to gently trace Kelly’s brow. “May I?”
“Uhhh. Okay, yeah,” Kelly felt a pang of relief at not having to explain herself. “Please. Go for it.”
After only a moment’s uncertain hesitation, Kelly latched onto that elusive sentiment her future self had dangled in front of her—the sense of fond familiarity, the longing ache of total love she felt for Stephanie. Kelly opened herself up, and Stephanie poured in. It was the blinding pink brilliance daybreak within her mind all of the sudden, and Stephanie’s beaming brightness seemed to light up every dark corner and illuminate every hidden recess of Kelly’s brain. The sensation of pink fire flooding her mindscape and intruding into very private portions of her mind would have had her recoiling in shock at the sheer spectacle of it, but not anymore—this was her Stephanie.
“Kelly!” Stephanie exclaimed with a surprised breath, looking at Kelly in amazement. “Um. Your feelings for me, they’re… um. Your feelings for me are really, really strong. It seems like, anyways. Did... did something happen?”
“I’m... in love with you,” Kelly confessed in terror. Fuck me, I just came out and said it. Blurted it out. After giving them the whole fucking ‘NAH, I DON’T DO LOVE’ spiel like, yesterday. Fuck fuck fuck, FUUUUCK.
“It, um, it has to do with my power,” Kelly quickly added. “Yeah, I have a power too now, sorta. But, it’s not even because of the power, really. I just—Stephanie, I love you. I’m in love with you.”
It didn’t matter that Kelly was able to keep most of her composure, because Stephanie was still connected to her, in under her skin and beneath any facade she could put up. Tapping directly into Kelly’s emotions right from the source. The mortified feeling, the wash of guilt and fear, that spike of terrible anxiousness that threatened to bring her to tears in this moment—Kelly knew that Stephanie was reading them all.
Jesus, and two fucking days ago, SHE was the stammering mess, The absurdity of their reversal of roles really beggared belief, and Kelly didn’t know whether to laugh or cry thinking about it. No, not a reversal. We equalized, somehow? I was just SO goddamn proud that I knew what was what. Even when that was putting me on a path towards porn where I was for sure gonna wind up back getting trashed every day on whatever substances there were to abuse, and now it’s like… I gave away that excess confidence to Stephanie, and now we’re both… it’s...
“Kelly, it’s okay!” Stephanie rewarded her with a huge smile. “I love you too! I’m—you’re, you’re, you’ve made me so happy with this! I love you!”
“You do?” Kelly asked, feeling dumbfounded. “Really?”
She mentally reeled as her sense of that pink fire expanded again and again and again to fill everything in sight with fiery emotion,almost if Stephanie was resolute on confirming all of those feelings to her. In response, that metallic meteorite in the center of Kelly’s mindscape was practically vibrating, so red-hot with searing joy that the crater walls about her began to glow and liquefy into magma.
I love her. She loves me. I love her and she loves me. We love each other, Kelly’s mind raced with jubilation. This is love.
It felt like more than just a major accomplishment and a personal milestone for them, it felt to Kelly like she was on the cusp of another grand epiphany.
I helped give Steph some of my confidence, Kelly thought as she captured the shorter Stephanie in a crushing hug. But just now, when she gave it BACK to me—it was MORE. Just from her having held it, from having been a part of it. Like, I was always skeptical of the whole ‘two people being more than the sum of their parts’ stuff, but… it’s real, isn’t it? It’s love. I’m totally, hopelessly in love. And maybe not even just with Stephanie...
To his credit, Brian appeared only surprised and concerned by Kelly’s sudden outburst of emotion.
“Sorry, Brian,” Kelly laughed, giving him a guilty glance over Stephanie’s shoulder as she wiped tears with the edge of her hand. “Randomly interrupting like this, when you guys’re tryin’ to... you know. I’m going, I’m going.”
Feeling more flustered and elated and giddy all at once than she remembered ever experiencing, Kelly gave Stephanie one last squeeze and then released her, turning to make her escape. She didn’t get anywhere at all. As Kelly felt herself being tugged to a stop she realized that Stephanie had taken her by both of her wrists and wasn’t letting her go anywhere.
“Baby,” Stephanie looked up at her with a sweet smile of adoration. “Kelly baby. Why don’t you… won’t you please stay with us and help? If you want to?”
“Vwaif a mwinute!” Emily abruptly stood up. “Vwhe twotally—”
“Don’t talk with your mouth full, Emily,” Rebecca reminded her friend in an absent-minded tone. “Eating etiquette is—”
“Vwhe twoh—” Emily quickly swallowed her mouthful of food, “—she totally went in there with them, and then they closed the door! They’re gonna be in there all banging together, without us!”
“No no no, you stay. Sit!” Rebecca instructed, guiding Emily back to the poolside lounger before the little Latina could attempt to rush over to the hotel room door. “They’re having a thing. A moment? You don’t want to interrupt, it feels like it could be important!”
“They’re just in there having sex without me!” Emily pouted, dropping heavily back down onto her seat. “I want to have sex. I haven’t gotten laid properly in hours!”
“...Hours?” Megan regarded her with wide eyes. “Like, you mean—”
“Don’t be greedy, dearie,” Rebecca teased her, dotingly patting Emily on the head. “There’s this big Kelly and Stephanie commotion in the dreamscape. I think they’re having a thing.”
Rather than immediately return to their discussion after Stephanie interrupted them to call for Kelly, Emily had remembered the food cartons—or rather, Emily’s tummy growling had reminded them of breakfast. The three girls had placed the take-out cartons on the foot of the lounger, distributed wrapped plastic cutlery, and popped open the styrofoam containers so that they could dig in. Kelly had been gone for less than a minute, and Emily thought it’d be funny if after just turning away for that one moment, Kelly would come back to find them all just casually having breakfast without her all the sudden.
“I want to have a thing too, though,” Emily playfully griped, stabbing her fork so that it stood up in her eggs and taking up her coffee again. “I wanna have all the things!”
“What do you mean they’re having a thing?” Megan asked Rebecca, taking a sip of hot cocoa to clear her throat. “What does ‘having a thing’ look like, in your dream thingie?”
“Welllll,” Rebecca mused, making a thoughtful gesture with her fork. “I suppose kind of like they’re making a volcano?”
“A volcano?!” Emily nearly spit out her drink. “They’re making a volcano together, and without me?!”
“It’s very prettiful!” Rebecca nodded cheerfully. “With all the pink and red erupting out together. They’re—oh. Oh. Oh, my.”
“What?!” Emily demanded. “What’s happening?!”
“They’re—oh, oh my goodness,” Rebecca commented, raising a hand to cover up a small grin. “They’re—it’s nothing, Emily. Eat your food.”
“I’m going over there,” Emily decided, standing up again.
“You sit your hiney right back down, young lady!” Rebecca gestured in mock anger with her utensil. “They’re having a moment, and I don’t want you going and wrecking it!”
“I want to have a moment, too!” Emily protested in exasperation, plunking herself down again. “I wasn’t gonna wreck anything…”
“Ummm, what kind of moment are we referring to?!” Megan giggled. “Like, a scene fades to black sorta moment?”
“It’s quite a bit more colorful than that, I’m afraid,” Rebecca said with a sly laugh. “They’re—oh. Oh, goodness!”
“Now you’re just messing with me, aren’t you?!” Emily growled. “Aggh, just you wait. Soon as I figure out whatever the hell my magic charm power is, I’m gonna use it to play pranks on you. See how you like it.”
“You were going to do that anyways,” Rebecca pointed out.
“Well, yeah, but—” Emily paused. “Wait. Wait a minute. Do you think you can help me figure out what the fuck my charm power is?”
FortySixtyFour
Huge thank you to my supporters for making my writing possible! Aihnman, alethiophile, andy may phan, Angel Sworn, Anonguy, Aodean, Bill Johnson, Brian Czisny, Caleb, Chris, Conner Nay, Davin Taddeo, faraday, Garen McGhee, godoffaer, I. Ronical, jb qspam, Jeanie6754, jmundt33a, Joel Robinson, Julius Cheeser, JustAChair, Kibbleguy, KingofClubs8129, Kimu Taka, kognar, Lety Does Stuff, Luke Mofford, Miss Stephanie, Montugar, MountHermon, Mundane, NyarlathotepB, Overlord_Grimm, Paul Wirtz, Phillip Rayne, QuietDistress, Scarnem, Th1Alchemyst, The Epitome of Eccentricity, TiAM325, Tomas Wood, venef, Vowron Prime, William Foster, YellowLotr and especially Foxy!
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