thegingernut
thegingernut
I kicked the door open. "GOOD NEWS CHARLIE, WE'RE GOING OUT DANCING!" I yelled. Xir popcorn went all over the floor and xe fixed me with an irritated scowl. "Woof?" xe demanded indignantly. I raised an eyebrow. "The order was for 24 hours Charlie, there's no way you're still muzzled" I chirped. "Puppy shouldn't need words" xe said with an annoyed pout. "Well Vanessa no speak puppy so puppy use people words if puppy want to be understood" I smirked. "You're so mean!" compined Charlie.
"Oh? Would a mean girl bring you… THIS?" I excimed and brought a little gss phial of medicine down on the (coffee table/literal log) like the hammer of Tor. Charlie picked it up. Xe smiled. "Awwww! Vanessa! You shouldn't have!" xe excimed. "I also got you a syringe so we don't have to share" I said. "Um… do you know how to safely inject?" asked Charlie. "Sure, make sure there's absolutely, utterly, positively no air" I said.
"Um… pretty sure there's more to it than that. Like finding a vein…" xe noted. "Nah, its intramuscur. You just find somewhere meaty and jab it in there" I handwaved. I opened the drawer where I kept my own medicine stuff and extracted my syringe and a box of unused needles. I took a fresh bottle of medicine from my pocket and drew it up into the syringe.
"Vanessa, how much E are you actually on?" asked Charlie, staring as I drew. "I dunno. A lot?" I said. Charlie let out a shriek of surprise. "Vanessa, what the fuck? Medicine isn't a freaking joke, get your dosage wrong and terrible things could happen!" xe chastised. "Eh, no biggie. More E means more booba, right?" I said.
"NO! Vanessa, excess E gets metabolized into T you blithering idiot!" excimed Charlie. I almost dropped my syringe. I carefully put it down. "That… Okay that… Uh oh…" I colpsed on the couch next to xir. THAT expins why it only seems to work when I'm behind on doses…
"Would you happen to know the recommended dose…" I stammered. "About four milligrams every five days but that's going to depend on your weight. You're only small so I'd make it three, or maybe less regur doses? You REALLY should have talked to a doctor about this Vanessa, an endocrinologist if possible" xe said with no little measure of exasperation.
"Right… I'll take us to see an endocrinologist some day during the week. Get our doses calcuted" I said sheepishly. I emptied the E back into the bottle and then put the unused needle in the sharp trash tin. If I was going to be sharing my medicine box with Charlie I couldn't really leave a sort of used needle lying around. I put the bottle of T next to the E and closed the drawer. "Okay, that can wait for another day, tonight we're going out dancing!" I reiterated.
I removed Charlie's love isnd rerun from the pystation (wait, when in the name of Satan's sextoy collection did I buy a love Isnd boxset?) and popped in a makeup tutorial. "HEY!" compined Charlie.
---
I was wearing a skirt. I didn't get to wear skirts usually. I like them don't get me wrong. Its just that they feel… dangerous. Like if someone saw through my bubble of anonymity and I was wearing jeans I could py myself off as whatever gender felt safer at the time. But a skirt was committing. A skirt was scary. And it was a pink skirt. I don't wear bright colours. I don't like attracting attention. But going dancing and fading into the background felt like sacrilege. Like I was letting down the brave feminists who starved themselves half to death on hunger strike. They did not risk their lives so little girls could cower in fear. Its a dance. You have to dress up to go dancing.
So I was wearing a pink skirt with a bck t-shirt with the words "Under Construction" in neon pink letters in the Barbie font. My hair was done up in twin buns that looked a bit like meatballs. A hairstyle based on a character from an old webcomic about a girl who could read minds. My lipstick was bright pink and my eyeshadow dark pink. There was a little blush on my cheeks but no foundation. I was prone to intermitted acne and foundation would probably make that worse so I didn't keep it in the house. (I would have thought E would fix that but apparently I was using it wrong so mystery solved I guess…)
Charlie was wearing a skirt too, this one pid and a lot shorter than mine. I couldn't remember buying it. Xe paired it with a denim jacket (which I picked up in a charity shop but never felt confident wearing) over a chest bare but for xir binder. (Mental note, buy xir some spare binders next time we go shopping). Xe had also dyed xir hair green. I had bought the hair dye on a whim while I was out shopping with Laurent.
"Why couldn't we teleport" compined Charlie. "Because Victoria doesn't know where my house is" I expined. "Why couldn't we have taken the lesbian lycan?" xe snapped. "Because Leah doesn't know where my house is either" I replied. "She literally dropped us here yesterday!" xe excimed. "I don't like people knowing where I live. I like my privacy. She won't remember" I said. "And now you're walking two and a half miles on a chronically sore hip" xe pointed out. "The painkillers have kicked in. It doesn't hurt at all right now" I cimed.
"Not the point. Why is being alone so important to you" xe asked. "I've had bad experiences with people. I don't hate hate them, because I don't want to turn into my father but I might have some serious trust issues" I noted. "But they're not people. They're witches. They're better than people" said Charlie. "Not so much. Remember how they treat Emily?" - "Who?" - "The socalled “mad” witch who lives outside of town"
"You know you'd think a town of witches hiding from the government would be less of a disappointment" said Charlie. "Eh. I thought the whole witch thing was a pleasant surprise personally. Once I got past the part where they tried to murder me that is" I recalled. "Why haven't they tried to murder me yet?" pouted Charlie. "Um… Charlie, almost being murdered isn't exactly a fun bonding activity. It was actually a bit terrifying" I warned. "I wish Rose would terrorize me more!" xe said.
It occurred to me that there might be something wrong with the way Charlie's brain worked.
---
We arrived in the clearing where they were holding the dance. They had a big speaker hooked up to a turntable, but it was currently inactive and music was instead being provided by a band of musicians pying instruments ranging from the fiddle to the saxophone. They also had a singer, who was using his power of maniputing soundwaves to add a little spice to the performance. I also recognized Riley from my css, who was doing things to the bands shadows so it looked like there was a crowd of scary demons behind them. They were pying a song from west side story. The contrast was hirious but also lowkey a bit punk.
I spotted Leah dancing with Rose and hopped over to say hi. Rose was wearing the skull leggings and the "training to fight the horse" t-shirt. Leah was wearing ripped jeans, a tube top and her leather jacket. I walked up behind Leah and Charlie behind Rose, shielded from view by my power. "Mind if I interject" we said in mind control assisted synchrony. They both jumped.
"Vanessa!" Leah bellowed, breaking into a smile. "What's up dog?" I smiled. I was rewarded with a punch in the arm for that pun. "Holy heck, I just realized I don't know what your face normally looks like" she excimed. "Yeah. I might have some minor self confidence issues. But there's no room for that on the dance floor, so everyone gets to see me tonight!" I smiled.
"You look good. Love the skirt" she said. She raised my frail arm into the air with her own great bicep, and gave me a twirl causing the skirt to spinny. "Hey!" I excimed in something between shock and swooning. The band broke into a new song. The melody was supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, but the lyrics had been substituted for an extended rant about all the ways the singer wanted to beat, cook, cure and eat Jefferson Davis. The fact the singer was using a deep, throaty style usually associated with death metal made it even funnier. And Leah picked me up as if I weighed nothing and twirled me around above her head. I put out a quick "NO LOOKING UP SKIRTS" to make sure nobody got any funny ideas while I was in the air.
Leah was a pretty good dancer. Not in a "she looked amazing and did mind bending feats of gymnastics" sort of way though. You see, the basic premise of dancing is to move with confidence. So long as you meet that basic requirement you can dance the David Pumpkins dance and you'll still attract positive attention. I was alright but I think I was being carried in more ways than one.
I was twirled, thrown and tussled effortlessly. She leaned me back at an impossible angle, hair almost brushing the floor, and her face came down to meet me. Are beastshifters just immune to gravity or something? She brought her lips close to mine. Close enough to kiss. She stared into my eyes, smiling like the heroine of the sapphic book she should have by all rights walked off the cover of. And then she broke eye contact, looking ashamed and blushed. I heard whispering from all directions. I rolled my eyes in annoyance.
"MIND YOUR FUCKING BUSINESS!" I commanded mentally. I grabbed her by her perfect chin and brought her back into eye contact. "Don't worry. They won't remember anything" I smiled mischievously. She smiled back. She sprang back to an upright position and raised me above her head, staring into my eyes and then began twirling and whirling. I was just a mite dizzy when she dropped me to my feet, and I colpsed against her, and she held me. She kissed my forehead.
"I better go make sure Rose hasn't killed Charlie" she whispered. I sighed. "Good idea" I admitted. But I wanted another song so I caught her by the hand as she tried to leave and waltzed her to a song about a beastshifter being harassed by her boyfriend's crazy mother. "Is this based on something that happened in town" I whispered. Leah nodded. "… She fed rabbit to a rabbit shifter? What the actual hell?" I gasped. "Yup. She's a piece of work. And even eighty years ter nobody's let her live it down" smiled Leah. "Is she not dead?" I gasped. "Beastshifters live longer than other witches. Side effect of our healing factors" she expined.
"Do witches live longer than outsiders in general?" I asked. "I dunno. We don't have many outsiders join the town who aren't witches" she replied. The song ended and this time she managed to escape back to her girlfriend. I myself found the snacks table. It was richly adorned. I helped myself to sausages and avocado fries.
"Oh hey Victoria" I excimed. She turned to me and then frowned, trying to pce me. "Sorry, who?" she asked. "Vanessa?" I giggled. She stared. "I can see you!" she excimed. "Yup. Wouldn't be right to go out dancing and spend the whole night cowering invisible" I ughed. "Damn… I thought your hair would be longer!" she ughed back. I threw a fry at her. She teleported to the other side of me to avoid it.
"Who's the kid Vicky? Elders stick you with one too?" asked a girl almost as tall as her. I looked at Victoria. "That would be the wackjob who brought Peter home" she replied. "And who's this? Finally defect to the girlkissers?" I smirked. "She's my sister!" excimed Victoria. "Oh. Sorry!" I said sheepishly. "Its still weird to date your siblings even if they're the same gender, right?" asked Victoria. "Yeah…" I mumbled. She burst out ughing. "Weirdo!" she taunted. "Shut up! I didn't realize!" I pouted.
While Victoria was busy ughing like a lunatic, her sister introduced herself. "I'm Anne. Nice to meet ya I guess. Thanks for… Thanks for bringing Peter back" she said. I gnced at Victoria. "Um… Is this the sister who… y'know?" I asked. "The sister who what?" asked Anne, Victoria still too busy ughing to respond. "Stole her boyfriend" I said bluntly. "Stole her… ew, no! I just seduced the guy to show her what a piece of shit he was" she said, wrinkling her nose in disgust.
"Then… would she not hate you for that? Where I come from people have a tendency to get mad at people for things like that" I noted. "Eh. Happens enough round here too. But this wasn't like that. I had no intention of ever dating him. I just wanted my little sis to see she could do better than that lowlife" she said cheerfully.
"You know what? I think she can" I nodded. "Fuck you Vanessa" wheezed Victoria. "What?" I asked. "Well… there aren't many folks to meet around here… Sometimes I wonder if I'll just have to go crawling back to him at some point" she said darkly. "Never!" I excimed. "Well there aren't a whole bunch of single guys in town and they only get worse from there" she said. "How worse" I asked. "Beastshifter worse" she said.
"What's wrong with dating a beastshifter?" I excimed. Victoria sighed. "Leah's not exactly representative of people like her. They're violent. Really violent. You've gotten closer to a beastshifter sports game than I'd ever dare. That shit doesn't stop just because they leave the basketball court" she said darkly. I frowned. "That's pretty messed up. They really shouldn't encourage that" I noted. "Eh, its in their nature" dismissed Anne. "I'd bet good money that nurture has more to do with it" I said dourly.
"That's the stuff you setup the market stall to collect and trade for propane and stuff, right?" asked Victoria. I sighed. "Never mind".
---
I set out to explore the dance floor. It was a chaotic tangle of limbs and people having a good time. Someone handed me a beer, which I promptly dropped. "Whoa there, careful" he said, pressing another into my hand. I dropped that one too. "Hey! Clumsy" he excimed. "Not really. I don't drink" I stated. "Why not?" he excimed. "My father was always trying to make me drink, and I find that ninety percent of the time things he encouraged me to do are evil and/or dangerous. Also, I'm underage doofus" I retorted. "Bah! You're never too young to enjoy a brewsky. Lighten up!" he excimed. "Put another one in my hand and its going where the sun don't shine" I warned. He gave me an evil gre but backed off.
I spotted Alice a few minutes ter. She was like an angel. Her blonde hair was more than twice its usual length and danced about her like golden fmes. God I hated not being a shapeshifter. She was wearing the cocktail dress. Her lips were red like lipstick, although knowing her power she probably just made them change colour. Same for her eye shadow, which was a shiny bck like the dress. Her right thigh was exposed by a slit in the dress, smooth and shiny in the moonlight and WHATEVER GOD GAVE ME STUPID MIND POWERS AND NOT SHAPESHIFTING BETTER WATCH HER DAMN BACK!
The only thing she was missing was a smile. The outfit was too daring, she looked underdressed without one. Instead she was gncing about this way and that, looking a bit out of sorts. "Heya sweetie" I whispered from behind her left ear. She yelped adorably. "You scared me Nessie" she pouted. "I'm not sorry. May I beg of you this dance?" I smiled.
For a moment she looked annoyed enough that she might turn me down. Then she remembered she'd just spent the st god knows how long looking for me, or maybe Leah and nodded shyly. The band unched into a new song about Abraham Lincoln trying to catch a mouse and sending all his friends to their improbably violent and graphic deaths, which I found a bit tasteless but had a good rhythm and I danced around the town with my girlfriend. She wasn't as confident as Leah and I had to take the lead. I'm not nearly confident enough to take the lead. But I took it anyway because the alternative was not dancing with my cute girlfriend and the very thought felt downright bsphemous.
At some point we danced by Rose and Charlie, who were… well someone's tongue was in someone's mouth, and someone had their arms and legs wrapped around the other who was carrying them. Was it dancing? Making out? Something deeply more intimate that I was too asexual to understand? (Ugh. I was meant to be dancing with my girlfriend right now, not dealing with *that* identity crisis. SHOO existential dread. SHOO!)
I tried to lift her over my head like Leah had for me. This only succeeded in annoying/hurting her. "OW! Nessie!" she compined. "Sorry" I murmured. She sighed. "Do you think we could get married some day?" she asked. I defted a bit. "Of course. If we're still in love by then. But maybe not here. Here isn't…" I trailed off.
There was a sharp bang from the direction of the band. I turned to see elders Laurent and Maggie, the tter of whom had her hand on the shoulder of… - "Mad Emily!" excimed someone to my left. "Is that her?" - "I thought she was dead" - "I thought she got banished" - "I thought Marie made her up for attention". A lot of people had a lot of things to say about Emily and none of it good.
"I would just like to say a personal thanks to Grower Emily for the spectacur job she did on Vanessa's special request. She has done a great favour for her community, and it would be my great privilege to continue to work with her. Thank you kindly, Emily" called elder Maggie. Emily put her hand behind her head, clearly very used to not being the centre of attention. "Aw shucks! Its no big deal. What's community for right?" she said. "Indeed. Would you do me the honour of this next dance?" asked elder Maggie. "Well I…" she started, before she was escorted to the dancing area.
As if on cue, the band began to py a new song. A lively and energetic dance in nine eight time. For a woman who had to be at least seventy, elder Maggie danced like a spry young woman of twenty. Spryer actually. Was detecting lies her true ability, or was she just doing that by watching her target's face for tells and her real power was dancing like an absolute queen? No. Nobody could observe my face except my closest friends without me dropping my power completely. Then she threw the bigger woman in the air like she was made of sugar, did a pirouette and caught her, though only taking part of her weight as she guided her back to the ground.
"I want to dance with elder Maggie next" I sighed. "You're crazy and going to die" noted Alice. "I'll die in ecstasy" I replied. Alice grew annoyed. She shifted into the elder and then grabbed me by the arm and began trying to replicate the elder's bombastic dancing. She hadn't a hope. But she did her best and it was really fun to watch and participate.
---
Emily didn't stick around once the dance was done. Twenty years of social isotion was never going to be undone by one grand gesture. The world doesn't work that way. But it was one hell of a start. One of the elders had publicly demonstrated support for her. That lent her a whole lot of legitimacy. It would take a lot of coaxing and a lot more kindness to help her reintegrate into society. But that was one hell of a start.
And the fact Mags had been the one to dance with her. One of the woman elders. There's women on the outside a quarter her age who wouldn't share a bus with a lesbian for fear of predation, shameful as that might sound. Was elder Maggie gay herself? Probably something worth looking into. Two gay elders would not be in keeping with the expected percentage of gay citizens. Then again, maybe in a society where you can't be gay, its the gays who get left with the free time to do a job like town elder. Perhaps there was a selection bias at work.
I went on dancing with Alice till the aeons crawled by like hours. I was just having so much fun, I wished the night would never end. (Good thing my power wasn't wishing. Imagine the ecological disaster of one magic lesbian having a **really** good night out). We passed by Rose and Leah, dancing again. Wonder where Charlie got to? I whispered in Alice's ear, asking if she'd be willing to dance with Leah for a few minutes while I got a turn with Rose. She considered and then shook her head pyfully. I shrugged. I could dance with her a while longer.
We didn't get another nine eight song. I guess that one was a special request by elder Maggie. Shame, that had been the most exciting dance so far tonight. At some point the band took a time out and left a record pying in their pce. It was a Princess GooGoo song. It was *that* Princess GooGoo song. The one about how obsessively, possessively, neurotically, psychotically and aptonically she loves tits. A memory surfaced of elder Laurent asking what bands I listen to and I mentally kicked myself. I really shouldn't have mentioned *her*.
And I **had** to do the dance. You can't not do the dance. Its like the YMCA dance. Participation is not optional and being straight is no excuse. So I waved the assets I didn't yet possess, and wiggled my butt and even drew the little shapes with my tongue. Alice mirrored me almost perfectly. Whether she was mimicking me or my powers were leaking in my excitement, I don't know for sure. My brain wasn't braining, her doing the dance with her own exorbitant assets was a cognito hazard.
As soon as the song was over I kissed her, and then whispered in her ear: "Don't ever do that again, I'm pretty sure that guy's dead!", pointing to a dude who had indeed fainted in the excitement.
---
A few songs ter, I was tapped on the shoulder. I rotated my body, moving Alice with me so I could face the interloper. It was Jessica. "Oh, Hi Jess" I smiled. "Vanessa… remember all that stuff you said about the code of the sisterhood?" she asked. My eyes narrowed. "Who needs us?" I asked. "Um, a few of us actually" she said awkwardly. I turned to Alice. "Ready to teleport in and kick some ass?" I asked. Her eyes widened and then she slowly shook her head. "Alright, I'll be back soon then" I said, and gave her a quick peck on the cheek. And then one on the other cheek. And then the first cheek again. And then Jessica grabbed me and teleported me to a different part of the dance floor.
There were around four or five girls, surrounded by around nine guys. Some of the girls were tipsy. One of them was struggling to stand. Some of the guys were trying to lead her off somewhere. "HEY!" I snapped. All nine turned to face me. I recognized one as the guy who'd given me beer earlier. "Now look what we got here!" excimed who I assumed to be their leader. I gave a theatrical little bow. "Charmed, now what's going on" I sneered. I couldn't tell for sure, because some teenagers look like grownups and some grownups look like teenagers, but I was starting to suspect an age gap between the girls and the boys. Men was perhaps a more appropriate term.
"Oh, she's just had a little too much to drink, so we were just taking her home" replied the leader. "Her own home?" I asked. He gave me a dirty look. "I think her friends could better guide her" I said calmly. "Nah! They're pstered too man!" excimed a minion. "Perhaps. Maybe I should call an elder? I'm sure Nichos could drop her home in a jiffy. He probably even knows where she lives" I noted.
Thunder crossed the leader's face. He strode over to me, bursting out of his clothes and growing in to an enormous bipedal Ram. "Maybe you need to be taught a lesson in minding your own fucking business" he snapped calmly. He put a finger under my chin and forced me to meet his eyes. I felt liquid. I touched my neck under where he held my face and then examined the finger. It was red with blood. I smiled. I cast eyes on each of his minions in turn before returning my gaze to his. "Excellent choice sir"
---
Elder Maggie was Eted. She hadn't had someone to dance with in public in nearly fifteen years. Cowards the lot of them! At least the band still practiced her favourite dancing melody. That was kindness. She was not one to overlook kindness. Perhaps new instruments were in order, now they had budget, and a guide who could find them specific things rather than whatever was left out in pin sight. Two in fact. She didn't know what to make of Vanessa's new friend, besides that she was clearly here by Siobhan's will. And Siobhan only brought two types of people to them. People fleeing for their safety, and people who had something to offer the town. Often both.
She heard a scream. Several screams actually. She groaned and broke into a light jog. She could tolerate the various aches and pains for the sake of the art of her dancing, but running just felt undignified. Where's elder Nichos when you need him? (At home getting his beauty sleep. For which she didn't really begrudge him but…)
She arrived in a gap in the crowd to see ten bodies writhing on the ground. One of them seemed to be young Vanessa. There was blood on her face. The others were a gang of witches ranging from their te teens to their early twenties. All male. Led by a beastshifter called Warren, though they had a variety of powers. There had been some compints about them from various women and girls in the town by her recollection, but nothing that couldn't have been an innocent miscommunication.
And in spite of her insistence of their ck of innocence of intent, elder Ange always insisted that it was just boys being boys, and Laurent and Nichos tended to side with her in such matters. Sampson would argue with her, but Sampson would argue with any of them for any reason.
If Vanessa had not also been on the ground writhing in pain, she might not have bothered to intervene. She approached her cautiously and pced a hand on her shoulder. "Vanessa, can you hear me child?" she asked. Vanessa immediately stopped writhing, and so did the others for that matter. Her eyes shot open and before she even opened her mouth, Maggie could feel the intention to withhold information. "Fine! Why?" she gasped. She could feel the guilt oozing off her.
She looked around. Several of them were puking, trying and failing to stand and otherwise acting shellshocked. "You're hurt. We should go somewhere else" she said soothingly. "Drunk girl. Elder Nichos" muttered Vanessa. She cast her eyes about and spotted the girl Vanessa must have been talking about. Young Heather. A sensible young dy who she wouldn't have taken as the type to drink excessively. Something stank here. Oh, one of Warren's goons had shit himself. She tried not to ugh. Wise old dies weren't meant to ugh when young people got injured and shit themselves, regardless on her personal opinions on the boy.
"VICTORIA" she called. The teleporter was there in the blink of an eye. "Would you mind escorting young Heather home? She lives in the eleventh house on broken well street" she said. Victoria nodded and took the drunk girl's hand and vanished.
Once that was dealt with she led Vanessa to the buffet table and then passed her a gss of apple juice. "Drink" she commanded. The young dy drank. "Expin what happened" she said, not unkindly. "Self defence" replied Vanessa. "*Really?*" asked elder Maggie. It had the ring of technical truth. She sighed, remembering who she was talking to. "Him and his friends were harassing some girls. I suggested they buzz off. They took umbrage" she summarized.
"What did you do to them?" asked Maggie. "I shared with them a very vivid memory of the first time my father tazed me" she stated. That had the ring of a truth where the teller knew you cked context and was hoping you wouldn't ask. "So you just showed them a childhood memory then?" she asked. "Yes" Vanessa lied by omission. "I don't believe you but those boys have been a bee in my bonnet for a while so I'll pry no further. But don't do that again. Kapiche?" she ordered. "Yes elder Maggie" said Vanessa, suitably scared and transparent in her intention to follow the order.
---
It had been such a simple pn. Get the girl drunk, take her somewhere quiet, show her a good time. Step one had been easy enough. But then she had started talking and sucked him into a bck hole of a conversation and now he was being expected to provide literary criticism on a story where Sherlock Holmes was a secret Ωmega and professor Charles Moriarty was an evil αlpha and the eborate pn wrought by Moriarty to conspire to make Sherlock Holmes pregnant, and the ingenious back and forth of traps and counter traps that even in brief summary this girl had managed to talk about non stop for over thirty minutes.
"Um, excuse me" he interjected. "What's an αlpha? Also, what's an Ωmega?" he asked. This was a mistake. The outsider girl proceeded to tell him all about αlphas, βetas, Ωmegas, mpreg and the mechanics of mpreg in vivid and excruciating detail right down to the supposed viscosity of "slick". And he very wisely decided walk away slowly, because he was utterly convinced that if he tried to sleep with this girl he'd wind up pregnant. It made no real sense. Outsiders weren't meant to have powers. But everyone knows that powers grow in right when they're most needed, and the fanatical look in this girl's eye told him she needed to make him pregnant, ws of biology be damned.
