#this chapter is nearing 2000 words and a bunch if stuff is happening already. which is great cuz now i feel like I'll be able to show a lot

[laugtherhyena]

There's something inherently entertaining in writing Kizuna lines to me

[since-it-must-be-so]

A Wild Sheep Chase: Chapter 2 of Choujin X!

It's here! I've gushed about the chapter over at my Twitter, but like I said in my previous post, I want to see how the story progresses and keep a log about it. So here it goes!

Background info on Ely Otsuta

So before we delve into Chapter 2 which almost exclusively featured Ely... Let's take note of the new things we learned about Ely:

She's from a rural prefecture. I think she lives in the mountainside specifically since that's where she grows her tomatoes.

She's a greenthumb (we already kinda knew this from the previous chapter but we learn more about her life pre-Choujin X). I understand that even if the soil is infertile, she's able to grow tomatoes so nutritious and plump. So plump, they resemble butts, hence, "bumbums!" It appears she uses advanced equipment for her farming stuff. So yeah, based on these, it's established Ely has a green thumb!

Oh, and it appears that it's clarified that her "Grandpapi" whom she talks about in the 1st chapter is an adoptive grandfather (not biological, hence, maybe in the future we'd know her parents and learn why Ely is special).

It's just me but I get the impression that Ely is being introduced as some sort of "fertility" choujin, since she also dreams of having 9 kids. Haha!

It's kinda weird though why the burning tomato has a face. Was it just from her dream, since after plucking a bumbum - she woke up? Hmm, after some thought, I think the burning tomato with a face is just from her dream.

Ely Wakes Up from Reality

When Ely woke up, she finds herself in the South Yamato prefecture. Okay, so I think this leaning tower of some sort has a significance to the story.

It's featured in every spread with the title "Choujin X" and also in the last chapter. Can you see it? Maybe it has something to do with how the powers are made, like pollution-related or a botched experiment. Dunno. Just my wild speculation.

A Wild Sheep Chase

This is the exciting part. So when Ely wakes up, Chandra Hume offers to "escort" her, but really it appears he wants to kidnap her. And from, *checks the manga* page 10 to 40, we have Ely running away from Chandra until she fell in what looks like a similar area where Tokio and Azuma fought Johnny Kiyoshi Takeyama.

The chase sequence consisting of 30 pages were so fun and I was smiling all the while I was reading! Ely is so cute trying to parkour her way through the buildings (kinda reminds me of Touka?? I miss Touka!). Chandra looks really cool, he seemed to be flying too, using his powers (more on that later)!

But not to be outdone, Ely borrows a "Roller Boy Yay-Yay" which basically is a scooter with something that resembles a driver's wheel. Its literal translation of ローラーBOYイェイ・イェイ -- which, checking Twitter and in Ishida's latest live stream, I think the locals found it hilarious too. Ishida is just unleashing his crazy here, I love it!

After that sequence, we get the tractor and sheep chase. Ah! I love it.. So what happened is that, Chandra and Ely fall off from their Roller Boy Yay-Yay. Ely who just claimed she can outrun Chandra if she were riding a tractor, suddenly found one right in front of her! Then Chandra lands near a gang... or should I say, a flock of sheep-bikers. They're all wearing these Kanji-printed tracksuits and basically look like they're a bunch of delinquents? They even describe themselves as "cryptid bikers"... Cryptid supposedly means mysterious? Idk why the weird choice of words for the translation though.

Funnily, I was just reading Haruki Murakami's A Wild Sheep Chase (羊をめ���る冒険 --- Hitsuji o meguru bōken or literally An Adventure Surrounding Sheep). I wonder if this scene something to do with this book?

Anyway, Chandra entices the sheep to help hip capture Ely by bribing them with a Docomo flip phone. I don't know why a flip phone - could mean the following: (a) the sheep are so poor, a flip phone is cool; (b) maybe flip phones are a status symbol in that universe; (c) maybe the setting is in the 2000s when the flip phones really were all the rage.

So they all chase Ely, but Chandra suddenly has a car too. Someone on Twitter said it's a Porsche? But I can't tell, though Chandra said his car is a four-wheel drive... Heh? Idk what to do with this info.

As for Ely, she is really good with the tractor as she said. The hilarity of outrunning motorcycles and what could be a Porsche. That tractor prowess! Later on, Chandra and the other sheep figure into an accident with a "safety-loving" truck (oh the irony, lol). Chandra flew off the car and so did his fancy shoes...

Ely didn't exactly come out unscathed. Ishida allocated 4 double spreads for this epic fall. Some of the sheep definitely should have died from that spectacular accident.

At first, Ely was smug about escaping the sheep. But then, I think she was moved by compassion and I think she hurt herself in order to revive the sheep. I just wonder though, how she learned to do that?

Then we get another awesome double spread of her transformation, similar to Tokio's. Augh Ishida-sensei. These are soooo good!!!!

Because of her transformation, the whole area was engulfed with smoked and I think the sheep were effectively revived. It appears Chandra saw all this (while he was regenerating... so we now know choujins or at least smoke choujins like Chandra has regenerative powers), hence he marveled at Ely's newfound power. It was kinda confirmed that Ely was responsible for keeping the casualties to a minimum. Specifically he said Ely possesses: quick judgment, though resolve, persistence... making her a human with the makings of a choujin... while also kinda noting Ely's silliness.

Here we go again with Chandra's "fancy gentleman" facade... Even the way he talks is fancy ("I am well-acquainted with the roads here") but more than that... he's self-important. I talked about my other views on his character on Reddit. I get the impression he's something of a "Choujin supremacist", you know what I mean? So, he wants to kinda recruit Ely into his organization or whatever.

Ely is righteous

So we see that Ely is further introduced as a good character, standing up against Chandra and rejecting his offer to be his pupil or something. Ely was clearly upset about the grandma getting hurt (did she die? I hope she didn't) and made it clear she would never join him. Chandra takes offense at this rejection, especially when Ely said Chandra is worse than a turd.

As Chandra tries to inflict pain on Ely (something about marking her on the face), she recalls her resolve from Chapter 1: drones for farming, a greenhouse, her grandpappy, a mansion, the big dog, paying back the kid for his roller boy yay-yay, the Goldilocks hubbie, nine kids... But just before we can see if she can fight Chandra off...

The most handsome man of all Sui Ishida's works (haha!)

This buff mysterious man with a bandana reminiscent of the Teenage Ninja Mutant Turtles seemed to have blown Chandra and Ely (also the cars and motorcycles) away by a mere clap of his hands. It appears even Chandra is afraid of this guy and recognizes him... he leaves the scene using his smoke powers before the guy can do serious damage. I think his power has something to do with wind since there was like a little hint with all the ventilation stuff in the setting.

The guy manages to create a circle of protection around Ely. He tells Ely that Chandra's modus is to target "people with aptitude like Ely". He helpfully mends Ely's punctured hand with his bandana.... And when Ely looks up at his face, what do you know? Haha!

Our girl Ely has a love interest! Haha.

Tokio's Gregor Samsa moment

I've observed from the manga I've read that characters with transformation abilities always, always go through this adjustment period with the power. Gregor Samsa, Peter Parker, our boy Kaneki... Anyway, it seems Tokio doesn't know or can't turn back into a normal-looking person. But the last panel sure is interesting because we have them experiencing this transformation at the same time. Also, since it reminds me of Touka and Ayato's volume cover. I hope they find each other soon though!

Types of Choujins and initial premises on the Power of Choujins

So there are 3 confirmed types so far: Flexi (Johnny), Bestial (our boy Tokio), and Smoke. It seems that pretty boy Hoshi doesn't have a category yet, but like I said I think his has something to do with air or ventilation lol.

We learned that Chandra is a Smoke Choujin, and Ely is now one too and she was may have been somehow infected by Chandra's smoke/fumes. It appears now that there are 2 ways to become a choujin: injection and inhalation. Chandra wonders if Ely was infected with his power... But I'm thinking the infection theory might not be that accurate. After all, it seems Ely has a green thumb.

But, I think as Chandra said, only some people have an aptitude for this. So, Ely and Tokio are examples. I wonder if Azuma also has choujin powers or did it not manifest yet? Is the aptitude inherent or something you can acquire? If so, what does Tokio have that Azuma doesn't, especially since everyone thinks Azuma is "better" than Tokio in all aspects?

We'll find out in Chapter 3 more or less!! I'm sorry for any grammar mistakes! I'd like to hear your thoughts or comments if any :)

[darksunrising]

Sola Gratia (9/?)

Masterlist

Rating / Warnings : General audiences, no particular warnings.

Fandom : Bram Stoker’s Dracula, BBC’s Dracula, various Dracula and vampire lore.

Part 9/? (2000 words)

Author’s notes : I’m trying to get the chapters a more consistent length, I think 2000-2500 is good ! Means I’ll be able to work more consistently, but please don’t hesitate to tell me what you think about it ! Also, sorry for all the build-up, but a girl’s gotta set the decor a bit !

~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~

During the following weeks, the presence of the Count became almost familiar. Every day, he waited for me with a different kind of pastry. I tried to protest at first, but quickly had to make my peace with it. At some point, seeing me wince at my terrible coffee, he forbade me to drink it anymore, and added that to my daily breakfast. I asked him exactly once why he insisted on feeding me, to which he replied that he liked my blood healthy, with a toothy grin. I hit him over the arm, he laughed. Other than that, he was careful not to step over my boundaries, and seemed to find the way to only be there at the appropriate time.

That was not the case for Leah, however, who was delighted to see Vlad was going to be a recurring presence in our lives. The two of them got along far better than I would have wanted. Vlad especially enjoyed playing along with her when she started asking probing questions about the both of us, although I had to admit he was an expert at deviating any question that could have revealed his true nature.

It took me some time to fully realize how much he had actually seen, and lived. He died around the 1470s, which meant he had all the time in the world to see the Sistine Chapel being painted, the construction of the Eiffel Tower, or the damn french Revolution. He could have just been a very polyvalent historian, which is what I told Leah. She interpreted that as a challenge, considering he and I were, as she put it, “introverted nerds who need to see the light of the sun once in a goddamn while”. She started dragging us along in random activities. There was a pottery class, to which I was barely able to make the Leaning Flower Pot Of Pisa, while she somehow made an incredible owl sculpture, and Vlad had made a delicate greek-inspired vase. Seeing him, sleeves rolled up over his elbows, hair tied up in a ponytail, his long fingers working in precise, expert gestures, probably had noting to do with my absolute failure to make anything correct. I decided then that manual activities were a no-go for me in the car ride, where I sulked on the backseat, while Leah and Vlad were still crying-laughing about my sorry excuse for a pot.

After the rousing success of that experience, she wasn't about to stop. We did a haunted castle themed escape game, which Vlad curiously sucked at. That would explain some stuff. Leah then found out that a Renaissance faire was taking place in a small town, about an hour or two outside the city, and decided we definitely had to go. I tried to pretend I had too much work and wouldn't be able to make it, but Vlad and her insisting, I caved, and marked down my calendar with the red pen of defeat.

Being stuck in period costumes with the both of them wasn't the only reason I tried protesting. Laurent really did throw a ton of work on my shoulders, and that wasn't considering the whole Stephan Helder situation. The kid was highly motivated, sure, but he started making me feel uneasy, for some reason. After all my classes, he came to chat, and always found a way to ask questions about Vlad. Strangely phrased questions, or about how he couldn't find publications under his name. Legitimate questions, to be fair, but his insistence was bugging me.

“I'm telling you, that is weird. Those are weird questions”, I told Vlad, sitting on my windowsill. He didn't react. “I am serious, what if he knew ?”

“How would he know ?”, he sighed. “Why would he even want to know ?”

“Well, that's a fair question. Which needs an answer, don't you think ?”

He tilted his head, softly smiling. “I think you are being a bit paranoid.”

“I spend most of my free time hanging out with an immortal murder-machine, I think I deserve the right to be a bit paranoid”, I snapped.

“Fair enough”, he laughed.

Being immortal had to have dulled his sense of danger. Although, I could see how a skinny 20-year-old medieval history student wouldn't spontaneously raise red flags.

“By the way, I am going back to Romania”, he told me.

I felt a small pinch to my heart. “Oh.”

“Only for a few days”, he completed with a smirk. “I have to pick up some things, and oversee the moving company. I do not trust them with half my things.”

I furrowed my brow. “Moving company ?”

“Oh, did I not mention it ?”, he innocently replied. “Before I even arrived, I bought a little something a little ways outside the city. The renovations are done, and you of all people understand I cannot live there without a decent library.”

I took a second to process it. He had a smug look, obviously enjoying my confusion. I had to say I didn't even think about where he spent his nights. I figured he either turned into a bat and hanged somewhere upside down, or simply didn't sleep. Did he even need to rest ? Gods, so many questions I didn't even think to ask. Every day, I felt like I discovered a puddle, only to realize it was part of a lake.

“When I come back, would you come visit ?”, he asked, sounding a bit hesitant.

“Sure. I mean, as long as I don't have to wear heels if you decide to go feral on me.”

He took a dead-serious expression. “I promise you, Eris Cetero, that as long as you live, I will never, ever, make you wear heels again.”

I threw my head back with a groan of agony. Was it so bad that this kind of humor was actually funny to me now ? Was having a six century old bloodthirsty creature imply he might try to murder me again really that hilarious ? Apparently so, as I was unable to contain a giggle. Maybe it was because the look he had was all but threatening. Maybe because every time I was near him, even with all that happened, I felt... Safe. For a few weeks, I had been able to decide staying over at the University library until ungodly hours. I didn't have to thing about what time I had to leave at before it became too risky for a woman with very limited knowledge of martial arts, alone.

I mean, he was arguably more dangerous than any encounter I might have had, but still... I knew he wouldn't hurt me. Maybe it was wishful thinking. Then again, he had plenty of occasions to lose it. Last week, for instance, I had no idea what to expect when I left my apartment, dosed with painkillers, as Mother Nature, that ruthless bitch, decided to drop by for her monthly visit.  He was simply waiting for me at the usual spot, looking a bit off, but holding a large box of chocolates along with my breakfast. He made himself scarce for the following three days, but I could tell he tried to act natural.

“I should let you get some rest”, Vlad told me, dragging me out of my thoughts.

I nodded, slowly. “When are you leaving ?”

“Some time tomorrow. I will still pick you up, if that is what worries you.”

He smiled, teasing. “Yeah, that's... That's it. I'd miss my personal chauffeur.” I looked away a second. “Now, get off my window, I need to sleep.”

“Of course, my Lady”, he replied, and backed away with an overly low bow. “I bid you good night.”

Once again, with a fluttering sound, the usual bat replaced the tall man. I called out to him, offering my hand as a perch. The tiny black creature gripped a finger. I would have expected a Vampire Bat, to be fair, and almost laughed when I realized it was a common little brown bat, only changing in the darker color.

“Well, don't you look adorable”, I told him.

I could take a more frightening appearance, if you want me to.

“Telepathy, huh ? That's new”, I commented. Nothing surprised me that much anymore, to be honest.

I try not to pry, it's usually considered rude.

“You don't say.”

He stretched out his wings. They were so thin I could see the tiny veins running across the membrane. I had to use all my will not to just scoop him up and pet his tiny head, or scratch his belly. Now, that would have been rude. Probably. Those kind of reflexions were a bit new to me.

I would stay here all night if I could, but I am starting to feel a bit hungry.

“Oh, by all means. I won't keep you.”

I heard a small squeaky sound I interpreted as a laugh, and he left. I closed the window, and the quiet made me rethink the situation. If he was gone, that would leave me some time to look into the Helder situation without him interfering. Now, I just needed the help of my favorite professional stalker. With a little smile, I slipped under my covers, and almost instantly faded into sleep.

~ ~ ~

After Vlad let me off at the University, he only came over to say hi to Leah, and announce his departure. He left right after, with a kiss for her hand, and one for my forehead.

“Do you need some ice ? You look pretty hot”, she snarked at me once he was gone. “A cold shower, perhaps ?”

“Oh, shut up, will you ?”, I groaned, placing the back of my hands onto my cheeks.

She snickered. She was the best friend I could ever hope to have, but man, as soon as someone was involved, she became absolutely unbearable.

“By the way, I need your help with something”, I told her, lowering my voice a little.

“Oooh, sneaky voice, I like it already. Tell me.”

I brought her inside, and we went straight to my office, a small, cluttered room in the old building. I dragged a folding chair next to mine, behind the heavy wooden desk.

“I'm having a weird feeling about a transfer student”, I told her. “I wondered if you could-”

Before I could even finish my sentence, she had already taken out her laptop, her glasses sitting on her nose. She turned on a bunch of apps she left running in the background, and turned to me.

“Name ?”

“Stephan Helder, with 'ph'”, I told her.

I kind of felt bad about it. If it was nothing, I was just prying into his personal life – or having Leah pry, anyway. She began typing away, and in less than three minutes, she had results. Stephan Jonathan Helder, 18, your typical genius type. Skipped a few middle-school classes, finished high-school at 15, with straight-As. Spotless criminal record, less so for the medical one, with a few bad cases of pulmonary infections. Didn't have one in years, though. Seemed like he was from a good family, but then again, no information on them showed up. Huh. I asked Leah to look into them.

“That's crazy”, she said after a good five minutes. “I mean, there's barely anything.”

“You mean he's an orphan, or something ?”

“No, it's just blacked out. I mean, most of the stuff has been scraped, erased.”

She sounded annoyed, but also excited. I knew she loved a challenge.

“Nothing I can't break”, she commented, and went back to it.

After a few more minutes, she finally had a triumphal shout.

“Got 'em”, she told me. “Stephan Jonathan Helder, the father is Thomas Mark Helder, and the mother is Mary... Huh. That's a cool name.”

“What is ?”, I asked, leaning over her shoulder to read.

My blood froze in my veins instantly.

Mary Van Helsing.

~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~

Taglist : @carydorse @angelicdestieldemon @bloodhon3yx @thewondernanazombie @battocar @moony691 @mjlock @thebeautyofdisorder @festering-queen @paracosmfantasy

[ginnyzero]

Completely Harmless Ch. 28

Completely Harmless An SSO SilverGlade Re-imagining Story (Or Fix it Fan Salt fic) By Ginny O.

When Lily and her friends wanted to buy horses and were directed to the Silverglade Manor and its myriad of problems, they didn’t expect to start a revolution. They were just a bunch a stable girls. Completely harmless. Right?

A/N: Things are only canon if I say they’re canon. Pre-Saving the Moorland Stables compliant for the most part. Posted in its entirety on my website. Posted in 2000 to 4000 word bits here. Rated T for Swearing Word Count 177,577

Chapter Twenty-Eight Planning Rainbow Week Pt. 3

Ginny sighed. “I feel like I’ve monopolized this meeting.”

“You haven’t,” Pauline reassured her.

“Well, you know most of what we’re doing already then, the ride through the Mirror Marsh. Syntax is playing in the town square. We’re using a heart that’s made of holding hands for our charm to represent how we’re working together to save our stable. I wouldn’t trust Jamie Olivetree to cook or bake anything. So, I’m a bit at a loss for that. But I had an idea for a craft. We can do rainbow window decorations. They look like stain glass, but it’s all plastic and markers and glue mixed with paint. Or they can make the kite paper ones, which is kite paper, cardboard and glue, easy peasy.”

“Those sound great.”

“We can choose some other shapes, but really great for the younger members.” Ginny grinned.

“Right,” Lily nodded. “We need to cater to them too other than making them hyped up on sugar.”

“Oh god, do we have so much sugar on this list,” Pauline groaned. “Ladies, we better string this out.”

There was more laughter.

“Okay, so, bear with me,” One of the girls said. “Since you don’t trust Jaime to bake. I went to this other summer camp last year, and it was a sleep away camp where you took different skill classes and had dinner in the dining hall.”

“Why can’t we do that here?” One of the girls asked.

“But they had this one dessert that was essentially rainbow marshmallows and chocolate. They took the marshmallows, mixed them with chocolate that wasn’t hot enough to melt them, and then shaped it in like a yule log or put it into aluminum foil boxes with parchment paper and added more chocolate until it was full. Then they cut them into slices. They called them stainglass windows. So, not only do you have something that goes with your craft, you don’t have to have Jaime do anything.”

Ginny groaned. “I could kiss you. Yes. We’ll take it.”

“Okay, that leave us, I guess,” Kelsey said. “We’re using the Celtic Infinity Knot for our symbol.”

“Mr. Wetton has found you a Celtic Group.”

“We’ll have them perform out by the spooky big tree,” Kelsey said. “Now, Madison had an idea, and it’s a good one to run with the Welshies as part of our event.”

“Well, that’s really cool, actually.” Penny said.

“And, we have a huge beach thing, it goes from the Hermit’s house, all the way over to the other side of the Peninsula that goes up near the tree.” Kelsey rubbed her forehead. “So, we thought, a race? We can make it a group race like the Jorvik Stable’s race.”

They all nodded.

“That’s fair,” Josefina said.

“We should have more than one group race,” Pauline made a note of it.

“And we’re doing these rainbow swirl cookies that look like lollipops, rainbow cotton candy, rainbow churros, and rainbow shaved ice with ice cream in the middle.”

Madison is taking this seriously,” Cathy said, her voice very dry.

“Of course she is,” Ingrid said with a smile. “She’s young.”

“We haven’t talked anyone into the Highland Cattle yet. But I think we’re getting there.” Kelsey said. “Not that anyone is really going to listen to us until something horrible happens. I mean, we helped them with their shipwreck but that got us trust and a spot on the peninsula, nothing more.”

“Craft,” Cathy glowered at her.

“Oh right, the craft.”

“We’re going to have Seashells you can paint,” Cathy said. “It’s been keeping everyone busy and with us on the beach, Mr. Anwir refuses to come close.”

“So, we’re going to have sharpies and rubbing alcohol for the kids, some puffy paint for the intermediate painters, and alcohol inks for the experts.” Kelsey grinned. “They can turn them into necklaces, bracelets, earrings, headbands, whatever makes them happy.”

Cathy jumped in. “Hugh is happy to have people come and give tours of the Rescue Ranch.”

“Oh thank goodness, we don’t want to bother him too much.”

“He thinks it’s great publicity.”

Pauline shifted in her chair. “Okay, I have one last idea. I know it’s not Happy Horse Week but it will be a taste of it.”

Lily raised a brow at her.

“Every one of us has a paddock. New Hillcrest can borrow the Dew Farm in Epona’s if necessary,” Pauline said. “I think we should have a special event in the paddocks specifically for the horses, and only the horses of our stables. It can be a show jumping event or a dressage event or a show type of event where they jog their horses around to show them off.”

“Oh, Pony flag race!” Polly piped up. “I’ve been wanting to do one of those and with the bunting for the day this would be perfect. Have seven flags in each color and they have to go and get them and come back one at a time.”

“Tedious but give enough experience or one of Lowe’s exchanges, they’ll do it.”

“Or lots of experience and an exchange item,” Amelia said. “This is a good idea. I like it, oui.”

Loretta grimaced at her phone. “What is taking them so long?”

“What is taking us so long?” Pauline rubbed her forehead and checked her notes.

Lily texted Regina. “Ohkay, they’re arguing in the store. Just send us some options. Yeesh.”

Phones buzzed as Regina threw them all into a group chat and uploaded pictures.

“Okay those half circle buntings we need for the races.”

“Same for the triangle ones that are the stripes, not the solids. We’ve got solids already,” Kate said.

“We should have the solid ones for the pony race,” Penny added as she texted that into the chat.

“All right, I’m seeing 2 foil balloons here.”

“Why not make the fuzzy ombre ones for the parade route and Moorland’s festival space, they’ll go with the bows and the ombre sequin bunting swags there,” Pia said. “And then the hard stripe ones for everywhere else.”

“You’re the only one who has seen these bows.” Lily reminded her.

Pia dug into her phone and uploaded a picture into the group chat.

“Ah, yes, agreed,” Pauline said as she added it to the list. “The arches need something more than ivy.”

“Streamers, these ones here have some great circle paillettes with them, tres chic,” Josefina double tapped it. “Mix it in with the ivy, it won’t be as noticeable or bright.”

“And might make the inside more of a rainbow as the sun goes through it.”

“I hope we don’t have rain,” one of the girls groaned.

“Oh, we can use the clouds with the dangling rainbow hearts to hang from the trees,” Ami brightened. “That would be pretty. They’re plastic, so reusable even if it does rain.”

“And the heart shaped garland for the stable fronts, and inside too.”

Josefina shuddered. “This could get so tacky very quickly.”

“Okay, then what about those big hearts in the solid colors that are studded with pearls? I think those are pearls.”

“They can go on building doors and along fences.”

They nixed some of the other options including a long fabric rainbow bunting and hearts that were rainbow from the inside out. They were hard on the eyes.

“And, that’s, that’s actually kind of nice,” Loretta said grudgingly of the backdrop. They’d done it up in Bobcat colors with a light pink curtains right behind a white circle that had yellow roses on the upper right and pink heart shaped crystal beads draped across it. To either side of the light pink curtains were darker more Bobcat pink curtains.

In the chat, someone use a confetti trumpet emoji. There were hearts and happy faces.

Lastly, they sent a display of cloud lanterns they could put inside the stables and covered areas. They had LED Lights hanging down. They could get them in rainbow colors. Or one of the girl’s noted, they could do the hearts like the smaller plastic clouds they thought would be good in the trees.

“Okay, I know everyone has a big cache of the LED lanterns with the heart cut outs, so might as well use them.”

“No candles.”

“Not unless they’re LED candles.”

They all looked at each other. “Yeah, no,” one said.

“We need a piñata,” someone murmured.

“Where? Fort Pinta?”

“If Madison finds out,” Kelsey warned.

“Let’s do a bunch in Fort Pinta for the kids there, we have to vary this up!”

“Between Mr. Peanut posing for photos, Isebell Figg doing street magic, and Pinatas it will be something of a carnival.” Pia said with a smile.

“Which is exactly what Madison wants,” Kelsey groaned. She rubbed her face.

They all looked at each other and shrugged.

“Jugglers, fire eaters.”

“Yeah, we’re getting into circus stuff now,” Lily said.

“Don’t tell Ydris,” someone muttered.

“Don’t tell Madison about Ydris. He’d turn her into a monkey in a tutu so fast,” Lily said.

They all giggled at that image.

Loretta and Tan swallowed hard. The other girls didn’t actually mean to dig, but they felt it like a dig at them.

“I don’t think that would be good around the horses anyways, fire eaters and jugglers.”

“Definitely not.”

“You have a huge moor to take up,” Lily said with a shrug.

Kelsey shook her head. “I think we’ve bitten off enough.”

Pauline shoved the list over to Lily. It’d been written across a map of the area.

“I agree,” Lily said after she read it over. “Okay, honestly, this calls for celebratory food.”

“I’ll go order some pizza.”

“You know, Courtney doesn’t make half bad chicken wings and those double baked potatoes.”

“Just,” Lily pushed it away and put her head in her arms.

“Ice cream,” Pauline patted her head. “Definitely ice cream.”

A couple of them laughed and ran out to order food. When the phones buzzed, the rest left leaving Loretta and Lily alone.

Loretta fidgeted. “How long are you going to treat me with so much disrespect?”

Lily looked up and straightened. Her brows rose noticing everyone else was missing, including Tan. “The thing about respect. You have to earn it.”

Loretta pursed her lips.

“You and your girls treated us like dirt and expected us to do all the hard labor.”

“You were trying out for the Club. It’s expected.”

Lily rolled her eyes. “Loretta, everything around you is for beginners. It’s not that difficult. You didn’t treat us with respect. So, we left. If you want to be friends, be friendly.”

Loretta wasn’t the type to slump in her seat.

“You going to treat Jojo Siwa like the rest of us or am I going to have to assign an ambassador?”

“No. She’s somebody.”

Lily leaned back and stared at the ceiling. “Oh, where do I start with that one?”

Loretta huffed. “You’re all nobody.”

“You don’t know that,” Lily dropped her chin back down to meet Loretta’s eyes. “You have no idea who anyone of us could be. We could be as rich as Anne Von… whatever her name is or royalty or anything because we don’t tell you.”

Loretta scoffed. “If any of you were rich and famous, I’d know.”

“There are a lot of rich people who aren’t famous and don’t want to be,” Lilly rubbed the back of her neck. “Treating everyone the same is really, the only way to go about it. You can’t make snap judgement, especially when Thomas is handing everyone the same uniform the first day.”

Loretta rolled her eyes.

“To us, you’re nobody,” Lily said bluntly. “The mean girl with the crush on her employer’s son.”

Loretta stiffened and glared at her.

Lily shrugged a shoulder. “Calling it like I see it, Lori.”

“I was here first.”

“And you’re a backwater club, at a backwater summer camp, where you can lord your superior riding skills over campers with none at all,” Lily raised her brows. “I don’t think anyone else would put up with you and your airs.”

Loretta tensed.

The door opened and the others came back with food.

Lily didn’t know what it was going to take to get through to the other girl. They just needed this Rainbow Week to go well and for Loretta to try not and take all the credit.

--

There were piles and piles of boxes in the courtyard of the Silverglade Equestrian Center. “The Siwanators bogged us down with tons of bows. They’ve been busy. Like a two person assembly line,” Regina said. “Productive meeting?”

Lily sat on the boxes. “Outside of Loretta, yeah.”

“What did she do now?”

“She wants respect.” Lily shrugged.

Linn jogged over. She leaned over putting her hands on her knees. “So, the Baroness wants to see us at the Riding Arena.”

Lily met Regina’s eyes. “No more long meetings.”

They mounted their horses and trotted down to the Riding Arena. Baroness Silverglade stood out of the way in the show jumping side of the arena. The slightest twist of her lips could convey a multitude of emotions.

Right now they were slightly turned downward. Slightly pursed. The Baroness wasn’t pleased.

Lily approached with caution. “Baroness Silverglade,” she said.

“Tell me, Lily, will this do for the fine upstanding reputation of the Silverglade family?” She gestured at the arena.

Lily glanced around at the showjumping arena. “Not when we have distinguished visitors coming,” she said it quite carefully.

The Baroness met her eyes and walked serenely out of the Arena.

Lily braced her elbow on one hand and cupped her face. Her lips pressed together and she restrained several screams by making exaggerated faces.

“Well,” Regina said. “Well.”

Lily spun on her toe and marched to the other side of the Arena. While, the huge space didn’t have jumps set up in it, it was being used by a group of dressage riders as they practiced their formations.

Lily worked her jaw licking her lips, her mouth opening and shutting.

“I see an underutilized space,” Regina said.

“We need a schedule,” Pauline said.

Lily gestured at her. It was a clear ‘get it done’ type of hand wave.

Regina put her arm around Lily. “Okay, I think you need a break. You’re taking far too much responsibility on yourself.”

“A nap,” Linn said. “Go ahead and take a nap, Lily. When you wake up, we’ll have a schedule arranged to get everything done before Rainbow Week.”

Lily looked between them and cracked. “Are you two sure?”

“Yes, we’re sure,” Pauline said. “All three of us. Delegation will get things done faster.”

Lily hugged each other mumbling thank yous. She jogged off and took the trailer back to the stable, even though it really wasn’t that far away.

Regina, Pauline, and Linn looked at each other.

“Let’s do this thing,” Pauline said firmly.

Linn pulled out her phone.

“We’re going to either have to kick everyone out, or clean at night,” Regina said looking around. “Wow, you just don’t think about how many people are wandering about all the time.”

“Linda thinks we should meet in the library,” Linn reported.

“This is one meeting right after another,” Pauline shook her head.

They rode through the gardens back up the main house marveling at the amount of work they’d actually gotten done. The manor was well on its way to being spectacular. The workman of the tunnel waved at them as they threaded through the trees to go up the road for a bit.

They put their horses in the stalls and gave Lily’s an extra pat or two as they passed.

Linda, Agnetha, and the rest of the club met them in the library.

Pauline sat at the head of the table and heaved a huge sigh. “Right. So, the Baroness has just shoved the refurbishment of the Riding Arena into our laps. We need a plan on how to tackle this so everything gets done in time for the Rainbow Festival.”

Linda adjusted her glasses. “Girls, we have done a prodigious amount of work over the last month in order to make this place remotely presentable. I can talk to the Baroness about putting off the Riding Arena until after the Rainbow Festival.”

“We have a week,” Regina said. “I think if we have a structured plan in place, break things up into groups like we did in the beginning, we can get everything done. It’s Lily is taking a lot of this personally.”

“She’s got all the emotional labor problems too,” Abigail leaned in propped her chin on her hands. “That’s as much work as physical labor.”

“And we’ve all been focusing on the garden since we’ve got contractors doing the work for the Ice Cream bar and the tunnel. Aaron and Anastasia are focused on getting people hired. So, maybe we gave a false impression of how much we can actually do in a set amount of time.” Pauline winced. “Which is on us.”

“Right. This is vacation and you’re working as hard as you would in school,” Linda protested. “You’re supposed to be here to have fun and meet everyone in the county and ride through the races to train your new horses.”

“Right, we have to make them worth 75,000 shillings somehow.” Regina said flippantly.

Agnetha frowned. “Linda’s correct. Annabella and I have been taking dreadful advantage of you girls.”

“We volunteered,” Pauline pointed out.

Brittany nodded. “Something weird is going on here in South New Jorvik County. We don’t know what it is, neglect, the G.E.D., Dark Core interference, whatever it is, but something fishy is going on here. I mean, is the place just poor or what?”

Linda grimaced. “I’m not really from around here either. Alex Cloudmill hails from Jorvik City, so she doesn’t know either.”

Agnetha shrugged. She didn’t know either.

“Well, let’s work on what we can control,” Regina said pushing the worries about G.E.D. and Dark Core aside to work with another day.

“We need to finish the Folly Gardens,” Pauline said.

“Set up the event Pavilion. Clean up and plant gardens around the Pavilion and the Riding Arena. Install Lighting, benches and urn features.”

“Install the last Duck Coop behind the Arena.”

“Clean the Arena. Replace the Jumps in the Show Jumping side.” Linn said. “They’re old and they don’t fit the theme anymore.”

“Clean the tunnel once the workers are finished.”

“Clean and install furniture in the Wine Cellar. Decorate the Wine Cellar.”

“Decorate for Rainbow Week,” Regina said.

“And that has to be enough for now,” Linda said.

“We should get some of those window sun catchers and decorations from Riley and Ginny for the Arena,” Pauline muttered.

“Since we have the only arena.”

“Oh, well,” Pauline’s eyes lit up. “Ginny and Susan are going to try and convince Mr. Kemball to build them an arena.”

They all stared at each other for a moment, huffed, and burst into giggles.

“Linda,” Linn started with a quiver to her voice, “Can we shut down the Riding Arena to fix it? We can put it off until the last two days if we must, since I’m sure we’re going to want a full day to decorate right before Rainbow Week begins.”

“I mean, this isn’t Christmas where we decorate two months in advance,” Stacy said offhandedly.

Linda smiled softly. “I’ll make a sign that it will be closed those days for cleaning and refurbishing.”

“Thank you!” Linn slumped.

“Okay,” Pauline said as she fiddled with the schedule. “We’ve got seven days or whatever. Tomorrow we can do a huge push to finish the last terrace. Day two, clean up the Pavilion and Riding Arena space, install lighting, benches, duck coop, and the urns. Day Three: Set up the Pavilion, plant the gardens. Day Four, Clean up the tunnel and do the Wine Cellar. Day Five, whatever isn’t done. Day Six, Riding Arena Clean Up and Refurbishment. Day Seven: Decorate.”

Linda nodded. “That sounds reasonable.”

“And you’ve got yourselves a slush day.”

“Then we take the week off to ride all around the county and have fun,” Regina said firmly.

“Get sick on cotton candy at South Hoof,” Pauline mused. “Do a treasure hunt in Cape West.” Pauline blinked. “Oh right,” she found a paper and slid it over to Linda. “Our schedule of events things to do if you want to put it up online.”

Linda brightened. “That will be great. We can have so many visitors. Get your friends to send me pictures for Jorvikgram. I’ll get this up on the website. You know, I don’t think there’s an actual county website for events.”

“Then there should be,” Stacy said.

“And if you build it, you need to get paid for it,” Regina added on.

“And by the good and fluffly lord, do not let Aaron moderate it,” Pauline rolled her eyes.

“Or Anastasia,” one of the girls said under her breath.

“Now,” Agnetha glared at them. “The rest of you go join Lily and get some rest. Everything will keep until tomorrow.”

“Don’t work you and Bjorn to death without us!” One of the girl’s admonished her.

Agnetha gave her a tiny smile.

It was weird, but somehow through working together, Agnetha had become like their prickly aunt.

Linda poked at her phone. She never noticed the rest of them leave.

FOR THE ACCOMPANYING IMAGES PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE MY WATERMARK AND CONTACT INFORMATION. THANK YOU. I get it. Some of you might get excited and want to see this stuff in the game, especially the clothes, tack, and pets. However, the only way I want to see this in the game is if I get paid for it. If I see it in the game and I’m not paid for it, there will be hell to pay. You think I’m salty. I’d be angry. Personally, I’m not going to send this info to SSO. If you do, leave my contact information there! Don’t give them any excuses to steal.

Now, I’ll know you haven’t read this note if you leave me comments about how ‘salty’ I am about the game and if I hate it so much I should do something else. I am doing something else. It’s called Mystic Riders MMORPG Project. Mystic Riders however is a very baby phase game. You can check out our plans on the game dev blog. (Skills, Factions, Professions, Crafting, Mini-Games, 25+ horse breeds!) If you know anyone who would be interested and has money or contacts about game making, direct them to the blog.