Frankie Denton had been having a really fucking bad day. Or, really, a really bad couple of hours. But she couldn’t understate just how bad those couple of hours had been. Everyone hated being the Representative at town meets. Not only was it boring as sin, but it was a lot of pressure on you, too. You were the face of the company in front of most of the town’s population so you’d better follow the script to the letter and know exactly what to say when the arbitrators inevitably ask you a question that wasn’t in the script. And don’t you dare make us look bad or Dr. Travers was going to have a personal conversation with you. You probably wouldn’t get fired, but that was somehow almost worse. There was nothing quite as soul crushing as Dr. Travers telling you how disappointed she was in your performance and how she hoped you’d take this opportunity to improve.

It was a surprising amount of pressure and stress considering there weren’t really any lasting consequences. Unless, presumably, you really fucked up, but as far as she knew no one had fucked up badly enough to lose their job yet. That didn’t make her any less terrified about the possibility of being that Yet, though. She also did in fact still have work to do today in addition to her town meet duties, so that was more stress. Chemicals didn’t synthesize themselves, and her efforts to get paired with an inkling with make-chemicals-synthesize-themselves powers had yet to bear fruit. But, like, fuck that. The last thing she wanted to think about right now was work.

Thankfully, she managed to bump into a convenient source of stress relief right outside the town hall. “Oh, Maggie, thank god.”

Maggie rolled her eyes. “Hi Frankie, it’s good to see you but I’ve got a lot of work to do so unless it’s important-”

“It’s important, I promise.”

“I doubt that.”

“I need to squeeze your titties.”

“That’s not important, Frankie.”

“It is extremely important,” Frankie retorted. “I had a very stressful day and your titties are very big and very soft and I want to squeeze them.”

“Bulletproof logic, Frankie.”

“C’mooooon, Mags. I’ll be your friend.”

“I thought you were already my friend.”

“Yeah, and stuff like this is why I’m your only friend.”

“Yes, I don’t have any friends because I won’t drop everything I’m doing to let you play with my boobs.”

“Exactly! Now you’re getting it.”

“Anyway, I do actually have friends outside of you.”

“Lilly doesn’t count, she’s family.”

“I-” Maggie frowned. “Lilly’s not really family.”

“She literally calls you her big sister, Maggie. Even if you’re not actually the boss’s daughter, that’s still clearly your relationship. And even if it wasn’t I don’t think being someone’s bodyguard counts as being their friend.”

“I wasn’t talking about Lilly,” Maggie lied. “Besides, I don’t see people clamouring to be in a pack with you.”

“Nope, and I like it that way. Just me and my chemicals.”

“Frankie, with all due respect, you’re exactly the kind of person who definitely needs a pack.”

“The only pack I need is me, Maggie’s left tit, and Maggie’s right tit.”

“Do I not get to be a part of the pack?”

“I dunno, you’d hafta ask Lefty, she’s our alpha.”

“Oh my god.” Maggie pinched her muzzle. “Why am I even engaging with you right now, I have a shitton of work to do.”

“So do I, babe.” She gestured over her shoulder with a thumb. “Wanna ditch that shit and go get junk food?”

“Mnn. Kind of, but you remember how that went last time.”

It was Frankie’s turn to frown. “Look, I dunno what shit went down back when you lived here and I also don’t really fuckin’ care. It’s been, what, five fuckin’ years? Unless, I dunno, you literally killed someone or something I think it’s entirely on them to get over themselves.”

Maggie frowned, but clearly didn’t want to elaborate. “Look, maybe later. Okay?”

“Maggie-”

“Later.”

“Okay fine then we can hang out in private.”

“Frankie-”

“Ah, none of that shit. I am determined to get my tiger titty fix and anyway you’re clearly as in need of stress relief as I am.”

“I-”

“Maggie?”

Maggie winced visibly. Frankie couldn’t help but feel a little guilty. Of course if they just stood the fuck around right outside town hall immediately after a town meet they’d end up bumping into someone Maggie knew from before she got kicked out of this shithole town. Specifically, some kinda plain looking duck lady.

“Hi, Diane! Look, uh, now’s a bad time, so-”

“I was actually thinking about having a few words with you.”

“Okay cool we can exchange contact info and I can call you when I don’t have a shitton of work to do-”

“Now, Maggie. It’s important.”

Maggie groaned. “Yeah, that sounds about right for you. Everything you do is more important than anything anyone else has to do.”

“I bumped into Lilly Travers.”

“Okay cool where, that’s one of the actual important things I’ve gotta do that doesn’t involve you.”

“Apparently her mother is letting her sleep over with some new friends she made.”

“Great, because Esterwood is an awesome place to make new friends. Super friendly and accepting of people with special needs.”

“Maggie-”

“Yeah, yeah, I get it, I get it, don’t shittalk your hometown in front of you. But you and I both grew up here we both know I’m right. If the boss thinks they’re fine then I’m gonna trust her judgment but I’m gonna stay skeptical-”

“Her friends are Ursula and her pack.”

“oh.” Just like that, all the wind fell out of Maggie’s sails. “Okay. Cool. Uh. Thanks for the heads up.”

“I figured you would rather find out from me and not... You know.”

“Yeah. Uh. Yeah.”

Frankie shuffled awkwardly, suddenly feeling like a third wheel in this already tense and awkward confrontation. “Look, I’m not... I’m not gonna push this any further right now, okay? But she’s twenty years old and acts like she’s younger than my students. You’ve got to understand why I’d be immediately concerned, right?”

“Yeah well it’s not your place to be concerned, okay?”

“I’m a teacher, it’s my job to-”

“You’re not her teacher so just leave her the fuck alone, okay? I know that you’re trying to help but I figured that you’d have figured out by now that every time you try to help you just make things worse.”

“Maggie-”

“No, Diane. Lilly has more than enough shit going on without you shoving your beak into it. Why don’t you go bother your actual friends?”

“You are my friend, Maggie. No one else would talk to me because they were too afraid of you. And you know how that turned out.”

“Oh, you poor fucking baby,” Maggie snapped. “You decided to hang out with the psycho bully because since no one else would it made you feel better about your shitty life and then surprise! It bit you in the ass.”

“Well, I’m sorry for trying to be nice.”

“I never asked for your fucking charity. Anyway, what about that guy you were dating – what was his name, George? Greg? Whatever happened to him?”

“Grant. We got married.”

“Okay cool why don’t you go complain to him about how much of a bitch I am.”

“He’s dead, Maggie.”

“... Oh.” Once again, all the wind completely left Maggie’s sails immediately, and she visibly deflated. She was much larger than Diane, but she looked like she’d really rather not be.

“He was in Locksmouth during the first incident and... Never came back.”

“Heyyyyy,” Frankie interjected, sliding in between the two. “Nice to meet ya’. I’m Francine Denton, my friends call me Frankie, I do industrial chemistry for Travers.” She placed an arm around Diane’s shoulder and gently but insistently led her off into town. “Mags has a lotta shit on her plate tonight so why don’t you and me fuck off to get some coffee and burgers?”

“Uh-”

“Hey, we’re all friends here, right?”

“... Right.”

“Yep. You go off and get that work done, Maggie. I can have time with Lefty later.”

Frankie awkwardly led Diane away from town hall, off into the uncharacteristically bustling streets of Esterwood. They were only crowded because the Town Meet had just let out, though. Give it an hour and it’d be fucking dead, as per usual. “Thanks for that.”

“Wasn’t doin’ it for you.”

“I know. But still, thanks.”

Frankie shrugged. “Maggie’s kind of spoiling for a fight, to be honest. She hasn’t told me what exactly happened and I don’t wanna push her to open up? But I don’t need to know the deets to be able to tell she really doesn’t wanna be here and that the feeling is hella mutual.”

“She-”

“Aht! No, if I’m gonna hear what happened I wanna hear it from her. No goin’ behind her back about it.”

“Fair enough.”

“The point is that Mags has been stressed and stuck in a super fucking hostile environment. She’s normally a lot more levelheaded.”

“Oh. That’s good.”

“She didn’t used to be?”

“Not at all.”

“Yeah, I kinda figured.”

“Well, I’m not mad at her if she’s not mad at me.”

“I kinda think she’s mad at you,” Frankie replied as diplomatically as she could manage. “She was kind of a bitch, but you weren’t exactly the queen of bedside manner yourself. Like, as nicely as possible, you kinda started that fight.”

“... I suppose.” Diane frowned. “I just... I don’t know. It’s frustrating. I really do consider Maggie a friend, you know. She’s the only peer I’ve got left.”

“Come on, you’ve gotta know other people. You can’t have lived in a vacuum for the past five years.”

“I do, but they’re all other teachers or parents.”

“Fair enough. I think that’s most people though.”

“I just... wish I could have done more for her, back in the day. I keep thinking I could have stood up for her more. She didn’t have anyone else in her corner and I still regret not being there for her.”

“Uh, no offence, but I get the impression she didn’t really want you in her corner?”

“I know. That just makes it worse.”

“Eh, this conversation sucks,” Frankie said. “A good friend knows when to talk about serious shit and when to talk about dumb fun shit. C’mon, let’s go grab those burgers and then we can stay up late watching old movies and making fun of the bad special effects.”

“I do have stuff to do. Papers to grade and such.”

“Papers can be graded tomorrow, it’s fine.” Frankie waved a hand dismissively. “Right now there’s junk food to be eaten and movies to be mocked.”

Diane sighed. “You know what? Maybe you’re right. Maybe I should just take a day to chill out.”

“Exactly! Now you’re gettin’ it. Taking some time to not think about heavy shit is important for your mental wellbeing or something like that.”

“Good enough for me.”

“My place or yours.”

“I’ve got some kids I’m looking after. Their parents worked in Locksmouth.”

“Geeze. Your place it is. We’ll keep the volume down and I’ll try not to swear.”

“Thanks.”

“Hey, no problem. I’ve got nothin’ better to do tonight anyway. ‘sides, you’re not the only one who can use some relaxation.” She shrugged. “It’s not exactly as effective as what I originally had planned but it’ll do?”

“Oh, what did you have planned? Maybe we could work around it.”

“Not with kids in the house.”

“... Oh.” Diane blushed profusely.

“Come on,” Frankie said with a gentle chuckle. “Let’s go get those burgers. We’ve got a long night ahead of us.”

~~~~~~

Viola was fucking exhausted. Today had shaped up to be an extremely long day and she was very much ready for it to be over. So, naturally, it was still going. And would probably keep going for a while yet, too. Once they got home she had to help clean up after dinner, pack away the knives for disposal, and then have an urgent Alpha Meeting with Ursula.

“Ugh, I really don’t wanna have an Alpha meeting.”

“Yeah. But we gotta. Especially after everything that’s happened today.

Ursula flopped onto her bed. “Yeah. We’ve got Miranda and Lilly to deal with, don’t we?”

“Yeah.” Viola decided to hold back on bringing up the other reason she wanted an Alpha Meeting for now. She couldn’t put it off forever, of course, but it kinda had to be dealt with now rather than later. “We don’t know if Lilly’s going to be outright joining the pack.”

“I feel like she’s probably gonna end up joining the pack. She’s definitely enamoured with Vicky for some fucking reason.”

“Vicky isn’t really in the pack.”

“Vicky’s basically in the pack, babe.”

“... Yeah, Vicky’s basically in the pack. Ugh.”

“Honestly I kinda view it as a blessing. It makes the whole Miranda thing a lot less dramatic by comparison.”

“You saw how close she was with that Hyde guy,” Viola muttered quietly. “She’s gotta be close to other high-ranking Travers people, too.”

“There’s no guarantee she even knows Maggie, Viola.”

Viola winced. She didn’t really like to think about that particular period of her life, for obvious reasons. “Look. It’s just... statistically speaking, we’re probably going to bump into her with Lilly around at some point.

“Hey, we haven’t bumped into her yet.”

“Because the universe was waiting for maximum inconvenience.”

“I don’t see what’s wrong with just saying ‘hey fuck you you’re still an asshole, leave us alone’ and movin’ on.”

“Not while Lilly’s around. Okay? Don’t go picking fights with her loved ones in front of her. That’s all I ask.”

“I can take ‘er.”

“That has nothing to do with it.”

“I’ve been workin’ on a trick to give me the edge.”

“Ursula.”

Ursula winced. “Fine. I’ll try not to get into a fight with Maggie in front of Lilly. Which I woulda done anyway, by the way. But if she starts it, I’m gonna finish it.”

“Ursula you remember how it turned out for us the last time you got into a fight with Maggie.”

“It’s been like five years, I’m not thirteen anymore.” Ursula punched her palm for emphasis. “I’ve gotten way stronger since then.”

“So has Maggie.”

“You don’t know that.”

“Have you not seen her at Town Meets? She’s huge.”

“... Yeah. I can take her tho.”

“Just... be careful, okay?”

Ursula shrugged. “Honestly, I’m pretty sure she’s been actively avoiding us. There’s no guarantee that it’s inevitable.”

“Mm.” Now was probably the time to bring it up, Viola supposed. “I think that Dr. Travers might know about Ami.”

“Fuck. You sure?”

“I don’t know. She talked about Stockholm Syndrome out of nowhere.”

“What the fuck is stockholm syndrome?”

“That’s basically what I said. Um. Without the swear. She said that it’s when people are held captive and start to like the person who held them captive.”

“Fuck. That’s weirdly specific.”

“Yeah.”

“Okay so what you’re saying is that there’s a good chance we’re actually gonna have to fight Travers, then?”

“I really hope not. I’ve had enough superheroics to last a lifetime, frankly. We all agreed to avoid trouble.”

“Yeah but what if trouble comes to us?”

Viola frowned. “That’s a good fucking question.”

“Okay well. For now, we can’t do anything about that. So let’s focus on what we can do things about.”

“Right. Okay. To do list. Make sure Miranda feels welcome and not like we’re gonna bully her, see how she gels with the group dynamic when she’s not trying too hard. Keep an eye on Lilly and see how well she gets along with everyone.”

“Should we get ready to formally invite her into the pack?”

Viola frowned. “No. Not yet at least. We need to make sure that we can trust her not to talk to people outside of the pack about our inklings or Ami.”

“Oh. Yeah, right, that’d be a problem.”

“So, add to the list; try and figure out how good Lilly is at keeping secrets. Especially from her mom.”

“I don’t have high hopes on that front t’be honest.”

“We’ll wait and see. The whole point of moving out on our own was so we didn’t have to worry about people finding out about our inklings. Lilly joining the pack would defeat the purpose of that.”

“I kinda get the impression that even if she doesn’t join the pack she’s going to be around here basically constantly.”

“Yeah.”

“I’m pretty sure she’s got a crush on Vicky, though I can’t fathom why.”

“She’s gotten a lot better.”

“Yeah but she’s still Vicky.”

“At least it isn’t Lars.”

Ursula made a face like she’d just taken a big bite out of a whole lemon, peel and all. “I don’t think we’re in any danger of her developing a crush on Lars any time soon.”

“Anyway,” Viola said, turning to leave. “I’m going to go check on Miranda. You should get some sleep.”

“Will do, babe. Try not to fuck too loudly.”

“Yeah, yeah. I don’t think I’m going to get any OC in tonight. I’m exhausted.”

“Babe, I know you well enough to know that ain’t an obstacle.”

“Hey!”

“Look, I’m sure most of us can handle loud sex. Just don’t bother the kid, okay?”

Viola blushed profusely. “I make no promises.”

~~~~~~

The first thing Vienna did when they got back from the Town Meet, after helping with cleanup, was to go to her room and lock the door behind her. Most of the time she left it unlocked, but sometimes she needed privacy. Now was one of those times. She made her way over to the bed and then calmly and methodically collapsed face-first onto it. “Ughhhhh,” she grumbled, rolling over to lie on her back and stare at the ceiling.

Partly, she was just tired. It had been a long day and she’d been on her feet for a lot of it. Ursula probably had it worse, of course – she’d gotten into a fistfight with a fucking ten foot grizzly bear. But it wasn’t just that Vienna was tired. The other, bigger concern was the deep, insistent ache in her sides and chest. “Fuck.” Offering to help Miranda move in alone had probably not been the best idea, hence why they’d ultimately decided not to actually bother yet.

It took her a full minute to work up the energy to get up and get to stretching. It wouldn’t fix the core problem, but it’d at least help with the pain. That was all she could really reliably do right now. Anything more in-depth would require explaining to a doctor that she’d tanked a direct punch from Cap’n Comet to the torso and then the only medical attention she got was from a military field-medic who had almost no experience with post-splice anatomy. It was only natural that her bones had healed wrong.

Not, thankfully, absurdly wrong. She wasn’t going to have any major health issues in the future. Just minor ones, which honestly she wasn’t sure was that much better. At least if they were serious she could justify to herself and the pack that they needed to out themselves to get it fixed. But no, she was just kinda sore all the time and couldn’t move in certain ways without it hurting like a bitch. The stretches helped, but any kind of permanent solution was gonna be a big deal. Rebreaking all the bones and then setting them properly – which would be especially difficult to do given the specific bones that were problems – and waiting another few weeks or more for them to heal. Which obviously wasn’t an option, not without going to an actual hospital.

So no, for the foreseeable future, she was just gonna have to live with chronic pain. A constant, niggling reminder of the supremely stupid choice she had made. Yuri had the decency to keep the severity of her injuries from the rest of the pack, but in private he had made it extremely clear to her just how lucky she was to not be dead. Even factoring in that post-splicers were, apparently, significantly more durable than pre-splicers. And for what? Viola could have talked Ami down without Vienna taking that hit. Absolutely.

“This is counterproductive,” Edifice interjected.

“Yeah, probably.” Vienna moved her arms out in front of her, holding them perpendicular to her body with her hands pointing straight out. “Honestly this shit’s prolly why I did that in the first place.” Slowly, she transitioned from arms in front to a t-shape and then similarly slowly lowered them to her sides. “I dunno. I- ow! Fuck.”

“Just keep moving slowly.”

“Yeah, yeah.” She powered through the sharp spike of pain, raising her arms back to the t-pose and then back in front of her.

“Anyway, now that you’ve identified that you have those self-destructive tendencies it shouldn’t be too hard for me to step in when you’re indulging in them.”

“I’d appreciate it!”

“Do you want me to stop distracting you from your stretches?”

“Nah, keep talking to me. Helps to keep my mind off of things.”

“Ah. I’m not exactly the best conversationalist but I shall do my best.”

“No offence but I definitely didn’t get the impression that you were the best conversationalist.”

“Fair enough.” And, just like that, Edifice went silent. Vienna wasn’t really surprised – like they’d just talked about, Edifice had never been much for words. Kind of annoying after she’d specifically asked her to keep talking, but she also couldn’t blame her. It was like asking Viola to distract her with small talk. You had no one to blame but yourself when that ended up failing miserably.

Thankfully, living in a house full of other people meant that a conversation partner was never very far away. All she had to do was leave her room and go bug Erin or Ursula to spot her. Or conversation might end up coming to her. Probably one of the new faces, given the way they knocked. Too dainty for Ursula, not confident enough for Erin, and Viola would generally just come in – being twins, they could generally tell whether or not barging into the other’s room was appropriate. It also, similarly, probably wasn’t Vicky. Much like Ursula, she didn’t exactly have a particularly dainty knock. And Lars would probably not even attempt to interact with her if he didn’t have to, so that left Miranda or-

“Come in.”

“Um. The door’s locked.”

Ah, right, she had locked it, hadn’t she. “Gimme a sec,” she said as she stopped her stretches and headed over to let Lilly in. “Hey, there! What’s up?”

“Um. Sorry.” Lilly fidgeted as she worked up the courage to actually enter Vienna’s room. “It’s just, um. You went off on your own and we’re friends now but I haven’t really talked to you yet even though we’re friends now so I wanted to talk to you but, um. You’d gone off on your own. Sorry.”

“Don’t apologize. I kinda wanted someone to talk to anyway. C’mon in.” Lilly took another full minute before she awkwardly shuffled in, closing the door behind her. “Feel free to sit on the bed or whatever.”

“Okay,” Lilly said, pointedly not sitting on the bed or whatever. Awkward, but whatever. Vienna preferred the presence of an awkward observer to stewing in her own guilt again. Even just having an audience aside from Edifice helped, because it distracted her. “What are you doing?”

“Stretching.”

“Why?”

“Oh. Uh. Well, uh, a while back I kinda hurt myself pretty badly and the stretches help with the pain.”

“Have you talked to a doctor?”

“No.”

“Why?”

“Can’t.”

“Why?”

“Because it’s a secret.”

“Why?”

Vienna stopped her stretches. “Well, I can’t really tell you yet. Because, y’know. It’s a secret.”

“Oh.”

This was something that was always going to come up eventually, from the moment that Lilly had latched on to Vicky. Vienna kind of wished this had happened to Viola and not her but whatever, she could deal with it. Or at least put off dealing with it until the pack had an opportunity to come up with a solution. “Okay. Uh. So. I can’t tell you yet.”

“Yet?”

“Yet,” Vienna repeated with a nod. “I don’t get to make that decision on my own, you know? It’s kind of a big deal to all of us and you’re still new.”

“Okay,” Lilly said, frowning.

“We do want to tell you this stuff, eventually. But first you’re going to have to make a couple of promises.” Vienna sat on her bed, gently patting an empty spot next to her. After a few more moments of awkward shuffling, Lilly sat down. “First, you can’t ask me. It isn’t my decision to make, it’s Viola and Ursula’s. So you’ve got to convince both of them that you can be trusted with the secret.”

“Okay. Um. Should I do that now?”

“Viola’s probably busy.”

“Oh.”

“You’re probably going to need some time to decide if you even want to know, anyway.”

“Oh?”

“That’s the second promise you need to make to me. This thing is a big secret so you can’t tell anyone who doesn’t already know without asking everyone else first.”

“... Oh.” Lilly frowned. “I can’t tell anyone?”

“Not unless we all agree.”

“Not even Miss Ellen or Mister Sherman?”

“Not even them.”

“Not even Maggie?”

Vienna suppressed the urge to cringe. “Especially not Maggie.”

“Vicky?”

“Vicky already knows.”

“Oh okay. Um, what about mom?”

“You can’t tell your mom, no.”

“Oh.” Lilly frowned again. “Why not?”

“Well, uh, think of it like... You’ve got plenty of things that only you and your mom and the people closest to you know, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Think of it like that. Me and Viola and Ursula and Erin aren’t just friends, we’re a type of family.”

“Is Vicky part of the family?”

“Sorta. It’s kind of a long story, but she’s a... provisional member of the pack. Same with Miranda.”

“What about Lars?”

“Him too, so long as he behaves himself.”

Lilly frowned again, and didn’t say anything for a long time. “Okay. I think I get it.”

“It’d be like being a part of two different families. Which is a pretty big deal, so don’t you go deciding to go through with it right away just because you want to know why I’m doing stretches, okay? Take some time and think about it and see if you even really like us enough to make that decision. Maybe talk with your mom about it.”

“Okay. I think I get it.”

“Good!” Vienna smiled before standing up again. “It’s pretty late, so we probably don’t have the time to do anything fun like cartoons or video games, but maybe I can show you how I do my stretches? It’s not very interesting but it’s good exercise?”

“Oh!” Lilly excitedly hopped up and bounded into place beside Vienna. “That sounds like a lot of fun!”

It really wasn’t, but Vienna didn’t want to drag the mood down. “Stand as straight as you can.”

“‘kay.” Lilly did as she was told, which made Vienna realize that she was actually a lot taller than she looked. Definitely taller than Vienna, probably taller than Miranda, not quite as tall as Ursula or Erin but pretty darn close. Which drove home the fact that she was apparently twenty years old? She didn’t carry herself like a twenty year old, which is why Vienna had to remind her to stand straight. Her posture was terrible. But it wasn’t just bad posture, nor was it just the fact that she liked cartoons. She straight-up acted like a child, closer to Vicky’s kid sister than Vicky in terms of age and maturity. It was no wonder Vicky was so immediately concerned about her.

“Okay. Start out like this, with your hands at your sides. Then move ‘em up slowly, like this. Remember, go slow.” Whatever, she wasn’t going to dwell on it. Lilly wasn’t just some weird curiosity for her to gawk at, she was a person. And so Vienna was going to god damn treat her like a person.

Even if, admittedly, she was really, really weird.

~~~~~~

It was, to use a cliche, a dark and stormy night. Dark clouds roiled both above and below the Arcadia. The skyship rocked gently back and forth in winds strong enough to just barely overwhelm its stabilizers. Under normal circumstances, no sane captain would park their ship directly in the middle of a squall line. Which is exactly why the Arcadia was just that. It looked intimidating, which kept nosy Naval ships and other pirates at bay. And, certainly, a lesser ship than the Arcadia would have been torn to shreds. But it was much safer than it initially appeared, so long as your ship was robust enough to survive the winds and so long as you made sure to stay indoors.

Or you were a very, very good pilot.

While the Arcadia was large and powerful frigate, built for ship-to-ship combat without sacrificing speed and manoeuvrability, the Stinger was designed with one single purpose in mind – stealth. It was much, much smaller than the Arcadia, capable of being crewed by a single person. And as a result it wasn’t just faster, but it was also harder to notice. Especially when the larger ship was parked in the middle of a storm.

It moved quickly and quietly, deftly cutting through the clouds without disturbing them as it pulled up behind the frigate. Before it slowed to a stop, it fired a hook that wedged itself firmly in between two wooden planks. This was followed by three more, thin enough not to leave any marks but robust enough to firmly hold the Stinger in place. So long as the Arcadia held strong, so would the Stinger. She had, very briefly, considered naming her the Remora, but ultimately this was only one of the tricks she’d packed into her so using it as a namesake didn’t feel right. And anyway, Stinger was a cooler name. A much more fitting title for the personal vessel of the legendary sellsword, assassin, and thief Mistress Domina, she felt.

Of course, while the storm provided her cover, it also had its disadvantages. Getting from the Stinger to the Arcadia meant going out into the winds, for a starter. And once Mistress Domina actually made her way inside, she would have to contend with sneaking past the crew. That there was no one on the deck meant she didn’t need to worry about anyone looking over the edge and spotting her ship, yes, but it also meant that everyone was inside the ship. That was why she’d decided on a late-night raid. The halls of the Arcadia were completely empty, dead silent. The perfect opportunity to help herself to a healthy portion of Captain Horlock’s riches.

In spite of the lack of visible crew, Mistress Domina made a point of moving slowly and quietly. She couldn’t say for certain, after all, that everyone was sound asleep. She wasn’t going to run the risk of getting caught, not now, not when she was so close. That was also why she’d spent so much time learning the layout of the Arcadia – she was already going to have to move slowly to maintain her stealth, and the longer she took the more likely it was that something would go wrong. So she made the most direct beeline for the treasure room that she could manage without getting caught.

The rest was just taking a modest cut and getting out. Not too much, she still had to transport it all back onto the Stinger and she didn’t want to risk dropping it – or worse, falling herself. And, while the Stinger had a surprisingly ample amount of cargo space for a ship as compact as it was, it was still a fairly small one-man ship. She slowly opened the door and slipped inside the dark room. The soft candlelight from the hallway glistened off of the piles upon piles of gold. She swallowed heavily, fighting off the temptation to bite off more than she could chew. Better to take a few smaller but more valuable pieces of loot than grab a big sackful of coins that were cumulatively worth much less and that she probably wouldn’t even be able to haul back to her ship.

She took a few more steps into the treasure room before coming to an abrupt halt as the door slammed shut behind her.

Damn, she should have been more cautious. Of course there was going to be a guard in the treasure room. Assuming they’d be asleep had been optimistic on her part. Oh, well. Time for the backup plan. Mistress Domina moved quickly, pulling out her weapon of choice – a long, thin dagger she had named the Blade of Mercy – and spun around to press the blade against the guard’s throat. Only to find a cutlass against her own throat.

“It seems we’re at an impasse, old friend.”

“Friend isn’t quite the word I would use.”

A smirk slowly spread across Mistress Domina’s face. “Oh? You certainly seemed to be enjoying yourself the last time we met, Horlock.”

“The last time we met you weren’t trying to rob me. Again.”

“Well, you can hardly blame me for it when you make it such a delightful challenge.” She shrugged, or at least as much as she could given the blade pressed against her throat. “I had only intended to take a small amount.”

“If you really want a cut, you could always join my crew.”

“I work best alone, darling,” she replied coolly. “Besides, this way’s more fun, no?”

“Fun for you, maybe.” Captain Horlock pressed his blade firmly against Mistress Domina. “I, personally, have a much different idea of fun.” With that, he reached around behind her with his free hand and grabbed a nice big handful of ass.

Which, really, was just too much. Erin could no longer keep a straight face, letting out a snorting laugh. “What? What?”

“Sorry, darling,” she replied, pulling the blade away. “It’s just that you have the sense of romantic decorum of a horny teenager.”

“I am a horny teenager!” Erwin replied, mildly indignant.

“Yes, yes, Erwin Goldstein is a horny teenager. But Captain Horlock is a suave, swashbuckling ladykiller.” Erin walked over to a nearby chair and took a seat. “You did fairly well, but you need to work on getting properly into your character’s head. Would Captain Horlock have moved quite so quickly?”

“I suppose, but sometimes you just want to get to the good bit.” Erwin walked over and sat idly beside her. He fiddled with his belt buckle, which to his credit was the only obvious sign that he was nervous.

“Fucking is one thing. We can have no-context casual OC just about any time we want, the whole point of Skyships of Conquest is the romanticism.”

“I’ve got a boyfriend and you’ve got your pack, though.”

Erin gently tousled his hair. “Not that kind of romance, darling.”

“Oh.”

“Romanticism is about emotions over reason, about the majesty of nature, about high adventure. Getting absorbed into a world. The sex is a fun side benefit, but the real appeal of Skyships is getting to be someone else. To immerse yourself in a world of pirates and cunning and derring-do.”

“Oh! Okay, yeah, that makes sense.” Erwin leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms behind his head. “So you’re saying that there’s not really much point in doing this in Skyships if I don’t try to do it the way my character would?”

“Exactly! Not that Captain Horlock and Mistress Domina wouldn’t have ended up sleeping together anyway, of course. But maybe a kiss instead of jumping right to squeezing her ass.”

“In my defence, it’s a very nice ass,” Erwin replied, directing his gaze in the obvious direction. “Honestly, I would never have expected what you look like in real life just from your avatar.”

“It’s the same as with sex,” Erin replied. “I can have big tits any time I want in the real world. Skyships lets me be someone else. Someone else with a gigantic ass.” That was, of course, bending the truth a bit. Titania’s powers gave Erin a lot of control over her body shape. She could absolutely have a huge ass in real life if she wanted to, but Erwin didn’t need to know that. She was closer to him than she had been, but she wasn’t quite comfortable with outing herself as Inked just yet. Especially considering that Erwin was openly Inked and his Inkling was one of Echelon’s generals. For obvious reasons, she was a bit hesitant to open up to him about that. “Although, really, Mistress Domina’s ass isn’t actually that much bigger than mine.”

“Really?” Erwin tilted his head. “It looks a lot bigger though.”

“Well, that’s because her breasts are smaller, you see.” She stood up,  walked in front of Erwin, and did a little pose. “The ass stays roughly the same size, but it looks bigger or smaller depending on the relative size of the breasts.”

“Ah, I see.” He certainly did – Erin could see exactly where his line of sight went. That was fine, though. If Erin didn’t like being looked at she wouldn’t have used Titania’s powers to have breasts bigger than her head. And, similarly, if she didn’t want people to look at her in Skyships, she wouldn’t have dressed Mistress Domina in a skin-tight shiny black leotard that clung to every single solitary curve of her body.

“Oh! Speaking of which, we’ve got a few tentative new packmates.”

“... Speaking of ass?”

“If you saw Miranda, you’d likely understand why I’m making the connection.”

“Oh.”

“She’s actually from Locksmouth so you might know her.”

Erwin frowned. “The name doesn’t ring a bell, sorry.”

“Really? I’d assumed she would stand out.”

“I might know her when I see her, I guess.”

“Full name Miranda Lockheart. She’s a spider? Absolutely enormous ass?”

“Hm. No, sorry, the only spider subtype I know is Jessalynn.”

“Oh.” Erin shrugged. “Well, Locksmouth is quite a large city.”

“I also know a lot of people with really nice asses.”

“I had pegged you as an ass man so I assumed you’d notice her.”

“Hey, now, I appreciate a lot of things! Not just butts!”

“I know, I’ve seen your pack on the news.”

“Yeah, I suppose we’ve been on the news a lot lately, haven’t we?”

“You did save the world again.” Erin clapped her hands together. “It’s really quite impressive! And very sexy!”

Erwin blushed furiously. Like putty in her hands. “A-anyway, you kind of have the advantage over me there. What’s been up with you?”

“Well, as I said, we’ve got some new provisional pack members. I’m not quite sure how much is appropriate to share about them with a complete stranger, though.”

“That’s fair. Anything else?”

Erin frowned.

“Oh. Bad news?”

Erin took a deep breath through clenched teeth before responding. “Complicated news.”

“Oh.”

“I’m sorry, it’s something I’m not entirely sure how I feel about just yet.”

“Well, that’s fine. We can talk about something else if you’re not comfortable with sharing.”

“Mmm.” Erin’s troubled frown deepened as she considered it. She honestly couldn’t really put into words why she felt the way she did about the Travers internship. On paper it was an astounding opportunity. Her foot was in the door for a potential high-up position in Travers Industry and she wasn’t even out of high school yet. Maybe that was why she felt so apprehensive, though. It felt almost too good to be true.

Maybe she really should talk to someone about it. Keeping these feelings bottled up inside her couldn’t possibly be healthy, and she had vowed to try to be more honest with herself and others.

“Hm. Tell you what,” she said, her expression shifting to something a bit more seductive. “I’ll tell you everything that’s bothering me lately. But~” Erin gently grasped a hidden zipper near the neck of Mistress Domina’s bodysuit and sloooooowly pulled it down, down, all the way to just above her crotch. She took a few steps forward, rocking her ample hips as she did, before spreading her legs and sitting in Erwin’s lap, pressing her body against his conspicuous bulge.

“But?”

Erin grinned. “You’ve gotta fuck it out of me~”

“Oh. Darn.”

~~~~~~

After Viola finished meeting with Doctor Travers, the group had made a beeline for home. They’d taken an hour or so to clean up after dinner – a task that everyone except Lars helped with at least a little – before retreating to their private spaces. That made sense, Miranda supposed. They probably weren’t going to be spending every waking moment together, that was weird. No matter how close your relationship was, everyone needed some time alone on occasion. She herself would definitely have appreciated an opportunity to actually sit and think about the situation she’d bumblefucked her way into.

“Boy, that sure would be nice,” she muttered.

“Remember, you did consent to this arrangement, Miranda.”

“Yeah, yeah.” It was just that at the time she’d not really considered the potential ramifications of having an interdimensional alien living in her brain. Alone time wasn’t exactly no longer an option, but it was a lot more complicated than it used to be. Going dry wasn’t something that just anyone could do the instant they became host to an Inkling, after all. It required a very deep, close bond before you could pull it off, and frankly Miranda and Rakni didn’t get along particularly well. And even if she did get to that point, having a dry Inkling that looked exactly like her just sort of wandering around sounded like a fantastic way to out herself. So for the foreseeable future, she didn’t have any options except to grin and bear it.

Which would be much more tolerable if Rakni were a bit less... Rakni. “You could always go hand me off to Echelon and allow her to find a new host for me? Oh, but that would require talking to Grayswift, wouldn’t it?”

“Please stop talking.”

“Of course, of course. I’m merely suggesting that perhaps we should dedicate some time to getting used to each other’s company. Since we’re stuck together and all.”

“I could always just kick you out, y’know?”

“Ha, yes, I suppose you could,” Rakni replied. Miranda was pretty sure that was some form of sarcasm. She had gotten very good at identifying when people were being intentionally ingenuine over the years. But the problem with that, in this particular case, was that almost everything Rakni said set off those carefully curated senses. “But you won’t.”

“Fine, yeah, I won’t. Whatever.”

“So sullen! I thought we were going to turn over a new leaf here, no?”

“Who the fuck is ‘we’?”

“You and I, of course. Brothers! In spirit, if not blood. We have quite a lot in common, you know. More than you seem to realize.”

“I kinda doubt that.”

“The best of friends!”

“No.”

Thankfully-ish, someone picked that time to knock on the door. She still wasn’t gonna be alone, but short of it being that Lars guy for some reason there was no way that whoever it was would be as insufferable as Rakni was being. “Door’s open!”

It turned out to be Viola. Miranda had been expecting this. “Hi.”

“Um. Hi.” Awkward. Understandably so, but that didn’t make it any less uncomfortable. “Sorry.”

“Why are you apologizing?”

“A lot of reasons,” Viola replied.

“Well, for what it’s worth, I’m sorry too. A lot of the shit that went down today was my fault.”

“Well, um. Look on the bright side?” She did not, pointedly, outline any of the supposed bright sides.

“I guess this room’s nice? That’s about it.”

“Um. Well, the bear- at least we know it’s there, now? It woulda been pretty bad if Travers had taken the dome down before dealing with the angry bear living right outside.”

“Yeah, fair. Still kinda wish we’d maybe found it under nicer circumstances.”

“I’m not going to argue that one, but I can’t exactly imagine any nice circumstances to encounter a big angry wild bear.” Viola took a seat on Miranda’s bed. After a moment of thought, Miranda took up a spot on the other side.

“So. Um.” It was probably time to stop beating around the bush. “I guess you’re here to, um.”

“Talk,” Viola interrupted – something she was visibly uncomfortable with. “For now.”

“Okay. It’s just, you know. Everyone else seemed to imply that-”

“Yes well they’re not wrong but I think it’s more important to get things squared away first. Fun can wait.”

“Okay. If you say so.”

“I do say so,” Viola replied. “I want to make sure we’re definitely on good terms before we make this permanent. So. Um. Sorry. Again. For forcing you into this situation. For shoving you into the social deep end right away. For, um. For hitting you. Twice.”

“It’s okay, I kind of deserved it in retrospect.” Miranda shrugged. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry too. For, you know, all the obvious things I should be sorry for.”

“Apology accepted.”

“Ditto.”

“Okay.”

“That’s that squared away, then?”

“I guess.” Viola sighed. “I don’t think that a couple of sorries are really going to be enough, but it’s a good start. I guess.”

“I guess? I’m sorry, I don’t really know how this kind of thing normally goes down.”

“I don’t think this is something that ever goes down under normal circumstances.”

“Fair.”

“I don’t really even know anything about you as a person, you know?”

“Well, uh, okay, why don’t we start with that?”

“How do you even go about it though. Like, what, are you supposed to sit here and tell me your life story?”

“I’ve kind of already told you everything there is to tell.”

“Well, okay, how about hobbies? What do you like to do for fun?”

“Well, uh, let’s see. You already know that I like sewing and knitting and stuff, I mentioned that. Uh. I like cartoons? There’s Laney, that’s the big one.”

“Lilly likes that one.”

“Yeah, she was watching it earlier.”

“That’s one point of commonality.”

“I like cars.”

“You like cars?”

“It’s the same appeal as seamstressing. I like to get into their guts and customize ‘em. Make ‘em go real fast.”

“... Do you have a car?”

“No. Most of my experience with that kinda thing is Machine Shop class back in school. Which, uh, Esterwood didn’t have. So.”

“Yeah, there’s no one to teach it.”

“Fair enough. I guess that’s more incentive to save up for one of my own, then.”

“There’s not really much call for a PeTra in Esterwood.”

“Yeah but I’m not getting it just to drive it. I wanna buy a 2298 Amigo Thunderbolt.”

“... You want to buy a two hundred and fifty year old car?”

“It’s a legend. The plan is to get a really shitty old junker and refurbish it myself.”

“Does it have to be that specific car, though? I can’t imagine there’s a lot of 2298 Amigo Thunderbolts around.”

“It has to be that specific car because it’s the car that Jake Blackfoot drove in, like, all his most iconic movies.”

“Oh.” There was an awkward silence. “I, uh, I don’t know who that is. Sorry.”

“He was an actor from around the end of the Stockweight era, one of the biggest names in the early San Argento cinema scene. He did a mixture of serious acting roles and completely mindless action movies that were like seventy five percent car chase. Probably one of the best stuntmen to ever live? Oh, he was engaged to Valerie Buff, you’ve gotta have heard of Valerie Buff.”

“Oh! Like, um, that one really old-timey actress lady, right?”

“She was probably one of the first ever Post-Splice sex symbols. Helped to lay the groundwork for the entire modern entertainment industry.”

“So, uh, I guess you like old movies, too?”

“Oh. Um. Yeah. I could definitely keep going.”

“Maybe we could watch some together at some point, as a group activity. I know Erin likes old stuff, too.”

“She does?”

“Um. I think she’s more about Pre-Splice stuff than Post-Splice, though.”

“Well, it’s still sort of a common ground. The same medium but different eras. There’s a lot of room for interesting cultural exchange there. We’d probably have a lot to talk about. Like for instance did you know that, like, at least according to most modern archaeological evidence, Post-Splice cinematic language followed almost exactly the same evolutionary track as Pre-Splice cinematic language even though they didn’t have any access to Pre-Splice movies at the time? Like, human culture got completely wiped, replaced with a blank slate, but we still independently came up with almost exactly the same rules and techniques for visual storytelling.”

There was another awkward silence. “You, um, you really care about this stuff, don’t you?”

“Oh. Uh. Yeah.” Miranda blushed. “Sorry for rambling.”

“No, no, it’s interesting!”

“If you say so.”

“I do say so! You should definitely talk to Erin about this, I think that she’d be really interested.”

“Okay cool now I just need to figure out how to bring the subject up without seeming like a weirdo.”

“Well. Um. You could just say that I said she might be interested in talking about it with you?”

“If you say so.”

“Again, I do say so.”

“I don’t know, I just... Start talking about things and don’t really know when to shut up. I think it’s an SDD thing.”

“Well, I think it’s admirable to be so passionate about things. There’s not a lot of things I can get that passionate about.”

“Well, yeah, you don’t have the brain condition that makes you get obsessively into your special interests.”

“I guess. I just don’t think it’s a bad thing, that’s all.”

“Well, you’ve gotta have a hobby, right? You can’t just not have any interests.”

“Oh! Oh, um, actually, here, let me just...” Viola reached into the pocket of her hoodie and pulled out a small, rectangular container of some sort. She flipped it open and pulled out some cards.

“Fortune telling?”

“No.”

“Oh.” Miranda tilted her head. “... Is there anything else you can even do with cards?”

“Well, um, you can play games with them, but I only just learned about those a few months ago. I like to use them for, um-” She held up the deck and fanned the cards out, with the various designs facing Miranda. “Here. Pick a card.”

“Pick a card?”

Viola nodded. “Pick a card. Any card.”