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After AnimeCon 2: Brian's Bruises
🕑 Added 2025-01-10 18:46:56 +0000 UTC“Worried about the party?” Brian asked.
It was awkward sitting back against the bathroom counter and having Christine staring at his face from just inches away, and he felt the need to make conversation. In the brighter light in here, Christine looked especially dazzling with her new silver hair, and having nowhere else to look he couldn’t help but admire her. She didn’t have Chloe’s cold spite within her, but it was hard for him to determine what Christine’s specific qualities instead were. She just seemed softspoken, detached, and resigned.
“I’m worried about my hair,” Christine admitted as she painted bruising across the outer edge of his brow. “Emily went blue, and most of them haven’t seen that. Now I’m silver. Both of us changing our hair colors so… drastically all of the sudden will seem like it has. I don’t know. Implications.”
“You mean they’ll think Chloe must have changed her look because Emily changed her look?” Brian speculated. “I was thinking everyone would be focused on Emily having a girlfriend, and mostly just consider that to be a, uh, I dunno, a couples thing they did together. Would Chloe have changed her hair after seeing Emily did? I mean assuming this was all just, real world mundane people doing their hair with dye kinda thing, like everyone’s gonna think.”
“I don’t know,” Christine said, a frown flashing across her face. “I don’t like spending time trying to think about what Chloe would do, it. It puts my mind in a bad place.”
“Okay,” Brian said, surprised. “Sorry. Shouldn’t have assumed that kinda thing would come easy, or—yeah, no, you’re right.”
“I don’t like that it does come easy,” Christine said. “I don’t like thinking that I could slip back into her patterns.”
“So, you won’t like that people are going to treat you like you’re her, for a while,” Brian presumed. “You’re not going to be thrilled to see everyone, tonight.”
“I’ll have to see them at some point,” Christine gave him a bitter smile. “It’s better to do it sooner, rather than later. Or. They’ll just still be assuming I’m Chloe for all that time, still.”
“How do you want to do this?” Brian asked, locking eyes with her. “I don’t want to make this any harder on you than it already is.”
“I’m going to do whatever you guys want me to,” Christine said. “You’re all in a big, complicated relationship and keeping a lot of that secret. There isn’t really any logical way to explain how… well, how I of all people would suddenly join into a polycule with you and Emily. That doesn’t fit my character, not as they knew me, and they won’t believe it.”
“Yeah…” Brian blew out a heavy sigh. “I think the plan was, Kelly gets introduced as Emily’s new girlfriend. Sometime later eventually, we say Steph is a girl I started talking to at AnimeCon and we dated online, or did a long distance relationship thing. But, when it comes to you… I’m not sure what we can even do. Nothing comes to mind that would make sense.”
“If you need me to, I can pretend to still be like Chloe,” Christine said, and Brian noticed that her eyes tightened as she tried to force a smile again. “I just. I don’t know that I’ll be able to do it well.”
“The uh, the pregnancy scare story, that thing Chloe was cooking up—how many people heard about it?” Brian asked.
“I honestly don’t know if it even really spread,” Christine said. “It was supposed to be Emily, because I… because Chloe counted on her to blab it to everyone. Since she didn’t, then it would just be Monique and whoever Monique spread that rumor to. Tom and Monique.”
“Tom and Will talked sometimes, but I don’t remember how close they were,” Brian struggled to mentally navigate a web of friendships that had grown distant over time. “Monique might talk to Tanya? But, she didn’t much care for Becky. And, if Tanya heard something like that, she’d either shut it down as not anyone’s business to talk about, until you or me decided to share news with the group, or she’d just come directly to us and ask point blank. She can be kinda blunt like that.”
“That checks out,” Christine nodded as she dabbed her brush to blend color along the contour of his cheek. “I agree. Is that something we should try to go with? That a pregnancy, or a pregnancy scare—somehow caused this abrupt change in how I act and treat everyone?”
“No, I didn’t mean to put that on you,” Brian said. “Just trying to uh, to be aware of what people might already be saying. So we can be ready for all of that and get ahead of stuff.”
“I think,” Christine paused to take a fresh cosmetics wedge and take a tiniest dab of purple. “That I should just tell people I had been trying to isolate you from them, that I was being controlling and manipulative. Admit I made up the pregnancy thing, in case some of them have already heard about that. Tell everyone that I had a bit of a breakdown, and that I’m trying to turn over a new leaf. That’s… that’s true enough.”
“I don’t really want to throw you into the deep end and like, strongarm you into a lot of real awkward conversations, tonight,” Brian said, flinching back when Christine began to touch a mixture of color to the bridge of his nose. “My nose, too?”
“Oh, uh,” Christine gave him a sheepish look. “I… I’m not sure what Tanya and Michael saw, but you definitely had a broken nose when I handed you over to Actress and Nurse. I was going to put some darker color along—”
“To—wait, what?” Brian blinked, unable to follow what she was saying for a moment. “Actress and Nurse?”
“I… don’t know if I should say anything about them,” Christine winced at her mistake. “I assumed that Kelly would have, um. How much do you know?”
“Uhhh,” Brian struggled to piece things together. “You ‘handed me over,’ so you mean… well, not the Masters, ‘cause I’m still here, so it must be the healer people? A name like ‘nurse’ basically implies something like that, I guess?”
“The healer people, yes,” Christine said. “There were… two women. Their, uh, their code names were Actress and Nurse. I was… Misandry.”
“We have code names?!” Brian couldn’t help but laugh. “Did Emily come up with…? No, so you mean to say this other magic group, the healer people, they already have… secret identities? Or—were those just like temporary roles for that specific, uh, operation? Or whatever?”
“I… I’m not sure, but—” Christine carefully reached back up and continued to paint bruising around the top of his nose. “I think it should have been their usual, regular code names for doing that kind of thing. Considering the fact that… I don’t know if I should say.”
“Did they ask you to keep it secret?” Brian asked. “I know they have some sort of deal with Kelly about that.”
“They didn’t ask me to keep anything secret from you,” Christine admitted. “So. If you want me to, I can tell you everything. They. They um, they did intend for it to remain a secret from… from Emily, though. So, I um, I do think we should respect her wishes on that.”
“Emily?” Brian didn’t understand. “Why Emily? Does it have to do with Emily’s charm power?
“I um…” Christine appeared to have to think about that. “It… might?”
“Okay, uh,” Brian tried to get a read on Christine’s expression. “Well. Is it some sort of secret that you think I need to know?”
“I’m not sure,” Christine answered. “I think I could tell you. But, I also think I understand why she would want to keep it from Emily… considering what circumstances I’m aware of. It doesn’t feel like my secret to share. I think I only even found out about their identities because of my, um. My mirror power thing, back then. It was unusually effective against the Masters, but… it was more like just an inconvenience to Actress and Nurse.”
“Their identities…” Brian furrowed his brow for a moment before remember and trying to smooth out his features as Christine was still blending cosmetics there. “Wait. They’re not like, versions of us from the future, right? Or some alternate reality? Kelly said something about how she does trust them, but also she won’t go into explaining why. Kelly’s not super trusting, so… or wait, is this just related to Emily’s mom? Anne Rivera? I think Kelly mentioned something about that, too—”
“Emily’s mother is Actress,” Christine explained after a bit of hesitation. “She is… or maybe was, part of a previous harem who had the charm. She can use illusions, and after a bit of time looking me over, she could use illusions even inside of my mirror, my uh, inside the range of my charm effect. The other woman with her she said was Nurse, she drew the healing frames on you. I had to step out for that, because the mirror interfered, there. They arrived a few hours after I encountered the Masters at the hospital. I left you in their care, I thought that should have been okay, because… well, because it was Emily’s mother.”
“Wait, wait, time out,” Brian lowered his voice, now worried that Emily who was out there in the apartment’s kitchen somewhere getting her makeup done might overhear. “Did we really confirm that this was Mrs. Rivera? If she—or hell, he or she, if their power is illusions, then it could have been literally anybody, in actuality. Right? Maybe they were just able to… I don’t know, pull someone they thought you could trust out of your subconscious, somehow, and wear it like a skin. Am I being paranoid?”
“I… I’m pretty sure it was her,” Christine frowned as she considered. “She recognized me as your girlfriend. Because, I’d met Emily’s mom before, a few times. She talked about Emily. I think it was her.”
“Okay. Okay,” Brian said. “So—damn. If she’s really with the healer peoples, or I guess if they’re a previous iteration of our same sort of harem? That, uh. That really just raises so many more questions. So, she asked you and Kelly to keep that secret from Emily?”
“Um,” Christine eyes flicked aside as she thought back. “She wanted to wait until Emily figured it out on her own? I think. Or, at least maybe started asking questions in that direction. I’m not sure. I was just… going to keep my mouth shut. I probably shouldn’t have said anything.”
“Kelly was just being weird and kind of… leery? About potentially meeting Emily’s parent,” Brian said. “Right? I’d just been chalking it up to, I dunno, because they’re dating now, or maybe because I’d said way back when that we were gonna try to have Mrs. Rivera take Kelly under her wing and get her into acting or performing or something. Since I know from back at Truliet everyone was saying Mrs. Rivera’s still well-connected.”
“I’m not sure,” Christine took a step back away from Brian to evaluate her work. “I think I’m done, if you want to check how it looks.”
When Brian stood the rest of the way up and turned to inspect his face in the mirror, he was surprised to find he could barely see anything. For how many minutes she’d been working on it, he’d thought he would find shocking bruises marring across his face, but instead the discoloration was very subtle—not something anyone would even notice at all unless they were pretty close up.
“Wow, uh,” Brian leaned in. “I figured you were going way darker? But, no, hey, it looks good. Great, even. Definitely could be like it’s had a month to heal and recover. The real real faint purple up along the top of my nose? That’s good.”
“Thank you,” Christine nodded. “I, um. I also know how to paint a nose to look like it’s actually broken, that mostly just means off-centering things at a diagonal, but. I don’t think it would hold up to anyone who sees you when they’re close enough, not in person. So, I just borrowed bits from that tutorial to do the upper edge part.”
“And then up all along my eye, yeah,” Brian couldn’t help but bring his fingers up, but he was careful not to actually touch and smudge anything. “Right where he kicked me, yeah. Damn. It looks good. Does this need time to dry? I don’t want to forget and accidentally mess it up.”
“The shades are light enough that there’s not really much to mess up, unless you’re rubbing forcefully at it,” Christine shrugged. “It should be okay. Wrist brace?”
“Oh, right. Thanks,” Brian said, maneuvering to the side so he could open the cabinet beneath the sink without bumping into Christine.
It took a bit of rummaging to find, because apparently the fold-out cosmetics box on the counter Christine had been working from was only a fraction of Kelly’s actual makeup stuff. Also a ton of hair products and scented body wash and lotions and other feminine stuff had been shoved down here, as well, making him realize that the loofah and toothbrushes and couple things visible on the counter earlier had only been the tip of the iceberg. After a few moments of careful digging, Brian found his old wrist brace, and in no time at all he had it on and was tugging the velcro tight so that it was snug.
“How do I look?” Brian asked.
“It’s fine,” Christine said. “I’m just. I’m sorry, it all reminds me of seeing you when you were actually hurt so bad. That, um. I don’t know if I really talked about it, but. Right there in the alleyway, the moment Chloe realized what happened? What they did to you? Right when she stopped cowering by the dumpster and, and um, checked to see if you were even still alive. That is when I came back, when I was… Christine. Even if for just a very brief moment.
“It wasn’t your magic, it wasn’t the charm, it was just maybe an instant before she came into contact with your blood, but it was before that. She, um. She realized things had gone way too far and actually felt remorse and regret. She—I—held you, and I cried, and. I bent down and kissed you. That’s how I got a bit of your blood in my mouth in the first place. So. I think that you shouldn’t think that it’s the magic that, um, that just rewrote my personality through mind control. I was in there, somewhere, deep down buried under all of Chloe’s hate and psychosis. It really just is like your magic helped pull me up out of that. So. Thank you. Really. Thank you.”
“Hey, I didn’t really—” Brian started to protest.
“You did. You saved Chloe from being raped,” Christine gazed into his eyes. “When that was something she was trying to frame you for. When she’d already done so many awful things to you. Doing that, you of all people doing that—what you did. It got through to her. If only for a moment. It got all the way through her nonsense, and got to me. Even though it was dangerous, and even though it got you hurt. You saved me.”
“No, I—” Brian sighed. “It’s not like I could’ve just walked away after seeing what was happening. I did what most people would. Or uh, I tried to, at least. Nothing all that special or amazin—”
“No,” Christine refuted with a firm voice. “What you did, everything you did, it was so important. It is very special to me. You saved her from that happening. You saved me from… remaining trapped as her. What you did made all of the difference, an-and it’s why I can even be here.”
“Okay, okay,” Brian said with a bitter smile. “Just, feel like it’s not really something to boast about. Most of what I did was get my ass kicked. Kelly was the one who even sent—”
“I’ll thank her too,” Christine took a step closer. “For what she did. But, she didn’t face off against three huge guys to save me from being… you know.”
“Only one of them was real huge,” Brian still tried to downplay it.
“Brian,” Christine said, giving him a look.
“But yeah, he was huge,” Brian admitted with a small quirk of his lip that was almost a smile. “I mean, he must’ve been like an offensive lineman or something. Big fucker.”
“I know,” Christine said. “When I—when Chloe panicked and saw what was about to happen, she tried to bolt. He just, all he had to do was take one step and throw his arm out. Chloe bounced off the wall. I, I think the only reason I’m not more traumatized by what exactly was happening was because Chloe was literally stunned. In shock, physical shock. By the time she came to her senses, a guy was already over her and had her clothes part way off.”
“I’m not any kind of hero or anything, and—”
“You are to me.”
“—and, let me finish—it’s not even like you owe me,” Brian said. “You did the same for me when I was helpless there at the hospital. Except things were even worse, because it wasn’t just some random creeps. It was the Masters.”
“The circumstances, the charm magic and everything leveled the playing field, there,” Christine argued. “Like it was meant to be, like I was given purpose, for once. I… I want that again, I need that. This, I guess what I want to say is that this isn’t about who owes who, or just thanking you to pay you back what you did, I… Brian, I love you. If—”
“I heard arguing,” Emily interrupted, opening the bathroom door and sticking her head inside to give them a suspicious look. “Were you guys arguing?”
“You look great, Em,” Brian sighed. “No, we weren’t arguing.”
“Kelly does good work,” Emily did a double-take at Brian’s face. “You look like shit. So uh, Christine does good work, too. Are you guys done?”
“Think so,” Brian said, giving Christine a glance. “We can talk about that other stuff later. It almost time to go?”
“We’ve got ten minutes,” Emily reported, remaining in the door as Brian tried to squeeze past and rising up on her tiptoes and tilting her head back for a kiss. “Toll kiss. Gotta kiss if you wanna pass.”
He scooped one arm in around to support the small of her back and kissed her, a slow, wet languid kiss that had her entire body wavering in his embrace until she seemed to all but melt. Magic was trickling down into her, and at the same time somehow bubbles of blue were rising up towards him. His sense for the supernatural charm stuff felt a bit more developed than it had been before, or maybe now he just had more of a mind to pay attention to what their feelings did to each other when they met; when the magic was created.
“Does Christine gotta pay tolls here, too?” Brian asked, releasing her with a smile.
Emily blinked up at him as she struggled to come back to her senses.
“Ummm,” Emily considered it. “Okay. But! No tongue, though, no funny business, Christine. We don’t know each other all that well, yet!”
“Okay,” Christine said.
“Will you all move it,” Kelly growled, shoving and elbowing her way past everyone. “There’s only one mirror in here. Emily, get changed. Brian… put on something nice, please. If you want to.”
“Bruh, what’s with me gettin’ bossed around while—” Emily started to protest.
“Get moving,” Kelly ordered. “Be the bravest little tugboat that could on your own time. I want to see that scrawny ass of yours into something nice, or so help me—”
“Okay, okay!” Emily giggled.
Christine was unceremoniously pushed out of the bathroom before Emily could collect a kiss, and Brian gave her a wry smile before he pulled Emily along into the apartment’s bedroom where their clothes were.
“We still stopping by your mom’s to grab your accessories or whatever?” Brian asked as he shucked off his shirt and opened up a drawer in search of a different one.
“If we have time, please!” Emily said, leering at his upper body musculature with a grin as she likewise hurried to change. “I do kinda want to get my choker and some other stuff. I can just run in real quick.”
“Then—” Brian pulled on one of his tighter shirts, feeling the fabric pinch at his biceps and also cling across his chest as he tugged it down. “Damn, did this get even smaller? Feel like I’m about to rip it.”
“HnnnNnnngghh,” Emily made a crooning noise as a blush crept over her face. “God damn, Brian. Why the fuck weren’t you wearing that one before?! Why aren’t you wearing ones like that all the friggin’ time?!”
“Because they’re not as comfy,” Brian answered, staring down at himself. “Duh?”
“Brian,” Emily scoffed, forgetting to put her arm through the sleeve of her tee correctly and fumbling with the garment for a moment. “Bro. Broseph. Brian my dude—”
“Don’t get all distracted, Brosephina,” Brian said, reaching into her hamper and pulling out her favorite jeans. “I want to head out a bit early. Here. These same pants I’ve been wearing look okay on me, right?”
“...Why?” Emily looked him up and down. “You got tighter pants you can wear, too? Because—”
“I’m goin’ with these ones,” Brian said, tousling her hair and leaning out the bedroom door. “Christine?”
“Yes?” Christine appeared around the corner, and then her eyebrows went up as she saw his shirt.
“I probably should have already known this, but—where does Monique live?” Brian asked, trying not to let their reactions go to his head. “Your friend. Can we swing by there on the way to Aunt Mattie’s? To grab some of your stuff real quick, get you a change of clothes to wear.”
“Um,” Christine blinked. “Lake Garden Drive? Towards the north side of Lake Garden Drive? She lives with Tom. We don’t have to—”
“That’s not that far from the Riveras’,” Brian decided. “We can make it.”
“One of Chloe’s friends?” Kelly called over from the bathroom. “Brian… we’re gonna be late if we wind up dealing with bullshit.”
“Monique’s been to Aunt Mattie’s before, right?” Brian asked Christine. “At some point or another?”
“Yeah, I guess?” Christine said.
“She’s not in our group chat,” Emily wobbled after Brian, trying to step forward while also stepping into her pants. “But, she’s been there before, yeah. Drinks like a fish. I remember Tom and Will hanging out on the porch and going on and on about some kind of crypto bullshit? Rug-coin, nyah-coin?”
“Text her and ask if she wants to go,” Brian looked towards Christine. “I mean, if she does, if she’s down—we can drop you off just a bit down from her place, you can ride there with them. That way—”
“Whoa whoa whoa—” Kelly interrupted, stepping out of the bathroom with what appeared to be a full detailed makeover, despite having only been in there for a minute or two. “Brian. I know she’s different, that Christine’s changed, but that’s a lot of trust to suddenly have for her.”
“I do trust her,” Brian said. “Someone has to try to trust her, to start trusting her. She’s not Chloe, she’s not our prisoner. If she heads to the bonfire separately from us, like as if she’s going with those other friends, it’s less weird. Less improbable, impossible kind of situations and circumstances we have to try to lie about, when people start asking what the fuck’s going on with this, with all of us. Plus, they have all her clothes anyways.”
“But!” Emily protested, yanking her jeans up the whole way and hurrying to button them. “What if. I don’t know. Can’t we just keep an eye on her for like, more of a longer period of time, just in case? Because, if—”
“Chloe’s gone,” Brian said with finality. “She died in Tionetta. Alright? If you guys were wanting to have Christine around playing maid-servant or whatever, that already requires a lot more trust than you realize, if you think things through. I’ve thought things through, and we’re going to give her some trust. Okay?”
“Okay,” Kelly’s shoulders slumped. “Alright. I—no, you’re right. I just. Yeah.”
“Christine?” Brian asked. “What do you want to do?”
“I can text her,” Christine said, heading back across the living room for her phone. “I… I guess. Thank you, Brian.”
“Brian?” Kelly was now staring. “That shirt fits really well.”
“Does it?” Brian raised his arms. “It feels kinda small.”
“Raise them up higher?” Kelly asked. “Nah. That fits really well. Not too small, the bottom hem doesn’t rise up and show off your middle, or anything. Just—fuck Brian, since when did you have that one? You could’ve worn that the night Stephanie was over.”
“Been in that drawer forever,” Brian shrugged. “I dunno. Feel like I’m about to rip it if I flex a little.”
“Do it—” Emily immediately squealed, clutching at her cheeks. “Brian, do it. Do it.”
“Stop goofing around,” Kelly rolled her eyes at Emily’s antics. “And, don’t rip your shirt… just yet. That’d be a hell of a party trick, why would we waste it now?!”
“I thought I was supposed to look like I’m sickly and recovering,” Brian pointed out with a smile. “What am I supposed to say, that I lost weight when I was bedridden… and then just stood up and immediately hit the barbells?”
“I mean…” Emily ran her eyes up and down in in a way that made his pants tighten. “If you said that, like it sounds like bullshit yeah, but then when you look at you… I mean, I’d believe it? Brian, you look fucking yummy.”
“Thanks?” Brian laughed. “I don’t think I’ve ever been complimented this many times in the same night, ever? In my whole life?”
“You… you do look really good, Brian,” Christine added, peeking up from her phone.
“So uh,” Emily put a finger to her bottom lip. “Like hypothetically though, do you have tighter pants? Asking for a friend.”
“Tell you what,” Brian suggested. “Whenever we go out and I replace those shorts of yours I tore, you can buy me some real tight pants. And then, you can tear them apart. Fair’s fair, right?”
“Uhhhh can we?!” Emily squealed again and hopped in place. “Why does that sound like so much fucking fun?! It’ll be like having a present we get to keep wrapping back up and opening all over again?!!”
“You girls are so sexist,” Brian chuckled. “I’m not just a piece of meat, you know—I’m a person. I have feelings, and stuff. You awful girls all treat us men the same, and I won’t stand for it.”
Kelly’s laugh could be heard from the bathroom where she was finishing up, and Emily blew a raspberry at him and pretended to leer in at him and make grabbing motions. He had wondered for a moment if poking fun at Chloe’s old gender dogma stuff would be tasteless to do here in front of Christine, but to his surprise he saw Christine just looking up at him with a shy smile. Brian held her gaze for a moment, until the faint bmm bmmm of the phone in Christine’s hand vibrating caught her attention.
“Monique says…” Christine’s expression turned complicated. “She says she’s down to go. She has questions.”
“Your call,” Brian said. “I think we should uhh, reintegrate back into our friends group here and be socializing again as soon as possible, and to have that be normal again—but, if you’re not up for that tonight, say the word. I don’t want to force you to go to the bonfire. Or to deal with Monique, if you’re not up for it.”
“I can do this,” Christine said. “But, thank you. I’m ready.”
“I’m ready,” Emily reported, jerking her arm out to flash them a big thumbs up. “Kelly?”
“One second,” Kelly called. “Almost done.”
“I’m ready,” Brian said. “But uh, Emily?”
“Yes, babe?” Emily batted her eyelashes.
“Your fly,” Brian grinned.
“Awww, thanks babe!” Emily grinned. “You’re real fly, too! Super fly.”
“No, I mean like—the fly of your pants,” Brian did a polite cough into his fist. “You did your button, but not the little zipper.”
“Whelp,” Emily shifted her shirt and leaned in to check. “Yup. Kelly? I’m stayin’ home.”
“Shut up,” Kelly flicked the bathroom light off and stepped out.
She was always beautiful, but now she had lightly styled her brilliant red hair, her features looked extra brilliant in that celebrity perfection way with her eyeliner done up in the same style that she’d done Emily’s in, and more than anything else—the white halter top she now wore seemed to show more skin than it covered, creating a generous canyon between pale, soft breasts which were now adorned with the lightest sprinkling of glitter. A pair of white denim jeans with dark gray stitching accents completed her ensemble, fashionably hugging her curves while looking expensive and clean.
“Are those new?” Emily whistled. “Damn.”
“No, I just take good care of them,” Kelly sighed, striding up to Emily as if to show them off.
Distracted, Emily could only yelp out an eep as Kelly closed in and grabbed Emily’s fly and then yanked the girl’s zipper up for her.
“Baby!” Emily giggled out in a shy—but conspiratorial—whisper. “Not ‘til AFTER the party…”
“You look good,” Kelly decided, pursing her lips and checking Emily over before turning to Brian. “You both look good. I look okay?”
“You look out of this world,” Brian chuckled. “Plan is; we drop Christine off just a few houses down from Monique’s. Stop by Emily’s real quick so that we can grab whatever. Then, we should arrive just about right on time. Sound good?”
“Let’s go!” Kelly urged them along.
“Let’s fuckin’ go~!” Emily pumped out her fists.
( Previous, Dressing Up | After AnimeCon 2 | Next, Meeting Monique )
Comments
Toodles McGhee
I know Christine dropping the L-word and having it ignored is part of your master plan, but I would still expect there to be sone internal monologuing from Mr. Angsty as he tries to process what he had to ignore in the moment...I do like that you used that mechanism to give us Christine's headspace, as that finally made it sink in for me that Christine isn't conflicted about what place she has/wants with Brian, but is conflicted about what she has going on with HERSELF. And being in Love with the guy, and realizing the constant betrayals and then given trust ... that shows that at this point for her, conflicted is healthy.
David Hall
At this point, it’s become weird that nobody has even suggested psychology as a cover story, especially since it’s largely true {Obi-Wan voice} from a certain point of view. “After what nearly happened to me, and what happened to Brian because of me, I had something of a breakdown. I’ve started a new therapy program and am making changes. As part of that, I’m now going by Christine instead of Chloe, and trying to make amends to the people I’ve hurt before. If that includes you, please understand that I’m very sorry, and I hope that in time you can forgive me and give me another chance.” Then the only story you have to keep straight is not telling everyone that your therapy program is basically just Brian’s cum. Honestly I really expected that back at the bonfire, someone would make the counterpoint that rather than mind control, the charm effect is more like a super effective psychiatric medication.
Marcus Cassin
Hey, and I'm a few days late to reading this chapter, but I also wanted to say that I really like how you remind all of us, and also Brian, about how Chloe/ Christine did have a real moment of humanity and empathy right at the end of the attack. It's easy for us to forget about details like that, Pat. I do think that says a lot about the fact that the good person was always in there underneath all the crazy Insanity she fed herself. Does anyone know where I can get some magic to help people see the world as it really is, instead of through all their crazy, insane lenses? I think we could use more of that in real life right now..... Anyway, thanks for the chapter!
Milambus
Great chapter. You probably already have a plan for how the bonfire goes, but I would just have them tell as much of the truth as possible. Brian got beat uo saving Chloe, that caused Chloe to switch back to Christine. Kelly called the cops saving Brian, but he went to the hospital. Anyway, cant wait to see the interactions at Anne’s house and the bonfire.
Jeanie6754
Thanks for the update Boss. Have a great evening, enjoy yourself for a bit 😉😏
Dastauf
This and the previous chapter are EXCELLENT!! I really appreciate all of the conversations with honest communication that shows caring/love for each other and significant/important growth in the characters. I'm really glad that Brian has finally accepted and beginning to enjoy their new reality rather than obsessing about magical "coercion." I also like the gradual development of Christine as a real person. Please make the bonfire a growth experience, not a disaster that permanently sets her back!
J Alberto Abreu
Love the fact that Christine is not a product of the harem magic, but a real personality that surged when she saw Brian risk his life to save her.
Zach
Well, "he saved my life when my machinations blew up in my face" is an entirely understandable reason to work on one's self. Surprised Brian didn't like, point out that that's a good "excuse", though, it's certainly more vulnerable than that, and Chloe would need lots of therapy to be able to admit as much beyond "oh, fuck, I need to change".
merple
TFTC! Can't wait for the friends reunion
Chris Myers
Looking forward to their interaction with other people. I like the interactions within the harem, but there's been an awful lot of their "witty banter" in recent releases.
Zaralith
Love the chapter, can't wait for the bonfire, and this is definitely much better than the time skip already since we are learning about things as they happen
David
I’m not a fan of the disguise plot going on here but their progress as a group and individuals is good.
Zaralith
No where in the first paragraph should be 1 word
