***
One very un-fun thing about Aunt Flow being in town is that hormones make my nips extremely sensitive. Not in a fun way. Well, okay, very slightly in a fun way. But mostly in an annoying way.
This has always been the case, but it's never been so relevant as when sleeping with another person. Every time Sophia accidentally brushes past them, I want to throat punch her.
Lovingly, of course.
At least it decreased the level of horniness that I'm operating under. Not by much.
I roll out of bed even earlier than usual. I'm slowly trying to get each one of my new artifacts into my domain. Even Chekhov is taking a while now. The silence spell engraved on it has increased its magical weight, making it take longer to pull into my domain. The two scepters are infinitely more complex. I have a feeling I'm going to have to sit down for an entire day just to pull them in.
Not sure I've got the time for that; I'm going to have to work out a way to pull things into my domain faster. Or you know, just get better at it.
The Gestalt rat is chilling in the corner of our room. I did remember to pick it back up after the raid, along with the goblin bomb that is now safely back in my domain. We have made the rat a little nest of material. Gestalt is pretty good at keeping the thing alive and safe, but, well, it still doesn't have a sphincter. So it gets a little stinky.
It takes most of the morning but I get Neko-Te into my domain. That's at least one thing down.
***
It's lunchtime. We're all eating some type of fried chicken. Won't lie, it's pretty good.
Daisy pipes up. " Tangerine, I would like a brain slug."
"You sure?" I ask.
"It is time. The translation abilities are too useful."
"Yeah, it's pretty great. The messaging service is really awesome too. You know, unless your friends with Lillian."
"Agh! Go fuck yourself Lils."
'Gestalt, can you send her audio of every annoying jingle that has ever got stuck in my brain.'
[That's really evil Tangerine. Are you sure.]
'Yeah you are right, just send her the chorus of what does the fox say.'
[Done.]
Lillian grabs her head and then mouths 'What the fuck' at me.
I give her the middle finger. She is the only person who really understands what that means. Everyone else just thinks I'm being friendly.
"Are you alright, Lillian?" Vincent asks. Hello? I wasn't paying attention but he's sitting next to her. Has progress been made?
"Yes, no problem. Just a sudden annoying headache." Lillian replies.
"Oh, I'm so sorry." He takes a glass and a pitcher of water and pours out a cup for her. "Here." He says, like a perfect gentleman.
"Thank you, Vincent." Lillian takes the glass, and I swear to god the vampire blushes.
"N-no problem." He stammers.
"Oh," Sophia said, "I think I get it now, Lillian."
WHAT?! Excuse me!?
"Adorable." Sophia continues.
I've already killed one vampire, what's two? I stand up, mana core flaring.
I feel a hand on my shoulder, stopping me from rising. "Of course I already belong to Tangerine." She says quickly, "So you must understand how I feel too, right Lillian?"
Awww, she's so perfect. I don't deserve her. I sit back down and snuggle up.
"Y-yeah." Lillian says, with wide eyes. What's her problem?
I look around. Vincent looks like he has shit himself. In fact, everyone around the table looks freaked the fuck out - well not Daisy, she looks like she had just cum - what happened?
"What happe…" I begin to say, before Gideon and some year fours come crashing through the food hall doors.
We all looked at them confused. They looked extremely freaked out, checking and re-checking a bunch of instruments that they were holding.
"You alright, Gideon?" I ask.
"No!... yes? We got signals for an invasion sized rift tear, happening here in the Academy… and then it just stopped."
Ohhhhhhh. 'Was that me?'
[Yes. We have no idea what you just did, but we want you to do it again. We felt something, a connection point.]
'We will talk about it. I'm pretty sure Gids will shoot me if I do that again.'
Actually, fuck, how do I even explain this one? 'Hey Gids, I was cycling some mana. Why, you ask? Well I was planning on killing one of my classmates, because my girlfriend is still very new to all of this relationship stuff, and in the process of working her shit out she triggered my very healthy murderous rage.'
[Should work.]
'Really?'
[No.]
Shit. I feel like I am becoming the villain in my own story.
I look at Sophia with my biggest eyes, like, 'Please save me, I'm your pure and innocent bunny. I would never do anything bad.'
"Tangerine has been feeling a little under the weather. Her core has been fluctuating," Sophia says.
"This should be reported to the medical staff," Gideon replies.
"It's her time, you know. Of the month." Sophia interjects.
"Oh…oh." Gideon goes flush red. "I see. Please take that to a relevant, errr, female staff member."
Holy shit, did the time of the month excuse just work? That never worked on teachers back on earth. Even the male ones knew enough to not take any of our shit. I'm not even sure that this society is even all that prudish. Maybe it's just Gids?
Also, my angel just straight up lied for me. To a teacher. I'm having a bad influence on her. I probably shouldn't feel as pleased about that as I do. But the more corrupted she is, the less chance of her leaving me for her church.
I snuggle in close and whisper "Thank you." into her ear.
***
Everyone sat a little bit further away from me in Lore Nerd class, except for Sophia and Daisy. I had even freaked out Lillian and Shiv.
It's a little hurtful, but I can't really blame them, because looking back at lunchtime, I can't honestly say I wouldn't have hurt Vincent.
'I need to get this shit under control. It's getting silly.'
[We are keeping an eye on you. The emotional surge came from your other side.]
'So my alien bits are fucking with me?'
[It's all you as far as we can tell. You are not split or fractured. You are all of you.]
'What does that even mean?'
[We do not know, but it might be time to investigate.]
'Yeah. It's got something to do with Rifts right?'
[You almost tore a very big hole in space today, and you were being watched when you crossed over. So yes, it is likely.]
Lore nerd class went over the four founding families of the city. Most of which had someone in the class. After the setup of the academy, certain families and realms fed it the supplies and materials it needed.
Lillian's family brought over a lot of the food and water from Arthurian, keeping the Academy fed and watered. They were one of the first families to set up shop around the outside of the Academy.
Rupert's family built a large chunk of the city. Their focus is mainly on construction. They also import various materials from different realms.
Bronson's family mostly trades in arms and weapons. Apparently, there's a lot of bad blood between the current generation and Maria's family after Derek set up his gun factory.
Maria's family held sway over most of the magical materials that were needed by the academy. They have also held the highest number of deans during the history of the city. Maria's grandfather was also a Dean and a bit of a warmonger, if history is correct.
A fun fact is that Daisy comes from one of the smaller families in the city, mostly handling waste disposal. It turns out the city generates a lot of trash, and that needs to be taken care of in a way that isn't just dumping said trash into various rifts.
They operate a lot of the burn stations out on the outskirts of the city. A lot of the bigger slums exist out near the burn stations. The burning of magical materials often calms the Aether, making the areas a little more stable.
The four families really took root when the city started to spring up around the academy, and they have been competing ever since. Lillian's main family's side branch was the one that eventually settled in the city. Now, her aunt and uncle are actually wealthier than the main family back in Arthurian, much to her mother's chagrin.
Honestly I kind of checked out after that. History is for nerds.
***
Curled up in bed with my angel, she smells fresh after bath-time. I skipped because of the bloody belt. My jealousy tying knots in my stomach because she was in the bath with Ria and I wasn't there.
I need to get a handle on this.
"I'm sorry." I say, "about lunchtime. I didn't mean to react that way. I know it's not correct."
Sophia holds me tightly, "It's okay my silly little saviour. I'm here for you. Always, okay?"
She kisses me tenderly. "I am yours forever."
I hold her in my arms and believe every word she says.
***
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