Stepping out into the hallway after class, I felt... tired. The thematic of what I was experiencing, that of the bitchy classmates bullying a lonely girl in school, it would not end just because I was scary to one of them.

I would need to walk into the heart of that tale, to confront the one pulling the strings, to make them understand that this wasn't right and that they should stop.

Once, I had believed that words wouldn't help.

There was truth in that. Words wouldn't have helped me then, I didn't have the right ones.

But now, with the skill to weave stories into reality on a small level, I had all the words I needed. And every single one would be right.

I would not be using my powers to bully them. No, that was a parahuman villain did or worse, a criminal.

Rather, I would use my words to bind them, to cut them with the sharp edge of my cup and bind them to the staff that they might understand that what they did was wrong.

And thus, if I wanted to have their attention directed away from me, I had to continue down the path I had started when my sword rose free of the staff. It was... distasteful, regretful even, but what I would have to do was going to be done in the name of reason, sanity and peace.

If only I could convince myself that what I was going to do and had done was in any way good and not contrary to how I normally behaved. And yet, needs must.

Thus, I drifted about from class to class, sensing the story build as it was wont to, accruing bits and pieces, whispers of gossip. It was so utterly beneath me to pay attention to it, and yet I couldn't help but do so.

For, it now appeared, I had somehow joined every single criminal gang and promised bloody vengeance to everyone who had displeased me. It was to laugh. Stories had a way of growing, a universal truth here.

Perhaps it was my amused expression at hearing the latest permutation of what had happened in Mr G's class, perhaps it was the vague sense that they were currently nothing more than background scenery, but I was given a wide space as I headed outside for lunch.

It was a nice day and... I was done hiding.

No more skittering in washrooms, in libraries or in corners out of sight. No, that was the Taylor Hebert of yesterday. The Taylor Hebert, of today, simply... did not care.

And it felt liberating, to not care about what people thought or would say, as I simply went outside and settled myself near the greenery behind the school.

It was as if a weight have been lifted off my back as I enjoyed the sun and the peanut butter sandwich that my friends had made earlier. True, I had cheated... but they did so enjoy doing things for me.

Even when the sun was blocked by a gaggle of girls, I didn't feel any fear. That emotion would be counterproductive and the story did not call for such.

Instead, I dusted my hands clean of crumbs and stood up, the tree I had been lending against stood behind me. I tilted my head and looked at the group of girls surrounding me as they started to "talk to" each other, as if by coincidence that I had been surrounded and now was being inflicted by imprudent words.

Once, I would have quailed beneath the cruel cutting words wielded as weapons.

But that was then, and this was now.

As they spoke, I observed the tale that surrounded me. I was... honestly surprised. They were being wielded as weapons, by someone I should have suspected before I triggered or contacted my guest.

As they nattered on, I simply looked at Sophia Hess before sighing and turned to Emma, and replied to her last statement. "I completely agree with you, people certainly don't want me here."

They blinked owlishly at me, as I smiled and continued on like a shark sensing blood in the water, the eddies and tides of their choice of weapon, words, now were mine to use and retaliate with. "Why... if I could, I would make myself disappear. But I can't."

"I'm sure that there might be some fuss over me disappearing or ending up trapped in a locker for hours on end before going insane... but that fuss would disappear soon enough within a month. I don't matter in the big picture."

My smile was mirthless as I keep a steady look at Emma. "But that's the truth of it all, isn't it? You don't matter. I don't matter. None of us matter."

My words threw them off balance as I continued. This was not how things were suppose to go, were they? They would use words on me, I would start crying and try to run away. Instead, they were now... trapped with me and were unable to escape. Because that didn't fit the story I was crafting. "Why, I would wager that if at this moment, if all of you disappeared. There might be a hooha about a new criminal, perhaps even a villain parahuman, but people would find something new to care about within the month."

I looked at the girls surrounding me once more before I clearly dismissed them. Then I turned to look at the one who had wielded them as a weapon against me. She was quite skilled at this. If I didn't know better, I would have sworn that she too possessed graces. Specifically, that of the Cup, the Staff and the Sword.

But she hadn't. I had asked my new friends. More, I had asked my guest, and they had all spoken. Sophia Hess might be more than what she seemed, but... in the end, she was just human without a grace to call her own.

My gentle look was as a lance, unyielding, swift and more importantly, it pinned that which I gazed upon. She could not look away. I insisted, and so it was.

I abandoned my brown paper lunch bag, I abandoned the copy of The Name of the Rose that I had borrowed from the library, as I walked towards to the one who had tormented me.

"Sophia, don't you think it's time to stop?" My words were soft, gentle... one might even say intimate as one of my hands rose up to brush her cheek. "If this continues, I might not know when to stop and you will regret it more than I."

My words resounded with truth, horrible and terrible truth that shone. It was not a threat, nor was it a promise. It was simply a statement.

Her hand jerked towards her jean's pocket. If my reading of the genre was right, she would have a weapon there that she would use against me. She would claim it was clearly self defense, that I had threatened her as a parahuman.

That would not do.

There was a knot within me that twisted and I felt... hungry for a moment, and then things changed. Clearly, Sophia did not have her pocket knife there today, that would be silly. She had to have imagined that it had been there.

It never was.

"That would be a terrible thing if you had... that in your pocket, wouldn't it? The school doesn't like those kind of things in it," I kept my hand firmly planted on her cheek. "But don't worry, I've taken care of it... for you."

Her eyes widened as she patted her jean pockets and realized that there was no knife there. "You should thank me."

My smile widened at her, as she sputtered for a moment. "You..."

"Ah... I jest, there's no need to thank me." With that, I walked off, a song in heart and the feeling of being dirty surrounded me once more.

Unseen by any of the girls... my goblin friends took the book into their elsewhere space along with my abandoned lunch bag. I would need to throw away my lunch bag and return the library book after I was done.

Behind me, those girls milled about unused to the change.

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Goblin Queen | Things that intimidate

Worm / Exalted