Chapter 7: Heated conversation.
Terribly sorry for the wait, bogged down with school work and a lack of ideas. But, regardless, here I am to persevere. I also improved chapter 6, I wasn't completely happy with it, so I added a little something to spice it up a bit.
"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined."
– Henry David Thoreau.
Blake had been in so pleasant a mood that she'd failed to notice the other members of her team, all awake, greet her return with a cacophony of confusion,
"WHA?!"
"You were?..."
"But how… When di… I don't e…"
Yang, Weiss and Ruby exclaimed, respectively. Blake regarded them all with confusion, the door wide open and the three crowded around the doorway, staring at her equally as confused.
Blake had been looking forward to going to bed and actually dreaming of Jaune now – the conversation left her with the feeling that she'd gotten his consent to do so – but the young ninja hadn't anticipated her team being awake.
She gazed at them all quickly and spoke in an inquisitive voice,
"Oh, hey guys, what's wrong?"
This query was greeted with silence as her team looked at her with looks of disbelief, confusion and relief. The three then lurched forth, took hold of Blake's gown and yanked her back into the dorm room.
She was flung into the room and became the centre of attention, the door slammed shut behind her. Then began the uproar, all over again,
"We were so worried-"
"How could you do such an incredulous-"
"I still don't get how-"
Blake was not expecting this. Her Heat was quelled for now, as it was preparing for the onslaught of passion it would be receiving, and so she looped back to her usual conduct – for now.
"WHOA, whoa. Calm, friends, be calm."
"Calm? How can we be calm? You bailed on us and we had no idea where you were-"
"Yeah, that was completely rude-"
"We didn't know what had happened. We were scared-"
At this, all traces of Blake's Heat were gone, and she now devoted herself to the situation. Blake wanted to reassure her friends, and reassure herself at the same time,
"Guys, really, it's fine. I just stepped out for a drink. Nothing to be worried about." Blake said, trying to assuage her teammates' worry. Her team, however, wasn't convinced,
"By crying out and running out the door?" Weiss asked scoldingly, arms crossed over her chest, looking very angry.
Blake was embarrassed to realise at how sloppily she'd executed her plan to 'Undertake Jaune' – as Nora might put it. Sure she was flush with hormonal energy, but that did not excuse her from slipping up as she had. Never before had she performed so poorly in her current status of ninja, and she would like to keep that status intact. She began pelting herself with critiques and engrained sayings to regain focus and invigorate her primal stealthy abilities.
'How could I be so vain? So hard-headed? I'm going to have to shape up after my time with Jaune – the exams drained me of more than I imagined.' Blake decided mentally, eyes hardening at her internal lesson.
Blake was still yet to answer, and so pushed down her mental reprimand and shrugged as casually as she could,
"I was really thirsty." She answered, though it sounded more like a question. This made her teammates suspicious.
They each firmly planted themselves to the spot and spoke,
"Alright Blake, what's going on?" Yang questioned seriously.
"Yeah, something's up, and whatever it is it isn't right." Ruby followed-up, as serious as she could manage. Which, when it came to her friends, was deadly.
"You're acting unusually, which is a clear sign of a guilty suspect." Weiss matter-of-factly stated, intensifying her glare. "So tell us-"
"WHAT WERE YOU DOING?" the three question simultaneously. Blake backed up against the book shelf, feeling corralled by her own friends. Though to her credit she did not quake, like her legs were feeling now, but resolutely stood and quickly thought up an excuse to placate the team.
There were a many number of ways she could subvert her actions as anything but suspicious. Getting some fresh air. Chasing a flying book page. Investigating an anomalous sound or light in the forest. Rescuing a cat in a tree, any would do, Blake was confident of that. As a master of stealth, she was adept at fabricating fiction to suit a reality in need of a twist – such as coming up with a lie when caught with your hand in the cookie jar, for example – but she felt neither the theatricality nor the energy to follow-through on what she might say.
She's a good liar, but lies take energy, and right now, she had little.
She thought briefly of admitting to what it was she was actually doing. Going outside to find Jaune. But that would mean admitting to her 'predicament' to her friends of finding a mate to lay with and what her choice is for the 'remedy'. Jaune popped into her head once more and she kicked it away as a treat for later.
Mid mental-kick Blake regarded her friends, and knew very well that she could never lie to them. They were her Trusted Ones – though they sat a fair distance outside her ring of trust – and she would never do such a thing to them. Though, if they were to tread on her toes when attempting to mate with Jaune, blood will rain. That much was certain.
Blake kicked away those venomous thoughts and built herself up to speak the truth of what happened outside the door, however easiest she could.
She did, however, meet a significant hurdle. While it was foolish to imagine these three as competition, they would become menacing obstacles. Yang would no doubt conjure up some manner of interruption or wasting away of Blake's time – it has happened before. Ruby would want to spend time with Jaune, discussing web-shows that they like and weapons and baking – Jaune bakes and Ruby eats – and would definitely seek out Jaune when Blake intends to do the 'act'. And Weiss…
It was clear that Jaune had a liking for the heiress ever since he saw her. Blake remembered the first day with a smile – new school, bright future, crowded auditorium of blank, forgettable faces, Jaune's notice of Weiss' comment to Ruby's suggestion, etc. – but, she regarded the present day with a frown, knowing that, in a big way, Weiss is going to interfere with Blake's plan.
Jaune will obviously feel an inclination towards her, and may actually reject Blake for her, but Blake was in far too deep to let him go to somebody who doesn't even know and doesn't even care. This made her grimace internally.
While not potential sexual competitors, they were obstacles that needed to be overcome. While this was true, Blake could feel her free day with Jaune slip away from her. And as harsh as that feels to let him go, she steeled herself knowing that it will allow her more time with him later, undisturbed.
Blake came out of her mental reprieve and glanced at her fellow teammates. She would have to tell them the truth, she would be incapable of not telling them; but she wouldn't allow them to gain the upper hand. She would have to tell them her plans, and how they mustn't interfere, though how that will happen without them becoming the advantageous ones seemed unlikely.
'Lying to them will just drag it along unnecessarily, and make things a lot more difficult for myself.' Blake thought as a side note.
Fully prepared, Blake sat down on her bed and was about to refute the argument laid out to her, but found herself far too tired to do so. The mattress of her comfy bed massaged her buttocks and coerced her into rest. She yawned, massively, swaying from side-to-side on the spot. The others mimicked her; they too began to feel the pull of fatigue from their long day and night after especially long weeks.
They each looked as if they'd run five marathons, whilst also completing an essay for Professor Oobleck on a subject they knew nothing about, while avoiding Nevermore attacks, all within a day. They were plum out of energy, and were no way ready for any kind of interrogation work.
When Blake finished her yawn Ruby yawned out after her,
"Ok, that's it. We're all tired and worked up, and things need to be discussed, but right now we all desperately need sleep." looking barely conscious, her body drooped.
"Uh-huh." Blake drawled, shakily slouching upright against the bookshelf.
"Mm." Weiss croaked, peeling her eyelids open to maintain concentration.
"Pfft." Yang breathed, already retreating to bed for the rest of the night, hopefully.
"I'll explain myself in the morning, but for nooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWW-" Blake cut herself off in a yawn. The other three chirped a response and slipped back into their pyjamas before clambering into their warm beds.
'Aaaaaah, sleep, how I have missed you.' Ruby thought as she curled into her pillow and immediately slept.
'Much better.' Weiss declared in her mind, finally resting her precious, tired body.
'Blake's back, how nice.' Yang drawled, even in her own head, flopping under her sheets.
Blake sat still while her friends fell into sleep around her before she pivoted into her bed, placed her book back in its spot on the shelf, pulled the sheets over her, adjusted Gambol Shroud to lock her in her bed like a pen, and as soon as she laid her head down, began to dream.
The following morning…
Blake awoke to tingling. Endless tingling. She was swimming in ecstasy, every little thing was amazing. It felt like all the greatest pleasures in the world had coalesced on her bed and surrounded her in the orgasmic feeling that they delivered her. It was as if the shimmering light and cool breeze from outside made every skin cell it hit sparkle and ripple the fantastic effect everywhere. Every movement stimulated her senses, every heartbeat made her more powerful and every breath powered her stimulation and restarted each sensation over again.
Blake could not rightly remember what it was she was dreaming, or what in fact she was going to do today, but she knew, with absolute certainty, that Jaune was an integral part of it.
Blake vaguely recalled what had happened last night as she sat up and retracted Gambol Shroud from the 'legs' of Yang's bunk.
She was then pelted with everything that had happened last night, and she froze.
The sky was dark outside with heavy clouds settled above the school. Blake absent-mindedly regarded it as she progressed her thoughts of the previous night,
'I'm in Heat.' Blake examined herself – she was easily stimulated and highly aroused at the moment. She was like a sex-bomb at this point – a powder keg of hormonal energy pent up in one place. Blake then remembered how much she was going to hate the Heat. She had been dreading it for as long as she fully understood what it was that would happen to her when it strikes. A total loss of control for two or three weeks, to something as primeval and demoralising as a Faunus' instinctual desire for sex! By the Gods this was going to be a nightmare.
'I am going to mate with Jaune.' Blake thought with resolute certainty. She had, as of last night, submitted herself to the act of sleeping with Jaune, and had left the primary mark on him as her mate. She then reviewed the mental plan she'd formulated for what she will do and how she will do it – though not for the actual 'act', that will be an improvisational 'spur-of-the-moment' event – and blushed heavily. She could not believe that she was that enamoured with Jaune. And to the point of Heated sex… oh boy.
'I have to ensure Jaune is mine as a mate.' Regardless of how she may have or will feel about this situation she's in, Jaune was hers, it was decided. It now has gone too far for either one to back out. Whether they like it or not, they will be mates.
'My friends caught me last night.' They know she was acting strangely last night, and so demanded she answer for her actions. This included (in Blake's mind) admitting to her Heat and situation with Jaune. Blake glanced around the room, seeing her fellow teammates rumble and stir under their covers. The shifting of blankets looked inviting to Blake, but upon seeing Weiss twist and face her Blake was immediately divorced from the arousal she felt. That was strange, Blake would never think or feel like that normally. Her Heat was affecting her in all manner of ways.
In Blake's period of reflection, her teammates arose from their beds and ambled about, preparing themselves for their day. Blake looked at them traipse about and prepare themselves for the day – her porcelain face reflecting her conflicting thoughts – and supposed she'd have to remind them of the last night 'incident'. She opened her mouth to speak,
"Don't you say anything yet, I'm getting us some breakfast!" Yang called out to her from the bathroom where she was brushing her hair and teeth at the same time. Yang hurried in her act to finish before she tapped Blake on the nose and scurried out the door, bumped into Ren outside and the two headed to the cafeteria to bring breakfast for their respective teams.
Weiss began to run the shower as Ruby started a kettle of water on to boil in the kitchenette. Blake just sat on her bed, stupefied. Although blunt and unstated, her team was willing to hear her out instead of grilling her for the scoop. That impressed Blake. And so Blake, appreciating her friend's respect for her word, sat in wait.
But also, she didn't dare move encase she got the tingles again. That was more so for her teammates benefit. They didn't need to hear the moans and 'meows' Blake fought desperately to quell as soon as she awoke. Blake was more than happy to wait patiently for her friends to listen to her problems; it gratified her and made her feel a bit better.
It was, in a way, a minor torture actually, leaving her to sit in her own hormonal cradle, while her senses were all very sensitive, and circulating the tiniest traces of things that excited and aroused Blake. The sound of running water made her want to… 'arrive' in time with the shower's sprays; the smell of coffee and her favourite tea – Black Calla Lily - and her own perfume – Sensual Shadow No.24 – enhanced the atmosphere into one of desire.
If that weren't bad enough, the faint traces of Jaune leftover from his occasional visits to Team RWBY's dorm were still imprinted on the floors, bed frame, cabinet and windowsill. This drove her over the edge, it was like he was in the room, dancing and swirling about in his white splendour to entice Blake, and Blake only. What little there was of him was engrained into her from last night, and she called upon this memory bank of sensory input to fill in what gaps were left of him.
She then slipped into a daydream of Jaune spinning and stamping and swinging in his act to attract her, in a luxuriously revealing white robe and a wreath of golden Light Lilies hung around his neck, one held firmly between his teeth. And his efforts were working.
How long this daydream lasted was beyond Blake, she was far to entranced in Jaune's hip movements to care what might be happening in the world before her.
That was, however, until Weiss approached her with a towel, saying that she could take a shower if she liked. Blake shook herself from her mental recluse and accepted the towel, stepping speedily to the bathroom as a red blush crept up her face.
'Good,' Blake thought, 'a shower might just be what I need to calm my mind of Jaune… for now.' She regaled with a smile.
She put her hand under the downpour and immediately threw herself backwards against the wall. It was boiling hot, and chilling cold, and endlessly amazing. Seriously, it was like a continuous pelting of quick kisses against her sensitive skin. Blake couldn't hold back any longer.
She needed Jaune now!
She burst out the dorm room door and slammed it behind her and then began knocking Team JNPR's door at 115 mph. It sounded almost like a wood-pecker from those ancient cartoons, or like Professor Oobleck on Dust-spiked coffee. That was a seriously weird lesson – even for Professor Oobleck. The wall behind his board still has an indentation where his marker drilled into during that one lesson.
The door behind her was being pounded on by Ruby and Weiss, who had shaken free their confusion of Blake disappearing again and tried desperately to get Blake to return to the dorm before she ran away again. They needn't worry, for Blake had no intention of going far – distance wise at least.
Blake was bouncing on the balls of her feet, completely disregarding all else as she waited eagerly for her mate to answer her call. She was so eager she stepped into the door and pressed herself against it, straining her ears to hear some confirmation that her man had answered her in likewise fashion. Just then she heard the footsteps that belonged to Pyrrha and the clicking of the door opening. With a quick scowl she repositioned herself to be standing away from the door and smiled brightly at the one who'd opened the door,
"Hello!" Nora exclaimed with a happy, wide mouthed grin. Blake was momentarily confused, she swore she heard Pyrrha's footsteps, not Nora's. She looked down and saw Nora wearing Pyrrha's gold-detailed leather boots. Internally Blake laughed, but externally Blake cringed at her inability to detect a difference in a person's walking pattern – like somebody wearing boots not designed for them.
Through the confusion, Blake couldn't help but ask,
"Morning…Nora… why are you wearing Pyrrha's boots?"
"I'm also wearing her boobie-trap."
Blake blinked, and gazed at Nora. She wore Pyrrha's boots, her own pyjama pants, and Jaune's hood. Nothing of Ren's was being worn, it seems. Blake didn't see any booby-trap. And so Blake sought clarity,
"Her what?"
Nora giggled and leaned closer conspiratorially,
"You know… her Boobie-Trap!" Nora whispered then proclaimed as she unzipped Jaune's hood to reveal that she was wearing Pyrrha's chest armour. Blake went wide-eyed and stepped back once at the sight. The armour was close-fitting, and quite revealing, but the most notable part of Nora wearing it, was that it was not designed to fit her, and to fit it properly, she removed her own bra.
While disturbing to imagine somebody wearing something you yourself wear as intimately as that, the sight of Nora's bosoms stuck within the custom-made armour was certainly… attention-grabbing.
"Oh, I see." Blake blushed a little, 'Boobie-Trap, I get it.' Blake's perverse mind announced.
"Yeah, Boobie-Trap, get it?"
"Yes, Nora, I understand."
Nora giggled once more and zipped up the hoodie,
"I'm doing it to prank Jaune. It'll really spook him to see Pyrrha's armour on me, showing this much boobie heft! I want to see him blush like crazy before he and Pyrrha try to get me to take it off." Nora whispered before slipping into a fit of giggles.
Blake imagined the scene of Nora practically flashing Jaune, and then possibly removing the armour to reveal her bare chest. Blake's face lit up a bright pink. Blake then also imagined what Jaune would think if he saw her in Pyrrha's armour. How would he react to that? Blake dressed and armoured like Pyrrha. Or maybe Weiss? Perhaps she could wear another's clothes to stimulate Jaune.
She considered how Spartan men typically laid with their woman when she posed as a man through use of costume and make-up. This gave her an idea to use.
But nevertheless, Blake needed to speak with Jaune,
"Hey Nora, I was actually wondering if I could talk to Jaune. May I?" Blake asked as politely and casually as she could.
"Jau-awn~" Nora sang out to her leader, skipping back to her bed awaiting the pancakes Ren promised to deliver her, and disguising herself as best she could from Jaune's view. At this point Blake was given a clear view of Team JNPR's dorm, and it was pretty usual. Four separate beds, two paired beds pushed closer to save space, two sets of closets – one dark, one light, both made of polished wood – several little night-stands, the kitchenette, the bathroom – currently occupied, the shower running with someone inside – and a little TV sitting atop a stand with a number of games and appliances hooked up inside it beneath the window of the dorm. All fairly standard.
But what was truly interesting was how Jaune's smell was everywhere. He was everywhere. Everywhere she looked and smelled with her enhanced-Faunus senses she detected her mate, and it drove her right over the edge. Blake squirmed a little where she stood and came upon the brink of a wondrous climax just through her imagination, but she managed to withhold from that. The very idea of that happening in a doorway to her friends' room was simply mortifying.
As enticing as it would be to lock herself in Jaune's room and do nothing but roll around in him all day – which wasn't a bad idea, her inner-perverse mind noted – she had her own Team to deal with. And while she thought about it, Jaune's too. Where was Jaune anyway?
Just then Jaune poked his head out the bathroom door, a toothbrush crammed in his foamy, lightly blue mouth. Blake licked her lips instinctively when she saw his covered in the white substance, and instantly desired lunging forth and licking his mouth clean of the paste, before she would lick it dirty.
With a mental kick to those thoughts, she waved innocently to Jaune with the hand she put under the shower's spray a moment ago, still wet. She examined her hand quickly and wiped it against her gown discretely, as Jaune smiled in response and stepped out of the bathroom, dressed the same as the night previous, his toothbrush now transferred to his hand.
He was closer now, marvellously close. His mouth was still a little frothy, and within mouth-assault distance. She licked her lips again, gazing intently at his mouth and then snapped herself out of that and regarded him fully.
She was about to begin her plot to steal him away and 'Rock the Casbah' as the ancients used to say, but found one piece of evidence that gave her pause; if Jaune was in the bathroom, and the shower's on, but he's not showering, then who is?
The idea of interrupting Jaune as he's having a shower blossomed in her head and was subsequently dashed aside for she had the real thing with her now, and no need to daydream.
But she did return to the fact that the bathroom had no occupying members of Team JNPR, whilst the dorm had two members of the team, and the cafeteria had one member of the team there. This equation was improper, and so was asked, in her earnest curiosity,
"Hey, Jaune where's Pyrrha?"
Jaune gave her an amused, but confused look,
"You asked for me, to ask where Pyrrha is?" Blake then immediately realised how stupid she just sounded. She sighed and gazed at the floor for a second as her head lulled down in defeat and then sprang back up in reaffirmation,
"No, sorry, I was just confused, is all." she reiterated, indicating the room and the vacant Spartan warrior with a side-to-side look. Jaune saw this and nodded in understanding,
"Ah, I get you-" 'Yeah you do.' Blake's inner-perverse voice remarked, much to the dismay of Blake, "-Pyrrha's in the shower."
Blake nodded in understanding, and was about to say what she originally wanted to say, but paused when she considered something – Jaune was just in the bathroom, brushing his teeth. Pyrrha was in the bathroom, taking a shower. Blake has seen the dormitory bathrooms for herself, nearly every dorm has one – and she was well aware that the shower did not have opaque glass, or a concealing curtain.
Blake began to panic. She assumed Jaune was in the room willingly, with Pyrrha completely naked in a shower behind him, with a pane of glass on a sliding door separating her from him. Perhaps he watched her reflection as he brushed his teeth with eager delight. Perhaps Pyrrha allowed this to happen, for the two were so intimately connected that it was not indecent to do such things. Perhaps he was about to join her…
She assumed Jaune and Pyrrha were an item, and found such actions natural for the two, thus making Blake's plan crumble and shatter on top of her. If Pyrrha was a threat, she had to be eliminated, and if she was a competitor, than the Spartan may just find herself at the business end of a Variant Ballistic Chain Scythe and suspended from mobility for as long as Blake deems satisfactory.
What's more, Blake's belief in this theory made her think her plan had reached a crisis point. Her mate was taken from her and she will not allow anything to stop her in her quest. But this was all speculation, it could be innocent – although not likely – and Blake was willing to hear out what her chosen mate had to say for himself.
"Pyrrha's in the bathroom?" Blake quizzed as casually as she could manage, which was faltering fast.
"Yeah." Jaune answered, a little weary of Blake, popping the toothbrush back into his mouth.
"Where you just were."
Jaune's eyes lit up with realisation and then he choked on his toothbrush in his gasp. He realised what Blake must have thought about his predisposition, and tried vehemently to resurrect his integrity as a gentleman.
With a splutter Jaune answered,
"Oh, no, it's nothing like that. I really needed to brush up and she needed the shower, so she hung up a towel so she'd have some privacy." Jaune explained, his face red and his hand scratching against the back of his head.
"Oh, ok." Blake replied in an unbelieving manner, though she was relieved about Jaune being free to her, but also more weary of Pyrrha and her advances unto Jaune like a territorial predator. It may turn out to be nothing, but the risk, however slim, was expanded beyond proportion in Blake's mind and made a mountain of a stone. Blake made a mental note of monitoring her. She was every bit tenacious as she was skilled.
Pyrrha can play the game of hunt exceptionally well.
"So, yeah, did you want to tell me something?..." Jaune said, pulling Blake free from her planning and directing her to what it was she had sought all this time.
As eager as she was, it was in this moment that she realised that she was propelled by her Heat into almost laying with Jaune, and that doing so, now, was a very bad idea. Her Team expected her to answer for her absence, and she was clearly unprepared for that kind of commitment without further planning first.
Plus, the mood was pretty much killed as soon as Nora opened the door.
"That's correct. Jaune, I just wanted to let you know that I'm going to have to postpone our 'Better Friends' thing you wanted us to do together. I'm sorry. Some things suddenly came up." Blake said, looking back at her own Team's dorm-room door.
"Yeah, no, yeah it's cool. I probably can't do it today either. I already promised Pyrrha I'd do something with her today." Jaune said with a sheepish grin and an apologetic tone.
"Oh." Blake said, acting slightly interested, her head tilted a bit to the side. While this made her look interested in what was said – which she was in fact becoming increasingly territorial about – she was actually doing that to peer past Jaune and into the dorm without having him move. It was a handy skill she'd developed – a sort of out-of-body reconnaissance.
Though she knew where Pyrrha was, getting an idea as to what Pyrrha intended to do with her mate was what Blake sought. She projected a shadow-clone into the darkness underneath one of the beds, and looked through it's eyes to see if there was anything particular she could find. Blake found nothing credible and returned to regular senses,
"And I'm pretty tired from last night." Jaune tacked on. Blake grinned shrewdly on the inside and began torpedoing numerous comments about Jaune's choice of words, but stumped those comments long before they reached the light of day. The halting of lewd comments did, however, bleed into reality – a small smile raced to her lips.
"But I'll definitely have tomorrow." Jaune added hopefully.
"Yeah of course. I'll see you then." Blake replied pliantly, glad for the extra time she has to prepare her game-plan.
"Yeah, ok, see you."
"And sorry again."
"Yeah, no it's ok."
With that final comment and a wave Jaune was gone behind his door and Blake behind her own. Her teammates were seated aggregately around the room, waiting impatiently for Blake to return so they could interrogate her for why she – for whatever reason – enjoyed tormenting them. Yang had even returned with breakfast – a pleasant array of foods indeed – without Blake even noticing. This Heat is seriously affecting her in the most horrible ways.
Blake was impressed with her own abstinence as she changed her initial query to Jaune, and handled the situation well for being hormonally flexed by the young man.
"Finally, you're back." Yang commented with a mouth full of chocolate-croissant. The three put down their respective breakfast eats and gave Blake the hardest look they could give her.
"Yeah, sorry about that, again." Blake sighed in resignation. 'Here it comes.' Blake thought.
"What's going on Blake? Seriously? We're worried." Ruby asked her, silver eyes brimming with concern. Blake took the time to gaze at every single one of them. Gauge their response from what she knew of them so far, and sort out what it was she wanted to say.
With a sigh of resolution, her mind made up, Blake confessed,
"You guys should know I went into Heat not too long ago-"
"WHAT?!"
Blake sighed again, annoyed. 'This is going to take a while.'
READ THIS!
Good, while I've got your attention I just wanted to say that you guys are awesome! 15000 + views on this story! And, it's the number one Jaune/Blake story on RWBY Fanfiction! That's AWESOME! I'm truly humbled. And yes, while it is a small gathering of writings, it is still awesome to see. Thank you all so much for your support, I don't believe this story would be what it is without it.
Now for the remark on the chapter: Man, this was a REAL doozy. Took ages to put down, even when I had a clear idea of what I wanted to write. This chapter signifies a shift forward in the story, kind of like an Act of a story, but more of a further step towards completion. More characters will be introduced and additional situations will arise in the coming chapters, and I just hope this will be seen as adequate to what I've foretold it to be in the description.
Thank you all, have a good life.
