Chapter 8: Teach Me Histy

It was a rather calm day, and the living room of the Planeptune Tower living quarters was filled with the sounds of buttons clicking and game noises.

Venus was playing on the Planeptune console made by her sister. She was having fun, but in the back of her mind, she was disappointed. She wanted to play with her sister, like she had in Lastation, because she had so much fun then. But Neptune said she couldn't, because she had work to do.

It felt like Neptune always had work.

It wasn't like Neptune didn't take her sister out to do fun stuff, and Venus wasn't starving for attention, but the young Candidate wanted to sister to just stop working so hard. Venus wished there was something she could do to get her sister to stop and have more fun.

Maybe she could drag her outside. She was certainly strong enough. And then they could play the punching game again-

"Excuse me, Venus," a voice called out.

Venus looked over, remembering to pause her game. She actually had trouble with that, where she didn't know she could do that, and kept leaving from time to time, and when she got back, her character would've died, and she couldn't figure out why that happened. It took some time for Neptune to explain to her that she just needed to pause her game.

Regardless, Venus turned to find Histoire asking for her attention.

"Yeah, Histy?" the Candidate asked.

Histoire took a deep breath. "Alight, as you know, you are now a month old CPU Candidate."

"Really! We should cele-date!

"'Celebrate', Venus, it's pronounced celebrate."

"Oh, right..."

"Regardless, this isn't time for celebration, for you see-" Histoire started, but she got interrupted.

"Aw... it isn't... why...?"

Histoire sighed. "Because, you celebrate age every year, not every month. And now, if you will let me get to the point, you have been given time to learn about the world through experience, but now it is time for you to start learning how the world works. And given your... simplistic level of knowledge, there is a lot of work to do."

"What does that mean?"

"Venus, it's time for me to start your homeschooling, giving you knowledge on various important subjects you will need to know as not just a goddess, but as a person."

Venus didn't fully get where Histoire was going with this, but she didn't like the sound of it. In her simple mind, she was getting the sense that Histoire was going to try to make her more like her sister. In other words, kind of boring.

"I'd rather play some games with sis. Do you think you can get to join me?" Venus countered.

Histoire took another deep breath. She knew that this wasn't going to be easy, given Venus's lack of knowledge and understanding, but it had to be done. "Venus, you must understand, there is time to play, and there is time to work. You can not play every day, you must work! It is important that it is done! Neptune is doing the work that is expected of her right now, and now it is time for you to do the same."

Venus groaned. This was not going to be fun.

The lessons started with reading and writing. And this is where Histoire found out...

That Venus had no reading skills.

Okay, that wasn't completely true. She could read very basic words, and she learned how to write her own name very quickly, so Histoire didn't have to start from scratch. Still, it was very worrying to Histoire. For a CPU to not start with such basic knowledge... it was unheard of! Even Rom and Ram knew how to read when they were born.

Of course, Histoire was also berating herself for not having seen this coming much earlier. The girl had immense trouble with her own spoken vocabulary, it shouldn't have been a surprise that Venus couldn't read very well, too.

Even still, Histoire had no idea how a CPU could've been born without such basic knowledge. She was born from the faith and wishes of the people, so did they collectively not want a new goddess with even a modicum of intellect?

But... at the very least, Venus was learning. Slowly. Painfully slow. But this could be rectified.

She hoped.

"Okay, Venus, could you write 'roses are red, violets are blue' for me?" Histoire asked.

Venus groaned. She wasn't having fun. Sure, some of the stuff she had to read was kind of neat, but she had a lot of trouble understanding it, and it was frustrating her. And the writing was worse. Venus was trying her best, but Histoire NEVER liked it.

It took a minute for Venus to figure out how to write the sentence Histoire asked her to write, but once she got it, she showed her work to Histoire.

Taking a look at the sentence, Histoire sighed. It read "rozis ar red vylets ar blew".

"Venus, this is incorrect," Histoire started to explain.

"Why!?" Venus yelled. "I'm trying really really hard, but words are hard!"

Histoire was taken aback by this outburst, but quickly regained her composure. "Okay, seems we have to start from a different point. I thought we could start here, but clearly, this is too advanced for you." Which, of course, only added to Histoire's frustration. She could at least... write words, just not correctly. "We're going to focus on single words now."

"Can you stop, please?" Venus complained.

"No, it's teaching time!" If Histoire knew anything, it was that Venus was probably going to need a lecture about the importance of learning.

Venus pouted as she slumped back in her chair. This wasn't fun, and she just wanted to... well, do anything. But instead, she had to deal with mean Histy.

After the reading lessons, Histoire told Venus to take a break, to which the Candidate immediately left the room with a second thought. The fairy-tome simply knew that she had to take a break at some point, but Venus just seemed to want to be done, which frustrated Histoire. Venus needed to take these lessons, and the fact that she didn't seem to want to take them seriously was a problem. It was worse than dealing with Neptune even.

But at the moment, it was time to tell Venus her break was over start a different lesson.

Last she recalled, Venus went to her room, so Histoire approached and knocked on the door. "Venus, may I come in? It's time-"

Venus opened the door suddenly, and quickly got a disappointed look on her face. "Aw... I thought you were big sis."

"What- Why would thing that?" Histoire had to ask. "I sound nothing like your sister."

"Oh, you sound different! I didn't think of that," the Candidate replied.

Histoire facepalmed. So now she couldn't tell the difference between voices? Or at least, she did not consider that they sounded different. Why...? Why was she like this...?

"Anyways... Venus, break time is over," Histoire said. "It's time for the next lesson."

"What!? B-b-but I thought we were done!" Venus complained.

"Venus, break time simply means that you take a short amount of time to stop working, but then you get back to it after that time is up."

"Really... I thought it meant to go break things..."

Histoire's eyebrow began twitching. "You... didn't actually break something... did you?"

"Well, I didn't know what I had to break, so I decided to do something else," Venus explained. "You not mad, are you?"

Histoire took a breath of relief. "No, I mad not mad. I gave you time off, not time to break things, okay."

"Oh, good! I didn't screw up! So, I don't have to do another lesson now, right?"

"No, Venus, you still have to do the lesson. We need to do several of these each day."

"Aw... no... why...?" the Candidate complained again. "I just want to play with my stuff..."

"Your stuff...?" Histoire asked. "...May I see this... 'stuff' of yours?"

"Uh... sure!" Venus led Histoire into her room. And what she saw was... the least bit concerning.

On a table in the corner, there was a bunch of... junk.

"Uh, Venus... why do have... all this?" Histoire asked.

"Ooh, it's a bunch of cool stuff I found while on quests."

Histoire sweatdropped. Venus had been on several quests in the month since she was born. And yet she got all this... in just the short amount of time.

Venus picked up a rock, and showed it to Histoire. "This looks like Uni, doesn't it?"

Histoire had to take moment to study it, and... sure? Kind of. Uni herself would probably disagree.

She looked over everything Venus had collected. While Histoire was happy that Venus had found something (a bunch of somethings) that was interesting to her, she knew that she had to watch the Candidate and make sure that this didn't become an obsessive habit. In a way, it was clear Venus had an interest in the world around her, but she had to be taught to make sure she didn't go overboard.

Then she found something... disturbing. "What's this?"

"I don't know!" Venus said proudly (for some reason). "But it looks cool!"

Another sweatdrop, because Venus had found the top part of a pistol. The handle and trigger were broken off and missing, and she could see the inside was mangled and beyond repair. So it definitely wouldn't work or cause any trouble, ...as long as Venus knew to be careful not to cut herself on any sharp areas that got pulled out.

But Histoire didn't know how this gun ended up this way, or what happened to the original owner. And she was certainly that Venus didn't know either, because she didn't seem to even consider it.

But, since Venus like this stuff, Histoire realized that she might be able to mix it into her lesson. "Do you mind if I use this stuff in our lesson?" Histoire asked.

"O- ...okay, sure..." Venus said, though she wasn't really certain if she wanted Histoire to mess with the cool trinkets that she found.

Histoire gathered some of the items in a small group on the table, then asked Venus, "okay, before you start, do you know how to count?"

"Yeah!" Venus replied, and then she began counting. "One... two... three..." With each number, she lifted a finger, until she lifted all the fingers on both hands. "TEN!"

"Oh, that's good to know." Histoire was happy that she was born with SOME kind of basic knowledge.

"Yeah, Noire showed me when me and big sis helped her with that quest a couple days ago," Venus explained.

And of course, it wasn't something she had at first. But... at least it meant she could learn. That made things a little easier. But, unfortunately, only a little.

"Okay, so here we have six objects, yes?" Histoire asked her.

Venus counted the objects, and said, "yeah."

"Okay, so... if I took two objects away," Histoire continued, pulling to of the objects towards her, "how many are there now?"

"Uh... six," Venus replied.

Histoire blinked. "Huh? That's... no. That's incorrect."

And Venus was already getting frustrated. Histy was being mean again. "No! I know I'm right! There are six!" And she counted them again, including the two Histoire took away (which were still on the table, just off to the edge).

"I... see." Histoire now knew why she thought that. Which, of course, meant she had to more carefully explain it.

And she didn't fail to notice that Venus was unhappy again. This was going to be very difficult.

Two lessons in, and Histoire was already struggling more than she ever had when she was teaching Neptune. With Neptune, despite the goddess's laziness (at the time), Histoire had managed to SOMEHOW get Neptune through her homeschooling, and teach her every she needed to know to be a CPU. Her laziness continued, and seemingly got worse, but at least Histoire completed the task.

Histoire knew it was only the first day, but Venus was already less receptive to her lessons than her big sister ever was. The Candidate had little pre-given knowledge, and she had difficulty understanding anything she was being told, which made her mad at her teacher. She was certainly a challenge.

After giving Venus time for lunch, now she was sitting in front of the fairy-tome, in the main room, looking unhappy. She was already expecting to not have fun with Planeptune's Oracle.

"Now what?" the annoyed Candidate asked.

"Well, now it is time for us to talk about the nations. Their culture, advancements, and politics," Histoire answered.

Venus looked away. Sure, she liked her nation of Planeptune, and visiting Lastation was super fun, especially hanging out with Noire and Uni. But she was making it sound too complicated. Wouldn't it be better for her to just go to the nations and look at them?

Histoire glared at the Candidate, annoyed that she wasn't trying to take this seriously. "It is important to know what the nations do, and how to work with them. National relationships are important."

"I don't wanna keep doing this..." Venus said.

"Venus, you need to understand-" Histoire said, before they got interrupted.

"Hey, guys. Uh, what's going on in here?" Looking over, they found Neptune, having just walked into the room.

"Big sis!" Venus cried as she got up, and ran over to hug her sister. "Histy's being mean and boring!"

"Uh, right..." Neptune replied, a little confused. For one, as annoying as Histoire could be, Neptune didn't think she was mean, at least not legitimately. And for two, if it was just her being "mean", then that was one thing, but mean AND boring? What was that supposed to mean? "So, what's going on, Histy?"

"Well, I am trying to start Venus's homeschooling, but she is not taking it seriously," Histoire explained.

"Okay, yeah, I can get why that is boring." Neptune then gently pushed Venus out of her hug, and looked her in the eye. "So, little sis, I get what you're going through. This isn't really fun. But Histy is trying to teach you important stuff."

"But Histy's really mean. I try really hard, but she keeps telling me everything I do is wrong," Venus complained.

"Alright, so maybe she's making things too hard. Let me talk to her about how she can make things easier for her. So, what have you taught her already?" Neptune said, turing to Histoire.

"I'm tried teaching her reading and math, and with both, she struggled, and failed to take my explanations seriously," Histoire explained.

"Are you sure she didn't just... misunderstand?" Neptune replied. "No offense, but that kind of what she's known for."

"Yes, but that is why she needed to pay attention."

"Okay, okay, I understand. So, what are you teaching her now?"

"The nations and their cultures."

"Uh... are you sure that she's ready for that?"

"Well, you took her to visit the other nations, right? Just visiting the nations isn't enough. She has to know their economies, their international laws, everything that a leader must know to work with each other."

Venus looked back and forth between her sister and the fairy. She was worried about where this was going.

"I mean, we haven't been to Leanbox yet," Neptune informed the tome. "So, she really doesn't know anything about that nation, so maybe that's a bit far ahead for my little sister."

"I suppose Leanbox will have to wait then, but we can go over Lowee and Lastation, as she has visited those nations," Histoire responded.

"I... I really don't want to go back to Lowee," Venus said.

Neptune and Histoire turned to her. "Why?" the tome asked.

"Was it because of Blanc and her sisters?" Neptune put in, to which Venus nodded in response.

"What do you mean, Neptune?" Histoire asked the shorter purplette.

"Well, I don't know. Venus got pranked, but that didn't seem to be the problem. I think Blanc got mad... Honestly, I wasn't in the room at the time, so I don't really know what happened. All I know is that Venus came over to me upset, wanting to go home, so we did," Neptune explained. "I've been meaning to talk to Blanc about what happened, but I... haven't had the time."

Histoire shook her head. At this point of dealing with the depressed goddess, she knew what that actually meant. She didn't want to. She'd rather keep away from Blanc, as not to make her or her sister upset. Neptune told herself, not just others, that she'd go talk to Blanc, but never actually planned to do so.

The fairy knew she'd have to have a discussion with Neptune about that later, but she had to focus on Venus right now. And maybe Neptune would also heed her words.

"Well, Venus, I understand if you don't like Blanc, but as a goddess, you might have to deal with people you don't like and try to appease them," Histoire told the Candidate. "Including the other goddesses."

"But why?" Venus replied, almost complaining.

"There could be many reasons, but the primary one is political negotiation.

"Neh... uh-" Venus tried to sound off, but Histoire stopped her.

"Your vocabulary needs a lot of work," Histoire said. "For now, you should know that this means to discuss what you want with someone, and what they want, and try to find a way to make both sides happy. This is important, as it will help keep good relations with your nation's businesses, and especially with the other nations. With that last one, it could help your nation flourish, and even prevent war."

"Is war bad?" Venus asked. She didn't really know what that meant, but she got the sense it wasn't good.

"Yes... yes it is."

"So, yeah, maybe just take things slow," Neptune spoke up, "If she does something wrong, then just give her time to figure it out. She's a goddess, so she's got lots of time to learn."

"Yes, but... I can not do that, or else it'll encourage... laziness," Histoire explained. The tome was worried bringing that up might not be good to the goddess who only got over her laziness because of the loss of her sister and the resulting depression.

But Neptune's demeanor didn't change, and she continued to try to negotiate with Histoire about how to teach Venus. "I just think Venus needs more time."

At this point, Venus wanted to interject. "Could I just... stop, today... I'm really annoyed."

"Yeah, this point, I think that Venus could use a break for the day."

And that caused Histoire to fume. "We can't just STOP!" she shouted in anger. "You haven't learned ANYTHING today, you've made no progress in your studies. I understand that it is only day one, but I will not let just ignore this, you must treat this seriously!"

"Uh, Histoire, I don't think that's what-" Neptune started, but Histoire cut her off.

"No. If she won't take this seriously, as I expect, then I'm just going to have to give her a lecture on the importance of learning," Histoire announced.

Neptune just hung low with a deep sigh, and then turned to her sister. "Sorry, Venus, not much I can do here. Once Histoire says she's giving a lecture, it's difficult for anyone to escape, unless she gives you a chance. And I don't think she's going to give us one."

Venus whimpered. "I don't wanna."

"Neptune is right, you don't have a choice," Histoire replied. "You must sit down, and listen to everything I have to say." Then she turned to Neptune to say, "Neptune, you can go. This lecture is for Venus alone."

"But-"

"Go!"

Neptune gave Venus a reassuring smile, trying to cheer her up some, before leaving the room.

Histoire then turned back to the Candidate, and began. "First, you have to understand that one day, you will be the CPU of Planeptune, and as such, you will have to lead this nation. And it is incredibly important that you learn everything I have to teach you, so that you may do this job properly."

Venus just remained silent, glaring at Histoire.

"It is highly unfortunate for both you and I that you weren't born with much intellect as expected of a goddess, and I do not say that to insult you. I say it because you have no excuse to dilly-dally and just play around. You have to start making up for this unfortunate disadvantage you were given, and make progress to improve yourself."

Continuing, Histoire added, "you have to realize that you are far behind compared to the other Candidates. Both Rom and Ram know basic math and reading, and Uni has effectively completed her curriculum."

"So... I don't wanna be like them," Venus replied, particularly towards the twins, since she didn't really like them, not that she mentioned these thoughts.

"Don't talk back to me, you are meant to listen right now! Also, if the status of your fellow CPU Candidates doesn't matter to you, then perhaps you should think about the Candidate before you."

"What...?" Venus replied, confused.

"I am talking about Nepgear. She was the smartest Candidate among all of them in her generation, which is also your generation. She may no longer be around... but you should still strive to live to the expectations she set before you. How do you expect the people to believe when compared to your middle sister?"

Histoire thought that was a reasonable comparison for the young Candidate.

However, she didn't realize the effect that this would have on Venus, as the goddess's expression slowly went from one of annoyance, boredom, and disinterest to one of sadness and frustration (more so than with the lessons). Tears filled her eyes as she got up and ran off.

"Venus!" Histoire angrily called out.

"I want to be left alone!" Venus cried back, and the sound of her door could be heard slamming shut from the halls.

Histoire wanted to chase after her... but something was different. This wasn't the same frustration she had during the lessons. Venus seemed truly upset, like a sensitive topic was brought up.

Did... did Venus have a problem with Nepgear...? The tome knew that she couldn't have met her lost sister, so... did someone else tell her about Nepgear?

As this dawned on Histoire, she cursed herself out. Of course, someone must've told Venus about her predecessor. But what did they tell her...?

Histoire slowly fell to the ground. How could she do this to the new Candidate? She couldn't fail her, not like how she failed Neptune... Uranus... Uzume... and every goddess before.

Neptune especially. By failing to find Nepgear, she let the CPU fall into depression. She thought that she'd get better at first, but she remembered the day that it became clear how bad this was...

A year ago...

Histoire was having a hard time focusing on her work. It had been a few weeks since she and the goddesses convinced Neptune it was time to end the search for her sister. Not an easy decision, but it had to be done.

But of course, as she expected, Neptune wasn't doing any work. But also, she knew that it was different this time. Neptune wasn't going to take this well, that much was clear, and Histoire knew that she couldn't force Neptune to work at this time. ...She dreaded the day that she had to force Neptune to start working again... She didn't know if Neptune would be mentally ready to do that.

But, at the moment, it was up to Histoire to do everything. Granted, there was a pause on most governmental work, so that Planeptune's people, not just its goddess, could recover from the loss of the nation's Candidate. Still... there were some things that couldn't be ignored.

As she was working at her desk, she heard a knock on her door. "Come in."

One of the Basilicom workers walked in with a box. "Miss Histoire, I have a package for you. Comes from a miss... 'Plutia'?"

"Oh," Histoire smiled. "That is a friend of Neptune's. Please, bring it in., I'll hand it to her myself." The Ultradimension goddesses spent a lot of time helping in the search for Nepgear, up until the end. She figured that Plutia wanted to send an apology or get-well gift to Neptune while she recovers from her loss.

The Basilicom worker dropped the package on Histoire's desk, and made her leave. Histoire then flew up to the box and opened it up.

Inside was a note and a plush doll, the latter being something that Plutia was known for making.

Reading the note, it said, "Dear Neppy, I'm sorry that we couldn't find Neppy Jr. If I find out who took her, I'll make sure she or he regrets it. Until then, I made a doll for you! I want you to remember Neppy Jr., and all the fun times we had with her! - Plutia"

The doll was made in Nepgear's likeness, with a white dress and a fake flower crown. The doll had a happy expression.

Neptune would certainly love this, Histoire thought. So, she moved the package to the side, and then left to find Neptune.

Unfortunately, Neptune wasn't about to fair so well.

At the time Histoire was receiving her friend's heartfelt gift, Neptune was playing games, trying to get her mind off of the loss of her sister, and the failure to find her.

It wasn't working.

She was only getting more and more frustrated, as she kept dying, and retrying over and over again.

Eventually, she threw her controller on the ground and screamed. Why? Why couldn't she just... forget! Forget the pain... forget her failure.

...Why did Nepgear have to go...?

Then she collapsed, tears rolling down her face.

"Hey, why are you sad. SMILE!" someone said behind her. And the voice sounded familiar.

Neptune quickly turned around, hopeful and happy. "Nepgear!?"

...Only to be disappointed.

Behind her was someone who looked like Nepgear... but her face... seemed to have a permanent, meme-worthy shock face plastered over it.

"I'm not Nepgear. I'm NEPGYA!" the look-a-like exclaimed.

Nepgya. An artificial human that Nepgear made in her likeness... with one... flaw? Neptune never understood how or why Nepgear gave her that face. All she knew is that she was one of her sister's weird robots.

However, Neptune didn't care about that. "You're not Nepgear," she said disappointedly.

"No, I'm Nepgya!" the android repeated. "I'm a compatible character who was born from Nepgear's funny face components!"

"Compatible..." Neptune repeated softly.

"You seem sad. Come on, look at me! Who wants a funny face?"

"No..."

"Don't be such a downer! SMILE!"

"You're not her..."

"Please, smile..." Nepgya was starting to get desperate.

"YOU'RE NOT HER!" Neptune shouted angrily.

And the poor robot had no time to react...

...As Neptune summoned her katana and sliced the look-a-like android in half!

And that wasn't the end, as Neptune continued to chop the destroyed machine up, into smaller and smaller pieces. Electrical sparks flew, and mechanical fluids splattered everywhere. Neptune was lucky nothing caught on fire.

And it was then that Histoire arrived.

"Neptune, I have-" she started as she entered the room, before seeing Neptune. "NEPTUNE!"

Neptune finally stopped, standing over the sparking, slashed-open android, staring down in her... work, with an unhappy frown on her face.

"Neptune... what did you do...?" Histoire asked, horrified. "Is that... Nepgear's... doppelganger robot...?"

Neptune was silent, until she turned to Histoire, emotionless, and said, "I need something to do. Histy, do you have any work for me?"

Histoire would've been both happy and shocked to hear that Neptune wanted to do work, if it wasn't for what she just saw. "N-Neptune, I'm not sure this is the right time to-"

"Just get me something to do!" Neptune shouted, and left the room, towards not her room, but her office.

"Sh-she's serious about this... isn't she...?" Histoire said, worried about the goddess. The book-fairy then returned to her desk, and looked at the doll and note in the box.

With a sigh, Histoire knew that it wasn't a good time for Neptune to receive this gift. So, she closed it up... and hid it in her bottom drawer desk. She knew that if Neptune saw it now, she'd tear it to shreds, just like she did Nepgya, and maybe regret it once she heard who made it for her.

Histoire could only hope that one day, she could safely give Neptune this well-meaning gift. Unfortunately, that day has yet to come...

Author's Note: You know, Histoire, maybe if you listened to Neptune, you wouldn't have screwed up so badly with Venus. (Also, are you starting to notice the pattern here?)

First, I want to apologize for taking so long to get this out. I had pushed myself to finish the art and story stuff I was working on by the end of August, so after that, I decided to slow down for a bit, and take a break. I was still working on this stuff, but I was taking my time, and spent some time playing some games. I replayed CrossCode, StarCraft II, a little Minecraft, and of course Deltatrune Chapter 2 came out. Not that I planned for that last one, it was shadow dropped, but I've been waiting for that to come out, and of course, it filled my mind since it came out.

Anyways, getting back on track, I'm going to start with the last part of the chapter, since I imagine that that's what everyone is wondering about. So, what I wrote... basically, it's something that I wasn't sure if I needed to add. No one was asking about it. Only I seemed to think of it. And really, I probably didn't need to write something to address it. But... I decided to anyways.

And that is "what about Nepgear's look-alikes?" Neptune is depressed because of Nepgear's disappearance, so why didn't any of Nepgear's doppelgangers come up? Well, here's why! At least it's Nepgya and not Nepgeo... that would've been a lot more graphic. (Nepgya is a robot, right? That's not very clear to me.)

When I decided to add this story bit, I wasn't sure where to put it, so this felt like the best place. And I tried to make it an actual story beat that might have some significance. We got to see Neptune's turn to working to try to overcome her sadness. Plus I added a new story detail: The Nepgear doll! It wasn't planned, and because it's a late addition, it's not planned to have much story importance... but it will show up again, I promise you that!

(And let me remind you, while the Ultardimension goddesses were mentioned to have helped in Nepgear's search, they aren't planned to show up in this story. Maybe in a sequel, but for now, it's the doll that's important, not Plutia.)

Now, on to the main part of the story: Histoire trying (and failing to) teach Venus. So, obviously, I named this chapter after the tutorial sections, "Teach me, Histy!", but originally, I was thinking of extending to "Teach me Histy gone wrong", but I thought about... I thought it give away the point of the chapter too early... or could be taken the wrong way.

So, I would just like to mention, about Histoire using the word "Negotiation". It was the correct word for her to use at the time, but I also knew that it was a big word that Venus wouldn't understand, so she'd probably need to sound off, and probably do it badly. And as I was sounding that off in my head... I realized that there was a problem here. Let's just say, even before I planned to write this chapter, I immediately pulled up Microsoft Word to write out this interaction, so I could prevent this problem. Histoire's reaction was not what I honestly thought she would say in this situation, but me trying to keep having to dance around with Venus's character quirk, and still end up implying the wrong thing.

Not much more I can think to say, but there is something I want to ask about this. But first, I want to remind you guys, this story was completely unplanned when I started writing it. I mean, at this point, I have most of it planned out in my head, there are just a couple of details I still need to sit for and put down (like the name of the villains that I teased before). But with all of this writing from the seat of my pants, this does extend to Venus. I have her fully developed now, including her yet-to-be-revealed HDD form. But writing this chapter, something started burning in my mind about this.

So, obviously, Venus is struggling because she's an idiot, but really... as I was writing, I was wondering... was I actually writing Venus to show signs of a learning disability? I mean, I know she's MY OC, I wrote her, but I don't actually know! None of this was planned! I guess what I'm saying is that I'd like to hear your guy's opinion. (And you think she has MY disability, which is autism, that be kind of embarrassing that I didn't notice. But I guess I wouldn't be surprised. Write what you know, after all, even unintentionally.)

Okay, that's all from me. Hope you enjoyed this!