{{I'm going to reiterate right now that Folken has no feelings for Dirandau whatsoever in this fic, except those of annoyance. Please keep that in mind.}}

It turned out that there was nothing much wrong with Dirandau…at least, nothing that they didn't already know about. He had only hurt his back, sleeping on that hard floor. He spent awhile in the infirmary, with one of Zaibach's chiropractors. [Who happened to be one of the most annoying prigs in the world.]

He was fine the next day, and ready for work.

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Gatty had not much luck with him that day.

The Dragonslayers would be evaluated by Dirandau's superiors soon, and they had to prepare for that. He couldn't leave to go take care of messages, or for any other reason. And there was nothing that could possibly invite the chance of abuse from Dirandau like preparing for inspection.

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The others got away with a great deal in regards to their mistakes. A failed lunge or a slip of the foot went completely unnoticed by their Lord today.

As for poor Gatty….

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"That is not how you hold a sword!" Dirandau exclaimed.

Dirandau whacked him upside the head. Gatty winced, and attempted to correct his grip, only to find that there was nothing more he could do. His grip was as perfect as one any soldier could possibly be expected to have. He was in for a lot of punishment, no matter what he tried to do.

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Dirandau didn't mention what it was that Gatty was doing wrong, as he normally would have. There was nothing to say. Gatty knew this. Gatty knew that Dirandau was being spiteful. It galled him much, being punished for things he hadn't done, but he couldn't point it out to Dirandau.

Dirandau would never listen to that. It would only serve to make Dirandau unhappy, and make his own punishments worse.

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The others stopped what they were doing, and watched the commotion. They weren't sure how they felt about this now. Certainly, Gatty was one of them, and they should feel badly for him. But, after what he had admitted to…why, that was betrayal to their Lord! They might have told Dirandau about that, but it would have hurt him too much to know that his second-in-command had been doing this for so long.

Now that they knew, if he ever did it again, he would have to answer to them. And they wouldn't be the least bit lenient.

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Gatty sighed. "Nobody will ever come to help you," he thought.

No one would ever go so far out of their way to do anything for him as he did for everyone else. He always did his best to try and help Dirandau, and all he ever got for it was abuse. He had been doing everything he could to help his fellow Dragonslayers, and all they would do in return was shun him. All he had done for the Zaibach army was overshadowed. He was only one of a group…the group was recognized for it, and Dirandau got the credit.

Glory didn't matter to him, but it would have been nice if they would only notice what he was doing…if they would only stop treating him like this.

Only Shesta bothered to notice. However, Shesta was in the same situation, and so it did not help matters.

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Dirandau beat him until he couldn't stand up anymore. That was a difficult feat to accomplish. Gatty never backed down from any threat, unless he hadn't the strength to stand anymore.

Dirandau kneeled down next to him. He spoke slowly…softly…and yet still the hatred in his voice was well understood. He never sounded kind. He was not one who looked peaceful or 'cute' in sleep. He was always the same, having only two extremes to switch back and forth from: Complete happiness, or deep, burning hatred.

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"Don't dare to overstep your bounds again the way you did last night. Your place is in the training room, or the barracks, but never in an officer's quarters."

It was doubtful whether or not Gatty heard anything. He was most likely unconscious at the time.

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Dirandau left, to go take care of some other matter.

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The other Dragonslayers crowded around Gatty, indecisive about what to do with him. They could take him to the infirmary. It wouldn't be difficult to lift just one man, when there were so many to help.

But….maybe that was too good for him?

Did he deserve such kindness? He seemed to want to take over the Dragonslayers. If he wanted that, then he'd have to prove he was strong enough to take care of himself as well as everyone else. If he wanted to be so uppity, he'd have to pay the price.

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Not only that, but Dirandau might not be too happy with them helping him, either. After all, he was responsible for Gatty being beaten senseless. Maybe he had wanted Gatty left there.

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They deliberated for a few minutes, and finally decided to take care of him. He was one of their own, after all.

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Another day had passed. It was a little easier than the first. At least now, he didn't have to fear what was to happen. He knew what it was, and therefore didn't have to concentrate on anything that wouldn't happen.

He made sure to put his things away 'properly.' He didn't want to risk another night on the floor like that. His back still hurt a great deal, and it would take awhile to get over that.

The lack of sleep from the night before, coupled with his mental exhaustion, caused him to quickly collapse into a state of sleep.

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Folken was a bit unhappy when he finally finished his day to find Dirandau sprawled out on his side of the bed.

He gently pushed the boy aside, so as not to wake him, and fell asleep just as quickly as Dirandau had.

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No one in Zaibach ever fell asleep slowly. It was always a quick passing from the waking to the dreaming. That exists only in situations where a person's capabilities have been taxed beyond what is acceptable. To fall asleep that fast is to be truly exhausted, and in need of at least two week's worth of rest, not just one night. In that state, such a small amount of rest did precious little to help a person.

Sometimes it didn't even seem worth the trouble to lie down…

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Folken looked around Fanelia's royal gardens. He remembered, they were always so beautiful. He could always take respite in them.

But, this time, they were not green. They were dusty, dull, and brown. Ragged plants hung like the skin of a man long dead where luscious vines once hung. And his poor brother…he was trying his best to take care of this garden. It was too much work for little Van. Those plants…they grew, and grew, but always remained in a death-like state, always crumbling and brown. Van tried desperately to fight them back, but they kept coming. It was too much for him. They overcame him. He could not fight against them anymore. And the vines swallowed him up, to be a part of that horrid foliage, the shadow of which covered all of Gaea.

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He opened his eyes.

"Just a dream," he thought.

He tried to get up off the bed, but something was trying to hold him down. He looked down, and saw that Dirandau was…hugging him? Folken raised an eyebrow.

He tried to push Dirandau over to the other side of the bed, without waking him up. But, it was impossible. Dirandau wouldn't let go, not for anything.

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Folken tapped him lightly on the head.

There was no response.

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Folken then decided that there wasn't time for this, and whapped Dirandau on the back of the head.

"Aya!!!" Dirandau yelled in startled surprise. In confusion, he reached for his sword. It took him a moment to realize where he was, and what was going on.

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Dirandau blinked. Why was he….aggggh!

He crawled to his side of the bed, thoroughly embarrassed. "I thought I had stopped doing that…" he said quietly to himself.

"What was all that about?" Folken asked, very much puzzled.

"N..nothing…" he replied, hoping that Folken wouldn't be very interested.

Folken wasn't so easily fobbed-off.

"If you don't tell me, then I'll just have to come to the conclusion that you like me," he said with a smirk.

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Dirandau glared at Folken. Nothing could have annoyed him more at the moment than to hear that.

"Alright, alright! It's…well, it's a habit that I've always had…since I was young…I don't know why."

He was obviously very ashamed of himself, and loath to admit this terrible fact. He despised any situation which involved him not having control.

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"It's not on your record," Folken said.

"I bribed them to take it off!" Dirandau exclaimed. "You don't think I'd let anyone else know about this if I could help it, do you??"

"Then that would explain why you'd rather have your own quarters than with your men."

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Dirandau turned pale, remembering an expedition the Dragonslayers had taken a long time ago. There was no chance of them getting back to their training center anytime soon, and so they had to spend the night outside. It was rather cold, so they were all crowded around a few small campfires. Dirandau, not feeling in the least bit cold, had slept away from the group, in order to escape the warmth of the fire.

The others were shocked, upon waking in the morning, to see their commander with his arms around Dalet.

Of course, they tried their best to pretend as if everything was normal. And Dalet really hadn't seemed to mind.

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"Yes, that's why," Dirandau replied curtly. He curled up, pretending to have fallen asleep again, so that Folken would leave.

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He had a few hours left until he had to get up for work, and he spent them thinking about horrible things.

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Gatty stared at the clock.

Five more minutes.

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His legs were fairly well damaged. There was no telling when he'd be able to use them again. There was even some slight chance that he might not be able to walk again. All because he had tried to help Dirandau.

It galled him to no end. Really…what was the point of keeping such silence? If he was to be hit and beaten like this when he did was he was supposed to, then how much worse would punishment for speaking out be?

"Much worse," he thought, grimacing.

There was no telling what Dirandau would do if he became angry enough.

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The clock struck the hour.

"Where is he?" Gatty wondered aloud. "He's never late for anything…"

A look of sadness came over his face.

"Maybe he's not coming, after all. Maybe he's siding with the others….Maybe…aya!"

Now he was being paranoid. He didn't want to be unreasonably distrustful of those he depended on. Otherwise, he might start acting like…

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Shesta came in, a huge pile of papers in his arms. He set them down on the floor, being careful not to knock them over. It had taken him several hours to organize those, and it would take several hours more to fill them out..

He sighed.

"Requisition forms…what a pain…." He said. "You're lucky you get to stay here all day and do nothing, instead of all that work."

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Office-workers were always overloaded with work. Any chance they had of getting rid of some of it was taken advantage of. That was why Shesta had been given a months' worth of various forms to take care of, when he was only to be working there for a week or two. He couldn't complain about it, and he wouldn't be there long enough to plot revenge against the shirkers.

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Shesta sat down on the side of the bed.

"So….I see you got yourself in a bit of trouble. What happened?"

Gatty shut his eyes.

"You know what trouble it is, Shesta. The same thing as always. Dirandau was angry about something, and took it out on me."

Shesta averted his eyes, silent. He wasn't good at this. He couldn't help Gatty feel better, not with this injustice, which was always occuring. And, if he said that he felt badly for Gatty, it wouldn't matter. He'd said it so many times before that it lost it's meaning.

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Gatty didn't like the silence. He needed to talk, and to hear talking, if only to keep his thoughts from echoing so loudly in his mind.

"How's your arm doing?"

"It's much better. It'll be just fine soon," replied Shesta. His arm ached and burned every time he moved it, and it would always hurt for the rest of his life. Gatty knew that Shesta was hiding some such fact, but didn't delve any further.

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"He shouldn't have done this to you. You treat him with more respect than he should expect at times...he shouldn't have done this," Shesta stated. He knew it was pointless to admit, but it made them feel better to hear it said outside of their own heads.

Gatty nodded in agreement.

"He doesn't understand what he's doing. Not to others, and not to himself. And worst of all, no one will stop him. Not even Folken will try to!

That never made sense to me….why is it Folken lets him get away with so much? It doesn't help matters, and there is no good that will come of it. Never anything good…just broken limbs and shattered spirits."

Gatty sounded morose and depressed. All these things that had been mounting up were starting to get to him.

Shesta looked at him sadly. Gatty shouldn't have to feel this way. It was pointless. So utterly pointless…

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His face took on a determined expression.

"We will do something about this. We will."

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A week passed. It wasn't so very bad, considering all those annoying habits of Folken's.

About the only out-of-the-ordinary bad thing that happened to him was his run-in with Nariya and Eriya. They were just a tad jealous of him, to say the least.

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"One so disrespectful to our Folken-sama has no right to marry him!!" Nariya had shouted as she ran at him, followed closely by Eriya.

Dirandau put up a good fight, but two jealous cat-girl soldiers are not easily dealt with. He was nearly clawed to death before they were called away to do something else.

Thankfully, they did not have time to do much to him.

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Without Gatty or Shesta there to give Dirandau grief, things went very smoothly.

Sometimes he wondered why he didn't just kick them out.

After all, he could do just as well without them. Today, the others were going out on a mission. It was going well, even with the absence of those two damned usurpers.

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He stood on the bridge, watching, smirking. Cripes, they were good at their jobs! They had already taken two cities, and this was only the beginning of the day. His pride in them was well placed.

He gave the order to go after a small country nearby. It was weak and defenseless. It would be easy to take down.

However, Folken didn't share his vision.

"We don't need that country. Leave it alone," he said over the intercom.

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Dirandau glared at him. The only reason Folken was ever supposed to use the intercom system in regards to the Dragonslayers was when Dirandau was there with them. This was obviously meant to undermine his authority.

"Just because we don't need it doesn't mean that we shouldn't take it," Dirandau said indignantly. "Everyone continue on their way." He turned the intercom off

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Folken flipped the intercom switch back on. The way he moved his hand showed hints of annoyance.

"Disregard that last order, and veer to the right. You're needed elsewhere."

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There followed this a slew of contradicting orders. The Dragonslayers parked their guymelefs out of site, to wait for their commanders to make up their minds. They placed bets on how long the two could keep this up.

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After about the twelfth order Dirandau had retaliated against, Folken had had enough.

"This is pointless," he said, trying and failing to maintain an air of calm. He gave his orders one more time, and flipped the switch off.

"Don't touch it again. That's the only warning I'm going to give you."

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Dirandau laid his hand over the switch.

"Touched it. Now what are you going to do?" he said, smirking.

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Folken glared at him. That foolish boy...why couldn't he learn to leave well enough alone?

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Dirandau lazily dragged his fingers back and forth across the switch.

"I don't see why you give a damn about that country anyway. It's so little...so small...so defenseless."

There was a look of hunger in his eyes when he said the word 'defenseless.' There was something about anything being powerless and frail that made him want to kill it.

"Did you betray it too? You seem to have a habit of sympathizing with countries you deceive."

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"You've no idea what the word 'betrayal' really means. By your definition, you betray your own country every day, when you disregard an order," said Folken.

"I only disregard orders made by those who would betray Zaibach," replied Dirandau.

"You betray yourself with idiotic talk."

Folken was unharmed by Dirandau's insinuation that he was a traitor to Zaibach. He had heard the insult so much that it didn't matter to him anymore if he heard it now.

His non-reaction infuriated Dirandau all the more. So much that he couldn't continue calmly discussing this subject.

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"RrrrRRRR! I hate you so much!! Why do you have to be so damned annoying???"

"Try asking yourself that question once in awhile," Folken replied coldly. "And, while we're on the subject of annoyance…you need to stop practicing in my room. There are at least fourteen gashes in my wall already."

"Well, you need to get your idiot cat-girls to stay away from me. I can't be worried about them attacking me when I'm busy trying to plan out a war."

"Oh, you're the only one planning out this whole war all by yourself, eh? You'd better grow up first before you take on such a responsibility."

"You need to stop whistling all the time!"

"You need to stop whining all the time."

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Everyone in the control room was staring at them. They were causing quite the scene, which was a perfect excuse for everyone to take a break from work. After all, these two were the highest ranking officials on the bridge. Who was going to report to them at this moment to say that someone was loafing off?

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"I'm going to report you to Dornkirk-sama! He'd want to know what an idiot his Strategos is."

"Go ahead," Folken said.

He smirked.

" Do you think he'll be able to hear you when you've got your face on the floor?" he added sardonically.

Dirandau narrowed his eyes at Folken.

"There is nothing wrong with being a patriot. Not that I'd expect you to understand that….traitor."

"And there's nothing wrong with you doing your job, but you go so far overboard that it's causing severe problems."

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Dirandau rolled his eyes.

"Don't start talking about-"

"You don't need to spend the rest of your life plotting revenge against just one person who won't be giving us much trouble."

Dirandau clenched his fists.

"Again with this prattle about your "poor little defenseless brother"? I hate hearing about him all the time. Cripes, you even talk about him in your sleep!"

"So? You do the same thing."

The two glared at each other for a moment.

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"I don't even know why I'm discussing this with you. You should be elsewhere…for instance, the medical ward. I want you to apologize to Gatty, and tell him that you were wrong."

"A…apologize?" He said, as if the word sounded foreign to him. "I've never done that, and I don't intend to start now. He deserved what he got, and he can spend this time contemplating his wrongdoing. And, besides, he's one of my men. I'm in charge of them, not you. You're just assisting me. Don't you dare give me anymore orders like that!"

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Feeling completely justified in his actions, Dirandau flipped the switch back on. He told the Dragonslayers to go after the little country, as he had originally instructed. They hesitated for a few minutes, and then left to carry out those orders.

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Dirandau smirked, feeling as though he had won. It was now that he noticed that everyone had stopped working to watch them.

"What do you think you're doing? Get back to-"

He would have continued, but he felt something gripped around his arm, nearly crushing it. It was Folken's hand. Dirandau stared at him, now very afraid. Folken was about to do something horrible. He could sense it.

"I warned you," Folken said quietly. "I warned you, and you disobeyed me."

"F..Folken…." Dirandau managed to stammer out. His heart beat loudly. And, he got the feeling that everyone was still staring at them.

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Folken wrapped his arms around Dirandau, and held him tightly. He then did something totally unexpected…he kissed him.

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It was an appalling experience to endure. Dirandau struggled as well as he could, but Folken was too strong. When Folken finally let him go, Dirandau staggered backwards, and fell down to the floor. He felt ill, degraded, and miserable…exactly as Folken had meant him to feel.

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"I take it you didn't enjoy that?"

Dirandau stared up at him with hollow eyes. The wretched captain seemed to be trying to crawl away into the back of his head.

"If I were you, I'd keep this in mind the next time I tried to defy orders," Folken said.

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Dirandau sat up to his knees, clutching his arms round his stomach. He felt violently ill.

Rrr….that bastard! This was beyond annoyance or sabotage. This was just plain revolting.

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Folken kneeled down next to Dirandau. His voice became quieter, gentler. He did not really hate Dirandau. He simply wanted the boy to gain the knowledge necessary to live among other people.

"I'd also keep this in mind the next time you decide to degrade one of your men by screaming at them or hitting them. I'd wager they often feel just as you do now."

He stood back up.

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Dirandau stared at Folken's boot, the only thing he could see at the moment. He knew he was going to be sick, and he probably wouldn't make it to a lavatory before it was too late. And, Folken was the cause of this.

As with any good soldier, Dirandau was skillful at taking advantage of a situation, no matter how bad it was.

He abandoned himself to this present state of illness, and threw up all over Folken's boots.

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Folken stared ahead, that blank expression on his face once more. He ordered someone to clean that mess up, and told the rest of them to get back to work.

He pulled Dirandau to his feet, and led him to the infirmary.

{{Oh, thanks much for the reviews!

I'm glad this has been well-received.

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For this chapter, I just want to say that a few of these things, I really don't think Dirandau would actually do. For example, the 'glomping people in his sleep' thing. This dream was from Dilly's point of view, so my subconscious decided that he should have some of my issues and habits.

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JheregAssassin: Eeehehehe...that'd make for an interesting continuation: The Fanel family at a reunion. ^_^

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Feye: Aww...thankee very much for the long review.

Yeah, only two.

I'm goign to post the next one up very soon. It's done, but it needs to be reviewed by my beta-reader first.

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Atari: Yup, yup. It lost some stuff in the translation here, but it was definitely interesting. [And it wasn't nearly so humorous to actually have to experience all that stuff as Dirandau.]

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AFCAMistress: Umm.....I have absolutely no idea whatsoever what your review has to do with my fic.

And, in my opinion, Dirandau is not Allen's sister. Dirandau is Dirandau, and always will be Dirandau. He's a separate character.

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Tower: Ayee....well, as a trans person, I disagree with you most heartily. A person is whatever gender they feel themselves to be.

I won't say anymore because I get overly sensitive about the subject sometimes, and it would sound like I was attacking you.

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About that forum that I recommended last time..

[I can't remember which story I recommended it in.]

We have an idiot hacker there now. He changed the background to pink, and the title [Which is supposed to be "Fate's Toy"] to something which I'd rather not discuss. I just wanted to state that I am in no way for that title or anything that this idiot does.