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The following is a fan-based

FICTION

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Interlude 5: Rise of the Headpat Cult

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Dora found herself frowning before the two girls that had dragged her in a pretty-looking room and put her to sit by the bed... for trial.

In fact, she wasn't even sure why she was getting trialed, only that her presence 'caused issues to them'. The fellow girl thought they were going to accuse her of something she didn't commit, to ostracize and distance her from her papa and... she didn't even know where that thought came from. Up to this point, everyone has been so nice so where did the distrust came from?

Looking at her arrival to the castle to actually meeting these two first, she had been confident they wouldn't have caused her any form of issues. Yet, it was clear she did something that crossed them both at once. To the point of cornering her as she was returning from a 'quick raid' to the kitchen to get herself some bread and a cup of milk.

"You have been called her to face judgment!" The bow-wearing girl known as Petra muttered seriously. "You... are trying to illegally take time from Oniichan!"

"...Oniichan?"

"Y-Yeah, that stupid idiot of Subaru. The one you call 'Papa'," The other one, Meili, stated firmly.

That confused Dora. They were Papa's... little sisters? Did that make them her aunties? No, it was complicated. Maybe Cousins. Hopefully- wait, were they even related to him? The girl was truly confused, but one thing managed to actually make it through as a question.

"Why is that bad? Isn't it a daughter's duty to get headpatted?"

As she said that, she got quite the reactions. Both looked like they wanted to say no to that, but perhaps they saw some truth in what she just said. After all, her papa meant well for her, so why wouldn't he want to headpat her?

"It's not... that you don't need them or don't deserve them but-" Petra tried to explain, only for Meili to interject.

"But you are like stealing him from us. We got turns and then you come around getting all these headpats without even taking under consideration that we too deserve that right," The dark-haired girl explained. "And this is forcing our hand. Which is why we will force you to sign an agreement to split the headpats' time between us."

Dora felt slightly mortified by this. There was an agreement on Headpats and... she caused issues about it by not noticing it? How was she supposed to know that? It felt silly to imagine, but, at the same time, she could understand how unpleasant it would be if someone just come up and stole her papa's headpats from her. She would, at least, prefer to be told that someone wanted that rather than just walk up and claim it as theirs.

So, to an extent, she understood their plight, but something stopped her to sympathize with them entirely. After all, one part of Meili's response left her quite nervous of what was soon to come.

"F-Force?" Dora squeaked nervously. "W-What are you going to do to me?"

Both shared a giddy look, and smug grins.

Endless scenarios played within Dora's mind as she imagined all sorts of potential pain and suffering coming through these girls. Both looked ready to do much, to do the most to make her 'understand their point' and so she braced. The girl didn't know it was going to be even worse than she had imagined.

Soon, Dora's eyes widened astronomically as she saw them both raise their hands around their shoulder's height and... flicker their fingers in eagerness as the punishment became clear to the poor girl. Moments later, rather than screams of pain and despair, the room was filled with loud giggles as poor Dora discovered through this experience that she was extremely weak to tickles.

And the fact that she felt no hint of malice on them just made the experience way more pleasant than it should be. She was being 'forced' to agree to something she didn't want to, but the sheer amount of delight that came from that interaction was plain unbearable~! Before she knew it, the three of them were cuddling up in bed. In an effort to fight them off, Dora had tried to tickle back, causing each other to tickle themselves and tire themselves as much as they did with her.

"So, you agree to the terms of this deal?" Petra hummed while nuzzling up to her.

"I-Is that only the headpats?"

"We could- we could include the maid outfit. Of course, you are not one but it's-"

"Cute," Dora guessed and she nodded in agreement. If it was a cute, then the dress could get more headpats.

It was genius! How could she have not thought of that?!

And by joining this group, did that mean she made new friends by opening up to those girls? It made her so happy and warm in her chest she couldn't stop smiling.

"Still, there are so many trio and calling ourselves the Maid Trio may be too redundant," Petra argued with a huff, but Dora had a brilliant idea about it.

"What if we just found someone else and became a... quartet?"

Petra smiled, Meili nodded at the notion while offering a pat on Dora's shoulder.

"Our newest friend is indeed clever."

The compliment just made her bolder, so bolder that she saw no issue in accepting a 'plan of attack' to increase their membership.

"Come on, Beatrice. You know better than us that Oniichan knows how to headpat nicely!"

"I don't! Stop harassing me!" The blonde exclaimed while keeping the doors to the library shut.

The girls were finding a way to force at multiple doors at once, thus forcing her to expend all her attention to keep them out. The rascals, those troublemakers- The nerve of disturbing her much-needed tea time for something so irrelevant!

"I-I am not letting you inside! S-Stay away!"

"The world is bleak, hence why headpats are the solution, Beatrice!" Petra shouted back, ignoring the screeching. "Stand forth, my fellow maids- tonight we shall be a quartet!"

The Siege of Roswaal's Library went on for a while, a small distraction to what was soon to happen through Lady Karsten's visit. Of course, the children were ushered to defeat by the promise of nice snacks before dinner, thus concluding this little war in a defeat for what would soon become the 'Handpat Cult', a group that would eventually swallowing the country in a new, cute, but at times dangerous trend.

The world wasn't just ready for that yet...

AN

Important AN! I revamped the Pxtreon to offer more benefits for all tiers. Also, a new change for the Snippets Archive has been enacted which means that new story ideas will be posted first in the pxtreon and then released a month later to the public.