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i've been working a bit on my first untitled original this week. (18000 words, baby! YEAH! \o/ and it's only taken me like 8 years, LOL. if you do the math, that means i'll be getting this thing to novel-length around the time i turn 57 years old. ^^;;; yeah, i'm awesome. *rolls eyes*). on the one hand, i finally found a decent "model" for marco, so i finished making the corresponding graphics:
_alex: here
_debra: here
_marco: here
_niko: here
_renee: here
_tori: here
i also wrote a new scene. the PoV's all over the place as usual, but i don't mind that: i'll have to go back and revise eventually, anyway. it does feel like i'm describing stuff too much. am i describing stuff too much? you tell me, guys.
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Alex and Marco had gone to the kitchen to get some popcorn and snacks ready for their movie night. In the meantime, Niko and the girls hung around in the rec room, Renée and Tori discussing fundraising for their graduation ball, while Niko channel surfed.
He happened to stop in some procedural show. The episode was already halfway through, so he couldn’t really follow the plot because he’d already missed the setting of the crime, but he found it entertaining anyway.
A few minutes in, he frowned. “How come they didn’t search the toilets?”
Debra looked up from the TV Guide she was reading, and took a glance at the large screen display. “Well, it’s the ladies’ toilet. Probably a few women have gone through there during their cycle, so the test could result in a false positive.”
He still looked confused. “What do you mean?”
Now Debra herself looked confused. “You mean, what do I mean by ‘their cycle’?” she asked him, just to make sure.
Renée snorted from the side. “Sorry, do you need us to show you through interpretive dance?” she asked, in a very fake polite tone. Niko opened his mouth to retort that he didn’t appreciate the sarcasm, but she didn’t let him get a word in. “She’s talking about menstruation, idiot.”
It took the young man a few seconds to get it, but when he did… “Oh, ewwww!” He shook his head emphatically, as if trying to get the thought to come out his ears. “That’s gross!”
Tori and Debra laughed at his expression, Renee rolled her eyes. “Why are guys so scared of this stuff? It’s a natural process, you know.” She got up and snagged the remote control from his hand. “Dude, you have like seventeen sisters. Surely one of them must’ve gone through it already…”
Niko steadfastly denied the claim. “No! My sisters are still way away from... that.” He glared at her. “And I only have six sisters, thank you very much.”
The redhead leaned in mischievously, getting right up in his face. “It’s called a period, Nikolai,” she said, evil grin right in place. Niko tried to swat her away, almost like she was a very annoying mosquito. “Peeeeee-reeeeeeee-odddddddddd...”
She had barely finished stretching the last syllable when he pushed her aside and got off the couch. “Ok, I’m out,” he sentenced, almost running in his haste to get to the kitchen where he could join his fellow males and talk about something normal like, say, sports, cars, or... zombies. Whatever. Just anything but girls’ monthly bleeding.
As soon as his butt was off the couch, Renée plopped down on the space he had vacated and changed the channel. “So, that was fun!” she quipped as she put her feet up on the coffee table and switched to music programming.
“You’re so mean to him,” said Debra, a feeble attempt to defend the clueless boy, but she sounded amused either way.
Renée shrugged. “Not my fault he makes it so easy,” she said, dismissively.
Tori leaned against the armrest of the loveseat she was settled on. “Actually, the eldest of his sisters already had her first period,” she admitted to the other two girls, ending the phrase with a giggle. “Grandma Tristán thinks Niko isn’t ready to know about it yet.”
The blonde laughed, halfway sure that it was a joke. Tori swore on her life that it wasn’t, though. Renée groaned, raising a dubious eyebrow at her best friend. “Dieu. You do realize that you’ve set back feminism like 50 years just by dating this doofus, right?”
Debra laughed so hard, she actually had to hide her face behind the magazine to keep from sounding like a squirrel, which unfortunately for her, often happened in these situations. Of course, having her face covered meant she couldn’t see Tori’s reaction. Renée was engrossed in the TV screen at that point, so she, too, completely missed how the brunette’s smile went away in a split second.
“I’m not dating him,” Tori said. Her tone was... odd, so much that it made Debra sober up quickly and look back at her. It almost sounded like her friend’s words had upset her. She was frowning deeply, something which was quite rare in the cheerful girl, at least from Debra’s limited experience.
It must not have been that unusual, though, because Renée didn’t even tear her eyes away from the screen. “Yeah, whatever you say,” she said, sounding like she meant everything but.
Tori rounded up on Debra instead. “We’re not dating,” she repeated earnestly.
The blonde didn’t know what to say to that. “Um... ok?” She had to go with it: the girl seemed so defensive, she sounded almost desperate. There was an awkward pause, the only sound that of Renée’s half-second clicks on the remote and random speaking coming from the TV. Finally, the blonde had to ask. “If you don’t mind me asking, Tori... what are you and Niko? I mean, you guys seem to have something...”
“It’s not like that, though,” she was quick to respond. “We’re not like that. It’s...” she stumbled on her own words. “It’s just hard to define...”
“You know, there actually is a word for what you and Niko are,” intervened Renée as she switched the channel again, this time ending up on a news network.
Tori threw her a dark glare. “I swear, Renée, if you so much as utter the word ‘fuckbuddies’...”
She didn’t get to finish her threat, as the petite redhead promptly put her feet back down on the floor, then leaned toward the coffee table and put the remote down beside her coke glass. “I’m going to go see what’s taking those stooges so long.” She got up and made her way out of the rec room without a glance back.
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EDIT! @ 1440 hrs: catching up with the bleach manga. OMG TATSUKI YOU'RE BACK THIS IS AWESOME OKAY. \o/