Kittenflavored

[Kittenflavored]

Day # 90
Theme: none
Time spent: ... 1290 words

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When the van was in motion, a sort of pocket of air and sound made it difficult for the trio in the back to communicate with Pradeep as he drove, but not the other way around. So to ease the awkwardness of having three strangers in his portable arsenal, he figured he’d talk about anything that came to mind.
“That picture has him looking older than he actually is,” he told the group through the partition window. He was referring to his son, a missing boy named Blake. “He’s only seven, but it looks like he’s already becoming a man. I’m so proud.” He made sure to give the impression that he was sure Blake would be found safe, and not to show fear. Fear was infectious, and his passengers already had enough on their plates, what with them being stalked by a deranged policeman. Not ten seconds later, he said “by the way, did you leave a rickshaw out in front of the courthouse?”
Kevin, who had been up until that moment preoccupied in a banjo melody, abruptly stopped.
“I had to move it to properly park the van,” Pradeep continued.
“s**t,” Kevin grumbled. “I’m gonna have to pay a fine…” He shot a glare at Astra, but she turned out have fallen asleep. Her face was pointing upward in the corner of the vehicle cabin, mouth open in a silent snore, drooling. Just below her in his line of sight, Ruse was glaring right back at him. “I’m not ******** moneybags,” he mouthed at her.
Astra twitched in her sleep and smacked her lips.
“Leave it be,” Ruse mouthed back.
“You know, I think you three should consider getting getting a gun,” Pradeep said, as if he already hadn’t breezed through two other subjects in under a minute. “It’s important to be able to protect yourself—oh my god, Breanna.”
He immediately stalled the van.
Ruse nudged Astra to wake up, then freed herself from her arms and walked hunched over to the partition window and peered through. They were at a park in the rich upside of Japantown, it was gloomy outside, and who just so happened to be fretting and pacing around the park? Miss Breanna Van Dyke. She was wearing hot pink sweatpants with double white stripes down the legs and a matching zip-up crop top sweater. She looked just like her social media pictures: curvy, caramel complected, tight blonde curls… But more importantly, her eyes were glued to her phone and she was in an obvious panic. Ruse looked into the rearview mirror; Pradeep was looking back at her through it. They shared a nod.
Pradeep parked the van in the park parking lot and, as quickly as he could, unlocked the back doors to let his three riders out.
As soon as the white van caught Breanna’s eye, she sprinted over, her large breasts bouncing with each step. When she reached the parking lot, she had tears in her eyes. “Did you get the Amber alert?” she asked Pradeep. And although she was obviously scared, the way she spoke to him sounded so natural, as if she was speaking to an old friend. “Your son is missing! He’s in danger, somebody’s holding him for ransom!”
The ego boost from being spoken to by such a gorgeous, voluptuous woman was obvious on Pradeep’s face.
“I’ve been trying to track him using that ‘find my phone’ feature. His watch is connected to my phone,” Breanna went on, “but I think the weather is messing with my GPS signal.” She showed the phone to him and used the opposite sleeve to wipe away her tears. On the screen, a blue spot on a map of the neighborhood kept flickering on and off. “Whoever took him knows my number, they know where I live! They took him right out of my flat! My baby…”
“Why didn’t you call the police?” Pradeep asked her, placing both hands on her shoulders. “Why are you doing this all by yourself?”
“Why didn’t you call the police?” Breanna retorted back with a pout.
They both stared at each other for a moment, then looked away and muttered, “he’s a little black boy.”
“I didn’t even want to speak to authorities to have the Amber alert sent out, but I was running out of options,” Breanna sobbed.
Finally realizing there were other people in her presence, Breanna looked up to the trio standing behind Pradeep. Ruse felt her temperature rise as soon as her eyes met Breanna’s. She could finally see those brilliant honey-colored eyes and those soft full lips up close and in person. Breanna was absolutely stunning. A ten out of ten perfect…straight girl with a man and a kid.
“Do I know you…?” Breanna asked her. Then she put up her hand, closed her eyes and shook her head as if she had no time for this. “Nevermind, I gotta find my baby.” And she turned back around with her phone in the air and wandered off. Pradeep went after her, explaining as he walked why he hadn’t come alone. Their large curly manes drifted behind them in sync.
Ruse was in a daze. It was like she had just met a celebrity. She hardly realized it when Astra appeared beside her and was staring at her with a sly grin.
“You know you can’t have her,” Astra said, slipping her arm around Ruse’s waist. There was soft clink of metal or plastic emanating from Astra’s midsection, but Ruse was too starstruck to be bothered by it. “But damn, you have good taste. She’s fine as ******** clouds began to rumble with far off thunder. Kevin jostled past Ruse purposely. “C’mon,” he said, turning back to her and walking backwards away from her in Breanna’s direction. He pulled his fedora down slightly. “This was your idea, so let’s get on it.”
“Yeah,” Astra added. She gently tugged on Ruse’s arm to try to snap her out of her daze, and with the movement came another clink.
“Why’d you untuck your shirt?” Kevin asked, squinting at Astra in a very accusing way. Astra’s baseball raglan was indeed untucked and hanging over her pants halfway to her knees. She had to have done so while the three were exiting the van. She was the last one out, and her shirt was definitely tucked in before they arrived at the park. It seemed unnecessary…suspicious, even.
“I was feeling stuffy,” Astra replied shortly, leading Ruse past him.
“Right…” Kevin grumbled.
The three set out on the green grass and looked around at the park. There were Japanese maple trees and cherry blossoms every few feet, with the cherry blossoms dropping petals into the wind. In the center of the park there was a playground, but the bad weather appeared to prevent anyone from utilizing the equipment. They passed unoccupied picnic benches and public grills. To their left was a tennis court and to their right was a basketball court. All empty.
The neighborhood circling the park was the type that had its own homeowners’ association, the type with perfectly manicured lawns. Nearly all the homes were multi-story, with multi-car garages.
“This is Breanna’s neighborhood?” Astra asked, admiring all the expensive homes. “Girl is loaded!”
“Perks of the job,” Breanna replied, sounding distant. She was standing at the edge of the grass at the opposite end of park from the parking lot, facing away from them towards a gray house with a pebble and boulder zen garden. She was staring down at her phone again. The trio gathered around her and Pradeep. A blue dot representing Breanna was almost right on top of another blue dot representing Blake. “I think this is the place.”

Comments: more Under The Same Stars. At finally over 25,000 words and 47 pages single-spaced, I'd say it's about 2/3 done.  

[Kittenflavored]

Day # 91
Theme: none
Time spent: ...2692 words

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Taking Breanna’s word for it, Astra stepped ahead of her, across the street and into the gray house’s vacant driveway. The lights were all off and the home seemed dark and quiet inside. And since Astra had already committed the crime of breaking and entering with no consequence, she casually strolled over to the left side of the garage towards a tall wooden side gate and began to tug at it. Kevin ran after her, shouting things about how dangerous it was, and potential surveillance cameras and crime, but she had already gotten the gate open and fearlessly slipped into the home’s backyard.
Breanna hadn’t budged from her spot. She was trembling, squeezing her watering eyes shut and breathing sharply, on the verge of hyperventilating. “I can’t go!” she cried. “I can’t do it, what if there’s a dead body?” Her tears spattered on her phone screen.
Pradeep wrapped his arms around her and pressed his left temple against hers. She shuddered in his arms with bouts of tears. “Nothing is gonna happen,” he assured her.
Ruse watched sadly as a man consoled that beautiful, hurting woman. She stood a few feet away from them, stewing in discomfort, then took a deep breath and made her way across the street to join her two friends. Both Astra and Kevin would need her to keep each of them levelheaded in this situation. When she reached the side gate, the sky began to drizzle.
Her two friends were peeking into a side door window, looking for any sign of life. Ruse walked past them into the open backyard. There was nothing back there aside from an old pink kids’ playhouse against the back fence, and a patio table and chairs, and everything was now getting wet with the light rain. “It’s so quiet.”
“That’s probably not a good thing,” Kevin said, shuffling over to her and examining the area. “Could mean death.” He mouthed the last word.
All of the sudden, the front wall of the pink playhouse burst out of place like it had been kicked and fell to the ground. Inside the playhouse, a white man in a black hoodie and black sweatpants was on one knee, clutching little Blake to his front in a kneeling position while holding a sharp knife to his neck with the other hand. Blake was tied up with his hands behind his back, and a silver piece of duct tape was stuck over his mouth.
“It’s quiet because the owners went on vacation to Belize!” shouted the man with a maniacal laugh. “I’ve been staking out the place!”
A crack of lightning lit up the yard, reflecting in the man’s crazy eyes.
Ruse stepped back in fear. Astra ran out in front of her.
“Dedication,” Kevin commented.
“It’s ******** creepy!” Ruse snapped back at him. Had he not made the connection that his bestie was also being stalked by a ‘dedicated’ psychopath?
“So you’re the slimeball who took Breanna’s kid,” Astra announced, sounding as if she was she was the witty main character from some action movie. “You better let him go or you’ll regret it!”
Ruse quickly whispered “what do you think you’re doing?” to her. This was no time to play the hero!
“If you don’t have the money, the kid dies!” the man shouted. “I’m not playing around!” This declaration had Blake crying and writhing, trying to get as far away from the man’s knife as possible.
Astra reached her hand down to her waistband in a quick draw motion and produced a .22 caliber pistol. Within a few seconds she had already fired the gun.
The sound of extremely close range gunfire caused Ruse and Kevin to double over, clutching their ears. Kevin’s fedora fell to the ground. Astra stood there with her right arm still outstretched, her eyes filled with wonder and her veins full of ********!” screamed the man after the echo died down. He had been hit. A small hole was visible in his right upper pant leg, and viscous red blood was oozing from the wound. Blake was thrown to the ground along with the knife so the kidnapper could grasp in agony at his leg. Blake was already kicking his way away.
“I actually did it!” Astra shouted, still in whatever reality had caused her to believe she was a hero. “I mean…” she said to nobody, “I meant to do that!”
“You b***h!” groaned the man, “I’ll have you locked up for this!” He continued to moan and spout more vile words at Astra while he rolled from side to side on the wet ground.
“Was that my gun?!” came Pradeep’s voice from house’s side walkway. He came barging onto the scene and grabbed the gun from Astra, who was still holding it out in the firing position. He shouted, “give me that, you weasel! You could’ve hit my son!” He held out his other hand in the direction of poor Blake. “When I said you should get yourself a gun, that’s not what I meant!” He paused and dragged his other hand down his face. “But I have to admit, that was pretty cool.”
But Astra was temporarily deaf from her rash act. She hadn’t heard a word, so all she could do was smile sheepishly at him.
“What happened?! Is he okay?! I heard a gunshot, oh my god!” Breanna came running in behind Pradeep. Then she saw her son bound on the ground and ran for him. She scooped him up and untied all the ropes and removed the duct tape from his face. “My baby!” she cried. She then hugged him as tightly as she could, cradling the back of his head with her hand. They both cried for a moment, then she realized she recognized the man seething in pain on the ground inside the playhouse. He was a former coworker from the strip club, former for a reason. She interrupted his slew of profanity with a swift kick in the a**. “You kidnapped my son?! You a*****e! Get me locked up, my a**!” she mocked him. “That was self-defense and you ********’ know it!”
“You best tell a doctor you shot yourself in the leg if you don’t want me to press charges against you for kidnapping my son,” Pradeep chimed in. He set his sandal over the top of the stray switchblade and cast it several feet away, far enough that a person with a severe leg injury would not go through the trouble to reach it. He placed his arm on Breanna’s shoulder from behind and the reunited family stood over the criminal.
“His name is Jordan,” Breanna said. “He used to work with me. Mans never got along with the boss and he had to be let go. Good riddance!” She spat on him.
The family turned their attention away from Jordan and back on the trio of mismatched strangers behind them. Ruse and Kevin were slowly getting back to their feet, miserable expressions on their faces. They were barely registering what had just happened and their ears were surely still ringing. Pradeep snapped his fingers at Kevin, “you, go bring me a stack from the van so this bhenchod keeps his mouth shut.”
Kevin squinted at Pradeep for a second but then muttered “yes sir”, grabbed his fedora, and left the backyard.
Not more than two minutes later, the closing in wail of sirens sounded from somewhere just outside of the neighborhood. Kevin returned with a stack of money from the pile in the back of Pradeep’s van. Pradeep threw it at Jordan.
“A neighbor probably heard the gunshot,” Kevin said, wriggling a finger around in his own ears. He stepped forward and looked down at Jordan. “I think this loser will be fine. It looks like she missed the femoral artery, anyways. I’d know, I know all the most sensitive parts of the human body because it’s important to know when studying the bla-”
“Boo,” Breanna interrupted him, “nobody asked.” She glanced over her shoulder at the excuse for a man on the ground. “You got a phone?” she asked Jordan.
“It’s a ******** Nokia. A burner,” he spat back.
“Good, then we’re done here. You can take care of yourself. Don’t you ever show your face to me again.”
Ruse stepped forward and took one quick look at Jordan just to assess the damage. It seemed like he got what he deserved, so she turned back and soberly said to the whole group, “let’s go.” The rain was causing her hair to come alive in the worst way, and she needed to get somewhere dry.
They all queued back out to the driveway. Pradeep brought the van around to the sidewalk in front of the home, parked it, and got back out.
“Were you gonna take us back home?” Breanna asked him. “I still live in that flat with the balcony a few blocks away.”
But Ruse didn’t want her to get away just yet. “Breanna, wait,” she said, interrupting her. “I need your help. I’m Ruse, I’m Henry’s ex-girlfriend. I know you’re his cousin and-”
“Girl,” Breanna lightly poked her square in the chest, “I knew I recognized you! Ain’t you that girl that’s in all his Facebook pics?”
The thought of Henry pretending to still be with her on social media her skin crawl. “I suppose…I actually have him blocked on all my social media. We broke up a long time ago. I’m a lesbian. I guess he never accepted that, and now he wants to come ‘fetch’ me. He thinks Kevin,” she pointed her thumb at Kevin, who was still busy with his ears, “is also somehow involved in keeping me from him, so he wants to hurt Kevin too. We tried to stay out from under the radar in a hotel first, but he found out and called our room, then we left to go hide out in that abandoned courthouse on the other side of town, but he,” she pointed her index finger at Pradeep, “said we had to leave because it’s coming down, so now we’re here. I don’t know if you know, but Henry’s a police officer now, and obviously, he can track us. I don’t know what he’ll do if he finds us but I really don’t want to find out.”
Breanna nodded. “I see.”
“Can you talk some sense into him? We’re kind of running out of ideas…”
“I’ve been saying that boy needs therapy for years now. I just didn’t know it had gotten this bad.” She adjusted Blake so that he was resting his head on her shoulder. “I suppose I could shoot him a text.”
“Oh, can you?” Ruse asked, a tinge of hope in her voice.
“Yeah, baby, I got you. I promise I will speak to him once I get all this Amber alert s**t filed away with the police. I do gotta let you know though, he can be a pain to get ahold of. Boy’s always obsessing over something and can never be bothered to pick up his damn phone.” That sounded exactly like Henry. “Listen though, I know a place where you can crash for at least a little while. You’ll be safe there and everything.”
Ruse knew what she was about to offer.
“I work at the gentleman’s club on Honda street. My boss Gator lives there. He likes me,” she stuck out a bent wrist with pride, “so I can probably put on my charm and get him to let you stay. It’s just you and your friends?”
“Yeah,” Ruse replied, somewhat baffled at how fast everything was happening. Just yesterday, everything was routine, boring even, minus her encounter with Lulu, but now…now she was friends with thieves, arms dealers and strippers. She had been terrorized by a corrupt cop and had been all over town to escape his wrath. She hoped the ‘adventure’ was coming to an end. She was starting to miss the mundane.
“Oh boy,” Kevin grumbled. “More ******** friends.”
“Let me us call a taxi,” Breanna said. She dialed up a number and held the phone to her ear. While the dial tone droned, she glanced back up at Ruse. “Don’t you have some things with you? Purse? Wallet?”
“Oh. Yes…” Ruse replied. Her things were still in the back of Pradeep’s van. She had forgetten about them in the heat of the moment. When she opened the van’s back doors and peered in, she saw the empty space on the peg board where the gun Astra nabbed used to be. What a character that girl was. So impulsive yet so easy-going and charming. Ruse felt somewhat bad for ogling Breanna, since Astra obviously had feelings for her. She felt something back, of course, but… But nothing. It was love at first sight and she didn’t need to ruin it by seeking something she couldn’t have.
She sighed and grabbed her things, as well as Astra’s backpack and Kevin’s banjo, then closed the doors. The approaching authorities wouldn’t be too kind to a brown guy with guns.
She handed out the personal items to her friends, then placed her bookbag purse over her head like an umbrella and went back to the somewhat dry spot on the sidewalk she had been previously standing in when chatting with Breanna. Breanna was speaking to who Ruse could only assume was a taxi driver, giving details about how large the vehicle needed to be to support a group of five.
“Five?” Pradeep asked. He seemed hurt. He would be the sixth of the group.
“I have to go with them, baby,” Breanna said. She pinned her phone between her ear and shoulder, then pulled his sleeve so he’d lean over to her. Then she kissed him on the forehead. “I have to explain things. Meet me at my flat, okay? We won’t be long.”
He frowned, though the blush on his face made it clear he still was somewhat pleased with her explanation. “Okay. Be safe, jellyfish.”
Breanna giggled softly at the nickname. It must’ve referred to her curly hair.
Pradeep placed his hand on top of Blake’s head. “My son. I’m so glad you’re safe.”
Blake buried his face in Breanna’s chest. Breanna ended her call with the taxi driver and stuffed her phone into her pants pocket. “He’s shy. He doesn’t really know you that well,” Breanna said. Pradeep continued to frown. “Well, he hasn’t seen you since he was a baby. You’re always busy tryna be gangster!”
“I am gangster!” Pradeep protested. And he was indeed, quite gangster.
Kevin made an audible fake-gagging noise at the sweet family moment.
Breanna looked as though she were about to give him a piece of her mind, so Ruse broke the tension. “I left my phone behind, it’s probably destroyed by now with the courthouse. I didn’t want Henry to track me that way, so Kevin’s the only one of us who has a phone. That’s how we found out about Blake. I think you two should exchange numbers so that you can let us know what’s going on with Henry once you go home.”
“Of course, baby.”
The two entered each other’s numbers into their phones, then the entire group of six waited on the edge of the sidewalk until a dark green rideshare taxi with white bloopy Japanese writing in the back window pulled up. The vehicle, an SUV with two back rows of seating, was definitely large enough to hold five and the driver. Kevin opened the front passenger door for Breanna and bowed out of the way.
“Don’t push your luck, boo.”
Kevin scowled at Breanna as she climbed into the taxi with her son.
“Hey hon. I know, you don’t usually see me this early in the day,” Breanna told the driver. “It’s alright if I have my baby up here with me?”
“Holy s**t,” Astra finally said after several minutes of complete silence. “I can hear again. Wow, what are we doing?” She tucked her shirt back in. “Are we in trouble?”
“No, get in,” Ruse ordered.

Comments: FIIIIIIIIIINE I’ll just post what I’ve written since yesterday with minimal editing since it’s so close to the deadline  

[Kittenflavored]

Day # 92
Theme: none
Time spent: 36ish minutes





Comments: working on JSE since I am fairly sure I didn’t fart out 800 words worth of story today.  

[Kittenflavored]

Day # 93
Theme: none
Time spent: 1hr 10 minutes ish worth of revising!

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CHAPTER ONE: THE STAR

Bright hot pink and fuchsia lights flashed throughout the club while loud, bass-boosted catchy popular music played on speakers in every corner. A speaker at the end of the main stage pulsed so hard with the beat that it rattled. A young new platinum blonde girl with puffy fake lips was performing tonight, and she appeared to be clenching her butt cheeks around the dance pole. There was a small group of men with wads of bills in their sweaty hands seated in front of the stage, making drunken remarks and requests at the girl.
More Buck For Your Bang was Japantown, Nebraska’s premier strip club, hosting strippers and dancers of both sexes, a full bar, a dance floor, and even a hot tub for those willing to pay a little extra. Tonight only women were performing, and the mainly male audience had abandoned the bar with their beverages to enjoy the show across the floor.
Breanna slid her hand across the bar counter, her long pink fingernails audibly dragging against the resin-coated red-brown wood. She was dressed in an oversized white windbreaker jacket with leopard print fur trim on the hood, on top of her ‘work clothes’: a few strands of flimsy tinsely gold cloth barely hanging on to her skin. Covering up was necessary once she was off the clock; people had to pay if they wanted to see the spectacle beneath her jacket.
And she was indeed off the clock. The platinum girl was her cover for the evening; now she had to get home to make dinner for her young son. “I’mma head out,” she said in a soft, playful tone to the scrawny white barkeep, who also happened to be the owner of the establishment.
“Stay safe, Honeybunch,” he replied between coughs, “or shall I say, Breanna, now that you’re off?”
Breanna paused, pursed her lips and gave him a look of concern. He looked pale, paler than the average white guy should. The warm neon lighting that filled the club didn’t do his clammy complexion any good, and neither did the bar backdrop of shelves of dark gold and blue bottles. “You should get that checked.”
The barkeep cleared his throat and replied again in his very strong Australian accent, “I’ve survived enough disease in my life as a gentlemen of the evening to survive a little cough.” He smiled coyly at her, then grabbed a turquoise colored washcloth and began to wipe out the inside of the nearest beer stein.
Breanna huffed and rolled her eyes at her boss’s flippancy towards his health. He was going to die young with that sort of attitude. Good thing she was paid so well, she didn’t have to worry about her future if her boss did kick the bucket due to all his acquired germs. She would miss all the sex, though…
With a light tug on her jacket collar, she pulled her hood around her neck and shoulders and headed out through the club’s heavy wooden double doors.
The night air was much crisper and colder than the hot, sweaty strip club, and it felt good flowing through her long curly voluptuous mane of hair. She ran her fingers through her curls and shook her head, causing her large silver hoop earrings to jingle faintly. Two large burly bouncers stood on either side of the entrance outside, each nodding to her as she walked past, her sky high stiletto heels clopping on the pavement.
After passing the waxy broad-leaved foliage in cement planters on either side of club’s opening walkway, Breanna reached the edge of the sidewalk. Fortunately for her, the strip club was in a very well-lit area, with no dark alleyways or vast parking lots nearby for her to be snatched up in. Even if some sicko decided, in a moment of stupidity, to come lurking around, the club’s bouncers would handle it. Japantown was like that: built and primarily run by smart people who kept it highly functional and safe. The crime rate was basically zero.
Breanna pulled the bottom of her jacket down so that her a** was less exposed, then grabbed her phone from her pocket to dial for a taxi home from work, as she usually did. She tapped the screen twice to unlock it. The stray sounds of vague traffic noises in the night whisked all around her.
She had a message.

I have your son. Wire me 10,000 or he dies.

Her phone hit the ground with an ugly clack.


* * * * *


There once was a diviner, The Magician, who read peoples' fortunes through tarot cards. When he painted the faces of the major arcana cards in his deck, he dedicated each to a different friend of his.
In the same town, there lived a beautiful young seamstress who The Magician deeply adored. She was The Star. Alongside her talent with needle and thread, she had a voice like angels, just as glorious as her physical beauty.
One fateful day, The Magician caught The Star fraternizing with the mandolin-playing Fool, and though The Magician had taken no stance to court The Star, he was overcome with jealousy. His jealousy turned to bloodlust and The Magician stabbed The Star and her apparent lover, The Fool, as they slept. No soul would ever get the opportunity to hear The Star's voice, as silky as her robes, or The Fool’s accursed mandolin strings ever again.
Soon enough, word of the murder of the beloved Star and her beau reached the ears of the town judge.
The Magician was the prime suspect of the murder, as his fancy towards The Star was known to the townsfolk. The jury of peers consisted of The Magician’s friends, each a face on his tarot cards.
Five out of nine, a majority, insisted The Magician was guilty. The Magician was to be hanged. With his final breath, The Magician put a curse on the five peers and swore he would return to get his revenge on their descendants.
"A CURSE ON YOUR CHILDREN!"

Comments: more Under The Same Stars. This is actually how the story starts. I read it out loud to check the flow and revised a lot of it :’3 Idk if this counts for the art event but...OH WELL I’m not working on JSE again today. Also, Henry is The Magician. Ruse is The Star. Kevin is The Fool(they weren’t actually together in a past life). Breanna is actually The Empress. Her boss, Gator, is The Devil. Pradeep is The World. Astra is Strength. ...Jordan is The Hermit.  

[Kittenflavored]

Day # 94
Theme: none
Time spent: at least 2hr worth of revising

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CHAPTER TWO: STRENGTH

It wasn’t ideal for Ruse, but she felt it was safer to stay with Kevin in a hotel for the night, at his suggestion, rather than to risk going home. The entire drive to the hotel, she cringed herself into a small frilly pink wad in the back right passenger seat—the front shotgun seat was for Kevin’s banjo—with only her hair visible through the window to the others on the road. Kevin’s old beat up car with a stupid Hatsune Miku decal on the side and vanity license plate reading “MILADY” was such an embarrassingly degrading vehicle for such a cute pristine girl like her to be seen in, but it was better than the back of a police cruiser, or so she assumed.
The hotel was small and dingy, with no wifi and not even a television in the single-bed room the two split the bill for. Ruse wanted it that way; the smaller and less fancy the place, the less likely anybody would think to find her there, she assumed. Once they closed the room door behind them, they both chose to turn off their phones so to not be located by the ping.
Ruse had immediately run for the bath after, desperately needing to wash the disgusting feeling of being watched off of her body. She was exhausted, and she hated this. She hated how easy it was for a single Facebook message to completely interrupt her peace. The thoughts of her sorely sour relationship with Henry flooded her mind as she soaked.
Before she understood that she felt no attraction to men, she had dated Henry all throughout her late high school and early college years. Being a creative type, she took art and music classes at the University of South Dakota, while Henry was more focused on courses in science, math, and politics. She had never shared any interests with Henry; on the contrary, he always told her how useless her studies were, how she would never get anywhere by drawing dresses or trying to be an ‘idol’ - or a popular singer within Japanese culture. In fact, Ruse had lost all her interest in singing after Henry presented her with enough insults and discouraging remarks about it. She hadn’t sang in years and her voice had gone from silky to shrill in that time frame. How she wished she could get back into the hang of singing…
While she was still with Henry, something nagged her about the relationship, but back then, she couldn’t pinpoint what it was. Girls were supposed to be into these smart, popular, charismatic, muscular men, right? Henry ticked every box there. She had assumed she was doing pretty well for herself. It didn’t matter how little they had in common; what mattered was that their relationship fit all the socially acceptable parameters when viewed from the outside. They were like a power couple in that sense.
Somewhat late in her second year of college, Ruse found herself bored in her dormitory room, lurking through Henry’s Facebook profile. He had a fairly long list of friends, even though he prevented her from having more than a handful, as he considered such behavior to be a form of cheating.
She huffed in the hotel tub just thinking about how hypocritical this was, and how she never realized it back then. And it was bad. Henry secluding her from other people over the years had made it terribly hard for her to make friends, which left her with Kevin as her sole current interpersonal relationship with another human being. And it wasn’t like she had anything against Kevin, but no matter how much she longed for more companionship, the fear that she would be in a world of trouble if she sought it out crippled her.
As her negative feelings bubbled up inside, she dunked herself just deep enough in the warm water that her hair twists stayed above the drink. The warm water was soothing, but the next memory soothed her even further.
While scrolling through the faces on Henry’s friend list, a pair of bright honey-colored eyes and voluminous curly blonde hair caught her attention. The name above the photo read: Breanna Van Dyke. The girl in the picture was gorgeous, absolutely stunning. A strange new feeling came over her that day; it was warm and fuzzy and right. She felt it in every part of her body, and it was good. The room around her began to fade as she felt herself being sucked into her laptop screen. She clicked on the girl’s profile, which immediately caused her temperature to rise and her cheeks to fill with blush. It seemed miss Breanna was a stripper, and most of her pictures were quite revealing. But Ruse couldn’t look away. She was entranced by this woman’s dangerous curves, enchanting smile, and warm, inviting eyes. This was more than fascination or admiration…she had never felt this attracted to Henry.
She paused and leaned back from her laptop.
Was she…gay? She perished the thought; her mother had raised a good southern baptist girl, a girl with God and anime on her side. And she had a good boyfriend, one that just wanted what was best for her!
But the thought didn’t stay perished. She clicked through to Breanna’s general information to find out how Henry knew her. As little as she felt towards Henry at this point, she knew she wouldn’t be able to just shrug it off if it turned out he was being unfaithful. Fortunately, the relationships and family section of Breanna’s profile listed her as Henry’s cousin. Ruse sighed in relief.
The next few minutes were spent perusing Breanna’s collection of selfies and other photos. She laughed nervously to herself as she took in the sights. Maybe she was just seeing some of Henry’s features in his family member’s pictures? But Henry did not have luscious lips, thick thighs or an enormous pair of succulent squeezable flouncy breasts…
Ruse closed the laptop, allowing the world around her to come back in. Holographic laptop decal stickers of hearts and stars reflected the light fixture above her. Her ears were burning and her brain was buzzing with an abundance of serotonin. Then she started panicking. She needed to tell Henry about this.
And she did. The next day, she chose to meet up with Henry at the university cafe, intending to tell him everything.
In the tub, present-day-Ruse squirmed in frustration at her past-self’s choice to tell him. He was such a nosy, controlling p***k that he had forced her to believe that even her random feelings and thoughts all needed to be reported to him. Then again, if she hadn’t told him, she would never have gotten the opportunity to escape…
It was a mild weathered kind of day on campus, as the season was switching from summer to autumn. Henry was sitting at an outside table under the shade of the central courtyard elm tree, seemingly waiting for Ruse even though she was the one had who initiated the meeting. He was dressed in a red sweater with the NASA logo image on the front, khaki cargo shorts and hideously bright clean white sneakers. His hair was in short brassy dreadlocks, he had been growing them out for almost a year. Poised proudly, he was smiling in a way Ruse had not seen in months. The sparkle in his single diamond stud earring matched the joyful sparkle in his eyes.
Ruse was wearing a wheat brown peacoat over a black turtleneck, leggings and boots. Her coat tightened around the waist and blossomed out below, making it appear as though she had a figure when in reality she definitely did not. But Henry liked her to dress that way, so she did. To keep him happy, and all. She gripped the strap of her flower print bookbag-purse she had brought with her, and she could feel her heart pounding all through her fingertips.
The vicinity was empty aside from the baristas inside the cafe to her left. Through the large cafe window Ruse could see them skittering back and forth with orders of beverages and pastries and empty plates. She wished she could be indoors with them and not outside alone with Henry, but she didn’t want to say anything to make him unhappy.
She sat down across from him, looking anxious. They both spoke at once.
“Henry-”
“Ruse-”
Ruse sighed and averted her eyes from his grinning face. In her experience with him, it was best to back down and let him have his moments, even if it meant she had to regularly silence herself and her wants and needs. “You first.”
And he knew he would get to speak first. A woman should hold her tongue in the presence of a man like him, and Ruse knew that, it was how he had trained her. Even if she had scheduled this meeting to tell him something, it didn’t matter. She would have to wait. He was the man, and he had something infinitely more important to share. The simple fact that Ruse was so neatly placed under his thumb made him grin even harder. “Ruse, I’m so happy,” he began. His voice was a mellow baritone, raised ever so slightly in his moment of happiness. He stuck his hands out to her across the concrete tabletop.
She hesitantly placed her small, thin hands in his, strong and secure.
“Ruse,” he continued, unable to tell just how on edge she was in his blind confidence, “I got accepted into MIT. I’m so excited. I worked so hard for this, for us.” He squeezed and shook her little hands enthusiastically.
Henry had been interning at NASA for a few months leading up to this meeting. He had been filling in Ruse with what seemed to her like random information about ‘computational fluid dynamics’ and other bizarre astrophysics-related conversation for weeks, and Ruse could hardly keep up with nor begin to comprehend or even care about his achievements. He had even taken her to a museum in Russia a year previous just to see some space pistol used by the cosmonauts, but she was just simply not interested. What a waste of money on a passport, too, just for them to be thrown out after Henry tried to steal and claim that the pistol was rightfully his, due to his space-inclined ancestry. It was a miracle NASA even bothered with him after that exhibit.
Ruse’s lip curled; she was dreading the next thing Henry would say. Her heartbeat continued to steadily up its pace.
“I’m moving to Massachusetts—we’re gonna go together. I have everything planned out. I’ll keep working for NASA, of course, but now I’ll be able move up in the aeronautics program.”
Ruse could hear the sanity leaving his voice, and the sudden ringing in her ears did not help.
“We’ll be so happy. Finally we can have that picture-perfect life together.”
“Henry…” Ruse said so quietly even she could barely hear it.
Henry released her hands and reached down to his hoodie pocket. Ruse felt a jolt of fear.
And then it all happened so fast. Henry sat down a small brown velvet box on the table, opened it up, and Ruse stood up with so much force the metal chair she was sitting in toppled over backwards. Her soft black bob weave swished and her large fuzzy felt peacoat swayed with the sudden motion. The few birds hunting for crumbs on the ground scattered. Henry laughed.
“You’re that happy?”
“Henry, I’m sorry!” she shouted, squeezing her eyes shut. He had such horrible timing! She could feel the hot tears beginning to form, and she didn’t know if she was more scared or embarrassed. “I’m sorry!”
“What for, baby?”
“I’m g-” she gulped hard, the words being swallowed down as she attempted to speak again. “I’m gay!”
She began to sob. She couldn’t even look in his direction anymore.
And there was no way he would take this information in stride. Not after that announcement. He stood up noiselessly, but she could hear his breathing quicken. “Now’s not the time to joke, babe.”
“I’m not joking! There’s someone else!” she blurted, not realizing what she had said. The words just came out, having nothing to do with her thoughts. It felt as though the world around her was shrinking, making her feel very claustrophobic. Everything was falling apart, taking the breathable air with it as it fell.
She could almost feel him roll his eyes. He let out a soft chuckle, looking up through the elm branches with an expression that seemed to say ‘this b***h…’
“Who,” he said between laughs, “who do you think you are? You think,” another cackle, “you think you can do this to me? Here? I made sure I could get the courtyard free today just for this, I hope you know, for you.” He grabbed the tiny box off of the table in a swift motion and put his finger all up in her face. “You know you wouldn’t survive without me, right? You won’t make it out there with a stupid ******** art degree. I’m giving you such a great opportunity and this is the thanks I get?” She peeked over her coat collar at him. He was hovering over her, looking deranged. “And you know you’d be snatched up by the next guy who could overpower you,” he said in a low grumble. “You need me. You’d be dead if I didn’t keep you safe from all the weirdos out there who wanna grab you.”
“I’m leaving you, Henry,” she said as sternly as she could, even though her voice was cracking.
And that’s when he hit her. The open side of his palm whipped across her cheek with a force that knocked her over. Small strings of hair wrapped around her face with the motion, sticking to the stream of tears on her stinging cheek. All of her perfumes and various makeup items tumbled out of her bag and rolled about on the ground everywhere.
“You’re not goin’ anywhere, you ********’ hoe-a** b***h.” He reached down and grabbed the collar of her coat.
Fortunately for Ruse, a barista came bounding out of the cafe, screaming rage at Henry. And Henry ran. The barista helped Ruse back to her feet, even though she stumbled a bit on her boots.
The rest of the day was a blur, but Ruse definitely remembered ‘going anywhere’ after. In fact, the next day, manic and full of adrenaline, Ruse decided to drop out of university and move out of state. Henry was right, she was nothing. She had nothing. Everything she had was because of him. She had no car, since he had made her dependent on him for transportation. She had little money, since she was saving her college grant money while she tried to figure out a way to put her artistic skills to work. And she had no place to stay that wasn’t frighteningly close to him, since all she had was her college dorm, and she had that free through some program that catered to broke college kids. But now she needed to get as far away from Henry as possible and start everything fresh.
She first tried to move back in with her mother in Nebraska, but that ended terribly after she came out. She winced just remembering it. Her mother was a strict conservative religious type. Ruse had been raised that way as well, of course, but she drifted away from the church when she left for college out of state. There were so many new sinful things to do in college, and she couldn’t resist the temptation to turn into the heathen liberal her mother, and even Henry hated.
Her mother hated her so much in fact, the very next day after Ruse returned home, she threw all Ruse’s belongings onto her front yard, insisting she “had no daughter anymore”.
Since spending too much money traveling across state lines to try to live at home was not meant to be, Ruse found herself running very low on college grant funds. She needed a way to replenish them before she ended up living on the streets.
On a whim, she took the soonest, cheapest bus to Japantown, a city close to the horizontal border between Nebraska and South Dakota, mostly to satisfy her desire to be around like-minded people—that, and Japantown was where Breanna lived, according to Facebook.
Perhaps she would find a job there, she hoped, or a new lady friend?

Comments: ((Trigger warning: physical assault. Do not 'un-spoiler' if you don't wanna read about that.))
I’m still heavily revising the story, it’s still kinda wonky through ch2 but it’s better than it was. Tbh a lot of the editing is writing Henry as a worse guy than Kevin, who is still pretty bad. Will probably edit more tomorrow  

[Kittenflavored]

Day # 95
Theme: none
Time spent: 25ish minutes digitally editing, idk about the original pencil drawing(done this morning)





Comments: the creatures(jellyfishes)

Breanna/Pradeep

I’ve been slowly developing Pradeep as a character visually(but not Breanna because she is perfect). There’s a scribble of him in my character a day album on Facebook in his concept phase and it’s kinda yikes-y  

[Kittenflavored]

Day # 96
Theme: none
Time spent: 47ish minutes





Comments: basically this is a redux of this, which is WAY older than I thought it was. Under The Same Stars was ‘born’ in 2015. It took me almost a decade to actually start writing it.  

[Kittenflavored]

Day # 97
Theme: none
Time spent:32ish minutes





Comments: Did a second pencil drawing of them yesterday
8| I need to have a reference of them so friendo can draw them ;u;
Breanna was originally shorter, but the proportions were bothering me so she’s less travel sized now  

[Kittenflavored]

Day # 98
Theme: none
Time spent: 53ish minutes





Comments: no shading or anything because this is a reference image ;u;  

[Kittenflavored]

Day # 99
Theme: none
Time spent: 41ish minutes





Comments: working on the drawing from day 77 finally
Kevin/Under The Same Stars
He doesn’t even use the banjo as a weapon until like the very last scene of the story. He wants to at a few points but he never does. I mean, wouldn’t want banjo-chan to get damaged.  

[Kittenflavored]

Day # 100 emotion_kirakira emotion_kirakira emotion_kirakira
Theme: none
Time spent: 1hr 6mins ish





Comments: lol I did exactly zero days on theme this year hue
Here’s a self portrait. I am not remotely that skinny. Cat is Deeto(he's my mom's).
Until next year.