Rule one: Maintain proper hygiene at all times.

Within the confines of Alex's dorm room, the air was saturated with an atmosphere of opulence and refinement. The room, a shared space with Morgan, mirrored a lavish lifestyle marked by the trappings of beauty and sophistication.

Orphan Petal

September 2023 - Part 2

Shirley gets some help or maybe its not the help he needs

I'm Better Now.

I remember in 2005-6 I was put in the Psych. Ward and strapped down to a concrete block in a room where the walls, floor and ceiling were all rubber so I couldn't hurt myself. All this was because I was grieving so hard at the rejection by my family. I'd worked so hard to be the man they said I was, raising the children and sticking by a crazy and abusive alcoholic woman for 38 years until I finally broke down and couldn't make sense of anything any more. The psychologists said that I was a woman inside.

Micah Lavoric was not prepared to reap the consequences of what he had asked. There is little doubt that he expected his noble status to transfer, and to gradually become a treasured member of the Jenwise court. He did not anticipate the way they brought him to his knees and rendered him helpless. The way they made him to beg. It was not for the sake of cruelty you see, but rather for a purpose he did not understand and could not make comprehension of.
-Sage and Sane Page 387

Orphan Petal

September 2023 - Part 1

Shirley gets some help or maybe its not the help he needs

I waited next to the airlock. My armor was sealed around my body. I was protected against small gunfire and the vacuum of space. My pistol was strapped to my right leg. I carried my rifle in the low ready. The holo-sight connected directly to the HUD in my helmet. Kitty monitored communications from the bridge and created a fast link between my HUD and weapons. She would make sure nothing came up from around me without alerting me.

I left quietly and made my way through the garden and back to the side door. I contemplated whether I should confront him or not.

Should I have gone back in and pretended not to have seen anything? How could we proceed with the plan if he was seeing Charles behind my back?

I spent most of the night going over every mistake I made, reliving every flub and flounder. Maybe they threw money out of pity because I know it wasn’t for my talent and I felt ugly compared to other girls who had all the right moves and knew how to play the crowd. I wasn’t planning to give up or tell my parents how bad I felt I was. I needed to learn more.

"Ginny, how does it go again?" Emily pretended to ask the other girl "Lay down with dogs, get up with fleas?"

What was her problem? This reminded me of middle school. Looking the way I did back then, I was an easy target. A boy that looked like a girl? The jokes basically wrote themselves.

Middle school taught me to have a thick skin. So whatever Emily here thought she was going to achieve by insulting me, I had bad news for her.

"What does an appeal for judicial reform mean to the monarchy?" King Richard asked.

Yes, that was how he began a conversation with his son. No 'hello', no 'how are you?'.

Didn't he even wonder where Nick had been all this time? He didn't seem to care. A lousy hug seemed enough for him and apparently Nick as well because he too got right into answering the question.

CHAPTER 71
There had been a moment or two through that evening where I had found real sustenance, especially as I had spent time sitting with Lexie and Lisa. ‘Not the only lesbian’, et cetera, was well past its sell-by date. Lexie picked up on one particular chuckle, so I tried to explain.

“Ah, it was a while back. Can’t remember if there was a guest on, but that woman you say is your friend, she was here with a load of girls”

I was watching them both for a reaction, to see how Alys would be received when she met them, and the first response was from Lexie.

“Oh, god, how many that time? Like an invading army, they can be”