Disclaimer: This novel contains adult material including sexually explicit activities, strong language, homophobic language, extreme violence, suicide, depictions of trauma, and more. Reader discretion is advised.
The Dominance of Abigale Quinlan
Shard 16: Gender Reveal Party
Jade traipsed down the stairs and walked into her living room, her curly brown hair poofy and body clad in her green and white floral dress. Once there, she scanned her eyes across the room, counting the chairs to make sure that everyone would have a seat, before she was interrupted by the front door opening, revealing Verde Dusk. Her dark hair flowed past her shoulders, and she was dressed in the same green sweater and jeans from earlier.
Verde: “Sorry to keep you waiting, Jade. Kuro Abigale turned out to be a bit harder to track down than I hoped. Anyway, how was your little exploration session?”
Jade: “Well… It was…”
Verde: “Jade, you can tell me anything. I told you my sins and… do I seem like I have any grounds to judge people for doing something embarrassing? No. No, I do not. But if you’re not comfortable then—”
Jade: “—It was one of the greatest experiences of my life! Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!”
Jade threw her arms around Verde, digging her face into Verde’s shoulder and gripping her torso for dear life.
Verde: “Easy now, save the hugging for your friends and family. …But based on your reaction, I take it that a lot of your issues have been resolved.”
Jade: “Well… I love this body. It feels right. I finally feel like me. Or at least the me that I’ve wanted to be. And… I tried masturbating and… I don’t think I’m asexual anymore. Is that something you—”
Verde: “Nah. I did nothing to change your sexuality. I just changed your body, your wardrobe, and left you some beauty products. HRT can be a reset switch for one’s sexuality and, as someone who’s turned a lotta boys, and ‘boys,’ into girls, I can attest that the same thing happens once you invert their sex.”
Jade: “So… what am I then? What’s my new… sexuality?”
Verde: “That’s up to you to find out… and I’m sure Maxxie would be elated if you asked her to help you.”
Jade: “T-That’s a little… maybe in the future, but I want to get more used to myself before I try anything with her. A-Again… sorta. I already feel bad for masturbating so quickly after—”
Verde: “You do realize that most people in your situation would have masturbated, right? Not that people need to masturbate after landing in a new body, but… over 90% of them do. And that’s the conservative estimate.”
Jade: “Oh, then… everything I did was normal—”
Verde: “Yes, you silly little goose egg! —Sorry, sorry. You’re still fragile, and I shouldn’t be joke-yelling with you. Just tell me when you’re ready and I’ll summon Maxxie, Zoe, Shiaka, Terra, Caroline, and Babs with a snap of my fingers. And don’t worry about figuring out the right thing to say or how to explain stuff. I will take the lead here, and I’ve already got a script right here.”
Verde then poked at the side of her skull three times.
Jade: “Well, in that case… let’s finally put an end to this. Just… don’t give them any memories without their consent.”
Verde: “Yeah, yeah, you don’t need to tell me twice. Also, they remember everything leading up from April 10th. I could remove these memories, but that would mean messing with their minds even more, and I don’t want to do that.”
Jade: “O-Oh. Wait, April 10th? So Maxxie remembers how I… with the scissors—”
Verde: “Jade, don’t worry, it’s all going to be fine. Everybody loves you, they will forgive you, you know this deep down, and now it’s time to prove that this is really the case.”
Jade then looked down at herself as she folded her arms, a forlorn look on her face, before she nodded to Verde.
Jade: “You’re right. I have been running away and hiding from this for too long when, deep down, I know this will work. Let’s get started.”
With Jade’s approval, Verde snapped her fingers and, within a fraction of a second, the six aforementioned loved ones all appeared in the living room, appearing in a puff of smoke. Maxxie, Zoe, and Shiaka appeared on the primary sofa, all dressed in their school uniforms. Caroline spawned in the cozy loveseat that she often sat in while reading, wearing a violet T-shirt and gray jeans. While Babs and Terra both found themselves on the seldom-used second couch, with Babs dressed in a red tank top and jeans, while Terra was in a light pink dress with a baby blue cardigan.
As the smoke faded, they all looked at each other with confusion, not saying anything before Verde Dusk stomped into the room.
Verde: “Hey folks, sorry to pull you out of your lives and all that stuff. But I have someone to introduce you all to!”
Verde then gestured to Jade who, after flinching, began slowly walking into the center of the living room. Her heartbeat accelerated as she became the center of attention to the six most important people in her world, and her mind went blank under the pressure, unsure what to say or how to introduce herself. Thankfully, someone had the courage to break the ice for her.
Maxxie: “Jad… is that you?”
Jade: “Y-Yes, Maxxie. I’m… I’m a girl now.”
As Jade’s nervous stammer hung in the air for a moment, Maxxie once again broke the silence.
Maxxie: “FUCK YEAH!!!”
Maxxie then burst from her place at the center of the sofa and threw herself at Jade, wrapping her arms around her frame while Jade did the same. They remained locked in this position for a few seconds as everybody looked on with some mixture of confusion or shock. That is, until before Maxxie loosened her grip and addressed the onlookers.
Maxxie: “C’mon everybody, group hug! Let Ja— wait, do you have a new name, or are you sticking with Jad?”
Jade: “I’m going by Jade now—”
Maxxie: “C’mon everybody, group hug! Let Jade know how proud you are of her for coming out!”
Verde: “You heard the lady, get off your butts and hug!”
With slight trepidation, the five rose from their seats and joined together in a group hug, pressing their bodies against Jade and locking her in a loving embrace.
Jade: “G-Guys, I knew that I would get a warm reception, but this is… this is something else.”
Maxxie: “Jade, please, we love you and we’ve been through this before.”
Shiaka: “We got all our questions out when Terra came out.”
Babs: “Plus… this really isn’t that surprising. You always were a bit of an egg.”
Caroline: “W-What? Did you all see something I didn’t? N-Not that I’m upset, it’s just that I didn’t expect it, I still love you no matter what, Ja— Jade.”
Terra: “I thought that you might have been trans Jade… but I wasn’t sure.”
Zoe: “Say, this is all well and good, and I’m happy that Jade has come to terms with herself, but… what the hell is going on here?”
As everybody exchanged words, their grips loosened around Jade, and Verde yanked her from their grasp.
Verde: “Alright, alright. You got the big coming out bit out, now for the boring shit where I explain ‘who the fuck I is’ and why Jade is now rocking that XX chromosome in every cell in her body. Everybody, rearrange yourself however you please, but do let Jade sit next to her mom and girlfriend.”
Maxxie: “Wait, girlfriend? That means me, right?”
Jade: “Y-Yes. I mean, I’m still getting my feelings evened out, but… I think I want us to be girlfriends. A-And I don’t want to pressure you, it’s just that, during these past few days, I—”
Maxxie: “So not only did you finally hatch, but you finally want to kick our relationship up to the next level?”
Verde: “Yeah, Jade’s been pretty busy with some bullshit, and if you sit your pneumatic ass down, I’ll give you the down-low.”
Maxxie: “Pneumatic? What does that mean?”
Babs: “It means you’re thicc, Maxxie. That your ass is full of air.”
Maxxie: “Oh. Thank you… lady whose name I don’t know.”
After that brief interlude, Maxxie and the rest of the crew followed Verde’s directions and sat down. Maxxie, Caroline, and Jade took the first couch, Babs and Terra shared the loveseat, while Zoe and Shiaka nabbed the second couch.
Verde: “Now, this is going to be pretty complicated, and wack as shit, so the fewer questions you ask until I ring my bell, the better.”
With a snap of her fingers, Verde caused a small bell to appear on a lamp table near Zoe and Shiaka.
Verde: “My name is Verde Dusk, and I am the God of the known universe! Which means… what you’d think pretty much. I can change things as I please and do so with great ease. From the wind—”
As Verde said that, a powerful gust of wind flowed through the living room, coming from seemingly nowhere.
Verde: “—To the weather—”
The seven were then directed to look outside as the sky darkened and the sound of thunder cracked throughout the home. Before it could begin raining, the dark clouds departed, revealing sunny skies.
Verde: “—To whatever you wanna classify this as.”
With the end of that sentence, 64 rainbow-colored freshwater bass fell from the ceiling and on the floor of the living room, where they flopped about, gasping for water, before Verde snapped her fingers, causing them all to disappear.
Verde: “I am also, naturally, the person who gathered you here today, plucking you from your days, pausing time, and bringing you here to this copy-pasted pocket dimension. Anyway, now that my undeniable divinity has been proven, you might be wondering why the hell would a God care about you dorks? Well, the reason stems from how, while housing divine powers, I was never really the most social person, and I wanted to get better at that. So, I conducted a little ‘social experiment,’ and my pick for that experiment was none other than Jade Novus.”
Verde: “After contacting Jade back in November 2014, I sent her on various adventures into alternate worlds. Experiences meant to evolve her sense of self and help her with the assorted… issues she was dealing with at the time. The first was a body swap adventure with Maxxie, Zoe, Shiaka, and Terra, where you explored each other’s bodies. …But not in a sexual way. You just wound up using it as an opportunity to see what it is like to live as another person while going through two humdrum days of school. Really, there’s not too much to say other than you five kids all got closer as a friend group, in more ways than one.”
Verde: “The second was… nothing like the first one. It was another body swap adventure, but Jade swapped bodies with a renown terrorist, who used Jade’s body to shoot up Oransen High, and died in the process. Thus leaving Jade in the body of some psycho lady by the name of Kuro Abigale Quinlan. A woman with superhuman capabilities who body jacked Jade all the way from Colorado. After getting back to Oransen, Jade saw y’all pissed off to California, and wound up getting imprisoned at some military base. Those scumbags knocked Jade out for a while, sending her into a dreamland where she was traumatized by Kuro Abigale Quinlan who, twist-twist, was merely allowing Jade to control her body.”
Verde: “Fully mind broken by Kuro Abigale, Jade went full-on psycho, ate you all, and destroyed all of Oransen using her superhuman abilities. She then realized what she did, and her psyche shattered. At least before she woke up in my domain, where I apologized for fucking up and sending her to that Scenario by mistake. But the damage was done, and she wanted nothing to do with me, so I sent her back home. That is why Jade was… all sorts of messed up during winter break. Because she just experienced an alternate timeline where she murdered you all!”
Verde: “Normally, I would have tried to mend the wounds I gave Jade, but I took my fuck up really hard. Like, committing suicide hard. I wanted to destroy the universe, rather than just kill myself, but fortunately, my wife stopped me from destroying everything. Unfortunately, I wound up getting lost in the multiverse for 8 years before my wife finally rescued me. And the first thing I did… after fucking my wife… and after preventing this from ever happening again, was help little Jade here.”
Verde: “By the time I found her, she was lost in a world where, after dealing with her trauma for 108 days, she was tormented by Kuro Abigale yet again. And by ‘tormented,’ I mean that Kuro Abigale was trying to transform Jade’s body and steal her life for herself. Try as she might, Jade could not fight against Kuro Abigale, and lost her life in the process. You all should remember seeing Jade undergo some physical transformations these past few days, so I won’t go into much detail.”
Verde: “But I will say that when Jade was at her lowest of lows, when she was at the cusp of utter destruction, I saved her. I also ka-girl’d her and gave her some time to acclimate to her new body before gathering you all here.”
Verde then picked up the bell she placed on the desk some minutes ago and shook it gently, sending a high-pitched chime throughout the living room. Despite being the signal for people to ask questions, it took five long seconds before someone spoke up.
Zoe: “…While I remember Jade’s body transforming over the week, my memory cuts off around April 10th. So I don’t remember Jade becoming Jadigale.”
Caroline: “Mine too. I remember getting on a plane to see Jade and… I called her Jadigale for some reason, thinking that was her name and that she was… always… my daughter.”
Shiaka: “We remember what happened this past week, but I don’t remember a ‘body swapping adventure’ back in November.”
Babs: “And I’m pretty sure if there’s one thing I would remember, it’s getting eaten. Whatever that’s supposed to mean.”
Verde: “Ah, you’ve stumbled upon something of a conundrum. You see, from your perspectives, the events of the first two adventures never happened. That’s because those events took place in an alternate world, and Jade is the only one who remembers these events. Per your request, I can give you your memories of what happened in these other worlds… but only if you offer consent. Now, I want you to think really hard about this because you will remember everything. The disgust and revolution you felt upon hearing that Jade was a school shooter. What it was like to have the whole of your bodies consumed by a maw of flesh. These will—”
Maxxie: “Gimme those memories! If Jade had to live with them, I wanna live with them too!”
Zoe: “My curiosity is too great, and I am confident in my mental fortitude, so please provide me with these missing memories.”
Shiaka: “I like to think that I have become strong enough to handle any trauma, so I would like to at least try processing these memories.”
Caroline: “If my baby suffered through something, I want to know hi— her pain, no matter how vulgar and grotesque. Besides, you did tell us what actually happened during that… school shooting.”
Babs: “Damn. Well, if everyone else is doing it, count me in.”
Terra: “Um, did I switch bodies with Maxxie… or Shiaka in the—”
Verde: “Both of them, and you loved it.”
Terra: “Then count me in.”
Verde: “Heh. All according to keikaku. So, Jade, are you okay with me also sharing a detailed summary of these events from your perspective? It’ll make it easier to explain and understand things.”
Jade: “…Are they actually summaries, or are you going to do something like, I don’t know, give them all of my memories?”
Verde: “I like that sass, and I deserve it. After all, I am the responsible party for a lot of your trauma. But don’t worry, it’s just a SparkNotes version. I checked the word count and everything!”
Jade: “Then I guess that’s fine. If not beneficial to them understanding what the heck is going on he—”
Verde: “The star of the show has given her approval, so get ready, bitches! ‘Cos it’s time for the MIND FUCK!”
Verde then snapped her fingers, causing the six affected persons to flinch. They grabbed their heads, clenching their teeth as they tried to process this influx of information, before finally opening their eyes, a look of dread on all their faces.
Maxxie immediately sent her arms around Jade, while Caroline did the same, caressing her while tears formed in their eyes. Babs gripped her forehead as she shook her head from side to side. Shiaka sobbed, wiping her tears with a nearby box of tissues. Zoe took off his glasses and covered his mouth and his expression. While Terra’s excitement quickly faded as she adopted a fetal position, her eyes wide and her mouth agape.
Maxxie: “Jade, I’m so sorry that I didn’t—”
Jade: “Maxxie. Do not blame yourself. You didn’t know because I didn’t tell you.”
Caroline: “But I left you while you were suffering so much— I’m such a shitty mother!”
Jade: “Mother, no, I urged you to go away, and you enjoyed yourself, remember? I am old enough to be responsible for my own actions.”
Babs: “I know what happened, but I can barely imagine what was going through your head. There were some brighter moments in this gush of memories, but… you still suffered immensely.”
Shiaka: “She suffered, but… she got through it. She survived and… she won, right?”
Zoe: “She was saved and rescued, but… she did not defeat Kuro Abigale Quinlan. She accepted Kuro as her superior. As the dominant one in their relationship. And considering her inhuman nature, I see no reason for that to be seen as a failure, as something that needs to be combatted.”
Terra: “I know that I wouldn’t want anything to do with someone like Kuro Abigale. She would just find some way to win, no matter what.”
Verde: “That’s not completely accurate, but I like that perspective. You should not want to defeat Kuro, because she is not meant to be defeatable. However, I did go to a lot of effort to wrangle her up, so what do you say about delivering one final ‘fuck you’ to her?”
Jade then motioned Maxxie and Caroline away from her as she thought about the question, before giving an answer.
Jade: “Yes. I would like to see her one final time. If only for posterity’s sake.”
Verde: “Heh. You heard the lady, that’s your cue!”
As Verde made that announcement, a ninth person came sulking from the entranceway. A tall woman with a dark complexion, crimson eyes, and jet black hair, clad in a black and red suit. She looked at those before her with the utmost contempt, groaning before speaking.
Kuro Abigale: “Yes, it’s me. Abigale Quinlan. Or as Verde calls me Kuro Abigale Quinlan.”
Verde: “Exactly! So, Kuro-chan, are you going to apologize to Jade?”
Kuro Abigale: “…No. You know me as well as I know myself, Verde. You have seen my past, seen how I became the woman standing before you… and you expect me to apologize to anyone? For a God, you are a fool. What Jad did was a thing of beauty. A feat of destruction I did not know myself to be capable of. And the despair that she felt as she witnessed the magnitude of her destruction… the word ‘delectable’ is far from sufficient.”
Jade: “I thought you had evened out when I met you last time… but I guess you’re just as evil as you’ve ever been, Kuro.”
Kuro Abigale: “Heh. Even when you have your dearest desire manifested unto reality, you still look at me with such vile, Jade. Tell me, are you truly over me? Have you gotten over how I make for a far better ‘you’ than you could ever hope to be? How I could shatter you within under an hour? If simply branding me as ‘evil’ is sufficient to—”
As Kuro leered over Jade, Maxxie rose from her seat and punched Kuro Abigale in the face. Despite Kuro’s immense strength, she fumbled onto the floor. She smiled from the ground, admiring the moxie of the woman before her, before throwing herself onto her feet, no worse for wear.
Maxxie: “Shut up, you motherfucker! You think you are so smart, that you can do anything, but all you do is destroy! All you do is steal! With your powers, you could have been anything! You could have done anything! …But you chose to be you. Do you seriously think your past could ever justify your actions? Well, hate to tell you, bitch, but evil is always a choice!”
Jade: “Holy shit… M-Maxxie, please. She isn’t worth it. She’s—”
Kuro Abigale: “Damn, girl. You’re alright. You have some spunk, some moxie, and… I respect that.”
Maxxie: “So self-centered that you think that I care about your respect? You pompous cunt!”
Verde: “Easy, easy. Gotta say Maxxie, I love the passion, but you know Kuro isn’t worth the—”
Maxxie then punched Kuro Abigale Quinlan again, sending her to the ground once more.
Maxxie: “It. Makes. Me. Feel. Better. She hurt my girlfriend, so I want to hurt her!”
As she wound up another punch though, Kuro Abigale grabbed Maxxie’s fist.
Kuro Abigale: “You could not hurt me even if you tried. You do not even want to know the level of torture I’ve endured. If not for my agreement with Verde, I would provide you with a sample— a mere one percent of the pain I have endured— and it would break your mind, never to be mended.”
Verde: “Well, this didn’t go as planned. Jade, anything more you have to say to Kuro Abigale before I send her away?”
Kuro Abigale let go of Maxxie’s fist and stood up, a look of smug disinterest on her face.
Jade: “I will not allow you to live on in my mind. I will never forget what you did to me and those that I love, but I will no longer allow you to, as you put it, ‘live rent-free in my mind.’ You can never be defeated, you can never be killed… but I can rob you of your eternal power. My obsession is what granted you life anew and now… now I have better things to worry about than a sad little psychopath like you. Someone who, as Maxxie so elegantly put it, ‘could have been anything,’ yet chose to be a monster. You are a pathetic woman Abigale. While you are ‘better’ than me in most quantitative attributes, I will never allow you to dominate my mind, never again.”
Caroline: “Jade, that… is a rather mature conclusion, but are you sure that’s what you want?”
Jade: “Yes, Mother. You’ve seen how she’s reacted. No victory I could have over her would be meaningful. For she is someone without regret, shame, or pity. She is a being of power and malice.”
Verde: “Eh, I wouldn’t be so sure about that, Jade. You seem to be forgetting how she lived as Jadigale. True, she sorta did that to mess with you, but do you think she was acting when she was enjoying her life? No. And was she hurting people like that? No. Things were pretty good in that reality to be honest. Which is why I’m sending this Kuro Abigale back to live as Jadigale.”
Jade: “…What?”
Zoe: “For all the damage she has done, for all the horrible actions she has committed, how can you grant her such freedom? How can you reward her with a life like that? She deserves to be punished for her crimes and for all the lives she ended in—”
Verde: “Zoe, I don’t like your sense of punitive justice. I much prefer the idea of rehabilitating criminals, and did Jadigale seem rehabilitated? You bet your keister she did!”
Babs: “I get that, but she killed tens of thousands of people on a lark, and might—”
Verde: “Look, I don’t want to punish her because when you imprison someone, they always come back. That’s just a rule. I mean, there are exceptions, but that’s the way this thing normally works. And I don’t want to kill her because, as a four-time murderer, killing people sucks.”
Jade: “Four people? You only told me about three.”
Verde: “Hm? Oh, yeah. I killed a guy who wanted to kill me because I abused him a bunch back when I was new to this whole God thing. I did not want to kill him, but he wanted to be erased. It was sad that things turned out that way. In a sense, he was way worse than Kuro here. He genocided all of humanity, not just the population of Oransen.”
Shiaka: “…You are a strange, scary, and confusing woman, Miss Dusk.”
Verde: “I’ll take that as a compliment, thank you very much!”
Kuro Abigale: “Yes, yes, you are a self-diagnosed psycho and proud of it. Now, would you permit me to return to my life as Jadigale Novus?”
Verde: “I’m surprised that you want to go back there.”
Kuro Abigale: “Is my desire for mortality and a ‘normal life’ so bizarre? I lived a life where I was shunned, where I was treated like a monster, where everything I loved died before my very eyes. You have given me an opportunity to erase my memories, start over, and live a life that is finite. Perhaps this outlook is due to the months I spent within the mental recesses of Jade, losing fragments of myself, but that type of life sounds… rather pleasant.”
Verde: “I’d say that’s sweet, but you’re an unrepenting mass murderer, so… buh-bye, Kuro-chan!”
Verde then snapped her fingers and caused a portal to open in the ceiling above Abigale, its body shrouded in darkness. From this ominous image, a pair of two squid-like tentacles emerged, thicker than Kuro Abigale’s legs, and bearing an uncanny green color. Kuro exchanged a glance with Verde as she saw this, but it was too late for her to react. The tentacles moved swiftly and clenched Kuro Abigale’s body firmly before slurping back into the portal above. A single second later, before the onlookers could comprehend what was truly happening, the portal closed.
Verde: “And that’s the end of her story!”
Maxxie: “So… Now what?”
Verde: “Well, I should begin by asking if anybody has outstanding questions, requests, or whatever. C’mon, speak up.”
Before anybody else could, Terra plopped out of her seat and approached Verde, gulping before speaking.
Terra: “Um, Miss Dusk—”
Verde: “Oh shit! I almost forgot. You want me to ka-girl you?
Terra: “W-What?”
Verde: “Whaddya mean ‘what?’ Does the term ‘ka-girl’ not translate to your generation? …Probably not, actually. That’s a The Wotch reference after all. Look, with a snap of my fingers, I could give you the body you’d have if you had been assigned female at birth, and I can take care of all the legal mumbo jumbo later. But I get that some transwomen might want to transition on their own terms and through their own means, rather than accept a magical handout—”
Terra: “I don’t care! I just… sorry, please turn me into a cisgender girl like you did with Jade!”
Verde: “Kay.”
Verde then snapped her fingers and, with a puff of smoke, Terra’s body was transformed. She grew 5 centimeters taller, her slender body grew more narrow, her dark hair grew down to the middle of her back, and her chest became covered with a training bra that concealed a pair of developing breasts underneath. Her prepubescent face remained largely the same, but the outline of a young woman’s visage was more prominent than ever before.
Terra looked down at herself, both confused and in disbelief as her hands darted over her body. The sudden change left all onlookers locked in a state of awe… except for Verde and Jade who, at this point, were used to this type of zaniness.
Terra: “This… this is… Even my voice is softer and… THANK YOU VERDE!!!”
Terra then thrust herself onto Verde, who looked down at the young girl with a soft yet slightly smug expression, brushing a hand through her long hair. It was a tranquil moment, with Terra’s affection and gratefulness practically radiating off of her being, and it continued as Maxxie and Babs added themselves to this affectionate hug.
Maxxie: “Oh my gush! You’re the best, Verde!”
Babs: “Thank you, thank you, thank you! I’d ask how I could repay you, but you’re a God, so…”
Verde: “Don’t mention it, girls. I mean, what am I supposed to do? Not help a fellow trans girl out with my God powers?”
Caroline: “Oh, s-so you’re also trans?”
Verde: “Sure am! I did not get into my backstory. I’d copy and paste my backstory into your heads, but you don’t really need to know. So, does anybody else want a little help from the divine Verde Dusk?”
As she asked this question, Terra, Maxxie, and Babs let go of Verde. The room fell silent for three seconds, nobody sure what to say, before Verde resumed speaking.
Verde: “This isn’t a one time offer by the way. I’m not just going to wish you good luck as you get on with the rest of your lives. Well, unless you’re a bunch of immortals living in a utopia. Because at that point, what could you even want from me?”
Terra: “S-So, we’re going to see you again, Verde?”
Verde: “Definitely. But I think you all could use some time to get… acclimated to these changes before I throw more crazy nonsense your way.”
Babs: “You could say that again. I’m still half expecting to wake up and realize that this was all a wack-ass dream..”
Zoe: “The memories alone are a… lot to take in.”
Maxxie: “It’s not too late to ask Verde to ka-girl ya, Zoe.”
Shiaka: “He might have a ‘girly’ name, at least how it’s written, but I don’t think Zoe here is an ‘egg.’”
Zoe: “I would be interested in spending a week as a female version of myself— at some time in the future— For the time being though, I simply want to focus on school. Once that’s done, then we can resume this topic.”
Verde: “Oh? Now you’re giving me all sorts of ideas, Zoe.”
Jade: “Based on what she’s done in the past, that’s at least mildly worrying.”
Verde: “Hey… Nah, you’re right. But worry not, such festivities shall be delayed until the summer. In the meantime, all your memories have been collated and restored, so I think the only thing left to do is send you back to the world you always called home. But, per your democratic consensus, I would like to make a few changes.”
Verde: “I’d like to roll things back to the morning of April 6th so that you can enjoy your week properly. Rewrite history so that everybody outside of this room believes that Jade and Terra were always female. And bring Caroline back home from her vacation, so she can spend some good mommy-daughter time together with Jade.”
Caroline: “Cripes, I didn’t even think about that. Thank you for the suggestion, Verde..”
Terra: “But… What about my mom and dad? Will they think I’ve always been like this?”
Verde: “Oh yeah, they’re still a thing, aren’t they?
Babs: “What does that mean? They’re away on business for over half the year, but they’re still—”
Verde: “I’ll add them to the exempt list. Any other problems?”
Shiaka: “…Haruki is going to make so many bad harem jokes because I’m in a friend group with three girls and one boy, but I suppose that she does not need to know.”
Verde: “Okay, the reconstructive memory thing is a tricky subject. We’ll do a trial run on all of these changes and I’ll get back to you all on… May 29th?”
Maxxie: “…Could we please mess around with the VD again? That thing was—”
Zoe: “We will ask Verde on May 29th. For now, let’s focus on supporting Jade and Terra after their transformation, in addition to finishing high school.”
Maxxie: “Fiiiine. In that case, Maxxie gives you a plump oll korrect on the rollback, rewrite, and reposition hoopla! All opposed, speak now or forever hold your peace!”
Three seconds of silence then passed, with none of the other six voters saying a word.
Jade: “I guess that settles it then. We’ll see you once we’re high school graduates then.”
Zoe: “Technically, we’re not graduates until our graduation on June 1st.”
Maxxie: “Nobody cares! Work your magic and take us home, Verde!”
Verde: “Kay.”
Following that flippant affirmation, Verde snapped her fingers. She could have just had the seven wake up in their beds, but Verde was something of a trickster and had a more unique means of sending these people back to their home world. From snapping her fingers, the front door slammed open, revealing a frothing mass of tentacles, all piling on top of each other and desperately pushing against the doorframe in a bid for dominance. After a moment of hesitation, the moist green tendrils slithered beyond one another, lurching forward and toward and onto the humans before them.
The tentacles grabbed wherever they could. Arms, legs, torsos, heads, they did not care. Then, once their grip was firm, they thrust themselves backward into the doorway, pulling their victims away from the pleasantness of a suburban home and into an unknowable black.
It took less than five seconds for all seven to be consumed and, without a second of waste, the door then closed, leaving Verde standing by her lonesome, a smug expression on her face.
Verde: “Heh. I love when I can do good and be an asshole at the same time. And now that my chores are done, I can finally do what I’ve been waiting 8 years to do! Enjoy some R&R back at home.”
Verde then walked through the emptied living room before arriving at a curio cabinet filled with all manner of knick-knacks and mementos. There were dozens in this cabinet, yet she was only interested in one. A snow globe featuring two sets of four people, staring down one another, standing on rocky snow-covered terrain. On its base read the following: “Shard 17 will only make sense if you read Psycho Bullet Festival 2222.”
With a smirk, Verde threw the snow globe against the wall where, instead of shattering into a mess of glycol, plastic, and glass, it created a door-sized green portal. A portal that Verde walked through with zero hesitation, only for it to close less than a second later.
The Dominance of Abigale Quinlan Main Page
Shard 00: The Novus Logs Volumes 1 & 2
Shard 01: 108 Days Later
Shard 02: Melancholic Mundanity
Shard 03: Another Day; Another Doubt
Shard 04: Fractured Family
Shard 05: Troublesome Tuesday
Shard 06: Despair And Die
Shard 07: The Enigmatic Sickness
Shard 08: The Erotic Fantasy (Osananajimi;Myself Part 3700)
Shard 09: The Egregious Downfall
Shard 10: The Oransen High Massacre
Shard 11: The Dark Metamorphosis
Shard 12: The Dominant Reflection
Shard 13: My Life As Jadigale Novus
Shard 14: Fade Unto Dusk
Shard 15: Re;Birth Unto Jade
Shard 16: Gender Reveal Party
Shard 17: Enter The Three Wives (Psycho Bullet Festival 2222 – Bout 21-2)
Shard 18: Novus X – Ten Years Later