White box

Late Bloomer

That day had set up a routine, they didn't discuss it, it just happened. Stephanie practiced, Purple listened with the same enjoyment he always had, then she had a mug of hot chocolate, then she went to sleep and her astral self fell into his arms.

Now Stephanie could judge no one. In reality, she was still a virgin, would likely stay one for forever, but the dreams were something--

"So it worked out fine, huh?" Carl commented.

It didn't take her long to figure what he meant, but-- "How can you tell?" She asked in a fluster. Was she looking oddly happy?

"Your aether amount has almost doubled within a few days," Carl said.

Ugh. Aaaaagh. So Purple was pulling on her the same stuff Marcus was pulling on Bill.

"I'm very proud of you," he added with honest approval. Even more apparent than when she succeeded at making a potion. "If you gotta date, then why not the richest being there is?"

Stephanie's eyes became dead. "I'm not a moneysexual," she said.

Pff. Carl looked away. "Of course not, miss worm-lover."

Stephanie was red. "We're not doing it, when--"

"How do you like his worm-look by the way?" Carl asked, now more seriously.

"Uhh-- warm, soft, cute little feet?" Stephanie was moving her hand in a motion of squishing something as she recalled the feeling. Mhm, still a pity she couldn't touch those feet.

Carl had a distant look on his face, the borderline between internal screaming and dark amusement. "I see. I'm happy for you two."

Stephanie squinted at Carl-- well, he was saying something nice, but hnn, that look on his face just felt like even knowing that mythical beasts and other beings did have two forms didn't help with that 'you will get odd looks about your tastes' part.

But really he could have been a million times worse-- a warm, fuzzy and soft worm wasn't even anything she would list in the top 99% of awful he could have been if she let her imagination play on the theme of worms. Compared to all that he was cute-- cute oversized purple worm. She still felt like it would be nice to try sleeping on his back.

Friday morning came and Stephanie graduated from middle school. At graduation, Stephanie learned that, whew - she had passed it all with flying colors, even if she barely had any memory of what she wrote on those exams or how she played.

Parents left, she filled Marcus in about using a runestone, to which he made a sleep-deprived thumbs up and this runestone knocked her out for three days, but as she woke up, she now had the knowledge of altering aether in her voice to cast an illusion of what she sang about.

Stephanie was happy to be up a day early, Marcus was still alive, although she had eight artifacts waiting for her-- hmm, that's too much.

"Marcus, it's enough artifacts," Stephanie said. Although despite making so many, he didn't look so bad now, it looked like he had been going for runs to the temple to eat those pastries and the priest there fed him other stuff as well. Stephanie had no idea why he didn't order takeout, but perhaps that was better - getting some exercise in did him good. Maybe she shouldn't send him lunch to give him a reason to go out.

"I know," he said. "Can you ask Purple if there's something that would block a berserker curse from activating?"

Berserker curse? That made her curious and soon Marcus explained what sort of effect these artifacts had and wow-- there was no wonder Purple offered to sort things out and that he had figured it was Tharurun making them then. If they matched up with Marcus as a being, then-- yeah.