Serene

"That self-centered fuck," Serene growled, pacing back and forth across the green and looking her most unapproachable to keep the people bustling around the farm from bothering her. "Who does he think he is, ordering me around like that?"

"I mean, you are his apprentice, to be fair," Catcher said, standing beside her with arms crossed, brows raised with incredulous amusement.

Serene shot the dead Artisan a withering glare. "I won't put up with it."

Catcher smiled. "Good. You shouldn't." Someone walked right through him, making his body scatter into smoke, then slide closer as he congealed back into human shape—right in front of her so she was forced to stop. He fixed her deeply with those big earnest eyes of his. "You know what I think of this whole idea. Maybe you should just call it off. Make a clean break."

"Yeah, maybe." She knew she was just spewing hot air, though. However much she disliked the man, One-Eye was right. If she didn't spend her time working for him, what exactly would she do with herself? Besides, there was something comforting about knowing that she could finally be useful in some way—truly useful—not just living for the next hit of smoke or slug of vodka.

Catcher's brows knitted together in concern, his eyes never leaving hers. He knew what she was thinking. Of course he did—he was a figment of her imagination, after all. "There are other ways to be useful, you know," he spoke softly.

"For an Entertainer whose only talents are lying and fucking?" Serene shot back. "Tell me, what did you have in mind exactly?"

"You could do what you've always wanted to do. Be a singer. Give people some hope in these dark times."

Serene laughed in his face. "That's funny! You're a real moron, you know that?"

Someone gave her a sideways look as she passed, evidently disturbed that Serene was having an animated discussion with the air, but Serene's hard stare quickly got her moving along. Tired of people looking at her like she was crazy, she went ahead and cast Illusion to create an exact copy of the Catcher she saw in her head so that everyone else would be able to see what she did. Most of the time she was trying to keep it from happening accidentally, but this time she just didn't care. If One-Eye saw her talking with ghosts and decided he didn't like it, he could just go ahead and fuck himself sideways.

"I'm serious," Catcher said. He looked hurt—that soft, pretty face of his tight with sadness. She felt a pang of guilt seeing that expression on him, even though she knew he wasn't real and that she was being beyond silly for giving it a second thought.

"I know you're serious," she replied. "That's why I'm calling you a moron."

"Why not at least consider it? What would be so bad about trying?"

"The Frontier doesn't need singers. It needs steel."

"Don't let One-Eye turn you into a killer. It won't help you sleep better at night."

"I'm already a killer."

"No you're not."

Serene snorted. "Yeah, sure. And besides, whoever said I want to sleep better?"

"Princess, you…"

"Ah, look at that." Her attention was fixed on the kid rounding the corner of the farmhouse and scurrying across the yard with all the frenetic energy of a fleeing rabbit, clutching a bloody knife in his hand.

"You don't suppose he used that on anyone, do you?" Catcher asked, watching the same thing she was now, a concerned frown forming.

Serene gave the Artisan a quick glance and smirked. "I find it unlikely. That one doesn't have the guts to try anything with One-Eye."

"I dunno. Looks can be deceiving."

"Seriously?" Serene let her eyes follow the gangly young man as he jumped at shadows, going seemingly nowhere in particular aside from getting as far from One-Eye as possible. "He's completely spineless. A coward."

Catcher shrugged. "So was I."

"That isn't true, and you know it."

"Sure it is," he said with a bright laugh. "I was a coward all the time. You just happened to see me the one day I actually decided to stand up and do something."

Serene didn't say anything to that.

"So maybe take it easy on the kid, yeah? You never know who's going to step up to the plate." He gave her a long, significant look. "That includes you too, princess. You're never gonna find any meaning in your life if you don't go looking."

"Just leave me alone," Serene muttered.

"You don't need to do what he tells you."

She ended the Illusion with a wave of her hand, and Catcher vanished. Through an effort of will, she managed to keep his voice from appearing in her mind. Turning away from the young man scuttling among the party preppers with a sigh, she figured she'd try to track down Sam since they hadn't gotten to talk properly.

Now, where is that big dope? Serene craned her neck this way and that to see past all the people milling about, figuring someone with Sam's height couldn't be difficult to spot. Even so, she didn't—

"Cherryyy!"

Serene was suddenly enfolded in an iron hug and lifted clean off the ground, shrieking while Sam laughed boisterously. Then she was spinning around in circles, air whipping about her face, going over her eyes and into her mouth, and her attempt to wrest the Laborer's clasped arms free was completely ineffectual, unable to budge her powerful grip even a fraction of an inch.

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"Let me go, you psycho!" Serene howled.

Sam kept laughing, and only set her down when Serene was about to be sick with the dizziness. Let back onto the grass, she stumbled drunkenly while fixing her reeling vision on the taller woman, trying—and no doubt failing—to exude stern disapproval.

"Oopsie," Sam said once she saw how wobbly Serene had gotten and put a hand out to steady her. "I might have gotten a little too excited there. It's just we barely had time to catch up before, so I got to feeling a little grabby."

Serene took a few moments to regain her bearings and extracted several wet hair strands from the corner of her mouth. "You're on thin ice, babe," she said and jabbed an accusatory finger at her.

Sam gave an excessively innocent grin. "I'll behave, I promise." Hands on her broad, powerful hips, she asked: "So, what did Will want with you and Oatmeal? Wait, let me guess—it's a secret?"

Serene chuckled. "It's a secret," she confirmed.

Sam rolled her eyes dramatically. "Uggghhh. He can be such a little weirdo sometimes."

"Tell me about it."

But Sam quickly let it go with a shrug, and her usual grin returned in full force, even more mischievous than usual. "So…!" she said in a sing-song voice, wiggling her body suggestively. "Notice anything different about me?"

Serene squinted as she gave the big girl a more thorough once-over. Noticing her sheet, she said: "Oh shit, you hit Level 10! Congrats!" She was only a little bitter that Sam had gotten to Level 10 after only a few months on the Frontier, when she had spent years there only to plateau at seven.

Sam got a smug look. "Heeheehee."

"And you branched into… Trader?"

"Yuppers."

Serene thought about it for a second. "I… guess that makes sense." Which led her to the next obvious change as she was at perfect eye level with Sam's suspiciously well-rounded chest. "You put points in Appeal."

"You're on a roll!"

Serene gave her friend's breasts an appraising squeeze and hummed with approval at the soft handfuls. "Damn, these are nice."

"Right!?" Sam exclaimed, proudly sticking out her chest to provide full access for Serene's continued poking and prodding.

"Do you know where else the points went?"

"Um, I dunno really. Maybe that's it?" She took over for Serene by cupping her breasts pensively, looking philosophical.

"Actually," Serene said, "let me see that smile of yours."

"Whuh, hhuh uhh?" Sam asked—whatever that meant—through clenched teeth bared in an exaggerated full-face grimace.

It confirmed what she'd suspected. Her teeth were somehow even more blinding than before, almost shining like something out of a toothpaste commercial. Looking at it too closely left Serene blinking, dazed at the sheer brilliance of it.

"God, please put those away. You're going to burn my eyes out at this rate."

"Is it that bad?" Sam asked. She didn't stop grinning, though.

"It's like you swallowed a fucking flashlight."

"Heh. Nice."

"It's genuinely disturbing."

Sam just smiled wider, showing off those pearly whites and her long, pointed canines with obnoxious pride.

"What's your boyfriend think about all this?" Serene asked, trying to change the topic to take some of her attention away from that blinding smile. It was… mesmerizing.

"Ugh, he was so lukewarm about it!" Sam stomped her foot like a petulant child and said: "He touched my tits and just said: 'nice'." putting on a dull voice and making a stupid face for the last part.

"Oof. That's cold."

"I know he likes 'em, though. He's just being emotionally constipated about it. You know how Will is."

"I do."

Sam got a faraway look in her eyes as she stared off into the sky, her smile taking on a note of fond softness. "I love him."

"He's an asshole," Serene pointed out.

"Yeahhh…" Sam said in an altogether too dreamy tone. "So fucking hot."

Serene just kept her mouth shut, swallowing back another snide comment.

"He's been really bossy lately, you know?" Sam went on. "Like, even more than usual. It's getting pretty hard to pretend I hate it."

"You're into that kind of thing, huh?" Serene asked with a sigh. She shrugged. "Guess I'm not one to judge."

After they'd caught up for a bit, Sam helped the chimps carry some crates, then they headed inside the farmhouse so Serene could say hi to Sunny. She had only met the little girl a few times before, and it still felt extremely strange to see a child on the Frontier.

Ember, Sunny's so-called 'aunt', and Annie, another whore from the Red House, were both there fussing over the girl. It was Annie's first time meeting Sunny. Apparently, she'd had no idea about Sunny even though the girl had spent her whole life inside the walls of the Red House, since her existence had been kept only to a close inner circle.

Sam seemed to think that Serene would hit it off well with the two whores, but Serene knew immediately it wouldn't go that way, and was quickly proven right. The Red House was one of the most prestigious whorehouses in Sheerhome, the Headmistress's crown jewel, while she was of a much more humble class of whore from Boulder's little stable. The class disparity was immediately apparent. Ember and Annie treated her like she was a turd smeared on the sidewalk, and she wasn't exactly in the mood to appeal to their egos, so she cast an Illusion targeting the two of them specifically where she told them to go deepthroat a shotgun in so many words without the little girl overhearing.

That put a real damper on the mood. Sam, unsure what was going on since she couldn't perceive the auditory Illusion, was forced to haul Annie aside when she tried to slap Serene, and afterward went with Serene outside while sheepishly apologizing, though she still clearly had no idea how things had devolved so quickly.

"Don't worry about it, babe," Serene said with a bitter twist of a smile. "There's politics to everything—even fucking."

Sam frowned deeply as she hopped off the porch like she was contemplating the mysteries of the universe. "I just… don't get it. Ember is usually so nice."

Serene accepted the hand Sam offered to help her down the ledge into the yard. "Yeah, well, you might not know this since you're so stupid friendly, but like your boyfriend, I tend to rub some people the wrong way. What happened in there was probably my fault."

Sam tried to protest—the angel—but Serene just cut her off. "Speaking of which, I should go talk to him. He owes me a bit of an explanation after the errands he's had me running."

He was still out behind the farmhouse, except now he was with a different man—that ugly scar-faced one with the metal limbs—and it looked like One-Eye was having a little spat of his own, because he was wiping his bloody nose with the back of his hand while watching the other man warily.

"You get that one free," Will said. "Now, I hope you got whatever you're dealing with out of your system, because I'll be expecting you to cooperate from now on."

The scarred Laborer looked like he wanted to hit Will again, or scream, or something of that nature, an angry red flush taking over his face and creeping down his veiny neck. In the end, though, he did not move except to tremble with rage on the spot, his one fist opening and closing while the prosthetic one hung slack by his side.

Will did not look up, but called out to Serene regardless, saying: "Ah! Good that you're here—I was just about to call for you."

"Let me guess, you've got some other busywork you're looking to dump on me," she grumbled as she approached, watching the stranger warily and making sure to remain out of easy reach of him since he looked pretty much unhinged.

Will smiled. "I don't know if I'd call it busywork, but I do have another job for you."

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