Chapter 1: Arc 0: Prologue

“Hey! Hands off, brat!” the aged man shouted into the corner of his small corner shop.

The dainty hands that grabbed onto a chocolate bar stopped, then slowly appeared to return it to the shelf.

“Sorry, it’s just… You know,” the woman retreated with awkward laughter, flicking away a clump of dark-brown strands that went in front of her eyes, “I can’t help myself sometimes.”

“If I didn’t know, I’d be calling the police already. In fact, Vardium police could’ve taken you away a dozen times by now,” he replied, dropping back into his seat behind the counter, “If you’re not going to buy anything else, just get over here and pay for it, before you get tempted to steal again.”

“Yes, Mr Adams,” the young woman replied in a monotone voice, as if addressing a teacher.

“It’s just Jim to you, brat,” Mr Adams snapped back, though his voice lacked aggression or any particular displeasure, “How’s college? You still staying with that guy?”

“They’ve rejected my request to move three times already, and told me that the fourth would be met with a cease and desist letter,” she sighed, placing her basket onto the counter, “’Your request is highly unnecessary and simply indicate that you must do more to get acquainted with your roommate,’ and definitely not that he is a complete jerk who just has to make me uncomfortable at every opportunity… So much for the capital of the world.”

“Vardium is fine on its own, but I can see that some places aren’t… ideal,” Jim muttered, quickly going through every item the woman had brought, “I’m sure you’ll get through it, Bianca. You’re a good kid, from what I’ve seen.”

“I’m 21.”

“Still a kid. My son’s older than you,” Mr Adams shook his head before turning to glance at the total amount, “Five forty-five. I’d have given you a discount, but-”

“I couldn’t control myself, I know… sorry,” Bianca apologised, looking down to avoid his gaze.

“One day, you’ll get that problem of yours under control, I’m sure of it. I’ll make sure to help you out even if your parents remain distant,” Jim smiled as he accepted the coins removed from her purse, “Now, get out there, get some fresh air, and remember that you only have two years to go. You’ve managed the first one and a half, so it should be no trouble.”

“Sure, Mr Adams,” she replied somewhat sarcastically, accepting the bag with her day’s shopping, “See you tomorrow.”

“See ya, brat.”

The door opened with the ring of a quiet bell, and Bianca stepped outside with one hand holding the small bag, while the other gripped a cheap chocolate bar within her pocket. As the wind rushed through her hair and the setting evening sun illuminated her features, one could clearly see her cheeks flushing with a vivid ruby tone.

She tried to quickly contain her smile and move away from the store, before the owner could guess that she had stolen something again, but he rarely seemed to notice.

Rather, her cheeks blushed because of a mixture of shame and excitement, both of which were rather embarrassing to show to others. The few times she had seen that look upon herself, at times where a mirror was nearby or it was convenient to pull out her phone and check her appearance, it made her think of the time she had stumbled onto a porn site when she was only a teenager, and the lengthy talk she had to have with her parents afterwards.

When she got to the end of the street and got out her phone, a flat yet rigid thing no thicker than her nails, a quick check with the front-facing camera confirmed her inappropriate appearance.

‘I think it’s getting worse. The urge has never been this strong, and the feeling afterward…’ she lightly slapped her cheek with the hand that wasn’t holding the bag, ‘It’s almost like arousal at this point… Good thing it doesn’t flare up more often.’

She had found that ignoring the sensation afterward tended to work best, so she pushed her worry out of her head and simply proceeded down the streets, back to her college dorm. It wasn’t a long walk, rarely taking more than twenty minutes, but the quiet streets, the rustling of leaves from the trees planted on the roadside, and the occasional chirp of a bird made for a pleasant atmosphere – plenty to distract her mind.

Soon, the red faded from her light skin, and she looked just as she had when she left for the small store. Clad in a light white blouse and a loose red cardigan, as well as a medium-length grey skirt and black flats to abide by Rowiem College’s minimal dress regulations, the warm breeze of Antanian autumn provided her with a welcome reprieve from the relative warmth of Adams’ so-called Supermarket.

It did little to mess up her long brown hair, either, though that was because there was little to mess up. She had never been good with styling her hair, so everything was simply long and loose, with bangs to ensure that it didn’t get into her face quite as often as it did… that part didn’t really work out.

When a stronger gust of wind blew another strand into her eyes, she paused to get it out of the way, only to spot an old man sitting on the side of the road, dressed in rags.

Bianca was ready to walk past the man, as he seemed to be asleep and probably better off away from a kleptomaniac, but just as she got near, he woke up and looked directly at her. He raised his arm lethargically, calling out to her.

“Young woman, can you offer me some food? Anything will do,” he spoke quietly.

Naturally, she paused, but she had little to offer. Her shopping included such delicacies as carbonated water and biscuits, enough to deserve as snacks for a day or two, but she had paid for it with her own money and didn’t really want to throw it away, whether it went to a good cause or not. She also wasn’t sure whether it would be a good idea for the old man to eat any of the things she had with her, but she could always leave it to him to decide.

As she thought, her hand snuck into her cardigan pocket, involuntarily clasping her latest prize from Adams’ Supermarket.

‘Well, I didn’t pay for it, and I didn’t even want it all that much, so… I guess passing it along would be better than holding onto it. Might also help me keep my calorie consumption down,’ Bianca bit her lip for a moment as she thought, then removed the chocolate bar and held it out, “Here. It’s all I have-”

“Oh, this… it was my favourite, back in 2010… oh, to be young again,” the man took it eagerly.

‘It’s 2064 now, so he was born over 54 years ago? He looks… a little older than that. Time must not have been kind to him,’ Bianca thought, letting go and looking at the man’s face.

It was worn and wrinkled, his hair was completely white and the hints of a beard were no darker. From a glance, one could imagine him to be nearly a hundred, but his voice did suggest a little more youth and vitality… probably. Bianca barely paid attention to men’s appearances, so it was hard to assess anything at a glance.

“Let me tell you, back in the day, Antania was at its peak! You could get a candy like this for a single saryte, a small silver coin back then… Ah, nowadays, they’ve got this new design, and it’s so inconvenient to hold…” the old man rambled, making it a little difficult to walk away.

She didn’t exactly mind listening to people, but she had wanted to get back to the dorm before the asshole that occupied it with her did the same. As such, she was prepared to walk away the moment she found a chance to do so, but as if the old man realised her intentions, he looked directly at her, gazing into her eyes. When compared with his earlier look, it was a little uncomfortable.

“I’m thankful for your help. Would you like to have a token of my youth?”

“A… token?”

“Yes, I think…” he went through his own pockets, taking a moment before he found a small card, akin to a playing card in shape, “Here it is! A small card from a game I used to play… oh, it was so long ago.”

“Game? Oh, like a trading card game? I’ve heard of those. Roz mentions them sometimes,” Bianca recalled, finding that the card did look a bit like those her friend had showed off, “What game is this one from?”

“It was so long ago that I can’t recall. Still, this was a favourite of mine. I’ll never play it again, so… you’ll probably make better use of it, regardless of what you do,” the old man passed it to her, face up, letting her take it and look upon the name, “Back in the day, I thought that the art was so cool. Ha… I remember it like it was yesterday…”

Letting him focus on his own memories, she read the card’s name, ‘Blazing Crimson Skull of Shadow… yeah, that sounds as silly as most of the games I’d seen. No description, though, so I have no idea what this would have been for…’

The design of the card was very fitting for its name. It depicted a large skull with horns and sharp teeth, wreathed in shadow while a vivid crimson blaze burned within. It was rather excessive in her eyes, but she was likely not in the target demographic to begin with. Presumably, the young lads and lasses of the time would have been incredibly happy with it, or else the thing wouldn’t have come in colour and remained in such a good state even all these years later, when printing technology hadn’t come far enough to make it trivial to produce such things.

Then again, it might have been a failed attempt to capitalise on some market that became too expensive to maintain, but she wouldn’t know.

Her classes in college were focused on art and bit of the foundational stuff, not on the history of printing, old card games and whatever it was people were doing back in 2010. If her dad was to be trusted, they were doing drugs and eating fast food, but his testimony was a little suspect given that he was born in 2016.

“… anyway, I wouldn’t want to waste your time any longer. Thank you again, young lady.”

“Thanks, uh… old man,” Bianca quickly returned to her original route, speeding up her strides to make up for some of the lost time.

She didn’t intend to run and tire herself out, so there was no chance of getting back on schedule fully, but it was the best she could do. Either way, she would have to run into her roommate, and either way, she would probably get pissed off by his very existence. Hence, it was almost better not to rush too much, as it would ensure that she would spent a little more time away from that irritating, stupid, arrogant-

 

Rowiem College was named after a legendary figure in history, the man that discovered the last six planets of the star system and confirmed, for the very first time, that Orbis orbited Primus, the star that currently illuminated Antanian soil.

However, the place itself wasn’t especially prestigious, whether in the world or Antania. At best, it ranked somewhere in the middle. The teachers were decent, the buildings were somewhat recent and structurally sound, though not especially impressive in any regard, and the last time a famous figure emerged from it was back in 1952, a short while before the Greatest War began.

Bianca lacked any objections with those things, though. She understood that she couldn’t get into a better place with a criminal record, even if it was purely due to her kleptomania, and she was generally satisfied with what she’d gotten – except for the college dorms.

Those were decent if one looked purely at the buildings. There was plenty for every student in them, and they were comfortable, warm and nicer to be in than her own home had been, even if that was mostly due to the absence of her parents. The biggest issue was the – apparently recent – decision that co-ed dorms were the way of the future, and that every single student had to be placed with one of the opposite sex.

She was comfortable being around men, even if she would have preferred the older policy, but the guy she’d been paired with proved to be the absolute worst.

When she came in and found that he wasn’t in, she nearly did a little dance, though she knew better than to waste her time like that. Bianca hurried to the bed and dropped off her shopping bag, grabbing the carbonated water from within and opening it quickly. Sitting down on the soft mattress, she treated herself to a mouthful and simply relaxed.

And then, she heard the bathroom door opening.

‘Oh, fuck no… wait, that doesn’t sound like-’ she was interrupted by a figure appearing in her view, a young woman at roughly her age, with blond hair, big boobs – impressively big, she had to note – and an hourglass figure that would make some models jealous.

Bianca herself had a decent enough body, especially thanks to her seeming inability to build up excess fat, but that wasn’t the problem.

“Oh, you’re the stud’s roommate? He’s such a wonder, isn’t he?” the blond bimbo exclaimed.

“I already hear enough from him while he ‘takes a break’ in the bathroom, so please stop,” she screwed the cap back on to her bottle of water, just in case she decided to throw it at the other woman, “Is he out right now?”

“He was going to get a few more condoms for us. We ran through all of them,” the blonde giggled, ignoring Bianca’s cringing, “Steve should be getting back right about-”

The door opening interrupted both of them, and prompted Bianca to jump up from her comfortable seat and put everything she had into her cupboard, while she still had time. Composing herself around her roommate was… beyond challenging, and she wouldn’t want to waste her hard-earned food supplies, so to speak.

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That did bring her nearly face to face with Steve, whose arrogant grin and infuriating stance made her hate him from the core of her soul. In her eyes, this monster was the amalgamation of all things wrong with men, and it was difficult to restrain the urge to punch him – though it would be difficult to do much against him when she was essentially a twig.

“Ah, hi Bia. How’re things?”

“It’s Bianca, you piece of shit.”

“What do you mean? I take such good care of the place,” Steve said, though his gaze was already on the blonde behind Bianca, “I don’t know why you have to be so angry all the time. It’s only that time of the month-”

“Don’t you start. I thought being in heat was only temporary, yet you apparently can’t help yourself! More importantly, do you have to bring everyone here, as if this is your nest or something? I’m sure all of the women have their own rooms, even that slut there, so go bother their roommates instead of me!” Bianca spoke back, pointing without hesitation at the blond woman behind her, “Worst of all, you still find time to jack off in between all this, making more of a mess of the place. How can you survive with all your blood flowing down there?”

“Hey, I’m just a friendly guy and I don’t want to bother others-”

“Like you don’t bother me, right? Fuck off already!” she could barely maintain whatever semblance of calmness she had prior to this, and before she could reconsider it, she tried to punch him.

 

“Ah… at least he missed the nose,” Bianca sighed as she held her hand, cooled a little by the water from the public bathroom’s sink, against a bruise on her face, “Ow… How have I never lost a tooth after one of these?”

The question wasn’t meant to reach a single soul, for the public women’s toilets were essentially abandoned within an hour after classes ended. Even if they were kept clean and tidy, most preferred to head over to their own rooms, or to the rooms of their friends, meaning that on most days, the only person she could run into would be a cleaner working an odd shift.

This time, however, the door was opened by a woman of her own age. Her hair was dark, dyed frequently and effectively, and her grey eyes gazed past the large amount of hair obstructing her right eye, quickly settling on Bianca.

“Ah, hey! Didn’t think you’d be here… again. How’s life?”

“What do you think, Roz? That jerk decided to bring some other bimbo over, so he’ll be keeping me awake and thoroughly disgusted today as well,” Bianca breathed slowly to keep her calm, “At least the ventilation is decent, or else I’d have to smell all that… Ugh, makes me nauseous just thinking about it.”

“I’d suggest not doing that, then,” Roz – short for Rosalinde, though the full variant only saw use in official documents and the occasional formal situation – came closer, walking up to the nearest sink and looking into the wall-length mirror to adjust her hair, “What is it, fifth time you’ve ended up trying to hit him? I’m surprised he’s not done any actual damage yet.”

“Guess I’m lucky. All the fat I eat goes to the boobs, and all the punches I take go to the left of the nose.”

“Shut it, show-off,” Roz flicked Bianca’s shoulder with a smile, “Just because you can’t be bothered to go to the gym doesn’t mean you get to make up fanciful excuses. I swear, I’ll get you all hot and sweaty one day.”

Although the context made the meaning of her words obvious, Bianca’s mind dwelled in a different direction, her cheeks getting red at the thought. It was subtle, but not something Roz could overlook.

“Aw, you look cute when you do that. Is Lia not taking care of you?”

“Lia is… we’re not really… together, not for a while,” she involuntarily looked down and away, “I mean, she’s hot and all… really hot, actually… but we’ve not really been… um… getting along with one another. Yeah, that’s about right…”

“Oh, I’m sorry. C’mere, you lovely thing,” Roz didn’t give her much of a choice and hugged her, her breasts enveloping Bianca’s arm. Her warmth quickly spread throughout Bianca’s body, dispelling the unpleasant feelings that had welled up within her, and prompted her to return the hug only a moment later.

She tried not to think too much about Roz’s soft boobs, but the only thing that came to mind was to reach down with one hand and place it on her ass – a thing she ended up doing rather quickly.

“Naughty girl. Want me to make your day much~ better?” Roz offered, breathing into Bianca’s ear.

“Uhm, well… tomorrow, sure,” she agreed, struggling to comprehend how things moved forward this quickly, but not at all against the idea. Frankly, the day was moving along far more quickly than usual, and she still felt the bruise from Steve’s earlier punch, and the tiredness in her legs from the slow jog to the dorms, and now a long-time friend was suddenly offering something that – provided she understood her correctly – she hadn’t gotten in… a while.

That’s how she would describe it, anyway.

“Tomorrow? We could do something right now,” she withdrew a little and looked around, “No-one’s here, and it’s unlikely anyone will show up.”

“Yeah, but… public bathroom. It’s not the… best place.”

Understanding appeared in Roz’s expression, “Oh, right. It isn’t that dirty, but I suppose I shouldn’t argue with the germophobe incarnate.”

“I would just prefer not to linger in a place like this for longer than I have to, and to not get infected with anything while I’m here. I still recall what happened to that one girl,” Bianca shivered at the thought, while Roz did not.

“That… babe, that was fifty years ago. Hygiene standards have gotten a little better since then.”

“Then let’s just pretend that I’m into a more romantic mood, with a nice bed and candles and all that. Would that be better?”

She shrugged and finally parted from the hug, “Yeah, sure. It’s probably for the best. Tomorrow after class?”

“Is your roommate going off on another hike tomorrow?”

“Of course he is… and his name is Michael. I think I have literally reminded you every single day we meet up,” Roz pulled out her dark red lipstick and quickly applied a fresh layer, “Anyway, we’ll have around four or five hours to ourselves, so if you wanna watch an episode or two of a new show, I’d be down with that too. I have some ice cream hidden away too.”

“We’ll discuss that tomorrow. My head still hurts a bit…” Bianca felt the mark on her face, finding it to hurt more than she was used to after small fights like this, “Oh, by the way, is the situation with your mother still-”

“Yep, so shut it.”

The pause was uncomfortable, but thankfully brief, as the negative air from Roz was replaced with her earlier cheery energy.

“Anyway, I hope you have a nice night. If Steve doesn’t let you sleep again, I’ll have a stern word with him. He listened the last time – for about a day or two, of course, but that’s still something – so you’ll get a break then,” she smiled and went in close, their noses nearly touching, “We’ll meet up tomorrow, and have the best day ever. ‘Kay?”

“Su-”

All of a sudden, Roz went in for a kiss, pressing her lips against Bianca’s own. It was brief and chaste, and yet it made Bianca’s heart flutter, and her body grow hot. If the feeling from stealing a chocolate bar was to be rated as a two, this was an eight or nine… out of fifty, a hundred, perhaps.

Bianca might have been young and relatively inexperienced, but she wasn’t a complete virgin with no understanding of love and lust beyond the regular kiss.

Nonetheless, it was the best thing to happen today. Roz drew back with a smile, waving as she left the bathroom and headed off to do her own things. Her departure left Bianca on her own, where she remained frozen in place for an uncertain period of time. It felt like half an hour passed, though she suspected it might have been only a few seconds,

She turned back to the mirror, intending to wash her hands a final time before leaving, and found lipstick staining her lips.

‘I can’t wait for tomorrow.’

 

It turned out her thoughts had been more literal than she’d anticipated. After cleaning her lips and making herself a bit more presentable, she stepped outside the bathroom and was met with the final rays of the setting evening sun.

Her path back to the dorms was lit by those rays, fading as she finally returned to her room. With a press of the light switch, she lit up the main living area and found a white stain on the wooden floor.

‘Is that… oh, that gross bastard!’ she was enraged internally, but her external focus was on which side of the room the stain was on. The right belonged to her, and since she thought of herself as the better person, she wouldn’t break the initial agreement to keep to their own sides of the room when cleaning, even if the intended meaning was a little different from her particular interpretation. Using her hand to roughly separate the room, she smiled as she confirmed it.

‘On the other side, so I don’t have to touch anything that came out of that waste of space,’ she nodded to herself, glancing up at the air vents, ‘The ventilation in here is also decent, so it doesn’t ruin the air in here. They seem to have gone somewhere again, so… I should get to sleep before they come back and make that impossible.’

There wasn’t any homework or assignments left for the day, so she was able to get right on that, rushing past her routine at a staggering speed, even to herself.

 

In bed, Bianca brought out her phone and quickly opened a private tab in the web browser, navigating to her adult website of choice. She didn’t intend to relieve her lust today, but filling her head with images of pretty, naked women seemed to make her sleep significantly better than on any days when she couldn’t find the opportunity for this.

She only scrolled through a few images before deeming it sufficient, switching the device off and placing it on her bed stand. Then, with the room dark and quiet, she snuggled up beneath her covers, dressed only in her underwear.

The peace did not last. Keeping track of time while drifting towards sleep was hard, so all she knew was that before the embrace of sleep could claim her, the door was practically kicked open, and her roommate returned with some woman amidst a loud, sloppy kiss. They didn’t hesitate to go inside, barely managing to shut the door behind them, and rushed to his bed, clothes audibly dropping from their bodies.

‘Oh fuck no! Why did he have to come in now, of all times?’ she asked herself, though she wasn’t about to talk with him and prolong her suffering. Bianca had already been close to falling asleep, so she believed that she only needed a little more time to cross that line and get away from the awful male groans, scents and all the other things that made the situation so unpleasant for her.

Flipping over on the bed, turning away from those two, she covered her ears with her pillow as best she could, managing to quieten the noise just a little.

It was difficult, but she succeeded. Even with the cacophony occurring behind her, she finally managed to sleep, and rid herself of the distractions. She was sure that she’d find the guy again tomorrow, and be freshly infuriated, but that didn’t need to bother her right now. Right now, she had peace.

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