[TOC]

# Do You Believe In Magic?
->The Meandering Bratty Fic <-


* Burgerpants and 27 others shared a photo you're tagged in


Bratty turned her head towards the back of her chair, looking subtly down to her handbag as she inched her phone out. She raised from her slouch and immediately set her elbows down, fervently opening her screen and scrolling through her timeline to the notification. Twenty seven? She hadn't posted a selfie since she left the house. She never got that many shares in so little time. But her excited expression immediately soured when she actually saw the post. Her eyes drooped shut and she exhaled mindfully. The post had been from Catty- an image they'd taken together while they were getting into the car, with the cat awkwardly smushing the screen into her paws while struggling to keep them both in frame. Bratty managed to make a cameo just over her friend's shoulders, pudgy cat belly completely hiding the rest of her. 

"Me + @BiteyBratty about to head out to the mall 4 a shopping spree. Send love"


Close to a hundred likes. She didn't bother to scroll down to the comments - she never did - but she didn't need to. One hundred likes... posts like this from her barely scraped dozens. But why? The scaly space between her eyes narrowed as she held her phone in both hands. She took better care of herself. She was taller, she had way better taste in fashion - cut off overalls? Seriously? - and the clothes she did buy were STILL five sizes smaller... she bared her teeth to herself and brushed the short blonde fringe from her forehead.


Her arms wavered as she half-heartedly lifted her phone into the air, tilting it this way and that way trying to get the most flattering shot of herself - and keep as much of the junk food before her out of frame. She inhaled heavily and looked down at her top, idly tugging its collar and making sure she didn't have any prying eyes on her. The cafe was mostly empty, and the few filled seats were window seats just like hers, the occupants far more concerned with complaining about the coffee than looking at her. For once she was glad not to be noticed. Moving quickly, she tugged up the back of her bra and held their two cups in her hand, moving them up over her ribs and breathing in. Holding that breath, she did her best "Oh, I didn't even know the camera was on" hair swish.

She snapped about a half dozen pictures of herself. Deeply exhaling, she shook her head and held the phone close to her chest, thumbing through the photos to see if any were worth posting. Her muzzle curled into a very slight and very forced smile; she had managed to puff her chest up so much in some of them she even looked like she had... C-cups... yay. And these winter clothes were absolutely not helping. Thin as she was, pretty much any clothing that wasn't a crop top or a rubber suit looked baggy and unflattering on her. Catty could show off in anything; mostly because she couldn't fit in anything. She deleted them all and went back to the post... one hundred and *five* likes now...

"Sorry for being so long. Can you believe it? Toilets were totally flooded so I had to go all the way up the escalator to the one upstairs."

Bratty immediately flipped her phone face down on the table with a loud *pank*. She thumbed at the screen lock button and quickly turned her head to Catty, fixing her shirt and straightening her shoulders. Catty was approaching from a few empty tables down, still absentmindedly hiking her blue jeans up so that her furry gut wouldn't sag out under it hammocked by her shirt.

"Your phone okay?" She flicked her feline ears. Bratty quickly tucked it back into her bag and hiked the strap over her shoulder.
"Oh yeah. Just, like, dropped it." She made a hasty excuse for fumbling about with it and - briefly - hid the ping of guilt that shot through her. Catty wasn't THAT big... well... her eyes narrowed. "Like four sizes tops..."
"Huh? Say something?"
Bratty hastily waved her hand. "Uh, no?"

With a shrug Catty fixed her overstuffed, floral-pattern shirt, scooching into the narrow space between the chair and the table and setting herself right down in the middle. Anyone nearby could hear the leather chairs depressing to fit her. Bratty's eyes fell downward, seeing only a few torn up wrappers on her side that she must have forgotten to toss over the edge. With a few sweeps of her manicured fingers, she let them join the mess surrounding the two - someone else would clean it up, and if she found anything too solid to be pushed off, she'd found something to eat. Catty's side on the other hand was filled with scrunched up wrappers - apparently she liked to recycle them or something. But among them, Catty noticed-

"Ooh. Catty." She spoke with a level of excitement a bit higher than her usual twangy voice. "Can I have that burger?"
Looking up from her phone - probably reading the same alert her friend just had - the cat just shrugged. "Sure. I don't really feel hungry."
"Huh?" Bratty moved her eyes up from the burger she had already swiped from beneath a pile of paper. Her teeth sunk in and tore the thing in half before she could follow up. "Wha'sh that fee' 'ike?"

Yet another wrapper hit the floor and Bratty let herself sink into her chair. Her fingers tapped aimlessly on the table, and she looked out over the mini park area inside the mall. It was a freezing cold day even for winter. And that meant she had to swap out her usual open shoulders poncho thing - she didn't remember what the clerk called it - for a couple of sets of shirts she picked out from her closet with woolly jeans to match. They felt weird on her scales - but even she had to make fashion concessions. One concession she absolutely WOULDN'T make - even if it did mean freezing to death - was what the only person she could see outside had made. A long, flowing, frankly scruffy looking black cloak... cape... thing. The hunched figure by the fountain had his back turned, but from everything she could see, their palette was ruddy black upon muddy black upon cruddy black. "Must be one of those homeless squatters who hang around malls and beg for change", she thought, "didn't security kick those guys out?"

"Y'know." Catty said. "It's a good thing y'kept all those shirts intact. Mine wouldn't fit you, so you couldn't, like, borrow any."
"What?" Bratty looked away from the figure and came back to reality.
"Last time you wore those was when we went to that stupid beach party last summer. Y'remember?"
"Oooh, totally." She slung both her arms over her chair and tilted her head down. "So stupid. Guys think I'm gonna, like, pour water all over myself just because... uh. I don't know."
"'Cos you're sexy. Duh." Catty said. Bratty shrugged - it was a basic answer, but Catty was very good at giving those.
"Yeah, but there's tons of sexy girls on that beach those guys could’ve asked. They didn't ask you."
"Guess you're just the sexiest. You're the most popular girl I know."
"Or they just asked every one they thought was slutty enough... and that's not true. *You* know you, and you're the most popular girl *I* know." They both broke into giggles, but Bratty's trailed off far sooner. What she said was true. It was... too true. "Hey. Catty." She tugged at her many collars. "Y'don't think I'm like... a slut, right?"
Catty paused. Her cat eyes widening briefly, then narrowing to unimpressed semicircles. She lay her phone down and suppressed a sigh. "Brattyyy. Hun. We're, like, *not* gonna have this conversation again; you're whatever you wanna be. You're only a slut if you're sluttier than you wanna be." Her eyes went back to their usual, perpetually smiling expression, and she silently returned to her screen.

Bratty had had this conversation - or at least tried to - many times. The first few times she'd managed to get some more serious reassurance that, yeah, she was just that good, but now that sort of egoboost was harder to worm out, replaced with "just be yourself." But she knew she wasn't a slut. She always knew in the back of her mind - she didn't even show cleavage. She was even, like, a virgin. In a couple of ways at least. Hell, with how tight her outfits were, Catty was the way sluttier of the two, right? And she... got really popular on social media. And always got loads of shares and likes on even the most... trash... photograph. Bratty's eyes drifted back outside. The hobo wasn't there anymore.

"Where'd all that come from, huh?" Catty said as she gripped the sides of her tray and began to squeak out of her seat. "C'mon. Let's go somewhere else. You're getting bored or something."
"I think I wanna go see the fountain." She began to clear out herself, boots casually crunching discarded wrappers underfoot. "Wanna break all the ice like when we were kids?"
Catty smiled widely - as she often did - and quickly adjusted her belt line. "Totally."



Bratty was suddenly glad she came with so many layers. It was freezing! The mall was obviously full of wiser people than her, because as she looked around, she couldn't see a single person out. The fountain was the centerpiece of a large open area at the front of the mall usually filled with people heading from one store to another, with well-trimmed hedges giving an open view of the city. She could see the faint gold of the hometown trees in the distance.

"Oh no!" Catty gasped visibly patting herself down as she did. "I think I left my phone back at the cafe. I'll be right back, 'kay?"
Bratty flicked her wrists towards the cat. "Okay. I'll be right here. Y'can always borrow mine if y'need it."

The alligator suppressed a smile as Catty awkwardly jogged off, her clothes barely meant for her, much less for her running. She hung on what she said for a while. She almost tripped down the steps as she hurried towards the fountain, preoccupied with doubling over and rifling through her handbag. She'd remembered those texts she sent a few weeks ago; Catty would kill her if she knew she'd said all that. But really! Whether Catty liked it or not, she had to at least admit her sister *was* a bit of a weirdo. She fell onto the fountain and raised her shoulders around her neck, thumbs repeatedly fumbling the password.

Bratty's sharp-nailed fingers wound down as she straightened her back. She sat still for a moment before slowly turning to look over her shoulder. She had just known somehow. That hobo guy was back. But up close he didn't look so homeless. What she had once thought to be a cloak was actually just a really, really long suit coat that sprawled out over the stone. Its collar folded all the way down his chest over a yet darker undershirt. She thought he was wearing some sort of rubber glove at first, but as she saw his head - a sharp-chinned, hairless mask fascinated by something invisible in his lap - she realized it was his skin. White as old porcelain and just as chipped. His gaze turned to her, and she could swear his pupil flickered a shade of gold. Or rather his pupil singular.

His eyes were... broken. That was the best way to put it. Over dug out eyebrows, his right eye bore a single long crack about an inch wide split his otherwise handsome face, trailing all the way up to his scalp. He wasn't mutilated to the point he was hard to look at and he wasn't even *ugly* - he just looked like a living halloween costume. But Bratty knew better than to make a big deal of it. 'He could totally have, like, a knife on him or something. Oh my God, he's so scruffy. But like... not... bad scruffy?', Her thoughts were much more to the point.

"Uhm... Hi."
"Hello." He said with a soft, wistful voice that sounded young but felt old. "Don't mind me. I'm just waiting for someone."
"Uh. Yeah. Me too..." Her voice trailed off.
"You must be freezing. Do you want to borrow my coat?"

He crossed his arm over his chest. And that's when she noticed his hands had holes in them. Massive round holes that cut clean through his palm and left only a black ring behind. Bratty hid her reaction and waved him off. He shrugged before looking back at his lap. She had missed it at first but he was holding a plastic bag between his legs full of some some eclectic items. Trail mix? Bird seed? W-Was that an egg in there?

"Oh. It's terrible. I was going to feed the ducks." His hand glided to the zipper of the bag. "There's usually a... group? Of ducks that pass by this time of year. I think they like the fountain, you know, since it's kept heated and..."
"Um. Actually, it's a raft." Bratty hardly even realized she was speaking before after she'd spoken. 
"Come again, dear?"
"That's... a group of ducks. A raft."

There was a drawn out moment of silence before his up until now small mouth spread into a wide smile. Combined with his permanently lowered yet uneven brows, it felt earnest if not unsettling. It was broken by a snigger.

"A raft. A raft! That's a wonderful name." He threw his head back weakly and drew his knee up, dutifully stashing the bag away. "That's a strange bit of knowledge to have. Can't be too useful."
And it was a strange thing to say. But it was in her nature to correct people and now she felt obligated to run with it. "Well, like, I guess so."
"But here I am talking about 'useless' knowledge. I’ve spent a long time finding out things I didn’t need to know-" He gave her a knowing side glance and raised both hands before his chest, emphasizing their holes. "I've certainly got the scars." Bratty's eyes widened a little and she hoped he didn't notice. He absolutely did. "Yes I've been seeing you looking. But at least you didn't scream or run away; although a few times I know you wanted to."

There was a very audible silence for a moment as the man chuckled to himself. Bratty felt much less uneasy around him, but whatever emotions had replaced them left her vibrating on the spot.

"... Uhm. So... like..." Her curiosity got the better of her. "How'd you get... like... that?"
"Well..." He smiled widely, seemingly lidless eyes somehow shutting. He leaned onto one arm, looking over his shoulder like he was being watched. "Oh. I'd love to. But I've told that story a few times and it never seems to end well. There was this very funny clown, I think you would've hated him, oh, but-" his speech patterns were suddenly much more hasty, but filled with excitement. "The person I'm waiting for is here and I really can't spend another moment chatting, as much as I'd love to."

He clapped one palmless hand over his knee as he prepared to step up. Bratty was wide eyed and leaning back not sure if she should shrink away or try to grab him by the coat tails. His arms dug through one last pocket and purposefully drew out a golden coin. It looked older and bigger than what she was used to but it was cleaner than any piece of money she'd ever handled; not a spec of rust on it. It practically shined.

Already rising to his feet the mystery man flicked the coin over his thumb. Bratty snatched it out of the air, eyes darting down to it and feeling an unearthly warmth spreading through her palms. Golden didn't even begin to describe it; the money she'd been passed was practically divine. It was easy to just keep looking at... but as she snapped back to reality, she looked up to see the man already more than halfway across the cobbled stone of the fountain area.

"Hey wait-" She half screamed at him. She only received a confident over-the-shoulder smile as he continued on his way. Bratty tilted her head and narrowed her eyes. There were lots of weirdos where she came from but... not like this.

"Uh. It should be... right here?" A third voice filled the now silent vestibule. 

Climbing the steps up to the fountain were three strange teenagers. One dressed in a black greaser-style outfit that looked out of place anywhere that wasn't a bar and any time that wasn't thirty years ago. While it matched her poorly cut black hair, it bled against her bright pink skin.She loomed over a brown-haired person about a head shorter than she was, who paid her no mind as they held a map in their hands. Bratty didn't know if they could see it though; their hair was so shaggy. Trying to read the map out of the corner of her eye while not bumping into anything, a brown-furred deer girl stumbled up the steps, always yanked back to walking pace by the one holding the map.

"Oooh, those kids? I never see them come around here." Bratty mused out loud, tapping her chin and forgetting about the man before some unsettled part of her stomach reminded her.

As they reached the top of the steps it became obvious 'Kids' wasn't really the term anymore. Kris stood six feet, though their thin, long-legged and athletically built body made them much lighter than they ought. A big step up from the dumpy brat they once were. Susie had comparatively kept her shape - that shape had just gotten larger and larger and never really stopped. Her rolled up sleeves revealed well defined, bright purple biceps that swelled into muscle bound forearms and hands that could probably squish Noelle's skull if her thighs didn't first. Oh yeah. Noelle. She had a way of shrinking behind people and out of notice, but that was in spite of her looks, not because of them. Once her father had run up to Bratty asking if she knew any tailors because they - the entire mall - didn't have sweaters that fit. Noelle crossed her hands mindfully over her stomach in a way that only pushed up her melon sized breasts, her buck teeth hidden under a down tilted head and antlers that had grown to resemble small trees rather than crosses. She was still cute - just with the body like she'd had five kids.

Kris rattled their finger against the map, looking up to Susie and shrugging noncommittally. Susie threw her hands up very commitally.
Noelle chimed in quietly, "It's *supposed* to be here"
"Yeah. It ain't." 
"... Wait a minute everybody." Noelle clasped her hands together before her chest. "There's... a fountain here."
The group locked eyes with one another. Realization came over them one by one. "Did that... idiot... give us directions to. A. REGULAR. Fountain?" 

Susie was practically inconsolable - she let out a string of loud curses and stomped off to make a mess for whoever tended the hedges. Noelle covered her mouth and took a shaky step back not sure if she should chase after her or run away. Kris put a few new folds in the map and tucked it away into their woolly green-and-yellow sweater before a commanding side glance brought the doe to her senses. Bratty just stifled a smile. Not TOO much had changed after all. It seems the three - now two - of them finally noticed her as Kris settled themself down on the fountain's edge, legs spread widely and hands on their knees.

"Hiya Kris" Bratty's voice bubbled much less than it usually would've. "Coming to the salon to fiiiinally get a haircut? I've been saying for years, I'd toootally give you one if you asked."
"Oh. Um. Bratty! Bratty..." Noelle said, sounding a bit too much like those people who'd try to shoo her out at parties. Her bitch of a mother had probably been telling her stories to keep her away from 'people like Bratty' - some of which weren't even true.
"Yeah, like, don't wear it out. Anyway, Kris, do you uh..." She trailed off. 

'Do you know anything about this?' She was about to ask. Kris had proven themself savvy to weird things since they first came to town. The warmth still spread through her even as the coin had long since left the man's hands. It felt... right. And she didn't wanna talk about it right now; it was probably worth... like... a ton! She couldn't let anyone else see it. They might take it or something. She subtly dropped it into her handbag and pulled the straps tight. She'd tell someone later when she wasn't so... um... caught out? Yeah. That sounded good. Unfortunately she was now left trailing on a sentence with an alert Kris on her case.

"... Do you... come around here often? Like, I never see you buy anything I mean." She was answered with a simple head shake, which was the best nonanswer she'd ever gotten.

"Heya! Hey. Sorry, sorry." A familiar high voice rang out. Turning her head to the door, Catty fumbled down the steps still stuffing things into her bag. "I know I took a super long time but security had taken it thinking I'd lost it and then, like, I had to find the security guy who had it and prove it was mine and like, oh my God... Oh my God. Noelle! Kris!"
Catty went through all the motions with the two as she jiggled and wobbled to a stop beside the group. It all ended with a "Did I miss anything?" that she probably didn't expect much from. 
"Nope. Just these three showing up." Bratty pointed her thumb to them.
Catty pouted before turning her head down, thin irises eventually tracing their way to her friend's handbag. "... Heeyyy. Bratty. Is there, like, something in your bag? It's kinda... glowing"
The alligator lifted a hand to wave her off, wearing her best surprised expression, figuring just yanking it away would be too obvious. "Actually Catty now that you mention it - There was this one kinda really weird thing that happened! There was this weird guy in this fancy black costume and he had weird hands and-"

Catty didn't stop. Ears flicking in disinterest with her previous question - her curiosity only matched by her tiny attention span - her claws were already prying the rims of the bag open by the time Bratty got the word out. It was just a coin. But for some reason it felt like no one else should have it. The closer anyone got to even knowing about it the more she wanted to hug it tight to her and hide it away. She loved that coin. She *needed* that coin. By the time Catty was wrist-deep in the bag and a wide-eyed Bratty had completely forgotten to hide her distress, Kris came to the rescue, as they often did.

"You'll stop now." Kris' rarely heard voice - which softly rose from their throat and seemed to dictate what was going to happen rather than state their opinion - worked its magic.
"Huh? Kris?" Catty drew her hands back and pawed at the air. 
Kris lowered themself to a knee, one eye faintly visible beneath their hair. "Weird guy?"
Bratty subtly held her handbag closer. "Yeah. He had, like, really white creepy skin. I thought he was homeless, but his outfit looked pretty expensive."
Kris slung their elbow over their knee, just barely baring their teeth before walking away. Noelle perked up and followed behind. "Kris,is something wrong?"
Kris looked into the distance, back to Hometown, before looking over their shoulder with a very rare smile. "Don't worry. It's nothing."

A very crumpled chunk of hedge skirted across the ground and announced Susie's presence. She was picking at her jacket and pulling out consistently longer and longer pieces of vegetation to the point Bratty wondered how she even fit it all. Picking at her teeth and massaging a few fresh scrapes covering her bare biceps, Susie began looking for a wall to lean against that wasn't thirty feet away. "So what's gotten into Kris this time?"

To her surprise, Kris answered. "Let's go. The fountain's not here. And security won't like the silhouette you've made in their hedge."

At the thought Noelle jumped to her feet and Susie furrowed her brow. She mumbled something only she could understand, glanced at the mall, and ran after Kris at a sprint. Noelle spun around, waved goodbye, and pranced off back down the steps. They all kept their distance behind Kris and never went before them. Catty waved to them cheerily before turning back to Bratty.

"So... what'dya wanna do next?"
Bratty reached into her bag and traced her finger across the bevelled surface of the coin. She smiled… and then was suddenly hit by a gust of wind."... It's freezing!"
"Oh, totes. You've been out here for like ten minutes right?"
They both jumped to their feet, Bratty much more hastily than Catty. "Let's get back inside!"


# Chapter 2


Bratty's eyelids fluttered as she rolled onto her back, her elbows pressing into her stomach and a groggy moan rising from her chest. She winced as the sunlight hit her eyes, her entire body wiggling beneath her thick sheets as turned her head to her clock. Eleven in the morning... wait. Eleven? Bratty sat up ever so slightly, pushing her pillows into the headboard and feeling the weight of a very long night immediately wrestle her back into them. The entire thing was a blur to her. More than usual. She kicked away the sheets and nuzzled back into the pillows, noticing her hands were absentmindedly clutching something tightly below her neck.

Between her chest, just over the bumps of her ribs pushing her scales out, her hands gripped the edges of her coin. *Her* coin. Seeing it brought some memories of last night back. She had been on the phone all night with Catty. And then when she went to bed, she rang up QC. Then she texted with some friends overseas and she was fairly certain she had a conversation with the mirror since it was the only one left that wasn't in bed by the time she was. She was restless, she was excited, she was in a haze. She was - most of all - very glad she lived in a standalone flat rather than an apartment, otherwise whoever was below her would've filed a noise complaint.

So tired had she been that she'd fallen asleep still in her underwear. Brushing her fringe away and taking her first deep breath of the day, she was caught half way by the feeling of tightness in her chest. Lashes fluttering and eyes darting down, she felt a slight yet sharp pain in her sides. She reached under her arms and picked at her bra straps and cringed at the sight of stretch marks cutting into her scaly underarm. Come to think of it, she had been feeling this phantom weight around her ribs even while she slept, in that sort of subconscious way you could tell you were drooling on your pillow.

Bratty's long nails traced under the band of her bra. She lifted her shoulder and bared her side to the mirror, now seeing the definite dip in her tender scales from her armpit all the way around her back. "Like, gawd. Why do I even *have* this?" She moaned in a slightly twangier voice than normal, somewhere between her usual valley girl and something much more entitled. Something she completely failed to notice.

Bratty immediately leaned forward, her breasts overflow her cups before she finally managed to loose the hook. It fell to the carpet to be brushed away by Bratty's toe, her giving a side glance to the mirror before freezing in place. She rested her elbows on her waist and rocked her hips to the side. She looked... good. Like more than usual. The discomfort was immediately forgotten, along with the discarded bra by her foot, the only question still one her mind why she even owned a B-cup set. "After all," she thought to herself as she tilted her knees inward, hovering her lips just before her reflection, "I'm *obviously* D-Cup."

To prove her point, her dextrous digits dug into her tits. She felt the doughy texture flow between her fingers, thick flesh filling her palms and spreading warmth with its weight. Her thumbs rubbed the swell of her breasts, middle fingers fingers squeezing together around her areola. She could see it all in the mirror. Her dark eyelids grew heavy and her muzzle parted, sharp teeth threatening to bite down on her bright, plump, pink lips and... huh. Her grip on herself weakened and finally - reluctantly - her right hand broke away to trace across her reflection.

"Oh my God." Her brows parted and she was almost instantly brought out of that lazy, warm place she'd sunk into.

Bratty's face was a mess. She hadn't just fallen asleep in underwear; she'd crashed in full makeup. Makeup she wasn't entirely sure when or why she put on - she didn't go THAT done up just for a trip to the mall -but still makeup that was now slathered all over her. Her reddish purple lipstick had blurred as she bit and licked at it in her sleep, her eyeshadow looking more like she'd fallen face first into a pile of ash, her nails chipped and her face flushed. Punctuated with a very sharp *"Ew"*, the gator dashed to the bathroom, wet her face, and left a very trashy rainbow on the nearest towel. Observing her reflection again, she began to pick out imperfections. Bedhead, splitting ends, bent eyebrows, all the adoration she had when she'd first woken up had been swallowed. She still looked even better than usual but her ego wouldn't let her stop with merely that.

Rifling through the small leather bag she always kept by her sink, Bratty balanced the lipstick under the bathroom light. She was trying to convince herself it was pinker today than usual, and that if it was, the store would accept it being returned for a full refund. After all she'd only used up like... three quarters of the stick? Her tongue was more cushioned than she was used to as it ran over her lips, smacking them together with a wet pop before running the beveled stick over them. She paused just as the tip fell into that wrinkle where one side of her bottom lip met the other. Eyelids drooping slightly, her tongue flitted out, lavishing the tip with a sort of dexterity she hadn't been bothered to use in a long time even on... well. Far more important things than a lipstick.

A string of hot saliva broke between her lips. Shaking her head and quickly slipping the top back on,  she rummaged through her bag again, pushing the feeling back into her head and moving to straighten her lashes. Once again she was forced to stop when she realized - maybe not as awake as she thought - that she was almost rubbing her eyes with a dome of plastic. Flipping the thing open in her palm she was hit with the distinctive scent of something only women and their particularly camp men smelled, and only briefly, before it was drowned in as much perfume as possible to make people forget it was even there in the first place. The smell of highlighter. Her eyes looked over her shoulder as if expecting to see someone before she took the rest of her kit out of her bag. 

Her selection was small. Despite what people might've thought, she didn't go out every night, and she certainly wasn't going to apply a full shelf's worth of makeup to herself on any day. Stranger yet, most went without highlighter - as expensive and glamorous as it was - and Bratty especially skimped out on it. Her fine reptilian scales didn't so much as glisten as they did shine, and the few times she wore it as a teen, Catty had made unfavorable comparisons to Disco balls. She looked slutty in it - and she wasn't a slut. Catty said so. She wasn't a slut and she certainly wasn't going to get done up so much any time soon. Her days of being the hostess of her own microparties in the corner of much bigger ones were over. Even if Catty's weren't...

"Guess I snapped it up at the mall." She casually zipped the bag, leaning over the sink and pouting as she ran a straightener through her lashes. Letting the plastic clatter to the counter, she flipped up the highlighter's top and stirred the mix inside with familiarity. "It'll bring out my eyes real nice... just a little bit..."



Bratty ducked under the patio roof, her eyes narrowing as she awkwardly maneuvered her bicep over the sun. Her hand was far too occupied trying to get the most flattering angle of her to .Finally finding the right balance of shade for her and light on the photo-critical parts, Bratty slid her cardigan down her shoulders. The criss-crossing cloth gave off a homely vibe which her woolly sweater was hand-picked to exploit. Leaning over the rail and puffing her chest out, Bratty snapped three quick pictures. Each dominated half by her glittering face and else by her breasts as they hung hammocked in the canopy of her cardigan, legs thin and long forming a solid black shape as they stretched out of frame.

Bratty released her breath and stood back to full height and she immedaitely began thinking of a tagline as she thumbed through what she'd got. She had planned for a 'all natural just got out of bed' sort of post. As her thumb hovered over her least favorite of the three images - the one that showed her freshly conditioned hair forming into spiralling ringlets around her highlighted eyelids - she somehow didn't believe people would buy it. Bending over and cupping her cheek in her hand, she moaned; she didn't really like any of them. "I look *great* today, I know it," she thought, "So like, what's wrong with these? Something's... off..." Her eyes spun slowly over the curve of her spine, lingering briefly on her D-cups. Her hand traced her waist and stopped just as she felt something heavy in her pocket. She felt the bulging golden circumference of her coin in her pocket. All of a sudden her eyes moved to her hips. 

Bratty always thought she was too thin to really show off below her waist. But suddenly, as if seeing herself for the first time, she had no clue why. Tracing a finger over the cross stitches of her jeans, she could feel the swell of her pelvis as it curved out from her waist, the slight, firm, supple feel beneath urging her to sink in deeper. If only to feel it push her back out. With her concerns fading and lots of new ideas swimming in her head, she prepared to straighten up again, wondering if she could do that boobs-and-butt pose she saw on her timeline sometimes. But she stopped dead as her eyes were halfway down her body. Though it was always hard to tell with that fringe, it seemed Kris' eyes stopped with her.

Kris perched themselves on the edge of the steps with the grace of a dead pigeon. Legs folded inward with one defiantly raising its knee far enough for Kris' head to droop towards, perpetually looking like they'd just had the wind knocked out of them. They sat just close enough that they could easily slip away and - given it was Kris - be halfway down the street before any reasonable homeowner could shoo them off. It seemed to be more of a habit than a choice, in the same way the human tended to gravitate towards corners or open windows or weird brightly colored teenagers. By whom - for once - Kris wasn't flanked. 

"Oh, uh, heya Kris!" Bratty hurriedly straightened her back in an attempt to look decent. She dug her hand into her cardigan pocket in hopes of obscuring the massive bulge of her oversized coin, and only afterwards realized Kris had been watching her posing for who knows how long. "Um. Your friends with you? Your uh... like..." Her tongue lingered on the sharp ridges of her muzzle, drooling out vowels for a while, before she drew it back in. She felt like squirreling it away in there forever. Kris was nonplussed as ever. Tapping their knee and crooking their head thighward, the human swept a hand across their fringe, a matted thing that was perpetually covering their eyes. Bratty wondered whether she should ask if they saw anything but she thought better of it. Somehow she could feel Kris looking at her.

"So... uh. Shouldn't you be at school right now? Your mom's like, always worried about you. She'll kick your ass if you skip."
Kris tilted their head. "It's a Sunday."
"Oh."
"Winter break."
"Oh."
"I graduated seven months ago."
"Oh."

The corner of Kris' mouth curled into a grin. They slapped their knee and rose to full height, and immediately, Bratty was reminded how tall they'd gotten in the past few years. Their face was sharp and smooth, high cheeks and thin features giving them a distinclty 'young introvert' look. Which was very fine - until in the recent years when they had begun turning up in the most odd and out of the way places. They were mysterious. They were confident. They were... filling out that shirt really nicely.

"Not quite all there?" Kris snapped their finger as if to say 'stay with me'
"Oh, uhhh. Totally. Sorry." Bratty shook her head and blinked a few times. "I just got up. Y'need somethin', hun?" The word slipped out without her realizing. It surprised her but Kris didn't let her stay that way for long.
"A friend of mine lost something important. It was a piece of... paraphernalia." Kris's head tilted down. "It was round, gold, very pretty, very old. Have you seen it?"
Bratty's brows raised and her long lashes wavered. It couldn't be. "That could be a ton of things." The words left her mouth with more defensiveness than she was used to. 
"It's the type of thing you know when you see it." But it was. Bratty hesitated but quickly shook her head. "Then I'd have totally told you already?" She said in a twangy condescending way that sounded very put on - meaning natural for her. 

Kris wistfully sighed. They lurched slowly to the side and turned away, one hand dug into their tight pants pocket and the other waving her off from behind. Their paper thin pants pulled tightly over their long legs, something so much more confident and form-fitting than those dumpy jeans they'd dragged themselves to school with once upon a time. Bratty suddenly saw the type of young free spirit who'd sleep in blasted out cars and go to street riots disguised as parties. The exact type of boy - or occasionally, girl - who'd given Bratty so much trouble in *her* teen years. "Right you are." She swore she heard a giggle beneath Kris' voice. "Silly me. Tell me if you change your mind-"

"I guess. Hey-" She began in a raised tone. By all means she should've shut her mouth and let the relief wash over her, the coin still half gripped in her hand feeling so natural there, but an even more unusual power was leading her on. The power Kris had to start a conversation with a question and end it with *you* being the one wanting more. "Tell your friend he should be, like... more specific? If he really wants to find something."
"Specificity was never his style. Or mine. But then he never asked me to look for it in the first place, so he couldn't really be that specific." Kris gripped their hip with one hand. "But it's funny. I never said he was a he."

Bratty felt her weight fall against the porch railing. Her plush lips curled, revealing sharp teeth, and she felt very much like a child being caught playing video games past her bed time. It was impossible to explain. But she just couldn't have anyone know about the thing that old man had given her - even the thought of it felt like she'd given a very personal memory to someone. Something that made her feel ashamed. Something that made her feel excited. But Kris - as ever - just moved on down the street with a neutral expression. Bratty waited until they were almost a full house over.

"Kris" She called. They stopped. "... Er.. if I did, like, end up finding something? ... Where would I find you?"
They turned to her and spoke quietly, but she could still hear their voice. "It's a Sunday. I'm going to church. First I'm going to get some flowers and see a friend."
"Then?"
"Oh, you'll find me."

And Kris was off. They walked at a steady pace - unlike that man who had practically broke into a sprint to finish their conversation - but somehow Bratty felt like Kris was even further out of reach than he had. Bratty spent the next few minutes in what she could only describe as afterglow. Kris knew. Something. How much? What? How? A ringing noise brought her back to reality. Tracing her eyes to the still slightly ajar front door, she immediately realized she'd left her phone back inside, and kind of stumbled in. It was Catty calling - apparently the fourth attempt after many, many missed texts.

"Bratty? Bratty? Like, don't tell me you slept in late. Again." It felt like she hadn't heard Catty's voice in days. Seeing her little icon on her phone screen brought Bratty back to the real world. It was a crop of that image they'd taken yesterday - the one where her belly had nearly completely filled. The one she'd gotten so many likes on.
The vowels leaked out of Bratty's mouth. "Uuuh, heya. Nope. I was just..." She thought about it. "Doing my makeup."
"This early? You goin' out somewhere?"
She eyed her dwindling makeup supply over in the bathroom. She looked down at her outfit, and saw the very much noticable swell of her breasts beneath. The coin in her pocket pulsed with warmth. "... You think you can come shopping again today?"
"What? Again? Nah, sorry girl."
Bratty smiled. "It's cool. I've just gotta pick up some things. And upload a couple of pics."

# Chapter 3

It must've been the single most miserable face anyone had worn in the ten or so years he had inhabited that city. His eyes were haggard, not with something as simple as a lack of sleep for days, weeks, or months, but a lifestyle of constant paranoia. As if he was expecting to be grasped by the shoulder and yanked away at any moment even in the safety of his own bed. Whatever bed it was couldn't have been comfortable in the first place; his shoulders hung low and his back arched strangely, as if the weight of his own slightly misshapen head was crushing his spine one day at a time. The curl of his thin lips led into deeply recessed cheeks from years of straining to smile when he wanted to do nothing but cry. His balding head made it clear that - despite the youthful features he bore that one could see but not quite place - he had experienced decades worth of hardship and woe.

"Huh? Oh my God, Burgerpants, you look fantastic today" Bratty flipped down her hand mirror and stowed away the lipstick her lips had been nursing. "You get a tan or somethin'?"
He didn't respond and seemed to just rush to put the last of the burgers in her container. "Hey, what's with all those bags you've got?"
"These?" Grabbing her shopping by its glittery plastic straps and swinging her hips to the side, she rested her elbow on the counter top. "Shopping. Tons of new stuff." She looked into one of the three plastic carrier bags slung over her shoulder and idly rustled her hand through one. "Makeup, new outfits and stuff, my old ones suddenly all stopped fittin' me, y'know? Got some tank tops and some crop tops and overalls and... its super weird. I'm not like, still a teenager and still growing all the time. But my wardrobe was tooottally empty. What's up with that?"
"Eh heh... yeah." Bratty noticed Burgerpants' eyes widening out of the corner of her own. "Uh. Hey. I thought you didn't like that stuff. You were always crazy about the weird stuff like that... poncho thing."
"Huh? What're you talking about? I've always... um..." She stopped and looked down at herself. "... I've totally always been into makeup. What are you talking about? Guess I just didn't have the money to spend on fashion if I was wearing that poncho all the time. It looks kinda... trashy, y'know?"
He smiled weakly and nodded his head. "Oh I know. You'd never be trashy... hey. Come to think of it. Where do you get all that money? I never see you work."
"Oh, I sell stuff online sometimes. But lot of its family." She rolled her eyes ."It's suuupper annoying. Never get to spend it on what I want cos I've always gotta do what they want me to do with it. I used up a ton of savings today. They're always like, giving it to me for taxes and bills and stuff."
"Mhm. Yeah." He bared his teeth. "Must be reeal bad... anyway. You uh. Should probably leave. If this place weren't this place, you'd have a line."
"'Kay... Hey. Wait. You never answered my question; why do you look so much better anyway?"
"Had one extra day off last week." He chirped, punctuating the words with a noise like a stomped rat. 
 "Mmhm, you're so lucky. What's the occasion?"
He smiled brightly at her. "Death in the family."
"Oh."


She blinked at him twice. Her jaws opened slightly as she very consciously moved her arms slowly towards the cardboard bag she'd been served, and equally slowly lifted it off the counter.

The bathroom door swung on its hinges as Bratty crept in. She practically had to duck her head beneath the top of the door, feeling the barely visible tufts at the top of her blonde hair scrape by. Her build was more than slinky enough to fit through, but she had this habit of forcing anything in her way out of it. After all, why shouldn't she?

"Yeah, like, why shouldn't I?" She repeated to the imaginary person following right beside her, their distinctly cat-like face nodding sagely. "And she was totally supposed to get out of the way. It's *her* fault."

Bratty was more often than not in some form of strop. This particular strop came from a bump she'd taken on her path from the storefronts to the bathrooms. Bathrooms which, due to optimizations that were the result of decades of consumer psychology research, were as far from the convinient place as possible. She slipped her straps down to her elbow and dropped them to the ground beside the sink. Still muttering to an extremely agreeable ghost, Bratty rolled her eyes and cupped her hands beneath the faucets, observing the shine of her fresh nail polish under the water. Making a last snide remark, she splashed her face.

If it wasn't for the bathroom being all but soundproof, someone outside would've been worried. Bratty half-screamed as she ran her fingers through her hair and stared wildly at her reflection. The makeup she had applied earlier that day running blackish pink streaks down her face in colors they didn't even have when she put them on. Waterproof her ass - she looked like she'd just been dumped! Deciding whether it'd be better to wipe her face on her shirt or her jeans, her eyes glanced to the bags beside her leg and she paused. Straightening her back and standing to full height, a few years of minor shoplifting instinct took over, and she checked the bathroom for cameras.

"You know. If you find any you can sue." Bratty's imaginary friend nodded as she snapped her overalls over her shoulder.
"Totally." She replied.

The stall door locked behind her. This was one of the reasons she loved this mall so much; it wasn't so cheap her hair didn't peak out the top. Bratty gripped the hem of her shirt and raised her arms above her head, slipping her shirt over her wrists in a large mop of too much perfume and tossing it to the ground. She dropped to her knees and began rifling through her handbags, turning over the corners of crop tops and tankinis until she found what she was looking for. She smiled thoughtlessly and lifted the black halter to her chest, her enthusiasm dampened just a bit as she felt a stinging pain through her shoulders. Sighing and threading her finger under her bra strap, she narrowed her eyes. Had it gotten tighter?

Her bra now slipping down her chest and, Bratty arched her back and draped the halter top over her front with a single hand. Her other one clawed at a spattering of makeup she wasn't entirely sure how she was going to hold all at once, but was excited to find out. She was forced to stop just short of leaving a streak of lipstick running across her scaly snout as the bathroom doors gingerly crept open and a familiar voice spoke up. The door opened with the tenderness of someone that might think it'd bite their hand if they opened it too quickly, but at the same time, wanted to pet it.

"If we're right, it should be around here. Alphys's crap is never reliable, so it could be anywhere in this building for all we know."
"And if we get it. and some of the other stuff. it'll... all just... go away?" It was a feminine, dainty little voice Bratty couldn't place.
"Yep, well, y'can hope so." Another much more abrasive one responded. "This sort of thing hasn't exactly happened before. So we can only go off of goatboy's weird-ass prophecy... sorta stuff creeps me out."
"O-Oh? Why?"
"I've told ya before, havennI?" The sound of a jacket ruffling over shrugged shoulders echoed through the room. "It's weird to be told you're all bein' controlled by some... thing."
"Thing?"
"Strings and puppets and hands and Gods and all that crap. You don't believe all that stuff he's saying, right?"
"Well... i-isn't it sort of... okay? It's comforting."
One of them sighed. "Y'know, you really gotta grow a spine. We talked about this, didn' we? ... Ah, well. I gotta take a piss - you go do whatever."
"Susie!" The other voice said with disgust.
"WE ARE LITERALLY IN THE BATHROOM!" Susie kicked the door open.

Bratty stood with her spine erect, arms casually dug into the pockets of her thigh-length skirt. She cocked her head almost innocently, lips pursed into a look that to her probably looked puzzled, but in reality, looked more... vapid. Her clothes were hastily thrown over herself, but were obviously new - if not for their cleanliness, for the tags hanging off of them. The bags hanging from her wrists completed the look. It was as if they'd just caught her for a street interview while she was busy filling a walk-in wardrobe. Susie and Noelle stared at her for a moment before she casually brushed her blonde hair from her face.

She cleared her throat awkwardly. "Oh, you two?"
"Ahm-" Susie's eyes widened awkwardly, "Did you ah... well, anything you heard, y'see... about that..."
"No worries, I'm just leaving anyways." She took a long stride that seemed to make the two split apart all on their own, muych to their surprise and but paused to look over her shoulder as she exited. "Hey uh, were you two talking about Asgore?"
"Uuuh.... what?"
"You called him goat boy. That's a kinda weird name for him. And some stuff about-"
"Oh, it's a... joke he told us!" Noelle nodded quickly, seemingly only agreeing with her own words a little after she'd said them.
Bratty tugged at her bottom lip. "... I don't get it. That guy does kinda hae a weird sense of humor."
Noelle nodded assuringly - seemingly more to herself than to anyone else. Susie interjected "Oh yeah. That guy's a real comedian."
"I don't really get it. Was it a funny joke?"
"Uh. No." The two snapped almost in unison, so much so they exchanged a glance after the fact.

Bratty shrugged and waved her hand towards the two, swaggering out towards the exit with her tail roiling behind her. The door slammed behind her and, at Susie's side, Noelle maintained that awkward glance from before. They supposed they should've counted themselves lucky that they ran into Bratty rather than someone who'd do such invasive things as think deeply or ask basic questions.

"We need to stop talking about this in public." Noelle urged Susie, just about holding herself back from tugging on her pant leg.
"Well, this isnt in public..." Susie rolled her eyes desultorily.
"Well it's public enough. We've spent a long time keeping all this a secret - please, don't take too many risks..."
"We've spent a long time - and for nothing!" Susie raised her voice a bit louder than she meant to. "If we haven't gotten caught yet, we probably never will be. People in this town are gonna make up their own story to keep them in their own happy little bubble, like they've been doing for a decade."

Noelle creased her brows and looked on as Susie slammed the bathroom door in her face.

The bags once hanging from her wrist now lay all but forgotten on the floor, scattered about the bathroom exit tucked just far enough away to be ignored. Bratty crooked her thumb under her chin and leaned against a wall. She was thinking thinking deeply, asking herself some basic questions, and all in all not really content to make up her own story. If there was anything she'd learned to love, it was gossip - especially when she was told obvious lies - but this was a more practical sort of thinking. She'd be more than happy to run back to Hometown and chat to Catty about how Susie and Noelle were TOTALLY hiding something.But she had to stay right there for now.

She had left her Coin in the bathroom.

The door crept open. Noelle stepped from the door with her head sunk lower than usual, though stopped as she saw the almost serpentine form of Bratty in the shadows. She had an uncanny ability to loosen her spine whenever she was thinking. Though that usually just meant her collapsing limply over a table as she scrolled through her phone.

"Bratty?" Noelle gingerly lifted her hand.
Bratty's head snapped up and she straightened herself, returning to her usual showy, foot over foot stance. "Huh? Yeah?"
"O-Oh. Nothing; I was just... wondering what you were doing there."
"Hangin' out." Bratty very purposefully flicked her nails before her face, not giving the deer the luxury of eye contact.
"... Alright. Goodbye then."

Noelle did her best to make herself look small. Smaller. Bratty stared at the bathroom from the corner of her eye, impatiently waiting for Susie to leave. In her haste to keep questions to a minimum in that brief time between when the two had entered the bahtroom and opened her stall, Bratty had left her Coin. She could still sort of... feel it. It was bizarre. Like a phantom limb for a part she'd never lost. Like the urge to check you'd locked the door after heading down the road. But it was fine. It was fine. She'd just slip in when Susie left, swipe it off the floor, and... probably head home. Once she got home she'd-

"Excuse me." A waifish voice stirred Bratty from her shallow thoughts. She looked only to see Noelle - still compacting herself best she could - approaching her.
"What do you want? Bratty said sharply, the usual bubble in her tone absent
"I... want to ask you a question."

There was an urge bubbling in Bratty to simply snap back 'no', with the same type of aggression you'd swat a fly. To say Noelle had been rude to Bratty would be an understatement. In almost every interaction they'd had since she'd been an adolescent, the doe had been... well. It was hard to describe anything Noelle did as rude, but she certainly hadn't been pleasant. Distant and curt and short and deliberately avoidant. And more than a little superior.

"Spit it out." Bratty said with obvious resignation; she knew it wasn't Noelle's fault.
"Do you ever... keep secrets? Even from people you really trust?"
"Totally. Everyone does."
Noelle froze on the spot. "Everyone?"
"Like... think about it this sort of way. If you're not the one telling lies, you're totally the one being lied to. Even... best friends... keep secrets."
"Yeah... I've heard some people say that." Noelle's eyes dropped a little.
"But you're only asking me because *you've* kept a really big secret." Bratty creased her brows and leaned forward, placing her hands on her thighs as she spoke. "Dont feel so bad, hun; it doesn't have to be a bad thing. Why should they need to know? It's your life, not theirs."
Noelle concentrated very hard on her feet. "... What if you want them to know? But you're scared?"
"Then tell 'em. If they don't like it, and you can't figure something out, then you're too good for them anyway." 

Bratty paused for a moment and thought about what she'd just said. Susie kicked the door open and stepped out, stirring them both from their conversation and making Bratty flatten herself against the wall once again. Noelle quickly ran off to join her friend's side, but as she passed, the doe smiled graciously at Bratty. The two were down the lobby and out the door, chatting about nothing all the way, within a moment. Bratty couldn't help but feel something akin to pride swell in her chest - before she promptly went to go scrounging around toilets.

A few minutes later - a conspicuously long few minutes - Bratty slinked out of the door and began collecting her things. Slinging her bags haphazardly over herself, she ran down the hall, out towards the glass doors following the faint trail of Susie. She made knots in her hair and tore some of the blonde curls loose, slinging her pony tail over her shoulder and hurriedly skipping down the stairs. She saw the auspicious purple silhouette of Susie slipping between a set of buildings, into a dark alley Bratty knew for a fact was a maze of dead ends. After all, it was one of her favorite mazes of dead ends.

Tugging on her shoulder straps, Bratty waited impatiently at the light, the traffic seeming to thicken with every moment rather than thin. She anxiously tapped her foot. When the moment came she dashed across the crossing and slowed as she approached the alley. Pressing her back to the wall and keeping her slender form low, she crept through the alley, tailing the shape of Susie. Finally she came to the last bend of the last alley, and made hersel as small as she was able behind a large dumpster. Felt like home.

"Well, let's go see Ralsei. It's been a hell of a while" Susie said, staring at a large, metal door to a building that'd been long since disused.
"Don't you mean 'goat boy'?" Noelle surpressed a chuckle.
"I can't believe that worked." Susie shook her head as she gripped the sides, steeling herself before giving a hard kick to the doorway. It rattled loudly as it opened. 

A mysterious and unnatural light bathed the two, causing Susie to recoil while Noelle brushed her arm over her eyes. A ghostly wail eminated from it. With practiced form they both stepped in and the doors shut behind them. Bratty waited for a while not entirely sure how to proceed. Finally, she stepped forward and slinked towards the doors, wondering for how long they'd been opened, and what the hell was on the other side. Certainly no abandoned building.

But Susie had taken her Coin. Obviously found it stashed away behind the bathroom stall. And now Bratty would have to get it back without people asking too many questions.



# Chapter 4: Darkness Falls (Or: Stock Chapter Names and You; a Comprehensive Guide)

-> Author Note: At the time of writing, it is the 28th of June, 2024. The last time I updated this fic was 18 of March, 2023. That's right - eighteen months between chapters! What a time jump. So anyway, this fic's style is gonna change a little because of all the time apart. But I've gotten better. Enjoy. <-





Bratty didn't know much. Just in general. But what she did know right now was that she was falling, and falling *fast*

What had once been a pitch black void was now filled with an aurora of color. It spread through the infinite nothing surrounding her like a gas and rushed behind her like a billboard. Bratty's ears were filled with the faint sound of whistling air, but she felt nothing against her as she fell. There was no sensation of clinging clothes, no rush of wind on her face, and most surprisingly, no hoarse wear on her throat as she screamed. She wasn't making any noise at all right now. For whatever reason she felt completely calm, as if this fall - which was either endless, or would have her splattered on the ground once it finally did end - was a routine trip. No more disruptive than a bumpy train ride to a place she wasn't excited to go but didn't bemoan. 

She was thinking about that more than anything right now; what was she doing? Not just in the sense that she wasn't fearing for her immortal soul, but she was thinking about he'd gotten here. Yeah, she'd walked through that weird door, continued down a path for a while, and then it fell out from beneath her and she ended up in this impossible space. Yeah, she'd done that. But why? 'Cos she'd followed those kids into the alley. The kids she'd first met in that bathroom. The bathroom she was in 'cos she went to the mall. The mall she was in 'cos... she couldn't really answer why. She just wanted to be. It made her feel... good. Right. With direction.

She'd been acting pretty strange lately, Bratty thought. I mean, obsessing so much over this coin. She didn't need it. It was a confidence booster, sure, but she didn't need too much more confidence, did she? Then why did it make her feel so damn complete when she had a piece of her shaken? Why, when she thought about Catty, and her posts, and her looks, did it now light a fire inside of her rather than snuffing it out and leaving her listless? Maybe all this was a bit-

And then Bratty hit the ground. She didn't splatter, it was more like an, 'oof! That hurt. Anyway-' sort of thing.

"Oof!" Bratty said, rubbing her butt as she sat up in a patch of grass, "That hurt. Anyway" She turned her head, and saw nothing.

The blackness didn't stop. She hadn't hit the ground, she'd hit the dark, all congealed and solidifed under her. As sandstone is to sand, whatever was beneath her was to darkness; that is, fucking uncomfortable to sit on. Bratty stood up and took stock of her surroundings. The texture beneath her feet was gravelly. Like turned over loam mixed in with driveway stones. There was a light off in the distance; it was bright blue, an unnatural shade like neon signs in the night, and there was noise. It was quiet, but it was there, and almost mindlessly, Bratty walked towards it, because Bratty was very at home under neon lights and surrounded by noise.

Bratty's head crept over the edge of the town, marked by paper thin wals in the shape of a child's drawing of a house. It was as if grafitti had popped off a wall and decided to obstruct whoever came by. On the other side, there was a town square, where four roads all met, and life buzzed around its center. Maybe not... life. But things that moved and stood and walked and talked and maybe that was enough to be life, but what bizarre life it was. Were Bratty a more observant, articulate person, and had she ever picked up a book that didn't double as a fashion magazine in her adult life, she'd have lots of ways to describe them. 

But the only words that came to mind were 'triangular', 'unreal', and 'poorly drawn.' And there were LOTS of them, of all shapes and sizes. Green gorgon-like things with hearts for torsoes gripping scepters. A melted, gooey rabbit which didn't even come up to Brattys' knees. A dwarf-sized girl (?) with plug holes in place of its face that reminded Bratty of something obscene. Some seemed very important and noticably more carefully created, while others seemed forgettable. This was - for the first time in her life - a time when Bratty hoped she was in the forgettable camp as she stepped out into the crowd, lost in the throng of bizarre, dark not-people. They didn't pay her much mind, her usually very noticable form not so compared to everyone else. towards where she felt most comfortable; the Shop.

No.

That's not right.

It was called - Bratty squinted at a sign, affixed below a hole where a much bigger one had fallen off a long time ago - a Seamp.

Bratty shut the door behind her more hastily than she realized. Sighing, her head snapped up as she felt eyes on her. Well, one eye, probably. The shop was small, fitting its basically-a-wooden-tent look from the outside, and filled with the junk of years of trade and barter. If you took every miscellaneous weapon, healthy confectionary, rare metal, and useless armor piece in there, you'd probably have a small fortune, but it was junk to look at. And on the opposite end of that small, cluttered shop, there was an ancient purple cat with beyond shaggy fur and a single button over its eye.

They blinked at one another for a while. Well, Bratty blinked. The old lady - old man? - old merchant facing her down lacked the parts.

"You'll find the name's 'Shawm,' pronounced 'Shawm.'"
"I mean. Yeah."
Seam settled heavily on the counter top, as if hearing Bratty speak had aged them some years. "... It's a push from this side, lass."

Bratty's hand froze and she realized it had been frantically searching for a handle to pull open. She considered running, but then, that'd just put her back out in all the noise, and she needed a break from that. Better one strange person than a hundred. She stepped forward and realized as she passed an old, dusty mirror, that she was gorgeous. Her colors had changed; gone was the bright, easy-on-the-eyes green and in was a more bold shade. She couldn't imagine she'd blend in anywhere or with anyone except the types of places with the types of people outside that door. Her hair was longer and glittered like something out of a fantasy story. And she was naked.

"Oh my gawd!" Bratty shrieked, wrapping her arms around her breasts, feeling their still surprising weight. It took her a moment to remember that oh yes, she needed something between her legs too. She often needed her hands between her legs, but for different reasons, and certainly not in public.

Bratty curled against a wall. She was in a strange place, with strange people, completely lost, and she was totally naked! Even her burgeoning tail - typically tucked between her legs or wrapped around her waist - was exposed, in all its not-particularly-impressive glory. Her mother had a real mountain range back there, spines and all, and no amount of makeup could get you that. She did note they were a little sharper than she remembered. And she was getting distracted. What was she talking about? Ah yeah. She was totally naked! She felt like she should find somewhere to hide, but the shop was one room, and going out streaking was not an option. She was maybe a bit libertine, but she was no exhibitonist. And she was no slut. God damn it.

Once the initial surprise and burning, blushing sensation in her cheeks subsided, her eyes roamed to Seam. Their yellow-toothed smile widened.

"You're... not from around here, are you?"
Bratty blinked quickly.
Seam shook their head. "It's alright. Was bound to happen some day - then, what isn't? Ha ha ha... you haven't been naked the whole time. You just got a good look at yourself for the first time in this world. Guess that makes you lucky. Some people never get that far."

Bratty weighed her options, and decided it was probably best to deal with the strange cat shopkeep than to not. Deal - but she'd drive a damn hard bargain.

"Yeah. I'm from like... out of town."
"Someone wandered in from the LIGHT... thought so. Always a risk if you aren't careful with where you open your portals. Got sloppy after all these years."
Bratty's brain raced - well, jogged, through its recent memory. It went on connecting dots on a mental conspiracy board until finally putting a big red circle around two teenagers kicking in a door in an alley, "Wait, portals? Like. Teleportation stuff? Is that how I got here?"
"It looks that way. You're from a LIGHTer place. This is a world of DARKness. It's full of forgotten, old things. Don't worry. They're not all as old as me, ha ha ha..."

She knew it. Still clutching her arm around her breasts but allowing her stance to slack, figuring that if this old thing did have any libido, it didn't still have the functioning parts to act on it, Bratty stood up. Besides, she was a hell of a sight - why not give the old bastard a show on the way out? The corner of her mouth curled. That was a disgusting thought to have! Anyway. Where was she? Oh yeah. She knew it.

"All these years, people saying I was crazy!" Bratty snapped her fingers, "I was totes telling the truth! The whole time!" She peeled herself from the wall and started pacing, which was hard to do with her arms where they were.

Seam watched with interest. Maybe they wouldn't have to explain so much after all. Really, a bunch of teenagers going missing routinely for hours every few days, with no explanation? Someone would catch on eventually. And once that someone ran through all the possible explanations, they'd start finding very obvious evidence of the impossible, which normally they'd just rule out as what it was - impossible. But it seemed someone had done their homework and put all the pieces to-

"Ghosts are real!" Bratty declared with a defiantly raised finger, her left breast bouncing free for her to hastily cover up again.
Seam blinked, which was impressive, "Uh."
"I mean, duh, of course they are. You see all those shows about supernatural stuff? Gotta be some real stuff in there. But this is a place that proves it; you said forgotten old things? That's what ghosts are!" Bratty began to use her mind, which - while it had a limited lexicon - had an unlimited imagination, "The plug ghost outside was like someone who was electrocuted to death cos of like, sticking a fork in a plug, I think. And you're like... the spirit of a cat, or something, with a really good owner."
Seam paused. They sighed deeply, smiled, and decided to take it as a compliment. And all this would save them a lot of time explaining to someone who absolutely wouldn't get it, or, even worse, would.
"I've always believed in ghosts. I like, see things other people don't. I'm an empath." She turned to them, smiling brightly, "Bit of a psychic. Runs in the family, you know, my grandmother was a fortune teller. Not gonna bra~aaag though."
"... I'm sure," Seam leaned forward on their counter, "And yeah. This is a place full of ghosts; they're called DARKners. You're from the -" Seam thought, folding their hands over one another, "You're still alive, and you're called a LIGHTner here. It's not really my business. But if you could keep this all to yourself-" 

It'd save Seam a lot of headaches and may or may not save the world, were the thoughts about to be vaguely communicated. But they weren't. Because right then, Bratty slammed her hands on the table and nodded, hair glistening beautifully in the warm light. And tits bouncing freely in the open air, which did nothing for Seam for personal reasons, but would've made a hell of a scene in the 'living world' and could ignite some new feelings even in a lot of Darkners.

"Like, duh! Of course I'm not gonna tell anyone about this place. I don't know what those kids have been doing here for like, however long they've been here, but they must be so disrespectful. This place is scared! Scarred! Uh, say-kerrd. Your secret's safe with me," Bratty struck her long nails against her bottom lip, "I wonder if my great grandma's here, I always wanted to meet her, 'cos, like SHE was a witch-"
"I'm sure," Seam began, knowing if they didn't Bratty wouldn't finish for a long time, "That she's out there somewhere. It's a big place, Castle Town. At least it is now..."
"Oh, I guess I never asked where I was. That makes sense; you gotta keep names for like, ghost trains and stuff. So they know where they're going," Bratty took a deep breath, "Soooo... what do you mean 'now'?"
"Years ago," Seam sighed, happier to be back to a topic they were more familiar with. Death wasn't their style just yet, "This place was a grand castle, but only the Prince lived in it, alone. Then, one day, two heroes came, and they began to expand it. They brought people to the town, and those people brought buildings, and those buildings brought new heroes. The town got bigger and bigger, and now, it's a whole city. Course, the heroes haven't done much expanding recently; they need to find more Fountains to do that."
"Mhm, maybe they're running out" Bratty said, resisting her sudden interest in her fingernails, "How many years ago did they start?"
Seam smiled, "Nine. Found the second-last Fountain two years ago. They were kids when they first came here. Still are, but then, everyone is to me. Ha ha ha..."

Bratty tapped her chin and felt a small pang in her chest. It wasn't painful, it probably wasn't even physical, but it was a heart-drops-a-few-inches type of sensation. The nameless sensation reserved for realizing you forgot something important just as you begin to drift into sleep, or that you'd left the stove on just as you were a few blocks away from your house. The Coin. That's what she'd even come here for, and now she was hearing about heroes and light and dark. She knew how these things went, in broad strokes; she'd watched a LOT of ghost hunting stuff. It always led back to the backstory. There wouldn't be a critically ill daughter of a Victorian millionaire oil baron if it wasn't HER ghost haunting the place. There wouldn't be heroes unless they had her Coin.

"And, like, where are these heroes now?" Bratty asked, not expecting a legendary journey to find the lost item affair. In her mind, it was more of a trip to the train station sort of thing.
"You're lucky," Seam said humourlessly, "They came through Town Square just before you did. No relation, I'm sure. By the train station. It's new."
Bratty rested her cheek on her fist.
"Behind the castle. Can't miss it."
"Thanks! I mean, uh, rest in peace!" Bratty said, spinning on her heels and running off towards the exit of the store.

Bratty screeched to a halt and doubled back, practically creeping into view of the mirror one gangly limb at a time. First her hair slinked into frame, then her head and whole long neck one after the other. Her torso was next, slender waist highlighting her palm-filling bust as it sat gravity-defying on her chest. This complimented her hips better than she remembered; they were lots wider than her shoulders, practically an entire extra handlebar's worth of space to swing around in public and to hold onto in private. Her legs were long, half of her entire height, and ended in svelte feet that wanted to walk on their toes by default, heels or otherwise - not that she wore those much but, its the lack of conscious thought that counts.

And she was entirely naked.

"So," She began, squeamishly, "Do you have... any clothes I could borrow?"
Seam laughed slowly to themself, in the way they did when something was very grim, "No. You make your own."
"Ah, what? You expect me to use a sewing machine or something?" Bratty looked at them, throwing her arms behind her and pouting, "Fuck sorta shop doesn't have clothes?"
"Ones for ghosts, apparently," Seam shrugged, "But what I mean is that you're a LIGHTner. You've made your own clothes. You just haven't put them on yet. I'd do it quickly, if I were you; the train's leaving soon. But, if I were you, I'd not do it at all..."
Bratty tilted her head, "So like, I get a spirit world costume? Where?"
Seam gestured with no particular part of their body towards the mirror, "Just think about it, and it'll appear. Your role's been chosen. Your SOUL's already decided how you want to look. Even if you haven't."

Bratty either didn't think to or didn't decide to inquire more about the massive implications of that. She turned to the mirror, and thought about it. She thought about what role she'd fill in this world; maybe she'd be a sexy sort of shaman, wielding a bunch of crystals and animal's teeth dangling from her neck. Maybe she'd be a sorceress! No, no, an enchantress. Dressed in long flowing robes like a fine silk dress, dragging for feet behind her as she spins a staff in her grip and casts spells. Maybe a druid, wreathed in vines and nature. Maybe a sort of... artifice... girl... maybe she'd be someone that had lots of fancy clothes. Or maybe, just maybe, she'd be someone who could get in, take her Coin, and get out.

There was no flash of energy. No humming sound as light filled the room or tinging sound as all the metal and cloth came into place and glittered in the light. There was no transformation, really. She was just standing there, bare naked one moment, and suddenly, her reflection was fully dressed. She leaned close and analyzed her face first, feeling along her cheek and pulling at her new hood. She went to the things on her shoulder, the layers o blended material beneath them. Her bare midriff. Her almost bare chest. Her mostly bare everything, in fact. Bratty - not particularly experienced in fantasy - gasped as she felt the blade at her hip.

"I'm a mugger?!" She half-yelled, put looked to the door as she heard a rumbling. She turned to Seam one last time, "I-I gotta go catch them. Thanks, Shawn!"

The door slammed, the entire building rocked a bit, and Seam settled back into their seat. It was Seam. With an M.