Ravenous - The Daily Life of a New Pred

[phoneuser1992]

I'm just a couple paragraphs shy of coming full circle on making a separate set of documents to rewrite Hazel at the Club, and I'm finding myself further adjusting the spreadsheet to match ongoing events during the story and adjusting where things IN the spreadsheet line up with ongoing story... which is a feedback loop that will certainly give me a headache, and result in even further wandering, but might well result in a better worked through STORY for everyone - which I'd call a massive W. I dropped about an hour a day into it through the week... had some overtime and that meant that the day I usually sit down and blast it hard was completely unavailable. Thus the minimal progress. I guess Valentine's Day as the day to post Hazel and Jacob's house date was a bit too aggressive a goal with life getting in the way. I'm not even going to pretend I can get there from where I am now by then. I've got an unexpected day off next week, but one solid sit down - even if its 8 or 9 hours, which it won't be - isn't going to finish out everything AND let me pound out the Great Return section with these characters.

Trying hard not to let sadness at not being able to make that fitting Valentine's posting get to me. Maybe if I'd pushed harder earlier on or had some sort of clue just what all I was getting myself into. I'm a perfectionist and I suck at editing and why... why... WHY did I do this to myself!? *SIGH* I'll keep on it, and I'll keep updating y'all on my progress each week. Surrender is NOT an option after how long and how much I've put into getting this joker back online from the revamps.

[phoneuser1992]

Hey all. I've made less progress than the goal I set for myself for this week, but in a way I'm near enough there. I've finished writing the revamp version of the F/F/FFFF thing at the club up until Caitlyn is dead, but I haven't gone back through it and seen if I like the change or if I'm going to dial back from this radical version. Having that double check done was the goal and I've flubbed that. But as long as I don't scrap it then the double check will look like a single 1 hour sit down and even if I scrap parts I know I'm not going to scrap it all... though the more I scrap the exponentially longer merging into the new official version could take. My ambitious goal for this upcoming week is to have all the editing done and be ready to start writing NEW DAMNED CONTENT again. Surely if I can find 1 hour a day for this stuff and 1 day I can sink whole heartedly into it I can manage that?

Nobody get excited, that's the aggressive goal not the firm commitment. Still, the one per day updates have reached Hazel meeting Harmony... so by this time next week she'll have swallowed multiple members for that F/F/FFFF at the club. I don't even want to think where she'll be this time in two weeks if I get my ass kicked instead of getting things done, but the progress speaks for itself to me. Figures that the section I was least worried about getting effected would be what proved the MOST effected.

I'm hoping I finish the editing with enough time to make the section of the Great Return properly epic, but at the very least I'm confident that I'll find a week to spend it. I really wanted to have 2 weeks so I could make it wild... but life will be life and I'm pretty sure I'm already confirmed as not having 2 weeks after finished editing before I run out of sections to update one per day

[phoneuser1992]

Sup gang. I've finalized the new form of Hazel's fight at the club, and I've made it to page 167 out of 191 in editing. I ended up realizing I could do Hazel a really big favor if I adjusted the wording on the rules for increasing Digestion Power while I was reworking Harmony digesting someone beside her and it would only make very minor changes to Jane on the bus and nothing AT ALL to Elizabeth... couldn't resist that. It meant completely changing Hazel's existing damage to her Prey though, and she wasn't built to make that easy so it took a couple hours. I also, because of how bananas Harmony's Digestion Power is, decided to scale up the degree to which she was working on it so that she's trying to have a flat gut when she exits to dance after leaving Hazel with the directive to get active in digesting her prey. She did leave before the last like 10 hp or so of her 6 Capacity prey's final level of Fullness got absorbed, but she had the time before the dance would start that the job would be done lol.

As for where we are now? Hazel and Jacob are texting each other and I'm making the edits to the damage that Hazel's doing to her prey as we go. We are in the final straight away folks!

PS: Sorry for dropping the ball on some of the daily updates I don't really have an excuse. I got busy and forgot mainly. Gives me a touch more time to write the Great Return anyways.

[GrayLotus]

Sup gang. I've finalized the new form of Hazel's fight at the club, and I've made it to page 167 out of 191 in editing. I ended up realizing I could do Hazel a really big favor if I adjusted the wording on the rules for increasing Digestion Power while I was reworking Harmony digesting someone beside her and it would only make very minor changes to Jane on the bus and nothing AT ALL to Elizabeth... couldn't resist that. It meant completely changing Hazel's existing damage to her Prey though, and she wasn't built to make that easy so it took a couple hours. I also, because of how bananas Harmony's Digestion Power is, decided to scale up the degree to which she was working on it so that she's trying to have a flat gut when she exits to dance after leaving Hazel with the directive to get active in digesting her prey. She did leave before the last like 10 hp or so of her 6 Capacity prey's final level of Fullness got absorbed, but she had the time before the dance would start that the job would be done lol.

As for where we are now? Hazel and Jacob are texting each other and I'm making the edits to the damage that Hazel's doing to her prey as we go. We are in the final straight away folks!

PS: Sorry for dropping the ball on some of the daily updates I don't really have an excuse. I got busy and forgot mainly. Gives me a touch more time to write the Great Return anyways.

Good to hear that progress is still happening! Don't worry too much about keeping up with more frequent updates, personally I don't have an issue with a weekly check-in to let us know that you're still happy to keep this going. Good luck with the ongoing rework, hope all the number crunching isn't getting you down!

Out of curiosity, since there's been multiple votes in the story so far about deciding actions and behaviour for characters other than Hazel, would you want to keep with that trend on future reset runs? Or would you prefer to keep the votes focused on Hazel's actions, and decide what other characters do in response yourself. An example would be the vote on who Willow contacted for mentoring. Any preference for keeping the mentor we chose this time, holding another vote, or just choosing it yourself?

[phoneuser1992]

Out of curiosity, since there's been multiple votes in the story so far about deciding actions and behaviour for characters other than Hazel, would you want to keep with that trend on future reset runs? Or would you prefer to keep the votes focused on Hazel's actions, and decide what other characters do in response yourself. An example would be the vote on who Willow contacted for mentoring. Any preference for keeping the mentor we chose this time, holding another vote, or just choosing it yourself?

It will depend. I don't have a single locked in preference per se, but I will follow along with whatever makes the most sense for a given situation. If Hazel's actions don't effect my head cannon explanation for the characters acting in the way that leads to them taking the voted actions, than it's essentially preprogramed. In the case of Willow picking Harmony, she chose that mentor based - purely in world - on the conversation she had with Hazel about having Awakened and the reserved way that Hazel refused to let herself show any positive response while perking up for just a second before retreating sharply at the mention of the club and how it works. To Willow, this said that Hazel really needs someone who will show her how enjoyable it can be to help cut the guilt and gives the impression that there's parts of what she said about the club that are appealing in themselves. Harmony's a great and an obvious choice for both. As long as the conversation predominately goes that basic way - Hazel presenting herself as struggling with guilt, refusing to let herself enjoy the concept of an upside, and showing (failing to hide) interest in the club being the key points - then Harmony will likely stay locked in.

If Hazel had instead primarily presented, at that early junction, with her current drive to improve as much as possible as fast as possible... that makes a strong argument for choosing Ashley instead and requires AT MINIMUM a revote for who Willow picks as mentor. Possibly, depending on how the details went, it could be that the vote is about ASHLEY's response instead of being about if Willow's first choice was Ashley or Harmony. That would take other factors leading me to believe that Willow's first pick would be Ashley though, like Hazel showing that she's got the mentality on enough of a lock that Willow is much more concerned about having someone able to keep the power from going to her daughter's head than she is about Hazel accepting who she is. And Willow might have that concern simply because... Hazel's been a Pred for 6 months and reset and the perfectly reasonable mentality of a 6 month since Awakening Pred on a Pred that just Awakened as a SHOCK to the family? That's freaky and CONCERNING. Willow doesn't want Harmony's lax attitude feeding that into a monster with no regard for life, she wants Ashley's discipline forcing that to recognize all sides of the equation to keep things in proper check. I expect that, over reruns, we will drift towards Ashley being the staple mentor if we do a full reset because of how Willow will likely take Hazel having a full blown Pred mentality on Day 1 and because Hazel will be able to demonstrate the degree of potential to retain Ashley's full attention as someone to groom into an Apex/World Class Pred.

Other points will flow similarly. By the end of week 1 on each run... we'll have had enough UNAVOIDABLE variation that it'll probably all be back to voting anyways? Well, any time a new character meets Hazel for the 'first time' in a run it's going to start off preprogrammed and devolve into voting every detail. Just at wildly different speeds. The more IMPORTANT and PERCEPTIVE the character, the FASTER it devolves to voting! Thus Hope and Jane are nearly immediately different because both are KEY characters whose degree of PERCEPTION is CORE to their character. They won't even finish their first interaction before they begin to diverge. Elizabeth, for run 2 and run 3, will probably be reasonably similar if we meet her the same way in both, but run 1 we met the Queen in a nearly impossible to repeat manner... so there'll be divergence from just meeting at different places and times! But even though Elizabeth is relatively naïve compared to Jane or Hope and doesn't know Hazel as well as her family, Elizabeth has several connections of importance and she's not a fool. Jane noted her as being able to see through people despite her blind spots. Given a few interactions she'll also diverge to be entirely unique to each run. Dawn? I think run 2-100 will look pretty similar for Dawn if Hazel even pretends to come at it the same. Dawn's not inherently an important character and she's got reasons to be OBLIVIOUS to variation within Hazel, so if Hazel's not acting in a blatantly different way than Dawn will respond in roughly the same way. Case in point, if Hazel eats Dawn at the club during a future run and hasn't met Dawn prior to doing so? It'll look an awful lot like this with Dawn intending to let herself get digested and if there's anyone being sent down for her to also eat she'll focus on them first while probably underestimating the potential difficulty of multiple prey. I'd call that preprogrammed.

You get the idea by this point, right?

[phoneuser1992]

Hey gang. Weekly update time lol.

I am on page 190 out of 193 given added bits as I've gone. Hope is meeting up with Jane in the last already finished section. We should be able to just laugh our way through this part with no errors... right?

So... I changed what Jane's doing to prepare for meeting up with Elizabeth the next day and how she's prepping for her quad meal after that. Instead of taking a mere double, Jane's ambitious enough to go for a triple of bigger and stronger girls. I convinced myself that this was obvious after I saw how much easier the Digestion Power update made it for Jane to crush through everyone (like 45 minutes faster) and gave credit to the fact that she'd be aware that her Digestion Power has almost certainly increased. She still would want to play it careful and be certain to get the job done, but Jane's cocky enough that with the advantage of eating before Cheer practice instead of at noon as well as her confidence in her increased power from the first triple to believe that she'll be able to no sweat it. And she does, putting in STARKLY less effort. Completely foregoes Active Digestion, uses one less round of Instant Digestion, turns in HOURS earlier with a bigger gut... and wakes up in time to see it go flat. All of which should pretty massively increase her calorie intake from this feast and that's what Jane considers vital as she's out to train her Gluttony above all else.

This means that Jane will get a FAR more substantial experience spike and that Hope will be reacting to a much more significant and much more visible effort from Jane to train. Which means I need to rewrite portions.

Why do I do this to myself LITERALLY within sight of the end?

So... I sunk hours into a new fight for Jane against a TRIO of her fellow cheerleaders and scrapped the fight with a duo. Then I sunk more hours into determining how long and how hard Jane would need to work to get her gut flat, finding myself pretty consistently surprised how easily she was doing it. I knew she would be able to have an empty stomach by the time to meet Elizabeth even ramping up, which is why I pulled the trigger on it, but I expected it to require her to dedicate to it like she dedicated to churning her first trio. NOPE. She honestly didn't need the second round of Rapid Digestion that she does right after lunch with Hope, which I'll likely mention as we exit that scene. Well, at most, Jane could have waited until the next morning to do that Rapid Digestion after confirming the necessity instead of jumping the gun and doing it so early on. But by the time she's considering a second round of Instant Digestion or a third round of Rapid Digestion it was like... why? Jane WANTS to gain fat units to train Gluttony and speeding the process excessively will proactively HAMPER that training!

Sorry, rambling. Been working on Jane for too long. Need to integrate it in. And as I was working on Jane I realized that I messed up her updated intro weight for the Digestion fat units per size update. I've fixed it. I'd used one level from her POST Taylor, Cassandra and Hoshi levels instead of her PRE triple levels when calculating her weight. 271 pounds is her correct weight, whereas my mistake made it 283 pounds. Which actually changes Capacity demands, so that was a SIGNIFICANT mistake. Key weight in the middle of those is 278 pounds by the way. Below 278 pounds takes 6 Capacity and 278 or above takes 7 Capacity. Until you get to a pretty crazy weight that less than 1% of men reach. I've seen people that reach the kind of weight that requires 8 Capacity... they. are. HUGE. Anyways, getting distracted again.

I need to rewrite the sections for Jane and Hope, make sure I check Jane's levels and notes for her Gluttony gains are valid post Digestion Power update and possibly update them, gather and determine winning votes and FINALLY write some new content. None of which I expect to finish today, but if I can just find an hour a day for the next week and then one free day to sit down...

[phoneuser1992]

Slowly Hazel became aware of someone shaking her shoulders, and a voice calling her name. But she felt warm and full and comfortable and tired, making it so hard to even move her eyelids. Why couldn't she just sleep? Hazel feels her shoulders shaken harder, and recognizes the voice as she steadily continues coming to the world of the conscious. 'That's Mom's voice... is it time for school already? Shouldn't she be waking Jennifer as well?' Hazel thought in a sleep and food addled haze. Somehow lifting her arm to push away at her mom took far less energy than opening her eyes and facing the world and school. Hazel starts fading again, surprised how easily she'd stopped her mom.

"Fine then. We'll do this the hard way." Willow grumbled to herself after catching her balance a few steps back. She'd wanted to let her daughter wake up before she started doing anything to speed along the digestive process – anything Willow could do was going to inherently also hurt at least some – but it was probably the most effective way to wake Hazel at this point. She takes a moment to weigh her options, hoping to select the least terrible way for Hazel to be woken out of the ways she knows to assist the digestive process. "Probably going to be Stimulate, isn't it? It would be the trickiest thing to make work... it'll send her acids into overdrive and give her some light heartburn by the time it runs its course. But at the start it should feel reasonably pleasant. After all, it's just her own body shifting up several gears, not overbearing direct outside force like Harmony used."

>"Stimulate" is the Digestion version of the level 10 Prey move "Massage." As a level 11 Prey, Willow has experience using both and understands their quirks, but by no means considers herself an expert with either. She will roll 11d6 and 5d4 in total, comparing her roll to Hazel's levels*2. If Willow's roll is higher it succeeds. Note: this is a harder baseline check then Massage, but the Pred has no way to reduce the roll whereas with Massage any damage done to the prey is subtracted from the prey's roll... so it's not terribly dissimilar to the total difficulty Willow MAY face if she tried Massage from inside Hazel right now. It can be used as often as the target could use Rapid Digestion, provided the Pred can handle that much heartburn.<
>Willow rolls a total of 39 (damn low! Out of 16 dice, she got SEVEN 1s!) which is higher than double Hazel's levels (36). Willow deals 12 damage (her Full static) pressing and kneading Hazel's belly to stimulate it and over the next time period for her Digestion mode, Hazel will deal an additional Acid Cap+Churning Dice Code+Digestion Dice Code to her prey. Hazel's vastly increased acids from this stimulation will exceed her stomach's own acid resistance and Hazel will take the same amount of damage herself, reduced by her natural Acid Resistance (0) + 5 for the Stomach's naturally enhanced Acid Resistance. This Acid Resistance only protects Hazel, and is only applied once, though her Resistance is applied twice against Willow's direct damage regarding damage to Hazel and once to reflect how her stomach is a barrier protecting her prey from Willow's direct efforts.<
>Hazel will take a total of 21 damage after applying all Acid Resistance, doubled Resistance and Vulnerability.<
>Hazel will take 6 of this damage instantly, and the rest will be applied over time and will fully effect her when Hazel's next tick of digestion is calculated.<
>The 9 damage Willow did directly will be stored and calculated when Hazel's next tick of digestion is calculated so it can benefit from Hazel's Digestion Power.<

Before Hazel can fully fade back to sleep she feels a small set of somethings push against her middle firmly, squishing slightly into it with a burbling sound. It felt like pinpricks against the surface of her stomach to Hazel's tired mind, truly tiny despite the force backing them. 'I haven't had a big enough gut to squish like that in forever... what's going on?' Hazel tiredly realizes. Then the small... hands?... push in deeper and start rubbing in circles around different parts of her middle. It hurts, but it's also like a massage in that it releases tensions she wasn't aware were there. She feels her stomach growing hotter and more active in response, and starts to blink her eyes as her body's own activity level is scaling too high for her to remain asleep. 'My gut's bigger than I am.' Hazel thinks with the first blink, and then snaps awake as the day before finally comes crashing in on her... including why her mother wasn't worried about waking Jennifer.

Opening her eyes wide, Hazel tries to push herself back into a sitting position as she watches her mom press against what are clearly carefully selected points of her stomach one by one and massage each with deliberately controlled force. The look of concentration on her face makes Hazel think it's probably not the best time to distract Willow from her self imposed task. The movement already had though, and Willow smiles as Hazel manages to get upright again and starts taking stock of her surroundings and her own body. "Good morning."

>Hazel is Awake! Hazel is using Passive Digestion for now!<
>Hazel, with Willow's help, deals 46 damage to her prey, which is reduced to 33 by her Prey's 13 Resistance.<

Realizing that Hazel was getting her bearings still, Willow heads into the kitchen and fixes her a glass of orange juice. Technically Harmony's instructions had been to immediately start into Instant and Rapid Digestion, but Willow wasn't planning to push her daughter that brutally before the girl had even woken up properly. Besides, Willow had a lot more experience helping a Pred get things moving than Harmony did, and was perfectly capable of making her own assessments.

Looking at herself, Hazel was both surprised how much and how little had changed while she was asleep. With how bright it was outside, Hazel was certain that she'd been allowed to stay home from school. It was clearly the middle of the day... 11am at earliest. Her phone was dead and there wasn't a clock she could check for the exact time on hand. She'd gotten thinner, with not an ounce of fat anywhere on her middle and her bony ass objecting to taking the weight of Hazel and her prey despite the cushioning of the couch, but her chest was still bigger than it had been before she ate Jennifer. When she'd left the club last night Hazel had filled the 30B acorn bra for her embarrassing stage persona perfectly. Now Hazel wonders if 28B or 30A would be the better fit. Probably the 28B... or at least that's what Hazel told herself. In either case, it was undeniable that she'd shrunk by a visible margin. Deciding not to concern herself too much with the rather small difference, Hazel gladly accepts the juice from her mom when Willow gets back.

>All of Hazel's remaining 119 fat units are in her chest. With level 3 Digestion Scaling, this still puts her comfortably on the low end of B cups. At the club she'd had 207 fat units on her chest. With the range going from 78 to 275, that had put her roughly in the middle.<

"How are you feeling?" Willow asks when Hazel finishes the drink, taking the cup back to the kitchen.

"Better than I honestly expected. Harmony made it sound like I would have lost twice this much weight by the time I woke up. I wish I'd already made enough headway to break Dawn's belly open. That would have meant I hit at least something at Mature if I trust Harmony's assessments." Hazel replies, rubbing her middle and standing up without putting a foot on the air mattress. "Kinda feel like I let down her expectations now."

"Harmony expected WHAT!?" Willow snaps as she returns to the living room, a fierce look in her eyes. "That stupid... she should have talked to me before running off half cocked. That means she was overestimating you the entire time. We're lucky that what she asked you to do wasn't even more excessive."

The anger takes Hazel by surprise. "What do you mean, she was overestimating me?"

"I mean that she was treating things like you had some degree of Average potential all night. Damn!" Willow curses, making Hazel's eyes bulge. She'd only heard her mother curse a handful of times in her life and always under tremendous pressure. Willow was truly incensed by Harmony's lack of caution. Worried that saying the wrong thing might make herself a target, Hazel watches with wide eyes until Willow realized how her daughter was staring. "I'm sorry. I'm being unfair to her... and to you. Neither of you could have known yet what kind of potential you have. Harmony should AT LEAST have know to ask me for my take though, and then she'd have know."

That had an implication, and Hazel couldn't help but ask. "That means... you know what my potential is?" If her mom really did know, than it was information that Hazel needed desperately. She couldn't plan how to handle things without having an idea how hard she'd need to work to make progress.

After a moment of hesitation Willow nods, and looks at Hazel with a bit of sorrow, making Hazel feel growing concern. "I have a strong suspicion..." Willow struggles with herself, searching for a way to make the bad news more palatable. "Look... I'm not entirely certain, and this is still preliminary... if Jennifer was weak enough then maybe your potential is better than I think. Or if you had a particularly horrible starting point, that would also make it better..."

"Mom, stop. Just give it to me straight." Hazel cuts in. The way Willow kept trying to cushion things was deeply alarming, making her stress levels sky rocket.

"Your potential is... most likely Hopelessly Bad baby. At absolute best, if everything worked out so that you were more limited than what your potential generally should have reached before I spent some time in your stomach to help you train... maybe you could simply be Untalented. But in no way do you reach any of the Average groupings." Willow answers as gently as she can, wishing she could shield Hazel from the bad news. "We'll know for certain if it's Untalented or Hopelessly Bad when you finish what you're digesting now. If you are Untalented, you'll be an entirely Mature Pred, and likely push above the minimum mark somewhere. But if you are Hopelessly Bad like I think... you'll still push past a lot of the benchmarks, but you won't be hitting full Maturity yet."

>Hazel's potential is: Hopelessly Bad<

Stunned by the news, her mind reeling with the implications of how hard it would be to even TRY to keep up with Jane or to close the gap to Elizabeth, Hazel plops back down on the couch. It groaned under the sudden weight, but held together. 'But... but if Harmony thought I had potential 2 or 3 steps better than I do when she said this would be enough to leapfrog Jane... doesn't that mean that all of this... still wasn't enough?' "It was a waste of time... Jane's still going to be way stronger than me. I'll probably be DAYS working all of this down. Who knows what all she'll have done by then." Hazel mumbles to herself, starting to spiral. "Harmony said this would let me surpass Jane, but... I'm Hopelessly Bad at this."

>Due to stress, Hazel switches to Active Digestion.<
>Hazel deals 14 damage to her prey after accounting for Resistance.<
<I'm proud of you baby. You're dealing with your new reality very well and you've done something amazing for your first deliberate hunt!>

"Oh no you don't. You are not giving up after coming this far." Willow grumbles, placing her hands firmly on her daughter's stomach, searching for a spot she'd noticed while she was Stimulating her digestion earlier. "You're wrong on 3 counts Hazel. First, while Harmony may have meant for you to jump deep into Mature from this, Jane's clearly a ways from being a Mature Pred herself and at worst you'll be on the border of Maturity. You should be stronger than she is now by the time this is gone... at worst you'll be a match for her. Second, we're not going to wait around for this lump to go away on its own. The longest part of digestion is ALWAYS the first bit. Once Dawn's stomach rips you'll get the next milestone with substantially less effort. Especially since you're currently fighting some insane resistance for your level, and it will sharply decrease with each milestone you get. By the time your stomach is half this size you'll have done at least 3/4 of the work! Don't be discouraged because you haven't seen things break down yet. And lastly..." Willow smiles warmly. "You did really good last night baby. You took on a challenge that was intended to be brutal for a girl with lots more capability than you've had a chance to grow into and you succeeded. That's not going to go to waste."

>Willow uses Weaken on Hazel's prey. Weaken is the Digestion version of Probe, giving Willow infinitely more confidence she will succeed as she is highly used to this tool. Willow will roll 11d10 and 5d4 against double the average level of Hazel's prey. That's 61/5*2=24.4 which will round to simply 24. Willow will apply her DIGESTION static (2), not her Full static in damage to Hazel and her prey regardless of success or failure. On a success, Willow will deal extra damage to Hazel's prey equal to her Shove damage... which is the Digestion version Struggle. It uses her Digestion static instead of her Full static, but keeps her Prey Dice Code. The extra damage will be whichever the lowest roll of her Prey Dice code is, meaning that there will also be a somewhat increased burden on Hazel even though the main thrust will increase damage to her prey. Weaken can be tried infinitely, but can only be succeeded on once per hour.<
>A Pred, like Jane or Harmony, can penetrate the defenses of another Pred working on digesting a meal with reasonable ease, allowing them to use their Full static for such activities as both have shown previously. But someone like Willow finds her expertise greatly challenged and is stretching the limits of that knowledge maintaining the vast Prey Dice Codes they possess when attempting to have effects from the outside. So someone like Willow loses her Prey based static to reflect this restriction and maintains the Strength based static to reflect how a more forceful approach is required and retains value even from outside the stomach.<
>Willow rolls... 102. (from damn low to insanely high. Max roll would have been 130, so breaking 100 with 16 dice going is WILD.) Willow EASILY succeeds, and deals 2 damage to Hazel's stomach and her prey. This damage is, unfortunately, reduced to 0 by Hazel's Resistance... completely stopping it from effecting not only Hazel, but also her prey.<
<Confused. She can't understand why Willow didn't respond differently or focus on a separate aspect.>

"What do you mean!? After all this, at best I'll be even with Jane! I don't need to get even, I need to leave her in the dust!" Hazel frets, distraught. "It's hopeless Mom! It's right there in the name they gave my potential! I'm never going to be strong enough to stop her... she's going to eat everyone." Hazel starts to sob, feeling herself breaking under the weight of responsibility for her family's safety. "I made a stupid bet with her, and she's probably already ate Hope by now... and when I can't match whatever her next insane demand is she's going to eat Jacob... and then she'll start eating the rest of you. I can't... I can't stop her. Why does all this depend on me!? Even if she follows through on not resisting... I won't be able to keep her down! We're all dead!"

Seeing her daughter's condition, Willow takes her hands from Hazel's stomach and cups her cheeks, making Hazel meet her eyes. "It's okay Hazel. I understand you're worried, and I know you've got a massive burden you're bearing now. The world of Preds is cruel, heartless and cold. Being terrified is natural. THAT is why I'm proud of what you did last night. Do you understand baby?"

Through her tears, Hazel nods. And then shakes her head as stronger sobs follow. Willow calmly keeps explaining, cradling her daughter close to comfort her and letting her cry her tears. "What you did last night was look the horrors in the eye, accept them and overcome them. You didn't let yourself give in because it was hard. You didn't back down because it was impossible. You didn't think about the consequences of failing. You recognized the threat to your family, made a plan to prepare and saw it through. And now you'll be stronger than most girls with your potential are able to get until Sophomore year of college or later, and you'll have done it in one shot. Jane's said she won't resist being eaten if you did a double, right? Harmony left a note explaining that bet to me. Do you think she'll keep her word, or will she duck it by any means necessary?"

Taking a deep breath, Hazel shudders and suppresses her tears. "Sh-she'll fo-follow through. I-I've never seen her back out wh-when she's lost a bet or dare. It's her only redeeming feature. If she says she'll punish you, she will. If she says she'll reward you, she will. If she's specific, than that's what she does as punishment or reward." 'Not that I've ever seen how she acts with stakes this high... it would be one hell of a time for her to break her streak of keeping promises.' Hazel can't help thinking, though she doesn't say it.

"Then this is easy. It takes a massive gap in strength for one pred to escape another, and you'll be practically even when you're done digesting this. So let's get this digested and you can have her pay her bet and... that will be that." Willow encourages. "If you're worried that your potential will make a long term game impossible, than force it to be a short term game. You'll be near level with her when we get this belly flat. So focus on what you need to do now, and keep making your mother proud by facing things one step at a time."

<I need to face facts... regardless of my feelings I'm not innocent anymore. I'm a monster now. It's time to prepare myself for the dark road... and at least become a strong and deadly monster able to take Jane and Elizabeth down!>

Timidly, slowly, Hazel nods. "You're right." She admits, pulling herself together. It was fragile though. With such a wretched potential, Hazel was going to need to down Jane like lightning. Would need to avoid giving the cheerleader a chance to exert the difference between the True Average potential that Hope reported Jane had and the Hopelessly Bad potential that her mother assessed as Hazel's own. But for Elizabeth? To fill the gap between herself and the Queen, Hazel was going to have to walk a road of sacrifice. She'd have to devour countless people to even get the ball rolling towards taking down the rival for Jacob's heart. But how was that really different then what Hazel had already done to Elisia last night? Hazel was already a monster for what she'd done to that poor girl. No... Hazel had become a monster earlier than that. She'd become a monster two days ago when Jennifer died inside her. Hazel growls at the thought, feeling one of her mother's hands pressing against her middle. The other was raised beside her head and she was staring at a specific spot on Hazel's stomach as if memorizing the location.

"Go with Instant Digestion first. I'm ready on my end. I'll support you for as long as you can handle it so that we get past the Resistance that the first bit of the process faces." Willow informs her daughter. Then notices the look on Hazel's face. She continues, assuring Hazel with a smile. "It shouldn't hurt nearly as much as when you ate me. You're much stronger than you used to be, you'll be maximizing your Resistance and it's FAR harder for me to do any noteworthy harm to you from outside. That said, if I'm going to make a difference I can't hold back this time."

>Hazel is using Instant Digestion, determined to break through Dawn's stubborn body and get access to the nutrients of the rest of the girls with Willow's help!<
>Willow deals 23 damage to Hazel's stomach and an additional 6 damage to Hazel's prey from Weakening them. Willow gains 1 Exhaustion from using Impact – the Digestion version of Thrash. Due to Hazel's increased Resistances, and Hazel's OVERSTUFFed Vulnerability, Willow's damage to Hazel is reduced to 5 and her damage to Hazel's prey is reduced to 18. The 18 damage to Hazel's Prey will benefit from Hazel's Digestion Power.<
>Hazel rolls 3d20 for her First Charm roll since she is using Instant Digestion. She gets a 5, 19 and 10. Adding her 6 Crit Chance gives her exactly 40, so Hazel scores a crit. She deals an additional 3+2=5 damage, which will also benefit from Hazel's Digestion Power.<
>Hazel and Willow deal 61 damage to her prey.<

With the ghost of Harmony's 'help' looming large in her mind, merging with the Frenzy that Willow had nearly broke her with when they'd trained together, Hazel closes her eyes. And starts to use Instant Digestion, forcefully smashing her prey in a riot of rapid blows. Hazel was doing her best to replicate the way she'd felt Dawn use the powerful Pulp when she was infuriated beyond measure and wanted to finish off one of their prey. Which pulled to Hazel's mind the way it had felt when she'd finished the last survivor with a Pulp. 'I can't... keep doing this...' Hazel thinks with despair. And then feels a punch hit her stomach as it was at it's most relaxed just before her last contraction. It snaps her eyes open, but more than anything else, Hazel feels surprise at how underwhelming the attack was.

"I messed up the timing on that one." Willow complains to herself. She'd waited until the fourth rapid contraction of Hazel's stomach, trying to get the best timing. She would get the most damage through if she hit things right as Hazel began to relax, but had hit this time right before she started the next squeezing force for the Pulp of Instant Digestion. She'd at least hit the spot she was aiming for, so it should have done good damage to the one she was trying to hurt, but the messed up timing had ruined the potential impact.

"That... was it?" Hazel couldn't stop herself from asking. It had hurt, but really only on a surface level. She'd expected her gut to roar in agony right from the start... she knew how powerful a prey her mother was first hand. 'I know Pulp, and therefore Instant Digestion, is really good at reducing the damage I take, but... I'm not even sure I felt anything upset my stomach from that.'

Her surprise earned a laugh from Willow. "I told you, it's a lot harder for me to do something to you from outside. Did you think that a prey girl, even one with my skills, could bypass the toughness and strength of someone that can carry a solid extra thousand pounds beyond her own weight with the same ease that another pred could? I've got my work cut out for me doing anything to you from outside. I wouldn't be able to help Harmony this way if I wanted to. Even if she just sat there and took it, my best attacks would bounce off her." Willow shakes off the hand that she'd used to punch Hazel with as much force as she could generate, trying to get feeling back in it.

'At least the monster's strength is real then.' Hazel thinks sourly. But then she forces herself to take the point deeper. 'This is the real gap between me and my mom. Inside the stomach, she's trying to fill in THIS gap with pure skill, but at the end of the day she's just human. Why is it any surprise that a human really is far weaker than a monster that has to feed on people to survive?' Hazel broods, frowning. "Let's just keep going. I'm ready when you are." When she sees her mom nod, Hazel starts the next round of Instant Digestion.

>Willow deals 35 damage to Hazel and her prey. Willow gains 1 Exhaustion from using Impact. Willow was able to recover before the second blow partly because she's in a FAR less hostile environment than a gut and partly because she gave herself roughly 1-2 turns worth of time in the middle. Due to Hazel's increased Resistances, and Hazel's OVERSTUFFed Vulnerability, Willow's damage to Hazel is reduced to 17 and her damage to Hazel's prey is reduced to 24. The 24 damage to Hazel's Prey will benefit from Hazel's Digestion Power.<
>Hazel has lost 1/5th of her hp. Right... I'm Hopelessly Bad at being a monster.<
>Hazel and Willow deal 65 damage to Hazel's Prey.<

This time Willow got the timing perfect, and had taken a small step back to let herself get her full body weight behind the strike, which drove into Hazel right about at her belly button. When Hazel's gut expanded again around the blow, almost all of Willow's forearm was left buried in the gut and Hazel could feel Dawn's stomach and prey deforming around the attack just like her own did. It was the kind of Impact that Hazel had been braced for in the first place, and getting it in the middle of reassessing her expectations was a brutal mentality shift. "That was much better. Doubt I get another clean hit like that, but it should make for some incredible progress." Willow remarks happily, feeling good about her second effort.

"Good job mom." Hazel replies after a second. Other than the surprise, it still wasn't too bad in itself. She could take that level of pain several times... at least with Instant Digestion helping shield her from the brunt of the blow. She'd hate to contemplate taking that hit unaided, reminding her that there was a reason that Willow was helping during the most intensive digestion mode that offered such powerful defenses.

"How are you holding up? I don't want to push you over the edge, even though it would be best if I can help you the whole time you're doing Instant and Rapid." Willow doesn't forget to ask, having noticed Hazel's momentary hesitation and the flinch of her body.

"I'm fine. You just caught me off guard with how much stronger that was then the last one." Hazel assures her. 'I need the pressure anyways. I need to push right to the edge. I'm a terrible monster.' Hazel thinks, then giggles out loud for a second when she realizes the multiple ways that could be taken and how far from the way she meant it the most natural was. 'I mean I'm terrible at BEING a monster. I need to grow. I need to feed. I need to get the hell over how bad things feel. My mom's blows are the only punishment I can allow myself to burn away my guilt. Even if it's a cheap penalty, it's the only penalty I can allow myself.' "Again." Hazel instructs angrily, bearing down on her prey savagely.

>Willow deals 23 damage to Hazel's and her prey. Willow gains 1 Exhaustion from using Impact. Due to Hazel's increased Resistances, and Hazel's OVERSTUFFed Vulnerability, Willow's damage to Hazel is reduced to 5 and her damage to Hazel's prey is reduced to 12. The 12 damage to Hazel's Prey will benefit from Hazel's Digestion Power.<
>Hazel rolls 3d20 for her First Charm roll since she is using Instant Digestion. She gets a 17, 9 and a Natural 20. This allows her to roll again. Hazel gets a 13. This easily exceeds 40, but doesn't make it to 80 so Hazel scores a crit. She deals an additional 6+2=8 damage, her maximum crit damage, which will also benefit from Hazel's Digestion Power.<
>Hazel and Willow deal 63 damage to her prey.<

When Willow lands a second underwhelming blow in response, it makes Hazel start to feel unreasonably angry. 'Come on! Hit me like that second blow again Mom! I need to pay for what I've done to these girls! Even if I can accept that I'm going to have to keep doing this... I can't accept doing it without some kind of penalty.' "Harder Mom. Hit. Me. Harder. I can take it." Hazel growls.

"Are you sure Hazel? It will be better if-" Willow starts, frowning.

"HIT ME HARDER!" Hazel yells, pushing herself into another Instant Digestion without waiting as long as she normally rested between rounds. Sighing, Willow took it up a notch, going for a series of attacks that were significantly less powerful individually, but that carried a combined force that was much, much more significant.

>Willow deals 45 damage to Hazel and her prey. Willow gains 3 Exhaustion from using Combo, the Digestion version of Frenzy. Due to Hazel's increased Resistances, and Hazel's OVERSTUFFed Vulnerability, Willow's damage to Hazel is reduced to 27 and her damage to Hazel's prey is reduced to 34. The 34 damage to Hazel's Prey will benefit from Hazel's Digestion Power.<
>Hazel has lost 2/5ths of her hp. YES! Beat the weakness out of me Mom!<
>Hazel and Willow deal 68 damage to Hazel's Prey.<

"That's it." Hazel whispers, eyes closed as she drinks in the pain. 'If my prey had been this strong they'd be alive. That's why everyone keeps telling me that the Pred world is cruel and harsh. The weak are food, and the strong devour them. If you don't want to be weak, the only answer is to make yourself a MONSTER. So hit me Mom. Keep hitting me until I forget to feel bad. Until I've paid for my crimes. And then keep hitting me until I start to grow teeth and fangs. I've got to be MORE cruel and harsh than the Pred world to survive there. The Queen became as strong as she is with a potential that Harmony called "the pits"! There's no reason I can't do the same.' Hazel thinks, her heart breaking as she makes herself walk through her guilt and the pain at the same time, looking towards the other side and using the pain to wash away her guilt. Tears start to well in her eyes.

Instantly Willow stops. "Hazel, why are you crying?" As far as Willow was concerned, nothing was more important that Hazel's mental and emotional health. She understood deeply how hard this might be on her daughter and she wanted to be supportive and help Hazel through. To Willow, that was even more important than helping her daughter succeed or grow. She'd known Preds that killed themselves because they couldn't get over the guilt, and those girls had known all along that they'd Awaken. Willow would rather have Hazel swallow her pride and call her Pred friends to protect the family and take the burden than see that happen to her daughter. Yes, the optics would be entirely different now that her family HAD a pred of its own... but Willow knew that if she asked persistently and humbly enough Ashley and Harmony at least would do something.

"I'm not crying." Hazel denies, proud of how little her voice shook. She opens her eyes, peering through the fog of wetness and refusing to allow it to drip down her face again. "Don't stop. Please... don't stop."

Willow took Hazel in her arms, pulling her daughter's head against her breast. "You'll have to try a lot harder than that if you want to fool your mother. You're hurting somewhere deep, and I want to take care of you. Let me in."

"It's nothing, really Mom." Hazel insists, her emotions stabilizing. "Can you get my phone charger out of my room? Jacob's..." Her voice hitches as guilt for stealing Jennifer's boyfriend the day she digested her best friend hits, but Hazel completes the thought without letting herself breakdown. "Jacob's coming over today after school and I need to be able to check on him."

Recognizing the request for space and time instead of cuddling or smothering attention, Willow nods. "I'll be right back. I need to use the ladies room anyways." Willow adds, assuring Hazel she'd give some extra time on top. After all, right now Hazel was incapable of moving somewhere she could be private. The entire first floor of their house was the community areas, with the bedrooms upstairs. With the size of Hazel's stomach, she'd destroy the stair rail or get stuck if she attempted to go upstairs.

Scrubbing at her eyes the moment her Mom turned the corner, Hazel gathers her resolve. 'Dawn said she heard the Queen had eaten 400 people. That's what it takes to overcome a terrible potential like mine. This... I can't let myself be stopped by this. I. Will. NOT. Let that girl have Jacob. With what Harmony said about the Queen, at least I shouldn't be facing a disadvantage in potential like I am against Jane. With how strong the Queen already is she might as well be an unmoving point for me to reach, right? So I just need to fill in the gap. Eat more than her more often. Find something I can do to keep the pounds off. There's got to be a way to train while losing weight... if I eat 400 innoc-' Hazel shudders at the thought and hardens her heart, forcing herself to get through it. 'If I eat 400 helpless people in a few months I'll be an immobile fat blob. The Queen was able to spread it over years and she's still... I'd say she's still fatter than Harmony actually. Her ass is just THAT big. Yet I don't have the kind of time she used to power up. I need to get through something like...'

Hazel feels herself retreating from the thought again, the scale of massacre she'll have to commit to rise to the Queen's level making her heart and soul quake just thinking about it. Rage at the weakness rises in her chest and she uses it to push furiously through, imprinting the need on her heart despite the guilt she felt just thinking about it. 'WHEN I eat my own 400 people, I need to get through them in a few months. By the end of the semester at LATEST. So I need to figure out how to do that without becoming immobilized by how fat it makes me. I seriously doubt I can keep that many calories off by going to the gym even if I lived there. So what else is there?'

When Willow returned, she was a bit concerned by the look on Hazel's face. She'd stopped crying, but was still in a rather dark and brooding mood, seeming angry. But before she could say anything, Hazel noticed her. "Good, you're back. Do you know any good ways for a Pred to train without turning into a complete blob? I'm going to gain hundreds of pounds from this, and while it's great that it will jump me so far forward... if I have to gain that kind of weight for any significant training I'll end up too fat to move."

"Not many, but... there's a few things that can help." Willow sighs, realizing that her daughter wasn't going to open up about whatever was so deeply bothering her. At least she was past the heartbroken state that could lead to concerns about suicide. It would have to do for now. "In general, the faster you digest your prey and the more actively you work at it the less weight you'll gain. So investing in Digestion is a very powerful way to become able to train without putting on as much weight. There's also the possibility of hiring out your stomach as a belly for people to train against. Escape Classes are always in need of girls with your potential to provide a consistent challenge, but they won't hire you unless you can willingly regurgitate prey and sign a bunch of papers making yourself legally accountable for murder if you don't. "

>Willow deals 18 damage to Hazel and her prey. Willow gains 1 Exhaustion from using Impact. Due to Hazel's increased Resistances, and Hazel's OVERSTUFFed Vulnerability, Willow's damage to Hazel is reduced to 0 and her damage to Hazel's prey is reduced to 7. The 7 damage to Hazel's Prey will benefit from Hazel's Digestion Power.<
>Hazel and Willow deal 43 damage to Hazel's Prey.<

As she was listening, Hazel had started using Instant Digestion again and firmly indicated for her mother to keep helping. It had taken a few motions and Willow had clearly not put her heart in the strike, but she'd at least done something and Hazel thought she could feel Dawn starting to split open. "What if it turns out I can't regurgitate at will? According to Harmony, by the time I finish this I could pretty seriously hurt even you if we try and I can't manage."

"I'm not sure if I'm more pleased that she's actually being cautious for once or insulted that she thinks I've let myself go that much." Willow snorts. "That estimation is another symptom of her overestimating your potential. If you actually fought me, than yes, I'd get seriously hurt. If you did well enough you might even keep me down, I've deteriorated a lot since my best. But if you controlled your reactions I'd be able to do a Massage, a Probe and then a Frenzy to blast out. It would be deeply unpleasant for both of us, because that would take a while to set up, but if I can line all that up in a row then even Ashley will at least notice something unpleasant."

>Massage, on a success, allows the Prey to roll her Struggle damage an inflict that much Vulnerability on the Pred. Then the Pred reduces this vulnerability by her ROLLED damage each turn until it goes to 0. So her acids don't count, except for Churning and Digestion dies, which are exceptionally small dice. The combo Willow is proposing would deal, reliably, 10d10+36-2d4 damage... enough to talk about the possibility of dishing 100 damage in a single round. A mature Pred starts with about 225 hp or so, making this a truly insane amount of damage. Of course, if the Pred makes attacks to reduce the vulnerability from Massage or attempts to disrupt the Probe and the Massage then this becomes both less rewarding and far harder to pull off.<

"Just... how strong is a Mature pred really? Harmony gave me an extremely vague answer, telling me that it's easier to figure on two prey to escape a Mature pred instead of giving me an idea who those two might be." Hazel asks, finding the difference in Willow and Harmony's estimations jarring.

"A Mature Pred is strong enough to always beat a fresh Escape Graduate in a one on one." Willow answers. "It's relatively hard to gauge the strength of a Prey who has training and experience without putting him or her in a stomach though. That's the second reason it's difficult to pin down besides how much faster Preds get powerful. Even a Pred that's recently Matured and Trained typically can't escape another freshly Mature Pred, and if they do they come out in really bad shape. So we can say for sure that even a freshly Matured Pred is easily able to beat an equally fresh Trained Prey. Watch for the feeling of a Probe if you want a cue who's got Training. Take anyone who can Probe seriously for now, it means they pass the minimum to be individually strong enough your acids won't win you a one on one. A more or less average Mature Pred potentially can handle two freshly Trained Prey at the same time with the right set up and the right conditions though, but that's a dangerous fight. Even a weak Mature Pred can handle 2 or 3 people that dropped out of an Escape Class most of the time. Because of how much faster Preds get stronger, an average Mature Pred can even overpower an Escape Artist like I was before I stopped working out. At the very top, where a Pred can be considered pseudo Skilled instead of simply Mature, you'll find Preds that might just manage to take down 2 Escape Artists at the same time."

'Pseudo Skilled... like the Queen is. AT LEAST... for all I know she's Skilled. No wonder Harmony treated Mom's odds of escape like a joke when I asked. The Queen's powerful enough there's variables if she took two people like Mom.' Hazel realizes. She latches onto the point, thinking about the Queen taking down Pearl. "Could a pseudo Skilled Pred take down a properly Skilled Pred if she was able to swallow her?"

"Up to a point, yes. A particularly strong Skilled Pred like Harmony shouldn't lose to someone that isn't Skilled herself. On the other hand, the average Skilled Pred doesn't have much chance of escaping from, say, a teacher at Pred High. Of course, Skilled is where things get hard enough to keep growing that the 'average' for that broad description is tilted firmly towards the low end." Willow responds with confidence. Then frowns and gives a warning. "Make sure you don't give any teachers at Pred High an excuse to eat you. If they haven't made the mistake of eating someone else before swallowing another Pred there's no chance you'll survive... and even if they did eat someone else you best hope that its a second Pred or someone known for their high grades in the mandatory Escape Class."

>Willow deals 17 damage to Hazel and her prey. Willow gains 1 Exhaustion from using Impact. Due to Hazel's increased Resistances, and Hazel's OVERSTUFFed Vulnerability, Willow's damage to Hazel is reduced to 0 and her damage to Hazel's prey is reduced to 8. The 8 damage to Hazel's Prey will benefit from Hazel's Digestion Power.<
>Hazel and Willow deal 48 damage to Hazel's Prey.<
>Hazel's Prey "shrink" by 1 Fullness. Hazel now is at 15 Fullness, her 150% MAX OVERSTUFF. Hazel loses 32 hp, but her remaining Resistance reduces it to 31. Hazel's prey can take a total of 1,286 more damage before they "shrink"again, staying the same actual size but developing new significant changes to maintain that size.<
>Hazel has lost 3/5ths of her hp. Finally! Unfortunate side effect, but totally worth it! Dawn's finally broke open!<
>Due to "shrinking" her stomach and making a significant progress in her digestion, Hazel will get a significantly boosted flood of fat units for energy for this hour's efforts.<
>Hazel has used Instant Digestion to it's limit! She must wait 8 hours before she can use Instant Digestion again!<

As the pair push themselves to maintain the vicious workout of moving Hazel through as much digestion as possible at the fast speed they can manage, Hazel suddenly feels something peel back and a head rams out of the opening as her gut expands without warning. The progress is sharply arrested before it seemed like the rip was inclined to go to on its own, but Hazel herself was out of space locking it from opening wider as her stomach stretched to the point it was whitened and a few veins were visible across the wall of flesh. Hazel's eyes bulge at the unexpected pain that she should have been braced for to hit her anytime. "Owwwww..." Hazel groans, feeling firmly bloated and a bit sick after her prey had suddenly expanded.

The sudden sharp expansion had forced Willow to take a step back, and she has to suppress a smile at Hazel's innocent and simple reaction. "Well, look at the bright side. You finished the first step now." Willow encourages with a laugh. She places her hand on the head sticking out of the tear in Hazel's overfed prey. "You've already done as much Instant as you can at your level, so focus on Rapid Digestion now. I'll scale back to match. I'm not trying to overpower nearly as much Resistance to have an effect anymore, and you're going to be a bit more vulnerable when you're this full. Let me know when you think you've hit your limit and I'll leave the rest to you."

>Hazel is using Rapid Digestion, wanting to capitalize on the progress and make more. Willow scales back to using Shove to help Hazel so that she doesn't hurt Hazel too much now that the Pred will have a ton less Resistance.<
>Willow deals 13 damage to Hazel and her prey. Due to Hazel's increased Resistances, and Hazel's OVERSTUFFed Vulnerability, Willow's damage to Hazel is reduced to 6 and her damage to Hazel's prey is reduced to 7. The 7 damage to Hazel's Prey will benefit from Hazel's Digestion Power.<
>Hazel and Willow deal 45 damage after applying Hazel's Digestion Power. This is reduced by 8 due to her prey's greatly reduced, but still powerful, Resistance. Hazel's prey take 37 damage.<

It turned out that Willow's choice to make a difference while Hazel was using Rapid Digestion was simple. She Shoved on the head hard, pushing the owner just a little bit back into Dawn's gut and twisted and pushed it against the sides of the opening as if trying to widen the hole now that there WAS a hole to widen. Despite how much less intensive it was, Hazel could feel it a lot more clearly. Both the progress she was making with much less required effort and the pain from Willow pushing things even a little bit further and faster.

"Why are you dead set on acting like you're going to need more training after this? Because losing weight loses experience, most Preds end up staying in the realm of Mature their whole lives. It can't be Jane, right? If you're convinced she's going to keep her word then she's as good as dead, and even if she doesn't it's a coin toss for who swallows who." Willow asks, trying to feel out her daughter's motivation. She thought it likely tied into whatever had her mood so dour and volatile since waking up.

After a few moments of hesitation, Hazel answers slowly and carefully. She didn't want anything making it back to Harmony's coworkers somehow. "Jane has... an extremely dangerous friend. I... met her... at the club last night. Even... after I take out Jane... if I don't get ready to deal with her... I'll be eaten in revenge for certain."

Weighing her own response carefully, Willow nods her understanding of Hazel's concern. "That's why you wanted to know how dangerous someone pseudo Skilled was. I'm guessing she blurs the line between Mature and Skilled?" When Hazel nods, Willow continues her thought. "Depending on how close to Jane she is, it might be best to hide who did the deed or it might be best to tell her friend that Jane's the one picking the fight. She's enough stronger than either of you that she's somewhat expected to stay out of the... 'kids fight' if she doesn't have a solid reason to interfere. But if she's close enough to take revenge and you can't hide that you were the one to eat Jane, she's strong enough that you can actually ask Harmony to back her down... at least briefly."

>Willow deals 10 damage to Hazel and her prey. Due to Hazel's increased Resistances, and Hazel's OVERSTUFFed Vulnerability, Willow's damage to Hazel is reduced to 3 and her damage to Hazel's prey is reduced to 4. The 4 damage to Hazel's Prey will benefit from Hazel's Digestion Power.<
>Hazel and Willow deal 34 damage to Hazel's Prey.<
>Hazel regains 66 fat units, directly reverse ordering her loses instead of adding to her current state according to the determined order for gains. Her Intake Needs also are reduced by 32.<

"No! We can't put Harmony in that position!" Hazel immediately snaps, and then pales when she realizes that her mother had picked up on the implications.

"For it to be awkward for Harm to interfere... is she one of her coworkers?" Willow accurately guesses. That would be a pretty big problem. Especially since a coworker of Harmony's that had the sort of skill mentioned meant it would be another Dancer. No... the Dancers should all be Skilled, not merely pseudo... even the worst shouldn't be that weak. Well, maybe the weakest would be close enough to the bottom of the barrel that Hazel couldn't tell she was above the mark and was hoping she was below it. 'Who was the newest Dancer again? Harm was venting about her yesterday. Started with an 'E' or an 'L' I think. She was especially upset because management let her get away with some wild stuff.' Willow thinks, trying to remember.

"Please, don't mention any of this to Harmony Mom!" Hazel begs, seeing her mother still working it through. At this point she would have to just... come clean. Hazel sags a bit and closes her eyes, then opens them and explains properly so her mother wouldn't be able to run off with enough information to put Hazel in jeopardy and not enough to realize how complicated the situation really was. "She's my age, and they call her the Queen. She rules Pred High with an iron fist. Harmony mentioned that she's eaten at least one teacher before, and stressed that she was the strongest Pred there. She's also the club owner's granddaughter, so Harmony can't touch her. She ate another Dancer last night, broke the stage fighting over prey with... someone..." Hazel blushes and keeps moving. "And Harmony said in that context the most she could do to the Queen is yell at her. Dawn... went to school with the Queen. From what she told me, the Queen's entire High School career has been at Pred High because she Awakened before we got out of Middle School. Jane... Jane's been spying on her crush for her. I don't even know for how long. Probably years. The Queen wants Jacob... the same Jacob that's coming over today. She thinks she already has him. She calls him her husband, not just her boyfriend. The only good news about the Queen is that her potential can't be much better than mine... Harmony said her potential was absolutely awful, and sounded quite impressed that the Queen made it to where she is with such a strong limiter on her."

Letting the information sink in, Willow takes a minute to consider what she could do to help. It wasn't terribly much on the fronts where Hazel needed it most. There was absolutely nothing Willow could do to try to buy time and even if she did help Hazel figure out how to get the jump on this girl... Hazel couldn't keep her down yet. Not a chance. But... there was something Hazel would need that Willow could at least try to help with. She pulls out her phone and dials, setting it on Hazel's stomach as her daughter performs another blow of Rapid Digestion.

>Willow deals 13 damage to Hazel and her prey. Due to Hazel's increased Resistances, and Hazel's OVERSTUFFed Vulnerability, Willow's damage to Hazel is reduced to 6 and her damage to Hazel's prey is reduced to 7. The 7 damage to Hazel's Prey will benefit from Hazel's Digestion Power.<
>Hazel rolls 2d20 for her First Charm roll since she is using Rapid Digestion. She gets an 8 and a Natural 20. This allows her to roll again. Hazel gets a 7. Adding her Crit Chance gives us 8+20+7+6=41, so Hazel has narrowly passed the requirements for a crit. Hazel will deal an extra 5+2=7 damage, which will also benefit from Hazel's Digestion Power.<
>Hazel and Willow deal 48 damage to her prey.<

Thankfully Rose picks up fairly quickly. "Willow darling! So good of you to call! Have you been thinking about my offer for a partnership? Just imagine what w-"

"Not why I'm calling." Willow snaps, breaking in before Rose could start weaving a fantasy together. The owner of the People Sandwich was an old classmate of hers, and one of the only prey that Willow knew personally that were more accomplished than herself. Rose was also an eccentric madwoman and a lesbian. Willow avoided talking to her like the plague if she could, but Rose was the only person Willow knew who could offer what Hazel would need for training. "I'll get right to the point Rose. My daughter is a Pred with bottom of the barrel potential and I'm hoping you've got some work for her."

"Really? But ol' Forest doesn't have any Preds in the family, so how did this happen?" Rose giggles. "Did you step out on him? I told you he wasn't good enough for my Willow." The look on her mother's face made Hazel understand deeply how much she didn't like talking to Rose. The fact that her mom wasn't snapping at the casual accusation of infidelity made Hazel wonder for a second if she was wrong in assuming it was at her grandparents generation that the bloodlines got muddied. But Hazel quickly shook off that thought. Her parents were still embarrassingly in love, and Willow's response gave Hazel the feeling that it was more that she expected something like this from Rose... possibly that she knew better than to engage in denying and get derailed.

"Have you got an opening or not? Despite being recently Awakened, she'll be fairly close to reaching Maturity in a day or 2. I already checked her potential myself right after she Awakened, it's Untalented at best." Willow barks, keeping her temper under control with a great deal of effort and staying on point.

>Willow deals 18 damage to Hazel and her prey. Due to Hazel's increased Resistances, and Hazel's OVERSTUFFed Vulnerability, Willow's damage to Hazel is reduced to 11 and her damage to Hazel's prey is reduced to 12. The 12 damage to Hazel's Prey will benefit from Hazel's Digestion Power.<
>Hazel has lost 4/5ths of her hp. I'm not really... sure how much more... I can take?<
>Hazel and Willow deal 47 damage to Hazel's Prey.<

"Straight to business then. Spoilsport." Rose complains in a tone that implies she's excited just to keep chatting with Willow. "I've always got openings. You know that. Preds quit frequently with the low wage and working conditions despite getting free meals every day. Except the ones that I fire because they got too strong and I started taking unacceptable training losses. You sure she's up for it? And whose gut am I hearing churning? Ah, of course." There's the sound of Rose smacking her forehead with her palm. "Hello dearie, do you know what the job your mom's trying to set you up with would entail?"

"No...?" Hazel answers hesitantly, not wanting to get dragged into the discussion until she got a better feel for Rose. Especially when she was hurting a little bit too much to have the degree of focus she felt wise for talking with someone like Rose. She'd already picked up on a few reasons Willow didn't like talking to the woman.

"I run the People Sandwich downtown and we boast some of the tastiest prey in town. Especially if you're after prey that won't fight back until it's... well, the store tagline says until it's too late but I DO try to keep that from being the case for my workers. Which entails a lot of training and a screening process to keep idiots that want to get paid for an Escape Class from showing up just for the training and never filling a customer's belly. Unbelievable how many people try that nonsense." Rose giggles happily, sounding utterly unbothered. "That's why the last step in the interview process is being eaten two by two by a reasonably weak Pred that preferably doesn't have any gag reflex to speak off and working together to escape. If you can't at least survive together in good enough shape to work tomorrow then it's a waste of my time to try to turn you into a Special. Just hearing what the last step in the interview process will be turns most people away for some reason. Can't understand why." Rose muses, sounding genuinely confused.

"So... what, I eat the people applying for the job and if they escape you'll start training them? What happens if they don't escape?" Hazel asks, trying to get a feel for what's going on.

"Surely you heard me mention free meals to your mother a moment ago? I wasn't talking about a tuna sandwich! Well, there are free sandwiches to help you heal up between successful interviews, but that's a snack not a meal." Rose giggles excitedly. "Of course, a failed interview does make it pretty hard to do any more interviews that day, and I will have to insist that you come into work on an empty stomach. Any leftovers from lunch at school will have your acids roiling too much from the start. Well, I probably could forgive some bones left from breakfast if you can clear the system fast enough, but the rule is an empty gut before any interviews and no more than 15 minutes grace for starting the first interview."

>Willow deals 15 damage to Hazel and her prey. Due to Hazel's increased Resistances, and Hazel's OVERSTUFFed Vulnerability, Willow's damage to Hazel is reduced to 8 and her damage to Hazel's prey is reduced to 9. The 9 damage to Hazel's Prey will benefit from Hazel's Digestion Power.<
>Hazel and Willow deal 36 damage to Hazel's Prey.<

"How many interviews... are there normally?" Hazel finds herself asking. She was starting to understand why her mom had steered her towards Rose as a solution. It made an ugly kind of sense actually. It was how she'd gotten strong enough to do what she did at the club without putting on a single pound. Eat people you aren't strong enough to keep down. And if Hazel got lucky a time or two... a double wouldn't be nearly as bad of a calorie bomb and it only made sense to her that just barely taking down stronger prey would be even better training than easily holding weaker prey.

"I try to keep to 5 a week. That way if they somehow all suck enough to get churned my testing gut has time to empty out between interviews. But each day you'll do as many as you can. I can expedite the process for the next week if all 5 pass and get some more lined up. I go through Specials faster than I go through training bellies. Makes a girl feel like she's wasting her effort teaching people how to get out." There was no mistaking the mockery disguised as sadness in Rose's voice. "It's not particularly good for your job security if I'm getting all or none passing you though. You're supposed to be a screen, and while I might have messed up or gotten really lucky one week, twice in a row is pushing things pretty wildly. If you can't stop the weaker ones not worth my time while being weak enough for someone I haven't personally trained yet to make it through then you're useless to me beyond a threat to turn back the feeblehearted."

"That might be pretty hard for her the first few weeks Rose." Willow comments.

"I thought you said she was Mature? That should be good enough to at least keep down the dropouts that managed to answer questions well enough to make me think they passed a piss poor standard course." Rose objects, giggling. Hazel got the feeling that, whatever the woman said, she honestly could care less if her employees survived or not. She got her money either way, and she didn't make much more by selling her Specials multiple times from what Willow had told Hazel the last time she talked about the People Sandwich. Specials, aka the employees, got to keep the majority of their own cost if they escaped alive.

"I said she'd be CLOSE to Mature in a few days." Willow corrects, sighing. "And for clarity's sake, I'm not entirely certain if she's Untalented or Hopelessly Bad. She's working down 5 girls right now... you can thank Harm for that... and you can estimate that as well as I can. She's had one pretty weak prey, I trained with her and Harm shoved another of my daughters in with me and now she's got 5 girls digesting in the tank."

>Willow attempts to Weaken Hazel's prey. 66, easily succeeds. Hazel shrugs off the exploratory damage, and protects her prey from the same.<
>Hazel deals 36 damage to her Prey.<

"In other words, she's almost certainly going to be lacking Mature acids if she's Hopelessly Bad." Rose concludes. "In fact, odds are good that she'd be making up for lacking Mature Digestion by some extra juice in Charm, Gluttony or basic Pred metrics to resemble an overall Mature threat level even if she's Untalented. Overall, she's going to be lacking in offense to even try to handle a pair of Escape Grads. If only..." Rose muses, sounding like she's got an idea as she lets the words hang. A wonderful, delightful, evil idea that she teasingly withheld instead of sharing.

"I'm not staying in her gut with you for a couple hours to train her acids." Willow says preemptively. "Not when you can do it safely by yourself. I remember what happened the last time I was in a stomach with you... we barely made it out of Ashley because you refused to focus!" Willow shudders, the recollection disturbing her. Hazel figured almost dying probably would have that effect on anyone.

"Oh come on Willow darling. She'd start hurting me once she got a full tank, and what if she decides she wants to digest me?" Rose says with such genuine sounding fear that Hazel almost believed that Rose was worried she would be able to digest her. But she kept talking after that. "She might get hurt if you're not there to make me feel safe Willow darling. You know how prone to Thrashing around I am when I get excited by myself, and it's so lovely in a safe belly like hers. Besides, it would be something amazing to be in your daughter's stomach... I'm getting hot just thinking about it."

Degree by degree Willow's face was falling as Rose talked. "You wouldn't dare..."

"Wouldn't I?" Rose gaily giggles. Hazel can tell from the expression on her mother's face that YES Rose could and would. And Hazel wasn't quite naive enough to misunderstand what Rose was saying, though she rather wished she was. The woman offering her a job was talking about climbing into Hazel's stomach and getting her rocks off.

>There's a strong tendency among the most powerful prey that they are people who are actively turned on by the danger of being digested. It's one of the only motivations that is strong enough to push them to devour not only the amount of theoretical knowledge required, but to seek the even more important practical experiences putting it to the test. There are those who gained the results for a different reason, often despite their best efforts to AVOID the practical experiences. Willow fits that mold. But for every Willow who did everything they could to not need to be as capable a prey as they are, there's 4 or 5 Roses who get off on the danger and have amassed their experiences in a very proactive manner.< (Which contributes to both the low number of living voraphiles AND the low number of high level prey...)
>Rose is right at the top end of the Escape Artist bracket, with level 14 Prey and level 13 Strength. While a sufficiently powerful Mature Pred such as Martha would at least stand a chance of winning, Rose is quite easily able to escape the likes of Dawn by herself.<

Showing a slightly hunted look, Willow seeks a way around being stuck in a stomach with the madwoman... especially Hazel's. It was embarrassing enough that Ashley had felt the way Rose forced Willow to orgasm instead of working to escape in college, and they were both damn lucky Ashley hadn't taken advantage of it. Not to mention lucky that she was so much weaker back then. Just the idea of Hazel feeling a repeat of that wretched event was enough to make Willow want to scream. "Surely you've got someone else who can give you a hand? I know you have managers who are at least as skilled as I am."

"It wouldn't be the same dearie~" Rose denies, and Hazel can hear the smirk on her face. It was clear that she was deriving far too much pleasure out of slowly walling her mother into something.

Noticing her mom's distress and wanting to give a helping hand, Hazel interjects. "I feel like both of you are forgetting someone who definitely has a say in who takes a trip to her stomach. I have no intention of swallowing my mom again. If Harmony hadn't forced her down my throat I wouldn't have eaten her the first time."

>Willow deals 21 damage to Hazel's stomach and an additional 16 damage to Hazel's prey from Weakening them. Due to Hazel's increased Resistances, and Hazel's OVERSTUFFed Vulnerability, Willow's damage to Hazel is reduced to 14 and her damage to Hazel's prey is reduced to 15. The 15 damage to Hazel's Prey will benefit from Hazel's Digestion Power.<
>Hazel rolls 2d20 for her First Charm roll since she is using Rapid Digestion. She gets an 11 and a Natural 20. This allows her to roll again. Hazel gets a 10. Even before adding her Crit Chance, it is obvious this is higher than 40, so Hazel scores a crit. Hazel will deal an extra 5+2=7 damage, which will also benefit from Hazel's Digestion Power.<
>Hazel and Willow deal 57 damage to her prey.<

Despite her own misgivings about what Rose was proposing, Willow savagely pressed against Hazel's stomach to shut her up. The eccentric woman was nearly impossible to handle without Hazel adding unnecessary complications. Rose was silent for some moments after Hazel's statement, and each second that ticked by made Willow more anxious. By the time Rose spoke again, Willow could have told you what she'd decided. "If you want the job, then you'll have to eat whoever I tell you whenever I tell you during work hours. Refusal is grounds for dismissal. And Willow darling, if you want me to hire her than it's only fair that she undergoes an interview herself. It could add a... crucial amount of weight to your recommendation if you joined me for the interview."

Squeezing her eyes closed, Willow groans. "We... will have to think about it."

"Excellent. Give me a call once she's done with those five girls and I'll clear my day immediately!" Rose answers with excited glee. She starts to add something else, but Willow hangs up on her.

"I really wish you'd let me handle that. Thank you for trying, but..." Willow remarks, rubbing her forehead with frustration. "If I'd run her around for long enough she'd have gotten enough enjoyment out of the chase to give up on the prize. Probably. Now if I don't go with you to the interview she's going to deny you the job. She'll spend some time in your gut, and it will be humiliating quite apart from how unpleasant it is to have prey beat their way out of you, and then she'll say you're too weak and you can come back after you get a bit stronger if you want a follow up interview. And she'll keep doing it until I come with you."

"Sorry..." Hazel says with great pain and shame. That last hit had really taken it out of her, and she'd been in bad shape already. It was a terrible time to make a request, but Hazel was convinced that if her mother did anything to assist her digestion further it was going to make her puke. "I don't think I can handle any more... help right now. Can I have some time to think while I finish this up?"

"Of course." Willow replies.

>Hazel deals 24 damage to her prey.<

'Idiot. What made you think you could dictate terms to someone you're looking to get a job from?' Hazel thinks, kicking herself mentally. 'At least I'm making headway. I can see why mom emphasized how much harder the first step is then anything that comes after it. They're feeling a lot softer already, and it seems like the gooey state makes them kinda bind to each other. Makes it easier to keep them compacted. I wonder if some of my acids somehow made it through Dawn's stomach or down her mouth to weaken the others before me and mom put a gaping hole in her gut? It's about the only explanation I've got for how fast the one sticking out of that hole is turning mushy.'

There was other proof of her progress that Hazel had slowly become aware of while they spoke with Rose. Her seat wasn't nearly as uncomfortable as when she first woke up, and Hazel had noticed the vein that stood out clearest from her point of view after Dawn tore open had gotten less visible. She knew it wasn't because there was less strain making it bulge out, so it had to be that Hazel had a bit more naturally around the middle to hide it again. The only place she couldn't tell was any different was her chest, but it felt kinda hot like it had yesterday while tormenting Hope before the Sex Ed class that Jacob had asked her out after. It wasn't much, but a girl could hope, right?

>Hazel deals 34 damage to her prey.<

'Sorry for throwing you to the wolves.' Hazel thinks in the direction of the shorter girl. If Hazel were entirely honest with herself, she never had all that much reason to personally hate Hope. At least, not a fraction of how much she did. Out of the entire gang of bullies, Hope was the least involved in directly tormenting her. Maybe Jane had been telling the truth when she said Hope had come up with some of the nastiest ideas to torture her that Hazel had endured, but it was about 50/50 to Hazel's way of thinking that Jane was lying and wanted to cause chaos. Besides, Hazel had gotten a clue how dangerous Hope could be yesterday. Jane had given her a name, and Hope had known more about the Queen in a few hours than Hazel felt like she'd gained out of personally interacting with her. If Hope had really wanted to help the gang break Hazel... well, Hazel felt the evidence suggested that Hope hadn't.

Which brought Hazel to Elisia. She'd picked the girl out of the club as much for looking like Hope as she had because she thought she was a slut bothering Jeffery... and both of those as much for simple size since Harmony had told her to pick someone that was small. It should have made Hazel feel good having destroyed even a poor proxy for her tormentors. Instead it made her feel vile. Like she was a deformed, hideous monster. Growling, Hazel forces herself to remember that she'd decided to accept and embrace that fact. She needed the strength of a monster if she was going to avoid being ass fat on the Queen or seeing Jacob turned into tit fat on Jane.

Dawn had had a point when she called Hazel out for picking on busty girls. It was a simple and ugly fact. 'It's not sluts I want to eat, it's not really the busty bimbos either... it's the girls that I'm jealous of. That's my hunting type. Jane said it best yesterday... it's easy to be the prettiest. Just eat everyone prettier than you.' Hazel realizes, her face reddening with shame. 'Who said it was some kind of crime to be pretty? Why... am I like this? Right. I'm a monster. Since I'm a monster, who cares that I like eating girls I wish I could look like? I can at least keep it under contro-' Hazel's eyes widen as she realizes something terrible and horrible. Dawn had warned her how often a hungry Pred would eat a hunting type in their sleep if close enough by... and Hazel's hunting type was girls that awoke her jealousy.

>Hazel deals 33 damage to her prey.<

"MOM!!!!" Hazel screams as loudly as she can, a jolt of fear filling her as she thanks Dawn repeatedly in the back of her mind. When Willow appears moments later, out of breath and concerned, Hazel answers the unasked question before Willow can form it on her lips. "You and dad need to make sure Heather's door is firmly secure at night. Give her the lock on the inside she's asked for, and make her keep it locked when she goes to sleep, please. I don't think I'd break it down in my sleep, but if I were to go sleep eating, she's the one in danger."

The request made Willow raise an eyebrow, but when Hazel explained why it wasn't something she could object to. The safety of the whole family was more important than any other concerns. "Hopefully you're with the majority who never eat someone in their sleep, but I'll talk to your father. Most of the time even a Pred inclined to sleep eating won't leave the room she's in, but much better to be safe then sorry. If it turns out to be a significant problem, we'll probably put a lock on the outside of your door as well... but your suggestion should be plenty until we know if you have that particular problem."

Hazel let out a sigh of relief. That would have been absolutely awful, even worse than what happened to Jennifer. 'At least I managed to avert one disaster.' Hazel thinks. She had to get herself out of this rut though, or she'd lose her mind. "Hey Mom? Would you grab my phone from upstairs? It should be charged by now."

"Sure thing."

>Hazel deals 32 damage to her prey.<
>Hazel has used Rapid Digestion to its limit! She must wait 4 hours before she can use Rapid Digestion again!<
<After she finishes the hour and a half of focused digestion and starts to take it easy for a bit.>

When Willow returned with Hazel's phone she thanked her mom and then noticed the time before she could unlock the phone. 2:23 pm. Hazel felt her jaw drop as she looked back up at her mother. "When did it get so LATE!?" Hazel demanded, taking in how hot and sweaty she'd gotten while working the girls down. Jacob would be here in an hour if he came directly! She needed to get cleaned up... actually, how would she even get cleaned up? Her gut wouldn't fit in the shower, that's for sure. She looked disgusting and smelled even worse!

"I woke you at 12:30 and gave you some time to get up and going before we started the intensive stuff. What did you expect?" Willow asks, smiling slightly. She could see what was on her daughter's mind. "You can change Jacob's invitation to be for dinner at 5 if you need some time to get presentable. Especially with how tricky getting you cleaned up will be. Probably will have to take the soaps outside and makeshift an outdoor shower. We'll work on making a proper fenced in outdoor shower later, but today it would have to be in the open. I guess put on a swimsuit to preserve what modesty you can?"

Hazel glumly nodded. She wasn't looking forward to trying to fit through a pair of doorways to get outside and another pair to get back in. It had been an uncomfortable pain in the ass last night before Dawn's gut had burst, and it would only be worse now with how tender her middle felt and how much bigger it was. But it was better than smelling of the deaths she'd caused when Jacob arrived. She unlocks her phone and opens her messaging app, noticing several messages from Hope, the latest from about 1:15pm, and a message from Jacob during lunch. She opened Jacob's message first.

<Yes, he said he would make that his responsibility to take care of as Hazel's boyfriend.>

I'm sorry that you had to first hear about the plan from Hope. Hazel stopped as soon as she'd read those words, confused what on earth he was talking about. She considered seeing which message of Hope's he was referring to and what plan Hope had come up with. But it already sounded like she wasn't going to like the plan much, and she wanted to hear Jacob out before she read what Hope had to say. I told her to let me take care of talking to you about it. That's my responsibility, you know? But I can't come up with anything better to keep Liz off your back after what Hope had to say last night. I'm not nearly as convinced it will work as she is, but... look, it's the best and possibly the only move available and Hope's actually got the guts to go through with it. Either it will work and you can yell at me all you want, or it will backfire and Hope's going to get eaten instantly. Just keep in mind how much she's risking for you Hazel. Put all the blame at my feet, and remember that she's looking out for you. I'll talk to you about things in detail when I get there today if you haven't decided you want to call it off. I wouldn't blame you if you wanted to break up with me over this actually... I know Jennifer probably would have threatened that to make me back out and leave Hope to die.

<A house date, maybe even meeting her family as her boyfriend.>

Hazel's bad feeling got stronger the further she read. Especially with how Jacob was assuming she already understood exactly what he was talking about and didn't go into... ANYTHING specific. Just tried to mollify and calm her down and take the blame. 'For Hope.' Hazel thought angrily. Well, if he was worried Hazel would call off today's house date over whatever this was than he'd probably be relieved that she's just rescheduling on him. I'll need a little bit of time to clear my head, but I don't see any reason you can't come over a bit later today. My mom said you could come for dinner... maybe around 5? We can talk ourselves in private afterwards, but I would love to have my boyfriend at the table with my family. Just don't let my dad try to bully you. Hazel sends before reading anything that Hope had sent. No matter what Jacob said, if there was blame to be had it was going squarely at the schemer's feet. Now... it was time to figure out what had him worried that she would break up with him the day after she FINALLY got to start a relationship with the boy she'd wanted for years.

<Put the Lizard on HOPE's leash instead of Jane's.>

Going over to the messages she'd gotten from Hope since falling asleep, she saw that the furthest back was at around 6:45 in the morning, before school had started. I'm going to start by saying I highly doubt you'll like reading this message. I don't blame you in the slightest. The methods that I have come up with to bring the Lizard to heel and steal the leash Jane controls her with are unsavory and extreme by my standards... let alone the other actors I'll need to make it work. And that's without considering how inordinately risky it is or the required sacrifices. But before you decide out of hand to veto what I've put together, please give me a chance to convince you that it will be worth it. Hazel was starting to get frustrated with how clearly Hope and Jacob both thought whatever this scheme was would piss her royally off... and wouldn't just TELL HER what was going on.

>Hazel swaps to Passive Digestion, too tired for her unsettled and not yet outraged emotions to force her into Active.<
>Hazel deals 12 damage to her prey.<
>Hazel regains 12 fat units. Because she now has access, albeit poor access, to the prey initially protected from getting mulched into calories after "shrinking" her gut whereas she could only really get calorie's from Dawn's remains previously, Hazel gets more calories for dealing less damage to her prey. Hazel's Intake Needs have also been reduced by 32 during her intensive efforts to maximize headway in her digestion.<

Let's look at the goals. I DON'T WANT TO GET EATEN BY ELIZABETH. Burn that part into your brain and remember I'm betting that I won't be if I do this right. Otherwise you'll probably think I'm suicidal by the time we're done. Wouldn't have bothered trying to wiggle out of getting eaten yesterday if I was looking to die. Second, we want to maximize the damage to Jane and Elizabeth's relationship. Them being a happy go lucky pair is bad news for both of us, so that's got to get split. Third, you want to date a certain boy and not become lunch because he likes you even more than you like him. Not downplaying how much you love the boy, but if you'd been the one trying to break him and Jennifer up I'm convinced you'd have succeeded with a fraction of the skill I used and could have done it just fine the day Brooke and Vivian pretended piss and shit was makeup. I'm surprised Jennifer managed to snipe him from you in the first place. Fourth, see the first point and apply to yourself instead of to Elizabeth – yes, I'm not dumb enough to buy your attempt to make it seem like I'd be safe long term. I know full well I'm on borrowed time with you. So... I'd like to make a reason that I shouldn't die on Friday either. Hazel felt her face heat at being called out. Part of her had felt in the moment like Hope might have seen through her, and Hazel distinctly remembered gloating to herself that it wouldn't matter if Hope saw through her or not. Now she recognized how monstrous the pressure she'd put on Hope had been, and how ugly the options she'd given the bully really were. 'I basically told her die now or die on Friday...' Hazel thought, then forced herself to keep reading. So far Hazel found herself firmly on board with Hope's goals.

Fifth, if at all possible we want to stop the Lizard from becoming a wildcard after we split her from Jane's control. That means establishing control over her. Since you're clueless how to do that or maintain control in a meaningful way, that job's going to fall to me. Which doubles as a reason to keep me alive per goal 4. 'Not sure I trust you with control over the Queen much more than I trust Jane with it.' Hazel instantly thinks, though the next point made her retract the thought. Sixth, we know full well Elizabeth is going to try to keep spying on Jacob and whoever she thinks he's dating. We want to present YOU for the best option for that. That gives you complete control over what she thinks is going on AND ensures that if anything she's pushing you to spend MORE time with your boyfriend. Plus it gives you some heavy duty leverage on the Queen yourself for when it's awkward from the position I'll assume. Leverage to counterbalance mine if you feel the need as well actually. Finally, we need to get ready for the day that Elizabeth breaks the chains we put on her tomorrow. I can tie her up for a good long while for you, can provide lots of leverage and blow enough smoke to make the Lizard think she's breathing fire... but we're buying time not trying to set things up permanently. You've got to get strong enough to at least stand against her before she sees through us. I haven't been able to figure out much on that front, so I'm working on maximizing how much time we can buy instead. 'If you manage to pull off everything else you've listed then I think my mom's got me covered for getting a ton of training in without becoming blob the immobile. As long as either of us can stand working with Rose at least... Well, if I can regurgitate we'll be able to look into helping some Escape Classes instead of depending on Rose. If I can regurgitate.' Hazel thinks, feeling increasingly glum as she thinks about the possibility of being stuck with that crazy woman.

<Focus Elizabeth's jealousy on Hope instead of Hazel.>

So, what do we need to do to make all of this happen? Well... this is the part I don't think you'll like much. We need to make the Lizard think me and Jacob are the ones dating. "WHAT!?" Hazel yelled furiously, staring at the last seven words. "Oh HELL no! Over my dead body you're doing ANYTHING with my boyfriend you damn bitch! Are you trying to piss me off? Want to find out if I'll make enough room for you before Friday!? Just touch one hair on his head and you're DEAD!" Hazel rants, red filling her vision as she pictured the pair of them together. What made it worse was that the image fit to Hazel.

Hope was one of the most beautiful girls she knew, the 4'6 girl having an hourglass figure that was quite simply unfair to the rest of the female population. Not to mention a pair of sizable reasons to keep Jacob from the manipulative and crafty girl strapped to her chest. There was a good handful of girls with boobs that were objectively as big or bigger than Hope's at school, but due to a combination of general stature, overall slenderness and an attire designed to call attention to the damn cow tits? Jane and another cheerleader named Maggie were the only girls that SEEMED bigger, and in Jane's case it was only after she Awakened and started an all people diet. Hazel knew that was a pretty significant positive to her Jacob. Add her long classically blond hair, a face Hazel wasn't sure if it was better to describe as angelic or belonging to a succubus, a reasonably slim middle and a modest sexy ass that couldn't even start to steal the show from upstairs? THAT was the kind of girl Jacob deserved instead a horrid Pred monster like Hazel!

From her terrible freckles to her skin that reddened instead of tanned when she jogged for too long each day, a habit of hers since deciding to lose the ugly gut she'd had in Middle School, to the tiny B cups she was struggling not to watch fade away into nothing while digesting 5 girls... Hazel just wasn't in the same class of attractiveness. Her wavy brown hair was always an oily mess and its most recent cut was an attempt to fix it up after Jane had a go between classes, she couldn't do makeup to save her life, her legs were too long, her waist too short, she couldn't wear anything without making it clash. Hazel had to stop herself there, feeling a savage spiral coming on if she tried to compare herself with Hope. It was simply begging to be humiliated.

>Due to her jealousy, fear and rage Hazel is using Active Digestion.<
>Hazel deals 23 damage to her prey.<

It took several minutes before Hazel calmed enough to keep reading. Despite what her inferiority complex and severe jealousy pushed her to think, she knew that Hope wouldn't actually go for Jacob. Or at least it wouldn't work. Jacob had already turned her down cold when Hope had tried to split him from Jennifer at Jane's orders. Plus the short stack wasn't nearly stupid enough to not realize how Hazel would react. So there was more going on, and she hadn't even read half the first text yet. "What's up your sleeve to keep me from killing you for suggesting this before Elizabeth even sees your face?" Hazel mumbles to herself, finding the spot she had been at in the message.

We need to make the Lizard think me and Jacob are the ones dating. It's the only way to achieve all our goals at the same time with the resources available. Any other scheme sacrifices objectives without dramatically increasing our odds. I should probably spell out how this achieves everything. Well, there's a reason I'm calling her the Lizard instead of the Queen. I've done my homework, and the girl is a clear cut victim. She can't handle anyone she can't eat and she has no clue how to negotiate as equals. She's got a lot more pride now than she did back then, and she can eat most anyone she wants to... but those disguise her vulnerability, they don't eliminate it. If the Lizard sees eating Jacob's girlfriend as too big of a direct threat to her relationship with him then she can't eat his girlfriend no matter what she does. Unless she's got a way to justify it to herself or convince herself that he'll understand why she had to do it. For example, if said girlfriend was another Pred... to the Lizard's delusion world where she's Jacob's wife if he has a Pred girlfriend then she's got to eat that girlfriend so that he doesn't lose his wife. There's enough implicit threat just in his girlfriend BEING a Pred to make it necessary even if it does some serious damage to the relationship. But as long as she's denied something she thinks Jacob will believe and accept? I can get away with murder tormenting her and she has to take it and do what I tell her. Unfortunately, I'm definitely going to have to prove it tomorrow.

<I'm a dead woman walking. There's absolutely no limits to what I'll dare to do to make the Lizard submit to my machinations.>

I'm not going to mince words. I'll be going full force tomorrow. Either I'll break her or I'll end up in her belly. Which would be what happened to me on Friday anyways, so I'm only risking dying a few days early. That's the only reason I know I can go hard enough to see this through without blinking when her pride makes her show her teeth and make her either use them or accept that she CAN'T use them. If I wasn't scheduled to die Friday I wouldn't have the resolve to call her bluff convincingly. Quite apart from that resolve though, to get away with the things I plan to do to her, I NEED Jacob to back me up no matter what I do. I NEED her to SEE him eating out of my hand. I NEED the Lizard convinced she's never seen a boy as besotted with someone as Jacob is with me. ESPECIALLY that he can't tell what a crooked, wicked girl I am. That I can get away with doing ANYTHING in front of him and he won't realize what I'm doing. He doesn't even react to me calling her a Lizard to her face, but if she so much as glares at me... well, envision the yelp and hiding behind Brooke except I'm using Jacob as a barrier. Smug grin and all. Hazel could picture exactly what Hope was referring to with that last bit. It had played out a few dozen times and it made her blood boil every time it happened. Hazel can imagine how hopeless and furious it would make the Queen feel to have her crush be the pillar Hope hid behind for absolute safety.

She's almost certainly going to try to deny it, but we're going to try to make it Jane's fault that the Lizard is in this horrid pickle. I mean, it IS true that Jane once told me to try to seduce Jacob... but I can't see her admitting it at any point in the act that's late enough for the full rage to click. Maybe if I bring it up in enough of an innocuous way early on Jane would agree thinking she's tossing ME under the bus, but when she realizes I've got Jacob personally backing me up she's going to deny like her life depends on it. Because it just might actually. Slowly Hazel was seeing how it all more or less pieced together at this point. If somehow Hope didn't get eaten instantly making the whole circus act a waste of time, then the Queen would be primed to blame Jane and do what she could to mollify Hope. That would leave the Queen looking for some way to control Hope, looking for someone that HOPE was scared of. Someone that Jacob couldn't stop from eating his girlfriend.

<Yes, she has a role she wants Hazel to play as well... and that requires telling Hazel the rest of the plan>

'That's going to be me isn't it? She's planning to use the fact that I actually did eat Jennifer and that she's genuinely scared of me to sell the Queen that I'm the best leverage she can get to keep Hope in line.' Hazel guesses, feeling good about herself when the next few paragraphs of text more or less explains exactly that in far too much detail. It was as if Hope thought Hazel wouldn't put it together on her own, though she did reveal deeper layers to the importance of the role. Like the fact that making the Queen feel like she could use Hazel to keep Hope leashed would greatly increase the chance of Hope surviving. It gave the powerhouse an 'out' to keep things contained. Plus the several tips she included for how exactly to make it obvious that the balance of power between Hazel and Hope was... SEVERELY unbalanced in Hazel's favor.

The tricky part for you and Jacob is going to be how you interact with each other while the Lizard is watching. If we make it obvious that I'm terrified of you and he doesn't respond the same way he did to the Lizard she's going to find it suspicious. If it doesn't look like there's bad blood between you after what happened to Jennifer, that won't fit to her either. If you clash with each other with TOO much vigor it will smell like an old married couple fighting. If you completely disregard his efforts at protection it will seem like she doesn't need to do anything but wait for the situation to solve itself. It's going to be a damn tightrope for you to walk and it's the point that I'm by far the most worried about this whole thing collapsing on. I strongly urge you to reach out to Jacob and iron out a plan between you for this part so you both know what to expect. I don't know enough about your more personal connections with each other to say more than that you're aiming for looking like a pair of friends of a mutual friend. That's what best limits the extent of betrayal Jacob needs to show and allows you to demonstrate that his protection is a pretty thin shield as far as you're concerned. Thick enough to do the job perhaps, but... thin enough to justify my quite obvious fears. It also positions you, in the Lizard's mind, to be a decent spy since you're close enough to orbit a bit closer if she pushes you. But it has to be done THOROUGHLY. Put your heads together and figure out who you can best pretend is the connector and keep the right kind of distance from each other. That's the best tip I've got. It was pretty ham fisted advice for once, but Hazel could see why Hope wasn't positioned to give something more clear cut. She didn't have a clear or complete listing of the people that Jacob and Hazel both knew or who was actually close enough to provide a reasonable bridge without... well, girlfriend's best friend is a particular sort of friend of a friend. And not the kind they wanted.

>Hazel deals 19 damage to her prey.<

That was the end of Hope's first message, and the second was disturbing in a different way. It was a progress report on how Jane was working to get stronger. She described Jane taking down 3 of her fellow cheerleaders in enough detail that Hazel felt like she must have been there to watch it happen and explained that it meant Jane was bordering Mature as a whole. She'd had aspects that made the mark before, but after Taylor, Hoshi and poor Cassandra, Jane was either fully Mature or had enough positives to balance the negatives. Neither Hazel nor Hope was well enough versed in how to measure a Pred's strength to be sure. At least she also reported that Jane, who definitely knew much better than either of them, talked as if she was still missing something. The news that Jane thought she could do a Probe was disturbing after Willow had stressed that Hazel should take ordinary prey capable of doing that seriously. Worse was the lineup of training Hope had somehow conned Jane into sharing. She was going to eat the Queen, Brooke, Vivianne and Hope tomorrow morning and after she recovered Jane was planning to eat four people. Looking at her middle, Hazel despairs at the idea of having it flat by morning. Which meant that by the earliest she could even attempt to down Jane the insane cheerleader would have finished all the 'training' Hope had uncovered.

<Hope isn't who I thought she was for all these years. I don't think I can forgive her for what she's done, but there's more to her than I'd realized. What happens between us once Jane's dealt with?>

As she finishes reading the report from Hope, because that was very clearly what the second message was, Hazel finds herself wondering what she'd do in the insane new world she'd found herself in without the manipulative schemer. Her relationship with the girl had shifted... insanely over the last day. Before lunch yesterday, Hazel thought Hope was your stereotypical brainless blond bimbo bitch. She'd even joked with Jennifer on more than one occasion that the short girl's boobs were so big because her brains were drained away to make more titty. And even apart from that savage misconception, having fallen for a quite deliberate act on Hope's part, Hazel had been in what could only be called an antagonistic relationship with her. Hope had been part of Jane's crew from the beginning, and had taken part in most of the bullying she'd endured.

Well, it was actually really hard to say just how big a part Hope had played in Hazel's suffering. Hope had kept her nose clean most of the time. She'd been the group's... encouraging audience more than a real participant. The only time Hope had done anything directly was when Hazel had punched her in her overly pretty face. She'd gone squealing to the principal and landed Hazel a week long suspension for having the audacity to defend herself. That only held if Hazel was thinking of the airhead Hope though. The real Hope was a lot more... sinister. Who knows how much of Hazel's suffering had been Hope's idea behind closed doors. She was clearly used to thinking up pretty detailed and convoluted schemes to achieve anything she put her mind to. She was a spider, weaving dense and sticky webs of manipulation and there was no good way to quantify where those threads led and where they didn't.

And then there was Hazel's deep seated jealousy to contend with. That jealousy had led Hazel to nurture a burning hatred for Hope that was only surpassed by the way she felt about Jane. And made Hazel feel guilty about hating her at the same time. But the amount of work Hope had done to dig Hazel out of certain death was... the kind of risk Hope was taking for her... It made everything a tangled mess in her mind. She didn't even know what she felt about the shorter girl anymore.

Still thinking about how things had evolved between her and Hope, Hazel picks herself up and starts changing into the swimsuit that her mother had snuck into the room while she was reading the messages. She still needed to head outside and get cleaned up before Jacob came over for dinner and it was going to take WAY longer than it had any right to. Just getting outside was going to take a few minutes to maneuver each door!

>Hazel deals 24 damage to her prey.<
>Hazel deals 23 damage to her prey.<
>Hazel deals 19 damage to her prey.<

It was embarrassing shampooing her hair and applying the soap to her body outside, but Hazel forced herself to get it over with as fast as possible and opted to skip giving a through washing to the places that would be TOO embarrassing to touch like that without the privacy of a locked door. It still took way too long, her hair stubbornly oiled by the amount she'd sweat since before school started yesterday and her gut impossible to fully reach by herself. But the important part was that she got it done.

She'd come to a conclusion while she'd gotten herself clean. She didn't know the REAL Hope well enough to judge her. Hazel wasn't going to simply forgive the way she'd encouraged the others to torment her, and she wasn't going to forget that Hope probably had suggested some of the nasty things she'd endured. But she needed Hope. The spider was able to pull out Hazel's monster and she could solve things that left Hazel completely befuddled. Both of those were irreplaceable assets to Hazel where she was. So she'd keep using the girl, and there was no need to really clarify to Hope that she wasn't planning to eat her anymore. Doubtless Hope would put it together soon enough anyways, but Hazel didn't mind making the role she had in the Queen's smokescreen significantly more real. When Hazel felt like Hope had paid for what she put her through... Hazel would have a good enough idea who the REAL Hope was to make a final decision what to make of the girl.

Sure, deciding not to make a decision might seem like the coward's way out. But Hazel honestly didn't think she had the right to consign Hope to death with everything she'd already done to help already. Which left Hazel in an awkward space where she simply wasn't decided. But by being conscious of that fact, she'd be able to hold to it when the manipulative girl inevitably realized things had shifted and tried to take advantage. It wasn't as powerful a hold as 'I'm going to eat you if you don't give me a reason NOT to' but there was power in telling the manipulator point blank that she hadn't decided for sure WHAT she was going to do to her or when.

>Hazel deals 23 damage to her prey.<
>Hazel has lost 1 fat unit, but her Intake Needs have been reduced by 16.<

The only problem was that sooner or later Hope would call the bluff. But Hazel was sure it would take long enough for Hope to stop being grateful for the fact Hazel wasn't firmly sold on eating her first opportunity anymore that Hope wouldn't call the bluff before she'd paid for her crimes anyways. In a way, it might even make for a good 'pick your own fate' deal where Hazel wouldn't make a firm decision until Hope DEMANDED one and if Hazel felt like it was clearly too soon to let her off the hook she'd gulp her for pushing. Whereas Hazel would forgive Hope if it the schemer had suffered and provided enough value to offset 3 long years of bullying. The more Hazel thought about that particular idea the more it appealed to her. It was exactly the kind of head game that would be more effective the more intelligent and unforgiving the other party was... just the right thing for the spider.

'Guess how many months I'm thinking of. If you're wrong, I'm gonna eat you. Oh, by the way I don't have a number in mind I'll decide if it's been long enough when you ask if it can be over.' Hazel thinks with a malicious giggle as she sits back down on the couch. Hope really did have a way of bringing her dark side to the surface, but Hazel HAD decided that if she was stuck being a monster she would be enough of a monster to WIN. Making sure Hope was firmly bound to her would increase her odds of winning tremendously, so this fit perfectly.

If only it didn't make that stubborn voice of conscience in the back of her mind bitch at her.

Determined to tune that voice out, Hazel got dressed in a fresh outfit in the living room and started watching videos on her phone, waiting until her boyfriend came over so they could enjoy a good meal with her family. Then she could give him grief for agreeing to pretend someone else was his girlfriend before they figure out how on earth to make Hope's insane idea work. Hazel didn't want to admit how much she was looking forward to seeing if he'd squirm or not. She'd gotten his message confirming the rescheduling basically the moment school had ended, and it was 3:36 by the time she made it back to the couch dressed in something decent so she had a bit over an hour to kill before he showed up anyways.

>With her mind significantly more settled and no more need to lug around her ~1,000 pound gut, Hazel is able to settle into Passive Digestion.<
>Hazel deals 10 damage to her prey.<
>Hazel deals 11 damage to her prey.<
>Hazel deals 11 damage to her prey.<
>Hazel deals 12 damage to her prey.<
>Hazel deals 12 damage to her prey.<
>Hazel deals 10 damage to her prey.<
>Hazel has lost 8 fat units, but her Intake Needs have been reduced by 15.<
>Hazel deals 11 damage to her prey.<
>Hazel deals 12 damage to her prey.<

By the time there's a knock on the door, Hazel had honestly lost track of the time. But she knew who it was immediately. She stood bolt upright instantly and tried to make her way to the door. Inevitably she was beat to the punch, the rest of her family currently far less encumbered. Ash welcomed Jacob warmly at least, so it could have been a lot worse. She wished he didn't give her such an obvious thumbs up behind Jacob's back. Even if the support did make her feel warm.

<Decide on a more traditional, but still creative, plan for their first date.>
"Hey Hazel." Jacob greets with a smile Hazel felt he'd make a fortune by trademarking. It almost made her forget she'd wanted to make him squirm. Almost. "As long as I haven't managed some kind of record for ruining my relationship, I was planning on making a point of inviting you for a picnic next week after the funeral for Jen. Woul-"

Thoughts of making him squirm went right out the window like lightning. Hazel was all giggles and joy. "Absolutely! Tell me what day and I'll make sure I have time!" She answers before he can finish his question.

"Alright. I thought that it would make for a good first date." Jacob laughs, relaxing and glad Hazel wasn't holding any grudges. Or at least was saving that for later, and he feels himself tense up again at the thought. There'd been times Jennifer had pulled stuff like that. She'd disarmed his worries and then turned his weaknesses into the sharpest daggers she could and gouged him after he thought the danger was past.

Immediately Hazel felt herself hollow a little. If the picnic was to be the... first date then Jacob clearly didn't count this as a date. Despite realizing that Jacob wanting to wait until after Jennifer's funeral was... completely reasonable it still hurt getting her hopes up for nothing. Especially when she had a good idea what he'd be doing tomorrow morning with one of the people he knew damn well she hated the most. "Right... first date." She agreed in a low voice.

"You okay?" Jacob asked, noticing the change of mood. 'What's got into her? I thought she would be excited to have our first date at least scheduled... is she feeling out of sorts that I'm stuck playing pretend with Hope before we have an official first date? I can see how that would bother her. But... what can I actually do about it? I already decided that the ends justify the means as long as Hazel is safe. I'd be inconsolable if she was the one pretending with one of the jocks no matter what she said. Just avoiding being explosively angry is a sign of great maturity on her part.' Jacob thought with frustration and indecision.

>Hazel deals 12 damage to her prey.<

"I'm fine." Hazel answers, the tone firmly indicating the opposite. 'It's not fair. I'm his girlfriend NOW, but he's going to enforce this weird distance on me because of Jennifer for who knows how long! Yet tomorrow he's going to do as much or more to Hope than he ever did with Jen!!! He should at least do it to me first...' Hazel thinks with grief, firmly trying to keep it out of her voice as she invites him to the kitchen to eat with everyone.
***************************************************************************************************
> What happens with Hazel's hopes of finding a job that doubles as training by non lethal vore? With how Willow and Hazel both get the creepy crawlies from Rose, Hazel's going to avoid those options unless she is acting under an assumption that she's incapable of regurgitation and/or she plans to find out if she can with Rose.
[She goes to Rose's interview by herself and things go much like Willow predicted. Giving Hazel endless opportunity to face down what might just be the strongest prey in the city.]
[She convinces Willow to come with her to the interview with Rose. It's too good of an opportunity to let go of just because the owner is a bit... overenthusiastic.]
[Turns out Hazel CAN regurgitate, so she finds an Escape Class that needs someone at her skill level for a living practice dummy.]
[It goes to a dead end. Hazel's unwilling to undergo what she feels like Rose's interview will be like and can't find anyone else hiring.]
[WRITE IN]

> How does Jacob navigate Hazel's jealousy directed at Jennifer as much as at Hope after the meal?
[Direct confrontation. He calls her out for letting jealousy control her and tells her that while he understands feeling it she needs to get control over it.]
[Action. Show Hazel that she's his number 1.]
[Words of assurance. Jacob loves Hazel a lot more than he ever did Jennifer and he feels NOTHING towards Hope beyond some... unavoidable physical lust.]
[WRITE IN]

> How hard of a time is Hazel planning to give Jacob for his decision to let Hope pretend to be his girlfriend? She's not going to succeed at bullying him as hard as she plans unless she plans to let him off easy. She's too nice. But there's a visible difference between her trying to be relentless in bullying him for it and doing the sort of gentle teasing she can actually see through. Please don't include the part in (parenthesis) when you post your vote, it's extra info not directly part of the option.
[Relentless. She's not going to let it go no matter what he does or how he squirms. At a minimum he should have asked for her input before committing and he's going to be in the dog house for a while now.] (probably will end up getting uno reversed at some point. Jacob will eventually just want to shut her up with whatever solution he's had voted for intensified to match.)
[Vicious. They've got too much to deal with besides her feelings on the plan, but she's going to condense as much spite as possible into the time she allows herself to spend on it.] (Jacob's going to take it to heart... but at least its over fast.)
[Opportunistic. She's putting the screws to him to see what he'll offer to make it up to her as much as because it hurt her.] (I wonder what sort of things he could do to make her feel better?)
[Gently. It shouldn't take much to make Jacob realize he's deeply screwed up right? Less is more... let him wonder when the other foot's going to drop.] (This is the one that'll make him panic the most xD)
[Let him off the hook. The only reason he agreed was for Hazel's safety.] (Hazel's not enough of a saint to fully follow through, leaving enough hints for Jacob to pick up on her jealousy.)
[WRITE IN]

> Who do Hazel and Jacob plan to use as the 'mutual friend' that they know each other moderately through?
[Jennifer – just act like Hazel always knew she would Awaken and Jennifer knew she was Hazel's OAO... she's not around to deny it.]
[Rowan – Jacob had been reasonably close to Hazel's older brother during Sophomore and Junior year.]
[Arya – Hazel barely has any friends at school with how long she's been targeted, but it is reasonably well know that Jacob's little sister is close to her.]
[WRITE IN]

> There's a vital piece of information that Hope doesn't know and hasn't accounted for in her scheme. Both Hazel and Jacob have access to the information, but could overlook how crucial it is pretty easily. Jacob's crush on Hazel dates back to before Elizabeth's Awakening and she knows about it. At least that it USED to exist. How does Hope learn this and when?
[Elizabeth herself, confused about just... one thing – 9-10 am the next morning.]
[Jane, hoping to cause a panic and messing around – 6-7 am the next morning.]
[A third party that she'd been in touch with the day before – 8-9 pm, right as Hope was getting ready to go to sleep.]
[Hazel, she teased Jacob about the Middle School picture and then realized the implications – 6-7 pm, as soon as it hits her.]
[Jacob, he'd had something tickling the back of his mind all day about Liz and Hazel – 4-5 pm, before he arrived.]
[WRITE IN]

[GrayLotus]

First off: Glad to see this back with a new chapter! I have definitely forgotten many details about this so I'm going to have to do a re-read soon!

Full disclosure, I haven't put a ton of thought into these choices, so these are subject to change once I can put some more time in, and please excuse any rambling I might do as a result. I still wanted to get something up early-ish despite that to help push the thread and discussion along.

[She goes to Rose's interview by herself and things go much like Willow predicted. Giving Hazel endless opportunity to face down what might just be the strongest prey in the city.] - So the suggested choices are: Hazel gets repeated one-on-one 'training sessions' with the weirdest character so far, gets beaten to hell and very weirded out in exchange for intensive training experience every so often; Hazel convinces Willow to cave to Rose's condition, has the single most uncomfortable experience of her life in the interview and then has a steady supply of training aides/meals; Hazel abandons this weirdness to play training dummy at an Escape Class; Hazel just abandons this particular brand of extracurricular work/training. Is this vote a full lock-in for this plotline for the forseeable future, or is there still room for alteration later on? I'm currently leaning towards this option since Hazel's currently thinking about doing whatever is necessary to get stronger, and having to put up with Rose being her charming self in a recurring 'interview' to build up her predatory abilities seems to fit with that. At the least, I think that without knowing if she can voluntarily release someone she's eaten, she'd be willing to at least do the first interview to personally see if this is something she's able to tolerate long-term, physically and mentally.

[Action. Show Hazel that she's his number 1.] - Definitely going to need to think about this option and the following one some more. There's been a good bit of talk from Jacob already about how he feels regarding Hazel and the crush he's had on her, so I'm not convinced that further verbal assurances along those lines will accomplish much more than what it already has (which was quite a bit admittedly). So my choice is between Jacob being more reassuring or confrontational to get Hazel to open up about how she's really feeling. I'm leaning towards a more reassuring attitude from him, since they're both pretty stressed right now with a lot going to be happening tomorrow, so Jacob taking action to show that no matter what act they need to put on, how he feels about Hazel is genuine and exclusive to her. I'm assuming that there will still be some discussion about how Hazel is really feeling, just without going into as blunt of a discourse about things.

[Opportunistic. She's putting the screws to him to see what he'll offer to make it up to her as much as because it hurt her.] - Can't really pick between this and Vicious. Hazel's pretty upset about the current circumstances, which is understandable, and Jacob's one of the few people she can safely vent some of that on right now so I think she'd take one of the more aggressive options here. As for this in particular, this lets her put some pressure on Jacob to sort out her feelings, without getting particularly harsh. She can also have some fun with it, which has been pretty short supply the last couple of days.

[Arya – Hazel barely has any friends at school with how long she's been targeted, but it is reasonably well know that Jacob's little sister is close to her.] - Shouldn't be a surprise given my previous comments a while back, but I think there is a genuinely good argument here. With Jennifer no longer in the picture, Arya is the closest non-Jacob acquaintance to Hazel in the school, even if it's more that Hazel can't get rid of her more than intentionally wanting to spend time together. There's a very clear reasoning for how and why she would know Jacob through Arya, with her being the chatterbox she is. I'm not sure that Jennifer herself would be a good pick, given that selling that would require going into multiple layers of deception about her and Hazel's relationship, and neither Jacob nor Hazel have any experience with juggling nested lies like that.

[Hazel, she teased Jacob about the Middle School picture and then realized the implications – 6-7 pm, as soon as it hits her.] - There is a bit of temptation for the Elizabeth option, just from the amusement of everyone else failing to realise it before that point, but I'll resist since that would be a bit too chaotic right now. I can easily see this being brought up during the evening with Hazel suddenly remembering that Elizabeth was in fact around back then, and of course would remember that detail about a potential love rival. This also leads to Hazel and Hope needing to directly interact again before tomorrow, which does catch my interest. The timing of this interrupting the evening would be a bit of a shame, but Hazel and Jacob are already going to need to discuss this subject anyway to work out the plan of action, so it shouldn't be too severe of a disruption.

So we finally have confirmation of Hazel's potential! And it's absolutely atrocious! Makes sense given one of the main premises of this story, but still very disheartening for her to learn. Good thing Willow was there to provide important support.

I particularly liked the description of Hazel's meal 'shrinking', definitely hit that spot of being delightfully visceral for me. Loved that depiction of things suddenly getting jarred and moving around as they settle. Even had the classic of 'person outside pushes prey deeper in'.

[phoneuser1992]

So the suggested choices are: Hazel gets repeated one-on-one 'training sessions' with the weirdest character so far, gets beaten to hell and very weirded out in exchange for intensive training experience every so often; Hazel convinces Willow to cave to Rose's condition, has the single most uncomfortable experience of her life in the interview and then has a steady supply of training aides/meals; Hazel abandons this weirdness to play training dummy at an Escape Class; Hazel just abandons this particular brand of extracurricular work/training. Is this vote a full lock-in for this plotline for the forseeable future, or is there still room for alteration later on? I'm currently leaning towards this option since Hazel's currently thinking about doing whatever is necessary to get stronger, and having to put up with Rose being her charming self in a recurring 'interview' to build up her predatory abilities seems to fit with that. At the least, I think that without knowing if she can voluntarily release someone she's eaten, she'd be willing to at least do the first interview to personally see if this is something she's able to tolerate long-term, physically and mentally.

Highly accurate assessment. The vote can be considered as a lock-in for a week or two of in story time before future voting revolving around this point crops up. I'll be looking at the comments attached for inspiration as much as at the selected choice as usual. For example, your own comment says to me that Hazel goes for an interview between digesting all this and trying to take out Jane in hopes of bumping up at minimum the crucial bit to handle her bully and makes further decisions after experiencing Rose in her gut. On the other hand, if I'm seeing everyone voting to go to the interview solo are already sold on the idea of coming back every week for a follow up I won't waste time putting it to a vote because I can see how it would go.

By the next time we vote on a voracious job, we'll probably be locking in the job. But this time we're more deciding if Hazel even wants to try and can absolutely backtrack it if we try it and don't like it.

First off: Glad to see this back with a new chapter! I have definitely forgotten many details about this so I'm going to have to do a re-read soon!

You'll notice that quite a few things have changed in the club! I STRONGLY urge giving the updated version a read as some changes are significant even if it's only a blurb added to the scene and I DEFINITELY didn't remember all the changes I made while providing weekly status reports. Hazel actually references some of the changes directly in this section and the tone of her thoughts is likely darker than you thought if you didn't understand the changed way things went down and how that affected what she referenced!

So we finally have confirmation of Hazel's potential! And it's absolutely atrocious! Makes sense given one of the main premises of this story, but still very disheartening for her to learn. Good thing Willow was there to provide important support.

Honestly, I felt like it probably already spoiled during the break and wanted to kinda... rush to get the character to know what the player/reader knows. But in world there's a pretty good reason for Willow's rush to say that its still entirely possible that Hazel might be Untalented instead of Hopelessly Bad. She wasn't blowing smoke saying that if Jennifer was weak enough OR if Hazel had a low enough set of starting levels it could be that degree of potential. I changed how I'm doing Free Experience because it was WAY to generous to start with, and I wasn't going to walk back the level ups voted and that REALLY blurred things for Willow's expertise because it effectively looks like Hazel just having a significantly more solid starting level/experience and gives the amount of room for the possibility of Untalented as her reading. I will fix Hazel's Free exp back into line though... I'm reducing the Free exp from the Club feast by the amount of extra she got grandfathered in due to being the only thing too complicated to even consider reworking and then she'll get the proper amount going forward.

I particularly liked the description of Hazel's meal 'shrinking', definitely hit that spot of being delightfully visceral for me. Loved that depiction of things suddenly getting jarred and moving around as they settle. Even had the classic of 'person outside pushes prey deeper in'.

Glad you liked it.

[08142024]

IT LIVES!!!!!! IT FUCKING LIVES!!!!!! LET'S GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

Noticing her mom's distress and wanting to give a helping hand, Hazel interjects. "I feel like both of you are forgetting someone who definitely has a say in who takes a trip to her stomach. I have no intention of swallowing my mom again. If Harmony hadn't forced her down my throat I wouldn't have eaten her the first time."

>Willow deals 21 damage to Hazel's stomach and an additional 16 damage to Hazel's prey from Weakening them. Due to Hazel's increased Resistances, and Hazel's OVERSTUFFed Vulnerability, Willow's damage to Hazel is reduced to 14 and her damage to Hazel's prey is reduced to 15. The 15 damage to Hazel's Prey will benefit from Hazel's Digestion Power.<
>Hazel rolls 2d20 for her First Charm roll since she is using Rapid Digestion. She gets an 11 and a Natural 20. This allows her to roll again. Hazel gets a 10. Even before adding her Crit Chance, it is obvious this is higher than 40, so Hazel scores a crit. Hazel will deal an extra 5+2=7 damage, which will also benefit from Hazel's Digestion Power.<
>Hazel and Willow deal 57 damage to her prey.<

Despite her own misgivings about what Rose was proposing, Willow savagely pressed against Hazel's stomach to shut her up. The eccentric woman was nearly impossible to handle without Hazel adding unnecessary complications. Rose was silent for some moments after Hazel's statement, and each second that ticked by made Willow more anxious. By the time Rose spoke again, Willow could have told you what she'd decided. "If you want the job, then you'll have to eat whoever I tell you whenever I tell you during work hours. Refusal is grounds for dismissal. And Willow darling, if you want me to hire her than it's only fair that she undergoes an interview herself. It could add a... crucial amount of weight to your recommendation if you joined me for the interview."

I included the paragraphs on either side to help you find this in the massive text wall of an awesome update... but I think you might want to double check some math here. I'm pretty sure Willow's going to deal 31 damage to Hazel's prey if I haven't misunderstood what's happening under the hood.




Voting... Oh goodness, I haven't enjoyed this task in a long while. Let's see... what's going to get my monster nice and strong and overcome her absurdly terribad potential? Especially since we need to corrupt this girl good. How about these?

[She goes to Rose's interview by herself and things go much like Willow predicted. Giving Hazel endless opportunity to face down what might just be the strongest prey in the city.] - I'm thinking Hazel initially goes intending to see with Rose if she can regurgitate on her own or not and to juice up before trying to take Jane. She's got speed on her brain for handling the Cheerleader and I honestly think speed is a good idea. But... we need them acids. Especially with how they cripple the Pred-as-Prey's Crit Chance from the interaction with Dawn at the club. Is there any reason that Rose would object to Hazel coming back every day to try again? Like, I can see the leg she'd have to stand on if she wanted to object to that, but I rather think from the way she's presented that she'd enjoy and be impressed by the tenacity and guts to do it. Possibly enough that she gives over on demanding Willow join her for the interview after some time passes?

[Action. Show Hazel that she's his number 1.] - Got to get somewhere the pesky family isn't watching first. Then shower our girl with affection and spoil her ROTTEN.

[Opportunistic. She's putting the screws to him to see what he'll offer to make it up to her as much as because it hurt her.] - Both for the synergy and for the way her last given thoughts were framed. She's more bothered that he won't do anything WITH her yet then she is by what she knows is an act now that she understands the need for the act. But that feeling is intensified by understanding how hard Jacob and Hope are going to have to SELL their act. I see her prodding him by making him show her exactly what he'll do with Hope tomorrow and making him do it to her now. Possibly making him practice doing things she REALLY enjoys him doing more than once. Of course... she's going to be feeling a LOT worse tomorrow after Jacob and Hope have DONE the act, but right now she's still got filters up helping her cope with it. If this were after the fact I'd have picked RELENTLESS instead because that's how deep it would have effected her.

Before I vote on the mutual friend... can you explain the relationship of an OAO to a Pred that hasn't Awakened yet? I can tell it's a pretty close position and that the OAO has a considerable amount of influence. Even Jane treated her OAO reasonably well, and that's JANE. It seems to me that Hazel could probably get away with saying she'd shot Jacob down early in High School and then asked him to date her OAO because Jennifer liked him, promising him a date after she was eaten and Elizabeth would buy the general set up... and accept it given that Hazel didn't know about Elizabeth and is breaking her end of the deal by asking Jacob to let her eat Hope instead.

[Hazel, she teased Jacob about the Middle School picture and then realized the implications – 6-7 pm, as soon as it hits her.] - This is the only way we'll get a proper conference call to address the... implications. If Hope gets the message too late she's not going to be able to put anything together, and if it's bedtime already then it'll cost us rest from tired characters who aren't on their A game. If Jacob sends the message while on the way to Hazel's place and has the half a brain cell to mention where he's going Hope's going to be terrified of interrupting the date in favor of a topic as repugnant to Hazel as ironing out the plan. She's on thin enough ice with Hazel already and that's the one she's trying to make a firmer ground to stand on with long term. But if Hazel initiates the call while with Jacob? We can get all out heads together and figure this mess out PROPERLY.

[phoneuser1992]

I included the paragraphs on either side to help you find this in the massive text wall of an awesome update... but I think you might want to double check some math here. I'm pretty sure Willow's going to deal 31 damage to Hazel's prey if I haven't misunderstood what's happening under the hood.

Nice to see you again too. At least I know someone reads all the game mechanic blurbs fully instead of zoning out of them after a while. I fixed it, along with the representation of Hazel's final damage. Originally Willow hadn't used Weaken the round before and I failed to finish updating the results block in the story. Thankfully the spreadsheet where I did the adjustment directly automatically did the math and I don't have a compounding headache. This is a simple typo lol.

Before I vote on the mutual friend... can you explain the relationship of an OAO to a Pred that hasn't Awakened yet? I can tell it's a pretty close position and that the OAO has a considerable amount of influence. Even Jane treated her OAO reasonably well, and that's JANE. It seems to me that Hazel could probably get away with saying she'd shot Jacob down early in High School and then asked him to date her OAO because Jennifer liked him, promising him a date after she was eaten and Elizabeth would buy the general set up... and accept it given that Hazel didn't know about Elizabeth and is breaking her end of the deal by asking Jacob to let her eat Hope instead.

Sure. The Onhand Awakening Option, a Pred to be's OAO to use the shorthand Arya invented for me on the spot, is someone that the Pred to be, her family and sometimes her mentor pick out for her towards the beginning of High School. Because the timeframe for Awakening is so wide a window, spanning a couple years, and could happen any time a Pred to be will INEVITABLLY spend a LOT of time with her OAO. They're basically guaranteed to become close friends, and the Pred to be especially needs to foster that conclusion if her family lacks the means and influence to be open about what's going on. As Arya point blank stated when doing her all to strongarm Hazel into doing something for the sake of her own OAO, for the Pred to be anything that an OAO asks for at any time during the primary window for Awakening is almost a last request. Sooner or later it actually will be.

To your point, with the closeness and the sacredness of that eternal last request, Elizabeth actually WOULD buy that sort of story as long as Hazel could be convincing that she didn't like Jacob and didn't know they were dating. I'm not going to fib, those are both gonna be hard sells... but they are both possible to sell. Elizabeth WANTS to believe she won't be competing with the crush Jacob had on Hazel back then and while she's definitely going to ask Jacob why he did some really stupid things for this version of events... it's not impossible for JACOB to get away with taking the blame for Hazel's cluelessness about their relationship. She'd even be reasonably okay with it seeing how you've suggested Hazel backs out the deal she'd offered the then heartbroken boy if he'd do her a favor and make what's left of her OAO's life magical. That's a big favor even for the OAO's eternal last request and it makes sense that Hazel had to add something significant to get Jacob on board. It totally repaints Jacob's relationship with Jennifer in Elizabeth's mind... honestly if it succeeded it would make the Queen feel considerably guilty how jealous and angry she got just hearing the name.

I'm pretty sure you meant that Hazel backs off her supposed promise by letting Jacob shield Hope from her instead of pushing him to get out of the way though? Because that explains how Jacob can firmly protect Hope from Hazel despite how badly Hazel wants her dead. As previously state, that's a big favor to ask Jacob to do and it gives him a LOT of right to ask for something in return. Not touching someone he likes is something that usually even a friend can do, so if he's calling in the favor as well... Elizabeth would almost feel obligated to MAKE Hazel respect that. Almost.

[08142024]

Interesting... I think in that case I'll vote for [Jennifer – just act like Hazel always knew she would Awaken and Jennifer knew she was Hazel's OAO... she's not around to deny it.]

Think about it guys. The school already knows that Jennifer and Hazel were TIGHT, and Jacob's indicated that there's a very low chance that Elizabeth leaves without fact checking what she's been told. So they're stuck with the fact that Hazel was Jennifer's best friend and they're also stuck with the fact that Jacob dated Jennifer. They don't get to negotiate that. They either need to address it as not particularly important, hope the Queen doesn't take a magnifying glass to it or lean into it and make it the "extent" of their relationship.

To my reading of the situation and of the OP's answer to my question... this is the high risk high reward option. It runs risk primarily in admitting Hazel's close relationship with Jennifer, connecting a pair of girls that Elizabeth has pretty... strong negative connotations with to Hazel. But if done well, it can help repair Jacobs general perception to her, prove Hazel's not romantically interested in the boy and gives Hazel and Jacob a very easy opportunity to toss Jane under the bus a SECOND time. "Yeah, when Jennifer developed a crush on him after he saved us from Jane one time in Freshman year I decided to make him a deal if he'd date my OAO until I Awakened." But best of all it COMPLETELY REMOVES the need for Jacob to act UPSET that Hazel ate Jennifer.

Because that's how it was always going to end. Jennifer was Hazel's OAO before she was Jacob's girlfriend, and even if he got upset and wishes he could show some bite... Hazel had first dibs and he doesn't have the right to say anything at this point. That was originally supposed to be the MOST DIFFICULT part for Hazel and Jacob to navigate. Yes, we're trading some different sells for not needing to sell that outrage on the top of the tightrope that Hope excellently described pitfalls in every dimension of... but individually each sell is easier and less dangerous if not excecated perfectly. It totality it's more dangerous if they fail to sell the story on each front of it, but it's a pretty simple story to keep straight and arguably is closest to the truth anyways. Hazel always was stepping aside for Jennifer, there was just a different reason for her deferment in reality.

Actually, this probably isn't the high risk high reward option. This is the granular option that gives us a scale from dead to meh to Elizabeth's new bestie lol. Because it breaks the monolithic core sell into a set of smaller and less instantly lethal sells. Again, this is my pick at the end of the day, and I'll fight for it.

[GrayLotus]

You make an interesting argument about picking Jennifer as the option there 08142024. I'll stick with voting for Arya for now, but if there doesn't end up being a tie-breaker vote before voting closes I would prefer your choice be selected. It would be a difficult sell, but I think it will end up being a more interesting option to explore.

On that subject, do you have a set date for the voting cut-off phoneuser1992? It might take a while for people to trickle back in given the hiatus.

Still doing the re-read, I figured I'd mention a few typos I found along the way. It's been good catching up on things, even if there's quite a bit of story to work through. Curse you for being being prolific and skilled with writing I guess! *shakes fist* I think I'll skip ahead to the club portion and start going through that and come back to the less immediately-relevant chapters later.

Spoiler: show

"Massage" is spelled as "Message" multiple times in the first half of the latest update. Starting at:

>"Stimulate" is the Digestion version of the level 10 Prey move "Message." As a level 11 Prey, Willow has experience using both and understands their quirks, but by no means considers herself an expert with either. She will roll 11d6 and 5d4 in total, comparing her roll to Hazel's levels*2. If Willow's roll is higher it succeeds. Note: this is a harder baseline check then Message, but the Pred has no way to reduce the roll whereas with Message any damage done to the prey is subtracted from the prey's roll... so it's not terribly dissimilar to the total difficulty Willow MAY face if she tried Message from inside Hazel right now. It can be used as often as the target could use Rapid Digestion, provided the Pred can handle that much heartburn.<

Ending at:

>Message, on a success, allows the Prey to roll her Struggle damage an inflict that much Vulnerability on the Pred. Then the Pred reduces this vulnerability by her ROLLED damage each turn until it goes to 0. So her acids don't count, except for Churning and Digestion dies, which are exceptionally small dice. The combo Willow is proposing would deal, reliably, 10d10+36-2d4 damage... enough to talk about the possibility of dishing 100 damage in a single round. A mature Pred starts with about 225 hp or so, making this a truly insane amount of damage. Of course, if the Pred makes attacks to reduce the vulnerability from Message or attempts to disrupt the Probe and the Message then this becomes both less rewarding and far harder to pull off.<

Noticed multiple instances of "lightning" being misspelt as "lightening".
In the latest update: "With such a wretched potential, Hazel was going to need to down Jane like lightening." "Thoughts of making him squirm went right out the window like lightening"
Page 2: viewtopic.php?f=22&t=67624&p=3006249&hilit=lightening#p3006249 "Jacob snarls. His face grew even harder, and his eyes held the light in such a way that Hazel almost expected to see lightening break out."
Page 6: viewtopic.php?f=22&t=67624&p=3008512&hilit=lightening#p3008512 "Hazel could not stop smiling as the class went by like a flash of lightening."
Page 11: viewtopic.php?f=22&t=67624&p=3012120&hilit=lightening#p3012120 "Dropping the carefully folded material, Elizabeth was of a mind to stay nearby and find out what was going on, but she felt her phone vibrating as Jane responded like lightening to her latest text while fetching the stupid tool."

Latest update: Should be "thoroughly" instead of "throughly"

It also positions you, in the Lizard's mind, to be a decent spy since you're close enough to orbit a bit closer if she pushes you. But it has to be done THROUGHLY. Put your heads together and figure out who you can best pretend is the connector and keep the right kind of distance from each other.

Page 6: viewtopic.php?f=22&t=67624&start=120#p3009115 Should be "principle", instead of "principal"

Sure, Jane was actually spreading out and managing to take up more space than necessary, but that didn't mean there'd be enough room for Hazel to join her! Part of Hazel wanted to ignore Jane on principal, claiming not to have seen the motion and she checks the right side for open seats.

This isn't really a typo, but the terms "Growth Rate" and "Potential" are used interchangably. It's called "Growth Rate" in the above chapter, and "Potential" later on, which confused me a while ago when I was trying to check what the different levels were using the search function and couldn't find that list.

Page 3: viewtopic.php?f=22&t=67624&start=40#p3007814 Should be 'Jane' instead of 'Jennifer' in the final line.

Jane rolls her eyes at the disgusting man. He was too useful to eat, but the things he wanted in return for his help was a touch demeaning. "1 minute, tomorrow after they're all gone. Play all you want with whatever they end up fattening the most." She grumbles, confirming that she'd hold to what she agreed. "Now leave. I've got much more impor-ANT" She yelps as her stomach comes to brutal life, all of her prey fighting savagely within her and screaming their pretty little heads off.

>Jane takes 41 damage from her prey's combined struggles. Taylor takes 3 Exhaustion, Cassandra takes 1 Exhaustion and Hoshi takes 3 Exhaustion.<
>Prey of Level 1 or higher have access to a new move, Frenzy, which deals further increased damage but costs 3 Exhaustion<
>Cassandra is a level 0 Prey like Jennifer.<
>Jennifer has lost more than 1/5th of her health. That really got her attention.<

Also on that update, the three girls Jane eats are said to take 4 capacity each, but after eating them Jane is stated to be at 11 capacity instead of 12. If I recall correctly, Hoshi was originally stated to take 3 capacity due to being a bit smaller, so this might just be that the wording is a bit unclear.

>Jane has 9 Capacity, but her prey require a combined 11 Capacity to stomach. Jane is OVERSTUFFED level 2, taking increased negs.<

[phoneuser1992]

Y...a...y... I missed a bunch of junk after spending months trying to get it all.



Thank you for locating it and telling me where to find it. I'll deal with it when I'm better rested.

As for voting cut-off? I'm planning on being fluid for a trickle back in effect. I just got back from work and am going to sleep. If by the time I wake up there's no new votes I'll definitely call it did for this round. On the other hand if there's still folks trickling in than I'll keep it open a while longer, there's a lot of folks that are checking it at least. The views have absolutely exploded since I dropped the Great Return segment, and that's reasonably encouraging. WAY more encouraging would be some new faces voting and I definitely don't want to discourage them from doing so by being hasty. Once we've done a couple sections to get back into the flow I'll set some hard and fast rules again.

Growth Rate and Potential are different terms for talking about the same thing. Growth Rate is the locked and loaded hard game mechanics of it, Potential is the way that folks in world mostly conceptualize and talk about the end result. So they're mostly interchangable, but... generally I'll say Growth Rate when I'm discussing the system and Potential when I'm doing worldbuilding and/or speaking through a character. If you ever see me put the phrase Growth Rate in a character's mouth actually during story call my damn hand because it's an unnatural way for it to be expressed in world even though its a widely accepted term for gaming.

Yes, each girl is ~115 pounds or so and that's top end of 4 Capacity. Taken together they're ~350 pounds. If I remember right, 12 Capacity on 3 prey kicks in around 400 pounds? It's NOT linear. You get an entirely different equation for how many pounds of prey comes to what demand for Capacity with each additional prey. Most of the time the trend is that the Pred ends up saving on space compared to adding the Capacity of all her prey up, but sometimes adding Capacity will give the right answer and I'd imagine there's occasionally the possibility that a Pred might need more than the sum of her prey's Capacity. I haven't exhaustively cross checked.

12 Capacity from a Single prey takes a Pred... a BIG one. 1063-1304 pounds. 12 Capacity from a Double probably needs a Pred and someone reasonably sized. 628-778 pounds combined. Assuming everyone's the same weight that's 314-389 pounds individually. 12 Capacity from a Triple takes 3 pretty average size women. 408-520 pounds combined, or 136-173.3 pounds each. Good luck finding small enough people to do a Quad that only hits 12 Capacity... 275-364 pounds in total. That's a miniscule 68.75-91 pounds EACH. HOPE is too big ROFL.

So everything Capacity gets run through at the level of pounds and translated into Capacity at the number of prey actually used. I pre-report for you guys what a given Prey's SOLO Capacity is to help you slowly get a feel for how much it will take, but Hazel's going to need a learning curve to get a feel for estimating people on a double/triple and beyond basis so I don't provide that until it's no longer theory... there's 3 people in this gut and this is who they are... it comes to X Capacity.

Definitely didn't say any of them were 3 Capacity xD the top weight for 3 Capacity is 74 pounds. We haven't seen anyone THAT tiny yet xD.

[phoneuser1992]

Alright, I'm going to close down voting for now and write some. Not entirely sure when I'll get it posted in the next couple days, I'm going to try to get to a solid point to drop off some more voting. Given where voting is guiding it, probably right at the start of that conference call with Hope. Votes are consistent at least, so this should be easy from that angle. I'll be speed running the dinner scene. Yes, there could be plenty of drama and such there, but it's too chaotic and not in focus for the story and... I would like to kill off Jane before realizing I've written ANOTHER full length novel please. IF I go into great detail with the dinner and let each family member interact the way a family would... there goes 10k words trying to get away from that. So we're speed running it with a fistful of paragraphs and a vague idea how it went. Everyone's more interested in seeing Hazel and Jacob with something they can pretend is privacy anyways. The winning votes, unanimous first and the tie breaker at the end.

<She goes to Rose's interview by herself and things go much like Willow predicted. Giving Hazel endless opportunity to face down what might just be the strongest prey in the city.> Sounds like Hazel's not ready to bite the bullet on doing this for ever and ever... yet but she's planning to take advantage of Rose's set up before trying Jane. Not a bad way to rush to fill in a significant portion of Jane's training, but if you'd wanted the biggest spike in the shortest time you really should have got Willow to join you instead. But, to 08142024's point, Rose won't mind if Hazel comes back every other day or so... she'd respect the tenacity. Every day would probably be overdoing it and annoy her instead, but still.

<Action. Show Hazel that she's his number 1.> Yeah, words are only going to get so far without backing them up. Hazel's current hangup is that Jacob's reason for keeping things slow between them is that he needs time to grieve before getting that deep in. He's "Not Ready" to dial up the emotion intimacy and physical affection in his relationship to Hazel. But to Hazel, what he's going to do... just what she envisions he's going to do tomorrow with Hope, let alone what the manipulative girl has in mind... shows he must be "Ready" for such. Jacob's going to realize he's walled in by this and he's going to realize he can't change Hazel's mind himself. This time Hazel's acting exactly like Jennifer would have, and he's not tripping himself over the way his ex treated him... but has anyone pieced together the overall picture of how Jennifer treated Jacob yet? I'm trying to paint that picture a certain way and I'm not sure if it's bleeding through yet. I know eventually it will if I keep working it, but Shrugs*

<Opportunistic. She's putting the screws to him to see what he'll offer to make it up to her as much as because it hurt her.> This is what Hazel's doing that forces Jacob's hand. To be clear, he's NOT going to like having his hand forced. He'll do it, and he's going to try to prevent a fight in doing it, but Jacob's clearly not happy with the only solution Hazel leaves him... showing her the sort of affection that he's not ready for when Jennifer's not even a week dead yet.

<Hazel, she teased Jacob about the Middle School picture and then realized the implications – 6-7 pm, as soon as it hits her.> This is indeed going to derail them mid NOT-date, probably having both Jacob and Hazel in their own funks for their own reasons when they get on the call. Hope'll notice for sure, and she's going to try to weigh in and help Hazel as long as Hazel wants the help... the more she does for Hazel the better Hope's odds of survival. That's Hope's math rn lol. And boys are the easiest problem to fix (thank goodness Hazel's useless at handling them!) so this is easy brownie points.

<Jennifer – just act like Hazel always knew she would Awaken and Jennifer knew she was Hazel's OAO... she's not around to deny it.> - I mean... GrayLotus did basically say if it's down to a tie go with this one, so I've little left to say here.

[DGUBEAGLE17]

Glad Graylotus pointed out the spelling mistakes as that was my first thought of what to do after reading this section lol. Sad to see I wasn't fast enough to get in for votes, but I will get it next time. I am very happy that this is finally back, I've been missing it.

[phoneuser1992]

Hazel had pushed him ahead of her for some reason, so Jacob found himself surrounded by a group of people he mostly had to struggle to keep track of the names of while finding a seat. Hazel had insisted that it would be less trouble for her to maneuver the dining room doorway herself then 'have him in the way'. It did make him feel bad that he was forcing her to fit that kind of opening. Jacob got the impression from Mr. Forest and Mrs. Willow that they absolutely would have brought her part of the spread in the living room if she hadn't insisted on joining everyone herself. Jacob couldn't help wondering where she thought she'd sit... the wooden chairs were stoutly built, but not ready for the weight of Hazel's feast.

Seeking to occupy his mind while answering question after question from Mr. Forest, Jacob did his best to remember which of the siblings was which. Heather was the easy one. Despite Heather being a Junior, Jacob had heard several of his friends talking about her. Sexy was a common descriptor, as was hot. Jacob couldn't disagree, she had most of the same facial features as her older sister, minus the adorable freckles, and a body that... yeah he didn't need to look at. That would be trouble in a hundred and one ways. Needless to say she had a wide friend group and was quite popular at school. According to Arya she was a bitch, so Jacob had warned his friends not to play with fire. Something about the way Heather was looking at him made Jacob uncomfortable.

Rowan was the next easiest, as Jacob had spent a fair amount of time building a relationship with Hazel's older brother. It had been a calculated move on his part and entirely was due to the family relationship. Jacob owed Rowan a lot if he was honest though, the older boy had given Jacob a lot of guidance early on in his relationship with Jennifer when everything imaginable was going wrong everywhere. 'I think I got used to the fact that I was putting out fires more than there stopped being fires though.' Jacob admits, hugging his old friend as they sat down at the table.

That should make the other boy, around Hazel's height and gangly... Ash? Jacob thought that was the boy's name. He barely noticed him at school, but he knew Hazel's little brother had started High School that year. Jacob's impression of him was that he was quiet and reserved, but not very fit or active. A thinker, not a doer. Certainly he wasn't inclined to engage, but the way he was watching Jacob made him nervous. Jacob knew Hazel gave Ash's opinion a lot more stock then she did Rowan's, though he'd learned that years after forging a relationship with the older brother.

The youngest... it was something that started with an O. She was the age when girls start to really get into romance, and while she was shy about asking, she was willing to voice the basic question that everyone else left hanging in the air. Jacob didn't know a reason not to answer directly, so he stated his intention to date Hazel clearly. He wasn't ready for what followed.

"If you like my sister, then why the HELL were you all over Hope at gym today!?" Heather snapped, sounding as though she'd been waiting for the chance to drop it. Jacob saw behind him that Hazel had made it into the dining room just as he'd been answering Olive's question and the look on Hazel's face told him that his goose was cooked good.

Everything turned into a shit show from there. Rowan had taken the lead in skewering him, Heather gave the most unbelievably exaggerated version of the story Jacob would have thought possible, Olive was outraged that he was cheating when before he even started dating Hazel, and Mr. Forest leapt on top of the dog pile to crush him completely. Jacob was facing so many attacks from so many angles that he couldn't even fit a word in edgewise to start to defend himself! It wasn't long before Mr. Forest was getting ready to give Jacob the boot, having already given him quite a large piece of his mind. That was when Hazel finally intervened. "Was it phase one for tomorrow?" Her voice had been... terrifyingly emotionless.

>Hazel deals 12 damage to her prey.<

"Yeah." Jacob had answered. That had been Hazel's cue to turn to her mom and simply state that 'the Queen' was coming to school tomorrow and Hope was planning to pretend to be his girlfriend in order to buy Hazel time to train. Nothing more or less, no real explanation of the plan. Amazingly, Mrs. Willow actually NODDED and proceeded to call off the hounds one by one. It had still taken the rest of the meal to sort out and Jacob thought he'd be months cleaning his reputation with the Chase family... but they'd decided to halt the execution and give him a chance to prove himself. He wasn't about to look the gift horse in the mouth.

>Due to emotional state, Hazel is using Active Digestion.<
>Hazel deals 21 damage to her prey.<
>Hazel deals 19 damage to her prey.<
>Hazel has lost 5 fat units, but her Intake Needs have been reduced by 15.<

Not once in the entire ordeal did Ash speak. Jacob wasn't sure if that scared him or reassured him. If even Ash had joined the outrage Hazel might have decided he'd crossed the line. Jacob felt that if Ash spoke up against him even now with the dust settled and the clear indication that Mrs Willow had his back if nobody else did... Jacob still felt it might weigh more than the rest of her siblings put together. So when Ash caught him after the meal, and asked for a word alone Jacob had nodded without hesitation and followed him.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
'I hope Ash lays into him.' Hazel thought angrily. She couldn't believe him! How dare he already have... and with that HUSSY! He came over here talking such a good game about it just being for the plan and letting Hazel think it would only be in front of the Queen. One instance to save her life, over and done with as soon as humanly possible. And he'd already done more than that! Hazel wouldn't have rescued him at all if she hadn't been worried her dad was about to forbid their relationship, Jacob deserved getting mobbed for treating her like this!

Part of her knew it made sense, knew that if it was going to work it actually would take supporting acts surrounding the main act. She knew that it was an excellent sign that Heather had heard about it from another grade level. The Queen would have an abundance of supporting evidence to back the story they'd feed her. She knew she was letting her jealousy get to her. But she couldn't... help it. If... if Jacob would at least do the same things to her. Maybe then she wouldn't have such a hard time accepting that he had to do it to Hope. Maybe.

>Hazel deals 22 damage to her prey.<

"I can't believe that guy." Rowan growled, having followed Hazel to the living room while the rest of the family dispersed. For some reason her older brother seemed to think it was his job to be a completely unwanted and unnecessary chaperon in the way of exactly the sort of interaction she'd daydream about if Jacob wasn't so clearly uninterested in doing anything to HAZEL. "Did you know he was always asking for advice back when him and Jennifer started dating? The dude's about as dense as they come."

'Well that sure inspires confidence coming from you. Why on earth he thought YOU would be a good source for advice I can't wrap my head around. A tree would be more useful.' Hazel thought with pique. "Why are you following me?" Hazel asked out loud.

"To keep you safe, why else?" Rowan laughed, amused.

It was all Hazel could do to stop herself from decking him. Her older brother was built like a bear and towered over her by over a full foot, so she'd gotten used to the fact that he was near invulnerable to her physical attacks over the years. He had an infuriating habit of inviting said attacks as well, but it had helped her learn to be aggressive enough to defend herself. Rowan certainly hadn't defended her at school before he graduated. Then people would know that the cool, suave, powerful Rowan was related to the ugly, fat, nasty pig. Nooooooo. Can't have that. "I don't need your protection. I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself." Hazel remarks, forcing her way through the doorway towards the yard. The only way she'd get any privacy with Jacob was to leave the house it seemed.

Incapable of taking a hint, Rowan stayed right behind her. "Sure, sure. My sweet innocent sister is a big bad maneater now, why would she need someone who knows that men can be just as dangerous to a Pred as they are to an ordinary girl. I'm not planning to leave you alone with that guy."

Fitting through the last door and stepping outside, Hazel sighed with relief. Taking up so much of any room she stood in had slowly been making her claustrophobic inside. Well, not exactly, but it was very nice seeing all the space she could possibly want open up around her again. She wished she could run and clear her head with the physical activity, but she had so much gut in her way she was lightly kneeing her stomach every time she took a step and her belly was already brushing the ground. Holding 5 girls in her stomach was at least as much too awkward to allow for running as the extra weight was too heavy for such activity. "Seriously, leave me alone Rowan. Don't make me shove you back inside. I broke one guy's arm at the club for getting too handsy, and I didn't even mean to put that much in it."

>Hazel deals 19 damage to her prey.<

"I think I'll take my chances. My sweet little sis definitely won't use force if she's worried about controlling it enough to avoid hurting that slimeball, so there needs to be someone on hand to deal with him." Rowan smirks, almost challenging Hazel to prove him wrong.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"As long as you've been telling me the truth, I don't have any objections then." Ash said at length, having asked Jacob several questions about the plan and what he liked about Hazel in addition to wanting an idea who the Queen was. "But if you do anything to hurt my sister, or if I feel like you've lied to me..." He let the words hang, looking up into Jacob's eyes with a complete lack of the fear that age and size should have caused a 14 year old to feel in challenging an 18 year old.

Feeling himself relax with what was probably the most intensive part of the family interview done, Jacob nods. "I promise you, I'm going to do all I can to keep her safe and make her happy. I love Hazel with all my heart." And then they both hear a scream from outside.

"That was Rowan." Ash remarks, running. Jacob had already taken off though, and beats him to the door by a large margin. As he turns the corner, Jacob finds Rowan pinned under Hazel's stomach as she profusely apologized and tried to clean the blood from his face. His nose was smashed and bleeding pretty good. He was groaning, probably because of his legs instead of his nose... and Hazel wasn't even thinking about that part.

"Get off him first Hazel. I'll help him up and then we can do something about the nosebleed." Jacob instructs as he arrives, taking charge. Hazel's response is immediate, her chagrin making Jacob think she realized the moment he said it that she was making things worse. As he pulled Rowan's upper body to sitting up Hazel was already explaining. Jacob gave it half an ear, taking the point as he made sure Rowan was good before standing the larger man up.

Thankfully the damage seemed limited to ego and nose, but things could have easily been a lot worse. He'd been annoying Hazel and dogging her footsteps, refusing to take a hint and give her space. When Hazel had turned around to snap at him her gut had side slammed him and very easily floored the big fellow, who landed on his face and smashed his nose. Hazel had panicked and tried to help him up, but that had just pinned him. "You okay there bud? How many fingers am I holding up?" Jacob asked, showing Rowan a thumbs up.

>Hazel dealt 14 damage to her older brother with her unintentional belly slam. Hazel should gain 3 Exhaustion for this kind of damage output, but due to the mass and momentum of her belly the Exhaustion tax is reduced to only 1 Exhaustion.<
>Hazel and her prey take 14 damage, but due to Resistance and Vulnerability, Hazel takes 13 damage while her prey take 11 prior to applying her Digestion Power.<
>In total, Hazel deals 32 damage to her prey.<

"None jerk face. Thumb's not a finger." Rowan groans, pained but alert. "It's my side you should be checking, not my head." He takes a deeper breath and groans audibly, making Hazel apologize even more profusely as Mr. Forest and Ash arrive and start working out what had happened.

"Think you broke anything?" Mr Forest asked his oldest, putting off any discussion of blame until the extent of the damage was clear. When Rowan's assurance he was fine was ruined by the blood on his face and the pained breathing, Mr. Forest told him to get in the car. They'd take him for a check up to be on the safe side. For several minutes Mr. Forest and Mrs. Willow work out who would go and who would stay, ultimately deciding to leave Mrs. Willow, Ash and Olive while Mr. Forest would take Rowan and Heather with him to the clinic.

But while they sorted that out Jacob found himself primarily occupied with the much more important job of soothing Hazel's worries. She felt absolutely awful, and it had blown up worse when her dad decided that they actually would need to take Rowan to the clinic after all. Jacob did what he could, holding her and stroking her hair while whispering that everything would be alright. She didn't mean it, nobody blamed her. Luckily it seemed effective at calming her, Jacob wouldn't have known what else to try but some assuring words and just being there.

Mrs. Willow came over to them a few moments later. "Your dad will get this all sorted out, so don't let it be too much of a disruption to your time with Jacob. I'll keep Olive occupied, and Ash knows how to avoid being a nuisance."

"Thanks mom." Hazel answered in a small, guilty voice.

"In about 15 minutes or so you should be able to do Rapid Digestion again, and you need to keep things moving along." Mrs. Willow instructs, then looks to Jacob with what he would describe as a sly smile. It put him on edge despite his overall impression of the woman as a sweet and soft hearted lady. "Your little sister should Awaken sometime in the next year or two, right Jacob?"

"Yeah...?"

"So you've taken an early Escape Class with some family members, right?" Mrs. Willow checks, though she clearly already knows the answer. Jacob nods, wondering how she knows about that. Typically it wouldn't be possible to take an Escape Class before College unless you attended Pred High, but things were somewhat different when you had a pre-Awakened Pred in the family. It wouldn't be funny if after Awakening Arya accidentally ate him or another of her siblings, couldn't throw up voluntarily and they had no clue how to fight their way out. But even a simplified basics course meant the chances Jacob had of escaping if Arya WERE to accidentally eat him when she went Feral at her Awakening were very, very high. Jacob had built on that foundation after seeing how Jane acted when she Awakened. "Excellent. I'm sure Hazel will prefer your help over mine."

>In addition to his level 5 Strength, Jacob is a level 5 Prey and so meets the minimum qualifications to be considered a Trained Prey.<
>Hazel deals 18 damage to her prey.<

"What sort of help are you talking about?" Jacob asks, genuinely confused.

For some reason Hazel's face went red at her mother's suggestion. But Hazel opted to ignore his question and instead answer her mother directly. "That sounds good to me... are you sure it'll be fine?"

"Sure. He's strong enough to make up the difference in technique if its from the outside like this. If not completely, at least enough that its still viable. Worst case scenario he needs to be young and full of energy and put his back in it." Willow giggles. "Besides, I'm not ready for another hour long workout. You wore me out already."

"Can someone please explain what we're talking about?" Jacob asks, the pair of women firmly ignoring him as they chatter for a few more minutes before Mrs. Willow hears Olive calling for her from the house and excuses herself.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Remembering the way Jacob had responded to her mentioning having people at the club rubbing her belly, Hazel smirks at him. She figured on him liking this job on some level, though he probably wouldn't enjoy it if he had to get as forceful as her mother implied may be necessary. "It's no big deal really." Hazel giggles, withholding the information for now. The look of confusion on his face was adorable, and it was so sweet how he'd worked to keep her calm after what happened to Rowan. Hazel was starting to feel like her emotions had been on a roller coaster since she woke up, and the stability of him holding her close was relaxing in comparison.

"Talk to me Hazel. What is going on?" Jacob begs, the sound of his frustration coming through more clearly as this was already the third time he'd asked.

<Opportunistic. She's putting the screws to him to see what he'll offer to make it up to her as much as because it hurt her.>

"Well... you did sound eager to give me a nice massage last night. This will be a good bit more... intimate then that though." Hazel giggles, deliberately choosing the most inappropriate way to describe things. "Basically, I ate too much and I need help churning these sluts up. I seem to remember someone was excited to help with that kind of job last night?"

From the look on Jacob's face, he absolutely wanted to get involved in this assignment. But the boy hesitated instead of agreeing right off. "This is... kinda the opposite of what I was expecting when I offered to help. It's a really high level trick to make helping a Pred digest pleasant for both parties. I'd probably have to hurt you if I was going to accomplish something."

The objection made Hazel angry, and she grabbed his hands and put them firmly on her stomach, watching his face carefully. It reddened as he squeezed and pressed, first tenderly and carefully and then with growing vigor. 'I was hoping when I saw your texts last night... I was right. Jacob gets excited by vore just like the crowd at the club.' Hazel thinks happily as he got into it, taking the lack of negative response as a form of encouragement. 'Jennifer and Hope can't give you THIS Jacob. Only me~' Hazel thinks while watching his face change slowly. "Come on now Jacob, surely you're not going to refuse to help me just because it might be unpleasant? You certainly didn't mind hurting me to help me when you agreed to Hope's plan."

The look on Jacob's face when she made that point caused a complex reaction in Hazel's mind. On the one hand, she'd clearly scored a hit and hurt him while on the other... she'd clearly hurt him. "That's not the same thing Hazel." Jacob objects, thought it seemed like he had a pretty hard time articulating how they were different.

"Really? Because I agree." Hazel giggles, trying to stay upbeat. "Hope's plan is much worse than anything I'd actually ask you to do." Hazel leans forward, trying to get Jacob to face her after he instantly looked away in shame. "What all are you going to actually do with her tomorrow anyways? I'd like to know what I'm agreeing to allow you to do with a much prettier girl."

"I don't think she's much prettier than you." Jacob answers immediately, latching onto the point like a man drowning. 'If he thinks THAT is the weakest point I've made...' Hazel instantly thinks, feeling her outrage and jealousy spike instantly.

Glaring at her boyfriend, Hazel growls angrily. "Don't even bother trying to convince me of that. I don't match up to Hope in ANYTHING. You couldn't convincingly name even a single thing where I'm better than the school's little angel."

>Hazel deals 19 damage to her prey.<

"She's way too thin for one." Jacob replied without a second's thought. Then he realized what he said and rushed to explain more fully. "I get that everyone wants to be skinny, but Hope's thin enough that I can't help thinking its just as unhealthy for her as being a massive whale would be. Personally, I prefer a girl with some meat on her bones."

That fit what Arya had told her, but Hazel wasn't about to let Jacob off the hook. "She's got plenty of 'meat' on her bones. DDs right over the ribs if I don't miss my guess, and I caught you staring a few times when you were going out with Jennifer. I'm not even a match for Jennifer, let alone for Hope." Hazel squeezed her small B cups for emphasis, watching Jacob's reaction closely. She's disappointed when he won't watch her motions OR look her in the eye.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
<Action. Show Hazel that she's his number 1.>

Silence stretches for a moment, Jacob not willing to chance what he has in mind as a next answer. He knew full well Hazel didn't like her freckles, but that was the tie breaker for facial features to him. The fact of the matter was that as long as he didn't let his bias effect his judgment, Hope was extremely attractive. Enough so that Hazel would be able to counterpoint anything he said, and he'd realized that Hazel was going to say anything that wasn't VERY clearly in her own favor was in Hope's. That made the game unwinnable, because even where Jacob thought Hazel could win it was close. He needed a game he actually could win if he was going to engage.

Unfortunately, he could only think of one game he had any chance of success by playing. Because if he told Hazel the things that Hope had repeatedly suggested to demonstrate the sort of relationship that the schemer was after... that would end poorly. Even the things he'd forced Hope to step back to would make Hazel hate him that much more, and would make the rift that much worse. The only reason Jacob was prepared to do those kinds of things with Hope was because he didn't actually care about her, and it was just going through the motions.

Yes, going through the motions with a girl that was more physically attractive then Jennifer had been. Yes, who was more attractive than Hazel... just not to the extent his girlfriend seemed to think. If Hazel was a 7 physically, Hope was a 9. If Hazel was a 6, Hope was an 8. But Hazel clearly thought herself a 5 and Hope a damn 10. And it was going to snow in hell before Jacob changed her mind with words. Which left him with one choice that would get him through this without it all blowing up in his face.

He'd have to show her what he'd agreed to. "Fine." Jacob growled. He didn't like being cornered and wasn't going to pretend otherwise. "You want to know what I've agreed to? I'll show you. We'll probably ad lib a few things on top, but this is what I know we're going to do." And then Jacob took Hazel by her chin, cupping the bottom of her face and tilting it up before bending down to kiss her.

When he broke the kiss a few seconds later, Jacob puts his arm around her shoulder possessively, holding her close and tight. "After that Liz will almost certainly be asking a lot of questions, so I'll stand like this, holding Hope a little back so that Liz has to get past me to get to her. As we talk, I'll shift my hand down from shoulder to lower back – relaxing into something more intimate as immediate protection is less necessary. Hope's probably going to glue herself to my side, but I can't really turn you that way right now with your gut in the way. Yes... she'll be pressing her tits into me dead on." Jacob explains angrily, making changes to his posture and movements to match as he speaks. "When I feel its safe to look away from Liz, I'm supposed to stare in Hope's eyes to signal that it's her turn now. I'm the only one who knows Liz's tells, so it's my job to gauge when she's not going to snap if Hope steps away."

Part of Jacob was amused how red Hazel's face was as he demonstrated staring in her eyes, trying to give the right feel despite his emotional state. That part was small and pretty buried, as he was depending on his anger to keep from feeling too much from the simple and powerful connective action. "Once she steps away my part is mostly done. Hope'll come back my way if she needs to demonstrate something in particular, and it could be another kiss, running my fingers through her hair, pressing her head to my chest or letting her hide behind my back and glaring at Liz. Apart from that I'm supposed to watch Liz's reactions and step in if she gets remotely aggressive while pretending to stare at Hope. She specifically told me to try to ignore what she does if its not a signal. There's a long list of those... I don't have it all memorized yet." Jacob sighs. "But if Liz isn't getting aggressive and Hope doesn't send a signal for anything, then that's all I'll have to do."

"Oh." Hazel said after a few moments. After a few moments she coughs and Crushes down on her prey, seeming to want to change gears and get away from the awkwardness after the outburst and demonstration. "Can you.... go ahead and hit me? Harder is better, you're not going to be able to hurt me even if you try."

Initially Jacob wanted to object that actually hitting her was going to far, but then he thought about how tough some of his cousins were and nodded. He really would have a fairly hard time hurting Hazel without pouring on multiple attacks. He sent a big haymaker at her gut and felt it slide along her stomach as much as it went in.

>Hazel is using Rapid Digestion<
>Jacob deals 16 damage to Hazel and her prey. Jacob gains 1 Exhaustion from using Impact. Due to Hazel's increased Resistances, and Hazel's OVERSTUFFed Vulnerability, Jacob's damage to Hazel is reduced to 9 and his damage to Hazel's prey is reduced to 10. The 10 damage to Hazel's Prey will benefit from Hazel's Digestion Power.<
>Hazel's pheromone production is in overdrive after Jacob's demonstration, and is also augmented by the intensity of her digestion mode. Hazel will roll 3d20 for her first Charm roll. 11, 5 and 3. All told, Hazel's roll totals 25, nowhere near enough for a crit.<
>Hazel and Jacob deal 42 damage to Hazel's prey.<

'I thought for sure it was going to be much worse than that.' Hazel thought, happy that she'd misjudged. The way that Hope had emphasized how much she needed Jacob's support and needed a crystal clear picture of a boy wrapped around her finger... added to Jacob's reluctance to tell her what he'd agreed to made her feel like it was going to be far worse. It was still terrible and awful that she had to let him do such intimate things... things that made her heart race like crazy... to Hope of all people, but Hazel had begun to fear it would take something truly excessive.

"I didn't hit you too hard, did I?" Jacob asks, already getting ready to throw another big hit before Hazel was ready for the next round of Rapid Digestion.

"No, I'm good. But wait till I'm braced again before you continue. It helps most of it damage my prey instead of me if I believe the experts." Hazel cautions him before he can commit. "My mom hit way harder earlier today, so I know I can handle this much no problem."

"If you're sure." Jacob replies with a smirk, taking the challenge Hazel hadn't even realized was built into the comparison. "I'll take this up a notch then, whenever you're ready."

>Jacob deals 29 damage to Hazel and her prey. Jacob gains 3 Exhaustion from using Combo. Due to Hazel's increased Resistances, and Hazel's OVERSTUFFed Vulnerability, Jacob's damage to Hazel is reduced to 22 and his damage to Hazel's prey is reduced to 23. The 23 damage to Hazel's Prey will benefit from Hazel's Digestion Power.<
>Hazel has lost 1/5th of her hp. Wait... I didn't mean it that way...<
>Due to Hazel's increased, but ramping down pheromone production she can reroll any 1 Charm die this round of Rapid Digestion. Hazel rolls a 10 and a Natural 20 for her first Charm roll. This allows her a second roll. She gets a 1, which she rerolls for a 13. This gives her a total of 49, scoring a crit. Hazel will deal an extra 6+2=8 damage for her crit, which will benefit from her Digestion Power.<
>Hazel and Jacob deal 60 damage to Hazel's prey.<
>Hazel regains 9 fat units, directly reverse ordering her loses instead of adding to her current state according to the determined order for gains. Her Intake Needs also are reduced by 15.<

Much like Willow had when Hazel had pressured her to go harder, Jacob opted to forgo trying to land the single strongest blow he could in favor of a series of attacks that were more controlled and quick. There had to be something pretty different though, because the amount of damage they did were on totally different levels. Jacob was bigger by a solid margin, and he was actually throwing out more attacks in less time... yet Willow had done a lot more with a lot less. Replaying the feeling when her mom had done this attack, Hazel thinks she has an idea what the core difference for this one is. "Accuracy... Jacob, next time try focusing on a single spot more. That's what my mom did, and it really made a huge difference. You're all over the place and it's defusing the effect."

The look in Jacob's eye told Hazel that she'd made things worse again. That's when she realized why he was reacting the way he was. It was a childish saying, but it was a common enough barb to rank right up with 'you hit like a girl' for playground and schoolyard taunts among boys. 'Man, my mom can hit harder than you.' No wonder he was reacting as if she was egging him on, to Jacob she hadn't been stating a fact that the expert knew exactly what she was doing but was insulting his masculinity! "Alright, I'll try it your way." Jacob growled, creaking his neck and ready to prove himself.

'Just act like this time it really hurt.' Hazel thinks to herself, deciding the best way to sooth his pride would be to validate that when he really tried of course he could do it. She just hoped that he took the advice and it instantly made enough difference for her to see the effect and play it off as effective.

>Jacob deals 31 damage to Hazel and her prey. Jacob gains 3 Exhaustion from using Combo. Due to Hazel's increased Resistances, and Hazel's OVERSTUFFed Vulnerability, Jacob's damage to Hazel is reduced to 24 and his damage to Hazel's prey is reduced to 25. The 25 damage to Hazel's Prey will benefit from Hazel's Digestion Power.<
>Hazel has lost 2/5ths of her hp. It's not a big difference, but I felt the change and there's definitely built up pain too.<
>Hazel rolls a pair of 17s for her Charm. Adding her 6 Crit Chance gives 17+17+6=40, which is the exact requirement for a crit. Hazel will deal an extra 4+2=6 damage for her crit, which will benefit from her Digestion Power.<
>Hazel and Jacob deal 67 damage to Hazel's prey.<

"Owwwww!" Hazel dutifully yelped, glad that it was actually significant enough that she didn't have to entirely pretend to be hurting from that. Yeah, she could easily take more... but it was enough to be believable.

Jacob was looking more self assured after, though before he went to apologize the kitchen window snapped open and Willow stuck her head out. "Everything going alright out there? You're making an awful racket. You took everything I threw at you with hardly a peep, but now you scream? Is he doing something wrong? I'll come show him the ropes if you want."

Before Hazel can shut the idea down, Jacob agrees, inviting her to help for just a couple minutes. Glaring at her boyfriend as her mom closes the window and makes her way outside, Hazel gets ready for the kind of third wheel she REALLY didn't want right then.

"Have you tried Weakening her prey yet, or have you just been pounding her?" Willow asks as she comes up, Hazel starting to Crush down on her prey while Jacob, looking to regain some stamina, holds himself back from another Combo and settles for Impact.

>Jacob deals 18 damage to Hazel and her prey. Jacob gains 1 Exhaustion from using Impact. Due to Hazel's increased Resistances, and Hazel's OVERSTUFFed Vulnerability, Jacob's damage to Hazel is reduced to 11 and his damage to Hazel's prey is reduced to 12. The 12 damage to Hazel's Prey will benefit from Hazel's Digestion Power.<
>Willow attempts to Weaken Hazel's prey. 73, easily succeeds. Hazel and her prey take 2 additional damage.<
>Hazel, Willow and Jacob deal 45 damage to Hazel's prey.<

"You're relying too much on your size and strength. When you try to use Impact to make a difference its most important to make sure the force is directed right and then to deliver it right instead of just producing the biggest possible force. You're letting it glance off instead of bury into her, and you aren't taking advantage of her already tightening things up to make it an instant SMACK and retract." Willow critics Jacob's effort as she finds the spot she's after. "Put your hands on her stomach and properly Probe around for somewhere her prey are fairly fragile. You'll accomplish a lot more by breaking a stubborn bone that's about had it then by beating a solid leg that hasn't taken much from her acids. I'll show you what I mean about the right way to use Impact while you look."

"I really don't think that's necessary mom..." Hazel objects, not liking where this was going even slightly. She did NOT like the idea of being an example dummy for her mom to show Jacob perfect form, especially not when she had a good idea by now how much of a difference the proper form really made. At least Jacob's hands felt nice as he started searching for the spot he wanted to hit.

"It'll be fine. I'll give one demonstration, make sure he gets it right and I'll be back out of your hair." Willow promised.

>Willow deals 40 damage to Hazel and an additional 11 damage to her prey. Willow gains 1 Exhaustion from using Impact. Due to Hazel's increased Resistances, and Hazel's OVERSTUFFed Vulnerability, Willow's damage to Hazel is reduced to 33 and her damage to Hazel's prey is reduced to 45. The 45 damage to Hazel's Prey will benefit from Hazel's Digestion Power.<
>Jacob attempts to Weaken Hazel's prey. 41, succeeds with a solid margin to spare. Hazel and her prey take 2 additional damage.<
>Hazel has lost 3/5ths of her hp. Don't show it hurt, don't show it hurt, don't show it hurt...<
>Hazel, Willow and Jacob deal 88 damage to Hazel's prey.<

The explanation that Mrs. Willow gave made a lot of sense with what Jacob had learned in the Escape Class he took. While sheer force was indeed helpful, it often took the kind of power only another Pred could produce to make it viable in and of itself and the actual key aspects for a prey to weaponize were different. Elasticity, accuracy, and speed made a bigger difference than power itself did. And watching Mrs. Willow put her advice into action proved that she had some serious skills. Enough so that Jacob found himself asking, "where did you learn to do that?"

"I went to Pred High from Freshman year until graduation. You either get good or end up dead." Willow answers. "If you thought that was good you should have seen me fresh out of college. I've let myself go. Or maybe I should say that once I quit being at as much risk I didn't worry about maintaining the skills. You found the spot you're after yet?"

"Uh, yeah." Jacob has to relocate it, having done a poor job marking his target in his mind before watching Mrs. Willow's form, but still manages without needing to start over. "Right hear, there's something that's about to give out."

"Very good find. I'd probably have missed it if I were trying to find something else to focus on." Willow praises. "Now, let me see if you learned anything from what I showed you."

>Jacob deals 22 damage to Hazel and an additional 10 damage to her prey. Jacob gains 1 Exhaustion from using Impact. Due to Hazel's increased Resistances, and Hazel's OVERSTUFFed Vulnerability, Jacob's damage to Hazel is reduced to 15 and his damage to Hazel's prey is reduced to 26. The 26 damage to Hazel's Prey will benefit from Hazel's Digestion Power.<
>Hazel and Jacob deal 57 damage to Hazel's prey.<

"Well done. I think you probably should dial back at this point though. My daughter IS hurting, no matter how much she's trying to hide it now. From here on until she says she can't take anymore you want to stick to pressing into her gut and grinding different parts of her prey against each other manually. It'll do the most for the least with where she is now." Mrs. Willow advises, then heads back inside as she promised.

Resting his hands against his girlfriend's stomach, Jacob takes a moment to take in her condition. Her face was deeply flushed and her neck was tensed while one hand clenched tightly. There was most sweat then the amount of activity she'd done should justify and her eyes weren't exactly the most clear. Yeah, she was hurting much worse than she was letting on. "I'm sorry... I shouldn't have asked her to come out."

"Just... shut up and lets get this next part over with." Hazel grumbles, not in the mood to banter right that moment.

>Jacob deals 7 damage to Hazel and her prey. Due to Hazel's increased Resistances, and Hazel's OVERSTUFFed Vulnerability, Jacob's damage to Hazel is reduced to 0 and his damage to Hazel's prey is reduced to 1. The 1 damage to Hazel's Prey will benefit from Hazel's Digestion Power.<
>Hazel and Jacob deal 32 damage to Hazel's prey.<

Being very careful, Jacob presses against the different prey inside her stomach. He enjoyed the feeling of doing things this way far more than he wanted to admit, and if he was entirely honest he was glad that there was now an excuse to stick to this level of intensity. It was just much more... visceral and intimate instead of furious and sharp. He found himself getting drawn into identifying the different things he was touching through Hazel's stomach, trying to tell her five prey apart from each other.

"Are you having fun playing with my belly?" Hazel asked, trying to put a giggle on it. Jacob could hear the slight strain from her pain, and it made him feel guilty.

"Yes." He admitted directly, keeping more of his focus on what he was doing. He'd felt the clear difference between when Hazel was tensing things for the Rapid Digestion and how it felt loose and responsive to his touch. It was amazing, just like it was amazing what Hazel could do... would do to all these girls in time. He was looking forward to the end result a great deal more than he wanted to admit.

"I bet you'd like it better if it wasn't so stretched or if it had just a little plush give, right?" Jacob hears Hazel ask and mindlessly nods. Right about then she could have said the sky was green and he'd have agreed, let alone if she said something he thought was true. It felt so good rubbing and pushing against his girlfriend's stomach and helping her break down her prey.

>Jacob deals 10 damage to Hazel and her prey. Due to Hazel's increased Resistances, and Hazel's OVERSTUFFed Vulnerability, Jacob's damage to Hazel is reduced to 3 and his damage to Hazel's prey is reduced to 4. The 4 damage to Hazel's Prey will benefit from Hazel's Digestion Power.<
>Hazel has lost 4/5ths of her hp. Don't... let him see... he's having fun, let him enjoy it as long as possible.<
>Hazel and Jacob deal 33 damage to Hazel's prey.<
>Hazel's prey "shrink" by 1 fullness, remaining at 15 Capacity. Hazel's prey can take another 1,191 damage before her stomach will "shrink" again, still remaining the same size while drastically changing in staying there.<
Due to "shrinking" her stomach and making a significant progress in her digestion, Hazel will get a significantly boosted flood of fat units for energy for this hour's efforts.<

'It's adorable how fascinated he is.' Hazel thought happily, hiding her wince as he pressed the spot her mom hit. Why he liked it so much Hazel didn't understand, but she also didn't care. She didn't need to understand why he liked her stuffed gut to use it, and as far as Hazel was concerned anything she could offer Jacob that other girls couldn't or wouldn't was vital to make sure he got. So if Jacob was having this much fun with her stomach she'd let him have his fun until he tired of it.

That didn't mean she wasn't going to poke and prod at him though. And one thing occurred to her as he confirmed that he actually would like a little bit of tub on the middle. "You know... Arya told me you've got an old picture of me." Immediately Jacob's hands froze for a second before they resumed moving.

"I mean, there's the old yearbooks of course." Jacob answered cautiously. The sudden change to Hazel's middle interrupted her from running down his evasion, as Hazel felt a new tear appearing on Dawn's gut and a leg pushed through the opening the moment it was made. Unlike the head it didn't stick straight out, but instead shoved along the outside of Dawn's stomach and curled into Hazel's acids directly, reducing the amount of pressure once inside Dawn by a lot. The leg smushed up into Dawn's chest, and Hazel felt a large chunk of one of the fatty orbs dislodged from Dawn's body and soon drained into her intestines.

"Oh goodness... that felt SO weird." Hazel moans, then blushes in embarrassment at the sound she'd made in front of Jacob.

>Jacob deals 9 damage to Hazel and her prey. Due to Hazel's increased Resistances, and Hazel's OVERSTUFFed Vulnerability, Jacob's damage to Hazel is reduced to 2 and his damage to Hazel's prey is reduced to 3. The 3 damage to Hazel's Prey will benefit from Hazel's Digestion Power.<
>Hazel and Jacob deal 42 damage to Hazel's prey, which will be reduced to 36 by her prey's remaining Resistance.<

Recognizing her embarrassment, Jacob gives her a wicked grin. "Don't feel like you need to hold back on my account. I told you yesterday Hazel, if it didn't feel good... Preds wouldn't do it. Enjoy it."

<Hazel, she teased Jacob about the Middle School picture and then realized the implications – 6-7 pm, as soon as it hits her.>

Of course, Hazel only feels MORE embarrassed after that, so she looks for anything else to think about or talk about. "Yearbooks... wait." Arya had said that the picture that Jacob had of her was from Middle School... surely it wasn't from before the Queen's Awakening? Right? "Jacob? Did you get take that Middle School picture before the Queen left?"

Hazel can see that he really, really wants to continue denying having any idea what she's talking about, but the question and the seriousness of it made the gears turn in his head. "Honestly... I don't remember for sure. I was already crushing on you before she left though. One reason I didn't even consider giving her a second date is because I wanted to ask you out instead."

"You... don't think she knows that, do you?"

"Well... I never really said anything to her but... I doubt I fooled her either. She was my best friend back then." Jacob admits, and Hazel feels her concern spike. She grabs her phone and dials, cursing under her breath.

Hope picked up fast. "Hey, did Jacob leave already? I was under the impression that he was going to be at your place for a long while tonight."

>Jacob doesn't do enough damage to effect Hazel or her prey.<
>Hazel deals 26 damage to her prey.<

"He's still here. We've got a problem. The Queen knows he used to have a crush in Middle School." Hazel answers, cutting right to the chase. She wasn't going to mince words and she certainly didn't feel like going into how the night had yoyoed from exciting and wonderful to an absolute disaster... multiple times.

"And you didn't think to mention this last night!?" Hope snapped at Jacob, justifiably upset to find out that such a massive variable had gone completely unsaid.

"It was forever ago!" Jacob objected. "Liz might not even remember!"

"You're an idiot." Hope groaned. "The Lizard treats things like you're still dating... no, like you're closer than ever. And when was the last time you WENT on a date!? FOREVER AGO! I'm going to have to rework everything from the ground up if I'm still having Hazel show up at all. Honestly, I need to run a solid risk analysis before I know-"

"You were going to have Hazel show up!?" Jacob interrupted her, and Hazel didn't like the look in his eyes. He was furious, and took the phone angrily. "I thought the literal point of this insane charade was to keep Liz AWAY from Hazel!? Why on earth would-"

Hazel put her hand on Jacob's forearm, motioning for him to calm down and answering. "It's to ensure that the Queen picks me to keep an eye on how things play out. Think about it. If you prove that direct action isn't an option, then the Queen's going to still take indirect action. A spy or a patsy. If we can prove I'm a willing and capable option for either, then there's no reason for her to keep looking for someone else and we can be a lot less worried that someone at school is watching to report that the charade is a bunch of baloney."

"That WAS the idea, but if we can't prove decisively that in the case of that crush OLD NEWS means DEAD AND BURIED then we run massive risks trying to introduce that angle of things." Hope warns, sounding like she was pacing rapidly. "And obviously neither of you have even tried to figure out who you'd claim was a bridge linking you close enough while not being close enough to be a threat. I'm not even sure that will work anymore. We are well and truly boned." Hope curses violently, and Hazel heard her sitting down and starting to scribble at something.

>Jacob deals 12 damage to Hazel and her prey. Due to Hazel's increased Resistances, and Hazel's OVERSTUFFed Vulnerability, Jacob's damage to Hazel is reduced to 5 and his damage to Hazel's prey is reduced to 6. The 6 damage to Hazel's Prey will benefit from Hazel's Digestion Power.<
>Hazel and Jacob deal 35 damage to Hazel's prey.<
<Jennifer – just act like Hazel always knew she would Awaken and Jennifer knew she was Hazel's OAO... she's not around to deny it.>

"I'd veer close to the truth and color it a shade different. Jennifer and Hazel were best friends, and Hazel Awakened as a Pred, so to anyone who doesn't specifically know otherwise that means Jennifer obviously was Hazel's OAO." Jacob observed. "We could say that I did try to ask Hazel out, but she turned me down. HARD. I was an absolute loser in Middle School, believe it or not."

"That's universally acclaimed by everyone who actually realizes you were the boy that hung out with the Lizard." Hope snapped. "Get to your point, because so far this sounds like I should be calling you out for trying to use a hood ornament for something useful again."

The put down makes Jacob's mouth twitch, but he doesn't remark further. "But after we got in High School, Jennifer developed a crush on me, and plenty of people can attest that she pursued me not the other way around. I wasn't interested in dating... Liz was gone and Hazel had crushed me and I wasn't ready to try again. But Hazel came to me alone one day and told me that Jennifer was her OAO and begged me to give her a chance, told me it would mean the world to both of them and I couldn't refuse anymore."

"That's going to come off as a sorry excuse idiot." Hope groans. "You are the last person Liz would buy that kind of convenient explanation for cheating from. And it still doesn't get us anywhere with the real problem."

"Actually, it doesn't sound like a bad idea." Hazel puts in, thinking through what Arya had said about Beth. 'Anything she asks for is kinda like a last request. Someday it will be.' Hazel remembers. There was serious weight to that concept. "I agree that the Queen would view it as an excuse if Jacob claims I... asked him... to date my OAO, but what if I told her that and he explained asking me out and getting shot to bits? Maybe during a blank period where he actually thought things were over between him and her due to her move?"

>Jacob deals 11 damage to Hazel and her prey. Due to Hazel's increased Resistances, and Hazel's OVERSTUFFed Vulnerability, Jacob's damage to Hazel is reduced to 4 and his damage to Hazel's prey is reduced to 5. The 5 damage to Hazel's Prey will benefit from Hazel's Digestion Power.<
>Hazel and Jacob deal 39 damage to Hazel's prey.<

"That's still hardly convincing." Hope complained, though she didn't have nearly the same edge in answering Hazel that she did in blasting Jacob. "But with the right mouth saying the right line it at least isn't asking to self destruct. What I still don't get is why either of you think slapping the OAO label on Jennifer is going to accomplish anything."

"Hope... think about how Jane always treated Lily. Can you honestly tell me that she gave you the same level of treatment? Even with the gap from friends to rivals, even with being in the same click, are you really going to tell me she didn't give Lily special treatment? I could tell Lily got different treatment from Jane, and sometimes it was the only reason I'd listen to Lily." Hazel points out.

"Well... yeah. Jane always gave Lily the best anything she wanted. If I wanted to set conditions or rules, I'd have to get it in before Jane decided what the bets were... but Jane would let Lily veto her first or even second idea without arguing. Sooner or later, if Lily wouldn't do what Jane wanted she'd start pressing and bullying to get her way... but Jane let Lily get away with murder, even compared to me." Hope admits after thinking about it for a moment.

"That's because Lily was Jane's OAO." Jacob tells her firmly. "Honestly, it sounds like she wasn't treating Lily the way she should have, but even Jane at least gave her a clearly better treatment. When a Pred's OAO asks for something, if the Pred thinks there's anything she can realistically do to make it happen, then if she's a half way decent human being she's expected to go the extra mile for it. It's completely possible that it will be the last thing that your best friend asks you for."

There's a long silence as the schemer considers the point. "How sure are you two numb skulls that you can pull this act off? I don't think I need to spell out for you the stakes if either one of you makes even a slight error in presenting Jennifer as Hazel's OAO."

"As long as Liz does some digging to verify and we don't absolutely screw it up, she'll be forced to conclude Jennifer was Hazel's OAO." Jacob answers firmly. "The first thing I assumed yesterday was that Jennifer was her OAO, and I'm way closer to things. This is like selling a free lunch. As long as we don't make it suspicious enough that she rejects the obvious conclusion... the obvious conclusion is obvious. As bad of actors as we might be," Jacob concludes, his voice dripping with intense sarcasm, "I think we can manage to avoid actively convincing her Jennifer WASN'T Hazel's OAO."
***************************************************************************************************
> Anybody want to add something while the full scheming crew is together the night before the big performance?
[Hope wants to get Hazel to green light some more intensive measures that Jacob already refused on the grounds that Hazel wouldn't be able to forgive going that far.]
[Jacob wants to clarify order of events and to suggest arriving while Jane's still doing her performance so he can have some time with Liz before she even trains with Jane.]
[Hazel want to know how on earth Jacob and Hope are planning to keep Jane from revealing the whole thing is smoke and mirrors.}
[Jacob and Hope, as above]
[Hazel and Hope, as above]
[Jacob and Hazel, as above]
[Everyone has something to cover.]
[Nope, the happy couple can go back to their eventful attempt at a not date.]
[WRITE IN]

> What does Hope decide to do when she realizes that there's some sort of trouble in paradise?
[Stay the hell out of it until Hazel asks for help.]
[Ask what's going on and very carefully try to guide things without either realizing she orchestrated them addressing their core problems instead of symptoms.] (Very low chance of success, modest chance of partial success... can technically backfire.)
[Tackle it head on. Not only does it reflect well on her if she fixes the trouble for Hazel, but drama like this is bad for the team going into the performance.] (Best chance of partial success, but still low odds of success. Low chance of backfiring.)
[Split it into smaller pieces. Have dumb and dumber pass the phone around off speakerphone so she can straighten each out privately.] (Best chance of success, but also the best chance of backfiring... worst odds of partial success.)
[WRITE IN]

> When is Hazel going to sleep tonight? Remember, sleeping VASTLY slows down her digestion speed, and she's still got an absurd amount of work to do. In extremely rough terms, Hazel's hammered through ~3k out of ~15k health that her prey collectively possess before going to zero Fullness. Yes, that 3k had her facing BY FAR the worst resistance she'll have to overcome and she's already fighting less than 1/2 the Resistance now, but still. ~3.2 k damage out of ~14.9 k health.
[After she does her second round of Instant Digestion for the day, around 10 pm.]
[She wants the next hit of Rapid Digestion before she sleeps, so it's 12:30 in the morning.]
[When her prey FINALLY start to ACTUALLY shrink.]
[WRITE IN]

> I realize that it's only been two sections, but Hazel has already been wake for ~7 hours and has thrown Rapid at it twice, Instant at it once and between them Willow and Jacob have helped her with literally hundreds of damage. ALL of that plus generally being up and about for 7 hours... has got her into the second Fullness stage and through it to the third. It is some seriously heavy going. What attitude does Hazel take for continuing to push the issue?
[I'm set on calories at this point, I'm tired of manually forcing this nonsense and I just want to rest. Passive when I'm not using Instant/Rapid]
[I'm finally seeing progress and even if I don't see my gut start properly shrinking again today I am determined to set myself up for success tomorrow. Active when not using Instant/Rapid until bed.]
[You know what... I'm not going to get the kind of progress I want on the time table that I need unless I try something... Crazy. ??? + Active when not using Instant/Rapid.]
[WRITE IN]

[GrayLotus]

It's nice to get a look at Rowan, after he was passed up in previous votes. Hazel seems to think of him as being an overbearing older brother when she doesn't want him to be (particularly regarding Jacob), and keeping a distance when she would want him to stick closer. I'll give the benefit of the doubt and assume that Hazel's being particularly uncharitable with her thoughts right now since she's upset about Hope's plan and frustrated that Rowan won't stop bothering her. I'll wait and see what else gets done with him later on. He does have a point that even with Hazel now being much stronger post-Awakening, danger takes many forms beyond just physical strength. Hazel had a bit of crash course in that concept last night, but fully adjusting will still take time. Hazel accidentally smacking him with her stomach was genuinely very funny, too.

Still enjoying the depiction of Hazel's meal shifting around as digestion progresses. I don't expect a situation like this to come up again anytime soon, with Hazel being so overstuffed while her acid strength and overall digestion speed is still relatively low, so I'll enjoy it while it's here. I also liked the bits of emphasis on the difficulty she has moving around in a house that was never designed with someone that large being inside. Normal doorways are not meant for a stomach that big! Kinda makes me wonder how particularly active Preds would have their homes laid out to not be overly inconvenienced in situations like this. Trying to keep all the important things at chest height so you can reliably reach stuff maybe? I'm still a bit curious on what Hazel's plan was to join in on dinner. Was she planning on standing, taking her chances with the chair, leaning on her stomach like it's a giant beanbag?

Jacob certainly was not comfortable being pushed like this, was he? Completely understandable from him, but given how things have gone for Hazel over the last couple of days combined with her long-standing self-esteem issues, I think it was reasonable (in-character) for her to push for more reassurance than Jacob was ready to give. She still feels less attractive than Hope and has that irrational fear that she might end up losing Jacob to Hope. He wouldn't do that, given the history between these three, but its not so easy for Hazel to convince herself that Jacob really wants her and only her.

EDIT 2: Changed vote to [Jacob and Hazel, as above]. Old vote below:

Spoiler: show

[Jacob and Hope, as above] - I'm definitely interested in Jacob's. Getting a bit more information on what the schedule for tomorrow would be helpful to me, since I'm still a bit unclear on that, and his suggestion of talking to Liz while Jane's busy would be interesting to discuss here. As an aside, she's already been stated to have a hatred for other people using that nickname, but what would she think of Jacob calling her that? Would she consider as like "only you are allowed to call me that"? Hope's option is interesting too, since that would connect to the current discord in the group and exploring that might be helpful. Would picking this option influence the group discussion vote below? Since bringing it up might prompt Hazel to start thinking that Hope is scheming about more things than she's disclosed, which might increase the risk of a backfire.

I can't decide between Tackle head on and Split into smaller pieces here. I don't think Hope would go for the two more passive options here, given how much is at stake tomorrow. As she's already made clear if they screw up this plan then it's unlikely Hope is surviving the meeting (at least so far as they know...), so taking a more passive approach than these would be a bit odd, I feel. If they fail to convince Elizabeth, then Hazel feeling more favourable towards Hope isn't going to help much.
Tackling it openly would have the issue of them not being completely honest with their feelings, which I'm guessing is the partial success. They can (hopefully) get things somewhat sorted, but a full resolution isn't likely without Hope being able to get the full picture of how Hazel and Jacob are feeling about it all. Low risk of backfiring for similar reasons.
Meanwhile splitting it up lets Hope get a full disclosure from the others and give more accurate and candid advice to actually more fully resolve the problems, but there's the real risk that they'll start thinking she's trying to manipulate things by talking to them separately. I'll hold off on choosing for the moment, and see what other people think.

Before voting on this one, could you clarify what the expected timing is for the meeting tomorrow? The meeting will be happening in the morning between Elizabeth, Jane, Hope and Jacob, correct? I think Hazel will be there, but I'm not sure on that, and her being tired from staying up late could cause issues. Maybe not, since she had a very long sleep last night, but still a concern.
EDIT: Clarification received, vote set to: [She wants the next hit of Rapid Digestion before she sleeps, so it's 12:30 in the morning.]

EDIT: Vote changed to a tentative: [I'm set on calories at this point, I'm tired of manually forcing this nonsense and I just want to rest. Passive when I'm not using Instant/Rapid] - Old vote and reasoning below

Spoiler: show

[I'm finally seeing progress and even if I don't see my gut start properly shrinking again today I am determined to set myself up for success tomorrow. Active when not using Instant/Rapid until bed.] - Actually seeing some progress on this boulder would be pretty encouraging for Hazel. It's been a lot of work to get even this far, but the hardest part is over. With Jane having committed to intense training herself, I can see Hazel wanting to push herself some more to keep her current advantage and get ready for the next efforts. In-character, she's likely tempted to relax a bit after the hard work and pain from Willow and Jacob assisting, but Jane's not going to wait around for that. I am tempted by the crazy option. ??? certainly catches my attention. If someone else has a good argument, I'm open to being persuaded!

[08142024]

Dude, loved how Jacob was responding to Hazel's quite factual 'my mom can hit harder' and how long it took her to put together how that would sound to basically any 18 year old boy/man... EVER. Especially how things ramped until Jacob realized why and ended up getting some tips. Willow ripped his technique apart lol. Poor Hazel though, she ended up being a testing dummy xD. Rowan getting flattened by her gut was perfect. I'm not sure if I'm more in the camp of 'yeah, it's not going to stay funny if he cracked a rib from that' or in the camp of... dude got hit by 1k pounds moving at a decent clip. SOMETHING broke.' Either way though, him going to get checked out was a good call by papa Chase.

Gotta say, Hazel went easier on him that I thought she would. I mean, not comfortable and I see how Jacob realized about the time he did that he was pretty handily walled in... but I was expecting that to go a bit rougher. The family was AWESOME though. Heather heard about what happened in gym and OF COURSE the little shit waits to say something until everyone's sitting, Hazel's in the room and Jacob just said he wants to date her. I mean, talk about perfect timing to ambush him! My man was screwed the second he walked in the door lol. And the way it wrapped up was delightful, Hazel ready to skin him but saving his sorry butt before it gets her under the bus with him

Hope's call back was nice, loved that. Is the hood ornament remark going to be a recurring joke between those two? I really dig it. Also, it's awesome how unclear it is if Hope's being nicer in telling Hazel that she doesn't think the idea is wise as compared to the way she straight blasts Jacob for being a moron because A) Hazel's got a point about just changing up who says what or because B) Hope doesn't want to piss her off by blasting her for being a moron. I really like that you type cast part of the group huddle to be opposed to the idea and force them to think it through properly though. Gives all of us a vicarious outlet to be convinced through if we weren't on board when there's a character who actually says what we're thinking because we know roughly what she knows. Jacob's last point about how easy it is to sell was epic too, I don't think we often get to see Hope be the one roasted for being an idiot and he did it with style there.

[Jacob and Hazel, as above] - I agree with GrayLotus that we should investigate Jacob's idea. Getting him free time to lay groundwork while Jane LITERALLY can't interfere is a godsend. I also understand we're going to have quite a revolving cast for this, so understanding upfront when and why people exit and enter would be pretty nice. I'm imagining that first it's Jacob and the Queen, then Jane, Hope, Vivianne and Brooke doing Jane's training with the Queen and then Jacob joins back in while Jane's recovering from puking. I guess we try to get rid of Vivianne and Brooke at that point, possibly send one to find Hazel, and it's Hope and Jacob's main bit with the Queen while Jane's recovering and not in the best of shape to make good judgment calls to interfere? Definitely don't want Hazel around until we're wrapping up and the Queen's decided eating Hope's a waste of time and is looking for a different way to handle the little spider... it's an unnecessary complication and Hazel showing up while she's first starting to need her will very strongly guide the Queen to pick Hazel for the job even if she didn't have good qualifications. But Jane's there for a lot more of the show than she's gone for and that makes what Hazel wants to know a really, really, really important question. HOW do we keep Jane from upsetting the apple cart? She's got tons of influence with the Queen, she may not be Hope's level but she's an accomplished manipulator, she's quite capable of seeing through the lies and knows which statements are full tilt bogus... Jane can make swiss cheese out of Hope's carefully crafted presentation if she doesn't care about damaging her own idealized world for the Queen. She can poke plenty of holes WITHOUT damaging her own idealized world she's built for Liz. Keeping Jane from doing so, to my thinking, is the single biggest risk factor we've got to address somehow.

[Split it into smaller pieces. Have dumb and dumber pass the phone around off speakerphone so she can straighten each out privately.] - My view is simple. Hope's proven that if she can't play it safe she's going to straight up go all in and have done with it. Yes, she'd rather play things safe and hold her cards close to her chest... but if push comes to shove and there isn't really a safe option Hope picks the option with the highest chance of the best outcome and the odds of it blowing up can be damned. SIDE POINT: Which one is dumber???

[She wants the next hit of Rapid Digestion before she sleeps, so it's 12:30 in the morning.] - From the last set of votes, if Elizabeth had been the one to point out the old crush it would have happened between 9 and 10 am, so I'm guessing that's phoneuser1992's best guess for when Hazel and Elizabeth are going to be on screen together. I'm really not liking the picture I get for how tired Hazel will be at that time if she potentially pulls an all nighter being stubborn, but the girl wants to keep making progress. So she'll go to sleep shortly after it starts in the AMs and get up early enough to give it another round of Instant+Rapid before getting ready for school. We can see about an all nighter AFTER the next day wraps up if we decide she needs one to get this done on a half-way reasonable timeline.

I'm on the fence for this last bit. Mind giving us a clue how close to the maximum calorie extraction Hazel currently is? I'm between committing to taking it easy and committing to just going Crazy, I don't think there's enough point in simply pushing Active alone. Square root of fats gained is definitely going to be the biggest multiplier for Hazel's Gluttony from this, so I do kinda want to make sure I'm either maxing it or at least pushing it enough that it's not worth the diminishing returns on the time investment. If we're enough on track for that, I'd lean towards doing something Crazy... and I'll give GrayLotus that good argument. On the other hand, if we're not looking so hot for getting as much fats as possible, then the girl should take it easy and rest up before the confrontation with the Queen AND Jane at the same time and in the same place - exhausted isn't the way to face that challenge.

[phoneuser1992]

his suggestion of talking to Liz while Jane's busy would be interesting to discuss here. As an aside, she's already been stated to have a hatred for other people using that nickname, but what would she think of Jacob calling her that? Would she consider as like "only you are allowed to call me that"?

Jacob started calling her Liz before Sophia decided it was short for Lizard. He's got both grandfathered in AND being himself in his favor for still calling her that to her face. She probably still would rather he didn't, but Elizabeth will absolutely tolerate Jacob calling her Liz. He's not the only one with legit permission though, Jane has wormed her way in deep enough and close enough for long enough that she can call the Queen Liz without getting lynched. Jane has to keep track of how often she's called the Queen Liz in a day though... she can put Elizabeth in a foul mood by abusing her rights to the nickname and then she's got to deal with how hard to handle Liz in a bad mood is. Jacob can, and does, use the nickname exclusively and in that sense... yes, only Jacob is allowed to call her Liz with no possible consequences.

Before voting on this one, could you clarify what the expected timing is for the meeting tomorrow? The meeting will be happening in the morning between Elizabeth, Jane, Hope and Jacob, correct?

08142024 listed the right players in the right order if Jacob IS going to meet up with the Queen while Jane's still showing off her cheerleading talents before the main events start. The Queen arrives to watch starting at... let's say 8am. An hour of cheerleading later Jane eats her training meal and from there it's whatever time the last step got finished at. So 9:30-9:45am by the time Hazel really does need to be on deck for her role.

Is the hood ornament remark going to be a recurring joke between those two? ... Which one is dumber???

"Don't tell either of them I said this, but Mr. Hood Ornament's the smarter of the two. At least it provides me lots of opportunities to solve the world's easiest problems and look like a genius." That's what Hope told me when I asked her.

Mind giving us a clue how close to the maximum calorie extraction Hazel currently is?

Not directly, but if she were to finish digestion at the end of last section she'd be calculating her level ups based on gaining just under 4k fat units. I'm not inclined to say even roughly how many potential fat units are available beyond the obvious 'a lot'.