The girls decided to stick together after the interview, mostly because they had all been excused from class and didn’t really feel like going back, which as far as you’re concerned is great. You get to spend more time with you friends!

“So, have you two decided on any clubs?” Daphne finally asks as she guides the group towards the same small park where you ate lunch.

Charlotte nods. “Just one so far. I’m in the Athletics Club already! Need to keep in shape otherwise sitting down all day will lead to me getting all fat and lethargic.”

“I should exercise more,” Abigail says, but then she makes a face. “But I hate exercising.”

For some reason this is funny and the girl’s laugh. You don’t know why, but you smile anyway because your friends being happy makes you happy.

Charlotte shakes her head, long blonde hair flip-flopping all over. “But really, being at the Academy has been awful for me,” she says before reaching over and pulling her robes off. It leaves her dressed in a long skirt and button-up blouse. With a few deft flicks, she undoes some of the buttons over her tummy. “Look, I’m getting handles. It’s awful.”

Daphne and Abigail are both looking, they’re looking really hard at Charlotte’s tummy, which is mostly flat as far as you can tell tough when she bends forwards the muscles disappear behind a layer of flabby stuff. It’s hard to make out because she has big breasts which the others are also looking at a lot.

“Your tummy doesn’t look as comfy to sleep on as Abigail’s,” you say. “But it’s okay. Maybe if you get strong you can give good hugs to make up for it.”

Charlotte laughs and pulls you into a hug, confirming that yes, her stronger physique does make the hugging experience somewhat better, but she’s not as soft as Abigail. If you had to put numbers to it, which you wouldn’t because numbers are yucky, you would rate it as three quarters as good as an Abigail hug. “You’re adorable, Dreamer,” Charlotte says as she pulls out of the hug, then she pinches your cheek in a way that is most unpleasant. “You make me miss my little siblings.”

“Y-you have a lot of siblings?” Abigail squeaks.

“A few.”

The conversation turns towards talking about people who are not there while you return to considering your issue with Pou-tine. You’re going to have to save them from the machinations of the big mean Inquisition people. The real question isn’t how you’ll do it. That much is easy. It's how that’s tricky.

You’ve confused yourself again.

“Dreamer?” Abigail asks before patting your head for attention. It works.

“Yes?”

“Daphne and I were talking and, and I think I’ll be joining the Gardening Club... t-temporary. Just to see how things, uh, work out there. And to be near Daphne too. B-but mostly, um. Nevermind. I wanted to know if that was okay with you?”

“That’s the club in the place with all the flowers?” you ask to which Abigail nods. “The one with the hidden nap time beds? Are we going to sleep together there?”

This makes Abigail look sick and red again and Charlotte covers her mouth with a hand and looks away while Abigail starts speaking. You think it’s speaking, but really you don’t understand what she’s saying and the way she waving her arms around wildly doesn’t make things easier to understand.

“Okay,” you say to stop her flailing. “I like that club, it was nice.” And they had tea sets which meant tea food and tea cups which are all yummy. “Are we going now? Because I had something I needed to do.”

That last bit snaps Abigail right back to full attention. Her eyes narrow behind her big glasses. “What sort of things?” she asks.

You decide that it’s best if Abigail doesn’t know. She still has the bapping paper in her purse and she could remove it to bap you at any moment. “Just things.”

“Please elaborate.”

You look away, tongue sticking into one cheeks and lips pursing. “Mmm, it’s nothing that you need to worry about.”

“Dreamer.”

You huff. “I’m going to go help Pou-tine.”

“The... thing the people at the Old Faith’s club tried to... summon?” Charlotte asks. “Is it like, ah, like you.”

Abigail shifts and suddenly looks a little nervous. Daphne, who’s a lot more composed, places a hand on her shoulder.

You shake your head. “No. I’m way older and much more than Pou-tine. It’s more like a, uh.” You try to think of the right words but the mortals don’t have them. “A greater independent,” you decide. “Pou-tine just goes around and does its own thing and tries not to be eaten. Abigail said that boys are the same way.”

“Okay then,” Charlotte says.

“You’re okay with Dreamer?” Abigail asks.

Why would someone not be okay with you? Unless you were trying to eat them or they wanted to interrupt naptime.

Charlotte shrugged one shoulder. “Dreamer seems nice.”

You nod. You do seem nice. “Now it’s time for saving Pou-tine,” you tell them. “I need to do it sneaky-like or else the Inquisition people with the hats will be annoyed and they’ll make a fuss.”

“Dreamer, no,” Abigail says.

“But if we don’t help, then Pou-tine will stay stuck until all the mortals die and that’ll take a whole bunch of years,” you say. “If we don’t help then it’s like...” You pause to think of something they would understand. “It’s like not helping someone when their hat is too big to pass through a door.”

The girls all stare at each other, then elect Daphne to talk. “What exactly would rescuing Pou-tine involve?” she asks.

You grin. “It’s easy. We need to break into that building.” A tentacle comes out of your back to point to a building on the next hill over. The Inquisition’s castle thing is a big place all made of dark stone tucked into the side of a big mound of stones, it makes the whole place look smaller than it really is. You know from the memories you took from the important knight man that there are lots of rooms underground. “And once we’re there, we need to find the room where they’re keeping Pou-tine and break the stuff keeping them in place. It’s easy.”

“Oh no,” Abigail says.

“I can do it all on my own, if you want,” you offer.

“That’s exactly what I’m afraid of.”