SPOILERS: This chapter and further chapters contain spoilers for Academy M - Mistake 6.
197.)
Despite how much of her life had felt like a performance, Blossom always had a lot of sincerity when it came to her interactions with Amy, especially with regards to her writing. She was like a kid on Christmas morning; her eyes puzzled over Amy's words like presents under the tree, trying to decipher what each one was underneath all that paper.
"The kissing scene continues," Blossom said, following up on the kiss at the end of the last chapter. "Gosh this is so stinking cute. And the whole 'Oh I don't want to take advantage of you...' from Maria is such believable gaslighting too."
"Yeah, and it highlights the nurse angle. That was a good idea." I didn't think Blossom would have so much influence over Academy Works when we first started hanging out, but the whole last chapter was thanks to her.
"You really nail the nurse angle and the whole vibe is just," Blossom made an OK sign with her hand and an affirmative clicky sound with her tongue. "I bet Judith is going to say like, 'I shouldn't have done that' and Maria will have something smart to say."
It wasn't a very risky assumption, and a paragraph later:
"Called it!"
"Mmhmm. Maria has been planning this conversation for a while." Even though Blossom and I were talking about my writing, I was already starting to feel the ache of depression. My mind kept taking left turns toward next Friday. Twenty-one years old. I tried to focus instead on Blossom's reactions.
"Woah, Maria is over here just pulling out the ageplay thing. Bold move."
After the intimacy of the last chapter, and after putting Judith in a diaper for the first time, Maria decided to come out and say she was into ageplay. She wanted to put Judith on the back foot.
"The way I see it," I explained to Blossom, "Maria wants to set up situations where Judith chooses Maria over herself. Judith doesn't want to wear diapers, but if she does it anyway because Maria wants it? That's a lot of power. And over time, Judith will start diminishing her own wants in favor of Maria's wants."
But despite Maria's best efforts, despite all her skill at manipulating people, this was the first time her plan fell apart. Judith didn't slip into an identity crisis. She didn't wage a war of dissonance between who she was and who Maria wanted her to be. She just decided, very simply, that if Maria was into it, Judith wanted to try it too.
It was the first time Maria made a mistake with immediate consequences. It was the first time her meticulous planning went awry. And this time, it was Maria that faltered.
"I love this line," Blossom said, and recited: "What a huge misstep. If I tried to salvage the relationship now, it would put us on the same footing. We'd be equals. Girlfriends, or whatever. And also, what do you mean, if Judith felt like she had control, it was dangerous for the whole Academy?!"
"Well, obviously keeping Judith under control is important, or why would they waste Maria on her?" I smirked. "Maria's a big deal."
"She def seems to be," Blossom agreed. "She's got this air of like…the character that the story gets out of jail or retirement or both to clean up a problem, because she's just the best and that matters more than any other misdeeds by comparison."
"You aren't wrong." Maria was one of the core members of the Academy's higher-ups. She was incredible at manipulating people. She wasn't much of an ideas person, but nobody was better with one-on-ones. With enough time, Maria could make anybody do anything, even without supernatural markers.
"Ope, here we go with the marker again. I wonder what she's going to program her with…"
Maria panicked. She erased the conversation she had with Judith and started over. This time, she didn't say she was into ageplay. This time, she let Judith stew in her uncertainty. It led to a much better outcome for Maria.
Then she got a text.
"E?" Blossom asked. "Eli, from the start of the story?"
"Yep," I said, because there was no point keeping a secret that was about to be answered.
"So Judith is #1, and there are 1,508 candies. That's such an arbitrary number. I mean…that's the year Michelangelo began painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, but that can't be related to anything…it's… 5E4 in hexadecimal… hmm…"
"Why would you know that off the top of your head..." Blossom was constantly surprising me. "And you already knew that Judith was the first Candy."
"No, it was heavily implied," Blossom corrected. "So then the numbers are just sequential?"
"I'm afraid so. Sorry to disappoint you."
"No, no, that's fine. So I guess 1508 isn't a reference to anything either?"
"It's not. I kind of wish I'd picked a more meaningful number now." Honestly, I chose 1508 on a whim. I didn't want it to be too many, and I didn't want it to be too few. I wrote "1508" on a filing cabinet in Academy I - the first Academy Works story - and I've had to live with that choice ever since.
"Oh, uh, actually... I wanted your opinion on something."
"Okay?" It was hard for Blossom to pull herself away from the computer, but she wanted to give Amy her full attention.
"I mentioned that Eli found all the Candies, but I think it's only been three or four weeks since they brought Judith in. Is that unrealistic? I wanted to emphasize how well connected the Academy is. Like, lots of resources at their disposal. Lots of powerful people in powerful places."
"Well, how did they find them so fast?" Blossom asked.
"Having one Candy - Judith - means they can track the rest," I said. "The story explains that in a few paragraphs."
Blossom read a few more paragraphs into the story before she reconnected with her conversation with Amy, just so she could see what her girlfriend was referencing.
"So I think the big benefit of working in a worldspace where you make the rules is that as long as you're internally consistent, then all the decisions make sense. Gathering fifteen hundred people from all around the world in a few weeks? Probably not realistic. But doing it with like.. a sensor, or detector, or magnet, to help you track them? With the right resources, that's super viable."
"Most of them are from the United States, so I guess that helps," I said, more to myself than to Blossom. I didn't have a great story explanation for why that was; maybe proximity to the Source when it activated was important? Sure, why not.
Blossom went back a few paragraphs to talk about something else she skimmed over.
"So Penny deciphers the prophecies," Blossom read. "You mentioned in a previous chapter that Kenzō gave her a marker. And Kenzō is fixing Academy V because apparently someone burned it down? I bet it was Ai..."
"It was Ai," I laughed. I liked that my characters were fleshed out enough that Blossom could figure out little puzzles like that.
"Eli and Maria are talking again about that person with no name. Or, a censored name? You did that in the first chapter too. But now I know it's a 'she', so that's something."
"Mmhmm."
"And Maria is being reassigned to someone from Academy V, who is the Magician?" Blossom asked. "Is that Ai?"
"Keep reading."
"Ugh, okay..."
Next, Eli and Maria recited some prophecies: epigraphs from the previous Academy Works stories. They talked about tarot cards. But even though Judith was definitely an Arcana - one of the main tarot cards - Penny wasn't sure which one. And the chapter ended with Maria taking on the assignment from Eli.
"That was a lot of information," Blossom said, scrolling back up to read it all again.
"Too much?" I asked. "I'm trying not to lore dump..."
"Oh not at all. People are gonna be obsessing over this stuff when you post it, because you've been so sparing with the background info so far. A story set from the perspective of the Academy would be expected to have a lot of lore reveals, I'd say!"
"Yeah, I think so too." Or, that was what I was going for. The chapter Blossom just read was only the first of the big lore drops I planned in Academy M, and I wanted it to feel dynamic. All the other stories were told from the perspectives of the Candies, and Candies were always left wondering. But this one was about a staff member. The reader should feel like a staff member too, like they get to finally peek behind the curtain.
"Next chapter?" Blossom asked.
"Yeah, go on."
***
(If you are following Academy Works, please read Ch.7 [linked above] and return here to continue the story. If Ch.8 has been released, it is recommended that you DO NOT read it at this time.)
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