QUILL-WEAVE: CONTEMPLATE FEELINGS

Written by SuperMightyena

Commands submitted by Trainer Zaffre

You are now the Argonian writer.

You are reluctantly sharing your bed with Katia Managan, who you guess has finally stopped trying to engage you in conversation and is now trying to sleep whilst holding her pillow over her ears. You don’t know why she’s doing this, but you assume it’s a Khajiit thing.

And whilst she’s doing whatever she’s doing to go to sleep, it’s probably a really good idea for you to do the same and hope that your dreams aren’t full of yellow fur.

Hugging that furball of a Khajiit might be comfortably warm and help her sleep better.

You are not doing that. That would only worsen your current situation, and you pretty sure it would just be embarrassing and awkward and- wait. Why are you even THINKING of this?! Stop! Bad brain! Bad!

Fine. Considering that hugging Katia for warmth and comfort isn't possible, maybe a drink will be a nice substitute.

Drinking isn’t a viable option for two reasons. One: even though it would take a lot of alcohol to get you anywhere near the kind of drunk that would involve… things happening, you don’t really want to tempt fate. Besides, you hid all the alcohol in your house since Katia’s second night here, and you may have forgotten where you placed it.

Two: Your side of the bed is up against the wall. And you don’t want to disturb Katia by trying to climb over her, so you kinda can’t get out even if you really wanted to. Which you kinda do for issues completely unrelated to drinking.

Why don't you just.... move out of the bed from the south?

That…. Is a very good suggestion. You guess you could try to do it, and the chances of disturbing Katia (whom you’re fairly sure is fast asleep by now) should be minimal.

Unfurling the bedsheet from around you, you carefully begin the process of extracting yourself from the bed. Shimmying yourself along using your entire body, you make it halfway out of the bed when something wraps round your arm. You freeze instantly, unsure whether to look or not.

Forcefully shaking it off might wake Katia, and you really want to avoid that awkward situation from before continuing, so it's probably for the best to take a look and carefully remove..... whatever it is.

You slowly turn your head and look at you arm.

By the nine her tail is curled around your arm! You can feel its soft fur as it twitches slightly in her sleep.

Don’t panic, you say to yourself. All you have to do is carefully remove it.

You can’t help but panic ever so little, and the flood of emotions isn’t helping.

With your other hand, you reach over and gently grab the soft, warm- NOPE. You can’t do this. You're stuck here. This is life for you now.

IF YOU DON'T MOVE QUILL, YOU WILL BE TRAPPED IN A NEVER ENDING TORTURE SESSION, ENDING WITH KATIA POSSIBLY HUGGING YOU THE ENTIRE NIGHT!

You decide that you have no choice but to suck in your gut and remove the tail. The thought of being trapped-hugged by Katia is NOT WORTH THINKING ABOUT NOPE.

Grabbing it gently with your free hand, you carefully move it from around your arm, allowing you to continue your progress. It took several more minutes and another close call with the tail aiming for your head (GULP) but you’re finally out of the bed. Looking back, you can see Katia’s face is scrunched up as one of- STOP STARING.

Yeah, you definitely need a drink right now.

You should go down stairs and go for an intense drinking session, so you might be able to sleep

Exactly what you were going to do. Now if only you remembered where you hid it…

You head down the stairs, contemplating on sleeping on the stone floor again, or maybe the table in the kitchen this time. You’re not exactly enthused about going back to that bed, especially after the trouble of getting out in the first place. As you near the bottom of the stairs, you’re sure there’s something you’ve forgotten….

You may have forgotten the bath tub which is probably right in front of you

The what?

You take one more step forward, and catch the lip of the bathtub Katia had left at the bottom of the stairs with your foot. It flips towards you, completely splashing you with its contents. The water shouldn’t really bother you, since you are an Argonian after all, but simply knowing who bathed in it just hours before just adds to the increasing mixture of feelings.

Now you are wet and covered in cat fur. This can’t get any worse.

Have you ever considered that your disgust of anything Katia might just be you denying the fact that you like her?

What.

That’s ridiculous! You’re not disgusted by Katia or anything relating to her! Well, you’re still on the fence with that whole pineapple trick, and that scene you walked in on the last time she got drunk is something to never speak of again, but you’re not disgusted by her! And you don’t like her either! No wait, you like her, but not like her. She’s just a friend! There’s nothing to deny because you don’t like her that way! And besides, she doesn’t swing that way in the first place!

Heading into the kitchen, you grab a towel and a bottle of grape juice. Taking a seat at the table, you begin to dry yourself off and attempt to remove the cat hairs from your body whilst taking measured gulps of the juice. Considering your string of luck recently, you dare not risk trying to find the alcohol no matter how much you want to.

You mind telling us about what Katia did with the pineapple that one time?

That’s the last thing you want to talk about right now, especially without any booze readily available.

You slump onto the table, the towel becoming a blanket over your back as you stare at the bottle of grape juice.

Obviously, you want a drink really badly, and sleeping is basically impossible without something calming you down. You sure you don't want to satisfy that incredible urge of yours?

You cave and get off of your seat to go search for booze. Booze always helps whenever you feel like this. You know you didn’t hide it in the bedroom, since that’s where Katia is when she’s drunk, and hiding the booze there for her to find is basically pouring clear rum onto a fire. You proceed to thoroughly check the entire downstairs area.

Oh!

There’s the booze, stuck underneath the seats of the chairs. One of the least likely places for it to be, how could you ever forget where it was?

You grab several bottles and start chugging straight from the bottle. Tankards are for hatchlings.

Surely, you are feeling better now, right?

Despite one bottle down already, you still feel the same. It would take a lot more booze than what you have here to get you hammered enough to ‘feel’ better, but to actually be better? You don’t know how you can go about doing that.

You slump on the table again, feeling a sense of deja vu.

Might as well take a walk outside. Walking until you're tired might actually allow you to sleep without too many problems.

It’s a good idea, but it’s raining outside. And usually rain wouldn’t bother you (being an Argonian and all) but you don’t fancy getting wet again right now. Plus you have no clothes on apart from your underwear and you don’t feel like going back up there just to grab something to put on. You’d rather just mope on the table and contemplate your feelings.

So, what are your feelings about Katia? You seem to really want to avoid being near her, but at the same time, you're doing things people wouldn't usually do for a stranger who also happens to be a drunk slut and is also incredibly proficient with a pineapple.

That….. Is a very good question. And also very difficult to answer. To be truthfully honest, you don’t know why you’re acting this way about her. You know you were intrigued by her since the first time you two met in the pub, where she used you as a step ladder and a side table. Then you gave her a pineapple and saw the most impossible thing ever, though it did give you a really good idea for one of your books.

And then after she wandered off on the unicorn you met again when you returned home after an all night drinking session and passing out at the tavern to find her naked and inside your house with an orc of all things. Oh, and a heavily graffitied unicorn.

Long story short, 50% of your meetings with Katia have been under less desirable circumstances for both sides. You guess the root of this entire problem has to do with… her.

Ever since you and her had that disagreement back in Chorrol on your last visit, you had been moping in your house and drinking booze round the clock. Then Katia came and stuff got fucked in more ways than one. And although you’re pretty sure you’re still a raging alcoholic, you’re not as bad since she has started sleeping in your bed with or without your consent. And you were still emotionally hung up about her too, in fact you’re probably still hung up about her.

So you guess you started to latch on to Katia, emotionally, not physically. Which is why you’ve been so forgiving to her for trashing your house and having copious amounts of sex in your bed. And failing to deliver your letter to Kvatch the first time. And ruining one of your books. Okay, you’ve been incredibly lenient with her, but something about her keeps compelling you to give her another chance. Maybe it’s because you’ve always been rather charitable in nature, or that you’re a sucker for happy endings. Or maybe even that all of your meetings with her have seemed like a part of a big story, one which you can’t help but feel like you must read to the end no matter how long you have to wait.

…

All the booze is gone, and you feel slightly better. You also still have some cat fur on your body. But you feel slightly better.

Well, if the cat fur is really that annoying, you should consider taking a bath yourself.

You don’t feel like having a bath, especially not in that tub. But you do agree that you still need a wash. Heading to the front door, you open it a crack, and see it’s still raining. Glancing furtively up and down the street and seeing no one, you quickly step outside, and proceed to try and get the fur off. Luckily, it washes off rather quickly and you dart back inside after a minute or two. You just hope no one saw you near enough naked for that brief amount of time.

Also, you’re fairly sure that a small part of Katia’s influence is starting to affect you.

Being like Katia doesn't seem so bad. At least she knows how to relax and have fun, something you could use yourself.

You begrudgingly admit that you have been an ‘aquatic stick-in-the-mud’ as she had worded it as of late, and having Katia around has been a brief breath of fresh air. Maybe a little influence isn’t so bad.

But if you start doing unspeakable things with pineapples and yoyos, you might not be able to live with yourself.

After towelling yourself dry, you head back upstairs and tackle the audacious task of getting back into bed without disturbing her. Thankfully, you manage not to wake her, and you find yourself back in bed next to Katia Managan.

Maybe having Katia around for a long while will liven up your life quite a bit without you having to have to make use of pineapples and yoyos yourself. You should consider yourself lucky to have met someone who can make your miserable life that much more interesting, and treat her like a real friend.

You guess that having her stay a while might be a good idea, she’s already given you enough inspiration to write a whole series of novels! And it would be nice to have her as a real friend that you can do girl stuff with, like shopping or talking about boys. Well… maybe not that last one. But things have seem brighter since she stumbled drunk and butt naked into that bar two days ago. Though she might not even want to stay when she gets back, but you guess you’ll cross that bridge when you get to it. In the meantime, it might be a good idea to get some sleep.

But as you lie there, you notice that Katia’s moving around restlessly. Glancing over at her you can see that she appears to be in the thralls of a nightmare, with tears dribbling down her face.

Hugging that furball of a Khajiit might be comfortably warm and help her sleep through her nightmare better.

Well, you are cold from the two times you were soaked by water. And whatever nightmare she seems to be having looks extremely distressing. You’re tempted to wake her up, but the chances of her lashing out are too high for you. And besides, you’ve experienced enough Eye of Fears to last you a lifetime.

So, you decide to try and comfort her by PLATONICALLY hugging her. You’re not sure if it’s working, but you find yourself starting to fall asleep pretty quickly. As your sleepy head rests on Katia’s furry stomach, you find yourself questioning how you your life ended up here, but you have no time to ponder an answer as the blackness of sleep claims you.