Beneath Their Masks Chapter 17 Is Up!

Beneath Their Masks Chapter 17 is Up!

I'm of the opinion that learning how to give basic massages is a useful skill. At least learning how to rub feet and shoulders is a good place to start. Back massages are a bit more technical, but you can learn it with enough practice and research, I think. I also just realized that this is another case of Makoto trying to learn a new skill to please Ann, and I can't decide if that's flanderization or not. Hm. I feel like that would be Makoto's love language, though. I dunno.

“We can heal all we want in the Metaverse, but that fatigue never seems to go away. My muscles are killing me.” Ann said, rubbing her shoulder for emphasis. “It used to be really bad when we all first started, but it’s a lot better now. It still kinda sucks.”

“I understand what you mean. It’s even worse when I have to get up the next morning. Sitting up in bed is a task in itself.”

“I know, right?”

“You know…” Makoto trailed off, rubbing her hands together to keep warm. A distraction from her nervousness, if Ann had to guess. “If you would like for me to give you a massage…I wouldn’t mind.”

Ann blinked.

“Sorry, could you run that by me one more time? It sounded like you just asked me if I wanted a-”

“A massage. Yes, I did. Akira mentioned how he receives massages regularly. I thought it might be a good idea. And well…I’m decently strong…so…”

“Say no more. I’m on board.”

why sae niijima from persona 5 is a lesbian, in this essay i will

thank you for coming to my ted talk

Beneath Their Masks Chapter 20 is Up!

It's late, but whatever. This prompt was incredibly difficult to write for, to be honest. I had a hard time coming up with a convincing scenario. Also does a work count as failing the bechdel test if they're talking about a friend that they're worried about? I'm not sure. I also feel like the writing in this one was a little sloppy. I feel weird about having large portions of just dialogue with nothing else in between, but like...what the hell else are you supposed to do? Might be something to look into as an exercise.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Makoto.”

“Hey, Ann.”

A pause.

“So what’re you reading?”

“I’m reading The Illusory Popess per Akira’s recommendation. It’s about the real life Johanna.”

“Oh, that sounds interesting.”

“It is. It’s a bit heavy for night-time reading, so that’s probably why I can’t focus.”

Ann could hear Makoto stir slightly in her bed, likely shifting to a more comfortable position.

“Would it be alright if we just stayed on call for a while? I don’t really have anything to talk about, but…”

“I’d love to. If anything comes to mind, just let me know.”

“Thank you.”

Ann continued to read her book in relative silence, as Makoto did the same. The quiet was only broken by the intermittent sound of a page being turned from Makoto’s end.

“This is kind of cute, ya know?”

“What do you mean, Ann?”

“I mean, we’re both reading books over the phone. It’s like we’re on a date or something.”

“I suppose you’re right. To be honest, it didn’t matter what we were doing, I just wanted to hear your voice.”

Please writers I'm begging you. Use SOMETHING to take notes. I use a private discord server because fuck it. You can use Google docs or whatever notes app comes on your phone but ffs write down your ideas. It's the most painful feeling in the world, forgetting an idea.

it slipped my mind...

Beneath Their Masks Chapter 25 is Up!

Well, I didn't really plan this to come out on Ann's birthday, but it just happened! Happy Birthday, Ann! I'm really happy with how this one turned out, which is cool n' stuff. Hopefully I finish up with the last few chapters by the end of this month. Hopefully chapters coming out less often means they'll be decent once they come out. Maybe. Hopefully. Anyway, enjoy!

Two things occur to Ann as she takes, frankly, way too long to turn off the alarm on her phone. Firstly, she still hates getting up early. Makoto encouraged her to get up early with her so they could spend some personal time together, if she was over, or a quick phone call over breakfast if she wasn’t, and still make it to school on time, but she still couldn’t get used to being up over an hour before she normally would. Secondly, Makoto is gone. Ann was very used to taking the opportunity to trap Makoto in bed with her own body, something that Makoto would grumble about - but make no attempt to free herself.

Ann rubbed her tired eyes and sat up in bed, not giving herself the opportunity to fall back asleep, since she knew she would regret it later. Maybe if she turned up the brightness on her phone, that would wake her up…

“Agh, no, no, too bright, too bright!”

Deciding on a midway point between barely visible and eye-searing, she checked her notifications just in case Makoto had some kind of emergency. Nothing. Well, there was a text from Ryuji of a meme that Futaba had sent her days ago, but other than that, there was nothing. She did notice that the meme Ryuji sent was in the middle of the night. He was going to be grumpy, for sure.

Deciding to get her day started, regardless, she threw off the covers and shivered as she leaned over to click off the fan by her bed. She forgot to turn on the auto-off timer. Again.

Padding over to the door, she pulled it open and…a note card fluttered to the floor. She wasn’t nearly awake enough to snatch it out of the air like…well, like Akira probably would do. He certainly was one for the theatrical.

Ann crouched down to pick it up, feeling every muscle and bone in her body scream out in horror at the slightest amount of physical activity right after waking up, and took a look through sleepy eyes.

“Good morning, beautiful! Sorry I had to leave early, something really important required my attention. Since you probably don’t need to leave quite yet, I’ve prepared something fun for you to do before you leave for school. Your first clue is ‘Picture Perfect’. Good luck and I’ll see you later! Oh, and happy birthday! ♥️Makoto”