>Alice is pying: Dirty Laundry — Cayetana

  Sabrina sat and talked with Alice as she extended a tentacle to absorb the rge puddle of cum. “I don’t know how they expect to find a squirrel in the middle of the night,” Sabrina compined.

  “True, but maybe they’ll find a rat.”

  “If Jade brings home a rat I think I’ll have to start hitting her,” Sabrina joked.

  “I don’t know how effective that’ll be,” Alice countered. “She’d probably be into it. The next day you’ll wake up to a hundred rats.”

  Sabrina winced as another party entered the gym. Her keen senses had passively tracked the group’s movements from a block away. She tried to py it off, turning casually to greet the party, which happened to include Aisha. She really hoped nobody would notice that she was blushing in Succubus form.

  “Oh my god, you’re blushing,” Alice whispered. “How do you even do that as a demon?”

  “Shut up!” Sabrina whisper-shouted.

  Once Aisha’s eyes found Sabrina, she smiled and approached, along with the rest of her party. Sabrina couldn’t help but notice that the dungeon had been quite kind to Aisha. Her skin had a subtle glimmer to it. Her curves were accentuated. Her armor consisted of lingerie that made Sabrina unconsciously bite her lip and salivate. She wore a turquoise sheer ce teddy with matching stockings and a headband that accessorized her hair nicely.

  Sabrina was so distracted by Aisha that she was caught by surprise at the sight of one of the members. There was a guy among them. He seemed chill and queer with his curly middle part, septum piercing, and baggy hand-cut crop top, but he was still a man. Without thinking, she blurted out, “Who invited the dude?”

  The dude in question seemed amused by the question. Alice, on the other hand, smacked Sabrina in the arm, scolding, “That’s Jordan!”

  Sabrina looked to Alice, then back to the guy, apparently named Jordan. “Huh? What am I missing? Did we invite a guy? I don’t care so much if someone brings a guy into the gym, but it’s pushing our luck if someone brought him to the dungeon.”

  Jordan spoke up, not seeming offended at all. “Yeah I’m a dude. Don’t worry, though,” he alluded, before shaking out his hair and changing his posture. So very little actually changed, but suddenly Jordan was undeniably a woman. “I’m fluid,” she expined.

  “Whoa!” Sabrina excimed, nearly choking. “How did you…”

  “It’s a perk. I was already pretty good at presenting myself differently based on the different aspects of my gender. Now, I’ve got nearly-imperceptible shapeshifting that kicks in unconsciously. To answer your next question, any pronouns are fine.”

  “That’s really cool,” Sabrina told her.

  Jordan shrugged and said, “Well I’ve got you to thank for it.”

  “No kidding,” another girl in the party chimed in. Sabrina was pretty sure her name was Hannah. “You should see their fan-cams.”

  Sabrina went pale. “Their what?”

  Jordan became flustered. “I don’t… you don’t need to bring those up.”

  Hannah grinned now that Jordan had taken the bait. She was now committed to embarrass them in a way that only a true friend could. She pulled out her phone, and hyper-focused on it for two seconds before turning the screen around. Sabrina was assaulted with the sight of herself on TikTok. Filters made her shiny and glittery, pulsing between different shots and angles, all set to Doja Cat.

  Sabrina was speechless. Jordan, blushing and flustered, defended, “Lot’s of people make those! It’s not like a creepy thing, you’re just… you know— my favorite superhero.”

  Sabrina recoiled at the word. Superhero?! “Ew! Please don’t call me that.” Immediately Sabrina knew that she’d overreacted, but she couldn’t help herself. She hadn’t expected the hurt looks, not just on Jordan’s face but her whole party’s faces.

  “Oh. Sorry…” Jordan muttered quietly. Sabrina wanted to take it back, but the girls were all already slinking away to leave her alone.

  “That was kinda harsh,” Alice scolded. “You should be fttered.”

  “I know I could’ve handled it better, but come on— superhero?”

  “What’s wrong with superheroes?”

  Sabrina groaned, and said, “I don’t know, it’s just such a loaded term. As a concept, they’re basically cops without oversight. Plus, Marvel movies are Pentagon-sanctioned military propaganda. The message is just that powerful men should be trusted to always have our best interest at heart and make the world a better pce.”

  Alice took this into consideration, but one of her special interests was now activated and there was no escape. “Sure, that is one perfectly valid, albeit narrow reading of the superhero genre. For film especially, that angle of it is emphasized. That’s not the core of what superheroes are though, and not their original intent. Superheroes are about radical kindness.”

  Alice gathered her thoughts before expining, “In our world, those with power gain it through exploitation, and use it to exploit even further. Our expnation for this is that power corrupts. Except, this kind of lets them off the hook. Jeff Bezos isn’t responsible for the suffering of his workers, he’s under the corrupting influence of power. So the question the superhero genre poses is, ‘what if a regur guy was the most powerful man on earth, and used it to be the kindest man on earth?’. What if the most powerful man was only interested in helping people, and being a good neighbor, and saving lives?”

  Alice concluded, saying “You have supreme power, Sabrina, and you’re doing the kindest thing you could possibly do with supreme power: giving it away.”

  That struck a chord that Sabrina hadn’t expected. She was moved. There was a lot she could have said, but the words that left her mouth were, “Like love.”

  “Love?”

  “Yeah. Like that poem, Epitaph.” Sabrina then quoted, “Love doesn’t die, people do. So when all that’s left of me is love, give me away.”

  “Exactly,” Alice agreed.

  Sabrina looked to the growing crowd of divers who entered the gym in splintered groups, ughing and boasting about their adventures. “Maybe that’s how we win this thing,” Sabrina said. “The power of love.”

  …

  “The power of love,” Helena mocked with a snicker as she watched Sabrina on a small television in her kitchen. She’d been slicing meat into perfect sbs, and now id one down on her hot skillet. She licked the red from her fingers before commenting, “That poor fool is going to be eaten alive.”

  Helena turned off the TV, bored with her little reality show. Cooking didn’t take much longer, as she preferred her meat on the rare side. She pted her meat along with a side of roasted potatoes and asparagus.

  Humming, Helena sauntered with her pte through the penthouse over to her dining room table. Across from where Helena would be eating, a naked woman was seated. The woman didn’t react to Helena’s approach, and the bright glowing from her eyes told why.

  Helena had the woman ensnared in a charm, oblivious to the horrors of her present situation. Locked away in her fantasy world, she was free from pain. She would never even know to miss her severed leg. Helena was merciful in that way.

  Taking a bite, Helena moaned in delight. “You are delicious, darling! Kudos, truly.” She stuck another cube of meat on her fork and held it up. “Would you like a bite, Darling? A good hostess never lets her guest go hungry.”

  Docile and distant, the woman quietly slurred, “Okay.”

  …

  Act I: The Power of Love

  “Love the smell of pancakes in the morning,” Jade said, tending to a portable griddle in the park. “Smells like victory.”

  Sabrina wholeheartedly agreed. After her talk with Alice the night before, she came up with the Diving League’s first mission out in the real world. This manifested in a free pancake breakfast in the park. Alongside the free pancakes, they were giving out free jellies. They’d even gone so far as to all dress appropriately.

  Their first recipient approached. He was a middle-aged Latino man, there with his family. He’d talked huddled with his wife before walking over, seemingly to suss out what their pancake stand was all about before letting his family in on it.

  “Want some free pancakes?” Sabrina offered, giving crity.

  The guy’s face lit up, friendly. “I sure would! What is this for?”

  “Eh, me and my friends are just giving away pancakes and magical powers,” Sabrina answered.

  The guy did a double take. “Huh?”

  Sloan warned, “Think fast,” before tossing a wholesome variant of a Vigor jelly, which was apparently called Physical in this form.

  The guy reflexively caught it, popping it in the process. He froze, seeming to mentally g. “What the fuck did you just do to me?”

  “What did it say we did to you?” Sabrina asked.

  “It… it said increased my ‘ease of movement’ and made me immune to aching muscles,” the guy said, skeptically. “Also said I’m supposed to run through obstacle courses for some kinda reward.”

  “Then that’s what we did,” Sabrina answered.

  One of the others chimed in, asking, “How do you feel?”

  The guy stretched out, turning his shoulders and stretching his back. “I feel incredible.”

  “You’re welcome,” Sabrina said. “Want more? We’re giving one of each aspect to any adult who wants them.” As a side note, she mentioned, “We’re really not sure what it would do to kids, so we’re staying on the safe side. Pancakes are for everyone, though.”

  The man was dumbfounded. “Uh… let me talk to my wife.”

  The man walked away. A minute ter, his wife marched up to the pancake stand, with determination. “Did you just drug my husband?”

  “No, ma’am,” Sabrina answered casually.

  “He just told me that you gave him something that made him feel incredible and that I wouldn’t understand until I tried it,” the woman accused, looking at Sabrina like she’d just caught her doing something horrible. It was an easy role for a mother to slip into.

  “Sounds about right,” Sabrina admitted. “Wasn’t drugs, though.” Nonchantly, she then held out her hand with a Cognition jelly concealed in it.

  The woman furrowed her brow, irritated at Sabrina’s apparent deflection, but held up her hand anyway. Sabrina dropped the jelly and the woman cursed as it popped. Then her eyes went wide in surprise, and then narrowed in confusion.

  After a long pause, the woman said, “This just said I have a medical doctorate, now.”

  Sabrina raised her eyebrows, impressed. “Wow, that’s a good one. Want more, for the other aspects?”

  With a level in Cognition, the woman was quick on the uptake. She let out a long breath through her nose as she thought it over, and then said, “Yeah, screw it. If this is a drug it’s a really good drug. There’s even the remote chance that this is all real.”

  Sabrina decided that they should starting with Cognition should be their standard approach. It would save them from a lot of expining. The woman popped five more jellies, as did her husband shortly after. Sabrina learned that their names were Araceli and Juan. They brought their three kids over from the pyground and they all got pancakes.

  Jade asked, “Is there anyone in your family with failing health?”

  Araceli expined that her mother had emphysema and the doctors were recommending hospice care. Jade handed over a bento box, containing two Heart and Physical jellies, one of each of the other jellies, and two health potions.

  “Give her this. Have her take the Heart jellies first, so that her challenges will grant her more,” Jade instructed.

  “The challenges give us more of these?” Araceli asked, shocked.

  “Sometimes,” Sabrina answered. “Sometimes it gives money in the form of untraceable silver and gold, and sometimes it gives magic items. Either way, with just two Heart jellies, she’s got a couple extra decades. If she gets a few more levels from challenges, she’s got easily fifty of the healthiest years of her life ahead of her.”

  The couple was stunned, mouth agape. They thanked the league profusely, offering money or any way to repay them. This was unanimously rebuffed. Juan refused to accept that the group that the group was doing all of this for nothing.

  Sabrina finally shut this down, insisting, “You can pay us back by paying it forward. If you see you’ve got the chance to help someone else, then help them. Simple as that. The reward for making the world a better pce is getting to live in a better world.”

  This set the pace for the league’s day. More people approached the pancake stand with curiosity, and got a helping of magic on the side. Expining the same concepts over and over again got tedious, but the league was rge and they rotated between who got to be the spokesperson. By the te afternoon, they’d run out of pancakes and jellies, so they packed up and headed off to the gym.

  Walking with the sun at her back and her league of magical lesbians ahead of her, Sabrina felt satisfied. She’d been harboring doubts about her pn to save the world. It was hard to really conceptualize what that would even look like. She was happy with the idea that it would consist of days like this one. There were no supervilins that she would need to battle to save the world, she would save it by going out with her friends and giving away love and pancakes.