Read a Book, Serenity Part 3 (Bad End Milfification) (Patreon)

Hey folks!

It's about time we had some more Serenity stuff around here, isn't it? Thus, part 3 of the Read a Book Bad End saga! (I'm working on the actual Episode 7, it got... ambitious, oh boy). You can find the first part Here, and the second part Here! Part 4 will be out next week - I wonder how it will all end...?

Enjoy!

-----

“It’s for a reason, Rosa.”

“Congrats, you sound like every school teacher I’ve ever met.” Rosa Haywood – the civilian form of Serenity Summer – rolled her eyes. It felt like they’d been having this argument forever. “Hasn’t worked yet, but maybe you’ll be the one to finally crack the case!”

Walking beside her down the road, in a much more professional style of clothing, Ashley Morgan, the Seasons’ new mentor, was clearly doing her best to be patient. “This isn’t a game. I would have thought you, of all people, would know that.”

Her best was, perhaps, not all that good. But then, she wasn’t a Serenity, was she?

Rosa just snorted, bouncing the rebuke off with a shrug. “First off? Low blow,” she muttered, giving the pink haired woman a side-eye. “Second off, yeah no duh I know it’s not a game. I know what I’m doing! There’s an instinct to- to this stuff.”

The brunette tried not to wince as she self-corrected, pulling back from explicitly talking about Serenity stuff in public at the last second. That was a big no-no.

So she switched to a different tack. “Look, it’s fine when Sophia’s trying to tell me this stuff. She’s been doing it the longest. She’s an actual- Y’know.” Tch, it was so annoying to argue about this stuff outside. “And…”

Here she hesitated. The words she’d been about to speak echoed in head, and tasted bitter on her tongue. Maybe she could find a better way to put this…?

But she was a little too late on that front. Morgan wasn’t going to let her off so easily.

“You may as well say what you were about to say,” the pink haired advisor stated calmly. “I’ve heard worse, I assure you.”

Rosa winced. Great, she’d been called out. “And you’re not,” she finished, glaring in embarrassment. “I mean, I’m sorry, but you’re not! I’m not trying to be judgy or whatever, but you have absolutely no idea what it’s like out there. There’s just no way you can understand.” Her glare slid to the pavement. “Sorry.”

As the pair walked down the street, she honestly looked more offended at herself than Morgan did. If anything, the advisor just looked at the brunette like she was being cute, even if said brunette was too busy staring at the floor to notice it.

“Rosa, did you ever wonder why you qualified as a member of the club that I am, indeed, not a member of?” The older woman asked, her voice mild.

The younger of the two didn’t look up. “… All the time.” The brunette admitted bitterly. “I know I didn’t deserve to.”

“If you didn’t deserve to, you wouldn’t have been able to,” Morgan cut her off easily, adjusting her glasses with a touch to their thin frame. “It’s that simple. But the fact that you are a member of that exclusive club for a reason – and that reason is that you care. None of your bluster or hot-headedness can disguise that fact.”

“Hey, who are you calling a-!”

“And because you care, I know that you will, eventually, start taking these lessons to heart.” The pinkette looked at her over her glasses. “Because they will make you better at your club activities, and they will make you a better teammate that Sophia and Lexi can rely on. And since that matters to you – a lot – you are going to start listening to me.”

Rosa squinted up at her. “Why do I get the feeling that you’re playing me here, old lady?”

Morgan shrugged as the pair finally arrived at the bookstore. “The sad thing about being outplayed is it doesn’t matter if you know it’s happening or not – result’s the same either way.” She held the door open for the brunette. “This was the place, right?”

The hidden Serenity sighed, stepping in under her arm. “Yeah, looks like. Sophia said they were here… Somewhere.” She looked around,  seeing many, many shelves, and far more books than she wanted to believe existed, but no sign of any teammates.

“Mm, I’m sure they’re around here somewhere.” Morgan walked in as well, letting the door swing shut behind her. “I won’t keep the three of you for too long. I’m just going to be busy for the next few days, and I want to make sure they know their training assignments.”

Oh no. “Just go easy on what you tell Sophia,” Rosa groaned. “You know she’s going to try to beat your expectations.”

The pink haired woman rubbed the side of her cheek. “Mm, I’m aware. But like I said, I’ll be busy.” She shot the younger woman a polite smile. “I guess you’ll have to be the one making sure she doesn’t overdo it, won’t you?”

“…” Rosa’s eyes narrowed. “This is another one of those stupid teamwork exercises, isn’t it?”

But Morgan was already past her, walking towards the counter. Tch. Result was the same either way, huh?

“Excuse me!” The advisor waved down a cashier. “Have you seen two young women come through here? One with blue hair, the other blonde? The second one was probably hiding behind the first.”

“Huh? Oh, yeah, sure.” The woman behind the counter nodded, pointing towards the stairs. “They went up to the book club. Feel free to go after them.”

“Thank you.” Morgan nodded to her, then looked back to Rosa. “Shall we?”

“Yeah yeah.” The brunette rolled her eyes again, hands shoved in her pockets. “But if any of you think I’m going to be reading here, the only ones your playing are yourselves.”

The advisor sighed. “The amount of fuss you’re making over having to read a few books,” she muttered as she climbed to the top of the stairs. “I’m starting to wonder if you can actually rea-Hm?”

She stopped - because Rosa’s hand had lashed out, snatching the older woman’s wrist. Looking back, she saw a serious expression on the Serenity’s face, and for a moment, wondered if she’d perhaps pushed the girl too far.

But…

“The back of my eyes are tingling.”

… Instead, she was surprised. “What?”

Rosa gritted her teeth, the grip on Morgan’s wrist turning into a tug. “It means-”

But whatever it meant, the door at the top of the stairs opened before she could finish, and a blonde woman in glasses, her hair done up in a beehive, stuck her head out. “Oh hi there! I thought I heard voices. I’m Miranda. Are you here for the book club? Come on in!”

Morgan frowned. Now that the surprise was gone, she could read the room. And especially, she could feel how hard her student was trying to pull her back down the stairs. “Actually, I think we’ve got the time wrong. Sorry to bother you.”

The woman looked surprised. “Oh, that’s okay, why don’t you come and take a look any-?”

But the pair on the stairs were already moving, hurrying down the steps. “Desire?”

Rosa nodded at the whisper. “Don’t know where exactly, but it’s close…”

“Probably too close, if you’re noticing me~!”

A rustling of paper filled the air as both women startled, and in the next moment the book store went crazy. The cashier at the counter yelped as all of the magazines on the racks beside her jumped into the air, flapping open. Books leapt off the shelves, pages flying free of their covers, swirling around together in the middle of the store, coming together into one mass – one single figure. A very female figure.

She looked like a crossover between an open pinup, and an open book. A mix between origami and a collage. She seemed to be completely made of pages, with text scrawled across her otherwise blank exterior in random directions. Long stretches of paper draped around her wide hips and flowed down to her feet like a ballgown. The same paper continued upwards to her incredible chest, where it was split open into a collar, providing only the barest hints of modesty. Her face was mostly hidden by an origami flower that was strung up in her ‘hair’ – a paper sculpture that gave her short, pointed bangs – with its petals hanging over her eyes… But you could definitely see her smile, made out of the lips of about six different magazine cover models.

“BeckyClubber, at your service!” She bowed, the rustling of paper filling the room again. “I normally don’t show myself like this, but I can’t let a couple of prospective readers leave without even glancing at what we have on offer!”

“Damnit,” Morgan muttered, backing up the stairs, away from the Desire. “Maybe we can get out upstairs…”

But that hope was dashed almost as soon as she said it. From above, a familiar voice called.

“Oh there you are Mistress!” Miranda appeared at the top of the stairs. “I hope you like how I’ve been running the club for you. We’ve got so many new members!”

BeckyClubber grinned. “You’ve been doing great, Miri! Maybe even a little too well, if these two got suspicious. Guess we threw a bit too much Desire around. But that’s okay – it just means it’s time to start a few more clubs elsewhere!”

Rosa’s hand slid towards the bracelet on her wrist, the yellow gem embedded in it sparkling. All she’d have to do was activate it, but- but if she did, wouldn’t she be seen? Damnit, they needed to find a way out, just for an instant, but they were pinned in on both sides…

“Uh.” The cashier was backing away, trying to slip out through the employees only door. “Y’know, I think I’d better take my 15 minute break now…”

“Oh Beverly,” the Desire sighed – it sounded like the wind rushing through reeds at the riverside. “I think you need to relax and consult your employee handbook!”

She flipped out her wrist, a thin white book appearing in her hand. With one movement, she threw the thing like a Frisbee – until it stopped right in front of the terrified clerk’s face, hovering in the air.

“Wha-? Oh!” The cashier’s eyes focused on the pages in front of her, and suddenly her expression changed. All of the fear and dread drained out of her face, replaced by a professional – and more than a little vapid – smile. “Oh right,” she said, her voice going soft and dreamy. “No time off until the club has finished meeting. Have to make sure new members know where to go…”

As she spoke, her chest was swelling up beneath her top, and her hair was curling into a neat bun. It was a very librarian look – and a rather blatant sign of Desire activity.

“Yeah, don’t really need her looking innocent anymore,” Becky shrugged, turning her attention back to the two on the stairs. “Once I get you two properly recruited, it’ll be time to head on to the next city! But don’t worry, girls.” She flicked her hand again, a much thicker looking tome appearing in it. “I’ve saved the best for last!”

With another flick, the book was shooting towards them. Both women had seen what the last booklet had done, and they had a fairly decent idea of how this Desire’s powers worked. What happened next, then, was inevitable. Rosa acted by instinct, moving in front of Morgan to shield her with her own body. It wasn’t something she thought about or decided on, it was just the natural thing for her to do.

Unfortunately, it hit a snag when she crashed into Morgan trying to do the exact same thing to her.

The pair went down in a tangle of arms and legs, barely managing to stop themselves from tumbling down the stairs together. Unfortunately, now there was nowhere to go to escape from the book. Looking up, the two found its open pages already spread in front of them, text slowly starting to scrawl its way along the lines…

-

A moment later, and the pair were somewhere else. Somewhere cramped, with a slight chill in the air. Opening their eyes, the two found themselves laying back in car seats, the backs lowered to form impromptu beds. Sitting up, and pushing aside the thin sheets they’d been using as blankets, they found that the rest of the car was also present, with Rosa in the driver’s seat, and Moran in the passenger’s. This was a large model, the kind you bought when you didn’t care about fuel costs, but wanted to make sure that anyone you crashed into on the street came off worse than you did. A real family cruiser.

Outside the window was a snow-covered forest. They looked to be parked in a small layby at the side of a road – a large road that, despite the weather everywhere else, had been left untouched by even the slightest brush of frost. Looking around, there was no sign of any books, and no sign of any Desires.

Considering the circumstances, that was probably a bad sign.

Growling, the brunette shoved her blanket aside, glaring at her supposed mentor. “Why’d you get in my way? I was trying to protect you!”

Morgan was slower to rise, adjusting her glasses as she gave the Serenity a look. “Rosa, I’m expendable. There’s nothing I can do to fight a Desire, save give you time to do so. Why did you try to protect me? I thought we’d talked about this insistence on sacrificing yourself!”

Rosa had not been expecting to be put on the back foot so quickly. “That wasn’t-! I- I just moved, okay? If I’d remembered it was you I was protecting, I wouldn’t have bothered.” She huffed and folded her arms, looking away.

Morgan groaned as she sat up. Rosa might have been wrong, but it sounded a lot like she muttered ‘Serenities’ under her breath.

“In the future,” the older woman said as she straightened her jacket, “if you sense a Desire that close, it’s probably best to just transform.”

The brunette looked at her like she’d gone insane. “What?! There were civilians everywhere!”

Morgan shrugged. “Even so.”

“Even- What?!” Rosa’s jaw dropped. “You guys have been on my case for weeks about not protecting my secret identity enough. Now you want me to blow it in front of everyone?”

“In emergencies? Yes. That’s what MemSec is for.”

“Mem- The, uh.” The younger woman frowned. “The memory deletion guys?”

Despite the conversation, Morgan was clearly paying more attention to the environment than she was to the person she was speaking to. But despite that fact, her answer was pretty clear. “That’s one way of putting it. If a Serenity’s identity is leaked to the public, they’re the ones who clean it up.”

“Yeah, by erasing people’s memories.” The brunette gripped her elbow, her folded arms huddling against her torso. “Isn’t that kind of- I mean, I’ve been thinking about it ever since I became a Serenity, but isn’t it kind of messed up?”

The pink haired advisor winced. Of all the times for this talk. “It’s very messed up, and I’m glad to hear you are actually capable of deeper thought. But it’s necessary. If a Serenity’s identity gets out, the best-case scenario is they lose most of their powers. Obviously the Foundation can’t afford that. You’re rare enough as it is.”

Rosa paused. She’d heard something like this before, but now that she was a little more experienced, she could sense something deeper hiding under those words. “… What’s the worst?”

“… This isn’t the time to talk about that.” Morgan stonewalled her. “Not… Not here. Later, we can discuss it. Assuming we get out of wherever here is.” She was looking towards the doors, and judging by her face, she clearly didn’t trust them.

The brunette wasn’t willing to let it go so easily, though. “Hey, if it’s something serious, I want to know.” As if losing your powers wasn’t serious enough.

But her unstoppable force had met an immovable object. “Rosa, we have a Desire to deal with. Right now, just know that MemSec protects you, and through you, the world – and focus on the task at hand.”

Tch. “Yeah yeah, fine. That’s not a problem. I can just…” She put her hand on her wrist. There was no bracelet. No yellow gem.

No Serenity.

“Oh.”

Morgan gave her a look that was half sympathetic, half ‘you dumbass’ – though, that second part might have just been Rosa’s interpretation. “I’m afraid it’s rarely so simple once the Desire actually has you in its clutches.”

“Yeah, well, it was worth a try,” the brunette huffed. Grumbling, she shifted in her seat. “So, what, we’ve been sucked inside her book?”

“Hm. I wonder.” Her advisor rolled her arms. “Do you feel that?” She asked, her brow furrowing.

“Feel what?” Rosa tilted her head. “I feel uncomfortable, if that’s what you mean? Feels like something’s poking me in the back…”

The other woman nodded. “Probably my knee. In reality, we’re still in the book store, reading the book she used on us. Her concentrated power just means we’re experiencing it like…” She waved her hand at the car and the forest beyond. “This.”

“Okay. Well in that case…” The brunette shut her eyes.

“I’m afraid that’s not going to work.”

“You don’t know that!” She opened them again. Sadly, she was still in the car. “… Fine.”

Morgan sighed. “We’re stuck with this for now. Following the narrative of this story isn’t going to lead us anywhere good, but we have limited power to defy it. The characters we’re identifying with are going to do what they’re written to do.”

“Oh great. So we’re doomed?”

“We might not be.” The advisor’s expression said otherwise, and Rosa’s flat glare showed she noticed. Morgan raised her hands. “It’s not completely impossible. I doubt we’ll be able to resist everything they throw at us, but as long as we avoid falling into character completely, we might be able to endure the rest.”

The brunette snorted, falling back in her chair and raising her hands to the sky. “Awesome! How can we fail when you make it sound so easy?”

“I’ve seen people resist corruption before.” The advisor raised an eyebrow. “Desires are not all powerful, no matter what they would have you believe. Our first step will be working out what characters we’re supposed to be. If we know that, we can fight against them.”

“Fine. Fine!” Rosa sat up again, this time adjusting the rest of her seat with her. “You’re the expert around here, supposedly. How do we figure that out?”

“Well.” Mogan glanced around, setting her seat to upright as well. “We’re in a car by the side of the road, and there’s nothing else around. Why don’t you see if switching the engine on starts the narrative?”

She gestured towards the ignition on Rosa’s side, the keys already in the slot. For a moment, the young Serenity hesitated, but, lacking any other options, she finally rolled her eyes and did so. The engine roared to life – and as it did, a woman’s gentle voice filled their minds.

Snow was falling as Jessica woke from her slumber. Overnight, the winter chill had finally turned to falling ice, covering the landscape for miles around like a big, fluffy blanket. It was cold outside the car, but within its sturdy walls they'd been spared the harshness of the weather's bite.

“How?” Rosa interrupted, looking around for the source of the voice. “The engine isn’t even on! If it’s that cold out there it should be freezing in here!”

“Don’t complain about the poor writing when it helps us. Just listen.”

“Tch.”

Stretching, she glanced across at the seat next to her. Michelle hadn't woken up yet, and Jessica took a moment to appreciate how sweet her daughter looked as she slept, wrapped up in her blanket.

“Oh no. No, that is not happening.” The brunette looked to the woman at her side who, to her credit, looked equally sceptical. “You are not my mom.”

“Agreed.” Morgan nodded simply. “We shouldn’t have any problem resisting that one.”

The two of them had never been close. Michelle had always been a daddy's girl.

“Oh my god.”

“Relax.”

“Oh my god!”

“It’s just bad literature. You get used to it.”

Not that Jessica could blame her there - her husband was an incredible father, in addition to everything else he was incredible at (And oh was he ever incredible in the bedroom). She'd won the lottery and the shotbowl all at once when she landed him~

“… I’m gunna throw up. I don’t even know who my dad is and I’m gunna throw up. I can’t believe you want me to read more books when this is what they have in them! Literacy is a curse.”

“Just listen, okay?”

They'd both been disappointed that he couldn't be here with them, but something had come up at the last minute. Now it was just the two of them, driving across country on their lonesome. Jessica just hoped that she'd be able to use this trip to finally bond with her child...

The voice finally fell silent, leaving the two women to contemplate what they had learned. Neither looked very happy about their situation.

Naturally, Morgan was the first to speak up. “It sounds like we have a road trip to complete.”

“Can’t we just stay here?” Rosa was very clearly not in the mood. “It can’t make us go, right?”

The pink haired woman adjusted her glasses. “It depends on if you want to get out of this story, or if you’d rather spend the rest of your life stuck in a small car with just me for comp-”

There was a roar as the car rumbled to life, already pulling out of the layby.

“I thought so.”

“Hmph.” The brunette fumbled through the gears. Stupid stick shift. “Let’s get out of here. We’re not going to bond though. There will be no bondage!”

“Bonding.”

“Whatever!”

The advisor pressed her glasses up her nose, wincing. “Oh my god.”

The long winter road ahead seemed to get longer with every word…

-

It was a long drive, and things weren't off to a good start. Michelle was more interested in playing with her phone than in talking to her mother.

“Should I be complaining about how I’m being portrayed here? I mean, I don’t even have a phone. I’m driving the damn car! Why’s this lady being so judgy?”

Morgan, who had, for the most part, settled back in her chair to wait out the drive, shrugged. “Anything that keeps us from settling into the mould the Desire is trying to force us into is a good thing.”

“Well yeah, sure.” Rosa shrugged, still irritated. “But does she have to be so judgy about it?”

The older woman didn’t respond, leaving her student to grumble at the road instead. They’d been driving for maybe twenty minutes now, and so far, nothing interesting had happened. The occasional bubble of narration was clearly all they had to look forward to on this trip.

Jessica couldn't help but be disappointed. Clearly, she'd underestimated how far apart they'd grown. Why, it felt like just the other week, the two of them had been taking small trips around town together, happily singing along to the radio.

“The hell?” Rosa squinted up at the roof, as though that was where the ethereal voice was coming from. “Didn’t you say they’d never been close, like, five paragraphs ago?”

Oh, maybe that would work! A good old-fashioned sing along, just like the old days. With a glance towards her daughter, who was still ignoring her, Jessica flicked on the radio, and smiled as nostalgic tunes filled her heart with a reminiscent warmth.

“Seriously, if we had to get trapped in a book, couldn’t it have been a consistent- Wait, what?” The brunette glanced up suspiciously, before turning her glare towards the radio on the dashboard. It was a simple looking thing, with only a few switches and dials. Nothing too sinister.

But to her surprise, it didn’t turn on.

All was quiet. And it remained that way. The silence began to stretch…

It was ten minutes before the brunette’s patience snapped. “Do you think it wants us to turn it on ourselves?” She asked, looking to the passenger seat. But Morgan just shrugged, not answering. The older woman had committed pretty hard to shutting out the world around her. Rosa was mostly jealous that she couldn’t do the same.

Finally, seeing no other option, she leaned forward and hit the radio’s switch.

Immediately, the car filled with the sound of fiddles, guitars, pianos, and the occasional banjo, all accompanied by various voices singing about the good old days, or about how their girl had left them, or, occasionally, how they wanted a bigger tax break on their music sales.

Sadly, Michelle didn’t seem interested, even when she tried to start a few singalongs. Such a shame. What had happened to her sweet little cupcake? Would they ever have that same bond again?

“Seriously, you said they weren’t close!” Rosa groused. Still, she couldn’t help but be relieved that she’d solved the puzzle. The narration had returned, and hopefully now the story would continue. They’d just had to put up with some stupid old-fashioned music in the meantime.

And fortunately, whoever had designed this stupid scenario was better at music than they were at writing. The tunes actually weren’t too bad. A little corny, maybe – it was country, after all – but, like, not awful to listen to. And at least they gave the journey a little colour. Staring at this road all day was already getting old – now she had something for entertainment!

“When a woman loooooves a man,Ooooooh~She’ll do whatever she caaaayaaaaan…To make sure that man of heeeers…Can love her iiiiiiyn reeeveeeeerse…”

Her lips quirked up into a smile, and she had to stop herself from giggling – so stupid. But she couldn’t quite stop herself from joining in with the chorus on the next go around. “Wheeeen a wommmaaaan looooooooves a maaayaaaan…”

Beside her, Morgan twitched, but didn’t complain, even if her expression said she’d like to. Well too bad, Rosa had to make her own entertainment for this trip. It was time to settle in and wait for the next narrative event. Who knew how long that’d take? The least she could do was keep herself sane.

“Iiiiiiiyyyyynnnn reeevvvheeeerseeee~” She sang, letting her head sway as the music washed over her. And as she focus on trying to reach the high notes – emphasis on trying – her jacket gently melted down around her shoulders, merging with her top to form something a little more casual, just as her skirt was starting to grow longer down her legs…

(To be continued in Part 4)