Shady

@whatchamacallit -- AHH WHATCHA COMPLIMENTS, my heart :' ) Love the stylistic choices of capitalization + lack of punctuation, superbly conveys a tone of fatigue I think !! Hi, yes, ...

A smirk reached Pratik's face before he could stop it, so he plopped a berry in his mouth to try to regain a serious composure. Sounded to him like little ...

Ah. So she was an Ash. He decided to test his luck. "Does she live far away?"

Pratik tried to remember who she was. He'd definitely heard the name before, but he couldn't quite remember if she was an Ash or simply one of the noblewomen in ...

Pratik's gaze flicked around the room as he shoveled as much into his mouth as he politely could. He thought he'd noticed at their very first breakfast together that Ash ...

"Yes," Pratik answered simply. The previous job had been worth much more than what he demanded but, hopefully, the ones going forward would be a more reasonable amount of effort. ...

Pratik blinked at him. He'd prepared himself for a hazing. The offer of long-term employment hadn't crossed his mind as a potential topic of breakfast conversation. He still wanted to ...

AYEEE I love these all so much, you're so talented ;-; and you're doing SO good with keeping up!!! Also, you have my eternal approval for writing fish poetry ; ...

Pratik eyed him for a moment, wondering if this was a dig at last night. He doubted Ash would have brought it up otherwise. Pratik's behavior had been rather... rash. ...

He hadn't. It'd taken him forever to fall asleep, and then once he did his dreams were riddled with anxiety. It wasn't a proper nightmare -- those left him drenched ...

Pratik glanced at Mattathias. Well, that was embarrassing. And it removed any doubt about whether the women had heard about the previous night. But, then, he supposed that that was ...

(All good! Sorry I've been so spotty with my responses the past few days, I was out of town lol) "No harm in small talk sometimes," Pratik countered. "Makes for ...

"Seems rather dehumanizing for you both," Pratik noted. And lonely. He didn't expect to make many friends here, and he certainly wasn't going to let his guard down around any ...

"It's nice to meet you, Maddie." Pratik smiled, but could tell she still seemed uneasy with his question. "I assume you're one of the people charged with keeping an eye ...

"Excellent, thank you," Pratik answered, following her into the hallway. He tried to think of what useful information he could get out of her as they walked, but he was ...