It's a Chores Day

You meet back up with Eden and Jodi at the RV and Mom cooks up some lunch as fast as she can. It's just a bunch of grilled cheese sandwiches, but it's not so bad, especially with the pieces of diced ham that Sophie helped Mom cut and add.

After introducing Sophie to those that stayed back at the RV, you say, “I think today kind of has to be a chores day. Sophie and Jodi both need tattoos and we could stand to go out to the mall and shop a little. Maybe get some new laptops and tablets and stuff. Plus anything else that might be useful.”

“How are we going to get somewhere where I can tattoo them though? Not just any shop will let me.” Eden asks.

You realize it might not actually be totally obvious to her what your plan is, “Well, basically, I’ll help you deal with it. And then we can go to a mall and we can pick out anything we want.”

“You know, the RV is getting just the slightest bit cramped.” Jodi says, having to stand with her plate, since the table only has room for 4 people.

“I think we’re okay to add a few more people before we think about getting another one,” You respond.

Eden jumps in, “Well, I was telling Jodi last night, if I had a van, I could set up almost everything needed to work out of there. It wouldn't be the comfiest to sleep in, but I could end up sleeping in here and just taking the van with us. Might be a good idea, right?”

You nod, realizing that that would be a lot more convenient than needing to go with her to a new shop every single time you want to claim someone new.

“Oh, and I need to pick up my stuff from my house,” Sophie says in a very small voice.

“Oh, yeah, I forgot about that. Sorry, the food distracted me.” You respond. “Is that it though? If we’re setting up the plan.”

Ashley sighs and says, “If we’re just going to go out today, then we might as well hit up a sex shop, right? Get some dildos and butt plugs. Maybe some of that electronic stuff.”

“Oh, that could be a lot of fun,” Sabrina says, “We were talking about getting that stuff, but we never did! I’d love to try it out.”

“Y-yeah,” Ashley stammers, blushing a ton.

For the rest of the day, you were hopping in the RV and running off to different places.

Tattoo shop was first, although it was a lot less eventful that the first time you used one. The artist working there is a woman who looks like she’s about 40, and kind of mean, so you just claim the store and tell her to move aside so Eden can come and do her job.

Jodi gets her tattoo on her bicep, mirroring another tattoo of Hello Kitty’s face, which she claims to have gotten while drunk. Sophie gets hers on her pelvis, right above her bush. She cries a little as Eden works on her, but Sabrina and you both hold her hand, which manages to keep her mostly still.

After that's done, you all head into the Mall and get some clothes shopping done. For these things, you just end up buying with everyone’s different cards, because it would be a hassle to have to mark every piece with a pen or something. You get coats and dresses and t-shirts and skirts and shorts and pajamas and all manner of accessories. This definitely takes the longest out of anything you do that day, especially because Jodi and Eden want to go into a second hand books/DVD/games store and look around. You all end up spending several hours looking through everything for what looks interesting and thankfully you can just stamp the backs of everything to claim ownership without having to buy anything.

You send Sabrina and Ashley back to the RV a few times to run the clothes and everything back there, so you don't have to carry everything, but thankfully you’re parked fairly close to the buildings in the parking lot, although the mall itself is outdoors, so it's not that different than just walking through a parking lot.

You end up having a lot of fun watching everyone try on clothes in the middle of the stores, not caring about their own decency, since it's technically your decency. By the time you're all done with shopping, the sun has started to set and so you go to the last store on your chore list and head to a sex shop that you find on Google Maps that's still open.

Stepping inside with the whole group, the whole store is dim, with every window covered up and honestly pretty nicely stocked with toys that wouldn't make you bat an eye if you received it as a present from a significant other. Pretty normal stuff, all told.

On the other hand, the owner and manager is this bald bodybuilder type that looks like he might shoot porno in the back of the store, so you didn't exactly wanna spend more time than you had to there.

You end up just claiming all the items, briefly showing them to the guy, who pretty calmly lets you take them and then leave.

Once back in the RV, you set all of the toys you got and take a little inventory. There's all manner of dildos and butt plugs of various sizes, a silicone replica of an ass and pussy, that you thought looked fun, some of those Bad Dragon dildos that are absolutely massive in person, and an assortment of female masturbators, vibrators and remote controlled little things like that.

“Good job, everyone,” You say, admiring the new collection.

“Wasn't anything,” Sabrina responded.

Sophie asks, “Um, my place now?” After clearly having been a little bit anxious about it all day.

“Don’t worry, babe,” Eden tells her, “I’ve already got the address punched into my phone.”

“Yeah, I just wanted to make sure we had everything in time to shop and stuff. I wasn't going to skimp out on that stuff.” You explain.

And then, Sophie just bursts into tears and everyone in the RV basically jumps into. Sabrina is the only one who reaches her though, holding her new sister tightly in a hug as Sophia sobs into her shoulder.

Everyone looks shocked as they stand and watch the two blondes hold each other. Eventually, Sophie slows down enough that Sabrina is able to ask, “Hey. What happened?”

Sophie pulls back and, with a voice that still sounds tiny and unsure, tells her, “I- I don't know!” before starting to cry even more. This time, she pulls herself out of it fairly quickly and continues, “I- keep expecting someone; any of you to be mean to me. I didn't know what to think when I was picked up.”

You suddenly feel horrible for what you did, but your Mom grabs your shoulder, preempting your reaction. Bending down so her ear could reach yours while you're sitting down, she tells you, “I noticed that she was fairly malnourished when she was changing earlier. She may have an eating disorder or possibly some stressful life event that's really been affecting her.”

That makes a little sense, you guess, but she’s still the first person that you’ve claimed who’s been as fragile as she seems.

You nod to Eden to tell her to start driving over to Sophie’s place. And in the meantime, Sabrina takes her sister over to a couch so they can cuddle and Sophie can calm down. You sit across from them and watch as Sabrina completely disarms her with really simple questions. Honestly, it's the kind of thing that would be great to listen to if you’re trying to fall asleep.

You can't help but admire Sabrina for so effortlessly helping Sophie out like that. You did just make them ‘sisters’ on a whim but it looks like Sophie is really getting attached to her. There's even a little bit of envy as you watch them cuddle up to each other like that.

But then you stop and Eden says, “This is it. Come on Sophie, we’re here. Let's go grab your stuff.”

Sophie gets up and you get up too, asking Sabrina, “Will you help us out?”

Sabrina nods and so the 4 of you all leave and follow Sophie up the stairs to her apartment, stepping inside.

She was right when she mentioned it was small, but tiny was more accurate. There's barely enough room for a place to eat in the living room area that just has a single, pretty sad couch. No shelves or wall decorations are there and the kitchen seems to basically only have a microwave and a small range, as well as a tiny fridge. And then you get to the bedroom, which is practically just a mattress on the floor and a sliding closet, which is where Sophie is making sure to go.

“I- I,” she stops herself, slowing down, “When my mom got sick, I basically had to come back home and take care of her. And after dealing with all the fees and loans and everything, I’ve basically only been able to barely save any money. I- I was supposed to move to Japan and get a job as a localizer there, translating software or whatever, but that fell through when I couldn't go…” She sighs, "I haven't been able to take a break in what feels like years. I- I think I got my hopes up when you all spirited me away, but I really didn't expect it to work out..."

Opening up the closet, you realize she only has a few boxes in there, and a banged up dresser that looks like it might have been picked up from the side of the road. She starts to take out clothes and hands them to Sabrina who throws them all in a hamper and goes back out to the camper.

You and Eden both take a box each and head back as well, letting Sophie clean the rest of everything out, not that there's that much, on her own. She also takes the time to leave a note on her door for the landlord that tells him that she’s moving out and doesn't need any of her stuff.

Getting back into the RV, cleaning up just enough to sit down, you say, “I think it's about time to wind down for the night.”

Eden gets back in the driver’s seat and shouts back, “I agree!” Before starting it back up and heading over to the RV Park that you had spent the night in previously.

Mom starts to make some pasta for everyone and you look through Jodi’s new collection for something to watch.

And then, after everything finishes and you all get ready for bed, you cuddle with Sophie as you're surrounded and pretty crowded by everyone else in the king sized bed. You don't mind though, because it's all just beautiful girls and they're hard to get angry at.

[Author's Note: I wanted to do something a little different here and have a sort of montage chapter where we get through a lot of the chores that I don't really feel like we need to focus on in the story. And I don't know if you can tell, but it ended up being the longest chapter I've written for this so far lol. Regardless, I'm excited to get to the convention, which we know that our protagonist is going to decide to head to before Gigi arrives the day after. Let me know if you have any lingering questions about any of the characters, because I don't know if I've forgotten anything and I'm leading up to a little bit of a climax. We'll see how that goes lol. Anyway, if you've read this far, thank you a lot! This has been pretty fun for me to write, so it's nice to get so much support.]