Viv and Maddy are appalled by Hard Candy

“Which story do you want to read first?” Maddy asks Viv.

“You mentioned Marcie and Gina are from another story too, right? What story are they from?” Viv asks Maddy.

“They say they’re from a story called Hard Candy.” Maddy replies, before proceeding to type Hard Candy into the search bar.

“How come Hard Candy doesn’t appear when you search for it?” Viv asks.

“Yeah. I’m wondering that too~... No, wait. I got it. I think it’s because it’s not a story. It’s a branch of a story. Kind of like our story in the Affection Multiplier.” Maddy explains.

“Oh, yeah~. Why don’t we review an Affection Multiplier story fuh— OW!” Viv hears another painful high pitched whistle that causes her to stop her sentence in her tracks. “Fuck me! I’m sorry, universe! We’ll avoid those then. Jesus.” Viv thinks out loud.

“So, Hard Candy?” Maddy asks her.

“Hard Candy.” Viv confirms.

“Okay. I guess getting to know Marcie and Gina would be a good start on this reviewing journey. They are the first ones we’ve been exposed to.” Maddy observes.

The two navigate the site to find the main story “Cursed Punishment”. The girls quickly read through the intro chapters to reach the branch that has the versions of Marcie and Gina that does the reviews — Hard Candy.

*READING IN PROGRESS*

“Pause.” Viv calls out after reading a few chapters.

“What? Why?” Maddy asks Viv.

“Are you not at all concerned that the person writing Marcie and Gina’s story doesn’t use spell check?” Viv asks Maddy.

“I have to admit, it’s… rough, but I’m filtering it as I read anyway. It’s not Marcie and Gina’s fault the guy chronicling their story ignores the red and blue lines under misspelled or misused words when they type. If my biggest critique is that it needs proofreading, then it’s not a big deal.” Maddy explains to Viv, who just shrugs and they both continue with their reading.

*READING IN PROGRESS… AGAIN*

The two girls progress through about half the story, reaching until the chapter that told the aftermath of the first battle against Queen Marel, before deciding it was a good stopping point to discuss the first part of Marcie and Gina’s story.

“I know I’m homeschooled, so I could be wrong, but that can’t be what high school is like… right?” Maddy asks Viv with a ton of concern in her tone.

“You mean bullying, cliques, and social hierarchies? Sadly, those are realities of the high school experience.” Viv answers honestly, making Maddy gasp in shock.

“Please tell me that extortion, sexual ****, and… you know, actual **** aren’t part of those realities too.” Maddy pleads to Viv.

“Why? If they were, would you be a lot more understanding of your dad’s decision to homeschool you and your sisters?” Viv jokes.

“YES!” Maddy says emphatically, making Viv laugh.

“Relax, Maddy. I don’t think any high school in the world is like Marcie and Gina’s. I don’t think any school has a high enough concentration of psychopaths, cowards, idiots, and inept school staff in one place to even come close to Marcie and Gina’s obviously fictional high school.” Viv assures Maddy.

“Fictional?” Maddy asks with an eye brow raised.

“I mean, yeah. Duh.” Viv answers nonchalantly. “Don’t tell me you thought this was like our story where a pervert just creepily knows our inner thoughts and life stories and just puts them on the internet. Marcie and Gina’s story is clearly an anime written by somebody else.” Viv explains.

“Oh~! That makes much more sense!” Maddy reacts in realization.

“What doesn’t make sense is you not picking up on that fact the moment you saw an anime character as Gina’s photo.” Viv tells her.

“I thought that was just fan art.” Maddy defends her logic, making Viv just facepalm in disappointment. Maddy slaps Viv on the arm hard for the obvious dig at her misinterpretation of the situation. “OW!” Viv shouts in reaction.

“M, if this was a real American high school, I’m pretty sure there’s a school shooting every week with the amount of trauma these girls inflict on the student body.” Viv jokes.

“Gun **** isn’t a laughing matter, V. It’s a real issue in America.” Maddy admonishes her for the joke.

“Exactly! That’s my point! It’s not real! It’s an anime!” Viv reacts defensively.

“Okay. Okay. You’re right. I was stupid to try and consider this anything close to reality.” Maddy concedes.

“Well, since you did think it was real initially, what are your thoughts on the story?” Viv asks.

“I think I just read the most glowing recommendation for homeschooling I’ve ever seen.” Maddy answers jokingly, making Viv laugh.

“What do you think about it now that you know it follows anime rules?” Viv quickly follows up, in between laughs.

“I still think I just read the most glowing recommendation for homeschooling I’ve ever seen.” Maddy repeats, making Viv laugh even more.

“What about you though? You obviously didn’t take this as seriously as I did, and immediately thought of it as a fictional story. What’s your critical take on it?” Maddy returns the question.

“As plot goes, I honestly didn’t expect the story to take the political machination route that it did. You would think it’s a role reversal power fantasy with a **** fantasy mixed in, based on how it starts at least; but I was pleasantly surprised that it took the direction that it did since it doesn’t really work as a **** story.” Viv gives her honest take.

“How so?” Maddy follows up.

“I mean, if it was a **** fantasy, a lot more time should have been spent on the heinous things that Gina did to establish how she deserves what’s coming to her through the curse placed on her, and why it was fitting that Marcie was the one to get control of it. The problem was, all of that was skipped and you fast forward to the part of the story where Gina’s already cursed, and instead of feeling any sense of fulfillment in her being cursed, you just feel pity for her for getting tortured by Marcie.” Viv explains her critique.

“Well, we haven’t finished the story yet. Maybe it’s still going to be that; except, it’s Gina who gets her vengeance on Marcie for all the heinous things Marcie’s putting her through.” Maddy theorizes.

“I’d be okay with that, but it’s obviously not what’s going to happen since the story has definitely leaned towards the power fantasy instead.” Viv points out.

“They don’t have to be mutually exclusive. Marcie could become Queen-Queen and not just Shadow Queen to fulfill her POV’s theme of a power fantasy, only for Gina to get her **** and fulfill her POV’s theme of a **** fantasy.” Maddy argues.

“Nah. That’s definitely not what’s going to happen. Marcie and Gina seem to be good enough friends that they’re doing reviews together of online erotica and biographies that have very explicit sex scenes. Looks like it’s going to go the way of Marcie becoming Queen-Queen and Gina redeems herself at some point. There were enough chapters that hinted at those things happening anyway.” Viv points out.

“We could always finish the story and see what happens.” Maddy suggests.

“Nah, I’m not particularly interested to know what happens anytime soon.” Viv responds.

“Why? You didn’t like the story?” Maddy asks.

“It’s not that. The story’s fine. Not my cup of tea… but fine.” Viv gives her honest take.

“I would’ve thought you’d be into it since you’re into BDSM. Marcie and Gina’s dynamic are supposed to be domme and sub, no?” Maddy asks Viv.

“BDSM this is not, my dear Madeleine. At least, not the kind of BDSM I’m into. It’s too ****-y. Trust and consent are integral to BDSM. That’s why there are safewords. Gina’s a literal ****, while Marcie’s a cunt. A cunt that thinks she’s a good person, but still a cunt.” Viv answers.

“Does she think she’s a good person? I think she’s pretty aware that she’s turning herself into Gina. I mean, her end goal is to be Queen-Queen.” Maddy asks.

“I’m not really sure. I was too busy being annoyed at the spelling mistakes.” Viv answers, brushing off Maddy’s argument.

“You’re exaggerating.” Maddy reacts, while rolling her eyes.

“I can’t do what you do and filter spelling and grammar mistakes, okay!? It annoyed the shit out of me!” Viv says with a raised voice.

“It was honestly not that difficult. The author made the same mistakes for the same words, so it was easy enough to autocorrect while I read.” Maddy points out.

“Yeah, well, I didn’t. The good news from that is, I’ll now forever pronounce through as ‘trough’ and were as ‘where’ and though as ‘tough’ and—” Viv replies.

“I get it. Their writer needs to proofread.” Maddy cuts Viv off.

“No, what their writer needs is to have a real conversation with their keyboard’s ‘H’ so that it’s not absent when you need it, and present when you don’t.” Viv jokes, and Maddy just shyly smiles, trying not to concede laughter for Viv’s joke.

“Marcie and Gina also need to check themselves before they wreck they-selves.” Viv then adds.

“About what?” Maddy asks, a bit afraid that Viv might say something that would lead to an online argument with Marcie and Gina.

“You don’t judge our story as a slow burn and only have one quick blowjob scene, and two quick masturbation scenes in like 40+ chapters! Where’s the fucking!? I didn’t even touch myself the entire time! Before I could even touch myself the sexual scene was already over.” Viv points out.

“I don’t think that was the point of their story.” Maddy argues.

“A story that’s on a website for porn? What is the point then? To get off on sick mental ****? Am I supposed to rub myself while Marcie tells Gina to keep the hard candy bar she shat out of her asshole on her bedside table, or when Gina was **** to hug and kiss garbage while Susan pisses on her, or when an obviously prepubescent boy based on his description is **** to strip half naked for people’s amusement?” Viv asks Maddy, a visible look of disgust on her face as she recounts the things that happened she considers foul.

…

“I mean… maybe…?” Maddy tries to argue.

“WHAT!?” Viv asks in disbelief that Maddy can make an argument for any of those things. Especially since she was the one who read the story thinking it was real.

“Some people do. I mean, does the name Hana Hook mean anything to you?” Maddy asks Viv.

“I don’t like the websites you’re exposing yourself to, M. I think your dad was right to restrict your internet usage growing up.” Viv immediately responds.

“You didn’t answer the question, V.” Maddy calls her out.

“What I jerk off to is none of your concern!” Viv says defensively.

“Hypocrite, thy name is Vivian.” Maddy jokes, and Viv slaps her on the arm for it. “OW!”

“Don’t call me a hypocrite.” Viv tells her annoyed.

“Sorry, I was just pointing out a fact as a joke.” Maddy says, and Viv accepts her apology; completely missing the part where Maddy was actually unapologetic.

“Anyway, can we move on from this? It’s starting to make us snippy with each other. I think the bitchiness of their universe started to infect our brains.” Viv suggests.

“Started to infect your brain. I thought I was being perfectly civil.” Maddy says with a smug smile.

“Pfft.” Viv reacts.

“Well, since you want to move on from this for now, what story do you want to read next?”