Right now, Jeannette Di Pulvinus is quite embarrassed and for a good reason. Yesterday, she messed up and didn’t make any real progress on catching the Pillow Snatcher. But she also is excited to have seen the world outside of her home. The people of her “Fluffy” Kingdom are really kind to kids and have good eats too. She rolls around on her bed while clutching her MAXIMUS Pillow tightly to her small figure.

Jeannette inhales deeply as her open window brought in the scent of a new year, with hints of flowering citrus trees and animals which came out of hibernation.

(Jeannette) It’s not good to stress out for no good reason.

Using this thinking, she began having a more positive attitude. Eventually, she will flush this waste of humanity down its metaphorical drain. Besides, it doesn’t even have to be her to find the perpetrator. She has siblings and parents for protection, after all.

Speaking of siblings, Jeannette’s older brother is currently searching for his own pillow. During his window shopping, he may find the vendor of counterfeits and bring them all to justice! That is if his creepy tendency for more… innocent products did not overwhelm his barely functioning brain. He’s the most unreliable brother out of her siblings. Sadly, she’s unable to name who is who because of her family’s similar names and similar looks. It’s too hard to name them and easier to differentiate them by behavior.

Jeannette knows he will be back soon because of the curfew imposed by her parents and her older brother’s force of habit. He always does what he wants and during the times he laid out. He also is very strict about his schedules, even though he is not a very rigorous and productive person. She stops suddenly mid-roll and flops onto her belly to look at her Magical Tablet.

Jeannette’s enchanted hunk of metal is engraved with ancient letters and is encased in an outer protective coating, which is much softer and rubbery than its colder and solid interior. The Magical Tablet records visual, auditory, and mana info within its storage. The downside to this is needing to manipulate mana for the Magical Tablet to function.

Jeannette watches from a Tablet Database filled with recordings of entertainment provided by her Kingdom. Entertainment Magicians compete using magical and physical constructs in thrilling games. These range from jousting golems to full-blown fights with spell-slinging and parkour within rat-races, obstacle courses and mazes.

But one of the most simple games holds Jeannette’s eye. It is a simple survival death match called Agglomeration. It has hundreds of magicians playing because of the low mana cost and skill in manipulation needed. Players stay within a sealed room to channel their power and have a limited view of the playing field. Each of them then spawns within a contained system and controls a single orb of mana.

Players try to collect mana packets scattered throughout the game to grow bigger and absorb smaller mana orbs. They face mana disruptors that scatter their orbs into bits if collected and an orb limit on its size before it divides. There is no method of communicating with players other than by their actions. Sometimes, if an alliance is proposed, players may eject mana from their orbs to each other to show their trust. In other times, a single crazy yet good player may swipe through the entire field and absorb many others.

During this game, other players may join in and losers can replay from the beginning. After an elapsed period of an hour, the game ends and the score is tallied. Rewards are handed out in points for customization of a player’s mana orb or give their orb a little boost in their next game. A currency exchange is also in place to transfer copper into points for more profit to the developers.

Jeannette is steadily losing interest in this game despite her previous excitement from watching these matches, She remembers weeks ago it was much more enjoyable. But now, it is stale and repetitive. It is pointless because she herself cannot play and is stuck jealously watching on the sidelines. She sighs and pushes the strands of her hair off of her face for the umpteenth time.

Jeannette felt an especially chilly breeze nip at her feet. She may be wrapped up in her Maximus Pillow, but it doesn’t cover her completely. In response, she pulled her checked blanket over her legs and buried deeper into her bed. The warmth and coziness nearly put her into a deep, deep sleep…

Yet Jeannette jumped up and sprinted out of the room the instant she heard the door-spell ring. By magic, links with specific mana signatures can activate a device, and this one alerted the Royal Family of her brother coming home. She ran down hallways, the staircase, and all the way to the start of the Royal Estate’s door.

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Jeannette hid behind this door and it opened after some time and rattling of metal coming from the other side. Two feet shuffling across the ornate wooden floor and a sashaying swish of cloth signals him opening the door and stepping inside. A pair of well-worn and inconspicuous shoes suddenly fly through the air across the hall and land with a thud only to tip to their sides.

Jeannette spectates her brother’s actions as he launches his woolen sheep-white socks next to his shoes. He closes the door behind him with a slam. His shadow engulfs her entire figure when the light from the Royal Hall’s chandelier illuminated the door once more.

Jeannette’s brother is a bulky fellow- not in a manner of fitness or muscle, but more in that he is heavy-set. His broad shoulders and thick legs give an impression that he isn’t a person to be trifled with. He noticeably grunts, as if bored or agonizingly tired of going through the effort of marching into town and coming back home. His face gives its standard look of dissatisfaction and his body language screamed of frustration despite its fatigue.

But Jeannette knows this judgement to be false of her brother’s current emotional state. In reality, he is extremely giddy with glee, even though his malicious and ill-intended grin insinuates dark purposes. Actually, never mind that because the previous assumption is right. His unkempt look, in addition to his slimy tongue licking his lips, bodes insidiously for whatever caught his attention. His sister seems acutely affected by him as she unconsciously shivers in either disgust or fear or some mixture of the two. Her reaction amplifies when he coos out sweet nothings to his package:

(Jeannette’s brother) “My precious Darling… I won’t ever let you get taken again. Not ever. You will stay with me in bed and keep me company. My precious Darling…”

Jeannette’s brother pulls the cloth bundle from his back and embraces it lovingly in his arms. His hands stroke it up and down to feel its prized comfort. His mouth turns into a triumphant sneer as his fingers fondle its edges- to tease the object within its wrapping out of its container and into the world. He makes his way to his room in eager anticipation of caressing his purchase. His sister, however, takes this time to arm herself for the oncoming conflict.

Jeannette slides sneakily past her brother, which he barely even registers. She makes her way back to her room, gears up, and grabs her secret weapon: an electrical taser which shot electrodes to stun its targets. It’s better known as the "Tagger" for its effectiveness when hitting someone. One electrode is enough to put a grown man down for days. Hers is amped up and has enough output to charge 3 more electrodes.

So, Jeannette strides over to her brother’s room carrying this highly dangerous and most likely lethal weapon. She peeks in through the cracks of his bedroom door and sees her brother reveal his “precious Darling”. “She” was a pillow. Not any pillow, but one the size of a meter tall and half as wide… It seems familiar. So familiar in fact that she references it back to the Maximus Pillow in her own hands. The likeness is uncanny to the point she can declare the other to be a replica. A replica which she knows is a mockery of the original and taints its history.

Jeannette’s brother clearly has betrayed her trust and descended into depravity. She watches as he cuddles the pillow as it rested under his head and how he wraps himself in his blanket. He transforms from his filthy caterpillar self into a beauteous cocoon. It may even be possible… no, it is distinctly improbable that any metamorphosis of the horrid creature which was her brother could ever make him handsome and cool.

Jeannette’s heart hurt as she felt for the first time that her trust broke. Her suspicions before are now proved; he is unworthy. Her unreliable brother became scum- scum neither clean nor pure in her eyes. Scum that needs to be eradicated. She cocks her Tagger and brought it up to his face. She sucks in a deep breath and concentrates. She tells him the last words she would say before carrying out her dirty deed:

(Jeannette) “You better watch out, you better watch out."

With each utterance of the phrase, Jeannette's gaze grows colder and her words turn more brittle.

(Jeannette) "You better watch out! You better watch out!"

Jeannette's brother notices her at last and gives her a look of astonishment. But it's much too late.

(Jeannette) "YOU BETTER WATCH OUT!”

Bang. The creep got what he deserved.

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Journal Entry #4026

Yesterday, I bought another pillow to replace the one my little sister stole from me. That was a mistake because she became suspicious since there were two of the same pillows. Luckily, she didn’t take my pillow again.

The weird thing was that she pulled a gun out on me.

It was an old toy pistol which used foam bullets. I thought she lost it a few years ago when I bought two for her and myself to play with. Seems like she hid hers, even when she lost all the bullets.

After she put on her “cool” purple hoodie and pulled the hood up to cover her hair, she pointed it to my face and began singing to the musical tone of “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town”. It was funny that the only line she knew was the first one: “You better watch out”! At the same time, it was chilling but I didn’t care because she looked so CUTE!

I played along with her when she cocked her pistol and pulled the trigger. Each time the toy pistol tinged as the spring system released, I pretended to be mortally wounded. After a few shots, I would collapse to the ground and pretend to be dead. A little while later, I’d jump up and at her to tickle her.

We played together with her laughing her head off. Eventually, she got tired of me and ran off to find someone else to “kill”. Despite the morbid implications of her actions, it was fun being shot up by my own little sister. Now if only my back wasn’t hurting from falling onto the floor so much…