November 3rd, 2024.
The perfect life for Grayson would be one where she didn't have to do anything. Not a thing. Just laying in the same spot in the dirt all day and collecting sunlight like a flower was the kind of life she was cut out for. What was she doing instead? Looking over some old ass books, all written in a language she couldn't even begin to comprehend. And all in the name of figuring on whatever fucked up fetish nightmare was going on. Grayson was all for finding a way to stop this Bimbo thing, but even just figuring out what was happening seemed like an impossible task.
She'd probably bring these books in to the nerds at Sam's university tomorrow, Grayson couldn't make heads or tails of what she was looking at. Well, some of it she understood. Mainly the roughly sketched drawings of tits and vaginal sex. See, why couldn't the whole book just be like that?
Grayson was currently looking through the books while laid out on the bed in her mother's guest room. It was at the end of the hall in the apartment above the bakery, where her mother now lived. Grayson had...not exactly patched things up with Jill, but she'd offered Grayson to stay for a day or two and they could maybe spend some time together. It was a nice gesture, and both were comfortable just doing that without talking about the weird tension between them. Maybe it'd just blow over, at least until the next time they'd inevitably blow up at each other again.
Jill wasn't particularly conservative, but Grayson had always been able to feel how disappointed she was in having a daughter that was barely a daughter, gender-wise. Like Grayson should've been wearing pink and marrying a man and be in touch with her emotions or whatever. And well, all that expectation just made Grayson wanna do the opposite. If she was going to disappoint her mother, at least she would let her down on her own terms instead of never being a good enough daughter.
But was it on her own terms? Like, she was never going to be totally feminine, but how could anyone else define for her what did and didn't make her feel feminine? If she wore a dress or makeup and it made her feel like Grayson more than it made her feel like a girl, who were they to tell her otherwise?
Grayson then pushed all those thoughts away, as she always did. She didn't want to be a girl, and all that feminine stuff was emblematic of that. For sure. It disgusted her, cute clothes and makeup and jewelry. All that stuff was vapid and shallow. At least, that was the impression they always gave you of that sort of thing. Grayson was into things that totally were never vapid or shallow, like smoking weed and playing video games.
Hmm. In any case, Grayson still had stuff to do, even after going off to another city on a scavenger hunt for Sam. It was her day off, but she still had to go back to the record store to pick up some stuff among what she'd ordered for the shop. So the dirty-blonde was off to the mall, putting the books back in her bag. Grayson reckoned these books were important, and in any case she didn't want Jill coming upon them and wondering why her daughter had The Kama Sutra For Pilgrims on her bed.
Grayson practically skipped into the record store with glee, excited to get her new albums, before she quickly coughed and went into a normal walk as soon as one of the other employees saw her. Jack, Vic's brother, was clearly trying not to laugh as he organized records.
"You saw nothing." Grayson said. Jack rolled his eyes.
"Sure, sure. Anyway, here's your records." He said as he slid them toward her, lp's and a few tapes. Grayson grinned and took them into her hands. Trip Hop, EDM, Plunderphonics, and some Drum & Bass. All good stuff that Grayson genuinely really enjoyed, but she had to admit that she was kind of curating what she saw as her 'aesthetic'. Someone would listen to it and go "yeah, this sounds like Grayson".
"You know, this is all great shit, but considering that you're working here, maybe you should try expanding a bit." Jack said, smiling as he knew this would annoy her.
"I've forgotten more music than you'll ever listen to in your life, fuckface. Enlighten me on what I could possibly be missing out on?" She bantered. Jack grinned and pulled out a tape.
"Sasha Grace. She's this new pop artist everyone's talking about, mostly just singles and ep's so far. She just got signed to a major label, though. Probably gonna blow up real soon." He said. A chance for Grayson to know an artist before they got popular? She could already imagine the potential future bragging rights.
"What genre?" Grayson leaned in.
"Pop." He said. Grayson gulped.
"...Indie-pop?"
"No."
"Folk-pop?"
"No."
"Hyperpop, right?" She asked.
"No."
"Chamber-pop? Baroque-pop? Art-pop? City-pop?"
"No, just pop. More kind of dance music type shit, the kind of stuff white girls twerk to in clubs. Your favorite." Jack laughed. Grayson groaned.
"Not interested." She said.
"Come on, give it a try! You can't be the big music nerd you are and shut out entire genres like that. People aren't gonna think you're worth your salt as a music expert if you don't know anything about some of the best shit coming out right now." He said. He was definitely trying to push her buttons.
"Fine, fine, I'll give it a listen." Maybe it was at least good dance music. Grayson sighed and put the tape in her bag, right on top of the weird sex books. She blinked, for a brief second she thought she saw a pink flash of light in the corner of her vision. Weird.