A Dish Best Served Cold - NaNoWriMo 2025 Challenge

[LtBroccoli]

Teaser: Natalie Daniels's life spun out of control. A few months earlier, she was the virginal bride-to-be in waiting. Now, she was nothing more than a prop used by her family. But that would all change.

How does a woman go from being a scared 18-year-old victim to one of the most dangerous women around? Let's find out...
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The author of this story has read and accepted the rules for posting stories. They guarantee that the following story depicts none of the themes listed in the Forbidden Content section of the rules.

The following story is a work of fiction meant for entertainment purposes only. It depicts nonconsensual sexual acts between adults. It is in no way meant to be understood as an endorsement of nonconsensual sex in real life. Any similarities of the characters in the story to real people are purely coincidental.
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Index:

• Introduction
• Part 1: The Family, Dreams Are Made of These
• Founder's Hall
• Breakfast at Ceti Alpha V
• Planning Things Out
• Honor Code
• Family Business
• Pick Your Poison
• Nighttime Visitors (NCon, bond, bdsm, MF, FF, drugged, anal, incest)

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Title: A Dish Best Served Cold
Author: Lt. Broccoli
Chapter Tags: It'll be easier to say what won't be here by the time this is done. As of Part 1, MF, MMF, MFF, ncon, drugs, sleep, bond, viol, bdsm, blackmail, extortion, reluctance, incest
Content Warnings: This story contains off-screen and vague descriptions of sexual assault against minors. None of it is shown on-screen.
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A Dish Best Served Cold

Author's Notes and Introduction

A Dish Best Served Cold


A Harbor City Universe Novel


Author’s Notes: This story contains graphic descriptions of sexual assault, rape, murder, incest, drug use, money laundering, human trafficking, hypocrisy, eating disorders, paranoia, and heavy religious overtones. Further, there is off-screen descriptions of child abuse at the hands of characters in the story. Due to web host restrictions, those events cannot and will not be described as on-screen in this story. The author does not condone any of these activities as they are highly illegal. Well, maybe a little bit of paranoia is okay, but if you the reader are convinced that everyone is out to get you, it might be time to get some help. Same goes for eating disorders, those can be deadly.

This story takes place in the Harbor City Universe following the events depicted in “Bob and the Mean Girls” and before and parallel to those in “Lake Hiawatha.” It will help to have read Bob’s story first, but is not required. Events that took place in that story will be summarized throughout this tale.

This story was started as an entrant in the NaNoWriMo 2025 contest. The author asserts that the first 50,000 words (51,375 to be exact) of the first draft were completed within the month of November.

AI Usage Disclaimer: The author used ChatGPT for several items in the completion of this novel. Since Google is fundamentally broken from what it was 10 to 15 years ago, searches that would’ve taken 3 minutes 5 years ago now take an hour, and most of the top choices are AI slop articles that only point to stores. No, I don’t need to buy a subscription of DuoLingo, I just want to know how to say “Thank you” in Russian. That being said, I used AI for translations, research into floorplans, generic setting details like street names, historically accurate prices and details, and deep dives into the Prosperity Gospel wing of Evangelicalism. For example, I originally referenced Matthew Shepherd’s murder but had to change that because this story predates that.

“Nobody if a villain in their own story. We’re all the heroes of our own stories.” - George R. R. Martin

“History is written by the victors!” - Chancellor Gowron of the Klingon Empire, Battle of Deep Space 9




The Bathroom Stall




The door to the bathroom swung open with enough force to test the stopper against the wall meant to keep the handle from denting the drywall behind it. A figure dressed in all black burst forth, making a bee line to the toilet in the closest stall. The figure stopped just long enough to pull their mask down enough to uncover their mouth with their right hand as they fumbled with the toilet seat with their left. Their body arched as they vomited, unleashing everything they had in their stomach at once. Sounds of retching echoed throughout the confined space of the semi-public bathroom over and over. When the contents of their stomach were emptied, they kept dry heaving for what felt like an eternity. It was only then that they mindlessly wiped their mouth with their gloved hand that they realized the terrible mistake they made.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!” The scream was undeniably feminine as she looked down and her gloved hand and saw a mix of sick and blood. The blood had dried a little, but the sickness, drool, and sweat had moistened it enough to smear, almost certainly leaving a streak on her face. She batted at her hands over and over, trying to get the blood off of her, but it didn’t move. It didn’t leave, and soon the panic took over as she screamed over and over in the bathroom stall.

“GET IT OFF! GET OFF! GET IT OFF!” She broke down into a terrible panic attack, eventually convulsing as she curled up on the floor of bathroom.

“SLOW. Slow. Sloooow. Slooowww. Slow.” She repeated the word ‘slow’ to herself over and over, stretching it out and lowering the intensity until her breathing matched her speech. Low and slow.

It took her a moment before her ragged breathing became a smooth roll, a nearly autonomic function once again. She forced herself off of the floor and into a kneeling position where she assessed the situation. There was a toilet full of puke next to her, and it stank. The seat had a bloody handprint on it from where she grabbed it, and the stall door had blood on the handle from where she opened it. She went to flush the toilet, but stopped when she saw that the gloved hand had still more blood on it. She pushed up on the toilet bowl, trying to only touch where she already contaminated the surface. She looked around and kicked the metal handle of the toilet down, giving the toilet a flush. She waited a moment before flushing again, just to be sure.

The woman made her way to the sink, refusing to look in the mirror until she was ready to confront what she’d just done. The curved Oakley sunglasses gave everything in this room a brown look, but the spots on them made it hard for her to focus on anything.

“Slow. Slow.” The mantra helped her focus her breathing as she felt another panic attack creeping forward. She closed her eyes for a moment and thought about her situation and a plan. She then whispered to herself.

“You’re safe now. You’re in a safe place. No one can hurt you today. You need to get clean, get out of these clothes, and destroy them. One step at a time.”

She looked around the sink and countertop. She knew she’d have to have a deep clean done in here. That was just one of the hundred things she’d have to do now. She decided to make a special area for her mess, one that would be easy to track and control. She took off her Oakley sunglasses and put them down. They helped with the splatter and protected her identity. She chose these glasses for the curve they offered, giving her extra protection around her eyes. Her blue eyes, which looked… off to her. She grabbed the mask that was partially pushed down her face and pulled on it as best she could without getting more blood on her face. That itself was an exercise in futility as the black leather gloves felt like they were soaked through.

A couple deep breaths later and she pulled her outer leather gloves off, revealing blue medical latex gloves underneath. These were relatively clean, but her hands felt slimy inside of the latex. She put the gloves next to her sunglasses before returning to the mask. The thick black wool ski hood came out of the black turtleneck with some effort, eventually releasing up and over her head. Some of her blonde hair shifted, but for the most part that stayed in place, her tight pony tail being tucked under her turtleneck sweater. The mask felt heavier in her hand as she held it for a moment. It took her a second to remember why it weighed so much, but that was wishful thinking. That much blood makes everything weigh more.

It was then that she finally took a moment to look at herself in the mirror. At first it was cursory check to see if she’d missed anything or was hurt. Her skin was pale and a little red. Her blonde hair, kept mostly in place with a ton of bobby pins and hair spray, had a tinge of red to it from the blood that seeped through the mask. Her mouth was streaked with red from where she wiped her mouth, and her blue eyes were a different kind of red. They were red from strain, stress, sadness, and anger. The strain and stress of what she did weighed her down. The sadness of what she had to do now to survive, and the anger at she’d just become.

Another wave of nerves overcame her as he bent down and retched into the sink, dry heaving again. After the wave, she looked back up to the mirror. She didn’t need to tell herself to slow her breathing this time. She looked long and hard at the woman in the mirror, watching the image speak along with her.

“You…. You…. I am Natalie. I’m Natalie. I’m Natalie Daniels. I’m Natalie Lynn Daniels, and I’m going to make them all pay.”

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To be continued...

[SoftGameHunter]

Well I haven't read the other Harbor City stories, but I'm intrigued by this one. I think I've figured out that Natalie's story starts well before this moment. This strikes me as a bit of a prologue in that respect, but clearly she's been up to something severe, probably in response to something severe that happened to her. So, I'm thinking rape and revenge genre, and hopefully one that doesn't always go well for poor Natalie.

[RapeU]

12 tags, friendly reminder no more than 10

You could mention in the first post the additional tags you didn't include because of space.

[LtBroccoli]

12 tags, friendly reminder no more than 10

You could mention in the first post the additional tags you didn't include because of space.

Thanks, I'll modify that in a moment. Any chance to code that in to the post creation?

[LtBroccoli]

Well I haven't read the other Harbor City stories, but I'm intrigued by this one. I think I've figured out that Natalie's story starts well before this moment. This strikes me as a bit of a prologue in that respect, but clearly she's been up to something severe, probably in response to something severe that happened to her. So, I'm thinking rape and revenge genre, and hopefully one that doesn't always go well for poor Natalie.

Thanks. I'll cover what happened to her in Bob and the Mean Girls in the upcoming chapters, but let's just say that her story ends.... Ever seen Boxing Helena?

Next chapter incoming.

[LtBroccoli]

Chapter Tags: Prologue, Recap
Content Warnings: Descriptions of off-screen violence
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Natalie can't sleep, and wants to make that a problem for everyone else...
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Part 1: The Family

Dreams Are Made of These




Natalie tossed and turned as the late fall storm raged outside. High winds and rain pelted the windows as she mumbled in her sleep before a crash of lightning woke her for good. The combination of the thunder clap and the nightmare woke her up, the young woman startled to an upright position in the dark.

It took her a moment to get her bearings and catch her breath. She was in her bedroom in the family estate. Her king sized four poster canopy bed looked ominous in the shadows as she turned her head to shake the cobwebs clear. No one was in the room with her… this time. The digital clock on the nightstand to her left read ‘4:46’. She was fully awake and would get ready for school in an hour on the weekdays and for church on Sundays. Since today was Saturday, it was the one day of the week she was allowed to sleep in, and it was ruined by nightmares.

She shook her head and climbed out of bed, heading for the attached bathroom through the darkness. Natalie had no problem navigating her own bedroom in the middle of the night. She knew her mess better than anyone. Three steps, shimmy to the right, two more steps, turn to the right, 4 steps, turn left, there. She’d learned over these last few months to keep her room a mess. It let her know if anyone had paid her a visit when they shouldn’t. If her desk chair was out of place or if the piles were kicked over, that meant someone came in and tried to sneak around. It was a pathetic attempt at a security system, but it worked in a pinch. Nothing woke her up quite like hearing her father or brothers scream because they stepped on a thumbtack or some Lego.

After getting to the bathroom without incident, she checked herself in the mirror. She looked like shit. At least in her own mind, she looked horrendous. Her long blonde hair was a sleepy mess, her skin was flushed and sweaty, the whites of her eyes were red from crying, and her mouth… Her mouth looked raw, like her hands. She checked them again and again. She couldn’t see the blood all over them, but she knew it was there. No matter how many times she washed her face and hands, that blood just wouldn’t go away.

“Out, damned spot; out I say.” Natalie chuckled a little, thinking about Lady Macbeth in this time. She remembered that story from her senior year of high school just a few months ago. Macbeth was a mid-level lord of Scotland whose wife pushed him to bigger and better things when three witches gave him a prophecy that he’d be King. But she went mad when the blood of the old King got on her hands from her husband murdering him. She pushed him to kill the King, but the madness of guilt drove her insane to where she killed herself. The juxtaposition of her own madness at what she did last night and seeing how she was acting like the tragic Shakespearean character pushed her a little out of her funk.

She grabbed her toothbrush and decided to get a start to the day. As tired as she was, she knew there was no way she’d get back to sleep. Her dreams were too vivid and her memories too frightening to get any peace in this house. Natalie brushed her teeth in the well-appointed bathroom, rolling things over in her head.

‘It was never supposed to be like this.’ That sentence was burned into her mind ever since what happened to her up at the family’s camp last summer. Lake Hiawatha. She went there to establish herself as the leader of this generation of children in the school, and instead was raped by her dyke cousin, her whore of a girlfriend, a piece of unwanted trash, and her loser boyfriend. If she were anyone else, in any other family, this would be just another tragedy. But she’s not anyone else, she’s Natalie Daniels. She’s the daughter of the Reverend Charlie Daniels of First Union Holy Church, the largest non-denominational church in Harbor City and the tri-state region. She is the third of four children, and the oldest daughter. Her twin older brothers, Jacob and Jason, were each 6 years older than her at 24. They were treated better than her because they were boys and he was a girl. Her distaste for them can barely be put into words. Her sister Wendy is only 12, and a precocious little jerk. Natalie realized that most of her dislike for Wendy came from her being allowed to do things she wasn’t at her age. Wendy was allowed to have sleepovers and friends calling and a TV and a phone in her room. Natalie wasn’t. Wendy could have boys from the church call her, Natalie couldn’t. All because there was a plan in place for Natalie. She was supposed to marry a young man from the church from a powerful family, a rich family, and extend the church’s influence. She was supposed to stay a virgin until her wedding night, like a good Christian girl. She even had the boy picked out. But instead of getting married off as a virgin, she was raped at her family’s summer camp.

In most families, not having a hymen means nothing. But hers wasn’t most families. Her family was pious to the crowd but behind closed doors were the worst of the worst. Most teens when they say “ugh, my parents are the worst” usually mean that they wouldn’t let the kids stay out later or buy them a pager. Her family was a bunch of murderous pedophiles. Behind the scenes, they ran a child pornography creation and distribution ring.

And as long as she was pure as the driven snow, she was safe from their background activities. They’d leave her alone, never take from her what they weren’t allowed to by society’s rules. But since she was no longer a virgin, her family felt they could do whatever they wanted to her. She went from the apple of her father’s eye to just another set of holes for him and her brothers to fuck. Hell, even her own mother took advantage of her unless she stands up for herself.

She spit out the toothpaste and washed off the brush before putting back in the holder. The paranoia took over for a moment as she checked behind the shower curtain. It was empty. Natalie took another deep breath as she reasoned out her situation. There was no way that anyone would be waiting in the the shower to rape her. That’s what her bed was for. The four post bed made it easy for them to tie her up.

The water warmed up after a moment and Natalie stripped completely. She checked her nightgown and then panties. No marks, no stains, nothing unexpected. Nothing sticky or dried on her stomach, no soreness or bruising around her pussy or ass, no weird tastes in her mouth. It looks like killing a girl gets her a night of peace and quiet.

Natalie thought about her predicament as the hot water beat down on her. It all started a month after getting home from Lake Hiawatha. She wrote down in her diary what happened, and must’ve left it unlocked one night. One moment she was drinking some tea at the dining table doing some homework for college, next thing she woke up in the studio to Jason grunting as he fucked her. The studio. Her family is so invested in their depravity they built a fully functional television and film studio into their mansion. She knew about it for years but wasn’t allowed down there because she was supposed to the be face of purity and chastity. Once they found out that she wasn’t a virgin, it was, as they say “fair game.” She was drugged by her brothers and they filmed their first rape of her. They tried to keep it a secret but her brothers are morons. It took their father all of two weeks to discover what they’d been doing and for him to pay his ‘little girl’ a visit in bed. This time there were no drugs, just this large man holding her down as he forced himself into her. When she tried to fight back, he tied her arms and legs to the posts of her bed. The attacks continued nearly every night until they made a proposal. They’d leave her alone if she partook in their videos. It was a no-brainer at first. Help them abuse some little orphan sluts for their highest paying donators and that’d be that. And they did visit less frequently, but the night visits would continue. That’s when she’d get creative with leaving traps in her room. If she caught them before they tied her up or got to her on the bed, they’d leave. It was better to jerk off than to risk a broken nose from their little sister. But then the most recent deal was made, one that showed them that she was all in.

She had to kill a little girl. On film.

It was a simple shoot by the family’s standards. After Jacob and Jason had their fun with this little Haitian or Costa Rican orphan, they’d get her dressed up again in the school uniform she wore down there. No one noticed the thick plastic drop-cloth under the bed the whole time. The girl was fed some lines but Natalie didn’t hear them. She didn’t care. She only paid attention to her cue and the big knife in her hand. The black girl had one hand chained to the bed to make sure she wouldn’t run out of frame, but everything else was Natalie grabbing her and, well… She had never seen that much blood before. It was hard to catch that girl, and harder still to keep her down. She didn’t remember stabbing her in the gut, but sawing across her neck with that large hunting knife…

That wasn’t even 12 hours ago. In exchange for taking part in a snuff film, her family promises to leave her alone for at least the next 6 months.

Natalie did the math in her head. 6 months for a life wasn’t tenable. First, that’s a lot of bodies over time. That many orphans is bound to draw some attention. Second, the logistics of the matter made it imperative that she make a better deal. Third, she knew they’d go back on their word. These ‘Men of God’ weren’t worth the breath to say that phrase nor the spit she spat at them. She’d be surprised if they lasted a week before they raped her again, and for what? She was now an accomplice to their cruelty and a murderer. She needed a different plan. One that would put her in charge from now on.

As she shampooed her long blonde hair, she weighed out her options and assets. Her family was rich, famous, and corrupt. Being rich meant that going public with what they’ve done won’t see justice anytime soon. Rich meant good lawyers and PR teams that would spin her story around as that of an angry teen. Famous meant that people loved her father and the message he preached. Corrupt meant that they had the local governments in their pocket. Hell, she’d seen the Hillside Chief of Police come and visit more times than she’d care to count. She didn’t have the grasp on the numbers yet, but she knew her father had the cops in his pocket. That meant the local police were out of the picture, and with tonight’s video she was now an accomplice.

She gagged as a little of the soap got in her mouth, and that gave her an idea. Poison. The idea coalesced in an instant. She couldn’t get them to quit their ways, and she couldn’t go public, but she could poison the operation from the inside. She could destroy the church from the inside, tear down the pornography ring from the inside. And to do that, she’d have to do something so extreme her family would have no choice but to listen to her. Poison.

And she knew where to look. One advantage of being rich and corrupt is that her family has access to so many ne’er-do-wells. She knows of at least two corrupt pharmacists that they’ve worked with in the past, and she has their emails.

Another advantage, she’s smart and tech savvy. It’s 1995, the future is coming and it’s called the Internet. She’s tried talking to her family about how to incorporate tech into the ministry, but she might as well be speaking Swahili. Jason and Jacob are too stupid to turn on a computer, let alone get online. But she knew several places to go and people to meet to do things that are a little… suspicious.

Her PC was 45 minutes away at school. She took it with her to college. Not only did she not trust her family, she actually used her desktop on a near daily basis. Hell, she even upgraded from Windows 3.1 to Windows 95 a month ago right after it came out. Her roommate Suzy helped whenever she ran into a problem. Suzy was a nerdy girl, but she was her nerdy girl right now, and probably the closest thing she had to a friend.

Natalie turned off the water, dried off, and wrapped herself in a towel. Today, she was going to set some plans in motion that would make her family ever regret hurting her.
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To Be Continued...

[LtBroccoli]

Chapter Tags: nosex, setup
Content Warnings: Early birdism and that modem noise that IYKYK
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Natalie arrives at her safe space...
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Founder’s Hall





Natalie drove away from the family estate towards the city in her beige 1995 Lexus LS 400. She listened to the radio as she drove, a religious show from Humdinger reaching them through the AM waves. She found peace listening to these shows, hoping that maybe there were still people that believed in God and didn’t just give lip service while living the most hypocritical existence possible. There were 6 CD’s loaded in the disc changer, but she wasn’t in the mood for listening to her church’s choir bleat out another version of “Amazing Grace.” And since she was far behind the times on pop music due to her very strict upbringing, the only other music she could listen to for this commute was “The Very Best of the Everly Brothers.” At least listening to Sister Betty helped her focus her conflicting thoughts.

Traffic at 6AM on a Saturday is nonexistent heading into Collegetown. Collegetown is the community in Harbor City where almost all of the city’s institutions of higher learning are housed. It was originally called Oakville back in the early 1800’s because of all of the oak trees in the area. Around 1870, the town changed its name to Collegetown to distinguish it from two other towns called Oakville. Today, it’s home to at least a dozen colleges, universities, and technical schools including Redstone College.

Established in 1958, Redstone College was started as a small Bible school to train local pastors and only in the last few years added media literacy, social work, and management degrees to its curriculum. “Built upon the foundation” from Ephesians 2:20. Much like many things in her life, the foundation is a bedrock of corruption. Her family donated so much to the college that she was granted early admission back when she was a Sophomore in High School and took correspondence classes to pass all of her extraneous courses like Math and Literature. Of course, her tutors did the work for her and made sure she carried a 4.0 into her first full year of college. She would have enough credits to graduate by the end of her first semester on campus without doing a single assignment. The only two reasons she showed up to class was that she was genuinely interested in media studies, and it gave her the perfect excuse to get out of the house. She even thought about taking extra courses in the Spring semester just to come back. Doing so would allow her to graduate with a double major in Media Literacy and Management.

Natalie pulled into the student parking lot outside of Founder’s Hall, the freshman dorm on campus. It was a modest brick building with a simple security door, requiring a card swipe to get in. She made her way inside, carrying a backpack over her left shoulder.

As she climbed the stairs to her room on the third floor, she couldn’t help but notice the inherent sexism built into this school. For example, Founder’s Hall was only three floors so it was short enough to not need an elevator. Because of expansion, upperclassmen were being moved to Hearthside Commons. They were full apartments with their own kitchens and bathrooms. All upperclass men were placed there, but not the women yet. Freshman men were placed on the ground floor of Founder’s Hall while upperclass women were on the second floor and freshman women on the top floor. The administrators gave some weak excuses about chivalry and protection, meanwhile most of these men couldn’t fight their way out of a wet paper bag. When one of the women asked “if that’s the case, why don’t they help carry our TV’s upstairs” a few sideways glances showed that maybe this wasn’t well thought out. The argument is that in the next couple years Hearthside Commons will become the primary residence while Founder’s Hall gets renovated.

Natalie arrived at her room at 6:45. She unlocked the door to room 329 and entered, scanning the place before crossing the threshold. Her bed on the right side of the room was empty, still made from the last time she was here. The bed on the left was filled with her roommate Suzy, lying on top of the blankets dressed for a night on the town in a pair of dark jeans and a peach t-shirt. Natalie just shook her head at the sight and dropped her backpack on her bed. She pulled her desk chair along the linoleum floor before sitting at her desk and starting up her computer. It took a few minutes for the Pentium computer to boot up and be ready to use. A moment later she launched AOL, and the sound of the 56k modem filled the room as the computer connected to the internet.

As Natalie checked her email, Suzy grunted from the other side of the room, her bleach blonde hair splayed over her face.

“What time is it?” Suzy asked sleepily.

“7:08 in the morning.” Natalie said after looking at the clock in the Windows 95 system tray.

“When did you get in?”

“About 10 minutes ago. You?”

“Maybe 4 or 5.”

“Hung over?” Natalie asked sarcastically. Like almost every student at Redstone, Suzy didn’t drink.

“Didn’t drink, hung out at Steve’s.” As Suzy tried to ignore Natalie, her computer kept pinging “You’ve Got Mail” like it was on an infinite loop. Suzy covered her head in her pillow. “How are you the girl who comes to school on the weekend?”

“How are you the only girl on campus that sneaks out to watch Star Trek?”

“Last night was Star Wars. There’s a difference. Don’t suppose you came back to sleep?”

Natalie scoffed. “I’ve been up since 5, couldn’t sleep. Didn’t want to stay at home this weekend, I have too much work to do.” She kept typing, replying to emails as she tried to navigate the web on Netscape Navigator. “Since we’re up, feel like breakfast?”

Suzy looked at her roommate with a look that said ‘can I hide the body before anyone catches me?’ before shrugging her shoulders. “Sure. Hey, by the way, I have to type up a paper that’s due Wednesday. I’ve written it out, I need to borrow your computer to type it up and print it out.”

Natalie shrugged. At least she asked this time. “Sure. you know the drill, save it to a floppy.” She said as she wrapped up one more email regarding 2 part poisons and shut things down as they left for breakfast.

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To Be Continued...

[Shocker]

Ah those computer terms make me feel old.

[LtBroccoli]

Chapter Tags: nosex, setup
Content Warnings: Nerds pointing out plotholes, nepotism, and eating disorders
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Natalie gets inspiration from an unexpected source...
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Breakfast at Ceti Alpha V





The two women bundled up for the crisp November morning and made their way to The Table, the name given to the dining hall. The name has changed many times over the years, but The Table has stayed. It was large enough to handle 300 students at a time and often served as a gathering spot for students, faculty, and visitors. Meals were often served buffet style with the main exceptions being the international and vegetarian sections. For breakfast, only half of the stations were open, as the breakfast buffet and omelette bar took up less space.

Natalie and Suzy sat at one end of a long rectangular table meant for 10 people. No one sat with them this early on a Saturday. Just the way Natalie liked it.

She took off her coat and sat with her back to the corner, keeping an eye on the crowd. She cursed herself for not throwing on a sweater like Suzy did before they left. The draft from the windows behind her bothered her, but she’d rather be cold than eat in her coat.

Natalie was halfway through her first cup of black coffee when Suzy sat, her tray filled with an omelette, sausage, fruit, OJ, and tea with enough sugar in it for the spoon to stand on end. Suzy took a glance at Natalie’s breakfast and quietly shook her head.

“You know, it wouldn’t kill you to change things up. Black coffee, blueberry bagel with cream cheese, two strips of bacon. I could order that for you in my sleep.”

“I like what I like. Coffee helps me get going, the bagel fills me up, and the bacon tastes good.” Natalie said as she took a bite of bacon, almost as if to prove that yes, she did eat.

“You might have half that bagel now, the other half for lunch sitting at the computer, and maybe have some stew or soup for dinner. It’s Spaghetti Saturday.” Suzy said between bites.

“Stalker much?” Natalie said, trying to be sarcastic. It didn’t look like it worked.

“I worry about you sometimes. You’re always so… serious. Like you’ve got the weight of the world on your shoulders. You don’t let yourself relax. You don’t like crowds, you barely eat and only show up places when it’s required.” Suzy said, an air of concern creeping into her voice.

Natalie wasn’t sure how to react. She had good reason to be suspicious when people showed concern but so far Suzy never abused that trust. Still, she decided to play it close to the vest. “Listen, I just, well, you know, it’s hard to open up. Moment anyone finds out who I am, they assume I’m some rich snob who is either trying to manipulate them or is a dupe.”

“It’s not that bad, is it?”

“Remind me once again what’s the official name of The Table?”

Suzy sighed. “Daniels Hall.”

“Exactly. People assume I’m like my brothers. They are morons. It’s no secret that my father pulled a lot of strings for them. They had the same amount of work I do. They had so many credits before they arrived that all they had to do was go to class for one semester and graduate. It took them four years, and that was only because towards the end my family made a generous donation. Me? I’ll graduate this semester but I might want to come back next semester and learn more. No matter what I do here, I feel like people look at me weird, like ‘how can they use me’ this time.” Natalie sipped her coffee while Suzy’s jaw hung open for a moment.

“You know what, today is just the two of us. You’re taking a day off. No church, no group activities, no acoustic guitar songs, nothing. Just you, me, some pizza, pop, and some of my favorite movies.”

“Why not one of my favorite movies?” Natalie realized how dumb and hollow that question sounded.

“Do you have one? At least one that isn’t one the church told you to like?” Suzy asked, and Natalie shook her head. “Good, settled then. I know you don’t like regular pop, so I’ll get you some diet stuff, okay?”

Natalie nodded. She tried to fight back the tears forming but her eyes still watered. She blamed it on stress, but the sad reality is that this was the first time in a long time someone did anything nice for her.



——




The two young women spent the day lounging in their dorm room eating junk food and drinking soda pop. A couple other girls would stop by and hang out when they played the Star Wars trilogy in one shot, but they all left after Return of the Jedi. Natalie tried to pay attention, but just didn’t resonate with any of the characters. There was a brief moment she felt something for Darth Vader, but even that was fleeting. She was more interested in an email conversation with a chemist she knew than she was in whether the Force was with her or not.

It was after their dinner of a half pepperoni and half pineapple pizza showed up that Suzy put on her favorite movie. Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan. Natalie tried to pay attention to the synopsis that Suzy gave, but she got lost in the minutiae immediately. “My biggest gripe with this movie is that Khan was introduced in the first season episode ‘Space Seed’, and Khan meets Chekhov on the surface and Chekhov’s like “oh no” when he realizes who it is and where they are, but Chekhov didn’t join the crew until the second season, so how does Khan know who Chekhov is?” Suzy made a couple other statements like that which went right over Natalie’s head. It wasn’t until the scene where they met Khan that something clicked for her.

“So Khan was stranded on a hostile world, and not once did anyone from this Starfleet show up and see that an entire planet was missing?”

“Yeah, that’s another plothole that Optimus Prime could drive through, but it’s still a great movie.”

They continued watching for a while, but something kept clawing at Natalie’s mind. It wasn’t until Khan was on the bridge of the Reliant that he said something that pulled her attention right to the screen.

“Ah Kirk, my old friend. Do you know the Klingon proverb that tells us that revenge is a dish that is best served cold? It is very cold in space.”

Natalie sat up, motioning to Suzy. “Pause, pause.”

Suzy paused the movie, eagerly waiting for the upcoming questions.

Natalie felt something stir deep down in her soul. But she realized she couldn’t tell her friend exactly what it was. She had to come up with something fast. “Is this Moby Dick in space?”

“Maybe? I haven’t read it.”

Natalie continued. “You have Khan, a man who was hurt worse than words could describe hunting after the thing that caused him so much pain. He lost his crew, his ship, his planet, his wife, and blames it all on Kirk, who appears on screen to him the first time like a white whale. And his crew told him he could leave his anger behind, but his desire for revenge drives him on.”

“You sure you haven’t seen this movie?”

“No, but I read Moby Dick a few times. I felt that Ahab was justified in his actions, almost like a tragic hero. He dealt with the trauma of losing his leg by hunting down the white whale. He presented his revenge as cold and calculating at first, but the obsession turned hot and cost him everything.”

“I think you’ll like this movie then.” Suzy unpaused the film, heading into the first ship to ship battle between the Reliant and Enterprise.

Natalie was enthralled. She didn’t care too much for the special effects or the tech or the aliens, but loved the story. The justification for revenge, the idea that creating a paradise could destroy those already there, that the last thing Khan saw before he died was a wounded Enterprise unable to escape his grasp, and the only reason they survived was the one person Khan’s enemy cared for more than himself sacrificed his life to save everyone. Even by losing, Khan still won.

They watched Star Trek 3 right after, but it didn’t hit the same way. Instead, Natalie kept thinking about Khan’s words about revenge being a dish best served cold. Those words rolled around in her mind the rest of the night and as she slept. This time, the nightmares gave way to dreams of not just what she wanted to do to get back at her family, but how.
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To Be Continued...

[LtBroccoli]

Chapter Tags: Nosex, setup
Content Warnings: Office supplies and Planning
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Natalie has some ideas, and Suzy has something to say...
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Planning Things Out





Natalie slept in the dorm hall Saturday night. The bed was small, the room was chilly, and the frame squeaked every time she moved. It was the best sleep she’s had in a week.

She went to service in the morning at the school’s chapel and after a quick breakfast of coffee and half a bagel, she went for a stroll in the chilly November weather. Redstone’s campus felt like a sanctuary in the craziness of Harbor City. A few minute walk in any direction and she was in the heart of the city, but standing in the commons quad between the chapel, the Table, Founder’s Hall and Mission Hall where most of the classes took place felt like it could’ve been plucked out of any rural town. The air was cool enough sting her face as it blew, but not cold enough to see when she exhaled. Natalie sat with her coffee on a bench along the edge of the quad, wearing a Redstone hoodie under her coat as she sipped her black coffee and thought long and hard about what Khan said last night.

“Revenge is a dish best served cold.” She said under her breath, feeling the weight of the words as they tumbled out, trying out each word like they were a new pair of shoes.

Revenge. The act of inflicting harm or injury on someone in retaliation for a wrong they have committed. It comes from the latin word ‘vindicare’ meaning to avenge, claim, or vindicate. Which ironically is very closely related to ‘jus’, the root for justice. Since vindicate and revenge come from the same root, they go back and forth, twisting with each other like the strands of a helix or a candy cane. At what point does revenge take over for justice? When does one knowingly cross from one to the other?

Dish, to mete out or deliver. To give to someone. It’s also the item being served and the vessel it is served in. But in this context, it refers to what is being served, not the vessel nor the act of serving.

Cold. From Germanic roots, it has so many meanings and uses. The way Khan used it in the movie felt like a double entendre. Of course there’s the basic realization that the vacuum of space is ridiculously cold. It’s the coldest anything can be. Nothing is colder than it, so it makes the perfect backdrop for that line, but that’s not what he was going for. Natalie thought a little further about the tie-ins between Khan and Captain Ahab. Both were intelligent men, seemingly pursing a noble purpose and at first acted cold, distant, calculated. It was when their emotions ran hot, when they lost their tempers, that they both failed. Ahab refused the pleas to look for the son of the Rachel’s captain, ignored the omens, and prioritized vengeance over profit. Khan chased Kirk down, set traps for him, and let Kirk bait him into a fight were he would not have the advantage, a fight that was Kirk’s only chance of beating him.

If Khan had stayed emotionally cold and not let their passions drive them, they would’ve had their revenge. Khan failed because he didn’t listen to his own advice.

“I have to stay cold.” Natalie said to herself. A small shiver passed through her, but not from the chilly air. It was the realization that she would have her justice, her revenge, but she needed to be cold and calculating about it. As much as she wanted to burn the mansion down with everyone in it, she knew that would be a bad idea. She could murder everyone in their sleep, but none of these pricks were worth the jail time. She couldn’t go to the cops without implicating herself, and her family members aren’t the only ones on her list.

She nodded to herself at that thought. She’d have to make a list. Multiple lists, in fact. She rummaged through her purse, looking for a pen and a little notebook. Once she found them, she tried to write but the pen wouldn’t cooperate. After a few scribbles in the Bic, some blue ink finally came out. She wrote what she’d need.

New pens
Safe space
Board
Money
Allies
Research
Everyone

She underlined Everyone three times for emphasis.

Natalie thought for a moment as she went through her list. Unlike most college students, money wasn’t a problem. She had access to a shitload of it, both officially through her family’s ministry and through funds that she’s laundered into her own accounts that her family couldn’t touch. She only used that for emergencies. Her parents barely paid attention to her spending money, which always surprised her. They were so restrictive with everything else she did, but they don’t harp on her for any money she spends. Then again, she’s not her brothers. She didn’t buy a pair of jetskis with her tuition money, or spend a thousand dollars at the bar or try to buy a passing grade from a nun. She’s been the “responsible one”, even if that meant she had little freedom with anything else. Still, she would scurry away half the money she was given into her own account at Bank of America. She could use her money to rent or even buy a safe space and supplies. The research would be one of the easier things to do against her family, but she had so many more people that hurt her.

Allies would be the toughest thing to get. Anyone close to the family or that depended on them couldn’t be completely trusted. Sure, they could be trusted to operate in their own self-interest, but that’s just semantics for “will stab you in the back when needed.” She thought about all of her friends and allies and came up with a very, very short list. Her old nanny turned tutor Aunt Nancy, the second in charge of security for her family Alexander Petrovsky, and Suzy. Nancy had raised her once Mother decided that she was too busy with the ministry and raising Wendy, and Alexander was quite smitten with her, and she had to admit that he was kinda cute. There were a couple other men around that she knew checked her out that she could manipulate, but she dare not count them as friends or allies. She refused to count her little sister as such. Natalie wanted to keep Wendy away from this life as long as possible. She wondered how long she could do that for before realizing that she’d have to make a plan to get her out of here. As far as Suzy goes, she was the closest friend Natalie had and didn’t even know when her birthday was. She’d have to find that out.

Speaking of Suzy, that led Natalie to her next item, a safe space. Natalie couldn’t live in the dorms forever, and having a roommate might dampen any revenge plans. Kind of hard to plot downfalls and destructions when the roommate asks ‘what’s with all the pictures and red string on the cork board?’ Natalie would have to get her own place, or at least have a safe place she can do her plotting. It would be nice to have a roommate though. Since she technically graduates this semester, she could get an apartment of her own off campus, and there’s tons of apartments and houses for rent in the area. But she would have to keep up appearances for the church. She thought about how to pull that off for a few minutes before a passing pair of students talked about a mission they went on in high school. That’s when the idea struck her.

She would get her own store and turn it into a mission chapel.

The store gave her several things at once like a place to work, a face for the public, and a legitimate excuse for not being at home anymore. If she played her cards right, she could even find a place that has an apartment in it or is part of a building with a place she can live. It would give her a place to plot her revenge away from home, wherever that may be.

Natalie returned to her dorm and immediately went through her digital rolodex on her computer. She had already transferred all of her cards and phone numbers to her PC months ago when she realized her brothers most likely read her diary to find out that she was raped. To be honest, she was more surprised they could read rather than that they would break the lock. But since then, she’s gone to great lengths to hide her private thoughts and contacts. She transferred all of her contacts to a document and hid it in a subfolder that she then hid from prying eyes. She was getting good at using a computer. Launch the DOS prompt, type in ‘cd c:\windows\fonts\exxtras’ enter, ‘attrib -h *.*’ enter, then she could see the file named ‘contacts.txt’. She didn’t worry about anyone around her being on her level with computers, but the last few months of pain have taught her not to take chances. Going through the file, she found the three people she needed to talk to this week. Her lawyer, her realtor, and her fixer.

Her lawyer, Charles Schumacher, was a no-nonsense young man working his way up through his father’s law firm. His father worked with her family for many years, but Natalie hired Charles to be her personal lawyer. So far he’s helped her with the finer points of out-of-state LLC registration. She’ll need that for purchasing any property. One of the things she learned from him and her realtor was how using an LLC can mask ownership. It doesn’t help the pious image when her family purchased a 12 bedroom mansion on 50 acres of property so the initial paperwork was done by a limited liability corporation her father set up. The news still broke, but by that time the family had moved in and some ‘church operations’ were being run out of there for a few months before they were moved to a new office next to the church.

Her realtor, Alice Wang, was a woman Charles’s firm had worked with from time to time. She specialized in commercial real estate that had mixed use. Her and Natalie talked a couple months ago when they randomly met in Collegetown. Alice was searching for a property to sell when the two ran into each other and sat for coffee for the next hour. Natalie didn’t have as concrete of a plan as she does now, but knew she had to do something so made sure to keep Alice’s card.

Her fixer was Anthony Martens, or Tony as he was usually called. Tony was a former cop turned private investigator when a brutality case he was involved with got a little out of hand and he was injured. He took the medical retirement and settlement and went into PI work, where he spends most of his days tracking down cheating spouses when he wasn’t working with her. He was older, probably in his late 30’s to early 40’s, and a bit of a perv. Natalie caught him checking her out every time they were together. She admitted that she’s flirted with him a couple times to get him to do what she wanted. He was cute for an older man.

She wrote down the contact info for them and left. A few minutes later and she was in her Lexus and off to IGA to do some grocery shopping including some office supplies, calling cards, the Sunday Harbor City Gazette, and copies of the free Auto Trader, House Trader, and Apartment Trader. She also grabbed some ramen, snacks, and pop for Suzy.

When she arrived back at the dorm, she didn’t expect to find her roommate crying on the bed. Natalie put the groceries down and approached Suzy.

“What’s wrong?” Natalie asked.

“This stupid school. My stupid parents. Everything.” Suzy then grabbed her pillow and screamed. Natalie stood for a moment before moving next to the other blonde and sitting next to her on the bed.

“How so?”

Suzy screamed one more time into the pillow before sobbing again. Natalie sat there, unsure what to do. Slowly, she patted Suzy on the shoulder after asking herself ‘what would I want someone to do here?’ Suzy immediately turned towards Natalie and hugged her, crying on her shoulder for a minute before she said anything.

“Coming here was a mistake. This school’s such a bad joke. I don’t belong here.” Suzy said, as if she were about 5 minutes deep into a conversation that Natalie just arrived to.

“Okay. Could you… I don’t know, start at the beginning. What happened?” Natalie asked, uncomfortable with someone else showing this much emotion like this.

“I’ve been thinking of transferring out. I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want to hurt you, you were just starting to open up and me telling you I want to leave might make you go back in your shell, but I’ve been miserable here. The classes are a joke, nothing even comes close to what I want to do with my life, and I just found out that none of the courses I took would transfer to anywhere but HCU or 4C, and even that only works if I pass some tests. My parents made me come here because they thought I’d meet my future husband here, but every boy here is a self-righteous tool who wants nothing more than a broodmare fuckmaid stay-at-home wife to raise the kids and say ‘Praise Jesus’ while she becomes a toxic closet drunk, gossiping about the neighbors because she has nothing worthwhile going on in her life. The only courses for a woman at this college are Church Management and Media Relations. Why? Because they don’t see women as anything more a walking uterus. I want to be an engineer, I want to be a programmer or a mathematician, and this school doesn’t have any of that. And forget sciences here, they’re still pushing that Young Earth bullshit like it hasn’t been disproven hundreds of times by anyone with a fucking brain. Even if Jesus were real, he’d be a brown skinned man that no one from this school would even look at twice, let alone follow. And he sure as shit wouldn’t be a white guy riding a dinosaur. But I tell my parents about what I’m thinking, and they flip out, calling me everything from a jezebel to a slut and a whore, simply because I don’t want to be a stay-at-home mom before I can legally buy a bottle of wine. I want to do something with my life, not define it by last name or where I came from. I want to make a difference, do something for the world. But they won’t hear it. So I’m stuck here until I graduate with a useless degree, pretending to believe in what they preach meanwhile watching most of these jerks go on to join the Young Republicans or Focus on the Family, or whatever the next group will be until I break down from loneliness and say yes to the first boy desperate enough to date me, get married to loser who sucks in bed because we have to stay pure and all that shit so I’ll spend my life with a man who couldn’t fuck his way out of a wet paper bag, but I’m left unsatisfied for life because I have to stay loyal while he’s off fucking the organist or whatever in private because of course the only job any of these men will try for is to be a pastor, or I’ll find the one kind and caring man in the group but it turns out he likes kids or boys or some shit like that. And my parents refuse to listen to me because what do I know, I’m only a young kid, I’m not like them, a 40-year-old man who married an 18-year-old girl straight out of high school and knocked her up before they were together for a year. Because that’s all Mom knows, she never had a chance and I do but my Dad won’t let me leave here. It’s so damn unfair.”

Suzy cried a little harder on Natalie’s shoulder as a hundred thoughts went through Natalie’s mind. The first was ‘why bother me with this?’ That was followed by ‘are we friends like this?’ Eventually, the last voice, one that wasn’t hers, broke through the crowd. Khan’s voice. ‘She can be useful.’ At least her inner voice had changed from that of her parents calling her worthless and spoiled to that of Ricardo Montalban. She patted Suzy on the shoulder again and thought about what to say.

“So, you want to leave this school, but didn’t want to hurt me. And your parents are jerks who won’t let you leave, and the only other two schools that would even take any of this course work is Harbor City University and Chester County Community College. Right?” Natalie said flatly.

“Yeah.” Suzy said between sniffles.

“Then quit.”

“I can’t.”

“Why not?” Natalie asked.

“Because if I quit, they won’t let me back in the house. They won’t pay for any college besides here. Not as long as I can go here. Not that it matters, they’re not the ones taking out the student loans.”

Natalie thought on that for a moment. “So quitting won’t work. Will they pay if you are kicked out?”

“They’re only paying for what my loans don’t cover. But they won’t pay for anything at any other school, no matter what. Which means I can’t afford to go to HCU or anywhere else.”

“Are you certain you’d get accepted to other schools?” Natalie asked.

“I’ve already been accepted to HCU’s Engineering department. Was leaning toward electrical engineering but they have so many options.” Suzy said, sounding a little despondent at what could and should have been.

Natalie paused, wondering how far she could go with this plan and with Suzy. “How comfortable are you with lying to your parents.”

“Not very but I’ll do it if I need to. Why?”

“I graduate this semester. I could choose to come back and keep a dorm room, but sharing a bathroom and kitchen with 90 other girls sucks. Even if I come back or not, I need to find a place, and I was going to look in Collegetown. An apartment, or storefront, maybe both. Store is, well, haven’t decided yet. But I’m talking to a realtor this week about finding a building for sale nearby. It’ll probably have apartments for rent, or I might want a roommate too.”

“You asking me to move in with you?” Suzy asked.

“I guess. Nothing specific yet.” As Natalie said that, Suzy hugged her tighter. “You’re choking me.” Natalie squeezed out.

“Oh, sorry.” Suzy loosened her hold. “That’s great, I’d love to keep living with you. You’re a great roommate.”

“Really?” Natalie asked, doubting herself for just a moment.

“Yeah. Best I’ve had. Only one I’ve had, but still best I’ve had.” Suzy laughed a little and Natalie smiled. “What about the lying part?”

“You start the semester at HCU, just going to class. Have your mail and stuff sent to the apartment until you’re ready to tell them. Meanwhile, here you have three options. Drop out, fail out, or get kicked out.”

“My grades are too good for failing out unless I just didn’t show up to any finals, and that’s the same as dropping out which they won’t approve of.”

“Which leaves getting kicked out.”

“I don’t know. Won’t that look bad?” Suzy asked.

“Depends on how and when. Get kicked out for cheating, and HCU will boot you for academic dishonesty or some trash like that. But that’s not the only way to get kicked out of Redstone.”

Suzy thought about it for a second. “The honor code?!”

“The honor code. After or during finals, do something that would violate the honor code. Get caught doing it. Remember, they have different levels of offenses but if you’re looking to get the boot right away, it’ll have to be good. They’ll give you the option to voluntarily withdraw from school either permanently or for a time period usually of a year or at least a semester. If you don’t, they’ll threaten to expel you until they either expel you or you leave of your own accord.”

“How do you know so much about this?” Suzy asked.

“It’s how my brothers finally graduated. Jacob was caught with a couple girls in his and Jason’s apartment. The girls snitched on how many drugs they had there. They were threatened with expulsion even after my father made a generous donation. Everyone agreed to let the two take their required final exams as take-home tests to give them a chance to pass. I helped them with them.”

“And by helped you mean-“

“I did 90% of the work and made them rewrite the answers in their own handwriting. Which was another problem for them but I was already taking correspondence courses, so they knew my work a little. They looked the other way when the next check cleared.” Natalie said.

“I’ll have to look over the honor code again, but I think that could work. But there’s so many ways this could go wrong. All of this depends on you finding a place. Want me to help with the apartment search?”

“Sure, but like I said I’m meeting with a realtor this week. I’ll call her tomorrow.”

“Thank you. Thank you so much.” Suzy hugged her extra hard and long, and Natalie hugged her back. In the excitement, Suzy’s lips lightly grazed Natalie’s cheek and thought for a moment she felt a little peck from her friend. She sat stunned for a moment before they pulled out a copy of the student handbook to look up the Honor Code.
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To Be Continued...