34: The Dreamer
A rap at the door broke the silence. A startled Dante looked to be having an internal debate as to whether or not he should answer it and Phantasia wanted to reassure him – she knew it was Katrina, but how could she explain her psychic abilities? After another knock, Katrina called through the letterbox.
“Dante? Dante, is everything all right?”
He looked at Phantasia, took a deep breath and then shuffled over and let Katrina in. Before he could react she smothered him like a mother who had been reunited with her missing child.
“You didn’t come home last night,” she said, “I was worried about you!”
“It’s okay, he stayed over at mine,” said Phantasia, not expecting the shocked look Katrina gave her. The broad-shouldered girl with self-cut hair looked at Dante with inquiring eyes. “It was a rough night,” continued Phantasia, “We didn’t get much sleep!”
“Excuse us a minute,” said Katrina, before taking Dante’s hand and dragging him outside.
Even with her superior senses Phantasia couldn’t make out what they were talking about, only that it involved Dante raising more barriers and a barrage of thoughts and emotions from both parties that she couldn’t read. If Faye were here she’d be able to work out what was going on – but then she would also be liable to announce it to everybody! In a world where humans valued their silent thoughts, a tactless faerie such as Faye would be a disaster! Perhaps that was why Queen Thetis and Dionysus, having spent years in the company of humans, were so much more discerning.
“Is Katrina okay?” asked Phantasia as soon as Dante reappeared. His cheeks were burning red and his hair had been ruffled.
“I-I think she got the wrong idea,” he said, avoiding eye contact.
“Wrong idea?”
“You know, about me sleeping over at yours?”
“What’s wrong with that? It’s what people do, isn’t it?”
“No, it’s not that, it’s…it’s suspicious!”
Phantasia felt as if she’d walked into another of those complicated human situations that didn’t make sense, like the bizarre antagonism between Kaori and Shelley, or the rivalry between good friends like Byron and Doyle. She made a mental note to research ‘the wrong idea’ when she had the chance.
“You need to get out more,” she said, hoping a change of subject might relieve his anxiety, “You spend too much time shut away in your room. It’s making you paranoid! We should go into town and meet everyone!”
“Aye—what—you?” Dante’s face screwed up in cocktail of shock and disgust, “You’re insane! You don’t want to be seen with someone like me!”
“Of course I do,” she replied with a cheerful smile, “And so do all your friends!”
Dante backed away towards the bathroom, he hand groping the air until it settled on the door handle. “B-but people…they’ll get the wrong idea! You’ll be laughed at! Don’t do it! Find someone better!”
“Oh, Dante, you’re being silly again! You’re going out with me, and that’s final!”
~ Given an ultimatum, Dante has no choice!! ~
~ Next: Awkward Social Situations!! ~
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Mmmm I’ve been waiting for this update!
Thank you.
There are a few new ways of expressing things near the bottom of the first page, ways that I haven’t seen before, but since I am not a native english speaker, I hesitate to call them “errors”
Thanks
You’re right too – there were some oddities there that slipped through the gaps! Thanks for drawing my attention to them (they’re so much more obvious when they’re sitting here on the site, rather than in a word processor…)
im going to guess that dante and some others will beleive he and phantasia are dateing after this. that will definately be some awkward social situations.
I have realized that English english barely uses “Z”s in words. All jokes aside, this has been quite excellent! I am slightly depressed that I am now at the end for now and must wait for updates
. I think illustrations or even animations of Dante’s “dreams” (ancient memories) would be quite cool. I think it would be interesting for Phantasia to pick up some books on the subtleties of human courting and mating rituals. But then I am just a weird guy like that.
Yeah, we hate the z and love the u! And don’t worry, come next March I’ll have enough of a backlog to extend to two whole chapters a week (woah!).
Dunno about animation though. That’s an awful lot of work… I tried it years ago. It was terrible.
@aqua
The worst thing that could happen to poor Dante while he’s getting dragged around BY A GIRL would be to run into a couple of comedians like Lysander and Angelo…
Heh, you’d think between the fairy world and the school they’d assign someone to tutor her in “being human,” but then again where’s the fun in that?
There was very much an element of “she can only learn through experience” when she was taught about stuff. I mean you can study a foreign culture as much as you like, but that doesn’t mean you’ll adapt to it straight away!
Compared to how other faeries would cope, she does pretty well. It’ll be obvious in about a month just how rubbish the average faerie is with humans…
@ Dary HAHAHAHAHA THAT WOULD BE HILARIOUS. those two are probably the only two who could joke about it. everyone else would probably be to busy standing there slack jawed dumbfounded at the sight of Dante with a girl to say anything till they were gone.
I found this story while going through my list of Webcomics one day and I decided that this story could only be better in one way. And that way would be in print! I’m one of those crazies who loves the feel and smell of a new book, and can’t wait to explore the realm hidden in the pages.
As I said I started reading and didn’t want to stop! The characters you create along with the scenery, the sense of time, the way you bring the past, the present and the future into a collage that depicts one way to view the future is simply splendid! Now I am not an author or anyone associated with the book buisness, but this is DEFINANTLY a story that would make a fantastic series to have in Print so that even more people could find it!. So far I have noticed a few grammatical and spelling errors but they are realively few for the number of pages there is. Can’t wait to see chapter 35! And I really would like to see an illustration of the 3 eye’s cat, I have the funniest mental Image of that….
Also if I may add the way you depict your characters allows us to paint a very vivid mental image of them, keep writing!
Thankyou! I’ll self-publish something one day, since there’s no way this would sell to a big publisher (it’s not even a novel!). That version will hopefully be devoid of the spelling/grammatical errors that slip under the radar every week XD
I’ve made some sketches of the cat. Will be completing one for later tonight, hopefully!
Again, thanks for reading, and for the encouragement!