Rydia looked at the jumbled mess her latest project had become, then sighed and set down her tools. It'd been about a month since that whole incident with Bleu and she was still upset about how she'd handled it. She wondered if she'd lost her friend forever. She got up from her seat and walked across the room to join her other two friends.

Daria sat on the bed, half watching TV and partly reading a magazine. There was some sort of protest going on in Medina and the shows kept getting interrupted to show clips of the protesters and reports of rioting. Schala sat next to the princess and Rydia sat down behind them both.

"I wonder if this still would've happened had Mother been kinder to the Mystics," Schala murmured.

"Eh, who knows." Daria flipped another page of her magazine. "Shame they gotta act like monsters."

Rydia winced. While she knew the Mystics were dangerous, the flippant way her friend dismissed their entire species still sounded awful. Apparently, Schala must've felt the same way because she smacked Daria on the arm.

"What?" the princess whined back. "I'm just saying it's a shame -- some of them are kinda cute."

"You... think so?" Schala asked, brow wrinkled. She turned her head to look at Rydia, who shook her own head before shrugging as well.

"Yeah, I mean... don't you?" Daria asked, blushing. Her blush deepened at her friends' silence.

Rydia hoped her smile didn't look too much like a grimace. Daria had always tended towards being boy-crazy, but it was still shocking to find out that that included Mystic boys as well.

"I don't like Mystics," Daria continued defensively, as if reading Rydia's thoughts. "I just think some of them are cute! And by cute, I mean cute like a kitten!" She jabbed at a picture in the magazine, then held it up. It showed a chiseled-featured young actor with artfully-mussed hair. "This guy is hot! And human!"

Schala remained silent while Rydia struggled to think up something to say. She wished Bleu was there, though she doubted Daria would've expressed those thoughts if she were. Bleu never spoke of any crushes or boyfriends and Rydia found herself wondering if the half-Mystic was even attracted to Mystics herself. It seemed weird to think about and she could feel her face grow hot before she pushed that thought aside.

"Whatever." Daria closed the magazine, then slid off of the bed. She glanced towards the TV -- where Mystics continued to march in Medina's main square -- and her face reddened again. "I'm going home. I... uh, I don't feel well!" With that, she turned and left. The door slammed shut behind her.

Schala started to get up as well, but settled back down again with a sigh. "That was... something."

"Uh-huh." Rydia turned to watch the protesters; there were many different types of Mystics in the crowd and they all looked strange to her. Judging from the expression on Schala's face, she guessed that the other girl agreed.

"I had no idea," Schala added with a guilty look towards the door that Daria had left through. "She's never admitted such things before?"

Rydia thought back, then shook her head. "I don't think she's going to again, either. Don't tell Bleu."

"I wasn't planning on it," Schala said. "In fact, we should probably let this be forgotten? For Daria's sake?"

"Yeah, it'll just be Daria's dirty little secret." Rydia laughed, a little nervously. "Never spoken of again."

Schala hesitated before she rapped on the door to Daria's room. She could hear music playing -- too loudly, with an angry-sounding female vocalist and snarling guitars -- and doubted Daria could hear her.

To her surprise, the music shut off and Daria yanked the door open. The princess's eyes were red and it was obvious she'd been crying.

"Can we talk?" Schala asked.

Daria shrugged. "Knock yourself out."

Schala locked the door, then sat down beside Daria and unrolled the magazine she had brought with her. Daria curled her lip when she saw what it was: the Mystic edition of a popular entertainment magazine. "I found this in the donation box at the library," Schala said. "I'm curious... would you mind?"

"Mind what?" Daria asked.

Schala sighed inwardly at her friend's defensive tone. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea... She flipped through the magazine, smoothing the pages as she went, until she found a cologne advertisement that featured a moody-looking Mage posing on a beach in a pair of surf-dampened jeans. He'd obviously spent time in a gym, but Schala found herself more distracted -- and negatively so -- by his long sharp teeth than by his rock-hard muscles. "What about him?"

Daria shrugged again, though Schala noticed that her cheeks were pink. "He's okay. For a Mystic."

Schala flipped through a few more pages, then pointed to an interview with two Imp actors that starred in a buddy cop movie. Daria looked at the page, then back at Schala. "Just between us," Schala told her.

Daria nodded. She pointed to one of the actors, but didn't say anything.

Schala nodded as well. She continued until she found an album review; the band was called Flight Path and the lead singer was an Outlaw. Daria's expression remained guarded, but her face reddened further.

"Is he any good?" Schala asked, brows raised. The other princess's eyes narrowed for a moment before she nodded.

"His name's Walter. I've got one of his albums. I had to hide the cover and liner notes, but..." Daria leaned forward to read the article, though her eyes kept flicking back to the picture of the singer belting into the mic. "Okay, go," she added once she'd apparently read the review.

Schala continued to flip pages and stopped on another review, this one for an action movie featuring a Goon leading man. He was all teeth and ears and, after Daria's reaction to the Outlaw, she was surprised to see the other girl shake her head.

"No. Uh-uh. No freakin' way," Daria muttered, legs crossed.

"Really?" Schala asked before she could stop herself.

"He's a GOON," Daria leveled back. "They're like... eight feet tall! Look at him! Would YOU want THAT bearing down on you?! It'd be like doing it with a transport skimmer!"

Schala's eyes widened and she crossed her legs as well.

"...Yeah. Thought so," Daria muttered, then blushed deeply. When she continued, her voice was a whisper. "Some women must like that, though. Marcie -- she's the singer of Dumpster Fire -- she's dating the drummer. Jurian's huge... just this great big, blond guy. I think he might really be a Goon."

Schala nodded, legs still crossed. She handed the magazine to Daria, who paged through it.

"Seen that, heard that, not interested, not interested, want to see that, not interested, not --" Daria stopped mid-sentence, then continued, breathily, "Well, hello there." She closed the magazine with her fingers marking the page when Schala leaned over to look.

"I'm not telling Rydia and I'm definitely not telling Bleu," Schala told her. "And I'm not going to laugh."

"Fine. Don't go telling my parents, either. I swiped a Medina copy of Sophisticate from this Imp that was the make-up lady at one of Mom's events and... wow, did Mom have an entire litter of kittens when she saw me reading that. I played it off as just seeing the title since I'd been caught with a regular issue before, but... yeah, that particular talk is not something I want to repeat."

Schala nodded again. While she wasn't very familiar with the various magazines this modern world had available for purchase, she guessed that Sophisticate was a particularly lurid and trashy one. The sort of thing that promised all sorts of saucy stories and titillating suggestions about, in that particular issue's case, fun things for Mystic women to do with Mystic menfolk. She fought the urge to wrinkle her nose. "Let's see him."

"I can't believe I'm doing this," Daria muttered as she opened the magazine back up. "And before you ask: yeah, he's hot." She stared appreciatively at the underwear-clad model on the page. "Really, really hot."

Schala looked at the page that Daria was eyeing so greedily and, while she tried to keep her expression neutral, she felt her brow start to crinkle. She had expected her to go for the more human-looking Mystics and was surprised to see that her friend gravitated most strongly to the birdlike Outlaws. Much like the Mage and Goon, this Mystic had also spent time in a gym -- and filled out the snug-fitting briefs in a human enough and very male way -- but she found him far too alien to be attractive. "Huh."

"Yeah. 'Huh.'" Daria closed the magazine again and set it aside. "Look, I get it. It's weird."

"No, not really," Schala said. "I've just never thought of Mystics in that way. Mother forbade me from associating with them, and all my servants were human. Perhaps I could've loved a dashing young soldier had I been allowed in their company."

"Maybe, but I doubt it. You'd know. I've known ever since I started noticing boys." Daria hugged one leg close to her chest and rested her chin on her knee. "And I think my parents know, too... y'know, about me. They act like they don't -- and maybe they really don't -- but it's... weird. As long as I act normal, everything's okay and... I don't know. I've never actually told anyone before. Not even Rydia," she said, then groaned. "Now you both know."

"It's okay -- we're still your friends." Schala touched her arm and Daria pushed it away. "I'm serious! I'm not saying that Rydia and I didn't talk about what you said -- because we did -- but we both decided that it doesn't matter. We never have to bring it up again if you don't want us to. It'll be like we never heard it in the first place."

"That'd be great," Daria sighed.