▰ ▰ ▰ ▰ Astra ▰ ▰ ▰ ▰
To say that the last couple of hours inside Astra's head had been turmoil would be a massive understatement.
A storm of emotions and fragmented thoughts swept her up completely, and carried away her toward utterly unfamiliar shores - toward something that, minute by minute, began to resemble the long-forgotten black cliffs of her distant past.
If someone had asked Astra to describe what life without control of you own body felt like, she would have answered without hesitation: boring.
All the other "abnormalities" were either too rare to matter, or simply didn't register as such.
But boredom?
The inability to turn your head, to ask something interesting, to change the TV channel stuck on yet another rerun of the same cartoon episode, one she'd seen so many times she could count the hairs on Stimpy's ass even in her sleep?
Boredom was more familiar to her than her own mother.
At least until the magical moment when, at twelve years old, a magic cap was finally placed on her head and she gained her best friend: Mr. Cursor.
Oh, the adventures they had! The things they saw! The fun they did!
The years that followed after endless boredom now felt not like a miserable five years, but like several decades.
Which, for someone who fell asleep and woke up staring at a monitor - a window into the most vivid moments of other people's lives and fictional worlds, in a way, they were such.
It wasn't that her mother hadn't tried to give her more. Even now Astra wasn't sure what exactly, but a single mom with a low-paying job can only do so much...
Mom… Astra thought, with longing.
And although she loved Mr. Cursor dearly, a small part of her was almost glad that one day everything suddenly turned red, and her body finally released her mother from the burden.
And thereafter something gave Astra a second chance.
Now, Astra was never seen herself as stupid.
Thank heavens she wasn't raised on nonstop history channels and didn't become a foremost expert on ghost types and alien species.
I wonder, she thought absently, whether that kind of content is just covert training for Scuuby-Do and Ghost-burster universes.
No, thanks to random TV channels, and later with Mr. Cursor's guidance through "normal life" she just became a well-rounded dilettante in almost everything that interested her. Which was a lot. From such unbelievable facts like "cap is almost a bagel" to intricacies of Princess Diana biography.
Therefore, when she received a second chance, in the body of a high-nobility girl, she honestly tried to squeeze everything she could out of it. "To life fully."
Only to suddenly realize that her second life was far more restrictive and boring than the one she'd had with Mr. Cursor.
Almost like life before him, just with a different kind of physical constraints.
At least during the first few months after transmigration. While doctors were still trying to "fix her mind" with foul-smelling pills. And before she fully realized that her second chance existed largely because of her solid grasp of the isekai genre, therefore such knowledge had to become both her main weapon and shield.
After subsequent several exhausting rounds of conflict between her and her new "parents", a tentative understanding, a kind of truce, finally formed. And Astra…
Well, from her point of view, she clawed her way a bit closer to the freedom she'd had on Earth. At least in form of roughly a third of each day, 5 free hours squeezed between persistent attempts to improve her breeding sow qualities.
From ages eleven to eighteen of her new life, actively weaponizing her beauty, cuteness, and status, as usual not thinking too much about the future, Astra largely returned to what she loved most: freely indulging her whimsical curiosity.
Only now, as the protagonist of a rather stupid story.
Until, suddenly, after seven years of her stable life, just a half a year before her planned escape, her life changed course once again.
At first glance, it looked like it had given her exactly what she'd been longing for - just a little more freedom.
With every passing minute her exult mood subsided, and the new "gift" began to resemble the thing Astra hated even more than boredom: new imposed rules and other's will over her. New bars. A new cage.
And somewhere between glee and fear her emotions just rebelled.
Astra knew she'd been wrong in the chat. Wrong with Bella and Max. Too much, like Max said, "straightforward behavior" one.
But… she just couldn't have acted any other way. To cut her happiness, her long-awaited vent. And thereafter to give away another piece of her expectations, beliefs, and freedoms.
I wish this chat had never existed, Astra thought.
Yes, the chat gave her more opportunities than she'd ever had before.
But tentative ability to trade ten mundane items for something roughly equivalent. And a vague hope of something greater in the future - if she happened to please the chat's owner or give him what he wants - had taken just as much from her.
She didn't know what exactly.
But just hours after gaining the chat, she definitely knew that she already lost something deeply important.
I hope he likes it and asks for more, Astra thought, glancing once again at the photo she had taken.
It wasn't that she truly wanted that.
Yet, despite living in luxury, because of her… freedom-loving behavior… her beauty was her main leverage. And if that fails, she'll have to rely on the money she's saved so far. A lot for many, but not enough for what she wanted from her future.
Adding a small teaser, something potentially interesting to a potential audience, Astra finally pressed Send and waited anxiously for a Max reply.
➖ 🌟 ➖ 🌟 ➖ 🌟 ➖ 🌟 ➖ 🌟 ➖
🌟Astra🌟 If you're standing, take a seat. You're about to see the most beautiful girl in the entire kingdom.
Hmm. If I were the main character of a visual novel, this would be a perfect cliffhanger moment…
Anyway - here I am.
🌟Astra🌟 So?
{{{ Please, please, ask for more. }}}
⚜️Max⚜️ According to international standards, you're not a furry - you're an animaloid of 3-4rt tier.
I'm not Readit, so I won't speculate about extra functionality of your eyes based just on a single photo. Therefore, category three it is.
That's four categories below the academic consensus threshold for "furry."
In other words, at least judging by your torso, you're basically human with one fully developed secondary animal trait. You don't have a tail, right?
{{{ what? Sick bastard! THAT'S ALL HE HAS TO SAY?! }}}
🌟Astra🌟Absurd! I'm obvious 10/10 BEST GIRL!
⚜️Max⚜️ 10/10? Even by 2017 standards your beauty more like an 8.5, maybe a 9.
Yes, the unusual ears, eyes, hair color, that "grandmother" hairstyle add exotic appeal. You emphasized it well with the gothic black nails and too much mascara.
But a little oversized mouth, small lips, low-set brows, and a sharp chin balance that out. Also, truly cute things shouldn't try so hard to be cute.
By my era's standards: 8/10 for the face and tentatively 8.5/10 for the upper torso. Objectively. Personally, I prefer slightly smaller and higher-set breasts.
Taken together with the personality…
Well. Back on Earth, I'd probably spend 5-10$ on your AI model. But no more. Yes, interesting appearance, but such personalities tend toward hallucination collapse at high temperature, and repetition at low.
For long-distance romantic involvement, extrapolating from what I've seen so far - definitely no. You're too impulsive and fickle for complex role-play. Even steady BDSM brat-play would demand too much time and emotional investment to prep you for anything out of banality.
Real relationships? Sorry, but too much emotions and playfulness-infantilism.
So, overall and tentatively, let's say 8/10.
{{{ 8.5 beauty?!
GRANDMA HAIRSTYLE?!
BIG MOUTH???!!!
!!!NOT CUTE!!!
???LOW BREASTS???
|||5–10 DOLLARS|||
B\IO }}}
⚜️Max⚜️ By the way, there's a red cross above your head. That means earning relationship points with clients is forbidden.
⚜️Max⚜️ Astra?
⚜️Max⚜️ No offense. You asked for an evaluation, and I gave you exactly that.
⚜️Max⚜️ If anything, this is a good thing. Imagine if you really were a 10/10. I'd be thinking only about your looks, not your personality.
⚜️Max⚜️ Sorry. I wanted to show you how your behavior looks from the outside, but it seems I went a bit too far.
I'm not saying that it's not my fault, it's my fault, still, high stress and ability to communicate at a speed several times faster than speech, just by throwing own stream of consciousness at an interlocutor, is a really awful combination.
➖ ➖ ➖ ➖ ➖ ➖ ➖ ➖ ➖ ➖
Astra walked over to the window and hysterically began kicking the wall hidden behind yet another stupid maroon velvet curtain.
The chat wasn't what she had expected.
Max wasn't what she had expected from a supposedly 18-year-old guy.
His reaction to her appearance wasn't what she had expected either.
Once again, Astra wished everything would return to how it was before her transmigration.
Back to normal. Back to predictable control.