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A Little Weight Problem

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Haven't done colouring in a while, so I thought I'd brush up. Lineart as always is by the excellent :iconshoxxe:.
(Chen is property of ZUN/Team Shanghai Alice, and so on.)

Haven't done writing in a while either, so I threw in a little story to go with it. :D

-----

As Chen slowly came to her senses, she had an innate sense that something was wrong.

The first thing she determined was that this wasn't her bed. Harsh wooden planks pressed against her face as she struggled not to get splinters in her mouth. She tried to roll over, but something heavy was clinging to her back.

The next thing she realised was that these weren't her clothes. Her nightgown had vanished, and in its place someone had dressed her in a full skin-tight fabric in two shades of blue. A clunky plastic mask had been strapped in front of her eyes, and two floppy flippers were clipped to her feet. She kicked them about, the plastic dipping up and down in time with her movements.

This led to her third revelation - namely, the clanging of chains that she heard whenever she moved one foot.

"Nyaaah?!"

Chen rolled around, heaving at the weight on her back. A ball and chain had been clipped around her left ankle, held in place by a lock on the clamp. The key for this lock was sitting in the hand of the woman hanging over her.

"Good morning, Chen. Apologies for the rude awakening."

Chen's master, Ran Yakumo, was in an outfit very similar to Chen's. Her suit was black with grey highlights in comparison to Chen's cheery blues. A large cylinder was strapped to her back - Chen assumed that the weight she'd been hauling around was something similar.

The fox sat down on the edge of the wooden planks, her multiple tails bouncing around. Chen looked over to see what had caught her master's attention. Her vision was quickly filled with the largest body of water she had ever witnessed. Chen pulled back, but the metal ball was sturdy enough to keep her from getting too far.

Ran frowned. "See, Chen, that's exactly the sort of reaction I'm trying to help with. I understand that you don't like water, but you're not going to get anywhere unless you face up to the phobia. I'm tired of having to hold you down every time you need to take a bath. I had to bring you to the outside world and borrow some human technology for this, so you had better appreciate it."

Before Chen could come up with a word of complaint, Ran had already leaned down and grabbed her under the arms. She hauled the cat over to the edge of the dock, the metal ball dragging along behind her. Chen fought back with all her strength, but there was a reason she was only Ran's servant.

"Don't worry," Ran said, nuzzling at her familiar's cheek. "I'm not going to make you hold your breath or anything. That's what this is for."

Ran grabbed at the weight on Chen's back, bringing around a small plastic hose with a mouthpiece at the end. She brought it up to Chen's face, and the cat reluctantly bit down on it. There was a loud hissing as she took a breath from the tank, the faint aftertaste of processed air hanging on her tongue.

"You'll want to hold onto that," Ran said with a playful wink. She lifted up the metal ball, visibly struggling with the weight as she dangled it over the edge of the dock. "Are you ready?"

Chen shook her head violently. If she'd had half a say in the matter she'd have demanded to go home right now. Maybe Ran had given her this mouthpiece just to shut her up.

"I'll take that as a yes," Ran said, her eyes glinting mischievously. The ball fell into the water with a mighty splash, and Chen was pulled in soon afterward. The cat managed a muffled yelp before she hit the water, bubbles exploding in front of her eyes.

"Nyaaggllbll!"

Her first instinct was to break for the surface, but the metal ball put an end to that idea. Even then, swimming was something Chen had never learned to do, for obvious reasons. The weight continued to pull her further into the watery depths.

She felt weaker in the water. The entire reason she avoided it was that contact with water broke her connection to Ran - part of her contract with the fox involved Ran passing her energy whenever they were close. Water nullified that step of the contract, reducing Chen to less than half of her normal strength.

Thankfully, her master had been true to her word. In spite of everything else, the tank on her back was keeping her alive. She took long, nervous breaths, streams of bubbles passing by her face on the way towards the surface. The mask stopped the water from blinding her. If she wasn't caught up in trying to escape, she might have taken the time to appreciate the view.

After about half a minute, the ball hit the bottom of the shelf with a mighty clong. Chen was thirty, maybe forty feet beneath the surface by now, the light still reaching down to this depth. She could make out an advancing figure from above, growing larger and larger until eventually she recognised the form of her master. Ran was breathing from her own tank in the same was Chen was, her flippers sliding up and down with the grace of a fish. Chen couldn't help but feel jealous at the sight of it - if she could swim like that, she'd have been out of the water in no time.

"Gllbbbllbll."

Chen tried to voice her frustrations, getting nothing but a muffled gurgle for her efforts. The mouthpiece was keeping her breathing, but it made conversation difficult. Ran smirked, pulling out a card and pencil and handing them to her servant. After a few minutes of trying (and failing) to pick the lock with the pencil, Chen simply resorted to writing out her train of thought. Her message was short and simple.

PLEASE HELP :(

She'd even said please, Chen thought to herself. How could her master turn that down?

Ran let out a gurgled laugh behind her mouthpiece as she took the card back. She flipped it about, writing on the other side. Compared to Chen's hasty, simple message, Ran's was almost a monologue.

Two hours should be long enough for you to acclimate. Then taking a bath once in a while won't be so bad, right?

Chen gave her master the sternest glare she could. As soon as they got home, she was going to make a scratching post out of every table leg she could find.
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Good intentions, not-so-good methods.