Short. Flat. Plain.

These were the words that people described Violett with when they were being nice. Usually, though, she'd gotten "shrimp", "little girl", and things like that.

Lately, though? She'd been getting a lot of "cute", and she hadn't quite known what to do with it. On the one hand, it had made her the only firends she'd ever had. On the other hand, it had left her curled up in a fetal position in a shower after being violently overpowered by... She didn't even want to think about those things. Priss, in her own way, had to have been the worst. Not by much, but she was definitely meaner than any of the non-human ones.

With a soft sigh, she looked herself over in a mirror, trying to find what had made it happen. Why were they all so interested in her? She was pathetic...

She was pathetic....

She was pathetic! That's EXACTLY what it was! It had ot have been her weakness that had drawn in friends and lovers, caring hearts feeling driven to protect the fragile thing on a danngerous island. And the predators, certainly, found her weakness, her insecurity, her utter worthlessness attractive. After all, she practically had the word "prey" stamped on her forehead.

Running out into the night, Violett left her horrible reflection behind.

She almost made it to the bench before she broke down weeping.

Evangeline came back from the forest with several samples of the local flora. She carried them in several vials carried in a small box.

"I've never seen plants of this kind anywhere in Europe." she said to herself. "These would be excellent samp-AAAHHHH!!!"

Evangeline suddenly collided with a girl who was roughly the size of her and fell back on her ass.

Jumping to her feet, Violett shriieked in surprise, whirling around and then, catching her breath, offered to help the other girl up.

"I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to get it your way! I can't do anything right..."

She'd barely even started crying before she returned to her part-tme job as a speed bump, and she was still sniffling, trying hard to keep her breakdown contained. She wasn't doing too well.

"It's all right, just watch where you- oh, dammit!" Evangeline looked at her case, which broke open, and the vials all rolled out. She gathered all of the vials up and put them back in the case before turning back to the girl, who was on the ground, crying.

"What is wrong?" she asked.

Violett stared up, snuffling softly. "I hate myself. I'm ugly, I'm flat. I'm weak. I'm impure... I'm disgusting...."

Evangeline let out a small sigh.

"And what makes you think that?" she asked. "In the short amount of time that I have been here, I have noticed how nice the girls are to you. *A lie, actually. She didn't see jack* Come on."

She pulled the girl up by the arm.

"Look, do you want to take a walk with me?"

Violett stood up, nodding a little.

"They pity me... And it's nice in some ways but in other ways I'm not sure I like it.... And it's kinda creepy that you noticed, to be honest, since, er, I never met you."

"Figures. I'm quite new here, and I haven't bothered to socialize with anyone yet. You seem like a nice enough girl, though.

"Now ask yourself this: if these girls really didn't like you, do you think they would spend so much time with you? There might be more to it. Maybe you are a lot more likable than you think.

Violett nodded again.

"I know they like me... It's weird, I think they kind of like me because I'm pathetic... Like a little sister or a team pet maybe. Ever heard of moe?"

It was pronounced "mo-eh", and from the way the girl said it, it sounded like the concept was a bit foreign to her, too.

At least she stopped crying.

"What is this moe? I've never heard of it before."

"I... I don't really understand it myself," Violett stuttered. "It's something to do with Japense Anime... That's a little redundant, isn't it? I mean there's not really such a thing as French Anime. Way to mangle to English language... or maybe the Japanese laguagge... Anyway, it's Japanese and it's somethng about someone's flaws making them more endearing and cuter rather than making you hate them..."

"I don't understand much about that... but we all have our flaws... yours don't stand out any more than any one else's."

Violett nodded, not really sure what to say.

"I'm not used to people saying things like that... Back home I got teased all the time, but here everyone thinks I'm cute... I don't quite understand it and I'm not quite sure how I feel about it..."

"How about this..." Evangeline turned to Violett. "How about I spend the day with you, and if I really like you, then I'll bed with you tonight."

BLushing deeply, VIolett smiled, then quickly turned away.

"Just like that? I... I d-don't even know your n-name..."