Teaser For Next Story - "Cloneborne" (Tentative)

So, here's a short teaser for my next story, tentatively titled Cloneborne. For those who have missed the updates, it's meant to be about a planet of magical girl clones making first contact with interstellar civilizations. Of course, it's not as simple as that...

On the morning of her 13th decanting day, Rain woke up bright and early and excited, eager for someone else’s memories to be copied into her brain. The daylamps outside of the tent were glowing brightly, signifying it was morning as she pushed herself up to sit upright. “I’m an adult!” she cried at the top of her voice.

Other voices soon followed.

“I’m an adult!” Tomoko’s voice echoed happily from the next sleeping bag over, thrusting a fist into the air as she cheered!

“Legal adulthood, witches!” Chloe cheered from her own sleeping bag, a very thick and rugged one that she used when she and her big sister went out to go hunting outside of the town. “High-caliber weaponry!”

“I can finally get my heavy equipment license!” Mitsuki agreed, throwing both hands up into the air.

"I can drive!" Reiko cheered. "Freedom! Cruising between towns! Baking for new people! Learning recipes directly from people who know them!"

“I can apply for lab space!” Meiya cried. “There’s this experiment I’ve been meaning to do, but to do it safely I need a lab-grade isolated space and—”

Outside, Rain heard more and more voices calling out “I’m an adult!” and “I can go join the space service!” and “Yuri, let’s be best friends!” “Okay!”, and other happy declarations as their crèche-sisters in other tents also woke up, interspersed with cries of “Happy Decanting Day!” from older and younger sisters who’d joined them in their little campout.

“Would all of you poopers please be quiet!” Lorelei’s voice groaned from next to Rain. Her purple-haired crèche-sister had her hands over her ears. “It’s far too early for this and I was still sleeping…! Our appointment isn’t until nine…!”

“Sorry!” the six of them chorused.

“How is that supposed to help me go back to sleep?” Lorelei moaned, turning over so she was face-down in her sleeping bag and putting her pillow over her head. Then her hand reached out and felt around until she was able to grab Rain’s and put that over her head too.

Rain smiled fondly down at her crèche-sister and shook her head. There was always someone in each batch who wasn’t a morning person, or so their big sisters said, but that was to be expected.

Chloe reached out and grabbed her buddy from where he was lined up with the others buddies so they could chat and talk to each other while their partners slept, gently tapping Glass Heart’s touchscreen to wake him up. “Ugh, you’re such a big baby. Hold still… ” The buddy came online, and Chloe’s red venefog began to stream out from the focus emitter. With a theatrical and polite gesture, Chloe directed the softly glowing venefog towards Lorelei’s head, where it spread out and formed a dome that draped all the way down to the ground and Lorelei’s shoulders.

Lorelei gave a grateful-looking thumbs up as Chloe’s sound-dampener covered her, her head still covered by pillows, and her breathing evened out as she presumably started dozing lightly.

And yeah, Demesne will be on Hiatus for a bit, unless I start writing my planned Karina Gaiden (Sidestory), which I still might. I'll probably write short little Demesne segments still to keep myself in practice.