Arc 13 Post 2: A Tale of Two
A Tale of Two
1st of February 2007 A.D.
"Pursuer of Dutiful Scholarship," other-you says at once surprising and not, already getting used to, getting comfortable even with that half focused insight that were you to describe to another soul would likely feel bewildering.
"Pods, seriously? You look like a clone of me that showed up out of nowhere and you called yourself 'pods'?" you sigh.
"Hey, Invasion of the Body Snatchers is a classic for a reason," she smiles, an expression the mirror never quite caught, it is hard to be that smug without someone to aim it at. "But also that is literally my designation, that is what you were thinking when you screamed, frustration at school, at making time, but at the same time an unwillingness to let go of that part of your life so I'm the you that finishes high school and wears the cap at the end..."
You nod, the gesture turning into looking her up and down. "Well first you are the we-as-all that has to get dressed. Wait here."
Moving now with renewed purpose you get up to your room pick up the clothes required including your favorite jeans with belt and skull clasp, a red hair tie and a red blouse and green sweater, kind of Christmas-y but you think appropriate for the moment.
"Mom, Dad, you know how I just figure out I can do new things..." you walk into the living room.
In the process of getting the scribbles off the wall your mother turns.
And then you walk into the room again. "So I both really didn't wanna go to school today, but I knew it was the right thing to do so..."
"Woah, Molly, you have a secret twin?" Hank had entirely forgotten all worries of punishment.
"Very secret," Pods speaks first. "You can't tell anyone about this you hear?"
Mom looks at Dad, Dad looks at the stand in the corner where the Sword is, doing nothing out of the ordinary.
"I think we should get everyone going and then we can talk to Molly... both of Molly."
Pods rolls her eyes dramatically. "Pursuer of Dutiful Scholarship, does not pursue scholarship on her first day of incarnation, is not dutiful, yay me , zero of ten."
"Hey, we have a duty to our parents, you can pursue that." Arguing with yourself outside your head is every bit as odd as arguing with someone else inside of it.
"Even in this lesser form your are wondrous to behold Majesty," Usum remarks, the attention jolting him into action, or at least into his usual flattery.
***
The house is quieter, the curtains had been drawn so none of the neighbors would have reason to question why there's more than one Molly around and Pursuer of Dutiful Scholarship is munching on a granola bar, sitting on the corner of the couch, looking furtively between Mom and Dad, wondering if they would accept her-and-you.
"Both of you know I'm not entirely here, you've seen the other side, Dad's been there, to Sanctuary, at least to the palace, the hologlyphs don't really do the rest of it justice..." Is that vain for me to say? You shake off the question, small insignificant thing. Once before and to a very different audience you had made this point. "I'm like an elephant behind a curtain, poking her trunk through, I just learned how to make another hole."
"We are not made of the same atoms nor do we share the same consciousness," other you continues. "Atoms and consciousness are names for things of this universe half-understood. We are the same, woven of the saga-in-endless telling, shadows on the wall cast from different angles."
Despite the gravity of the situation you smile. "We're kind of like an onion, though we really sincerely hope neither of you cry."
"I can go away if you don't want to deal with all this weirdness, you'll never have to see me again..." Pods starts
"No!" both of them shout, your dad's physically out of his chair before she can finish.
"I don't mean die," she hurries to add. "I can't die unless we die... argh stupid words, misleading with all the numeric separation. Well what if someone is both singular and plural, huh?" she deploys a pout that is as much tactical as sincere having used it a time or ten yourself. "OK so think about it like this, does a page die when a book isn't opened to it?"
Dad seems to get it, it's not an easy thing to wrap his head around, no matter how well it's explained. Mom though goes... you've never seen that expression on her face before, there is sadness there and maybe ever rage, but all of it bricked over with a numbness that leaves her face looking almost lifeless as she asks.
"I can never see my daughter again can I, not all of you, not really. Puppets, shadows on the wall.... What did he do? What did he DO?"
She blames Uriel for this, maybe she's always blamed him a little for all the things you've done since last summer that she's struggled to accept and just never admitted it even to herself, much less to anyone else and now here he is blaming an angel of the Lord for her woes and hating herself for it.
How do (both of) you respond?
[] Let Dad try to handle this
[] Try to reassure her that she can see you just fine, there is just more of you to go around
-[] Write in stunt
[] Call Uriel thrice by the name he gave from his own lips, he will hear you, he will come you are sure of it, he can explain himself.
[] Write in
OOC: Subsouls are one of the most alien things about being a baby Primordial having that explained in detail called for a willpower from both Michael and Charity DC 8, would have been DC 9 if you ended up having to shove cosmic insight into their heads. Still even at an 8 and with their willpower +intimacies low rolls are going to low roll. Michael got 1 success, Charity got 0. At least neither botched.
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