tkioz
The Rabid Bunyip
- Location
- Australia
I see Annette is a beleiver in using the whole buffalo. Good for her, waste not, want not and all that.
Eden's Edge (Worm/Sonnie's Edge [Love, Death, and Robots])
I see Annette is a beleiver in using the whole buffalo. Good for her, waste not, want not and all that.
Subrosian_Smithy
endless
- Location
- Washington
- Pronouns
- She/Her/Hers
I don't understand! I thought it would make Taylor feel better when she remembered, but it just made her worse!!! Is there nothing I can do for her!?!?!?
- Location
- Deep in the Badlands of Equestria
So, you think Annette has been making homemade Soylent Green smoothies for Taylor's Beastie body?
- Location
- Eldred, PA
What the fuck do those words translate to in English?
Night_stalker
Slava Ukraini!
- Pronouns
- He/Him
It's Ole English, from Beowolf.
Yes, that reason being that conflict is the fastest way to push forward innovation.
Entities aren't looking for bigger guns, they're looking for energy sources. Conflict is a means to an end. Any shard whose host expression isn't devoted to figuring out the "finite energy" problem is tasked to push those who are towards that goal by providing them with adversity.
- Location
- Manchester, UK
- Pronouns
- He/They
But it's not. Not unless the only innovation you want is better guns and tactics. Technology advances faster in peacetime; combat-relevant technology is deployed faster in wartime, but people don't become more inventive because they're busy dying.
Someone like Sphere would have served that purpose, but he gets turned into Mannequin by the Simurgh. Tinkers creations are deliberately sabotaged so that they can't develop towards new inventions. Scion and Eden never show even the slightest sign of encouraging invention - even in her vision of the future the focus is on preparing for a battle, not on developing new technologies and sciences.
What they're doing is the equivalent of dropping a few crates of modern weaponry into a stone-age civilisation, watching them fight, and using drones to kill anyone who tries to disassemble the weapons to see how they work.
Last edited:
Duality 3.1
WhoAmEye
Bunker-Dwelling Cryptid
- Location
- Vault Birb
- Pronouns
- She/Her
NEW ARC! Keeping up with the ka-Dallons!
Special thanks to my lovely co-author and wife, @hellgodsrus, without whom I would never would have been able to take part in creating half my fics. Prime Betas @Tamahori and @32nd_freeze for being betas and feeding me validation and feedback between updates.
Duality
3.1
-.-.-
I frowned. "So… basically, we met up, gossiped a bit, went to my place, managed to get the basement open through me… voluntarily switching bodies?" I paused, and Victoria nodded. "Right. Then Mom shows up with a fucking monster truck Tinker to go with her, the actual monster Tinker, uses a command phrase on me because I'm out of the tank, decided to pick a fight with you two, and you had to run because she's actually pretty good at fighting?"
"She did try to talk first." Victoria sighed. "It was just - " She paused, bit her lip. Probably going to be a lie. Half-truth at best. "Stuff about how this was best for you. What you needed."
"No explanation," Amy added.
"I'm just surprised the fight didn't involve any knives." It was one of the clearer memories of my childhood, watching her play with them at a safe distance - she'd probably kept it clear. And the story of how she met Dad at a knife throwing thing she'd been attending as a competitor…
"No knives, no stabbing. She just - fought us off after talking about how her taking you would be for the best."
I'm not entirely sure I believe you, Victoria… you're a great liar until your moral compass gets involved. Or I was just - paranoid and projecting because I was stressed and didn't know who or what I could trust. I sighed and slumped against the doorframe putting my head in my hands. "I - I don't know what to think anymore."
Victoria put her arm around me, gently, carefully. "It's okay. I know this sucks. I'm just sorry we couldn't help more. I'm really sorry."
"We could show you around the house, I guess. Since you'll be staying here." Amy's pat on my leg felt considerably more perfunctory. "Or you could have a lie down or something."
"She's stressed, not an invalid."
"Too much stress can be the same as an injury."
"Then you need to stop hurting yourself by stressing about going to the hospital in the middle of the night!" Victoria pouted.
"Before you two retread what I'm sure is a familiar argument - " I coughed and wavered where I stood. I felt - dizzy for a moment. Weightless, almost? Victoria caught me before I could fall over.
"Whoa, you okay there?"
"I - I'm not sure what happened. I think my other body got put in a new tank. That was weird." I looked at my hands like they might betray me at any moment. "My head told me I was floating but everything else was like 'no'."
Amy and Victoria shared a concerned look. "Did you have any idea at all where you were with her? I can - "
"Victoria."
" - call the Protectorate and let them know, is what I was going to say."
I shook my head. "There were… seagulls. I just remember a bunch of seagulls squawking, and the sounds of traffic. Most of my attention was taken up by breaking out of the tank and getting the hell out of there, damn the consequences."
I had no idea at the time about my mucous whatever that Amy had done, so really, 'getting the hell out of there' involved dying. Unless I subconsciously remembered? Now I was doubting myself again and - urgh.
"Well that's something I guess?" Victoria still had her arm over my shoulders which was nice but also - after everything with Mom, I wasn't completely happy with prolonged physical contact.
I didn't want to think about Annette hugging me.
"I mean… if I can figure out that trick to switch on my own again, maybe I could just ask her. With my claws wrapped around her." I groaned, steadying myself and - ever so gently stepping away from Victoria. "Okay. I'm good now." Deep breath. "Man it feels awkward to know I'm going to be living with superheroes."
"We're just like anyone else really." Victoria tried a tentative smile. "You'd think I'd be the one to hog the shower, but Mom and Amy are way worse."
"We're a lawyer and a healer, you just punch people." Amy snorted. "And you have reasonable hair whereas mine is a frizzy tangled mess if I leave it alone for an hour."
Now that I realised Amy wasn't just a healer but an outright biokinetic, I had to wonder if she'd airbrushed New Wave to all look poster-perfect. There didn't seem to be a single un-photogenic gene among them. Even that one facial scar I knew Photon Mom's hubby - Man… something? I forgot his name - had wasn't even bad looking - kinda accentuated his cheekbone, last I knew. Which was a few months ago so…
"I could help, if you wanted."
Both of them stared at me. It was - uncomfortable.
"... right, I just - accidentally did the thing again, didn't I?"
"I thought you had the hots for Victoria, and now you're asking to join me in the shower?"
"Also, no horny teenagering at my sister." Victoria's grin spread sharklike across her face. "Without me giving you tips first! I've always had so much difficulty finding her a partner - "
"Oh my god Victoria, stopppp!"
I blinked. "Yes please. Amy, you realise you're super cute, right?"
She glared at me from between her fingers. "I will give you cancer. More cancer."
"Cute and feisty." I grinned.
"Don't you have Abby?"
I paused. "Yes?"
"... so you already have a girlfriend."
I just shrugged and looked down. "I have two hands. Technically four."
Victoria giggled. "See? This'll be fun!"
Amy glared. "Well maybe I'm not interested. I'm going to go." Hurling herself upright off the bed, storming towards the door, slamming it open.
"Ames - what did I do? Amy? This is your room, where are you even going?" Victoria sighed. "And she's gone."
"Maybe she's uh. Already got someone in mind?" I shrugged. "Or - I went too far. Again." I slumped, ran a hand through what hair I had left. "I'm really not good at this being a horny teenager thing."
"I think you're trying to distract yourself right now and that's why it's maybe not working?" Victoria's lips thinned. "That and it's Amy. I keep on telling her it's fine if she's aro but she keeps insisting she isn't. So I have no idea what the fuck is going on there. And it's still irrelevant to you being stressed and flirting not being a great distraction."
"Have all those partners you've tried to set her up been guys by any chance? Because that might have something to do with it." What else could it be? "Oh, maybe she's uh - demi? I think Abby told me about that when we were - y'know, talking about the society I still need to get around to joining. Something something, get close to a person and then find them attractive?" I shrugged. "I'm not sure I'd want to jump straight into the deep end of dating if I was known as the miracle healer. Probably also worried that whoever it was would be doing it just to skip up the healing to-do list."
"Maybe? I mean - I've tried setting her up with girls too but that also went badly. Hence the whole some flavour of aro theory." Victoria leant back. "You're distracting yourself again."
"Better than thinking straight and contemplating that my Mom now has unsupervised and unrestricted-by-secrecy access to my actual body, where my brain, memories, and all the other thinky bits are stored." I huffed. "... am I going through like monster puberty or something? I swear I wasn't this much of a horny teenager last month."
"Aaand again."
"I will horny teenager at you." I pointed. Totally a legitimate threat.
"I'm used to horny teenagers. Pretty sure I can handle it." She sat up again. "Seriously I think - like, something I'd talked about before this was maybe trying to find you a therapy person to talk to about all of this? Most of New Wave doesn't really have the time for regular appointments, but Eric does, and I think some of the therapists the Protectorate and PRT use book outside appointments too… I just think it might be helpful."
"I can see why, but at the same time, whatever I talk about could get wiped later, and - what would we even talk about? I haven't triggered so… I'm probably not as in-need of therapy as literally any cape who has had a trigger event." That doesn't make any sense of course all of them have had trigger events that's how they get powers.
"Just because you're not a cape doesn't mean you don't need therapy. That's stupid. That's like saying only capes can break their legs."
"Only capes can break the laws of physics." I shrugged. "Look, I'm - I get it, I just don't think it'd be helpful right now. Maybe once all this shit with Mom is sorted, and things calm down, I'll - borrow your therapist's number and try to book something?"
Victoria frowned. "Fine."
"Sorry, it's - I don't know, maybe it's just me, but I don't think I'll be able to work through this until I've got some kind of closure."
"Okay," Victoria sighed. "I get that."
Awkward silence.
"So… horny teenagers happen to you a lot?"
"Oh, yeah, I'm a open cape and an Alexandria package, so that's 'exotic' covered," she made a disgusted noise and rolled her eyes. "The whole celebrity thing. And sometimes people react really weirdly to my aura? I try and keep it in check, but occasionally I get emotional because teenager and lose track of it and suddenly people are cowering when I'm angry, or, well. Being horny teenagers when I'm leaning in that direction."
I blinked. "Aura?"
"... you know? That field of 'love me, friends! Fear me, enemies!' that I have?"
I continued to stare blankly at her.
"You haven't even heard of it? It's a well known part of my powers. Pretty well known, anyway."
I shook my head. "I thought Amy was just a healer."
"You really need to get up to speed on capes." Her smile suddenly spread. "Ooh, thought! Cause your body - it's not entirely here - can you feel this?"
"I've been trying to learn more since figuring out Mom was one…" I trailed off as her expression changed. "But I keep putting it off and.." I slowly shook my head. "I uh. Assume you're doing something that isn't going to result in…" I coughed. "Nope. Not feeling anything."
"VICTORIA!" An unfamiliar voice almost roared from downstairs. Christ almighty, that reminded me of Mom getting pissed - that same cadence and tenor. I felt my spine stiften.
"Whoops!" Victoria turned away from me to bellow at the door. "IT'S NOTHING, MOM! JUST WAS TESTING A POWER THING."
The sound of approaching footsteps. Fuuuuck. I looked around quickly wondering where to hide - why am I hiding? - and settled for behind Victoria.
"Huh - Taylor?"
"Your mom wields lightsabers and sounds angrier than my mom threatening Emma!" I hissed - quietly. "I might not necessarily need this body but it has sentimental value!" That - wasn't what I was meant to say, was it? And I don't want to be stuck with Annette, I don't want to be trapped with her again -
"I'm not sure why you'd be - Victoria? Are you not in your room?"
"I'm in Amy's room!" She elbowed me gently. "Come on, it'll be fine. Mom's not happy with me right now, but she'll be fine with you. I'm sure of it."
I wasn't so sure. I wanted to hide or - or fight back and show I was better - where did that train of thought come from? Probably the same place as wanting to bite Abby and 'claim' her. Damnit, what the fuck did Annette make me out of to give me these weirdass instincts?! A wolf?! Hopefully not a golden retriever or something, I wasn't that happy-go-lucky. "I dunno, my track record with mother figures is pretty bad right now…" I murmured, moving away from directly behind her but still keeping the Brute between me and the doorway.
The door opened.
Brandish turned out to be, without the costume and weapons of crackling fire and light I'd seen in occasional news clips, a short, smartly dressed woman with a mouth that seemed permanently sad. Her eyes flicked across Victoria and onto me. "You're awake."
"Yeah. Uh. That was part of my power testing thing? Not trying to wake her up with it, but more. Trying to test a theory about the whole remote body thing…"
Oh, wonderful, she knew. For all Brandish's mouth seemed downturned, her eyebrows seemed to rest in 'almost a scowl' position. Kind of like when Mom had been marking essays and muttering about how the students couldn't possibly be this stupid.
"I'm sorry about all the shouting, then. My children apparently want you to believe -" I fought to stifle the flinch - "that they were raised in a barn." She extended her hand. "I'm Carol. You're Taylor, yes?"
"Y-yup," I shook and - ow, ow, I thought she didn't have super strength - or maybe my nerves were shot from not doing anything - but apparently I had extremities damage? I was going to have to ask Amy if she tried doing something about that while I was asleep. "It's uh. Nice to meet you. Wish it could be under less um… messy circumstances."
"The same. I'm sorry to hear about what happened to you. And for my daughters' overzealousness in pursuing it." She blinked, and it took me a moment before I realised why it looked so strange - she hadn't done it since I first saw her. "I hope this home, or wherever you want to stay, can become a safe environment for you to recover in."
M- Annette's paranoia had to be rubbing off on me because those were way too many buzzwords to be safe. "I hope so too." I tried to smile but - were my hands shaking? Fuck I felt like I needed this to be over for just a moment. "So uh - how much have… Amy and Victoria shared? I'm - completely unaware of who's in how much of the know. Also what day is it?"
"You hadn't told her what day it is?"
"She just woke up, Mom! Amy and I were catching her up on stuff."
"Speaking of which, where is Amelia?" Amelia? Wait does this mean she doesn't like her name shortened to Amy? Or would that count as doesn't like her name being lengthened? No, that's full name.
"She had to go to the bathroom, I think. Anyway, Taylor, it's Monday. You have the next couple of days off school."
"... you said I'd been asleep two days." I frowned. "Why aren't you two at school?"
"Yeah. Saturday, Sunday. Two days."
"My last memory was Friday afternoon."
"... I don't like math?"
"You've been here for about sixty-five hours." Brandish's glare swung round to Victoria again, like a lighthouse. "And Victoria isn't at school because she insisted on staying home until you were awake. Despite the fact that she's already in a considerable amount of trouble."
"She mentioned she was grounded." I smiled cheekily, elbowing her gently. And the sudden hilarious thought of her being literally grounded occurred to me. She glared at my muffled snorting and I explained - "Sorry I'm imagining you literally grounded and clomping around in concrete-filled shoeboxes."
"We haven't gone quite that far yet." Something twitched at the edge of Brandish's mouth. Was that her trying to smile? "However, since Taylor is awake now…"
"School's already started though!"
"Then you can arrive late, and apologise for your tardiness."
"Mom!"
"School is important, and I don't want you to get into the habit of skipping whole days simply because you've missed a few hours."
I thought back to the texts I'd gotten from Abby. Shiiit, the repeaters would be down by now, wouldn't they? I pulled it out of my pocket to check.
>i'm just gonna a break to think
>i'm sorry
In hindsight, now that I was emotionally calmer and stuff - I didn't do that very well.
<taylor?
<im really sorry
<i hadall these messy feelings
<i didn't know whatto do with them
<i didn't want you hurting from them too
<fuck
<im sorry
"Morning break's over by now, isn't it?" I rubbed my hand over my face and once again, super thankful I don't need to wear glasses anymore. Did mom do something with my eyes or was it never a problem with my eyes but the brain instead?
"Yeah…" Victoria couldn't read the texts but didn't really need to in order to guess.
"Which means you should hurry up. I'll show Taylor around the house and get her settled in." Brandish's hand settled on my shoulder and for a moment it felt far too much like Mom. Mirror, Mirror, down the hall, can I trust any mother at all? Hah! Made that one up right there. I was distracting myself again.
"If you see Abby, tell her to call me at lunch?"
Victoria's face softened. "I'll tell her." Then fell back into an impressive scowl at her Mom. "If I get detention for missing class, I'm letting them know it's your fault."
"Aura."
"Fuck, sorry."
"Swearing."
"Blast, sorry, then." Victoria floated up off the bed into a full hug of her mother. "Love you. See you this evening."
This was weird to watch. Like - seeing Mom and myself from the outside but with… less. Less screaming, less impressive make-up promises, less… everything.
"See you when I get back? I'll text you at lunch too, just to make sure things are settling in okay and Armsmaster hasn't shown up to spirit you away for spooky government experiments or anything."
"I'll -" Bite his head off if he tries - tell Mom - Annette - about it - "Uh." I blinked. "Try to think of a witty response in advance next time. See you then."
"See you!" She dashed out the door.
Brandish stood there silently for a long time, face still a mixture of sad and angry. Eventually, she looked at me and said, "I wouldn't let that happen, you know."
"I - was hoping, but at this point I'm not sure I can afford to take anything for granted." I wrapped my arms around myself for a moment. "I'm - very glad, though. Thank you for -" Housing me, saving me from your daughter, not laserblading me in half for the crime of being an illegal tinkertech experiment - "helping me."
"Of course." Her hand hovered awkwardly over my shoulder before settling on a pat. "Come on then. Let me show you the house."
-.-.-
Special thanks to my lovely co-author and wife, @hellgodsrus, without whom I would never would have been able to take part in creating half my fics. Prime Betas @Tamahori and @32nd_freeze for being betas and feeding me validation and feedback between updates.
Duality
3.1
-.-.-
I frowned. "So… basically, we met up, gossiped a bit, went to my place, managed to get the basement open through me… voluntarily switching bodies?" I paused, and Victoria nodded. "Right. Then Mom shows up with a fucking monster truck Tinker to go with her, the actual monster Tinker, uses a command phrase on me because I'm out of the tank, decided to pick a fight with you two, and you had to run because she's actually pretty good at fighting?"
"She did try to talk first." Victoria sighed. "It was just - " She paused, bit her lip. Probably going to be a lie. Half-truth at best. "Stuff about how this was best for you. What you needed."
"No explanation," Amy added.
"I'm just surprised the fight didn't involve any knives." It was one of the clearer memories of my childhood, watching her play with them at a safe distance - she'd probably kept it clear. And the story of how she met Dad at a knife throwing thing she'd been attending as a competitor…
"No knives, no stabbing. She just - fought us off after talking about how her taking you would be for the best."
I'm not entirely sure I believe you, Victoria… you're a great liar until your moral compass gets involved. Or I was just - paranoid and projecting because I was stressed and didn't know who or what I could trust. I sighed and slumped against the doorframe putting my head in my hands. "I - I don't know what to think anymore."
Victoria put her arm around me, gently, carefully. "It's okay. I know this sucks. I'm just sorry we couldn't help more. I'm really sorry."
"We could show you around the house, I guess. Since you'll be staying here." Amy's pat on my leg felt considerably more perfunctory. "Or you could have a lie down or something."
"She's stressed, not an invalid."
"Too much stress can be the same as an injury."
"Then you need to stop hurting yourself by stressing about going to the hospital in the middle of the night!" Victoria pouted.
"Before you two retread what I'm sure is a familiar argument - " I coughed and wavered where I stood. I felt - dizzy for a moment. Weightless, almost? Victoria caught me before I could fall over.
"Whoa, you okay there?"
"I - I'm not sure what happened. I think my other body got put in a new tank. That was weird." I looked at my hands like they might betray me at any moment. "My head told me I was floating but everything else was like 'no'."
Amy and Victoria shared a concerned look. "Did you have any idea at all where you were with her? I can - "
"Victoria."
" - call the Protectorate and let them know, is what I was going to say."
I shook my head. "There were… seagulls. I just remember a bunch of seagulls squawking, and the sounds of traffic. Most of my attention was taken up by breaking out of the tank and getting the hell out of there, damn the consequences."
I had no idea at the time about my mucous whatever that Amy had done, so really, 'getting the hell out of there' involved dying. Unless I subconsciously remembered? Now I was doubting myself again and - urgh.
"Well that's something I guess?" Victoria still had her arm over my shoulders which was nice but also - after everything with Mom, I wasn't completely happy with prolonged physical contact.
I didn't want to think about Annette hugging me.
"I mean… if I can figure out that trick to switch on my own again, maybe I could just ask her. With my claws wrapped around her." I groaned, steadying myself and - ever so gently stepping away from Victoria. "Okay. I'm good now." Deep breath. "Man it feels awkward to know I'm going to be living with superheroes."
"We're just like anyone else really." Victoria tried a tentative smile. "You'd think I'd be the one to hog the shower, but Mom and Amy are way worse."
"We're a lawyer and a healer, you just punch people." Amy snorted. "And you have reasonable hair whereas mine is a frizzy tangled mess if I leave it alone for an hour."
Now that I realised Amy wasn't just a healer but an outright biokinetic, I had to wonder if she'd airbrushed New Wave to all look poster-perfect. There didn't seem to be a single un-photogenic gene among them. Even that one facial scar I knew Photon Mom's hubby - Man… something? I forgot his name - had wasn't even bad looking - kinda accentuated his cheekbone, last I knew. Which was a few months ago so…
"I could help, if you wanted."
Both of them stared at me. It was - uncomfortable.
"... right, I just - accidentally did the thing again, didn't I?"
"I thought you had the hots for Victoria, and now you're asking to join me in the shower?"
"Also, no horny teenagering at my sister." Victoria's grin spread sharklike across her face. "Without me giving you tips first! I've always had so much difficulty finding her a partner - "
"Oh my god Victoria, stopppp!"
I blinked. "Yes please. Amy, you realise you're super cute, right?"
She glared at me from between her fingers. "I will give you cancer. More cancer."
"Cute and feisty." I grinned.
"Don't you have Abby?"
I paused. "Yes?"
"... so you already have a girlfriend."
I just shrugged and looked down. "I have two hands. Technically four."
Victoria giggled. "See? This'll be fun!"
Amy glared. "Well maybe I'm not interested. I'm going to go." Hurling herself upright off the bed, storming towards the door, slamming it open.
"Ames - what did I do? Amy? This is your room, where are you even going?" Victoria sighed. "And she's gone."
"Maybe she's uh. Already got someone in mind?" I shrugged. "Or - I went too far. Again." I slumped, ran a hand through what hair I had left. "I'm really not good at this being a horny teenager thing."
"I think you're trying to distract yourself right now and that's why it's maybe not working?" Victoria's lips thinned. "That and it's Amy. I keep on telling her it's fine if she's aro but she keeps insisting she isn't. So I have no idea what the fuck is going on there. And it's still irrelevant to you being stressed and flirting not being a great distraction."
"Have all those partners you've tried to set her up been guys by any chance? Because that might have something to do with it." What else could it be? "Oh, maybe she's uh - demi? I think Abby told me about that when we were - y'know, talking about the society I still need to get around to joining. Something something, get close to a person and then find them attractive?" I shrugged. "I'm not sure I'd want to jump straight into the deep end of dating if I was known as the miracle healer. Probably also worried that whoever it was would be doing it just to skip up the healing to-do list."
"Maybe? I mean - I've tried setting her up with girls too but that also went badly. Hence the whole some flavour of aro theory." Victoria leant back. "You're distracting yourself again."
"Better than thinking straight and contemplating that my Mom now has unsupervised and unrestricted-by-secrecy access to my actual body, where my brain, memories, and all the other thinky bits are stored." I huffed. "... am I going through like monster puberty or something? I swear I wasn't this much of a horny teenager last month."
"Aaand again."
"I will horny teenager at you." I pointed. Totally a legitimate threat.
"I'm used to horny teenagers. Pretty sure I can handle it." She sat up again. "Seriously I think - like, something I'd talked about before this was maybe trying to find you a therapy person to talk to about all of this? Most of New Wave doesn't really have the time for regular appointments, but Eric does, and I think some of the therapists the Protectorate and PRT use book outside appointments too… I just think it might be helpful."
"I can see why, but at the same time, whatever I talk about could get wiped later, and - what would we even talk about? I haven't triggered so… I'm probably not as in-need of therapy as literally any cape who has had a trigger event." That doesn't make any sense of course all of them have had trigger events that's how they get powers.
"Just because you're not a cape doesn't mean you don't need therapy. That's stupid. That's like saying only capes can break their legs."
"Only capes can break the laws of physics." I shrugged. "Look, I'm - I get it, I just don't think it'd be helpful right now. Maybe once all this shit with Mom is sorted, and things calm down, I'll - borrow your therapist's number and try to book something?"
Victoria frowned. "Fine."
"Sorry, it's - I don't know, maybe it's just me, but I don't think I'll be able to work through this until I've got some kind of closure."
"Okay," Victoria sighed. "I get that."
Awkward silence.
"So… horny teenagers happen to you a lot?"
"Oh, yeah, I'm a open cape and an Alexandria package, so that's 'exotic' covered," she made a disgusted noise and rolled her eyes. "The whole celebrity thing. And sometimes people react really weirdly to my aura? I try and keep it in check, but occasionally I get emotional because teenager and lose track of it and suddenly people are cowering when I'm angry, or, well. Being horny teenagers when I'm leaning in that direction."
I blinked. "Aura?"
"... you know? That field of 'love me, friends! Fear me, enemies!' that I have?"
I continued to stare blankly at her.
"You haven't even heard of it? It's a well known part of my powers. Pretty well known, anyway."
I shook my head. "I thought Amy was just a healer."
"You really need to get up to speed on capes." Her smile suddenly spread. "Ooh, thought! Cause your body - it's not entirely here - can you feel this?"
"I've been trying to learn more since figuring out Mom was one…" I trailed off as her expression changed. "But I keep putting it off and.." I slowly shook my head. "I uh. Assume you're doing something that isn't going to result in…" I coughed. "Nope. Not feeling anything."
"VICTORIA!" An unfamiliar voice almost roared from downstairs. Christ almighty, that reminded me of Mom getting pissed - that same cadence and tenor. I felt my spine stiften.
"Whoops!" Victoria turned away from me to bellow at the door. "IT'S NOTHING, MOM! JUST WAS TESTING A POWER THING."
The sound of approaching footsteps. Fuuuuck. I looked around quickly wondering where to hide - why am I hiding? - and settled for behind Victoria.
"Huh - Taylor?"
"Your mom wields lightsabers and sounds angrier than my mom threatening Emma!" I hissed - quietly. "I might not necessarily need this body but it has sentimental value!" That - wasn't what I was meant to say, was it? And I don't want to be stuck with Annette, I don't want to be trapped with her again -
"I'm not sure why you'd be - Victoria? Are you not in your room?"
"I'm in Amy's room!" She elbowed me gently. "Come on, it'll be fine. Mom's not happy with me right now, but she'll be fine with you. I'm sure of it."
I wasn't so sure. I wanted to hide or - or fight back and show I was better - where did that train of thought come from? Probably the same place as wanting to bite Abby and 'claim' her. Damnit, what the fuck did Annette make me out of to give me these weirdass instincts?! A wolf?! Hopefully not a golden retriever or something, I wasn't that happy-go-lucky. "I dunno, my track record with mother figures is pretty bad right now…" I murmured, moving away from directly behind her but still keeping the Brute between me and the doorway.
The door opened.
Brandish turned out to be, without the costume and weapons of crackling fire and light I'd seen in occasional news clips, a short, smartly dressed woman with a mouth that seemed permanently sad. Her eyes flicked across Victoria and onto me. "You're awake."
"Yeah. Uh. That was part of my power testing thing? Not trying to wake her up with it, but more. Trying to test a theory about the whole remote body thing…"
Oh, wonderful, she knew. For all Brandish's mouth seemed downturned, her eyebrows seemed to rest in 'almost a scowl' position. Kind of like when Mom had been marking essays and muttering about how the students couldn't possibly be this stupid.
"I'm sorry about all the shouting, then. My children apparently want you to believe -" I fought to stifle the flinch - "that they were raised in a barn." She extended her hand. "I'm Carol. You're Taylor, yes?"
"Y-yup," I shook and - ow, ow, I thought she didn't have super strength - or maybe my nerves were shot from not doing anything - but apparently I had extremities damage? I was going to have to ask Amy if she tried doing something about that while I was asleep. "It's uh. Nice to meet you. Wish it could be under less um… messy circumstances."
"The same. I'm sorry to hear about what happened to you. And for my daughters' overzealousness in pursuing it." She blinked, and it took me a moment before I realised why it looked so strange - she hadn't done it since I first saw her. "I hope this home, or wherever you want to stay, can become a safe environment for you to recover in."
M- Annette's paranoia had to be rubbing off on me because those were way too many buzzwords to be safe. "I hope so too." I tried to smile but - were my hands shaking? Fuck I felt like I needed this to be over for just a moment. "So uh - how much have… Amy and Victoria shared? I'm - completely unaware of who's in how much of the know. Also what day is it?"
"You hadn't told her what day it is?"
"She just woke up, Mom! Amy and I were catching her up on stuff."
"Speaking of which, where is Amelia?" Amelia? Wait does this mean she doesn't like her name shortened to Amy? Or would that count as doesn't like her name being lengthened? No, that's full name.
"She had to go to the bathroom, I think. Anyway, Taylor, it's Monday. You have the next couple of days off school."
"... you said I'd been asleep two days." I frowned. "Why aren't you two at school?"
"Yeah. Saturday, Sunday. Two days."
"My last memory was Friday afternoon."
"... I don't like math?"
"You've been here for about sixty-five hours." Brandish's glare swung round to Victoria again, like a lighthouse. "And Victoria isn't at school because she insisted on staying home until you were awake. Despite the fact that she's already in a considerable amount of trouble."
"She mentioned she was grounded." I smiled cheekily, elbowing her gently. And the sudden hilarious thought of her being literally grounded occurred to me. She glared at my muffled snorting and I explained - "Sorry I'm imagining you literally grounded and clomping around in concrete-filled shoeboxes."
"We haven't gone quite that far yet." Something twitched at the edge of Brandish's mouth. Was that her trying to smile? "However, since Taylor is awake now…"
"School's already started though!"
"Then you can arrive late, and apologise for your tardiness."
"Mom!"
"School is important, and I don't want you to get into the habit of skipping whole days simply because you've missed a few hours."
I thought back to the texts I'd gotten from Abby. Shiiit, the repeaters would be down by now, wouldn't they? I pulled it out of my pocket to check.
>i'm just gonna a break to think
>i'm sorry
In hindsight, now that I was emotionally calmer and stuff - I didn't do that very well.
<taylor?
<im really sorry
<i hadall these messy feelings
<i didn't know whatto do with them
<i didn't want you hurting from them too
<fuck
<im sorry
"Morning break's over by now, isn't it?" I rubbed my hand over my face and once again, super thankful I don't need to wear glasses anymore. Did mom do something with my eyes or was it never a problem with my eyes but the brain instead?
"Yeah…" Victoria couldn't read the texts but didn't really need to in order to guess.
"Which means you should hurry up. I'll show Taylor around the house and get her settled in." Brandish's hand settled on my shoulder and for a moment it felt far too much like Mom. Mirror, Mirror, down the hall, can I trust any mother at all? Hah! Made that one up right there. I was distracting myself again.
"If you see Abby, tell her to call me at lunch?"
Victoria's face softened. "I'll tell her." Then fell back into an impressive scowl at her Mom. "If I get detention for missing class, I'm letting them know it's your fault."
"Aura."
"Fuck, sorry."
"Swearing."
"Blast, sorry, then." Victoria floated up off the bed into a full hug of her mother. "Love you. See you this evening."
This was weird to watch. Like - seeing Mom and myself from the outside but with… less. Less screaming, less impressive make-up promises, less… everything.
"See you when I get back? I'll text you at lunch too, just to make sure things are settling in okay and Armsmaster hasn't shown up to spirit you away for spooky government experiments or anything."
"I'll -" Bite his head off if he tries - tell Mom - Annette - about it - "Uh." I blinked. "Try to think of a witty response in advance next time. See you then."
"See you!" She dashed out the door.
Brandish stood there silently for a long time, face still a mixture of sad and angry. Eventually, she looked at me and said, "I wouldn't let that happen, you know."
"I - was hoping, but at this point I'm not sure I can afford to take anything for granted." I wrapped my arms around myself for a moment. "I'm - very glad, though. Thank you for -" Housing me, saving me from your daughter, not laserblading me in half for the crime of being an illegal tinkertech experiment - "helping me."
"Of course." Her hand hovered awkwardly over my shoulder before settling on a pat. "Come on then. Let me show you the house."
-.-.-
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SolarFlare
(Verified Cape)
- Location
- Brockton Bay, USA
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I actually laughed. I can't deny it. Also Taylor continues to be a useless lesbian. ...Come tto think of it, would being friends with Panacea plausible deniability to have the scars removed, or at least tweaked so they don't cause issues with certain expressions?
- Location
- United States
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Taylor is currently exuding the biggest and most brazen of big gay energy.
- Location
- California
I get Vicky has a moral code, but not telling Taylor about the command phrases? Not cool.
That's not exactly something people in America say any more, and the Dallons aren't British
I like how realistic everyone is and it's not all 'bad mom Brandish and hating on Amy.' She doesn't use her full name, but doesn't seem to actively be against her after hearing that Amy wanted to help a monster. Fanon Brandish would have seen that as a sign that Amy was going villain.
Roadie
A plate full of blins and a cat nearby.
I dunno, I can get the reluctance. She should tell her, but... 'not only has your mother been editing your memories, she's implanted commands in your brain to control your actions'? That's some heavy stuff, and it's entirely human to want to give someone at least a little domestic normality before forcing them to deal with that kind of thing.
... How in the world does Taylor both exude top *and* bottom energy whenever she talks about anything vaguely sexual? It's honestly a talent, I don't know if I'm more perplexed or amused at this point.
Great chapter! Can't wait for more.
How the heck did you squeeze so many lol's into one chapter?
How the heck did you squeeze so many lol's into one chapter?
WhoAmEye
Bunker-Dwelling Cryptid
- Location
- Vault Birb
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Taylor's already experienced them, when she broke out of her tank that morning. They've already talked about it last chapter
and you may want to reread the first paragraph too >.>
Taylor is the ultimate Switch, or she's got two people timesharing headspace./joke.
WhoAmEye
Bunker-Dwelling Cryptid
- Location
- Vault Birb
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Considering both of us writers are switches, this is incredibly technically correct.
Bizarre Threats
- Location
- United States
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Victoria seems to be under the impression that this is an empty threat, but at this point I imagined it like this:
Victoria: "Oh, oh, you're approaching me? Instead of running away, you're coming right to me?"
Taylor: "I can't nibble the hell out of your neck without getting closer."
Victoria: "Oh-ho! Then come as close as you like!"
Taylor: struts forward aggressively
Thief of Words
Trans lesbian librarian
- Location
- Best book girl
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Bathroom. Alternatively, toilet.
Loo is a Commonwealthism.
That nitpick out of the way, excellent job conveying canonesque Brandish rather than the fanon version of her. <3
Taylor [motorboating the heroine]: Blublublublublublublublublublublublubblublublublu!
*files that information away for future....um, reference.*
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Suseiseki
Last Order Songstress
- Location
- Peru
The only reason that makes the part about not telling her everything beliable is that telling someone that you are being mind wiped because you are suicidal is that well she is suicidal.
Cue the sad part about it, she will never remember any kind of sexual act, because people always think about it after the fact and welll if she thinks hard enough, she will remember the rape and the killing of her father.
Hell I pretty sure Annette will let her remember it, they will need to cry for her help someday or she will break.
Cue the sad part about it, she will never remember any kind of sexual act, because people always think about it after the fact and welll if she thinks hard enough, she will remember the rape and the killing of her father.
Hell I pretty sure Annette will let her remember it, they will need to cry for her help someday or she will break.
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Subrosian_Smithy
endless
- Location
- Washington
- Pronouns
- She/Her/Hers
oh fuck is that why she had to get memory wiped of what happened on her date god DAMN IT-
- Location
- Alberta, Canada.
Damn.
Things are near-universally shitty, and it's all for pretty reasonable reasons on all sides.
Annette wants her daughter to live and hopefully have a happy and long life, but her power is shit at that so she's kludging things and Taylor's memories are so awful that whenever they surface she tries to kill herself. That certainly explains Annette's need to be informed constantly about where she is and what she's doing, since if they resurface at any point she may just throw herself off the nearest bridge. Which also makes the command phrases reasonable, since they could be the only thing that could stop her if she gets to that point in a suicide attempt, which it's implied has happened multiple times.
Taylor is paranoid because she can't trust anything now that she knows her Mom has been keeping things from her and editing memories, and it seems like no one can tell her what's actually going on and why without running the risk of uncovering said memories and her attempting suicide, so her Mom/the Dallon sisters can't alleviate her concerns or say what was removed and why. Not sure I buy how quickly Taylor switched from 'I love you Mom, I'm sorry for making you feel guilty, please don't cry, I know you're trying your best' to ascribing malice and monstrosity to 'Annette' so quickly, but I guess having your memory messed-with would make you doubt all that pretty quickly. Just not sure she would flip that quickly.
For everyone else, things are pretty obviously sketchy and Annette seems absurdly suspicious. Though I'm not sure that GG and Amy are/should be thinking they did good getting Taylor away from Annette, given what Annette told them about why she was removing Taylor's memories, since 'only way I could see to prevent her repeatedly attempting suicide' is a pretty damn good reason.
Things are near-universally shitty, and it's all for pretty reasonable reasons on all sides.
Annette wants her daughter to live and hopefully have a happy and long life, but her power is shit at that so she's kludging things and Taylor's memories are so awful that whenever they surface she tries to kill herself. That certainly explains Annette's need to be informed constantly about where she is and what she's doing, since if they resurface at any point she may just throw herself off the nearest bridge. Which also makes the command phrases reasonable, since they could be the only thing that could stop her if she gets to that point in a suicide attempt, which it's implied has happened multiple times.
Taylor is paranoid because she can't trust anything now that she knows her Mom has been keeping things from her and editing memories, and it seems like no one can tell her what's actually going on and why without running the risk of uncovering said memories and her attempting suicide, so her Mom/the Dallon sisters can't alleviate her concerns or say what was removed and why. Not sure I buy how quickly Taylor switched from 'I love you Mom, I'm sorry for making you feel guilty, please don't cry, I know you're trying your best' to ascribing malice and monstrosity to 'Annette' so quickly, but I guess having your memory messed-with would make you doubt all that pretty quickly. Just not sure she would flip that quickly.
For everyone else, things are pretty obviously sketchy and Annette seems absurdly suspicious. Though I'm not sure that GG and Amy are/should be thinking they did good getting Taylor away from Annette, given what Annette told them about why she was removing Taylor's memories, since 'only way I could see to prevent her repeatedly attempting suicide' is a pretty damn good reason.
WhoAmEye
Bunker-Dwelling Cryptid
- Location
- Vault Birb
- Pronouns
- She/Her
her memory got wiped after the date because annette wasn't sure how much she heard of the explanation to the dallon sisters
she couldn't risk taylor hearing even a little bit and overthinking it and bringing up the memories
that the date got wiped too was... unintended collateral
- Location
- Czech Republic
I know that Annette means well for Taylor, but I am just amazed how well she is murdering any trust between them...