4.9.2 (2 of 2): Embodiment
- Location
- A single human dimension
- Pronouns
- She/Her
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The trip home is honestly anticlimactic after the hectic events of the night. Jaunt teleported you back to Prism and let you wander off without showing even the slightest hint of wanting to follow you. People know better than to find out the secret identity of a magical girl; doing so seldom ends well for the offender. You walk halfway home, change bodily and chameleon forms in a back alley, and text Mother to have her retrieve Exponential Doses from the park nearby your home. Everything else was safely stored away in your new extradimensional smuggler's bag.
To your vague surprise, Dad is the one to pick you up from the alley, not Mom. Your other parental unit isn't even present.
"Shotgun!"
You stop before the open car door and look at Celes incredulously.
"I'm already right here."
"Rules are ru-ules~" Celes half-sings.
You slowly blink at your sibling, decide you're too tired for her nonsense, and slide into the front seat anyway.
"Hey!"
"It's a five to ten minute ride," you grumble, resting your forehead against the dashboard. "And that's not even a real rule. Just sit down and let's get going."
Celes mutters something uncharitable under her breath and slides into one of the back seats. Skye occupies the other one without a word of protest.
You stealthily look behind you to make sure Celes is the one you'll be squishing, then slide your seat back as far as it'll go. The improvised sibling-squisher seals Celes's fate with an ominous click.
"Oh, come on!" Celes objects as her leg room mysteriously vanishes.
"Five minute ride. Suck it up."
"…My vengeance will be slow and subtle," Celes vows. Despite her promise, she immediately begins kicking the back of your seat, which is anything but subtle.
"Girls," Dad sighs.
""Sorry,"" you lie together, Celes settling for simply pressing her knees against the back of your seat. It's still plenty uncomfortable, but it doesn't make as much noise.
The car lurches into motion, your father taking to the roads and accelerating like someone who only just passed their driver's ed course. Oh, he's technically obeying most traffic laws, but the swaying and semi-random lane changes would get him pulled over by any sane police officer. You're never quite sure how you manage to make it through a ride without having your father arrested.
"So I noticed an unoccupied shell lashed to Upgrade's current satellite," Dad remarks conversationally. "Looks an awful lot like you girls did when you were younger."
"Um. Yeah. That's sorta for Upgrade to use if she wants to?"
Dad exhales in a sigh. You imagine the phantom echoes of screaming hurricane winds, but in his human form, none truly manifest. It's a weird contrast to what you're used to.
"We need to have a serious discussion about your apparent tendency to adopt every orphan you meet."
"Not every orphan," you protest. "I mean, I kinda damaged Skye and I feel like Upgrade really needed the comfort. She's already part of the family, y'know? She's literally sharing headspace with me."
Σ(￣。￣ノ)ノ
"You've met two untaken children and you've adopted, or offered to adopt, both of them," Dad remarks dryly. "I'm not saying it wasn't the right thing to do for Skye and Upgrade, but you are allowed to have friends who aren't part of the family. Take Ayna and Julia, your 'rivals.' Elspeth coached her nudging in terms of character witnesses, but this is your mother we're talking about. I think it's pretty clear her primary motivation was getting you some friends your own age."
"The original tsundere, she is," Celes mutters.
Dad lets out a disturbingly ordinary bark of laughter instead of the thunderclap you're used to. If he feels anything like you do, it's no wonder he dislikes wearing this form when he doesn't need to.
"That is part of her charm," Dad admits. "I'd never before met someone so intent on maintaining a front long after it's been revealed as a blatant lie. Your own development has also gone in interesting directions. Celes, you constantly push yourself out of your comfort zone as a means of discovering what you do enjoy. Evelyn, you follow in your mother's footsteps and pretend to be a super-serious bastion of dignity when we all know you just want to roll around in a pile of stuffed animals. And yet, you both seem perfectly content with your masks and maintain them in front of everyone."
You shift uncomfortably and stealthily slide your seat forward. This conversation went straight from a lecture on adoption to a super-serious discussion about masks. You don't think you like it.
Celes, apparently agreeing with you, decides to change the subject.
"So, we took everything that wasn't nailed down and then took the floor beneath the nails as well. They said they'd have to get back to us with payment for the room, soooo…"
"Don't expect a paycheck," Dad sighs. "The government has a bit of cognitive dissonance when it comes to bribing Capes. The CBCC is happy to give you valuable lesson time, materials, or even arrange lessons from incredibly powerful Capes, but they loathe actually paying people. Basically, the people on the ground know the name of the game is appeasement, but the career politicians in charge of them really don't like admitting that part. 'Bribe to appease PS-class Cape Insert Name Here' apparently looks much worse on a budget than the far more expensive 'lessons for PS from high-profile Cape A.'"
"…We're getting stuff that's worth more than a paycheck?"
"Indeed you are," Dad confirms. "Expect tickets to the Construction Competition at the very least. Your mother enjoys moonlighting as a grey-market reseller for people with too much money and not enough planning ability, so we'll have some extras for you as a backup plan. As for Upgrade, I spoke with your Mother and she claims she can tolerate yet another adopted sibling. Translated from Elspeth-speak, I suspect she wants another cute little girl to spoil. However, we're not quite sure how we should go about getting her a vessel if Upgrade does accept the offer of adoption. We'll talk about it when you're all awake."
You intend to respond, but you think the
The next morning — apparently, a day of exhausting exertion means nearly a day of sleep — you follow your nose to the dining room table and blink at the unexpected sight before you. Skye is already eating some golden-yellow slop from her liquifying bowl with every sign of enjoyment, your mother is cooking yet more food in the adjacent kitchen, and Celes seems to be glaring at a pile of delightfully delicious-looking desserts at the middle of the table.
"Are those doughnuts?"
"No," Celes grumbles sleepily. "Doughnut-shaped pancakes. It's a breakfast made of lies."
Ah. That explains her unhappiness.
"You don't need to have any," Mother says sweetly.
Celes half-lifts her head to look at you, her disgruntled expression effectively conveying her unspoken message: I'm too tired to manage her face-saving training right now. Help?
"Lies can still be deliciously sweet; if people don't want to believe something, they'll be more inclined to look for flaws with it. Sugar helps it go down. Still, no matter how good or well-meaning the lie is, there will still be backlash when the deception is discovered."
You sit down and tilt your head to one side.
"And I thought we were done with our training?"
"I said there would be no more tests," Mother corrects. "Training is a completely different beast. You're never too old to learn."
The inbred spawn of a yawn and a groan escapes from Celes's lips.
"Yeah, whatever. Anyway, we basically cleaned out the CBCC yesterday, so we have a bunch of stuff to distribute among our different identities."
Celes pauses and frowns.
"I was going to ask for help with that, but I guess we probably know the functionality of everything better than you would. So, question: Why didn't your training ever handle — uh, go over how to handle crowds, I mean? Heroes with good PR are significantly more effective than those without it, so I don't get why you'd refuse to teach us that. You knew we'd be at least a little heroic because of Dad."
Mother adopts her (un)trademarked Extremely Punchable Smirk and lets out a derisive laugh. You and Celes wait patiently for her to get to the actual point; Mom might not have done much for your conventional social skills, but you're fairly good at recognizing a deliberate taunt. In other words, a test of whether or not you'll react to blatant provocations. She's not very good at stopping, is she?
"Your father did train you on how to handle crowds: from a distance. Even if you're beloved by the general public, there will always be those who dislike you or want to see you suffer. Crowds are a good way to get close and attack without being spotted. They can also act as one giant collection of hostages or be the victims of collateral damage. There's no right answer to most hostage situations-"
"Reverse?"
"I believe that only affects individual targets, doesn't it? It won't necessarily let you save everyone if a bomb detonates. You should also test to find out what happens if you Reverse an object to an area now occupied by, say, a collapsed building."
A loud thud draws your attention to the stairs you just descended from. You glance up to see your dad half-sprawled across the guard rails, the stars of his body blurring in apparent sleepiness.
"My heart feels dead inside, yet here I stand, awake and alive," Dad rumbles.
"Why would you even imitate morning grogginess in the first place?"
Dad's black maw opens and sucks several dust motes inside as he yawns. That particular oddity makes a lot more sense now.
"Sleep is the single best adaptation of biological life I've ever come across. Being able to just hit the reset button on exhaustion is wonderful."
"Again, why would you let yourself be exhausted? Your main body is a black hole. Last I checked, those never stopped eating."
"Exactly. The contrast is bliss."
Dad grins crookedly as his eyes flick toward your mother.
"And sleep might be my number one, but sleeping with your mother is definitely a close second."
You and Celes simultaneously freeze. Skye continues eating without any regard for the disgusting grenade tossed by your father. You'd think years of this nonsense would've acclimatized you to Dad's tendency to toss inappropriate remarks at your mother. Nope.
"Aidan!" Mother hisses, an unusual hint of red creeping to her cheeks.
"What? It created our wonderful children," Dad replies innocently. "What's not to like about that?"
"Please, think of the children," Celes pleads. "We're right here!"
"I am thinking of my children," Dad chortles. "Your mother is the limiting reagent in the reaction that produces more of you; 'two exhausting starspawn at a time,' she said. Personally, I'd be happy to go upstairs and-"
You hit Dad with Reverse until he's banished from the breakfast table and back to the wretched den from whence he came.
"Oooo, mistake," Celes mutters.
You blink in confusion until the unrepentant voice of your father calls down from above.
"Honey, I started to talk about making more kids and our current ones sent me back to our bedroom! I think that's a pretty clear message, don't you?"
"Monologue mute button," you sigh, resting your head on the table. "We should've made a mute button."
"You're banished to the couch until further notice!" Mom yells back.
"I thought the rule was-"
"You are not finishing that thought, Aidan!"
You shudder and spear a few breakfast doughnuts for yourself. After simple pleas fail, the only recourse available to you is to raise the walls and wait him out. Your twin is free to continue engaging if she so desires, but you are done.
After a moment of trepidation, you bite down on the fake doughnut, blink, and turn suspicious eyes on your original twin.
"Hey. These do taste like doughnuts."
The muscles of Celes's neck jump as she fights down a grin.
"My earlier statements were a metaphor for themselves," Celes mock-whispers.
"I trusted you," you whisper back, betrayed for the second time in as many days.
Celes innocently bats her eyelashes before raising her head and yelling back up at Dad.
"Dad, is this really the early impression you want to give Skye?"
"Best to rip the band-aid off all at once, don't you think? She's going to learn what I'm like sooner than later."
"And Upgrade?"
(o.o)?
Your dad returns to the kitchen and slides back into his seat. You Reverse the first doughnut he takes on general principles only to see him absentmindedly grab his now-empty plate instead. It's halfway to his mouth when Mom slaps his arm and points at the endangered piece of ceramic tableware. Dad sheepishly lowers it back to the table and spears another breakfast doughnut.
"That's like complaining about a passing hummingbird; they don't care what they observe. The Beyond concept of privacy is something like 'setup time for fun surprises' or 'hiding behavior that may invite retribution if noticed.' Societal disapproval is enough punishment for them to understand the desire for privacy, but again, they don't care what they see or hear. They care about human reproduction only inasmuch that it may have a significant emotional impact about characters they enjoy watching and might result in parental obligations for the participants. That means they might object if they dislike someone, but the communicative Beyond would've made their opinions clear long before any relationships reached that point."
Celes frowns and carefully puts down her fork.
"That does actually sound like a reason why we'd want privacy. I like Authority, but I get the feeling they're a little pushy; I doubt we'd share the same taste in romantic partners."
"Wrong mindset; Beyond don't have significant others. Beyond usually only act like that when their linked partner might be entering an abusive relationship. Even the ones who adore character development and recovery from trauma are less than fond of the permanent potential consequence known as children."
"They're okay with murderous users, but they draw the line at unhappy childhoods? Seriously?"
"Again, Beyond affection starts at zero," Dad replies patiently. "Humans frequently feel sympathetic discomfort when they see the suffering of another human. The baseline for Beyond has them thinking of human suffering as a transient part of their game. They usually care about other Beyond, but developing empathy for humans? That's a completely different process."
"They see words on a page that describe someone crying instead of seeing a person crying?"
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<_< >_>
<_< >_>
"Yeah, that's a pretty good way to look at it. The good news is that you don't get murderous Beyond. You get ones that are interested in seeing what their partners do with an incredibly lethal power, yet you don't get sadistic or psychopathic Beyond."
"Um, aren't there powers that put people in a berserker state? That seems like…"
"Beyond who want their partners to play the villain?" Dad finishes. "That's often their competitive streak at work. Some want to face and overcome opposition and don't much care how they get there. Some enjoy seeing their partners be overcome; you can't have heroes without a villain. Just think of them as a bunch of people reading about fictional characters and you won't be far wrong. Do you ever feel icky when you read about a fictional character actually using the restroom?"
"…Actually, yeah?" you hazard. "If it's in any detail, it kinda makes me wonder what the hell is going through the author's head when they write it."
"I used to skip past book sex scenes," Celes volunteers.
You jerk upright and look at your twin with wide eyes.
"Used to?"
"These days, I get a kick out of seeing how many anatomically impossible actions are described," Celes admits. "Three arms? It's more common than you think!"
Your dad clears his throat and leans forward, possibly deciding he'd done enough damage to your composure for one day.
"Speaking of children, we really do need to talk about what we should do for Upgrade. She's fine as she is now, but if she decides to become an Other, she'll start growing up at a much faster rate than Beyond do. I'm not content with leaving her situation as-is, so something needs to change. That might mean making some 'friendship bracelets' with specific Capes so she can chat with their powers even while you're apart and possibly frequent 'Direct Control' playtime. That might mean making her an animal 'mascot' puppet-avatar. Finally, it may mean a collaborative effort to make her a human-avatar of her own. I know your first instinct is probably to go for the full-fledged sibling route, but it would interact oddly with your preexisting link. We talked about it and it sounds as though she wouldn't have as much leeway to bend the rules for you, nor would she be able to hear your thoughts. We're pretty doubtful she'll even be able to properly transmit her current form of communication. She'll be able to communicate with a human-vessel and she's shown great interest in using real text-emoji as a supplement, but that's not quite the same thing. She could still 'assume direct control' if asked, but she'd have to put her vessel to sleep to do it.
"Before you say it's up to her, know that she's indecisive. She doesn't seem to want to be 'trouble,' and even if I reassure her she wouldn't be a problem, she still wants to leave it up to you. If I'm understanding her right, she seems to think she'll be happy with anything 'as long as it's cute.' We also can't do both the animal mascot and the extended chat range; she only has so much attention to go around."
"My vote's for human!"
"Upgrade is her mental roommate," Dad reminds Celes. "Let Evelyn decide without pressuring, please."
Vote by preference when the vote unlocks: 1, 2, 3, and 4 in the boxes instead of X, where 1 is your favorite option, 2 is your second favorite, etc.
[] Communication aids.
If she stays wholly in your head, you have a better chance of being able to protect her from bullies and it's easier to keep her with you.
[] Animal mascot.
She'd still be able to maintain her current functionality, but she'd also have an animal avatar to play with as well.
[] Fairy Avatar.
Dad didn't know about the healing fairy ("Pocket Medic") you made back at CBCC's New York HQ, but Upgrade could use it as an avatar. It would take up just as much bandwidth as an animal mascot would — in other words, Upgrade would be much the same as she is now, but she'd also have a fairy avatar to play with.
[] Human Avatar.
She'll become like you, but she'll lose some abilities in return. It may also be a bit tricky to keep her with you during certain activities.
Voting will be locked until 10:30 AM, EST, Monday (Tomorrow)
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— Might smite villains later, idk. Skye abstained as usual, but Celes and Upgrade both voted in favor.