Interlude 1: Amy Dallon
We Just Write
Blatantly Plural
- Location
- New England
- Pronouns
- Plural
Amy was used to keeping secrets. The identities of the Wards were just the tip of the iceberg there, compared to her love of her sister, the fact that her own powers went far beyond mere healing, and even that she knew she was the biological daughter of a supervillain. So when Taylor revealed that her latest watch was capable of stopping time, it was just one more secret to add to the pile.
Either way, given Taylor's insistence on coming over after school to talk about it, Amy was once again finding herself skipping out on her duties as a healer to go look at her friend's clocks. One flight by Vicky Airways later, she arrived at the Hebert house. Taylor met Amy at the door near-instantly after the doorbell was rung, and greeted her with a "Come in Amy!"
Amy nodded and said "Sure thing, Taylor." as she walked through the door.
Meanwhile, Victoria turned to fly off again with a perfunctory "See you later Amy!"
Before she could do that however, Taylor called out "Victoria, wait! I want you here for this too."
Turning back, the teenage Alexandria Package nodded and replied "Sure thing, Taylor."
As soon as the door closed, Taylor nodded to both Amy and Victoria held out her hand. The Dallon sisters immediately got the implied message and grabbed Taylor's hand, Amy getting a snapshot of her biology even as Taylor pressed a different button on her new watch. Abruptly, the angle of the sun through the window changed, and Taylor finally said "So, we're in the frozen moment now. If you want to freak out, go right ahead."
Victoria just raised an eyebrow before asking "Why would I freak out? Yeah you've apparently got a secret timestop base, but that's awesome, not scary."
Meanwhile, Amy simply shook her head as she sat down on the couch, saying "Honestly, given the time stop you demonstrated at school I was kind of expecting something like this. The fact that you've apparently got a time machine strapped to your wrist wasn't too much of a leap from there. Anyway, you pretty clearly want to tell me what you've been up to, so spill."
So Taylor did, sitting on the couch as she recounted her tale of discovering that she was building clocks capable of warping time, setting up the timestop base, and worrying about if she was still human.
At this last point, Amy spoke up, noting "So, about that. Biologically you're still fully human with all your organs in the right places and such. You still don't have either a Corona Pollentia or a Corona Gemma, so you don't meet the medical definition of a Parahuman." with a shrug, Amy noted "That said, if you're planning on making heroic appearances the PRT will probably stick you with a Tinker rating anyway."
Nodding, Taylor asked "Anyway, is it OK if I give you both some things? Amy, you're always complaining about not having enough time to both heal people and be yourself; if I give you a temporal manipulator watch and a safety, that won't be an issue."
As Amy nodded, Victoria raised her hand and asked "So, why are you giving me a watch, then?"
At this, Taylor simply answered "Because we've known each other for a while now, and I kind of like you. I know you're not completely invincible, and I really don't want to see you get hurt. Giving you a safety watch takes care of that."
Victoria simply shrugged, saying "Makes sense to me."
Taylor smiled, noting "Alright, if you wait for a little bit I'll have a time manipulator and a safety watch for both of you."
With that, Taylor got up off the couch and walked out of the room, her long braided ponytail swishing behind her as she exited. Amy and Victoria glanced at each other for mere moments, before Taylor came back, holding a small tray with four devices on it. Taylor quickly set the tray down, pointing to the pair of what looked like normal wristwatches as she said "OK, so these are the time manipulator watches. I'll explain how they work in a bit."
Pointing to the other pair of devices, Taylor continued "These are the safety watches. They pair to you when you press the button, and afterwards they're keyed to your elapsed subjective time. If something any nastier than a minor bump or scratch is about to happen to you, they immediately rewind your subjective timeline by an hour or until your most recent period of consciousness, merging your mind with that of your past self. You can also manually trigger a rewind by pressing the button again. Please note that the criteria for rollback include emotional harm."
With that, Taylor handed a safety watch to Amy and Victoria, each of whom followed the very simple instructions to get theirs ticking, before pocketing it.
Taylor nodded and noted "Good, that should keep you safe in case something is about to go wrong. Now, here's how to use the time manipulator watches."
A few subjective hours and a stop by an ice cream parlor later, Amy was staring at the house she'd spent the last nine years growing up in, Vicky standing right next to her and holding her hand. The gentle rhythms of her sister's biology were reassuring as she walked through the front door.
Right off the doors, they were confronted by an irate lawyer. "There you are, girls. Care to explain your whereabouts?" - Carol inquired ominously - "I`ve called the hospital, and you`re not there. I`ve called the school, and you`re not there either. So where were you all this time?"
Sighing, Amy offered in return - "We were visiting a friend."
Carol snorted. "A friend." - she repeated, tilting her head - "You went to visit... a friend. You did not call ahead, you skipped a hospital visit... all for the sake of visiting a friend, did I get that right? Was this friend dying at the very least, to necessitate such an urgent visit?"
"Yeah!" - Victoria broke into the conversation cheerfully - "Just went to visit Taylor. No biggie. She lives all the way near the docks, so I had to carry Ames over, yanno?"
Carol`s eyes suddenly narrowed. "Taylor who, honey?" - she quipped in low voice. Amy suppressed a shudder of revulsion. She hated this particular tone Carol would adapt. It usually meant she`s about to yell. More specifically, yell about things she held close to chest and flatly refused to discuss with anyone, but somehow expected them to be self-evident and obvious to any other member of family.
"Taylor Hebert! Come on, I told you about her. The girl that makes those awesome watches and is in our class, you remember?" - Victoria plowed on, lifting her sleeve to show off the gift. Carol`s face slackened for a moment, then solidified into a rictus of disgust.
"Take this off, right now." - she ordered frigidly - "You too, Amy. Both of you, hand those watches over. And do not EVER again approach that girl or her rotten family again. Or, heaven forebid, accept 'gifts' from them."
She could practically hear the 'quotes' around the word 'gift'.
"..No."
- she ventured finally, looking Carol straight in the eyes, daring her to try again. Vicky blinked at both of them, caught flat-footed by sudden flood of hostility. Just as Carol opened her mouth to shout...
-kcitkcitkcit-
Suddenly, Amy was back in the ice cream shop, mood thoroughly ruined. Turning towards her sister as she clicked her time-stop on, she asked Victoria "Do you remember anything that hasn't happened yet?"
Victoria nodded as she answered "If you mean mom snapping at you, then yeah."
Sighing, Amy griped "Just once, I wish Mom would actually encourage me to have a life outside being a healer. Or show any real affection at all, generally."
Gesturing to the pocket where her safety watch was quietly ticking away, Victoria noted "Well, we've certainly got all the tries we could possibly need. I'm sure we'll get through to her eventually."
-kcitkcitkcit-
Amy hit the timestop button as soon as she rewound, before she grumped "Didn't work, we have to try something else."
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Immediately after rewinding, Amy fell sobbing into Victoria's chest, not even bothering to stop time as she cried. The gentle stroking of her sister's hands running through her hair as she let the tears flow.
After a few moments, Amy managed to get out between the sobs "I just can't do this anymore! We've tried everything we can think of, and no matter what mom still doesn't accept me."
Vicky simply kept up the gentle stroking with one hand as she sighed, before answering "Yeah. We're fifty loops in and at this point we've just got to admit defeat. Mom can go yell at herself in the mirror if she wants, but we are not going through that again."
After a few moments of silence, Amy managed to pull herself together enough to agree with "Clear on that point. Where else can we go aside from Taylor's freaky time stop base, though?"
To this, Victoria simply chuckled and noted "You just answered your own question, Ames." and pulled out her safety watch.
Straightening herself up, Amy pulled her safety watch out as well. With a sad smile, she said "Ready when you are Vicky."
-kcitkcitkcitkcitkcitkcitkcitkcitkcit-
Back on the couch in Taylor's base, Amy and Victoria glanced to each other before Victoria blurted out "Taylor, we need to move in with you. Mom's just being really awful to both of us, and we can't stand it anymore."
Taylor jerked back slightly, before apparently reaching the logical conclusion that her friends had just looped back with the safety watches they'd just paired to. After a moment, Taylor nodded, noting "Fortunately the item duplicator takes care of the basic necessity costs for the most part, so we can actually afford to do that. That said, we can't really do much for your wardrobe unless you want to go get your stuff from your mom's house."
Immediately, Amy jerked back like she'd been bitten, saying "No,I.. I just can't deal with her." memories of dozens of failed attempts to get her mother to react with anything resembling basic affection echoing through her minds.
Sighing, Taylor noted "I don't mean with your mom present. We can just go get your stuff from the version of the world in the Frozen Moment, and there would literally be nothing your mom could do to stop us."
As Amy sniffled a bit, Vicky replied "That sounds good to me. Anything else?"
This is when the watchmaker's father made his presence known, entering the room as he said "Well, there's a couple of things. From the outside world's perspective, the events that lead to you coming to this decision never happened; if you suddenly join the Hebert Family it will look an awful lot like you were Mastered, and we don't need that kind of heat. So we need to stage an extremely public falling out between you and your mother."
Quietly, Amy nodded, having silently been dreading needing to interact with Carol again. Meanwhile, Danny continued "Also, I'll need to get some bunk beds and maybe persuade Taylor to make a bigger duplicator. This house isn't set up to sleep four, and if we'll be adopting you that needs to change."
This is when Amy finally got together enough composure to speak again, saying "So, I only have to be in the same room as Carol one more time, then. Except no, because I'll need to do that one time over and over again until we get it perfectly. Anything else that I need to be aware of?"
A/N: The section with Carol yelling at Amy and Vicky was written by a friend from Discord after much discussion of how to make the scene work. I used her work with her permission and minor grammar fixes.
Either way, given Taylor's insistence on coming over after school to talk about it, Amy was once again finding herself skipping out on her duties as a healer to go look at her friend's clocks. One flight by Vicky Airways later, she arrived at the Hebert house. Taylor met Amy at the door near-instantly after the doorbell was rung, and greeted her with a "Come in Amy!"
Amy nodded and said "Sure thing, Taylor." as she walked through the door.
Meanwhile, Victoria turned to fly off again with a perfunctory "See you later Amy!"
Before she could do that however, Taylor called out "Victoria, wait! I want you here for this too."
Turning back, the teenage Alexandria Package nodded and replied "Sure thing, Taylor."
As soon as the door closed, Taylor nodded to both Amy and Victoria held out her hand. The Dallon sisters immediately got the implied message and grabbed Taylor's hand, Amy getting a snapshot of her biology even as Taylor pressed a different button on her new watch. Abruptly, the angle of the sun through the window changed, and Taylor finally said "So, we're in the frozen moment now. If you want to freak out, go right ahead."
Victoria just raised an eyebrow before asking "Why would I freak out? Yeah you've apparently got a secret timestop base, but that's awesome, not scary."
Meanwhile, Amy simply shook her head as she sat down on the couch, saying "Honestly, given the time stop you demonstrated at school I was kind of expecting something like this. The fact that you've apparently got a time machine strapped to your wrist wasn't too much of a leap from there. Anyway, you pretty clearly want to tell me what you've been up to, so spill."
So Taylor did, sitting on the couch as she recounted her tale of discovering that she was building clocks capable of warping time, setting up the timestop base, and worrying about if she was still human.
At this last point, Amy spoke up, noting "So, about that. Biologically you're still fully human with all your organs in the right places and such. You still don't have either a Corona Pollentia or a Corona Gemma, so you don't meet the medical definition of a Parahuman." with a shrug, Amy noted "That said, if you're planning on making heroic appearances the PRT will probably stick you with a Tinker rating anyway."
Nodding, Taylor asked "Anyway, is it OK if I give you both some things? Amy, you're always complaining about not having enough time to both heal people and be yourself; if I give you a temporal manipulator watch and a safety, that won't be an issue."
As Amy nodded, Victoria raised her hand and asked "So, why are you giving me a watch, then?"
At this, Taylor simply answered "Because we've known each other for a while now, and I kind of like you. I know you're not completely invincible, and I really don't want to see you get hurt. Giving you a safety watch takes care of that."
Victoria simply shrugged, saying "Makes sense to me."
Taylor smiled, noting "Alright, if you wait for a little bit I'll have a time manipulator and a safety watch for both of you."
With that, Taylor got up off the couch and walked out of the room, her long braided ponytail swishing behind her as she exited. Amy and Victoria glanced at each other for mere moments, before Taylor came back, holding a small tray with four devices on it. Taylor quickly set the tray down, pointing to the pair of what looked like normal wristwatches as she said "OK, so these are the time manipulator watches. I'll explain how they work in a bit."
Pointing to the other pair of devices, Taylor continued "These are the safety watches. They pair to you when you press the button, and afterwards they're keyed to your elapsed subjective time. If something any nastier than a minor bump or scratch is about to happen to you, they immediately rewind your subjective timeline by an hour or until your most recent period of consciousness, merging your mind with that of your past self. You can also manually trigger a rewind by pressing the button again. Please note that the criteria for rollback include emotional harm."
With that, Taylor handed a safety watch to Amy and Victoria, each of whom followed the very simple instructions to get theirs ticking, before pocketing it.
Taylor nodded and noted "Good, that should keep you safe in case something is about to go wrong. Now, here's how to use the time manipulator watches."
A few subjective hours and a stop by an ice cream parlor later, Amy was staring at the house she'd spent the last nine years growing up in, Vicky standing right next to her and holding her hand. The gentle rhythms of her sister's biology were reassuring as she walked through the front door.
Right off the doors, they were confronted by an irate lawyer. "There you are, girls. Care to explain your whereabouts?" - Carol inquired ominously - "I`ve called the hospital, and you`re not there. I`ve called the school, and you`re not there either. So where were you all this time?"
Sighing, Amy offered in return - "We were visiting a friend."
Carol snorted. "A friend." - she repeated, tilting her head - "You went to visit... a friend. You did not call ahead, you skipped a hospital visit... all for the sake of visiting a friend, did I get that right? Was this friend dying at the very least, to necessitate such an urgent visit?"
"Yeah!" - Victoria broke into the conversation cheerfully - "Just went to visit Taylor. No biggie. She lives all the way near the docks, so I had to carry Ames over, yanno?"
Carol`s eyes suddenly narrowed. "Taylor who, honey?" - she quipped in low voice. Amy suppressed a shudder of revulsion. She hated this particular tone Carol would adapt. It usually meant she`s about to yell. More specifically, yell about things she held close to chest and flatly refused to discuss with anyone, but somehow expected them to be self-evident and obvious to any other member of family.
"Taylor Hebert! Come on, I told you about her. The girl that makes those awesome watches and is in our class, you remember?" - Victoria plowed on, lifting her sleeve to show off the gift. Carol`s face slackened for a moment, then solidified into a rictus of disgust.
"Take this off, right now." - she ordered frigidly - "You too, Amy. Both of you, hand those watches over. And do not EVER again approach that girl or her rotten family again. Or, heaven forebid, accept 'gifts' from them."
She could practically hear the 'quotes' around the word 'gift'.
"..No."
- she ventured finally, looking Carol straight in the eyes, daring her to try again. Vicky blinked at both of them, caught flat-footed by sudden flood of hostility. Just as Carol opened her mouth to shout...
-kcitkcitkcit-
Suddenly, Amy was back in the ice cream shop, mood thoroughly ruined. Turning towards her sister as she clicked her time-stop on, she asked Victoria "Do you remember anything that hasn't happened yet?"
Victoria nodded as she answered "If you mean mom snapping at you, then yeah."
Sighing, Amy griped "Just once, I wish Mom would actually encourage me to have a life outside being a healer. Or show any real affection at all, generally."
Gesturing to the pocket where her safety watch was quietly ticking away, Victoria noted "Well, we've certainly got all the tries we could possibly need. I'm sure we'll get through to her eventually."
-kcitkcitkcit-
Amy hit the timestop button as soon as she rewound, before she grumped "Didn't work, we have to try something else."
-kcitkcitkcit-
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Immediately after rewinding, Amy fell sobbing into Victoria's chest, not even bothering to stop time as she cried. The gentle stroking of her sister's hands running through her hair as she let the tears flow.
After a few moments, Amy managed to get out between the sobs "I just can't do this anymore! We've tried everything we can think of, and no matter what mom still doesn't accept me."
Vicky simply kept up the gentle stroking with one hand as she sighed, before answering "Yeah. We're fifty loops in and at this point we've just got to admit defeat. Mom can go yell at herself in the mirror if she wants, but we are not going through that again."
After a few moments of silence, Amy managed to pull herself together enough to agree with "Clear on that point. Where else can we go aside from Taylor's freaky time stop base, though?"
To this, Victoria simply chuckled and noted "You just answered your own question, Ames." and pulled out her safety watch.
Straightening herself up, Amy pulled her safety watch out as well. With a sad smile, she said "Ready when you are Vicky."
-kcitkcitkcitkcitkcitkcitkcitkcitkcit-
Back on the couch in Taylor's base, Amy and Victoria glanced to each other before Victoria blurted out "Taylor, we need to move in with you. Mom's just being really awful to both of us, and we can't stand it anymore."
Taylor jerked back slightly, before apparently reaching the logical conclusion that her friends had just looped back with the safety watches they'd just paired to. After a moment, Taylor nodded, noting "Fortunately the item duplicator takes care of the basic necessity costs for the most part, so we can actually afford to do that. That said, we can't really do much for your wardrobe unless you want to go get your stuff from your mom's house."
Immediately, Amy jerked back like she'd been bitten, saying "No,I.. I just can't deal with her." memories of dozens of failed attempts to get her mother to react with anything resembling basic affection echoing through her minds.
Sighing, Taylor noted "I don't mean with your mom present. We can just go get your stuff from the version of the world in the Frozen Moment, and there would literally be nothing your mom could do to stop us."
As Amy sniffled a bit, Vicky replied "That sounds good to me. Anything else?"
This is when the watchmaker's father made his presence known, entering the room as he said "Well, there's a couple of things. From the outside world's perspective, the events that lead to you coming to this decision never happened; if you suddenly join the Hebert Family it will look an awful lot like you were Mastered, and we don't need that kind of heat. So we need to stage an extremely public falling out between you and your mother."
Quietly, Amy nodded, having silently been dreading needing to interact with Carol again. Meanwhile, Danny continued "Also, I'll need to get some bunk beds and maybe persuade Taylor to make a bigger duplicator. This house isn't set up to sleep four, and if we'll be adopting you that needs to change."
This is when Amy finally got together enough composure to speak again, saying "So, I only have to be in the same room as Carol one more time, then. Except no, because I'll need to do that one time over and over again until we get it perfectly. Anything else that I need to be aware of?"
A/N: The section with Carol yelling at Amy and Vicky was written by a friend from Discord after much discussion of how to make the scene work. I used her work with her permission and minor grammar fixes.
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