Author: giftedandtalented | Mehitabel reads a lot.
She starts calling herself "Tab", for short, not that anyone calls her anything apart from Kers. She writes suitably encrypted emails to Aelise about ideas for fixing the world - mostly she asks questions, to start, forming a picture of the exact problem she has to solve.
She misses her parents, but not very much. At least she got to say goodbye.
When her brain won't absorb new information, she bounces around in zero-g.
After six months, Aelise visits again.
Tab says, "Anybody you store up here must be important somehow. If I don't know about the other secret person, I won't know how to come up with ideas that work with them being important however they're important." |
Author: salus_populi | "What do you want to know about him?" says Aelise. |
Author: alicornucopia | "Why he's up here. I don't know what way he's important until you tell me." |
Author: salus_populi | "He is up here for complicated reasons," says Aelise. "I'm not sure what the best summary is." |
Author: alicornucopia | "You could tell me the whole story," suggests Tab. |
Author: salus_populi | "Not while you're still seven." |
Author: alicornucopia | "You could tell me all the parts that are okay for someone who is seven and who is also me." |
Author: salus_populi | "I could also just introduce you to him and let him tell the story himself," she says, "but I'm fairly sure that if he finds out Kers is up here he will find a way to kill her, and I don't know how good you are at maintaining that kind of information security." |
Author: alicornucopia | "I don't want Kers to die," says Tab. "It would be strange if somebody my age were up here all alone though, even if I didn't say anything." |
Author: salus_populi | "Something tells me he won't think of that," says Aelise. "Besides, he doesn't have to know you live up here." |
Author: alicornucopia | "Should I just talk like I live back where I used to, then, if he asks me?" |
Author: salus_populi | "That would be a good idea." |
Author: alicornucopia | "I can do that." |
Author: salus_populi | "All right," says Aelise. "And there's a small chance he might try to hurt you, but Kers can keep you safe." |
Author: alicornucopia | "Okay," says Tab, who has already noticed the benefits of Kers's power just by walking around for six months. |
Author: salus_populi | "I'll go see what he thinks about visitors," says Aelise, and that is the end of that visit.
Some time later, Tab gets an email that says she can visit section 214 whenever she wants, as long as she pretends she still lives on Earth, pointedly refuses to answer questions about how she got there, and makes sure not to imply she has ever met Kers.
And the name of the person living there is Harley. |
Author: alicornucopia | Tab emails back, asking if it's okay for Harley to know about her Gift. |
Author: salus_populi | It takes about a day for Aelise to answer.
She says yes. |
Author: alicornucopia | Tab then hops into a vehicle and drives herself to 214. |
Author: pythbox | All of the airlocked doors dividing section 214 from the rest of the ring show the red 'no unauthorized access' sign, but they'll open for her. |
Author: alicornucopia | Tab giggles as she lets herself through. "Harleeeeey?" she calls. |
Author: pythbox | "Who the fuck are you?" a voice yells back from the distance. |
Author: alicornucopia | "I'm Mehitabel! But you can call me Tab if you want!" |
Author: pythbox | No response. |
Author: alicornucopia | "Aelise says I can visit you whenever I want!" Tab adds, skipping forward towards the source of the voice. |
Author: pythbox | "Good for Aelise," says Harley, at a somewhat more normal volume; he's only just around the corner now, and then he isn't. He is in a room in the section's living quarters, with a book open on the computer, lying in bed rather than reading it, wearing a pair of rumpled pajama pants in sky-blue dotted with fluffy white sheeps. He is maybe sixteen or seventeen years old. |
Author: alicornucopia | "How come you're up here?" Tab asks. |
Author: pythbox | "Because I hate Chelsa," says Harley. |
Author: alicornucopia | "She's awful," agrees Tab solemnly. |
Author: pythbox | Harley squints at her.
"What's your name again?" |
Author: alicornucopia | "Tab." |
Author: pythbox | "Why are you up here?" |
Author: alicornucopia | "I'm here to visit you!" |
Author: pythbox | He rolls his eyes. "And why are you doing that? Why do you even know I exist?" |
Author: alicornucopia | "I'm trying to figure out a safe way to get rid of Chelsa, and if you're up here being secret, you must be important, so I want to know why, so my ideas can have you in them if you have to be in them." |
Author: pythbox | "And what, Aelise sent you to get it from me? Shit," says Harley. "Maybe she's halfway serious about it. So how much do you already know?" |
Author: alicornucopia | "About you? I know your name and where to find you and that you are secret for complicated reasons and what you told me and that Aelise doesn't think the whole story is okay to tell me while I am seven." |
Author: pythbox | Harley snorts.
"Yeah, that's probably because of all the sex," he says. "Fine. So for starters, I come from another universe." |
Author: alicornucopia | "Wow," says Tab, eyes going wide. "Really?" |
Author: pythbox | "Yes, really," he says. "I got rescued out of one and grew up in another, and then I randomly disappeared out of that one and practically fell right into Chelsa's lap, and it turns out that she can make you like her but she can't make you not hate her, and I hate her a lot." |
Author: alicornucopia | "She can't make me like her," says Tab. |
Author: pythbox | "I figured as much," says Harley. |
Author: alicornucopia | "How did you move around between all these universes?" Tab asks, pulling out her tablet to take notes. |
Author: pythbox | "I mean 'randomly disappeared' pretty well literally," he says. "For the first move, though, I had help." |
Author: alicornucopia | "How did that work?" |
Author: pythbox | "I was like a year old," he says, "I don't actually remember it or anything." |
Author: alicornucopia | "And they never told you how? Who was it anyway?" |
Author: pythbox | He drags his pillow over his head. |
Author: alicornucopia | "What? What'd I say?" |
Author: pythbox | "I kind of fucking miss her," Harley growls from under his pillow. |
Author: alicornucopia | "I'm sorry," says Tab. "I don't know how to send you home." |
Author: pythbox | "Me neither," says the pillow. |
Author: alicornucopia | "Do you not want to talk about her?" |
Author: pythbox | "I really don't!" |
Author: alicornucopia | "Okay. I'm sorry." |
Author: pythbox | He sighs, removes the pillow from his face, and hugs it instead.
"Whatever." |
Author: alicornucopia | "What's the world you lived in like?" asks Tab after a respectful silence. |
Author: pythbox | "No Chelsa," he says.
And then, "They had one, but she died." |
Author: alicornucopia | "And everybody didn't start killing each other?" asks Tab, sitting up at attention. |
Author: pythbox | He snorts. "Nope." |
Author: alicornucopia | "Aelise thinks that if something happened to Chelsa here people would start having wars again. I'm supposed to think of a way for that to not happen, and then Chelsa can go away here too." |
Author: pythbox | "The other Chelsa wasn't doing her thing to the whole world," says Harley. "Just a little piece of it. It was the other you who killed her," he adds offhandedly. |
Author: alicornucopia | "There's another me?" Tab asks, sitting bolt upright and looking utterly fascinated. |
Author: pythbox | "There's like twelve," says Harley, with a little smile. "I've only met one, though. Her name's Bella and she's a vampire empress." |
Author: alicornucopia | "Wow." Tab isn't sure if she believes this story, but it promises to be fascinating. "There are vampires in that world? And my - mirror universe twin is the empress of it? I bet she isn't seven, though. How do you know I'm her?" |
Author: pythbox | "You look like her and you talk like her, if she was seven." |
Author: alicornucopia | "Huh. Wow. What are the vampires like?" |
Author: pythbox | "...They're... like vampires," he says. "I only know about the one kind. I mean, they drink blood and they're immortal and stuff?" |
Author: alicornucopia | "I think being immortal would be nice," says Tab. "I don't think drinking blood would be very nice." |
Author: pythbox | "Being immortal kind of sucks sometimes," says Harley. "But drinking blood would suck worse, I can't believe they don't miss food more." |
Author: alicornucopia | "How does being immortal suck?" asks Tab. |
Author: pythbox | "When you want to die and can't." |
Author: alicornucopia | "Why would you want to?" Tab asks, furrowing her brow and frowning. |
Author: pythbox | "Chelsa," sighs Harley. |
Author: alicornucopia | Tab considers. "I might be able to make you safe," she says. "But you're already up here, being secret." |
Author: pythbox | "Yeah," he says. "As long as she doesn't ever have to see me again, there's no point. I can just stay up here and be Aelise's battery." |
Author: alicornucopia | "Battery?" asks Tab, nonplussed. |
Author: pythbox | "...Wait, you don't know that part?" he says. "Why do you think she's keeping me away from Chelsa in the first fucking place? Besides the fact that I cry and break things every time she comes near me, I mean, there's more than one reason, but the main thing is Aelise's Gift moves lifeforce around and mine is a renewable resource. I'm pretty sure that's why she stuck me up here and, like, let me have visitors, instead of just dropping me on the moon or something." |
Author: alicornucopia | "I knew she could make people immortal, I didn't know how she did it," Tab says. |
Author: pythbox | "Before I showed up, she used to kill babies," says Harley. |
Author: alicornucopia |
Tab isn't quite sure how to react to that. |
Author: pythbox | He shrugs.
"And Chelsa cut them off, so nobody thought it was that fucked up, but I mean of course it's that fucked up." |
Author: alicornucopia | "Oh," says Tab. "...She didn't tell me that. I will have to ask her about it." |
Author: pythbox | "Wonder why she didn't," says Harley. |
Author: alicornucopia | "I don't know. Maybe because I'm seven." |
Author: pythbox | "Probably," says Harley. |
Author: alicornucopia | "She's not doing it any more, though?" Tab asks slowly. |
Author: pythbox | "Nah. She uses me instead," says Harley. "Maybe not for long, though, I'm going nuts up here." |
Author: alicornucopia | "I could visit you a lot," says Tab anxiously, "if that would help. I don't want any babies to die." |
Author: pythbox | "Maybe," he says. "Aelise already visits me a bunch. But I think I need more people than this. This fucking place is just so empty, you know?" He hugs his pillow some more. |
Author: alicornucopia | "Maybe she could secret more people?" Tab says. "How many people?" |
Author: pythbox | "Enough people. I don't think she's gonna do it," he says. "Anyway, if she brought me twenty people who are all still all fuzzy over Chelsa, I'd probably launch myself into orbit. And there aren't twenty people who aren't." |
Author: alicornucopia | "I don't know if I can unfuzz a person," frowns Tab. "I think maybe I could keep them getting more fuzzed." |
Author: pythbox | "And if you could unfuzz a person—" Harley shakes his head. "Fuck it. I need to be on the ground, that's all. And if I can't be on the ground then I'll just - find somewhere else to be." |
Author: alicornucopia | "...with people in it?" asks Tab dubiously. |
Author: pythbox | "Somewhere with people in it would be good," he says. "But there's plenty of things that are worse than good but better than here." |
Author: alicornucopia | "Like what?" Tab asks, bewildered. |
Author: pythbox | "Like dead," he says. "Dead would be great compared to lonely all the fucking time." |
Author: alicornucopia | "I thought you were immortal?" Tab says, clearly confused. |
Author: pythbox | "Yes," he says, "and I wish I wasn't, did we not just cover that?" |
Author: alicornucopia | "But can you not be? Is that a thing you can do?" |
Author: pythbox | "Nope. Dying is not my actual plan," he says. "I'm not telling you my actual plan, because you'd tell Aelise, and then she'd find a way to stop me." |
Author: alicornucopia | "She didn't tell me I had to tell her any things, so I could promise not to," Tab says, "and then I wouldn't." |
Author: pythbox | "You sure?" he says. "Even though if I got away for long enough she'd go back to killing babies?" |
Author: alicornucopia | "...Do you want her to go back to killing babies?" frowns Tab. |
Author: pythbox | "No," he snorts. "And I'd stick around and let her drain me all day long if that was all it took. But this place, this universe, with Chelsa and everything, and being up here all alone - it fucks me up, I can't take it forever." |
Author: alicornucopia | "I thought you couldn't get home." |
Author: pythbox | "Yeah, that's kind of the root of all my problems," he says. |
Author: alicornucopia | "So... aren't you going to keep being in the universe with Chelsa and it sucking, here or someplace worse, whatever you do? Unless you help me think of something. You could do that. If I think of something good Aelise can get rid of Chelsa." |
Author: pythbox | "I thought we covered the part where I already have a bad solution and I'm not telling you what it is," he says. |
Author: alicornucopia | "Yes," says Tab. "But it's bad." |
Author: pythbox | "There aren't any good ones," he says, throwing up his hands. "I am past good solutions. My bad solutions are bad but at least they're mine." |
Author: alicornucopia | "How do you know there aren't any good ones?" Tab insists. |
Author: pythbox | "Because I need things I cannot possibly get," he says. "I need to be home, I need to be somewhere Chelsa isn't, I need to be around people who don't care about her - there aren't enough people who don't care about her in the fucking world, and there aren't going to be, there's no way she's going to let go, do you get me? If you get rid of her everyone is going to be devastated about it, and I will want to set them on fire, I hate her so much—"
He starts crying into his pillow. |
Author: alicornucopia | "If you got here randomly maybe someone else could too, or you could randomly co somewhere else. Maybe I'll think of something good enough and Aelise will get rid of Chelsa. Maybe it turns out Chelsa doesn't work perfect over broadcast and blind people or something don't like her but they keep it quiet 'cause they know what's going on better than I did and they could come live up here, I don't know because I only found out about this problem a couple of minutes ago and haven't asked yet. Help me think of stuff! I hate her too, we could get rid of her if we could think of something!" |
Author: pythbox | Right this second, he is too busy crying. |
Author: giftedandtalented | Tab waits. |
Author: pythbox | Eventually:
"Look, trying to solve the problem makes it worse, okay? Because it means I have to think about Chelsa and the entire planet fully of people she's got wrapped up in her snuggly mind control blankets, and I can't even get my head around that, and when I try I just want to hurt myself until I can't think about it anymore. At least when I'm thinking about something else, I go nuts slower." |
Author: giftedandtalented | Tab thinks about that.
"So," she concludes slowly, "you can't help me and I can't help you?" |
Author: pythbox | "Pretty fucking much," says Harley. |
Author: giftedandtalented | Tab hugs her knees, then picks up her tablet again and thinks on it.
"I wish the vampire empress me was here," she sighs after a minute. |
Author: pythbox | Harley snorts.
"Yeah, me too." |
Author: giftedandtalented | Tab opens her mouth to ask him something else, but then decides against it. |
Author: pythbox | He hugs his pillow and sighs. |
Author: giftedandtalented | Think, think, write, write, think.
"You do want me to do what I'm trying to do, though, so before you go do a terrible plan and maybe depending what it is I can't talk to you again, can you tell me stuff? Even if it sucks to talk about?" |
Author: pythbox | He sighs again.
"Yeah, okay." |
Author: giftedandtalented | Tab sits ready to take notes. "I don't know what all you know so I don't know what's maybe useful." |
Author: pythbox | "I don't know what's useful either," he says. "You have a bunch of alts. The one I've met is a vampire empress, there's more that are other kinds of empress, basically all of you end up taking over the world somehow or other but there's different kinds of taking over and 'empress' isn't always it. Um - vampires in Aurum used to all eat people, now they mostly eat fake blood instead, the ones who eat people tend to get violent with each other and you usually couldn't get more than a group of three or so to hang out for long without somebody ripping somebody's head off and setting them on fire - Chelsea, our Chelsa, she was a vampire and she worked for the previous vampire government making their employees all like each other so they could stick together and not fight." |
Author: giftedandtalented | "This world is already taken over," frowns Tab. "How do they take over their worlds? Do they have to do anything horrible like Chelsa-ing people to do it?" |
Author: pythbox | "I think one of them blew up a building once or something," he says. "But the rest just set up colonies on Mars and stuff." |
Author: giftedandtalented | "How would blowing up a building help?" |
Author: pythbox | "I should know? I just heard it from somebody once," he shrugs. |
Author: giftedandtalented | "Well, how do they run the worlds once they take them over, then?" |
Author: pythbox | "Pretty well, I guess." |
Author: giftedandtalented | "No, I mean - what do they do? They've had more time to think of ideas than me, maybe they have good ones I can copy?" |
Author: pythbox | "I should know?" he repeats, frustrated. "I don't follow Bella around all day watching her empress." |
Author: giftedandtalented | "Oh," muses Tab. |
Author: pythbox | Harley sighs. |
Author: giftedandtalented | "You knew she killed the Chelsa in your world, though, what did she do when all those people who liked her didn't have her any more?" |
Author: pythbox | "Uh, killed a bunch and hired the rest?" |
Author: giftedandtalented | "How did she get them to work for her if she just killed a person they liked?" |
Author: pythbox | "Oh, that. Um, her daughter could un-Chelsea people," he says. "Wipe out what she put on, I mean, not grow back what she cut off." |
Author: giftedandtalented | "Wow," says Tab. "Do you think she would work on Chelsa too?" |
Author: pythbox | "Yeah," he says. "She couldn't do a whole planet in one shot, though, and if she did there'd be riots. Even just the fifty-some people she got for her mom's takeover, some shit went down - I mean, suddenly everybody didn't automatically like each other, you know?" |
Author: giftedandtalented | "I don't know," says Tab. "I'm safe but that's just me." |
Author: pythbox | "Ask Aelise, then, I bet she remembers," he says. |
Author: giftedandtalented | "She remembers what it's like to have never liked everybody. I don't think she remembers what it's like to stop." |
Author: pythbox | "I don't either. I wasn't there." |
Author: giftedandtalented | "This is a really hard problem," sighs Tab, looking at her notes. |
Author: pythbox | "No shit," says Harley. |
Author: giftedandtalented | Tab stays a while longer, since Harley is lonely, but it doesn't take her long to agree with him that she's not making much difference on her own. And he has nothing else of much use to tell her. She goes back to Kers, after. |
Author: queensidecastle | "Well that was interesting," says Kers. |
Author: giftedandtalented | "Were you listening?" Tab inquires. This doesn't surprise her, although she would have liked to be told. |
Author: queensidecastle | "I usually am." |
Author: giftedandtalented | "That is useful to know," says Tab. "I don't think Harley knew it." |
Author: queensidecastle | "Of course he didn't. He doesn't know I'm here, remember?" |
Author: giftedandtalented | "Right, but he didn't know anybody at all might be listening." |
Author: queensidecastle | "I'm sure he could have figured it out," says Kers. |
Author: giftedandtalented | "Really?" |
Author: queensidecastle | "I find it hard to believe he might not have." |
Author: giftedandtalented | "All right, I guess. Did you think of anything I should ask him if I go visit again?" |
Author: queensidecastle | She shakes her head. |
Author: giftedandtalented | "Will you tell me if you do?" |
Author: queensidecastle | "No," she says dryly, and then snorts and shakes her head. "Yes, I'll tell you." |
Author: giftedandtalented | "Thank you," says Tab, and she goes back to her reading. She is working on a great big map of dependencies between things so she will be able to trace it and see where everything unravels with each of her half-formed ideas for displacing Chelsa. She needs to know a lot of things to complete this map.
She isn't going to rule out a flash of insight that solves everything, but it isn't looking likely. |
Author: queensidecastle | A week later, Kers mentions offhandedly that section 214 is no longer inhabited. Harley asked to be moved, and Aelise found somewhere to put him. |
Author: giftedandtalented | "Is he safe from Chelsa and with people?" asks Tab. |
Author: queensidecastle | "He's safe from Chelsa. With people was a tall order, so he decided he'd rather be unconscious all the time. Aelise can drain him just the same." |
Author: giftedandtalented | "I guess that's okay-ish, then. He can wake up when I figure something out."
Tab is very dedicated to working something out. Chelsa is an ongoing, quietly humming, epic disaster. She is not less urgent just because things are not cinematically toppling into the sea and catching fire.
Tab is going to think of something.
She thinks of a lot of things, actually; but the first one to elicit more than a detailed, thoughtful rejection is:
I might be able to shield somebody else inside-out, so their powers couldn't get out. I don't know if I can do this and I shouldn't try on Kers, but if I can, it would make Chelsa think she was breaking if I flickered her off and back on again on whatever schedule you thought was safe, and then she would probably cooperate with helping to gentle everybody into not needing her anymore. |
Author: salus_populi | You could try it on me, says the return email. |
Author: giftedandtalented | Okay, Tab writes back, I will next time you visit. If I can do it may I? |
Author: salus_populi | I will think about it. |
Author: giftedandtalented | But you think it's worth trying out? |
Author: salus_populi | It's woth knowing if you can do it at all. |
Author: giftedandtalented | Okay.
And Tab waits for her to visit.
She doesn't know Chelsa personally, so she doesn't know how Chelsa will react to seeming like she's breaking; she has to rely on Aelise for that part of the plan assessment. But she pokes the idea through her map of the world's institutions. She thinks it might work, especially if she worked slowly. |
Author: salus_populi | Aelise arrives a few days later.
"It could work," she says. "If you can do it. But don't get excited just yet. I'd want to think about it very carefully first." |
Author: giftedandtalented | Tab nods. And she closes her eyes and concentrates.
Her Gift feels like a blanket, complete with the supernatural, unexplained ability to protect her from monsters under the bed. She didn't know that this wasn't something everyone felt until she asked, but once she picked it out as a magic thing and not as just part of the sensory background, she was able to start considering how to do things with it, and eventually figured out how to blanket Kers. She can keep Kers under the blanket without much attention, until she goes to sleep, at which time her Gift decides that it needs to wrap her up in one hundred percent of the blanket; sometimes if she's deep in thought about something unrelated she'll also lose it. She can put it on and take it off even if her and Kers are on opposite sides of the orbital ring.
Aelise is right there, and she just needs to turn the blanket inside-out...
She tries. She had a long list of things to try, full of invented words and exclamation points and little synaesthetic diagrams.
It doesn't work. Her blanket does not want to be inside-out. |
Author: salus_populi | Aelise lets her keep trying as long as she likes; then she shrugs and says, "So much for that. Maybe it'll grow in as you get older; that happens." |
Author: giftedandtalented | "Okay. I might as well try it whenever you're up here." |
Author: salus_populi | "Good plan." |
Author: giftedandtalented | Tab does not manage it that year.
Or the next, or the next few.
But she doggedly tries every visit, because there are no better ideas going, everything has some dreadful flaw, everything makes her map fall to bits or Aelise thinks it's untenable per risk aversion. Aelise may not like using Chelsa - or says so, anyway - but she doesn't consider her quite as much of a disaster as Tab does, so she passes up a couple possibilities Tab would have jumped on.
And one day, a few weeks after she turns twelve -
"It - I think it - did it work?" |
Author: salus_populi | "Apparently it did," says Aelise. |
Author: giftedandtalented | "So you can't sense my life force anymore but for this to really work you have to not be able to do things - so - I guess you should try immortaling Kers some?" |
Author: salus_populi | "I guess I should," she says, and goes off to find Kers. |
Author: giftedandtalented | Tab trots after her, eager to see the experiment's results at once. |
Author: salus_populi | The experiment's results aren't much to look at.
"Of course, I can't properly see if it worked or not, but it doesn't feel like it did," she says. "I'm not any lower." |
Author: giftedandtalented | "So can I try it on Chelsa? Quick flicker, gauge reaction, write up a schedule?" |
Author: salus_populi | "Yes. Wait until I'm on the ground again, in case something unexpected happens. I'll email you to tell you when." |
Author: giftedandtalented | "Okay," beams Tab. |
Author: salus_populi | Aelise smiles slightly. |
Author: giftedandtalented | At Aelise's prescribed time, Chelsa experiences a split-second... outage. |
Author: warmfeelings | It's like dying.
The worst death, drowning in cold, like the world is made of frigid motionless hate, like there is nothing else but chill animosity.
Chelsa screams.
And then the world comes back, every pinpoint of warmth a lifeline in exquisite detailed liveliness - there's her pretty Tima and her devoted Amdon and her gentle Anneia and her warm sun -
Her warm sun.
And another very like.
The sensitivity is gone almost as soon as the cold is, but now she knows.
There were only two like that.
Harley is on the planet. |
Author: lookingforwardtoit | Anneia is closest; she runs to the sound. |
Author: warmfeelings | Chelsa throws herself into Anneia's arms immediately. "My Gift, it was gone, just for a moment, but totally - it was so cold -" She's crying and she doesn't care. She twists her hands around, behind Anneia's back, pulling on the near warmth.
And because Aelise broke her word, Chelsa sees no reason to keep her agreement.
She reaches for the far sun and pulls on that one too. |
Author: lookingforwardtoit | Anneia cuddles her helplessly. |
Author: warmfeelings | Chelsa clings and sobs and kindles everything she can reach as hot as it will go. |
Author: alicornucopia | Tima sits up in Corona's room from where she's been snuggling, when Chelsa screams. "Did you hear that?" |
Author: pythbox | "Yeah," says Corona. "Who was it?" |
Author: alicornucopia | "It sounded like Chelsa." She swings her feet out of the bed, brow furrowed in confusion. |
Author: pythbox | "...it kind of did," he says. "What the hell's she screaming for?"
He gets up and goes to investigate. |
Author: warmfeelings | They find Chelsa with her face buried in Anneia's shoulder, sobbing, hands plucking frantically at the air. |
Author: alicornucopia | Tima unhesitatingly turns this into a group hug. "What's wrong?" |
Author: pythbox | Corona also cuddles up. |
Author: warmfeelings | "My - my Gift broke - just for an instant but it broke - and it was so cold -" |
Author: pythbox |
Corona wriggles in close and hugs her tight. |
Author: warmfeelings | "Oh my warm sun," she sighs.
It takes about an hour of group hug - other friends filter in and crowd around, too - before Chelsa feels well enough to disentangle herself and confront Aelise. |
Author: salus_populi | Aelise is in her office. |
Author: warmfeelings | Chelsa doesn't bother knocking.
"You lied to me." |
Author: salus_populi | "About what?" |
Author: warmfeelings | "What, is there more than one thing? Harley! My power - glitched or something - but when it came back everything was sharp for a second and I know that warmth when I feel it! You didn't even put him far away, let alone in orbit!" |
Author: salus_populi | "I put him in orbit," she says. "It's harder to keep an eye on him in orbit, and there's a lot of mischief he could get into up there if he put his mind to it. I took him back down when he looked like he might be getting into some. I didn't mention it because I didn't want to upset you. Are you all right?" |
Author: warmfeelings | "I am now," says Chelsa darkly. |
Author: salus_populi | "I'm sorry," she says. "Harley's ten kinds of trouble, but I need him in reach if I'm going to use him to keep everyone immortal. I've been keeping him unconscious most of the time; he wakes up when I drain him and that's it." |
Author: warmfeelings | "Consciousness doesn't make a difference to how it feels. It never has." |
Author: salus_populi | "I am hoping," Aelise says dryly, "that it will make a difference to him." |
Author: warmfeelings | "Excellent, best of luck," says Chelsa, still fuming at the deception. |
Author: salus_populi | "He's a troublemaker. I am trying to make sure he doesn't have either the means or the motive to cause much trouble." |
Author: warmfeelings | "You promised me, and of all the ways I could find out - I don't understand what's wrong with me," says Chelsa sitting down heavily. |
Author: salus_populi | "I don't either," says Aelise, coming up and hugging her. "But I intend to find out. All right?" |
Author: warmfeelings | "Fix it," says Chelsa desperately, clinging. "I can't live like that, not all cold - I don't know how anyone else can stand it." |
Author: salus_populi | "We manage somehow," she says, hugging her some more. "I'll do everything I can." |
Author: warmfeelings | Chelsa sobs, once.
And pulls on all the warmth she can reach, again. |
Author: salus_populi | Aelise pets her hair soothingly. |
Author: pythbox | Some days later, on her next visit to Harley, he wakes up as usual - unconscious one second and screaming the next.
But this time, when she's done draining him, instead of looking dazed but contented he takes a breath and starts crying.
And when she moves to put him under again, he hits her ineffectually and twists away—and disappears. |
Author: salus_populi |
Aelise calls Demauri. |
Author: alicornucopia | "Hullo, Aelise! I usually don't hear from you this often," laughs Demauri. |
Author: salus_populi | "Harley's gone missing again," she says. "Be a dear and haul him back to me, would you?" |
Author: alicornucopia | "Sure. Wow, he got a ways away, this is gonna take a while, and I need to requisition a boat." |
Author: salus_populi | "I think he might have learned how to teleport. I recommend you knock him out when you find him." |
Author: alicornucopia | "Learned how to teleport? Lucky kid, I want to do that. Will do."
A few hours see Demauri and a laughing fishing crew speeding along in a boat to the correct location, Demauri calling directions to the driver.
They reach the correct location and Harley is - down.
The fishermen haul him up while Demauri loads up a tranq gun. |
Author: pythbox | Hauling him up is an interesting proposition, because he drowns along the way and for a moment the net is holding nothing but spectral flames. But drowning is slow enough that he doesn't do it again on the way up. |
Author: alicornucopia | Demauri's really tempted to try bantering again, but instead he just tranqs the kid, puts him on the floor of the boat head turned sideways so he can cough up ingested ocean on reflex without just swallowing it again, and ties his ankles together and his hands behind his back.
The fishermen turn around and head back for shore. Demauri watches the kid. |
Author: pythbox | Harley is too unconscious to be very interesting. But even unconscious, he doesn't look happy.
Perhaps it's all the drowning that did it. |
Author: alicornucopia | Demauri reserves judgment on that. Aelise wants him, and he loves her, and he can take or leave Harley.
He hauls a salt-stained Harley before the Empress, when he gets there. |
Author: salus_populi | "Thank you," says Aelise. She gives him a smile. |
Author: alicornucopia | "Love and loyalty. See if you can keep him teleporting to such inconvenient places, that immortality thing he does can foul up a net," says Demauri, half-smiling. |
Author: salus_populi | "I'll try my very best." |
Author: alicornucopia | Demauri salutes, and sees himself out. |
Author: salus_populi | And Aelise makes sure Harley is tucked in safe and sound, and then she goes about her business.
She comes back a week later to do the whole thing over again.
There's no way to get him unconscious again instantly after the draining stops, so she tries persuasion this time.
"Can't we talk about this...?" |
Author: pythbox | "No," he snarls, scrunching his eyes shut. A wavering moment, and then he's gone again. |
Author: salus_populi | Aelise sighs.
At least this time she drained him for longer. She probably has a few thousand years' worth of immortality stored, to be distributed as she pleases, unless it drains faster over time when it's all piled up like this.
She calls Demauri again. |
Author: alicornucopia | "On it," sighs Demauri, and he follows the trail. |
Author: pythbox | Harley is, it turns out, in Hawaii.
Specifically, in Mauna Loa. And that is in, not on. He is somewhere in the middle, well below sea level, and not going much of anywhere. |
Author: alicornucopia | ...Demauri is not equipped to handle this.
He calls Aelise. |
Author: salus_populi | "Of course he is," she sighs. "I'll deal with it. Thank you."
Then she finds Sandre and Anneia. |
Author: lookingforwardtoit | "Aelise! What's up?" |
Author: salus_populi | "I need to borrow you two for a little while. Could be dangerous. Likely to be painful," she says with a quirk of a smile. |
Author: guiltless | "Sign me up," laughs Sandre. |
Author: salus_populi | "Yes, that's what I thought you'd say."
She explains on the way: Harley, whom she's sure they remember, has managed to get himself stuck in the middle of a volcano. She is hoping that some combination of Sandre's telekinesis and Anneia's indifference to extremity will let them conspire to fish him out. It's likely to push Sandre's range, but maybe not that far. And although Kers is protecting both of them and is more than proof against a little lava, her protection against unpleasant sensations has been known to give out long before her protection against real physical harm. Hence why Anneia will be the one diving in after Harley, with Sandre keeping hold of her to haul them both out. |
Author: lookingforwardtoit | "I'm all for it," Anneia says cheerfully. |
Author: salus_populi | "I know you are." |
Author: guiltless | They find the volcano; they perch as close to Harley's last known position as they can get without an undue risk of falling in; Sandre reels Anneia down, letting her familiar body anchor his perception to pull it past its ordinary limits. She's just at the edge of his range when he feels something else beside her that's not lava - there and gone and there again, in a bizarre but familiar way.
He hauls them both out. It takes twice as long as he expects it to, because he can't move Harley while Harley is doing his mysterious immortality thing, and he's bouncing in and out of it as rapidly as you'd expect from someone swimming unprotected in hot lava. But eventually, they both emerge, and Anneia snuggles up to Harley and pours healing into him, and Sandre pulls them up to where he waits with Aelise and hugs them both. |
Author: pythbox | Harley weeps desperately into Sandre's shirt. |
Author: lookingforwardtoit | "What happened to you?" murmurs Anneia, petting his miraculously regenerated hair. |
Author: pythbox | "Chelsa got me again, I was miles away, I wasn't even awake and she got me, I can't fucking stand it," he sobs. "I hate it, I hate her, I hate everything, I want to die and if I can't have that I want to hurt until I stop caring." |
Author: salus_populi | "There are other methods available for that," says Aelise. |
Author: pythbox | "Fucking do it then," Harley spits. "'Cause next time you're not gonna fish me out so fast." |
Author: salus_populi | So Aelise starts draining him again.
There is less point in keeping him so thoroughly hidden now, and something will need to be done about all the screaming to avoid disturbing people; she takes him back to Mont Blanc and arranges for a thoroughly soundproofed little suite tucked into the mountainside, with an office where she can do actual work while she pulls lifeforce from his endless supply. And then, after several hours of draining, she puts him to sleep as fast as she can. |
Author: warmfeelings | When Anneia and Sandre are home, Chelsa calls them from where she's snuggling with Corona. "Where did you go?" |
Author: lookingforwardtoit | Anneia cuddles up.
"Oh, Aelise wanted us to fish Harley out of a volcano," she says. |
Author: warmfeelings | "A volcano?" |
Author: guiltless | "I dunno how he got there, but he was pretty wrecked when we pulled him out," sighs Sandre. "Wouldn't stop crying until Aelise started draining him." |
Author: warmfeelings | "That's awful. I'm so glad you got him out." |
Author: lookingforwardtoit | "I don't think he is," Anneia says pensively. |
Author: warmfeelings | "He was never going to be happy," sighs Chelsa. |
Author: pythbox | Corona frowns. |
Author: warmfeelings | Chelsa pets him. |
Author: pythbox | He wriggles discontentedly and sighs. |
Author: giftedandtalented | Meanwhile, Tab wants updates about the results of the experiment. |
Author: salus_populi | Chelsa is... not as stable as Aelise was hoping. The thing with Harley is a complication, which she explains in as much detail as Tab requests.
Right now, she can't make good predictions about Chelsa's reaction if they continue to push. Better to sit on it for a while. Six months, maybe. |
Author: giftedandtalented | Tab is annoyed and impatient, but she waits. |
Author: pythbox | For a while, draining Harley for six to eight hours at a time works to keep him out of trouble. He's too exhausted by the end of it to go anywhere, and Aelise puts him under again too fast to let him.
But it's not a permanent solution.
Three months after he is installed in his little room, Aelise finishes a particularly lengthy session of draining him, and he takes a breath and shudders and disappears. |
Author: salus_populi | Aelise calls Demauri. |
Author: alicornucopia | "...Triangulation's not working," Demauri says, after a while of looking. "Or, I dunno, maybe it is, but I've walked four blocks now and if the direction's changed I don't have the sensitivity to tell. He'd have to be ridiculously far away. Not on Earth." |
Author: salus_populi | Aelise sighs.
"All right. Thank you."
At least all this draining has her supply higher than it's ever been. She won't have to worry about where to get her immortality for a long, long time. |
Author: alicornucopia | "Love and loyalty," says Demauri. "I can look in on him occasionally if you want, see if he moves?" |
Author: salus_populi | "Thanks." |
Author: alicornucopia | "Love and loyalty," repeats Demauri.
And a few days later he calls back.
"Er, you're not gonna believe this, but his direction matches the. The sun." |
Author: salus_populi | "...Of course it does," sighs Aelise. "Thank you, Demauri. Well, that's going to be a thorny problem." |
Author: alicornucopia | "Yeah, I wish I could help you." |
Author: salus_populi | "You found him. That's something." |
Author: alicornucopia | And it is, alas, the extent of Demauri's skills. He bids her goodbye and hangs up. |
Author: salus_populi | Well, she can leave Harley to sort himself out, then.
Meanwhile, how's Chelsa doing? |
Author: warmfeelings | She has calmed down some, since recovering from the... breakage. |
Author: salus_populi | That's good.
Aelise monitors her for a while, then okays another flicker. |
Author: giftedandtalented | Tab is more than happy to obey. |
Author: warmfeelings | Chelsa is not happy.
Chelsa is hysterical.
This means it's not a one-off, this means she didn't just break but that she is breaking. She gathers her friends in a pile around her and doesn't want any of them to leave her. She turns up the literal heat in the quarters until everyone's sweating. She wrings her hands and, when she can bear to drag herself away from the comfort of her beloveds (and she brings Jony with her, anyway) she asks Aelise if she's got any idea what could be going on, yet. |
Author: salus_populi | Aelise shakes her head.
Aelise finds a doctor.
The doctor pronounces that there is, as far as she can see, nothing wrong with Chelsa at all. |
Author: warmfeelings | Chelsa wants a second opinion.
Chelsa wants an arbitrary number of opinions, she wants someone to know what the matter is and fix it. |
Author: salus_populi | Aelise can find her, literally, all the opinions in the world.
They all come down to the same thing: her Gift may be flickering, but if it is, they can't tell that it is, and they certainly can't tell why. |
Author: warmfeelings | It's like being told she's dying, and she wasn't supposed to die, she was supposed to live forever, with her friends, with the warmth of the world on her, and instead she has nightmares about freezing to death.
She won't sleep alone; she needs to wake up warm.
One night she sleeps entangled in Corona's arms and half-wakes and says Harley's name. |
Author: pythbox | Corona shivers. |
Author: warmfeelings | Chelsa falls back asleep, cuddled up close. |
Author: pythbox | Corona... doesn't.
He doesn't even know where Harley is. He just - hasn't thought about it. Well, he has, but he didn't get anywhere.
He doubts Harley is happy, though, wherever he ended up.
And he can guess why.
He gets up. Tima is here too; Chelsa won't have to sleep lonely. He hates that he still cares. But he does. She's going to be wrecked, and it tears him up inside, and he won't let it stop him.
He gets dressed; he goes out to grab a vehicle. He's left on his little trips at weirder times, with no more warning.
He doesn't know where to find a volcano, so he just... goes. Off in a random direction until he's over enough water that he can't see the land. And he lights a match, and holds it in his hand, and calls on his Gift to multiply the fire, and lets it wrap him up - nothing he hasn't done before, so far. Kers is still keeping him safe. Anneia could heal him no problem. He's hardly even toasted.
Kers can only keep you safe if you let her, if you want her to.
Corona stops wanting her to. The fire roars. He keeps feeding it as long as he can, hotter and hotter until he's burning in the middle of a falling blob of molten plastic and metal. He loses consciousness on the way down. |
Author: queensidecastle | Kers happens to be awake.
She calls Demauri immediately, and then Anneia. |
Author: alicornucopia | Demauri wakes up when that signal goes. "'lo?" |
Author: queensidecastle | "I need you to find Corona. Urgently." |
Author: alicornucopia |
"He's north by -" Demauri pauses. "He's gone." |
Author: queensidecastle | "Dammit," says Kers. She sighs. "Thank you. You can go back to sleep." |
Author: alicornucopia | "Love 'n loyalty," mumbles Demauri, "sorry," and he goes back to sleep. |
Author: lookingforwardtoit | Anneia finally answers, with a sleepy, wordless mumble. |
Author: queensidecastle | She takes a breath.
"Corona just killed himself. I called to see if you could get to him in time, but - you couldn't have. It was maybe half a minute from when he cut me out." |
Author: lookingforwardtoit |
"Shit," says Anneia. |
Author: warmfeelings | In the morning, Chelsa winds up curled up to Tima, since Corona isn't there.
She isn't worried right away. He may have gone to get a snack. It would be sort of thoughtless of him to go on a trip while she's so frazzled, but she never said he couldn't, she supposes. |
Author: lookingforwardtoit | And she continue supposing that until she sees Anneia, a little while later.
She's been up half the night trying to think of some way to say it - she's sure Kers has told Aelise by now, but Aelise isn't going to make a special trip to Chelsa's friends' quarters just to break the news, she doesn't think - and in the end she just blurts out, "Corona killed himself last night." |
Author: warmfeelings | |
Author: lookingforwardtoit | "I don't know - why, or where, or anything - Kers called me when he shut her out, but she says it wasn't more than a minute from then until Demauri couldn't find him."
She sniffles. She liked Corona. Well - of course she did. |
Author: warmfeelings | Chelsa hugs her and bawls. |
Author: lookingforwardtoit | Anneia hugs her tightly. |
Author: warmfeelings |
Chelsa is inconsolable.
She is not in a position to deliver announcements for the next time zone cluster's morning. |
Author: lookingforwardtoit | Anneia and Sandre both stay with her. |
Author: salus_populi | In three hundred years, this is not the first time that Chelsa has missed a set of morning announcements. Aelise fills in just like always, greeting the appropriate section of the world with a smile and some inconsequential news, and explaining that Chelsa was called away because one of her close friends died unexpectedly that morning.
Then she finds the time to notify Tab, because in no way is Chelsa ready for another flicker, and she probably won't be for a while. |
Author: giftedandtalented | Tab agrees to wait.
Maybe Chelsa will just fall apart all by herself. |
Author: warmfeelings | That sure looks like it's a possibility.
Chelsa can't stop crying. She'll let Amdon feed her, when he begs her to eat something, but mostly she just cries. |
Author: salus_populi | This is... not ideal.
But it's not the worst way it could've happened, she supposes.
Aelise visits Chelsa, amidst her friends. She expresses her condolences and gives Chelsa a hug. |
Author: warmfeelings | Chelsa will take hugs. She is very tearfully welcoming of hugs. |
Author: salus_populi | Then Aelise will give her hugs. |
Author: warmfeelings | Chelsa doesn't really get better.
She's bidden friends goodbye before, to trade them in for warmer models, but they don't die, not anytime soon, and they don't kill themselves, and none of them were her warm sun.
She does a few announcements, on her better days, but she has to have someone sitting with her, out of sight of the camera, and her smile is a little forced.
She stops crying perpetually, but she's listless, and she sleeps a lot. |
Author: salus_populi | Aelise observes all this.
She suggests gently that maybe Chelsa would like to retire, to a comfortable little island, with all her special friends. |
Author: warmfeelings | Chelsa would like that. |
Author: salus_populi | Aelise makes the arrangements. She would like it if Chelsa did one last set of announcements, to say goodbye to everyone, reassure them as much as she can. But she'll understand if Chelsa doesn't feel up to it. |
Author: warmfeelings | Chelsa doesn't want to upset anyone. She'll do the set, but it will have to wait for a good morning, which delays her departure.
Finally, she has an unusually calm-dreamed night and wakes up and tells the world she's going into retirement, and will miss them. |
Author: salus_populi | The world will miss her too. They love her very much.
Aelise sees everyone to the island personally. |
Author: warmfeelings | Chelsa isn't even upset that this all means she'll start aging again. She's afraid her power will go, maybe stay gone; she would like to leave before it does, if it's going to go. |
Author: salus_populi | And she won't die anytime soon. And her friends will be with her - Aelise makes sure they're all on about the same level, immortality-wise, and they have Kers to repel accidents and Anneia to keep everyone healthy in their old age.
All in all, a comfortable retirement.
Aelise doesn't visit often, after that first time; she has a considerable amount of work to do. A lot of little changes will have to be made to compensate for Chelsa's absence. That was already underway, but it's accelerating now; there are a rocky few years ahead of them.
She also consults with Mehitabel over the best time for her to come back down to the ground.
"I don't think it's time yet," she says frankly. "I don't think it'll be genuinely safe until Chelsa is dead. As long as there is no conceivable way she could know you exist, we still have the inverse shield to fall back on, but once the cat's out of the bag the only thing I could possibly do to avoid an enormous shitstorm would be assassinate her on the spot." |
Author: giftedandtalented | "I wish I could tell my parents, even if walking around on the planet was too risky," Tab says. "How would she find out, if I told them?" |
Author: salus_populi | "They might conceivably mention something to someone, who might conceivably mention it to someone else. And so on. It's not likely, but it's not impossible. And they might not understand - it hasn't been that long since she quit the announcements."
She sighs.
"If you want to see them again and tell them the truth, my best recommendation is that you help me find a way to fish Harley out of the sun. Or a way to get my draining range high enough to hit him while he's still in there. I'm already working on broadcast, but of course I don't have an infinite supply to play with, so I have to be careful not to waste it on experiments." |
Author: giftedandtalented | Tab frowns and nods and starts reading more physics, less sociology. |
Author: salus_populi | Aelise also provides her with up-to-date copies of the list of all the Gifted people in the world, which is expanding now as she encourages more people to get themselves and their children officially tested.
So far, there are no obvious combinations. There are telekinetics other than Sandre, many with better range, but none with his kind of perceptual detail and none who could work at the kind of ranges required. There are no teleporters except for Harley himself, who can apparently only teleport into uncomfortable situations. Aelise is planning to get a spaceship made that can travel as close to the sun as possible, and have Demauri do a fly-around to map Harley's position. But that project will take years, and it might not help them very much.
So far, no one has been born with the Gift of infinite life. |