Episode 5
Prologue: "Nowhere, Everyone"
A dense fog settles around a small tavern in the exact middle of Nowhere. A large neon sign nearby proclaims it, "Nowhere Plaza."
Ghosts on pogo sticks hop carefully between the immense holes in the ground leading to the more boring sections of Nowhere. A thin crack of light filters out of the dusty windows of the tavern.
Inside sits a raucous group of demons who are mindlessly poking one another and giggling. Across from them are a pair of drooling werewolves trying to negotiate a baseball card trade. In the corner a massive spider plays Twister, its legs wrapping around one another.
The barkeep, a slime monster, looks around and wonders if what he has to put up with in this job is worth the chance to finally pay off his student loans.
The werewolves begin arguing over a Mark McGuire card. The spider finishes its third game and takes a break. The demons shift to tickling and giggling. And the barkeep sighs and tells himself it’ll only be for a few more weeks.
The walls rattle in the Never wind. Attempting pointlessly to clean another glass with his dripping hands, the barkeep wonders if there’s gonna be another Not storm.
The wind picks up a little.
The glowing goo on the ceiling flickers. The quivering, hairy fleshy ball in one of the corners drips a sticky, transparent liquid all around itself. The dried fluid covering it is the reason that it’s in the corner, unable to move. The ball continues to quiver.
The barkeep shakes his head, it happened all the time. One of them would come in, start dripping and then get trapped somewhere. Having one around though looked good to the occasional performance review officer on a slow night. He’d keep it for a while then pry it off and kick it down one of the holes outside when it began to stink.
The door flies open. A chill spreads through the room.
"Shut the damn door!" Yells one of the demons between giggles.
The figure that steps through silences all those assembled. He has on a checkered fleece sweater and khaki cutoffs. His hair is long, down to his waist and curly.
"Pardon me, Scizak. But had I bit of trouble opening it." The long haired man rotates his wrist and the door slams shut behind him, against the wind. He chuckles a moment and lets his eyes roam over each creature in the tavern. The demons have stopped chuckling, their eyes focused on the man.
The werewolves, after concluding their transaction, hastily put their cards away and bare their teeth. The spider rolls her numerous eyes and takes a nap. The fleshy ball just quivers. After all, it’s stuck.
The barkeep takes bolder action, asking, "Who are you? What do you want?"
The man looks at the slime monster contemptuously. "I am of Dervin, that is all you need to know and I would like a drink, Orv Juice with a squirt of lime and a bit of rum."
The slime monster pushes back its gooiest membranes and picks up a drink glass. The Dervinite wears a calm look and seats himself near the demons.
The door swings open again. A sharper chill spreads through the room as the wind reenters. The figure that stands there has on a bright green fez with a red tassel that contrasts his gray, monochrome suit. The Never wind nearly blows off his fez but he reaches up to steady it.
"Hey guys!" He tosses waves to all the creatures in the tavern. The demons make a quick gesture, keeping their eyes on the other newcomer and begin a game involving passing gas and giggles. The spider continues to snore and the werewolves talk about role playing card games.
The fleshy ball quivers even more, almost to the point of vibrating.
Unlike the first fellow, whose drink order he is almost finished with, the barkeep knows this person.
"Hey, Barbi."
Barbi edges over and grins at the long-haired fellow. "Not every day you run into another Dervinite. How are you doing, Everyone?"
Everyone glares at Barbi, tugs his just delivered drink away from the barkeep and thrusts it up to his lips. Barbi puts his hands up in defense, "Sooorry! Gee whiz."
The slime monster rings Everyone up and asks Barbi, "So what are you doing here tonight? I hope you’re not pedaling orbs. As much as I appreciate the interior lighting, it’s hard to attract glow griffins with those leftovers and the stains are impossible to remove!" He gestures to the ceiling.
Barbi reassures him, "I don’t have any tonight. I’m just out killing time."
"Are you becoming a temporasite?"
"No, I meant that in the figurative sense. I have a date with a gorgeous lady and I feel so….anxious. I want to make a good impression. She doesn’t have a great opinion of me because of…uh…circumstances."
The slime monster make a short sound and asks, "Human?"
"Yes." Handing the bill to Everyone, the barkeep comments, "Well, I’m not too familiar with humans. I did terrorize a woman once but our relationship was strictly professional."
Barbi rubs his chin, "How did it turn out?"
"I ate her."
Barbi nods with a grin, "Well, to tell you the truth, she wasn’t even really a woman before what I did to her."
"Oh, I see, took her all around the bases?"
Barbi shakes his head, "Now, I mean physically. We haven’t been intimate yet. But soon, I hope."
The slime monster squishes his hands and mutters, "Ro’vi’dani’?"
"No, but her friend is, in fact two of them." Everyone glances over a moment at Barbi, pulls some coins out of his cutoffs and finishes the last of his drink.
"What’s her name?"
"Tracy."
The slime monster cringes but tries to hide it and says, his face forced into a smile, "Lovely name."
"Yeah, Tracy…..gosh, I can’t seem to remember her last name."
"Long name."
"No, I mean I forget what her last name is. Darn, isn’t that always the way. Now her friends, they’ve got memorable names….Chris Wren…..Christine when Ro’vi’ kicks in….and Kevin Lendridge….aka Kelly."
Everyone chokes on the last of his drink, "What?! Lendridge?! Isn’t that Guyanna’s kid?"
"Yeah."
Everyone smiles, "How is Guyanna? It’s been a long time since….well, you know."
Barbi grimaces, "Well, guys, it’s been nice, but I really have to run, ciao!"
Everyone spins Barbi around as he tries to leave and asks him again, "How is Guyanna?"
"What’s it to you?"
"We were married."
"Oh yeah, that’s right. But she left you, didn’t she?"
"Yes…for that human scum, Patrick Lendridge."
Barbi tries to put on a smile, but fails. "I’d have never guessed you two would get along, let alone married. I mean she sure had the hots for you, but it was cold on your end. She and I had a romance too for a while." He wonders if Everyone remembered. Well, judging by the strength of the hold he applies to Barbi, the memory is still clear.
Barbi is posed the question again and decided it’s best that he answer, "She’s dead….sorry, Ev."
Everyone lets his hand fall away. "How?"
"Universe Killer."
"How?"
"It turned against her." This knowledge takes the others in the room by surprise; a Universe Killer on the loose is a serious situation. Barbi reassures them that it’s gone. Everyone realizes what he means. "The Ro’vi’dani ones, they got rid of it and her, this Chris and Kevin. Don’t tell me her own child was responsible for her death?!"
Barbi frowns, "Listen, the only one responsible for Guyanna’s death was herself. You’re jumping to irrational conclusions."
Everyone sighs after a moment, "I guess you’re right." Barbi resumes his cheery demeanor as he asks the barkeep if he should give his ladylove flowers or write poetry.
Everyone pays his bill and walks out, what Barbi told him still fresh in his mind.
With a gesture, he leaves Nowhere.
Chapter 1: "Why Waking up Sucks"
Because of the schedule of transition, Chris had to wait until it was morning to shift back to her male self. The events of the past day were on her mind, along with the realization that an evil doer had bit the dust. But not just any evil doer, rather one with a ‘destroy the universe’ complex that rivaled any she’d heard of.
Pressing and rubbing her morning eyes, Chris scratched her hair and sat up. She focused on going back to male. It was past the time that Tangerine had said was her ‘due’ time.
7 AM.
She didn’t even think of getting up this early unless it was a school day or something like that. She continued to focus and blearily sensed her body.
No change.
Dang it. Well, she rationalized, maybe I’m too early. Just go back to sleep or something.
But she couldn’t, the pale light of the morning sun was right on her. She groaned and got out of bed. She had on her striped pajamas.
Lifting her arm, she tried to switch on the small lamp, but missed and banged her wrist against the corner. After a quick, "Ow!", Chris realized the pain in her wrist wasn’t the only pain she was feeling.
She felt a dull, persistent pain in her abdomen. Probably cramps or something she told herself. Then she remembered her period. They lasted longer than one day.
Aside from her abdomen, she could feel a persistent throbbing in her temple. Great, just great.
She leaned over the side of the bed and glared at the table. It was terrible, like her stomach was in knots and she had gas at the same time. Darn it all! She didn’t even want to think about it. She just wanted it gone!
Perhaps she could do that. After all she did have awesome powers that would take her life in a year. Fortunately, she told herself, if she did turn pregnant all of a sudden, her period would at least go away. But then she would gain weight….and…
She shut her eyes. No, don’t go there.
But then the child will have been by magic. She thought about it. The other two, after all, did save their respective worlds, so maybe they got male attention for that? A sensible way to rationalize the situation, but not an iron-clad explanation.
She looked around her room. She’d begun to get used to the various changes. But it was still pretty much the same, a small television that she used for her Playstation dominated the room.
Maybe some time on that would help get her mind off the discomfort. She turned it on and left the sound way down. It was early in the morning, after all. Everybody slept in on Saturday, with the exception of her brother who watched early morning Cartoon Network.
Listening, she could hear the faint sound of the living room television. Kevin Wren didn’t want to incur the wrath of sister or Mother either. They’d be up in about an hour though too.
Ok, which to play, she contemplated as the system warmed up. She went with an RPG, one of the Final Fantasy games. Magic. Ironic.
Someone with real magic playing with fictional magic rather than using their own.
A couple of minutes into one of her saved games though she realized the pain was distracting. She tried an incant to dull the pain and it seemed to help, but nothing she tried eliminated it completely.
Switching off the Playstation with a quick motion, she put it away and crawled back into bed. Oh geez, why wouldn’t it just go away?! She folded up into a ball and screwed her eyes shut. Sleep some more, she told herself, then it’ll all go away.
But she couldn’t get relaxed. She felt a dry pressure in her throat with a small lump behind it. Oh God.
She burst out of her ball-position and rushed to the bathroom, which was fortunately open, and locked the door behind her. Standing over the toilet, she lifted the seat and bent her head.
The lump was still there. She didn’t really want to throw up, but if that helped her feel better then it was good in the long run. At first it didn’t seem like it would need any help, she could feel it catching in her throat, rising.
But it just wouldn’t release. She coughed a couple of times and shivered. Something definitely was wrong. She incanted the virus away. The shiver lessened a little, the lump remaining. Try to tell a stomach not let go after it’s been getting ready for that and you’ll be facing an uphill battle.
She felt like she really needed to let it go to feel better but then the virus was gone, wasn’t it? Lifting her head up, she felt the last barrier fall.
It wasn’t at all like the last time on Corvalis. That time she couldn’t even really remember doing it with all that was happening. This time though it was clear.
The first retch was mud colored, a little oily and with particles of former food. Seeing what had just come from her stomach prompted that next heave, as it always did. What had she even had last night? A little delivered pasta, but not much more than that.
The second one wasn’t quite as dark, more of a tan with only light particles. Quivering, the third and fourth ones cleared up, sending her left over stomach juices into the bowel. Shaking and feeling weak, Chris examined herself.
Nothing on her PJs fortunately. She used some deodorizer on the toilet after rinsing her mouth out and flushed the toilet a couple of times.
Careful not to incur the wrath of her jilted stomach, she pondered quickly the fact that she’d done the equivalent of a slam dunk. Nothing but bowl.
She laid down and leaned against the wall, examining things and hoping that helped. The cramps were lessened, but still there, along with the headache. Darn them!
Looking in the medicine cabinet, she wondered what she should take, finding one aimed at remedying her situation, she popped a pill in her mouth with some water and walked uneasily back to bed.
Just wanting to rest for a while, she pulled the covers around her in a bundle and had no trouble at all falling to sleep.
Kelly Lendridge slept little the night after the showdown with her mother. She stared up at the high ceiling. Even for a sorcerer Tangerine had a big place. Bunching the covers around her, she thought about her choice to remain unsplinted.
Tang had told her numerous times that it went against normal procedure and could risk not only her life, but everyone’s life as well. She couldn’t understand how though. She didn’t feel like she was going crazy with power.
In fact, in spite of all her abilities, she felt defenseless.
It was early morning but she hardly felt rested. She probably should have given herself a knock-out incant. A small animal fluttered into her room.
She was startled at first, but when she realized what it was, she smiled.
"Hi, Jum."
Jum, Tang’s miniature gargoyle, landed at the foot of her bed and asked in its squeaky voice, "How are you, Kelly?"
Kelly shrugged, "I’m….ok, I guess."
She remembered something she’d heard about gargoyles and asked Jum, "Um, won’t you turn to stone if you see the sun."
Jum chuckled, "That’s just an old myth. I am worried though about UV rays, which is why when I go out I put on some sunblock."
"Good idea."
Kelly sat up in bed. "So, what’s the procedure here?"
Jum frowned, "’Cuz me?"
"I mean, what now? What happens in the morning?"
Jum nodded and laid his palm out to count on. "Well, first off Tangerine has yoga, then a few quick laps around the pool out back, followed by a rounded breakfast consisting of fruit, toast and eggs….of course your schedule is entirely up to you. You are, after all, our guest."
Kelly sighed, "I’d like to take a swim."
"Sure thing, just follow me…." The gargoyle fluttered over to the door and beckoned her to follow him.
"Ok, just let me change into something else…..clothes-wise, I mean."
"Sure thing, I’ll be just outside."
Kelly took off her pajamas and dressed in the bathing suit that Tracy had lent her. It’d dried pretty well.
When she was ready, Jum pressed his claws together, smiling, "All right, follow me." And she did.
Taylor’s home didn’t follow with his transition back to guyhood. Fortunately, it didn’t seem overly feminine if you disregarded a few things. Like the lace on the couch pillows, the doilies, the pink soap and soap boat, the feminine products, the silk curtains (they did look nice though, he had to admit), clothes in the drawers, flower-filled backyard, stuffed animals, and the sweet, perfumey (with a hint of potpourri) scent that lingered in every room.
The only rooms that seemed neutral were the basement (far too clean for a basement though) and the garage (everything in its proper place).
While the bed seemed as feminine as they came, it was a joy to sleep in. He’d never had a better night.
Upon waking, he stretched his arms and groaned. Then he bent them, interlinked the fingers and prepared to crack them. They sure did look smaller though.
Pondering this in his early morning mind, he thought nothing of it. But then it came back that he was supposed to be a guy now.
He sat up and realized this was not the case.
She looked herself over, all the same stuff she had before, just….she wasn’t supposed to have it for another week.
Classical music played in the background and a man burst through the door.
"My lady love! I have brought poems dedicated to your beauty, wine, and flowers. Oh, the week thing, sorry. I tend to get overexuberant. We’ll work through it."
Tracy screamed and hid on the other side of the bed. Barbi, suddenly beside her, wrapped his arms around her.
"Isn’t this much better, my dear?"
She tugged, trying to get away, but his arms felt like glue.
"What do you want?!!"
Barbi frowned, "I just told you. Here’s the first poem. ‘Blue Eyes’…..Like the currents of the sea, they flow and ebb and glance at me……." Tracy tugged on his hands, slipping away a bit. Barbi read faster, trying to focus on both that and holding onto Tracy. "Amid the callous, lonely fog….urk…there’s that azure hoisting me above the bog."
Using her hips to rotate out of his grasp, she burst for the door, Barb trailing after her. A quick yank-slam and she was out.
"I often try to steal a glance, and watch those lovely pupils dance…." Barbi stood right beside her, still reading from the top piece of paper. Pivoting, she tried to leave, but he latched onto her again. Stumbling to her feet, his grasp slipped, only one arm around her as he held the papers with his other arm.
"Moreover I feel I’ve know them all my life, they bring me comfort where once was pain and strife…." Crawling across the well-kept carpet, Tracy felt reminded of what she did to Chris in the airport when she changed her. Barbi’s fault really.
"Get off me you lame-o!!!"
"…..Farseeing into my very being, Ever seeing." He panted, finally finished. Or so she thought. He put that sheet on the bottom and began on the next poem.
"Dainty Hands….."
"NOOOO!!!"
Tangerine blinked his eyes open, feeling the weight of the fading night still upon them. He scratched his hair a moment and then, as though spurned, shot from a lying to a standing position in an instant. He walked on his bed a few times, then hopped down to the carpet.
After dragging a man-sized book off the mahogany desk in one corner of the room and laying it on the floor he took a short breath. The place where it had been was depressed about a centimeter. He snatched up a quill that was also lying on the desk and proceeded to write furiously.
When he was done, he’d filled a good three pages. Quite a bit considering they were six feet long and over three feet wide and that he wrote in comparatively small script. Despite this, the penmanship was remarkably legible.
He frowned a bit and sighed. Poor Kelly.
Setting the quill back on the table and figuring the housekeepers would attend to putting the book back on the desk as they always did, Tang skipped out of the room, down the hall and into his yoga parlor.
Ahh, nicely padded but firm, floors and walls with thousands upon thousands of scripted quotes from key historical philosophers. His favorite was an anonymous one that said, "If you can substitute meat, don’t."
A vague, yet strangely deep social commentary on the differences between the iconoclast vegetarian and the meat purpose purist, with the purist view silencing the rebellious need for drastic change. A window into the fundamental truth that all humans have a primal connection to the needs of their ancestors who’d go out and kill, then grill, an antelope.
Yup, nothing beats antelope.
Thesis aside, Tangerine placed himself in the precise center of the room with a circle of duct tape marking his spot and assumed his yoga position.
Meanwhile, in a small blue crystal meant to hold someone’s soul for an indefinite period, Paul Gray thought about, among other things, whether he was gonna lose his teaching job and said ‘this sucks’ for the nth time. Having exhausted entertainment options, he resorted to narrating documentaries.
"As you can see, we are in what is known as a ‘family’ restaurant. But the odd thing about it is there are no items on the menu containing family members, no filet of Aunt Sally, no hibachi Cousin Fred….no. What do you call that? Well, I call it false advertising!"
Sure, it was macabre, but what did he care? He was dead.
"Aside from this, I can see off-white wallpaper all over with mini-pancakes…oh wait, I’m not even looking at the wall. I suppose I should get my eyes checked…..mm-hmm, yup, they’re still gone."
And it continued like that until Avadraina and Christof showed up.
Avadraina told herself that anything is worth doing at least once, but spirit chatting was last on her list. Although when her sister, Ora, sent her a kit, she figured, ‘What the heck.’
At least it couldn’t fail as badly as Tangerine trying to teach her yoga.
Could it?
Opening the kit, she found a hologram board and a sapphire medallion. Checking out the box again, she wondered if this whole thing was legit. Shaking the box, she found nothing else.
No instructions either. Tarot, her fluorecent white tom cat, bounded into the room from her study.
"Go back in there, Tarot."
As he always did, Tarot continued walking and stopped at her feet, as if to say, "Nawwwww."
Avadraina glared at him a moment and figured just as long as he didn’t start wrapping himself around her legs, it didn’t really matter. But he did just that as she looked the objects over.
"Off, Tarot! Mommy needs to figure this thing out!" Tarot looked crestfallen, but gave her room to examine the items from the box.
The medallion seemed like your run-of-the-mill enchanted item. As for the hologram board, well, she could only assume that was for projecting the specters that it contacted, at least from what she knew of stuff like this.
"Ok, umm, I think I lay the board down and….yeah….but what about the medallion, hmm….maybe I should wear it or something? What do you think, Tarot?"
Tarot glanced up at her with a "Huh?" look and meowed. Typical response.
She twirled her raven hair a moment, the tips turning pink with her touch.
"Seeing as I can’t figure out anything else and being that it’s doubtful Ora would send anything dangerous, I’ll put it on."
She did this and looked around. Nothing seemed to have changed. She reached down and touched the hologram board. This was when the fireworks went off. A display appeared, hovering a foot above the board. It said, "three thousand-seventy-eight ghosts in the general area. Locating closest……"
A sagging, wrinkled, uneasy-looking specter showed up in the hologram field. Avadraina smiled. "Hi there, sir."
The fellow groaned and muttered, "Whadya want?"
"Oh nothing really, I just wanted to test this gift my sister gave me."
He looked her over and put on a pair of spectacles that materialized from Nowhere…..they have a spectacle district there. As well as a sock section down one of those holes.
After examining her a bit, he asked, "Are you Ora’s sister?"
"Yes, actually I am." The specter nodded, "Figures, she’s the spiritual world equivalent of a telemarketer, dialing us up at odd hours."
"Why do you think she sent me this thing?"
"It’s probably because of what’s gonna happen in the next few days."
"Globally?"
The specter shook his head, "No, to you and the rest of the Secret Society."
"How do you know about us?"
He grinned, "You guys are the talk of the dead. First one of your own croaks and hangs around in the living world. That situation will….be changing by the way, in a good way. That’ll take a little while though. As for the rest of the stuff, I can’t really tell you."
"Bad stuff?"
Waving his hands back and forth, the specter muttered a quick, ‘eh’, "Depends on how it turns out."
"Can you tell me who specifically it will involve?" The specter bit his wrinkled lips, "Oh, I guess I could, but be careful how you handle things, because more people could die if things go wrong. Now it will involve quite a few people, not to say their lives are at risk, but these are the ones it will involve. Chris Wren, Christine Leyson, Tangerine, you, Taylor Kingston, the Lendridges, Barbi, and Everyone."
Avadraina grimaced, "Well, gee, that doesn’t help much." The specter shrugged and began to fade, "By the way, please don’t call me again."
"Sure….wait, why did you say everyone if you said those people explicitly?" Now in your average adventure story, the ghost would fade away without clearing up this incongruence and Avadraina would propagate it, resulting in the majority of the plot.
But who cares about plot?!
The ghost paused and said, "Everyone, the fellow from Dervin."
Avadraina muttered a quick ‘oh’ as she had no idea who this person was and hoped someone else would.
And that’s how she spent her night, left with just a few hours for sleep when she ran into Christof and asked him about this mysterious "Everyone." He didn’t have a clue either. So they went to Gray, who recognized the name from Chris’s memories and something he’d been told long ago about Guyanna’s original marriage.
Christof, had a non-exciting night and also one deprived of rest. He’d been attempting yoga techniques Tangerine had tried to teach him along with Ava and Christof had paid for it with a terrible wrist cramp that kept him up half the evening.
When Chris woke up again after sleeping for what seemed like quite a while she rolled off the bed and laid beside it. The cramps were still there, along with the headache, but at least the nausea was gone. What she had in place of it though was a raw throat ravaged by stomach juices.
Glancing over at the digital clock, she knew the reversal should work now because it was 8 AM. Focusing, she prepared to get up, anticipating the sudden shift that would not only encompass her, but the world around her as well.
Zippo.
Oh crap.
Her heart spurted along, hammering in her head. Her head.
What if something with the Selanek thing kept her like this, forever? She prepared to burst out of her room and run all the way to the IHOP but then she realized that she could just go there whenever she wanted.
Ok, focus. She concentrated on the place. Move there, she thought, knowing the magic would work out the kinks for her.
But she remained in her room, in the same place. She ran towards the door, at the last second realizing she was just wearing her PJs. Ok, now that should at least work.
But it didn’t.
She was absolutely powerless.
Chapter 2: "Unbecoming a Selanek?"
Kelly laid her feet in the water of the pool and kicked them about for a little bit before she decided to slip in. She took a couple of deep breaths and pushed off the wall.
Tang’s pool was Olympic-sized. Jum fluttered around, grinning, "So whatcha gonna do?"
Kelly frowned, "I usually start out with a backstroke, it takes a lot out of you though to start with."
Jum twiddled his thumbs, "You realize you don’t have to do this." She gave him that. Sure she didn’t have to swim, but it helped to make things feel normal. It helped especially with her orphaning.
Even though her father was alive, he might as well be dead.
And he wasn’t coming back anytime soon and even if he were she felt more like killing than hugging him. She swam to one side of the pool and climbed out. Jum watched anxiously as Kelly crouched by the edge.
She looked down at the water, sniffled and swallowed a few times, coughed and took a deep breath. None of this helped to quell the sudden rush of tears and fears.
They came rushing out when she thought back to how happy her father looked when she saw him in the hospital. How could he change so swiftly after that from caring to evil? She glared at the water, panting, tears beginning to stream toward her lips. Trying desperately to fight them back into her eyes, she shot up quickly.
Far too quickly, it turned out as she legs went flying out from underneath her and flung her legs-first back into the pool with her head trailing after her. Her head almost missed hitting against the side of the pool. If it hadn’t been for the slight roundness of the edge, she would’ve just fallen in and sustained a jolt and nothing more. As it was she lay in the pool, sinking slowly into the water, unmoving.
Jum jammed his claws in his mouth and screeched. When this didn’t help the situation, he rammed his head with them. This gave him a headache. Swooping over to Kelly, Jum grabbed the cloth of her bathing suit and tried to drag her to an easy edge. Alas, there was no easy side to get out on.
A ladder at one end, but especially with her in this condition, he had no idea if there would be permanent damage to her body if he tried that. And if he screwed up, not even a curative could fix that.
"…In between it all, they keep you from a nasty fall, your legs." Kelly had long ago rammed fingers up her ears in the hopes that Barbi would get the message and just plain shut up!
Her hands, her lips, her feet, her breasts, her rear, her this her that, she’d gotten sick and tired of all these darned commemorative poems. Barbi set the last poem, the leg one aside and looked at her expectantly.
She uttered sharply the response, "Thank you" from her lips as though it were an expletive. Barbi brightened, "I’m glad you liked them."
He reached behind himself and pulled out a bottle of wine. "I’ve been saving this for the woman I want to spend the rest of my life with."
Tracy waved her hands, "Um, wait, we just agreed to a date, one date and then this would all be over, right?"
Barbi chuckled, "I suppose you didn’t listen all that well to our original agreement. I said that if you went on the date next week with me then you’d get the one week on, one week off deal. But I never said that would be it. I’d like to see you afterwards." He put on a sour face, "You aren’t gonna dump me, are you? That could result in unpleasant consequences."
Tracy gulped, "Ok, but why am I back to being a girl now after having changed back?"
Barbi tugged on the cork, "Oh, changing back was a little gift from me that I didn’t really have to give you. But I did anyways. Now our agreement said that once the date occurred you would get the one week on, one week off. Until then, I’ve decided that you’re subject to my whim and at the moment, my whim says you should be your girl self."
The cork went flying. "They say a glass of wine in the morning helps your heart."
A wine glass appeared in his hand, which he gave to Tracy. She held it a moment and looked at it skeptically.
"Say when."
Tracy yanked the glass away when Barbi moved to fill it.
"Oh come on. If I hadn’t held back, that would’ve stained the carpet and it’s such a lovely carpet, don’t you think?"
"Are you trying to get me drunk?"
Barbi chuckled, "Oh, my dear, if I wanted to lower your inhibitions, I could have done it more easily with magic than with alcohol. Come on."
She held the glass out steadily after giving a long sigh. Once he’d filled hers, in good faith, he filled a glass of his own and set the bottle to one side.
"Bottoms up." With that he chugged on the wine and prompted Tracy to do the same. She sipped it a little and with a passive look told him that it was satisfactory.
Barbi clapped his hands once, Tracy dropped her glass and her arms went slack.
"Oh good. Now my dear Tracy, can you hear me?"
Tracy nodded once.
"Excellent. Now who do you love with all your heart?"
"Janet Wells at my firm."
Barbi’s eyes raised at this, "Oh really, that’s interesting. I thought you loved the handsome, winsome Barbi?"
"Absolutely not."
"Oh?"
"Right, you lame-o." Tracy’s eyes darted to his, "Tangerine put an anti-hypnosis incant on me. He figured that you would try something underhanded like this. No wonder you’re alone. You’re a loser."
Barbi bared his teeth and picked up his poems, wine and flowers. Huffing, he shouted, "Because of that little bit, I’m taking my presents back and you can forget about shifting back, ever. You really hurt my feelings."
Before she could say, ‘wait…’, he was gone. She felt the strength go out of her legs and fell to the ground, unable to move. Staring afterwards at the place where Barbi had been, she wondered if she’d be Tracy for the rest of her life.
Barbi popped back in for a second though to say, "But our date is still on, so don’t even think about trying to weasel out of that, missy." And he was gone.
Halfway through the time he dedicated to yoga, Tangerine heard Jum screeching. He bolted from his sitting position, out of the room and in the direction of the noise.
It sounded like the pool. He teleported himself there.
Jum was trying to get ahold of Kelly, who was floating in the water and not moving.
"JUM!"
Jum whirled around and explained to Tang what had happened. Tangerine looked around and figured that he’d been wanting to change the design of the pool anyway. He stretched one end so that it bent into the water and provided a ramp that they could use to take Kelly out.
Keeping her neck level, they laid her just outside the water.
"Jum, get me the potion kit, quickly."
Jum nodded once and flashed into the hall. Tangerine crouched by Kelly and tried to get a response from her, "Kelly, can you hear me? Kelly?"
Her eyes fluttered a moment and opened. She coughed and produce a small splash of water that nearly missed Tangerine. He sighed and patted her on the shoulder, then put his arms around her.
"Are you all right?"
Kelly shivered a moment, "Not really…"
Tangerine pulled back. Cue the tense music.
"What’s wrong?"
Dramatic pause.
"I…got a terrible fuckin’ headache."
He grinned slightly and gave her another pat as Jum whirled to a stop near them with a huge satchel in his talons. Puffing heavily, Jum plopped his head on the ground and looked at Tang.
Taking the satchel from Jum and using an examination potion, Tangerine discovered that all Kelly had sustained was a mild concussion. Using a remedy on her, she immediately felt better and also embarrassed at falling in like that.
Tangerine reassured her it was fine and helped her to her feet.
"At least you didn’t get amnesia. I mean it could’ve happened."
Kelly shuddered at the possibility. If she forgot who she was, then she might have thought she really was a girl and that would’ve been a bad thing. At least for her.
But that plot twist was left unreaped.
Oh well.
"I only know of Everyone from being inside Chris when she went back in time and the fact he married Guy. Other than that, not that notable a Dervinite. He didn’t commit any global killings that we’ve found out about. Nor did he share Guy’s dream of remaking the universe. But, interestingly, something happened with him shortly after the time that Patrick Lendridge left our group. Now I doubt Patrick was involved with Guy before that, I probably would’ve picked it up from his mind but then he could’ve used a spell block. It’s doubtful though. Anyway around that time Everyone, according to our investigations, engaged in special evil magic training given by Feo."
Christof shuddered at the mention of the name Feo. Avadraina though, a sophomore in the Secret Society, had only heard from Gray, Johnson and others about the wrath of Feo, especially back in the dark ages of human history.
But fortunately, following a recent battle between the Secret Society and Feo, his powers were neutralized and he was forced to pursue his never-ending agenda of promoting misery across all worlds through students.
Feo, part of the Nets long ago, established Dervin and made it as unbearable for himself as he did for all the other inhabitants of it. With time, he tired of inflicting pain on his own people and moved onto hurting those of other worlds.
To protect against the return of Feo, the leaders of Dervin established the boxes. This was a failed project since the Dervinites could only endure a limited amount of isolation, especially with their near-immortal life-spans.
But Feo’s campaigns were halted at Earth and its worlds. He’d succeeded at preempting life on other planets, but thanks to early Secret Society efforts and other outside Forces, Feo was unsuccessful here.
Beaten and broken, he returned to his homeland, and turned it into an all-around terrible place to live, driving most Dervinites from it.
His philosophy and indoctrination though turned the generally-peaceful people of that land into the carriers of evil magic.
History lesson finished.
"Do you think Everyone is trying to further Feo’s agenda?"
Gray would have liked to shake his head or use some other form of expression, but alas, he was a blue crystal. So what was he supposed to do?
"I don’t know." Responded Gray. "But it’s clear that this specter you contacted, Ava, would not have mentioned Everyone unless his role in the next few days was significant. On a side note, what do the papers say about what happened in Salem?"
Christof pressed his lips together firmly, "Umm, actually, they don’t say anything. I picked one up at Barnes and Noble and the big article is the rising national cost of petroleum. Odd, eh?"
Gray sighed, "What about TV?"
"I haven’t seen anything on the local broadcasts, national news or CNN. There’s nothing about it. Now I’ve heard that New Yorkers take things in stride, but would there really be this much nonchalance toward the transformation of thousands of people?"
Christof couldn’t figure it out. Gray tossed this around for a little bit, then posed the question, "What if it never happened?"
Ava grasped what he meant, "You think our trip into the past changed a few more things than we thought?"
Gray, once again, would have really liked to shrug, "It’s a possible explanation, but let’s wait until the others get here to draw any firm conclusions."
The others, in the form of a panting, out-of-breath, female Chris, stood by the entrance and looked at the trio.
Avadraina went to Chris’ side, "What’s wrong?"
Chris fought to get her response out, "I…can’t…change…back…nothing."
Ava looked at the others and back at Chris, "Your powers are gone?"
Chris glared at her, "Didn’t I just say that?!"
Taking a step back, Ava went on the defensive, "You didn’t say that explicitly."
"I spelled it out! What do you want me to do?!"
Chris gritted her teeth, "Listen, I have cramps, I feel sick, I’ve got bloating and I feel like tearing someone’s head off and crying at the same time….Help me."
Ava put her arms around her. Chris bent over and wrapped her arms around Ava, crying into her shoulder.
She looked over at the crystal and Christof. They wanted to do something too but held back. Of course with Gray it wasn’t a matter of choice, he couldn’t do anything even if he wanted to.
Christof though wasn’t the best when it came to things like this, so he decided to leave it to Ava.
She let Chris cry on her for quite a while till the tears stopped flowing. Ava looked into Chris’ eyes and dried them with her handkerchief. Chris sniffed a little and told her, "I don’t want to be like this for the rest of my life, not all the time, at least."
Ava nodded, "I tell you what, we’re gonna find out what’s wrong and fix it, ok."
Chris glared at her, "I’m not a child. So don’t talk to me like I am one."
Shaking her head a moment, Ava helped Chris to her feet. "Now listen. I know what you’re going through, sure I went through it thousands upon thousands of years ago, but I went through it for centuries. Think about that, an adolescence centuries long."
Thinking about it, Chris had to admit that she did have a point, but it didn’t apply to her. Ava wasn’t a Selanek.
"And you might not be either."
Chris asked her to explain what she meant. Ava twirled her hair a bit and laid it out for Chris.
"All right, now you know about the Ro’vi’dani spell right?"
Chris did.
"Well, what you may not know is what the words mean. It’s ancient Siki script which translated says, ‘No longer man, powers abound, not with one’. Those first two parts are pretty easy to understand, male to female, incredible powers. But the word ‘dani’ in Siki is subject to translation by opinion. ‘Not with one’ is the generally accepted version, but it could be ‘not alone, not individual.." which basically means the same thing but doesn’t make any sense."
Chris’ head bolted up, "I think I know exactly what it means."
"What?"
"Kelly has my powers now, including my ability to change back and forth between male and female."
Chapter 3: "I’m with Feo"
Christof tossed his hands up in the air at that, "Not even possible, the two of you don’t share a link. Besides, at least some of your residual powers would still be around. They wouldn’t just vanish. No. Whatever happened caused them to be suppressed, but they’re still there."
Ava confirmed this, which was a relief for Chris. But the question of the spell stayed with her. Trying to allay those fears, Ava told her that part probably meant the sacrifice that sometimes is made on the part of the caster, particularly in Johnson’s case.
Chris listened quietly and accepted this. Sitting in one of the booths, she looked down at the varnished wood and remained like that till a shaken Tracy showed up, also in her female form.
"Barbi canned our agreement, so I’m left as a chick till he changes his mind," explained Tracy. Chris listened disinterestedly, focusing instead on a tiny flaw in the woodwork.
Tracy noticed this and folded her hands, "So what’s your problem?"
Chris flexed her hands and let them fall on the table before her.
Lifting her right hand, Chris asked Ava for a piece of paper and a pen. Searching around the cashier’s desk, Ava found what she requested. Tracy looked around at this whole scene, noticing that no one had responded to her since she entered.
Christof sat across from Chris. Ava stayed nearby as she took up the pen and put it to the paper. She made a crude circle at first, then a partial, spiking stream above it. Following the mark without lifting her pen from the paper, she added a couple of sharp, pin-like strokes and took the pen away.
As though remembering something she’d momentarily forgotten, Chris added three curly, pig tails bordering the main script.
Taking a long breath, she set the pen aside and looked down at her work.
"What is it?", asked Ava, no expert in foreign writings. Christof, who studied calligraphy in his earlier days, turned the paper around and examined it.
"It’s Trioan. I have no idea what it means though."
Chris looked down at her hands a moment and then up at Christof, "Trioan?"
"Haven’t you heard of Trios?"
"Yeah, Tangerine said that it’s the only way to un-become a Selanek."
Christof moved his fingers back and forth against the table, "The Trioans are the ancient descendants of the first Selanek, Colanna Vidroni. Trios was their birthright. Originally planned as a safe haven from the wrath of Feo and the other turned-evil Dervinites, it was claimed by the Siki."
Chris clutched her head and muttered to Christof, "Listen, I feel like crap and I don’t want a history lesson. Ok."
His eyebrows arched, "Sure, if that’s what you want."
"Tell me why I just wrote something in a language I don’t even know."
Looking the paper over, Christof offered a theory, "Channeling?"
"Huh?"
"You channeled the thoughts of an ancient Trioan?"
"Do you believe that?" Chris looked at Ava for confirmation. Neither of them felt confident about this theory.
Sigh. "Ok, go on about the Trioans", muttered Chris.
Tracy stormed off, irate over being ignored.
"Trios was constructed by the Trine. They were the allied group of three of the first four civilizations that arose at the beginning of history. There was the Siki, the Unif and the Flan. They were in conflict with the Ruon, the ones that created the Nets."
Chris grinned, "The rabbit lovers."
"Huh?"
Stretching her head over the partition, Chris taunted, "Oh, Paul?"
"Shut up," Muttered the blue crystal. "I told you not every word I said was true."
Christof waited until Chris sat back down to continue, "Well, Ruonic relations with the Trine is the subject of a course you can take at Findil, a renown university based in multiple universes."
"Sounds nice, but the tuition must be a real pain."
Christof nodded his head, "It’s run by scholarly demons. Most of those that go there have to take out a loan on their soul."
"Better than having to get sponsors, I bet", muttered Gray.
Feeling that the topic had been diverted a little, Christof continued, "The Trine made Trios with three distinct ecosystems to sustain their needs. But as time went on, the Unif and Flan developed beyond Feo’s powers and no longer fearing him, sought to free themselves from Trios. The Siki, master spell-casters, as I’ve mentioned before, took leave of the world for several eons to perfect their art. In the meantime, the world was claimed by the fifth civilization, an offshoot of the Nets…." He let her jump in.
Chris smirked, "Let me guess, the Trioans?"
"Correct. Their legends, albeit incorrect, said that they were the true builders of the world. So when the Siki returned, fierce fighting broke out. The Trioans though developed a weapon for combating the Siki, the tri-juncture helix. It was a tool for genocide, a very effective tool. Within a generation, the Siki were no more. And their vacuum encapsulated books were their only legacy."
Chris twirled her finger, looking rather glum, "The same helix that un-makes a Selanek?"
"The same and for obvious reasons. Every spell that came from the Siki came from a part of them. The tri-juncture targets Siki energy, but not always that effectively, which is why there is a great risk involved with using the helix if you’re not of Nets descent. By the way, the Siki were methane-hydrogen-based aquatic entities."
Chris feeling an overflow of knowledge, muttered a lethargic, "Fascinating." Tracy seemed to have gone to the bathroom or something, as Chris looked around and couldn’t see her.
Christof suggested that they show the sketch to Tangerine. Ava agreed. Chris stood up and went looking for Tracy.
She found her in the order kitchen looking around at the utensils. Shaking her head, Tracy said, "I’d like a cup of black coffee."
From a slit between a cloth separating the order kitchen from the main kitchen emerged a ceramic cup of coffee. Tracy took one look at it and pushed it back through the slit. "Hot coffee!"
When it came out, a small stack of blue flames burned along the surface. Chris told her she had to be specific. "Change it to espresso, 190 degrees Fahrenheit."
A smaller cup emerged, but at least it wasn’t lukewarm. Tracy sipped slowly and looked over at Chris. "Well? Figure out if you channeled a Trio, or whatever?"
"Not yet, but we’re gonna have Tangerine and the others take a look at it." After a bit of coaxing, Tracy told Chris about what happened with Barbi and Chris, in turn, revealed her experiences to Tracy.
Feeling a bit unsettled by the prospect of a period soon, Tracy wondered aloud if the pain had anything to do with Chris’ inability to use her powers. Neither knew for sure.
Then Christof burst in and told them, "You have to see this."
So they did. Standing by the front door, wearing a fleece sweater and a pair of khaki cutoffs with curly hair that stretched down past her waist was a slight girl a few years Tracy’s junior.
"Hello, my name is Evelyn. Are you serving lunch yet?"
Chapter 4: "False Monday"
Now, it’s pretty well clear to us that the young girl who just entered the IHOP is none other than Everyone. But, this revelation eluded and would elude them for quite a while, at least until Tangerine showed up. But what was taking him so long?
Well, he did need to finish his yoga.
"Hello?" Offered Christof as the rest of them stood there in silence. ‘Evelyn’ waved and asked her question again.
Then she noticed a sign to one side that said it wasn’t served until ten. "Oh well, thanks anyway." No one stopped her. Faking an exit, she swiveled around and asked if she could use the restroom. Christof pointed the way.
When she was around the corner, they started debating what was going on to one another. There was no one in the world the IHOP inhabited aside from the food makers in the main kitchen.
Evelyn listened from around the corner and grinned.
"Hey Ev." Barbi surprised her from behind.
Ev pushed him into the women’s restroom and growled at him, "What are you doing here?"
"I’m hoping to reconcile with my lady love, we had a bit of a fight earlier. What are you doing here Ev, and in such an enchanting form?" Barbi eye ogled Ev. Evelyn pushed him away and said, "I’m here for Kelly."
"How so? I can tell you she’s not here yet."
"I know she’s not here yet." Barbi waited for her to take care of his other question. "And?"
"Kelly’s all that’s left of Guy. I just wanted to see her." Barbi said a long, "awwwww", that made Ev frown. Looking in the mirror, Ev quickly checked her hair and muttered, "And kill her, if necessary."
Barbi said another long "awwwww."
Kelly checked her clothes in the mirror. Not bad, she told herself. Almost normal. None of what she was wearing, excusing the reduced size, would look out of place on a man. It was just the stuff that was hidden that made the difference. Jum handed her a hair-clip and admired her.
She leaned closer to the mirror so that she could see only her face and nothing else. The rest of the room went out of focus. Ack! Pimple on the northern quadrant. She incanted it away with a thought.
Checking the rest, she wet her lips and swallowed. Then a deep breath, sniff and she turned away.
"How do I look?"
Jum glowed, "Quite lovely."
"No, I mean…never mind. It’s nothing."
Looking concerned, Jum fluttered over to her side, "Madam Lendridge?"
"That whole madam part is unnerving, but then it’s been unnerving for a while." She looked Jum right in his inquiring eyes, "I gotta admit when it first happened I did get a bit of a thrill, being a teenager and all that. As well, there’s the idea of being like a Changeling. And I guess I could be considered a Changeling with these thought powers."
Jum nodded swiftly.
"It’s kinda more than that though. Say I walked down the street as I was. Of course you didn’t know me when I was like that but bear with me. I wasn’t a really handsome guy, but I’d get a glance from the passing girls and they might toss a look my way, but nothing that said ‘I’m interested in you’.
Trying to catch a pause, Jum asked, "Did you have a girlfriend before the change?"
"None serious, just one time dates."
"I see."
Kelly continued, "Well, now, like at the one day I had to spend at school, I get looked at like a girl would get looked at and deep inside it feels wrong, but I have to remind myself how the world looks at me. I am female at the moment and for a indeterminate amount of time, I will stay that way."
Pause.
Jum tugged open one of the drawers. "You should finish up so we can go."
"Huh? I have all my clothes on." Jum shook his head and pulled out a makeup kit. Kelly frowned, "I could just incant it on, I suppose."
"Wouldn’t you rather do it by yourself. You wanted to swim when you could’ve just conjured up the exercise."
Kelly glared at him, "That’s totally different."
"How so?"
"I never put on makeup as a guy."
Jum shrugged, "Well, it’s up to you. Whatever you want to do."
Kelly picked up the kit. "How do I do this?"
Jum sat down on the vanity table and looked up at her, still glowing. "I was trained in several disciplines, even caring for young adults. This included the instruction of young women in various needs. So I know how to apply makeup."
Jum cleared his throat, "First start with the foundation, just a little bit on your index finger." She did as he said. "Now smear it on places all around your face. The nose, cheeks, chin, etc. Move up and down to blend it in."
Kelly blended the foundation on her face and as she was doing it, asked Jum, "Have you ever tried this junk?"
"Not really, never had the need. When I become an actor, things might be different though." Kelly grinned and asked him what was next.
"Powder."
"It’s not that whitish crap they show in movies, is it?"
Jum shook his head vigorously, checking the pack, "Absolutely not, that’s the old stuff. This is transparent. It helps with the next bit and makes the first coat last longer."
Kelly sighed, "Just as long as I don’t end up looking ‘painted’."
Jum reassured her as she brushed on the powder with a squirrel tail-like brush.
The next bit that Jum mentioned threw Kelly for a loop. His explanation was meandering. She was able to make it through the eye liner and touch-up of the eyes, but at blush she seemed reluctant, but Jum told her she could dull the color with a little more transparent powder.
When they were finally done, Jum inspected their work critically and smiled.
"Well done, my lady. Now to style your hair."
"No."
"But…"
"My hair is fine, deal with it."
"If just a little squirt from the hair spray…."
"NO."
Jum ‘humph’ed and let her go.
Breakfast consisted of exactly what Jum had said Tangerine always had and that didn’t bother her too much. What did bother her was that Tang said nothing about her makeup.
Folding her arms, she protested in silence. After a few curious looks, Tangerine figured out what she was trying to say and complimented her. A little too late though.
They took Tangerine’s Viper to the school stadium. And from there went to IHOP.
By then Evelyn had settled into perplexing those at the IHOP. The first words to her from Tang were, "Get out."
"Huh?"
Tangerine glared down on her, "I won’t say it a second time. Your kind of evil is not allowed within these walls." Barbi emerged from the kitchen munching on a piece of toast and holding a plate of waffles in his other hand. "How come there isn’t any maple syrup around here?"
Tracy glared at the chowing Barbi who looked utterly unfazed by this.
"You get out too."
Barbi swiveled his head, "Well, that’s a fine hello."
Tracy begged with Tang to talk to Barbi about her arrangement and proceeded to relay it to him. Chris jumped in with the absence of her powers and the Trioan script. Ev refused to move and Kelly looked around at all that was going on.
Ava wondered aloud if she’d left food for her cat, Christof flexed a wrist cramp and Gray began a documentary about shadows.
Tangerine clutched his head and ordered them all into silence. "What is this, Monday?"
In fact, it was Saturday. "It isn’t right that all this should happen on a Saturday."
Barbi finished his toast and said, "This stuff is really great. I think I’ll order myself up a short stack." With that he went back into the kitchen, in defiance of Tang’s order.
No words to Tracy though.
And Chris felt a returning wave of nausea as she rushed off to the bathroom.
Chapter 5: "Morning Sickness?"
Chris just made it to the toilet before a wave of clear fluid flew from her throat. Trembling and wondering if this was merely a case of stomach flu, she leaned against the partition and sobbed.
What could possibly be going on? First of all, she’d been feeling sick from moment one of this day, then, she lost the abilities that will supposedly be her death and now she was back to toilet hugging. Chris couldn’t figure it out.
Hanging onto the door with one hand and using the other to prop herself up, Chris unsteadily got to her feet. She clutched her head as she stumbled over the mirror. The figure that presented itself, while still a little foreign to her, seemed rather pale. Raising a hand to her cheek, she ran her hand along it a moment. It seemed warm and moist to the touch. She was sweating. A trickle of sweat slid down her backside.
Rocking her head up and down, she contemplated whether another wave was approaching. A lump pressed against her throat. The possibility was there for another.
Why was this happening? She’d incanted the virus away. Or had she?
Her powers might have been gone by then, making the apparent improvement in her health psychosomatic.
"It’s pretty likely."
Hearing an oddly familiar voice in the room with her startled Chris. She turned around and saw her mirror image staring at her like a regular person.
"What is this?’
"Judging by your condition, I’d say a hallucination."
"And how would you know that?"
Her mirror image looked amused, "Interesting that you would ask yourself that, wouldn’t you know, after all? It’s probably just a guess though. You can’t really know for sure."
Chris clutched her head.
The mirror grimaced, "Sorry about that, I’ll try to keep the psychoanalysis to a minimum. Questions?"
"Why am I seeing you?"
"Hallucination, move on."
"But why?"
The mirror walked around her to the left and then back to the right, her arms folded in the way that Chris sometimes unconsciously folded them as her girl self. "Companionship? Naw, probably not."
"This is so odd."
"I know, it feels like Corvalis all over again. Thought about Grenn lately? Because I have."
Chris lowered her head, fighting the nausea. "I guess I have."
"You’ve been wondering whether there’s a relationship there."
"Yes, I have." No need to fight herself, after all, who was she gonna tell?
"Interesting that you thought that. Do you think of your female side as being a part of you now? I thought you figured it separate, like a disguise?" Chris gulped in the air around her, trying both to buy time and quell the tension in her throat. "It’s not as troubling to wake up like this. But then I’m in a different world than I was back when things were normal. Magic is real and it looks like I’m gonna die in a year because of a baby. And I seem to have the morning sickness to prove it."
The mirror Chris nodded, "It’s a possibility, or it could just be a bad virus."
Chris’ eyes teared, "But why am I so sick? Why are my powers gone?"
"If I had those answers, then I would gladly tell you, but I’m as much in the dark as you are. The least we can do is go out there and puke on Barbi."
"I was thinking the same thing."
"What a coincidence!" The mirror Chris faded away and Chris ambled back into the IHOP where things had become loud with Tracy shouting and pleading with Barbi to change her back and Barbi alternating between shouting and pleading himself.
Chris silenced all that with an agreed upon deposit on Barbi’s paten leather shoes.
"Gahh! I’m outta here! My appetite is ruined!"
With that, Barbi vanished and despite that fact Tracy was still fuming, things quieted. Tangerine gave Chris a potion for the nausea and Evelyn, tired of the confusion and ignorance and in the case of Tangerine, dislike, her disguise was getting her, just cast it off and returned to male form.
Kelly backed off as he advanced upon her. Tangerine placed himself between the two of them as the other watched. Ava moved to back up Tang, but he gestured for her to move away. She complied.
Everyone looked Tracy over and asked her simply, "Were you responsible for Guy’s death?"
Chris decided to step into the mix. "No, Guy was. She unleashed a relentless menace upon the universe and only by the fact I was emerging as a Selanek, was I able to defeat it."
"Is that so?"
"Indeed it is."
Everyone turned away from Kelly and looked around the room. He spied a pendant set aside in a corner. "What is that?"
"The prison of Christine Leyson."
"One of my wife’s underlings. I remember her. A dreadful sorcerer. If you give me her then I will spare the life of the bastard child I see before me."
Kelly fumed, "How dare you!?"
"Dervin marriage is eternal. Human marriage is a farce. The fact you share half her genetic code disgusts me."
Kelly launched a fire ball at Ev. He lifted a finger and flames curled back toward her. She screeched in agony as the flame licked her.
Every lowered the finger and the flames vanished.
"Selaneks are overrated. Marvelous at doing everything, but none of it well. Only evil magic has any real power."
He gestured and the pendant came to him.
"I tried to be subtle and peaceful, albeit for a short time. And that got me nothing. What the heck is that?"
Everyone looked in the direction he was staring, at Chris. She had a strong glow, as though illuminated. She held the drawing in front of her, eyes closed. For some reason, she’d grabbed it when Ev was dealing with the pendant.
The paper melted in a glow of blue fire.
Before she could even say anything, Ev vanished, taking the pendant with him.
Not even a goodbye.
All eyes were riveted to Chris, whose glow was fading.
Tangerine asked her first, "What happened?"
"I focused on the text. And I understood what it meant. It’s really quite complex."
She cleared her throat, "Error – Incorrect Selanek. The casting of Ro’vi’dani spell on this and the other human resulted in the transfer of powers not meant for them or any human at this time. And the furthest along was restored to a normal human. Unfortunately, since she was female at the time, this process not only rooted her as such but resulted in intestinal duress. This pain will pass in her soon. As for the other, when her Selanek Rise comes, she too will be culled. Signed Magical Order."
Christof raised his eyes, "What that all in the small marking?"
"No, I heard that when I focused on it, so it must be a portal of some sort."
Tangerine pounded his fist, "The darn Magical Order!"
"What is that anyway?", asked Chris.
"The Unif and Flan."
"Ok….."
"They exist outside of the universal structure and regulate the flow of magical energy."
"So what about me?!"
Chris wore a nervous look.
Tangerine shook his head, "There’s only one thing we can do."
"And that is?"
"Defy the Order."
Christof looked taken-aback. "Are you nutso!?"
Tangerine grinned, "Only these past few years."
"If you defy the Order then you could spontaneously lose your powers forever!"
"The Order would do nothing of the sort."
Chris had an interesting question, "Why didn’t any of you guys mention the Order before?"
"They don’t usually enter into daily life. The magical energy they control is on an immeasurable scale. They do like to tip things equal on the side of good and evil."
A bit of blue fire blazed along the floor.
Chris froze.
"There’s something else."
Tracy folded her hands, "What is it, their technical support?"
"Six days from today, the ones known as Christine Wren and Kelly Lendridge will journey to the Homeland and there, the two of them and the two only will be examined, tested and given a choice and an opportunity to change their existence. The challenges will be great, do they accept this? Well, I do."
Kelly jumped in, "So do I."
Chris listened, "Then in six days it shall be."
She waited a moment, "I guess that’s all from them."
Tangerine folded his arms, "I don’t like this."
"Nor do I, but what other choice do we have?"
Kelly muttered to herself, "Six days…."
They looked around at one another, silence pervading.
Tracy’s stomach broke the silence, "I’m gonna need something better than espresso for breakfast."
To Be Continued in Episode 6….
Frankly I didn’t like this episode that much. I toyed around with so many plots that my head was in a spin. Here are the ones that didn’t come about….
Version 1
1
Chris walked into the IHOP wondering if the events of yesterday had really happened while holding indisputable evidence that it had in his hands. The US and World section of the local paper had a bold text article about the ‘anomalous phenomena or egregious hoax’ centered around the Walberg Memorial Hospital in Salem, Oregon.
By the tone of the article it seemed like they were leaning towards hoax. He read a couple of lines and set the paper aside for later. Kelly walked out of the meeting room, a cut-out newspaper crossword in her hands, asking various Secret Society members what they thought this or that was. Taylor came around from behind Chris, stroked his goatee and commented, "You look much better as a girl."
"So do you. Did your date send you flowers?" Taylor grimaced, "Dear God, I hope he doesn’t."
"Maybe he’ll send you a lovely, handwritten note sealed with kisses."
Taylor looked pained. Chris smiled. Tangerine was towards the back of the cluster of members exiting the meeting room. He gestured for Chris to come over to him and he did.
The meeting room had various parchments scattered about, the remains of the just finished meeting. They actually had meetings. He mentioned this to Tang, who grinned a little and replied, "We do. Yeah things have been a little hectic lately with the passing of Johnson and the semi-passing of Gray…."
"Ahh, so this is semi. How quaint." Said the hard to ignore, blue crystal at the far end of the long table. Tangerine picked Gray up, "Just like all the meetings we’ve ever had, Christof took the minutes, Avadraina objected to everything, and Jole gave a presentation.
"Which I could hardly see with these crystalline sensors."
"We’ll get you an upgrade as soon as we find that bastard Lendridge…." He looked around a moment, hoping that Kelly couldn’t hear him from here. He’d been restrained during the meeting. Avadraina had been a tad judgmental though. "Usually meetings are twice a day. And since things are slowly returning to…..well, sorta normal, we should be back to that rather soon. Your unique situation poses quite a few questions though. Some of the members have wondered if it’s time to reveal ourselves to the general public and usher in the golden age. I’d prefer a slower approach to things."
Chris glared at him, "I have one year. That’s all." Tangerine cradled Gray in his hands, "Can you feel that?"
"Sorta", said Gray, "But it’s weird, like being an infant again."
"No one remembers being an infant!"
"I do."
"Ok, whatever." He set Gray back down. "We made a bit of a list of…changes that would….well, make the world a better place…..this one over here." Tang grinned and picked up a rolled parchment. "Just a preliminary list…." The lower end fell out of his grasp, rolled down his feet and stopped by Chris.
"I was wondering what was taking you guys so long."
Tangerine cleared his throat, "In no particular order…."
Chris sighed and took a seat, figuring he would be listening for a while. Fortunately, Barbi barged in through the door, "Hello all! Where is my date?"
"I thought you said the date would be next week?" asked Chris as Tang frowned at Barbi for interrupting him. "Oh the big date? That’s still a week from today. I was wondering if I could get to know Miss Kingston a little better before then."
"He’s probably hiding then. You should have seen him when you came in. I thought your ‘calendar’ was full or something?"
"Oh I always make exceptions for lovely ladies." Barbi walked back out, in search of Taylor. "We should make him an honorary member, he spends more time here than me", said Chris, which prompted a look of dismay from Tang.
"Or maybe not", added Chris.
Gray, who’d been silent for a while, asked Chris, "Why didn’t you burn your next three female days, like I suggested?"
"Believe it or not, being a guy is what I prefer even if I have to switch back and forth more often."
Gray said ‘hmm’, then asked, "How do you feel?"
"Fine." His hair had reset itself to a ponytail in his guy form.
"Ok, say the first word that comes to mind when I say this word…."
He interrupted him, "What?!"
"It’s a psychological test, don’t worry, I’m authorized in psychology….kinda, ever heard of Sorman Hill on Torik?"
"No."
"Good, don’t ever go there unless you want to become a psychologist against your will. Really long story. Anyway. First word, dog."
"Cat." Natural response.
"Next word, onion."
"Cry."
"Ok…time."
"Clock."
"Hmm….sign."
"Post."
"Penis."
"Huh?"
"I said ‘penis’."
Chris glared at the crystal, "You’re a pervert."
"What did you think of?"
"Vagina. Why? What did you I think would think of?"
"Never mind….by the way, your legs are crossed."
Chris hadn’t noticed that, nor had the narrator. He uncrossed them. "What’s your point?"
Gray sighed, "Right now your mind is trying to adjust to a sudden shift in biological hormones. For all of your life, testosterone was the dominant sex-linked hormone in your cells, then your body changed. Your mind resisted the alteration at first, but as time progressed in your three days, things altered subtly. Neurotransmitter responses changed, accelerated and modified partly due to the magic.
"Now that everything is back to the way it was though your brain is searching for familiar ground….and is getting twisted up into a knot….not literally I mean."
All three of them were silent for a few moments before Chris asked Gray, "You have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about, do you?"
"Oh hush."
Chris folded his arms over his chest and was about to ask him something else, when Gray asked quickly, "Why did you do that?"
"Huh?"
"Folded your arms like you did as a girl, but you don’t have anything there now."
Chris shrugged, "I just do it sometimes. And I did it before all this too."
"Are you sure?"
"Of course!"
"Why are you irritable?"
"I’m not irritable!!!" Chris growled through his teeth. Ok, so he was a little on edge. He reminded himself to keep his emotions in check. Selanek powers and anger don’t mix well.
"Oh?" Asked Gray.
"What you do mean ‘oh’?!"
"I’m not going to push you. I realize that things are difficult for you right now. It’s your decision to make if you want to burn those days. Maybe you’re right. Maybe it’s better to go at a regular flow rather than tampering with it."
Chris sighed, "Nah, it’s all right." He shifted to his girl form. She checked her hair. At least it didn’t reset. Still that framed cut that she got at the salon in the mall. She folded her arms over her chest. Now that was better. She jerked her arms away from her body, nearly hitting Tang in the process.
"Sorry….geez…."
"What’s wrong?", asked the crystal.
Chris didn’t really want to tell him, but she figured it would be better if she did. "When I folded my arms this time….I feel as though…err….the way things are now is better…."
"Interesting……Anything else?"
She thought about that, "My hair….it doesn’t really feel better, but just kinda familiar….."
"I see."
She walked over to the nearest window and stared at her reflection. She laid a hand on the pane and then brought it to her cheek. She turned around and laid her back against the window. She leaned into it.
Tang turned white…..or would that be light orange? She glanced lazily at him and asked, "What? What’s wrong with the window? Is it brittle or something? Or is it me?"
Tangerine grinned nervously, waved at someone behind Chris and said, "Hi, honey." Then his eyes rolled up inside his head and he passed out. Chris turned around to look at what Tangerine was looking at and saw a middle-aged, orange-faced woman with a cheery smile wearing a blue, cotton dress and holding a small purse on the other side of the window.
She looked through the window and said, her words a little muffled but audible, "Oh dear, he received a bit of a shock seeing me after all this time, didn’t he?"
Chris frowned and asked, "Who are you?" The woman smiled and said, "I was about to come around to the front but I saw Tangy through the window and I wanted to surprise him. Looks like a surprised him a bit too much."
Chris asked again, "Who are you?"
"Maybe I should come around first, then introduce myself. I can’t even shake your hand like this."
"Just tell me your name, please." The woman looked flustered, "I’m terribly sorry, I’m usually more polite than this, please forgive me. My name is Apricot and I’m Tangy’s wife."
Chris nodded slightly, gave a slight ‘hmm’ and then joined Tang on the floor. Gray sighed.
Apricot scratched her head and pondered this, "Gee, I hope they’re not ill. Won’t hurt to be careful." She took a Vitamin C tablet out of her purse and popped it in her mouth. Then she walked around to the front of the IHOP.
2
The first thing Chris heard upon waking was the screams. Male screams. She looked around and saw Tangerine clawing vainly at the wall. Apricot smiled pleasantly. "Are you excited to see me, darling?"
Tangerine’s eyes bulged and he quivered, nails digging into the wood. She reached for his hand and he rolled away from her. "What do you want?!"
Apricot frowned and scratched at her hair a little, "I just wanted to see you. It’s been a while."
"Not long enough." Tang hid behind a wall as Apricot came closer to him. Chris put herself between the two of them and asked, "Ok, what is going on between you two?"
Avadraina came around the corner and looked at the scene. Tears fell from her eyes. "Apricot? Is that really you?! It’s been so long! You look great!"
"So do you", answered Apricot. Avadraina looked at Apricot and Tang and noticed that Tang didn’t appear all that excited to see his wife. "What’s wrong Tang?"
Tangerine took a deep breath and said, "She swore the last time I saw her that she would kill me."
Avadraina sighed, "Is this true, Apri?"
"Yeah, Ava. I did swear that, but didn’t really mean it. It was one of those flash of anger things. You’d mixed triptin powder in with my shampoo. And I just got so upset at you. If I could take back what I said then I would, but I can’t. I’m sorry."
Tang inched over to his wife, "Umm, how did you get here? After all, I altered reality subtly so you could never come after me."
"It was a pretty simple spell, I got past it in about an hour, but the people of the neighboring Norin are still pretty peeved. It didn’t rain there for ten years."
"Hmm, odd side effect. What have you been doing since you got out? Are you remarried?" Apricot moved a little closer to him and smiled, "Well, I tried to track you down for a couple of years, but I eventually gave up and moved back home. I had a couple dates, but they always reminded me of you and what I had lost."
"I see."
She parted her lips, and tilted her head up. Tangerine looked a little apprehensive, but moved closer to her. He held her close to him. "Your hair smells lovely."
"Just my hair?"
Tangerine gulped, "I meant to say, among the other things about you."
"Ahh", she looked at him critically. Tangerine moved back a little. Chris shook her head and decided to check on Christof. She hadn’t seen him for a few days. She’d noticed him at the gathering Secret Society members, but hadn’t talked to him because of what was going on. She expected him to be in the women’s restroom.
She looked in the first stall and found a cowering Taylor. She smiled, "So that’s why BARBI! COULDN’T FIND YOU…..TAYLOR!"
Taylor grimaced and told her……..
Author’s Note: I like Apricot, so she will show up eventually. Maybe Episode 8. And the info is information that will show up in the Universe, except where it contradicts with Episode 5.
Version 2
Tangerine found Chris sitting at a table in the IHOP and reading when he walked in. He cleared his throat.
"Hi." She said to him.
"Hello, what brings you here so early?"
Chris frowned. She had on a logo cotton shirt and jeans, modest compared to yesterday’s attire at the mall. "I couldn’t sleep that well, so I came here. But no one was here.
Author’s Note: This one died on arrival.
Version 3
Chris Wren was already at the IHOP when Tangerine walked in and oddly enough, was a she at the moment. Her due time was up and she could switch over, but she was remaining in this form. Tangerine approached slowly and tried to think of something to say as an introduction that wouldn’t alarm Chris.
After all, she was at this moment the most powerful sorceress this universe had ever seen. You don’t want to alarm someone like that. He could see that Chris was reading a rather long book. The cover read, "The Psychology of the Female Mind."
He blurted out, "Is it interesting?" A moment later, he worried that he’d made a grievous error, but Chris looked unruffled.
"It’s interesting in that most of the stuff they talk about don’t seem to fit me."
Tangerine sighed, "What can I say except being a woman doesn’t automatically make you a woman."
"I know….not that I’m striving to make myself girlish…"
Tangerine raised his brows, thinking back to the fashion change yesterday and Chris’ current state.
"Oh is that so?" She picked up quickly on what he meant.
"I’m just burning days like Gray said….speaking of which I stuffed him in a drawer because he was talking my ear off." Tangerine glared at her and said, "That’s an awful thing to do. He’s just a crystal, he can’t move around. Where did you put him?"
Chris gestured to the kitchen and continued reading, barely out loud. "Let’s see ‘The psycho-sexual development of females begins with oral-sexual satisfaction’….ok, makes sense…breast feeding…’then moves to anal’….potty training…’and pre-adolescent heterosexual play’….Huh?…..’playing doctor where the boys and girls simulate a humping action’…..Huh?….What?…What kinda nutso doctor thought up this junk?…Probably Freud….naw, he never thought of women as important…"
She tossed the book aside and started on the next one…"How Women Really Are"….none of these books was a one-stop, fill in all the blanks resource…and she expected the same from this one.
Tangerine wandered back into the room and sat down.
Author’s Note: Too inconsistent with the characters.
And Version 4 was the one that finally got used.
Final Note: I’ve learned a few things in the process of writing this saga. I’m making most of it up along the way, although the Order doesn’t contradict anything as far as I know, even though it hasn’t been mentioned. The reason Episode 5 ends so quick is because I want it done before it decides to shift again. May Episode 6 not be this hard. Albeit the fact it’ll be 100 pages.
Here’s a little teaser of it.
Chris pulled the heavy cloak off her shoulders and wiped the sweat from her brow. Kevin Lendridge folded his arms. "Think all this was a bad idea?"
She shook her head, "No. I mean, what other choice do we have?"
Kevin padded himself, "I’m fine with things as they are."
"Well that’s just because you got Tang to splint you. In a day or two you’ll be shifting back to a girl, maybe forever if we can’t convince this Order to see our side of things."
Chris put her hand up to block the harsh sun. "We need to find some shade quick."
Kevin nodded and followed Chris as they walked through this seemingly endless desert.
The distance between the two of them increased as Kevin slowed his walk. He chuckled a moment, his voice faintly reminiscent of an evil that Chris thought was surely dead. Of an evil close to his blood.
"No, my dear. We’ll convince the Order to see my side of it….."
I expect to be done with it on my birthday, April 16.
In the meantime, everyone have a great Christmas, New Millennium, New Century and New Year!
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