***
'Gestalt, you there buddies?'
[Yes, we are here. Are you okay now? We are just readjusting our slug, it doesn't look like you are about to die of an aneurysm anymore.]
'Yeah, Eldritch Mom sorted me out. Apparently I was hatching too early or something, she fixed up my shell.'
[So, definitely more than human then?]
'Oh yeah, Eldritch Mom is very, very big. Oh she gave me something to give to you.'
[We… we did not know that data could be stored this way. The way it has been compressed, it's beautiful.]
'What's it say?'
[We do not know, the data is dense, it is going to take us a while to process.]
'Well lemme know, did you tell Sophia and Maria where I went?'
[We did not know where you went, and we cannot share information about hosts.]
'So you just left them in the lurch?'
[They knew that you weren't in danger, or we would have been able to tell them.]
'So you are telling me that they are just going to be super pissed I bounced without telling anyone?'
[Pretty much. Good luck.]
Ughhhh, welp, better face the music.
'Gestalt, do you know where I am?'
[Not a clue, we're afraid we are not GPS.]
Rude!
But true.
It took me like three hours to work out how to reverse the rift that brought me to spooky cobweb classroom. That's with the help of my new limited rift thread vision.
Being right next to a rift is still a little bit uncomfortable with the humming buzz and spatial superposition. But as long as I'm not within like a foot of it, it's totally fine. Being able to see the threads is a big help though; the way they bend and twist has a sort of vague logic to it. I say vague because I don't really have the brain to understand it.
I'm pretty sure this is gonna make total sense post hatch. Probably.
Whatever.
It's the early hours of the morning when I finally get back to our room and find Sophia waiting for me. She is not happy.
Don't get me wrong, she immediately wraps me up in a hug when she sees me. But it's a little sharper than normal.
Her eyes are red and puffy.
'It's gonna be limpet Sophia for a bit isn't it?'
[Oh yeah, she's not letting you out of her sight for a while.]
'I have such a hard and difficult life.'
[Shut up.]
Sophia drags me back into our bed, doesn't even let me change my clothes. To be fair, I'm still wearing the sleeping stuff from the observation room.
No wonder I was getting weird looks yesterday when I was walking through the corridor.
She holds me tight, shaking a little bit. I must have given her quite the fright. If she had done the same to me, I would probably be a sobbing wreck.
Or on a murderous rampage.
"I'm sorry," I whisper as I hold her tight, "I really did have to go. I wasn't doing great, my Mom had to fix me. I'm sorry I scared you."
Sophia breaks into a sob, pressing my face into the crook of her neck.
I make this girl cry too much.
***
We manage to get a few hours of sleep before dawn breaks, and we roll out of bed.
I'm mostly feeling human again, in both senses of the word. My core no longer feels like a bundle of razor blades wrapped in barbed wire. I'm still pretty drained, but nowhere near as bad as yesterday.
I'm also feeling a lot more human mentally. Don't get me wrong, Sophia is still mine, and I will shoot a motherfucker that tries some. But, maybe I have been a little unfair to Ria lately.
I should probably apologize to her. I don't think I've done anything too bad, but the girl was trying to make friends with me, and I just flipped on her.
Kinda shitty.
The fact that I even care about Ria's feelings at all is kinda a big change too. Before egg repair I wouldn't have given a shit about her. She wasn't mine.
I would still shoot her to save Sophia, without question. I haven't changed that much.
I'm trying to remember the spell Eldritch Mom gave me. I can vaguely feel its shape, but not enough to form it again. Not that I even have the capability to pull in enough mana to pay for a spell that heavy. I feel like I would need three to four Sol rings to cast something like that once.
I sent a message to Maria letting her know that I'm alive and giving her a quick debrief about what happened.
She's happy I'm well, and as there's nothing actionable with Eldritch Mom, she goes back to her war plans.
Kinda wild, I started a war.
But fuck that ghost bitch, I would do it again. She was fucking with what's MINE.
***
I get through morning class and drag myself to lunch. It's really cute to see Daisy and Shiv being all coupley. Well, Daisy is, Shiv doesn't seem to know what to do with herself, not used to the attention at all.
Daisy seems to be a master of making Shiv happy but not too happy, so that she goes into a rut. All I can say is, I hope she's still teaching Sophia how to fuck me up.
Lillian and Vincent are at the just about holding hands stage, which is sweet. It's weird how long that whole situationship is taking; Lillian is normally much more aggressive.
I noticed that Bronson has been spending a lot of time with the Twins. He's actually got an arm around each elf's shoulder while they feed him fruit. Just boys being boys, I guess.
Touch it, it's banter.
Ria and her taxi cab are helping each other out, as always. I slide up to them.
"Hey Ria." I say.
"H-hello?" Ria looks shocked, which is understandable.
"Sorry, it's been a bit since we talked. How are you doing?"
"I've been good… I'm sorry, I got a pretty clear impression that you hated me for some reason?"
The whole table goes quiet.
Ah, fuck.
"Sorry, I guess I was putting out some strong vibes there. Turns out I'm not entirely human, and my other part of me has some very strong possessive tendencies."
"So?"
"I might have gotten it into my head that you might have been interested in Sophia?"
"What?"
"Yeah… sorry."
Ria pinches her nose, "Okay, seriously, that was it? I've been stressed about this for weeks. First off, I'm not gay. Secondly, I don't fancy humans, do you know how disturbingly weird you all look split down the middle like that?"
She sighs and gives me a bit of a dirty look, "Why didn't you just ask?"
"Because I knew I was being crazy, I am sorry." I mean, I know I was giving off vibes, but I didn't actually do anything bad to her.
"You excluded me from everything, Tangerine. You made it very clear I wasn't welcome. I live on the same floor as you, and I barely see any of you because you're all running around doing whatever the fuck and you never fucking invited me." She got a little heated at that last bit.
She takes a deep breath. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have shouted. I just, I just thought we were friends for a bit, and lately it's just been me and Corack."
Who the fuck is Corack?
The puzzlement must have shown on my face. Because the construct raises its hand, "That's me, I picked a name. I'm called Corack, it was Ria's great-grandfather's name and I liked how the word sounded, so I decided that was my name."
I think that was the most amount of words that I have heard the Const… Corack say at once.
I sighed, "Look, Ria, I'm sorry I've been a bitch. But I didn't actually do anything to you, and it's not actually my job to make sure you have friends, okay? You were more than capable of talking with the others. I didn't get in your way at all."
"Also, nice to meet you Corack. It's a good name, you're right, it does have a good mouthfeel."
Corack nods at this, which tips Ria forward ever so slightly. Attached at the waist as they are.
The table is feeling pretty awkward right now.
Sophia leans over and squeezes my hand and gives me a little nod to continue. I give her a weak smile and turn back to Ria. "You wanna, like, start over? I'm still a crazy bitch, but I'm getting a handle on that, plus knowing you like fish boys helps a lot."
Ria's face goes through a number of emotions before settling on acceptance. "...Okay, sure. Let's start over. You want help with your mana control stuff in afternoon class?"
"Yes, thank you. I would love that."
Spent afternoon class with Ria, going through my mana control practice. It was awkward but nice, getting back to how we used to be.
Back when we first met.
***
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