"I'm still not entirely convinced that this is a good idea…" I whispered, but in the quietude of my room, the girls could still hear it loud and clear. No small part thanks to how they were snuggled up to in bed.
"Nothing ventured, nothing gained," Judy told in a flat yet firm voice, then entwined her arm with mine.
My princess backed her up with an enthusiastic, "Exactly," and followed her example, even going as far as to hook her leg around mine under the bedsheet.
"I'm just saying that it might be better to do it in the base, hooked up to Fred's machine and under Mr Plague Doctor's supervision. Just in case."
"Chief, you really need to morize his na one of these days," my dear assistant scolded , but then she also entwined our legs so that the three of us were fully tangled. "And more importantly, this is an extra-Simulacral matter, so even if they put those electrodes on us and monitor our status, they can't do anything even if sothing goes wrong."
"Don't jinx it," Elly hissed at her in a hushed tone, then looked around and asked, this ti a tad more uncertainly, "That's still a thing, right? Even after the scenario ended?"
I uttered a tired, "Potentially," and left it at that. "Let's just find out if this even works, okay?"
"All right! I'm ready!" the princess declared and shut her eyes tight.
Judy followed her up with an equally determined, "Sa here," and also closed her eyes.
After a shallow sigh, I also did the sa and wrapped my Phantom Limbs around them. However, before anything else, I sternly stated, "Rember: if you feel anything wrong, tell imdiately. Understood?"
Judy responded with a soft, "Mm," while Elly only nodded her head repeatedly. There was no turning back at this point, so I tried my best to calm my nerves, held onto the girls (both physically and with my phantom limbs), and then slowly extracted myself from the Simulacrum.
As I did, I could feel so kind of resistance on my ethereal appendages, but it only lasted for a mont, and then I could feel sothing else, like when you walk hand in hand with soone. It felt nice, actually, so much so that for a brief mont I almost forgot what we were doing.
"Ah! It's so bright!"
"Sorry, give a mont…!" I blurted out in mild panic and manipulated my Domain to tone down the ever-pervasive sunlight a bit, and once it receded…
"Wow! We're in space!" the princess exclaid next to , her voice filled with with childlike wonder.
Technically speaking, we were inside my Domain, but with its light reduced to the bare minimum, it did feel like we were floating in a starry sky.
"A-Awawa! Leo, help! I'm naked!" Elly squeaked all of a sudden, and indeed, she was buck naked. "Aaah! I'm spinning!" Why, yes. She was indeed spinning, her legs flailing while she was trying to cover herself with her hands. If I wasn't so high-strung, it would've been hilarious. Or titillating. Maybe both.
"Easy there, princess." I Phased over to her and grabbed her shoulders to right her up. "Give a second." I focused on her beet-red face, and after picturing her usual appearance, I uttered a single word. "Elly."
She responded with a confounded, "Y-Yes?" but then she let out another startled sound when her appearance changed, and her school uniform poofed into existence on her.
That finally made her calm down, so I looked for my other girlfriend, and…
"Chief? Why are we in space?" she asked, her voice slightly muffled, and I couldn't help but raise a brow at her.
"We aren't really, but more importantly, what are you wearing?"
She looked down at herself, then back at .
"A space-suit, I think."
She was… probably right? I an, it didn't look like the bulky gear an actual astronaut would wear, more of a sleek, skintight sci-fi catsuit kind of deal in a pale pink colour, complete with a helt sporting a large, transparent bubble-faceplate.
"Where did you get that? It looks cool!" Elly chid in as she casually glided over to my other girlfriend's side.
"I don't know," she admitted, still looking at her odd outfit. "This is rather peculiar. Remind to write this down once we're—" Before she could finish that, a familiar notepad with yellow pages and a plain ball-point pen materialised into existence in front of her, startling the princess. After a bit of hesitation, Judy grabbed hold of them and shook them towards . "Chief? Did you do this?"
I answered with a flat, "No," at which she let out a soft hum and started taking notes. "It appears these ca into existence in response to my need for them. Maybe this outfit also materialised the sa way. Maybe it was an instictual reaction to seeing outer space around ?"
"Maybe," I granted her with a shrug, "I'm still fairly new to this."
She uttered a nominally awe-struck, "Fascinating," and started jotting things down, while my other girlfriend was still flying in circles around her, much to her delight.
"Look, Leo! Look! No wings!" She did a small pirouette and then ca to a halt next to .
"Why isn't Elly's hair floating?" Judy asked and pointed her pen at her, then at . "We are obviously not inside a gravity well, yet your hair and clothes act like we are. Can you explain that?"
"… Dormouse, I just told you I'm new to this, so…" I shook my head. At this rate, we would just get bogged down here, so I decided to move things along. "Things out here can be a bit counter-intuitive like this, so you better get used to them. More importantly, do you feel anything strange?"
"Strange?" Elly echoed , so I elaborated.
"Nausea, vertigo, feeling like your consciousness expanded beyond human understanding, thousands of fragnts of yourself suddenly rging with you and revealing eldritch knowledge from beyond the veil of space and ti, hiccups… Those kinds of things."
"No, not really," Elly said as she resud her fly-bys around us. "I actually feel pretty good! I an, I was sleepy before we went to bed, but now I'm awake again!"
"On my end…" Judy started, then glanced left and right before looking down and admitting, "I think the lack of solid ground is starting to make feel agoraphobic. Other than that, I'm fine."
"Hold on, what was that about agoraphobia?" In retrospect, I could kind of understand her. I an, before it was revealed to be my Domain, I also considered the seemingly endlessness of the 'void' and 'space between spaces' rather daunting and disorienting, so maybe it was best to move on. "Let's put so solid ground under your feet then. In a manner of speaking."
Judy responded with a soft hum, and then we were ready to move out, except…
"How do I move?"
"What do you an?" Elly blurted out and flew to my flailing assistant's side in the blink of an eye. "You just go forward with a whoosh, and stop with a pop, like this."
"… That wasn't very helpful," she turned her head to face and pleaded, "Chief? A little help, please?"
I also moved over to Judy's side, but in my case, repositioning was less about graceful flight than just changing my location with a thought, which was effectively the sa as Phasing inside the Simulacrum. I held Judy's arm from the right, and Elly swiftly moved to grab her from the left, and then I searched my Domain for the current location of the not-dark not-room. Then, before you could say antidisestablishntarianism, we suddenly arrived there with a hop and a thump.
"Owie!" Elly exclaid in surprise, and by the looks of it, she landed on her butt. "I don't like gravity."
She probably wasn't in the right posture, because of the floating and all, and she lost her balance on arrival. If I weren't holding onto Judy, she might've pulled her down with her, but we remained upright.
"Is this the room you told us about? Where the Ergents gather?" my dear assistant inquired with undisguised marvel, and she let go of my arm so she could start taking notes again.
"Ah, this is so weird," Elly remarked as she rose to her feet. "It's like… how should I put this? It feels like this room is really big, but also really small at the sa ti. It's…" She pondered for a second or two, but lacking better words, she settled on, "… weird," once again.
anwhile, Judy whispered, "It's not quite as eldritch as I expected," and he would've probably drowned in a flood of questions if not for the arrival of a familiar face, no doubt in response to our sudden visit.
"Wait, whaaa…?" A birdsong-like voice called out to us, and then Oriole suddenly appeared mid-motion, as if she just jumped off a small stool or the bottom step of a stair. "Sol! Why are you…? Ah! No way!" She scampered over and looked over the girls, from head to toe. "Oh, my! I didn't expect you to bring them over so soon! Hi!"
"Ah, hi!" Elly answered with the sa enthusiasm, while my other girlfriend only nodded in acknowledgent and whispered over to .
"Chief? This is The Girl, right?"
"Oriole," I corrected her. "Didn't you already et her once or twice in the Simulacrum?"
"She gives off a different impression here," she noted, but then Oriole turned her attention to her.
"Hi! You're Judy, right?" She bead at my girlfriend, then imdiately cocked her head to the side and asked, "Why are you hiding your face?"
"I'm not hiding my face, I just haven't figured out how to—" she started, only to fall silent when her held poofed out of existence, making her hair frizzled. "Excuse , I need a mont."
In the sa breath, a hairbrush materialised in front of her, and she grabbed it without any question.
"Wow! She's good!" Oriole whistled with a captivated look on her face, which only grew more impressed when the princess called out to us.
"Leo! Look! I think I figured this out!" she said as she hopped in place and then fell slowly, like a feather. Then, after a couple more tries, she didn't fall anymore and kept casually floating around. "Wow! It's like riding a bicycle! Once you get the hang of it, it's actually really easy!"
"She's good, too," Oriole noted with a tone sowhere between fascinated and amused. "Did you teach them?"
"Actually, this is our first ti," I admitted. "We wanted to experint a bit, and since we were already in my Domain, I thought we would co by and say hi."
"A great idea! I'm sure the others are—"
Before she could finish that thought, the air shimred, and the two more familiar faces appeared nearby, though at least one of them was rather unexpected.
"Venerated Benjamin, I tell you there's nothing odd going on in—"
Fulgor's words got trapped in his mouth when he noticed my girlfriends and , while the white-haired nace standing next to him only let out a huff.
"I told you I could feel sothing," he uttered in a flat voice and turned to face . "Sol? What's the aning of this?"
"Oh, don't look at like that. I just brought my girlfriends over to introduce them. Speaking of which…" Seeing that Judy had already finished combing her hair, and Elly also landed next to , I took the opportunity to do just that. "Everyone, let introduce you to Judy Sennoma and Eleanor Dracis. Girls, you already know Oriole. The grumpy-looking man is Fulgor, while the white-haired pipsqueak is Benjamin."
"That's 'Venerated Benjamin' to you," the boy huffed and puffed, and my girlfriends each took interest in a different person of that lineup.
"Mister Fulgor?" Judy addressed the man in the casual outfit right out of the roaring twenties, notepad in hand. "Pleased to et you. I was told you are the lore and setting specialist. Is that correct?"
"… Yes, you can say that," he responded, looking oddly guarded, yet it only emboldened my dear assistant to approach him.
"May I have so of your ti? I'd like to ask you a few… dozen questions." She didn't wait for him to respond and tapped her pen against the notes. "Is the genre of the scenario within the Simulacrum enforcing the relevant tropes, or does the presence of certain tropes and character archetypes result in the organic ergence of a genre?"
"That… is a rather technical question, but to answer it succinctly, it is a combination of the two," Fulgor started, growing more confident by the second. "The genre of a scenario is engineered through a complex interplay of the setting, the actors, and biasing the Simulacrum's superstructure towards certain conventions commonly referred to as tropes."
"Fascinating. Can you explain in detail?"
"Well, since you asked, I don't want to brag or anything, but as soone who took part in creating multiple scenarios, both in already established settings and original milieus, I have a broad insight into the…"
While those two were rapidly getting lost in their discussion, my princess seed more fascinated by Benjamin than anything else.
"Hi! My na's Elly! Can I call you Benny?"
She was floating low in front of him, so that their eyes were on the sa level, and the Venerated Ergent was clearly none too pleased by her presence.
"I told you, that's 'Venerated Benjamin' to you, neophyte."
"Aw! You're so funny!" she said with a giggle and reached out to poke his cheek. "I thought the Ergents would be scary, but you're cute!"
"How dare you!"
"But you are!" she giggled again and reached out to poke his chubby cheek once more.
"Eleanor?" Oriole muttered on the side, looking a bit pale. "That's probably not a good idea."
"What? Why?" Elly blurted out while glancing over his shoulder, and as if waiting for the mont for her to be distracted, Benjamin opened his mouth wide, his sharp teeth glinting in the non-light of the not-room, and…
"Ack!"
His teeth clattered painfully as his jaw snapped shut a few centiters away from Elly's outstretched finger. I Phased right behind him and put a hand on top of his head, then locked it into a vice-grip.
"Um… Leo?" Elly asked, her finger already pulled back by reflex and looking startled, both by Benjamin's attempt to bite her and my actions, so I flashed a reassuring smile at her.
"Sorry, princess. I just rembered that I needed to discuss sothing with Benjamin over here. We'll be right back."
Without any further ado, I reaffird my grip and dragged the bastard out of the not-dark not-room and into my Domain. At so point, my hold on him lapsed, as he ended up tumbling in the dark, starry sky, only coming to a halt a few seconds later and glaring at .
"What do you think you are—?" he started, but then his voice was drowned out by the reverberations of my Domain igniting, filling every single Planck-length of space with searing white light.
Benjamin's form tried to shift in response, the shape of the planet made of bleached bones trying to burst forth, but it was summarily suppressed as he beca smaller and smaller over ti. Or maybe I was growing bigger. It was hard to tell.
At last, I directed a glare at him that made him shudder like I just dropped a bucket of icy water on top of him, and I bood, my voice resonating with the very light of my Domain.
"Benjamin," I said, my voice cool and collected yet also sounding like a thousand angry thunderclaps. "I have been very, very tolerant of your bullshit, despite everything you have done so far, but mark my word. If you dare, if you DARE, to hurt my girlfriends, if you damage just one molecule of one stand of hair on their heads, I swear I'll turn you into a bloody sea-slug and throw you into Uranus, you annoying little shit! We're going to go back now, you apologise, and then be on your best behaviour while the girls are around. Not buts, no wherefores. Did. I. Make. Myself. Clear?"
A long yet short beat later, he uttered a rather strained, "Yes," so I promptly reversed the previous process, returned him to his previous size (or to my previous size, sa difference), grabbed hold of his head again, and then we imdiately reappeared inside the not-dark not-room.
"Here. Sorry for the wait," I said as I let go of Benjamin's head. "We had a good talk, right?"
"… Yes."
"Indeed, indeed," I nodded with satisfaction, then squinted at him. "And?"
Benjamin sucked in a deep breath and turned to Elly, still in the sa position near the ground where we left her.
"I… apologize for my prior behavior."
I couldn’t help but let out a chuckle and say, "See? It isn't hard to be polite, is it?"
Then I turned to Elly, waiting for so form of approval, yet I found her frowning at instead.
"Leo! You can't bully kids!" she exclaid with indignation and then burst into motion, swopping towards Benjamin and picking him up, then after doing a small pirouette in the air, she hugged him against her waist and they settled down in a position that looked like she was lounging on an invisible rocking chair, while the little eldritch horror was sitting on her lap. "Don't be an!"
"… Princess, dear. The one you are holding is the Ergent that tried to eat the scenario during our finale."
"Y-Yes, but…" She looked down at the confused Benjamin on her lap, then defiantly declared, "It's common for children to want to put things in their mouths, right? You just have to be patient with them and teach them not to do that."
"… Princess, love. The 'child' you're talking about is a Venerated Ergent who's probably older than the Solar System."
"I'm not that old," Benjamin fud, and Oriole of all people decided to chi in on his defence.
"Erm… Sol? You know that we normally don't perceive ti as humans do, right? Being all synced up like this isn't common."
"Oh, don't start with the ti-blocks again…"
"I don't know why you have such a disdain for such a simple concept, but I'm just saying that you can't judge our ages based on the orbital period of a planet."
"Right!" Elly agreed, though her eyes said she didn't quite follow the conversation.
"There's nothing 'arbitrary' about that!" Fulgor chid in from the side, taking umbrage at the weirdest part of the discussion. "Since most scenarios are based on humans and humanoid races, it is only sensible to use Earth years as the basis of ti."
"Very sensible," Judy noted on the side. "What about scenarios not taking place on Earth, or Earth-derived equivalents?"
"Oh, do you an constructed settings?" the man asked back, removing himself from our side of the conversation as quickly as he had inserted himself. "We rarely do those. Coming up with a separate calendar and seasons adds a lot of flavor to the worldbuilding, but it can get confusing, and the ones responsible for the back-end and the technical details don't like all the extra work."
"Such as climate adjustnts?" Judy guessed, and he flashed a delighted smile at her.
"Exactly! Earth has seasons because of its axial tilt, so if that's removed, and the length of the year is changed, then it results in all kinds of unpredictable climate conditions and weather phenona that have to be simulated ahead of ti to make sure everything would work during the scenario, and nobody wants to do that."
"I see. I'll make a note of this."
While those two kept talking, Elly floated away with Benjamin in tow.
"Listen, little Benny. You don't need to be scared of Leo. He's a big softie, you know?"
"That's Venerated…" he started by reflex, and then his objection turned into a grumbling, "Benny will do."
My princess giggled, and they stopped gliding away to… have a private talk? Only a couple of steps to our left. Seed about right. Oh, and by the way, I just brought that little bastard in line, so, you know? You're welco.
"Sol's *********** is really brave," a new voice comnted beside , and when I turned around, I found Carmine and Obsidius standing there, with the latter nervously wiping his forehead. "I… wouldn't dare to talk to the Venerated Benjamin like that."
"Oh, hello," I greeted them a tad belatedly. "Since when have you been here?"
"We arrived just after the commotion outside," Carmine told with a thin-lipped smile. "It was hard to miss."
Since almost all of us were already here, I was just about to ask where the Crowned Coalescence was, but I got interrupted by Judy coming over to my side and asking, "What was that?"
"What was what?" I blurted out without thinking, and she pointed at Obsidius.
My dear assistant interjected with a curious, "The thing he said. It was hard to understand." Oh, so I wasn't the only one. Also, I couldn't quite explain it either, so I tried to collect my thoughts while Judy addressed the two new Ergents with, "Hello. I'm Judy Sennoma. You must be Obsidius, and…" She paused while looking at Carmine, then unexpectedly uttered, "Mother-in-law?"
That sent Carmine on a loop, while I was no closer to coming up with an answer to the previous question. Fortunately enough, Benjamin of all people ca to the rescue.
"***********. A form of prolonged kinship and emotional connection. A superfluous practice."
"So it's not quite as simple as 'friends', but also not as romance-centric as 'lovers'," Judy noted while jotting her insights down.
"Soulmates?" I proposed, and after so thinking, we both nodded.
"Sounds about right."
"I think so too, yes."
Once we agreed, Judy continued to write, while Benjamin let out a derisive scoff.
"How utterly trite."
"Hey!" Elly squeezed him a bit, causing him to struggle until our eyes t, and then he quickly resigned himself to his fate. "It's not 'trite'! It's beautiful and important! Everyone needs a soulmate. Or at least a friend."
"I don't," Benjamin declared, sounding almost sulky. "Interpersonal relations like that are a bad habit developed by the younger generations. I have no need for them."
"How can you say that!?" She squeezed him again and then swept an arm around to indicate our group. "Look! You already have friends! You're going to hurt their feelings if you say things like that."
"I told you, I have no concept of…" He started, but realising that there was no point in arguing his point, he grudgingly crossed his arms and mumbled, "Think what you want."
It was at this point that Elly reached under his armpits and held him up, so they would be face to face.
"Listen, Benny. Friends are important. You might not think so now, but once you grow up, you'll realize how lonely life can be without friends, so you have to open up and let others in before it's too late. Or at least that's what grandpa told when I was little."
"I'm much older than you."
"Didn't you say that age doesn't apply to you? We're talking about ntal maturity here!" my princess declared with gusto and then imdiately hugged the little bastard to her chest again. "Trust . One day, you'll find your own soulmate too, and then it'll change your life forever!"
Benjamin grumbled a deadpan, "I sincerely doubt it," only to freeze up when the last of the Ergent posse finally deigned to grace us with his presence, his red light tinting everyone when he appeared next to those two.
"Haha! Look at that! Little Benjamin is being bashful!" the Crowned Coalescence exclaid with glee and started poking the white nace's cheek with his long finger in a mirror image of Elly's actions from not too long ago. "Are we friends now, Little Benjamin? Are we? Do you want to play together?"
Before he could snap at him, Benjamin was abruptly yanked back by the princess hurriedly retreating up into the air and then they landed behind my back with a hard thud.
"W-Who's that?" she asked, clearly startled, and even my other girlfriend looked uncomfortable.
"Is that Father-in-law?" Judy inquired with a voice as unsure as I'd ever heard her, and it made the star-man let out a hearty laugh.
"Haha! I like the sound of that! I like her!" He casually waltzed over and offered a long, three-fingered hand. "Hi! I'm going by Crowned Coalescence as of late! It's a bit long, but the kid gave it to , so what can I do? Nice to et you!"
His greeting was followed by a long, awkward beat, and seeing that Judy wasn't in a hurry to shake his hand and only looked at him with a mild sense of fright, I exhaled hard and reached out myself.
"Um… Kid? That wasn't what I—"
Before he could finish, I started walking and dragging him along, much to his (and everyone else's) surprise.
"Stop acting so nonchalant. You're clearly freaking out the girls." I stopped after a few steps and glanced over my shoulder. "We'll be right back, don't go anywhere."
And with that, I gave him one last tug, and we were on our way out of the not-dark not-room. In conclusion, today's experint was mostly a success, but there were lots of rough edges that still needed so work. Chief of which, a long over-due re-Definition to make this guy a little bit more presentable…
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