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twotiime2 · 7 months

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Reality Adjustment, Pt. 4

[[ Discord RP log under the cut.

This one is mostly Simon catching up on life- still lots of unreality and being unable to trust your own senses. Now features a few mentions of potential NSFW and euphemism, but nothing explicit. Also mentions previous potential animal harm, and medical procedures, kind of graphically, but they're just quick anecdotes. ]]

Simon learned during the ride home that he had a very unusual imagination, which Otome (not her birth name, but she'd had it changed legally to Gosu Kanojo Otome) suspected was actually a harmless form of hallucinatory delusion disorder, that she had helped him hide from the Union from day one. This mental disorder was, she believed, part of what made Simon so brilliant as a programmer and technician. He would routinely fall into ruts and slumps, and then have an epiphany or breakthrough out of nowhere - usually with the help of an imaginary friend that he'd only met in his mid-teens and hadn't known wasn't "real" for almost a year into their friendship. According to Otome, they'd even been a couple, during that time. Otome is a huge fan of anime and video games and roleplaying games, so she always really liked his oddities and quirks. They met at an E3 conference, and then again at DragonCon, and on their third meeting - this time at Otakon - they decided to just take it as a sign and try dating. They've been together for seven years (Simon was 28 years old) and he'd been with the Technocracy in one position or another since he was 23.

She knew all about the Technocratic Union and thought they were really cool, if a little 'fascie'. Apparently in the year 2017, he'd gotten a job doing data entry that turned out to be a 'prole' position for a Union front. He spotted some things that didn't line up, investigated on his own and hacked their systems to find out more. Instead of being fired, he was promoted to Technician and from there, up to Network Security. In late 2018, he learned about a conspiracy within the company that extended to networks all over the country, and again proved too good for their security software to keep him out. He was welcomed into the conspiracy - the Technocratic Union - as an Exceptional Citizen. After that, he'd been handling networks and computers beyond those available to ordinary people, working in cybersecurity for the Office in 2019, at 24 years old. Two years later (2021, 26 years old) he discovered the existence and purpose of 'Q Division' and requested to be transferred to it. He was informed that due to the nature of their work, one year of field assignment was mandatory so the Technicians would understand the conditions under which their inventions would be used. He signed up and spent one year as a Surveillance Support Operative (the guy in the unmarked van) and was promoted to QDiv's lowest rank - Field Tester - in 2022. The current year was 2023, November. If he recovered fully enough to return to active duty and his annual review went well in February 2024, he'd be promoted to Lab Assistant in Q Division.

The two of them lived together in a very nice apartment, where Otome worked from home as something called a YouTuber - some combination of commentator, journalist, and influencer, for anime themed media. She had a Maid/Master style D/s kink, loved his nerdiness and found his occasional mood swings to be endearing (because anime tropes) and had fully accepted that they may or may not be alone at any given time, because of his imaginary friend, Edith Loane - who sometimes took the form of a kitten that Otome pretended to be able to see and could swear sometimes was actually really there, that she'd named Simone, since she adored Simon and rarely left his side when near.

Simon drove a black 2021 Dodge Charger that included some Union tech, and Otome drove a hot pink and white jeep with various 'serious gamer bunny' (apparently a cutesy culture icon for gamers) decals and design elements. His license plate was G3M1N1 and hers was MAID4U.

They were still on their way home when she finished her quick recap of the key events in his life as she knew them.

- - - -

That was all just about as idyllic as his relationship with Allison had been at first, though he had been an Agent in full in that reality. He listened quietly as Otome relayed his life back to him, or at least, what she knew about it, making mental notes of the whens and positions and his accomplishments thusfar while she spoke. He kind of missed his DEI; it let him take genuine notes, instead of just little mental pushpins for certain details.

It seemed he kept hopping forward in this timeline in particular, if his dreams could even remotely be believed as steps-to-the-left of this reality; he wasn't sure when the second, nightmarish dream took place, but the first was definitely early September. Now it was November.

He wondered if he counted as more than an Exceptional Citizen yet, to the Union, or if he still needed to pass that review in order to get up to another vaunted position in their tiered hierarchy.

He had to admit, everything about Otome was spectacularly attractive. It seemed his alternate selves really knew how to pick girls! Her style was unmistakable and loud and full of flavor, and extremely adorable, in his personal opinion. She did have her cutesy competition cut out for her with Sim- with Edith, though, given her kid-like charms and more intimate relationship with him.

He mentioned to Otome that "if he didn't have red and blue on that black car somewhere, he was going to be severely disappointed in himself." And that she should probably check her car over for Union bugs- uh, surveillance devices. They commonly installed them in anything he knew was theirs, in his uh, sim-memory.

The landscape of Harrow was… smaller, than either Wintram or Boston. Simon decided that he might as well tell Otome about what memories he did have, while they still had time on the road, as well as key moments from his recent dreams that seemed relevant to them both.

And how S- Edith had been part of them.

- - - -

She assured him that his precious and red and blue 'thing', which he now embodied - which she called 'destiny' - was prevalent in several of his possessions (and that he'd been stopped from adding red and blue headlights, tail lights, or other exterior lighting, to his car only by laws against impersonating or implying to impersonate, police officers and vehicles).

She listened with rapt fascination to his stories, and had many questions. She wanted to know every detail, from the monsters to the people, and anything he felt willing to share about the extra fascist Union of the past and its obsessions with cloak and dagger spy stuff and terminators and other wild crap that they thought was subtle.

She was horrified at the mention of her nightmare-self's appearance, and promptly chided her nightmare-self's lack of originality and lack of tentacles. She thought the subliminal messaging thing was kind of cool, though. Very Orwell does Twilight Zone. She promised him that he would find no hooks or piercings anywhere on her body - except for her ears - if and when he (hopefully) decided to search her properly. You know, for surveillance taps and wires and stuff. Just to be sure. Wink.

The place they pulled into was a series of townhouse apartments. Each one was three stories. On the ground floor was a two car garage with a walk-in storage closet and half-bath, and a door leading inside. Outside on the ground floor was a mailbox, short driveway - just long enough for a car to park and no more, a long van or truck might stick out on to the sidewalk - and a door into the interior. Inside on the ground floor was a tiny closet and the stairs. The second floor had the kitchen, dining room, laundry space, living room, full bathroom, and closet. The third floor had a small closet, another full bathroom, and three bedrooms - each with a closet.

One of the bedrooms was done in super pastel fashions, with computer and video equipment and studio lamps. Another of the bedrooms was theirs - though she offered him to stay in the guest room Edith's room if he didn't feel comfortable sharing a bed with a stranger.

- - - -

Simon took a while just staring at the beauty of this girl's gaming and filming setup. Her flavor was just… intense! And adorable. But mostly intense. She reminded him of someone out of an anime, which was likely half the point of the whole thing.

"Thanks- I mean, I'm used to sleeping alone, honestly, so I'm not sure if I'd be able to sleep well with either of you… Do I have a gaming computer? There was one in those dreams I was having…"

- - - -

She responded with a perfectly straight face. "You don't play video games."

- - - -

He frowned at her. "I refuse to believe that."

- - - -

She grinned. "Good! That's a good sign. It's in Edith's room."

She opened a bedroom door that had a very small pet door in the bottom middle and had a framed poster attached to its front: a professionally done, commissioned art piece of a realistic anime interpretation of Simon and Simone/Edith, both with one red eye and one blue eye, both back to back and wearing very sleek TRON circuit body gloves, with one hand up with a thumb and forefinger out like it was a gun, with their other hand under the 'handle' part of the gun - a pair of cyberpunk program secret agents. His suit was black with white glowing lines, while hers was white with black circuit lines.

Inside, the entire room was done in black, white, red, and blue. It was the bedroom between 'their' room and Otome's 'work' room, and was a den of cozy places, nerdy things, gaming stuff, action figures, figurine statues, posters… it was a more overt and crammed full version of the bedroom from his dreams, but not in a literal sense.

Simone was inside, in her little kitten form, being a kittyball in the middle of a made bed on its comforter. She lifted her head and blinked, then yawned.

"You're late."

- - - -

Simon was immediately floored by the amount of him-flavored things that decorated this room. He stood in the doorway and slowly walked forward, turning around to get the complete picture of this veritable nerd-cave for just a minute. He didn't even notice Edith's kitten form on the bed until she spoke.

"Ohhhhshityouarethekitten!" He bounced toward her and scooped her up from her cozy spot on the bed, so that he could flop onto his back in her place and put her on his chest.

"Ohhh holy shit we almost totally murdered you in my first dream-thing! Agent-you's shades registered you as a fairy and dangerous and you were gonna shoot kitty-you with your pistol but I really did not feel comfortable making kitten-jam all over the place."

- - - -

Otome just watched with a soft, adoring expression and said quietly, "I'll just leave you two to get reacquainted."

Simone happy-pawed at his chest before settling into loaf mode and purring quietly.

"I know. I was there. I helped you wake up, remember? Thanks for not shooting me, by the way."

- - - -

"Oh fuck, really? What was with the you that was an Agent? Were you both of them at once? How'd the Union not see you in any of that?"

He pet her idly, just kind of happy that she was an acknowledged part of his reality in this reality.

- - - -

She watched him with big mismatched eyes and a tiny white nose, her red eye surrounded by the black patch on her head that extended up to cover her whole ear on that side. She also had a black tail tip, her left front paw was black up to the elbow and her right rear leg was all black. She had one tiny black patch on either side of spine partway down her ribs, leaving her lower middle entirely white like most of the rest of her was.

"Your mind was, and kinda still is, a tangled mess of realities. -Like a box of christmas lights! Their machines and drugs messed you up and using more to fix you, only made it worse. You needed a hand. But you weren't ready for everything all at once; You're still not, you know. I hope you're okay with that."

"Thank you for being so nice to me on the Gemini, by the way. That was about you and your problems, not mine, but still. You were very kind."

- - - -

Simon sighed quietly. "…I had a feeling. I dunno if you can actually read my thoughts or what, but that whole conversation was really making me think about everything going on with the Union."

He scritched her behind one ear. "…I try t'be kind, at this point; I've seen too much shit tear people to pieces to be as much of an asshole as I was when I was in gradeschool." He tried to reflect on that time in his life, but it was mostly a few hazy grey snippets of teenage moodiness and anger. He felt like there should have been someone that made it a little easier… but his mind totally glanced over the idea, like water over a smooth rock. "I'm sure you'll ease me into whatever I'm still missing. Is it… actually Simone, or is it Edith?"

- - - -

She purred even more, the ear twitching as she nuzzled into his hand, and was then suddenly a girl, still 'mmmmm'ing and nuzzling into his scritches. She was wearing black and white checkered flannel PJs that were a little too big for her and her hair was loose and long, falling like a curtain around the two of them.

"Neither. But Edith Loane is the one we've always used. I told you when we met that my name was a secret and you'd have to puzzle it out on your own. But then, a few days later, somebody told you that if you guessed my name you might never see me again. So you quit trying, to keep me in your life."

She laid her chin on the backs of her hands, folded on his chest, looking up at him with huge eyes, her lower legs lifted and swaying lightly. She weighed just enough for him to feel the warm weight of a body on him, but nowhere near what a person should have weighed. It was a nice feeling.

"Since you decided to keep me, I decided to keep you back. And no, I can't read your mind… not really. But I still know stuff."

She waggled only the eyebrow over her blue eye.

"Lots of stuff. Special, super secret Simon stuff."

Big grin.

- - - -

Oops! It's a girl now! Simon blushed immediately upon realizing she changed shape, feeling her not-quite-weight on him and her warmth soaking into his skin and clothes. He didn't get this close to people; he wasn't even able to get this close with girls he was fond of, like Antares. Allison had stolen what seemed like his first kiss. He was nearly a 30-year-old virgin, like that stupid movie.

Edith's closeness still felt overly intimate and made his whole body hot.

Simon tried to ignore it.

"…After knowing me so long, I'd be surprised if you didn't," he muttered. "But you didn't answer me about whether you were both the Agent and the cat, or if that was the Union's programming trying to get you out of my head, or something."

- - - -

"Oh. Sorry. I was… both? Kinda? I was fighting the programming in your brain implant thing, before it was removed. It got a little rough. On the bright side, no more brain spying! On the down side, you lost your collection of erotic fanfiction stories and softcore hentai. And we can't use your implant's wireless connection as a hotspot to boost our reaction time in PvP matches or to bypass slow download times."

She reached up and lightly moved a little bit of his hair away from his forehead before laying her chin back on her hands on his chest.

"I was really worried about you, Simon. They did so much, burying all that stuff inside your brain and then inside your mind, and… and then it all went haywire and they were digging things out of your skull and… and they almost lost you three times. It was scary."

- - - -

Simon followed her hand with his eyes, and allowed himself a sympathetic frown. "…Sorry."

It was really all he could offer her. It wasn't as if he was intending to stop testing QDiv's cool stuff yet, but the next month likely held things that might change his mind. Instead, he tried to change the subject. "…What did you mean by our reaction times? You don't play games through me, do you?"

- - - -

"Why would I pay games through you? I play with you."

She stopped and blushed a little.

"I have my own controller, I mean. I mean, for the games. That we play. Together. On… on screens."

- - - -

It was his turn to waggle his eyebrows at her. He knew what she was implying, and the fact that she was embarrassed by her own phrasing meant he could take the upper hand in the flirting. He didn't do any more than the eyebrow waggle, though.

"Does anybody actually watch us play? Or is this more of a private, nobody-can-know-whether-you're-real-or-not situation."

- - - -

She flushed and tried to retake the high ground, though her voice gave her away as him having stolen the winning end of this game.

"Otome likes to watch sometimes. I have my own Gamertag and account, even! But… I mean… you usually prefer to keep what we do a little more private. At least, when we're not in here."

- - - -

He flashed her a cheeky grin. Totally nailed it. Probably in more than one way.

"…Gamertag? And I mean, yeah, if she thinks you're my imaginary friend or something, talking to you out in public would definitely get me committed. I'm still willing to believe the fairy thing, or whatever you care to explain yourself as, though I'm still not sure why only I can see you."

He leaned forward as best he could and gave her a little kiss on the chin. She was, he had to admit, very attractive, and if she had known him for half of his life, well, she probably had seen plenty. She chose to keep him, after all.

"Can you show me how to use these stupid operating systems y'all have now?"

- - - -

Her eyes got a little hazy at the kiss and she swooned, growing noticeably warmer against him. It took her a second to come back into focus and she bit her lip searching his face with her eyes. He could tell that she was struggling with the difference between what she wanted to do and what he felt safe doing. With a barely audible whine, she settled on the latter and tried to clear her throat.

"You're not the only one who can see me. Sometimes, other people can see me, too. If they try hard enough, or if I really try to be seen. That's how we went to homecoming together… but… I know you don't remember that. Everybody was so floored that your girlfriend was real and didn't care about anybody there but you. But mostly, yeah, you're the only one."

"And… yeah. I can totally show you how to do tech things. We've always worked together. I can even wear my For Science! outfit."

- - - -

Well.

That was a reaction.

She was really into him, huh?

That felt… weird. Her heat pressing against him, their bodies so close together, he was honestly kind of getting overwarm. Maybe sweating? No, yeah, definitely sweating. Oh god.

"…What's your For Science! outfit?" he emphasized it with a little jazz-hand. He really wanted to ask what she wore to Homecoming; he hadn't even gone to homecoming, that he could recall, as any friends or acquaintances he had already had dates, and he wasn't about to go as 'bachelors' with his brother or his relatively-best friend just to feel bad and lonely while pop music played and everyone looked at him.

The memory was pretty sour.

- - - -

She slid down his body slowly, maintaining eye contact, even as her chest and then neck and chin ran down his groin, before slipping from the bed entirely and she flopped loudly onto the floor. Once she stood, she hurried into her closet and turned on the light, then closed the door while inside.

- - - -

Oh Jesus Christ. She may have felt his dick twitch at the even minor touches, but if she did, she didn't acknowledge it- that was sure one way to get him out of his own head. Once Edith flopped onto the floor, Simon released a breath he didn't realize he was holding and let his head fall back against the covers. Holy shit.

He had his hands full with two hot girls who were very attracted to him, with a history with him that he didn't share at all. It kind of made him hope that QDiv did manage to get his native memories back, just so that he didn't have to go through losing his virginity (possibly) a second time.

- - - -

After only a moment, she emerged loudly and suddenly, kicking open the closet door from within as a clap of thunder boomed through the room. Behind her was bright and eerie green light and a wall of fog rolling out of the closet all around her. She wore thick wide goggles - colored to match the eyes beneath - and a black latex bodysuit, with rubber pads along any of her body curves, and bright white rubber boots that came up to her knees and bright white rubber gloves that reached her elbows - both sets of accessories oversized on her frame, and crowned by a white leather apron that fell down to her shins as she held jumper cables high above her head and cackled madly and violently.

" FOR SCIENCE ! ! ! "

- - - -

Her BOOM had him yelp and bounce-roll to the side furthest away from Edith on automatic response, falling to the floor and reaching for an under-arm holstered gun that wasn't there- her cackles brought him back to the moment, however, and he peeked over the edge of the bed to take Edith in in all of her mad-science glory. And tight latex body suit under the apron. But he couldn't ignore the live jumper cables or the vapor lit by eerie green light around that picturesque sight.

It was… a lot.

"Holy shit, Edith!"

- - - -

The green light and fog were suddenly gone, leaving only a mundane little closet as her arms fell limp by her sides. She reached up and lifted her goggles to be over her forehead, her face smeared with ambiguous dirt or grease streaks, except for the clean skin around her eyes. Even the jumper cables had mysteriously vanished. She just looked at him like he'd yelled at her for nothing.

"What? It…. it was For Science!™️."

- - - -

Simon quickly scrambled to standing, smiling nervously and setting his hands against her upper arms after quickly making his way over to Edith. "NOnonono, that was really cool!!! I just wasn't ready for all the special effects!" He was patting her arms like he was trying to put out a fire on them.

- - - -

Edith looked up at him with puppy dog eyes and nodded, giving a single sniffle.

And then, she held up a pair of bolt cutters between them. "Wanna learn how to use your phone? Your computer? Or your gaming console?"

- - - -

Simon warily took in the bolt cutters, still wearing his nervous smile, and then looked back at Edith. This girl was fucking insane. And nobody else could see her unless she tried really hard to make herself visible. And she could pull things out of nowhere like a goddamned cartoon character, complete with special effect fog and lights.

His life must have been… very flavorful, with her in it. Probably a lot happier, too. He patted her left arm with his right hand a couple of times.

"Uhh… You know, I honestly am not sure which bullshit I'd like to go through first. If you show me the internals, can you put whatever it is back together right?" He was thinking of how his N64 and VHS players worked internally, and how the knowledge of their mechanisms helped him to understand their wider function and what he could do with that.

- - - -

She retreated, slowly walking backward without any change in her posture or facial expression, still holding the bolt cutters as she was before, though when she slipped back into the closet she pulled the door closed after herself with her shoe. A jumbled sound of things moving around noisily followed, as did the sound of a pile of boxes falling to the floor, followed immediately by a lion's roar and her distant voice yelling, "Down, Larry!" and the crack of a whip.

Then… silence.

And then, she emerged from the closet wearing blue denim shortalls over a loose red midriff tshirt, with one white ankle sock and one black one. Her hair was a mess of loosely held tangles and little stray curls sticking out around her face from the bun in the back. She closed her closet door and pulled a series of multitools from her pockets.

"Let's do this."

- - - -

Simon couldn't help but snicker at her closet-hidden hijinks. Yep. Definitely insane. Maybe the shades she wore in his dream were right, and she was some kind of fairy? Not that he knew anything about fairies, but he would definitely believe at this point that some mischievous magical bullshit was possible, given everything else he had been through. He hadn't yet encountered a fairy, but, well, why not. Insanity was his life from the night on the train, onward.

Or whatever happened in this version of his reality.

He still wasn't entirely convinced that his life as he remembered it was just a simulation, but that really didn't matter when it came to the reality he had been left in, did it?

When Edith reappeared from the closet, Simon was patiently waiting for her, staring off into space while he continued trying to process everything that had happened in his head and in the hospital and that had been told to him on the ride here. He had crossed one arm around his middle so that the other could rest on it and hold his chin, covering his mouth with the first two fingers comfortably. Thinking Face.

Thankfully, her declaration of preparedness snapped him out of it- though he did have to blink a few times in order to focus on where he was and what they were doing again.

She was absolutely adorable in her tinkering outfit, with all her little inappropriate tools in her pockets. Simon couldn't help but give her a fond smile.

"So… which one is easiest to take apart? I imagine they made it harder than just a few screws, at some point."

- - - -

She leaned in, whispering conspiratorially, "It's screws all the way down. Mostly."

Handing him the tools, Edith climbed over the bed and made her way to their gaming corner. An entertainment center featured a large flat television and some consoles, controllers without wires, headsets with microphones - also wireless - and a slide-open cupboard above, that held dozens of small game cases, arranged neatly. Beside the entertainment center, which was flat against one side of the corner, was a tower of shelves in the corner itself. This held various chargers and charging stations and cradles, for phones and controllers and batteries, as well as a dim lamp that was a bop-on/bop-off "?" block from mario world, on a clear plastic rod so that it could 'float in the air'. Beside that, along the wall on the opposite side of the corner, was a little desk with a gaming computer that was virtually identical to the one in his 'dreaming' bedroom. An organizer attached to the wall over the desk, on the lamp side, sat various computer tablets, phablets, and phones, nestled in perfectly sized little pockets - each one with a sticker above it proclaiming what went where.

"The Gamegirl is pretty easy, and so is the SESU."

She held up a… Legally-Distinct-From-Gameboy… handheld console that was thinner and had bright, starkly contrasting colors and many more buttons across its surface, as well as a big screen. She also pointed to one of the consoles… the Sintendo Entertainment System Ultra.

- - - -

Simon grinned at the "?"-block lamp, and bopped it from below so that it turned on, thoroughly amused by the animatronic movement and little sound it made.

However, when she showed him the little Not-GameBoy, Simon paused on the logo, squinting and frowning, then did the same for the SESU.

"…What, did Nintendo rebrand or something? Tell me we do not have off-brand consoles, unless we modded them ourselves."

- - - -

She blinked. "What's Nintendo?"

- - - -

He frowned and squinted at her.

"…If you're joking, it's not funny. What is and is not real is still pretty iffy for me right now, Edith."

- - - -

She rolled her eyes, "You can call me EeDee. Or E. Or Dee. Or Ed. Or Eddie."

She then got a wicked grin and turtled down into her overalls with the Gamegirl in hand, whispering. "Or 'e-Death', to my enemies online…. Edith is an old lady's name. Oh! Or you could make up a new name for me!"

She looked down at the consoles with her mismatched eyes, then back up at his. "I'm… not messing with you? You might be brain-fogging? Sintendo. You know… Sintendo? Super Plumber Brothers? Pocket Demons? Metroidvania: Vampires in Space? Biggest rival of SueMe's Polystation and MEGA Genesis?"

- - - -

Simon sighed, easing up, though he did rub his forehead gently in frustration.

"…ED. Got it. I kinda like Edith, though- it's different. And E-Death is good."

"…Yeah, that's not how I remember any of these companies or systems. At all. It was… it was Nintendo, with Super Mario Brothers, and Pokémon, and Metroid and Castlevania were their own separate franchises. And Sony, with PlayStation, and the SEGA Genesis. Which had like, Sonic the Hedgehog. That is… definitely going to throw me off for a while."

Simon sat down in the chair nearby.

"The computer was definitely part of the dreamscape, though. Didn't know how the hell to make it work besides opening the games, unfortunately."

- - - -

"I could learn to like Edith, if you like it that much. Just need some time."

"NINtendo… Oh wow, that was real for you? That's hilarious!"

"NINtendo was a gag in high school, back when all they put out were hard death violence games, and Nine inch nails did a song just for Sintendo's short lived 64-bit system that nobody liked. They were a joke company for a little while, trying to appeal to like Gen X like 20 years too late, or something."

"Mario Plumber is the main character in the series, his brother is Luigi Plumber."

"Pokémon is the Japanese version of Pocket Demons, but its for younger players - Cero B, I think. Or maybe Cero A."

"How do you separate Metroidvania into two-- whatever. Tell me later."

"Sony is an odd name. And Playstation just sounds dirty. But like, in a good way."

"What the heck is a SEGA?"

"MEGA owns Sonix the Hedgehog. And the Tails franchise. They did two movies, they have Jim Carrey in them."

She looked over at the computer. "That's a Sunspot. The UV880. One of Sunburst's newest. Of course, we made improvements."

- - - -

He nodded along with her corrections, trying, in vain, to take note of them, though frowned that the… S? 64, was unliked. The rest was… fine. It was fine.

"…I think it was an acronym for something, SEGA. Is Tails still a fox with a helicopter tail? Sonic's sidekick?"

"The uh. The one in my dream, I think it was a Nick-Nack? And all the games on it were grouped in some way I didn't get, all by this big web of lines that ran between every icon. I couldn't do anything like a Windows, and Right-Clicking didn't show me anything, either. It was really frustrating. …But thanks for my phone password."

- - - -

"Same, but sometimes he's the main character. Just depends on the game. But usually Sonix leads."

"Sunburst is a software company. NikNak is the hardware manufacturer, but they're owned by Sunburst, I think, soooo…. whatever? Windows? That… people still used Windows, in your weird reality sim thing? I don't know if that's funny or sad. Windows is so… suit and tie…. what gamer needs that?"

- - - -

Simon tilted his head to the side, kind of confused by her response.

"What do you mean, "suit and tie"? It was pretty much the biggest commercial OS, maybe just behind Apple's Mac- and Mac wasn't really my thing, they still had the same general formula but the interface was weird and their security was pretty bad."

- - - -

"Exactly… commercial OS. But it's a catch-all system, meant to handle all kinds of different apps and suites and junk. That's all well and good for Agent Simon, but Gamer Simon needs a little more, don'tcha think?"

- - - -

"I guess. I did start using Linux when I first heard about it, but I dunno if you even know what that is."

- - - -

"Isn't he the Charlie Brown guy with the blanket?"

- - - -

He frowned. "…That's Linus."

"So, some things are different, some definitely stayed the same. Like Charlie Brown, and Jim Carrey existing. Did he still do the Ace Ventura movies?"

- - - -

"I was kidding about Linux, sorry."

"And yes."

She flopped down on the bed, still holding the Gamegirl. When she spoke, she was face down in the blanket and her words were muffled by the comforter. "Are we still gonna take something apart?"

- - - -

Simon sat down beside her, and sat the tools in the concave small of her back. "…Sorry. Yeah, sure. I should probably eat something solid eventually, though."

- - - -

She huffed against the blanket. "Could eat me. But I know you mean food. You're in no condition for the Ritual Pre-Work Taco. Cereal?"

- - - -

His eyes widened and he blushed, hard, uncertain if he was understanding her right or if his mind was just in the gutter, still.

"I-- Uh--!"

He grabbed that bone like a starving dog.

"CEREAL! SureyeahcerealsoundsfineandIshould- I should probably do a little catching up with Otome too maybe!!" He stood quickly and went to the door, but waited for Edith to get up before opening it, so that he could hold it for her.

- - - -

The kitten scampered off the bed and ran past his feet, out through the swinging pet door just her size.

"Hmph. What does she have that I don't? Besides her own car? And a job? And matching eyes?" "I bet she can't even make the Leaderboards in Borderstrike."

The kitten waited for him in the hall, following along right underfoot, so he had to walk carefully.

- - - -

Instead of letting her walk along, Simon did his best to pick Edith up and cradle her to his chest. He would rather not trip and fall down the stairs and die, please and thank you.

"It's not like that, ED, c'mon! I just-" it was his turn to huff. "I like your eyes. And all of your interests. And game prowess. But I like, just landed. Didn't I ask you to go a little easy?"

He did sound guilty and apologetic, but thought he was making a fair point. Simon carried little Simone-kitty down the stairs to the kitchen, hoping to find Otome around that level of the house.

- - - -

He found her putting a pizza into the oven, actually. Hawaiian/Meat Lover's half 'n half, his favorite. She was, apparently, way ahead of him, since this meant she'd already preheated the oven.

"I am going easy on you. We haven't seen you in days, maybe longer." "It's not like we didn't miss you, you know." "I mean, yeah, we missed you, but like… y'know." "In that special Boy, it's sure nice to have a Boyfriend around kind'a way, too."

- - - -

He blushed again.

"…I've never had a girlfriend in my life, ED. …The. The life that is in my head, I mean." he quickly amended. As he approached Otome putting the pizza into the oven; just the sight of the pie made his mouth water.

"Hey, is that for me? Or do you also have my eclectic pizza topping tastes?"

- - - -

She smiled as she stood, closing the oven and setting the timer as she pulled her mitt off and laid it down. "Of course it's for you. And Simone, if she wants some," Otome said, gesturing to Simon's obvious 'holding a kitten' posture.

"And… no. As delightful as your weird, messed up duality vibe is, I do not…. Hawaiian my pizza." She leaned over and gave him a peck on the cheek. "I just thought you might like a little welcome back meal that wasn't green jello in a cup with some pudding, or whatever they do in hospitals."

"He was on an IV, he didn't eat anything." "And you've had three girlfriends in your life: Stacy, me, and Otome." "Stacy was a two weeks in fourth grade situation. She didn't even bother dumping you, she just forgot you were dating." "You and I have been… unofficially… together since shortly after we met." "Officially, we dated for all of junior year, I stalked you all summer, then we dated for half of senior year." "Then you broke up with me. But I forgave you. After a few weeks." "Then you met Otome a few times, started dating her and haven't stopped yet." "If you want to ever want to see what it looks like to set a circus on fire, let me know… I'll grab some popcorn while you ask her how she feels about making things more official and settling down to put a ring on it. That went great last time."

- - - -

"…Yeah, I was on an IV, but I still appreciate it, ED," he booped the kitten's nose, then listened to the rest, becoming progressively more obviously embarrassed as her stories continued.

"Wait, wait, why did I break up with you? Was it a downswing or something?" he muttered to the little kitty in his arms, totally avoiding the mention that A. he had apparently wanted to marry Otome, and B. she very much did not want to marry him. He could ask Otome about that later. Possibly very later.

- - - -

She leaned on the counter, listening. "Ee-Dee, huh? I like it."

Otome leaned in and downward, toward the kitten - with remarkably accurate guessing on where she was and how she was positioned - and whispered to the imaginary kitten, "You're still Simone, to me, when you're a kitten, though." And stuck out her tongue, but also lifted her head away quickly, evading a swipe from a soft paw.

"Hmph."

Otome then hugged Simon from the side. "You guys are catching up, huh? I thought you'd be taking your car apart by now, or walking around the apartment with your computer sling."

"He doesn't remember the apartment well enough to do that without tripping and bumping into things yet, dummy."

"But then, you don't remember much right now. It's probably safer that you can watch where you're going, so you don't bump into everything, or fall down the stairs."

Otome paused and then looked down at where the kitten was supposed to be, then back up at Simon, "I wouldn't ask about the breakup, unless you want the guilt trip."

"It's not a guilt trip!"

"She's always a little salty about that one."

"You're salty! You… you…. Saltine!"

- - - -

Simon snickered at their bickering. "Man. If you two could hear each other…"

He leaned into Otome's hug a little bit, also smooshing Edith-kitten slightly to hug her by proxy.

"She called you a saltine. And you guys said basically the same thing about the sling, though I have no idea what that is yet. We were gonna take apart the- not the SNES, the, uh. See-saw? See-soo? The Sintendo console."

- - - -

"S.E.S.U." "S.E.S.U."

Otome smiled. "Wait until after dinner, and wash your hands. You always get sidetracked with your gizmos and your food gets cold, otherwise."

"They're not Gizmos! They're the Great and Glorious Works of Our Brilliance and Innovation!! FOR SCIENCE!!™️"

Simone's little paw-hands went up into the air as she non-verbally exclaimed the last phrase.

- - - -

Simon has to outright cackle at Edith's response, grabbing one paw and lifting it higher than the other so that he can echo her properly: "For science! Uh, tee em."

"Ehehehehe. You're adorable, Eed."

- - - -

Otome grinned and shook her head. "You have time to shower."

She leaned in to the kitten-spot and said, meaningfully, "Alone…"

She then looked back up at Simon as she stood upright again. "And you could use it, Boybot. Just a little. Besides… if you shower now, then eat, then go play with your tools and screws and circuit things… then you'll still be nice and clean for when the time comes for me to… tuck you in."

Otome gave her boyfriend a light wink and picked up her oven mitt to go hang it back up on its spot on the wall by the light switch. "Ten minutes. Clock's ticking."

- - - -

Simon's eyes widened again at her implications, both for his showering alone and for her "tucking him in"… then he looked down at himself around Edith-kitty. "…I do? Damn." He very gently set Edith on the counter. "Sorry. I'll- I'll go do that. Eed, you didn't mess up any of my clothes with your special effects for your For Science™️! outfit unveiling, or your lion-whipping, did you?"

- - - -

At that, Otome just stood blinking and looking genuinely surprised.

"She whipped what now?"

"Shhh! Simon! The Secrets of SCIENCE!!™️ aren't for the ears of Booth-Girl!"

'Eed' became her shortalls wearing self in mismatched socks, sitting on the counter and scooting away from the oven a little.

- - - -

He looked genuinely confused at Edith, and a tiny bit offended on behalf of Otome, shrugging with both hands up by his shoulders.

"I- sorry, but like, you didn't, did you?" To Otome, "She can do sound-effects and has cartoony outfit changes, I guess? Imaginary friends, right?" he tried to play it off as imagination-things.

- - - -

Eed sighed and hung her head. "Darnit."

Otome looked confused and said quietly, at if Edith wouldn't hear her - or that she hoped she wouldn't - "Is… is she haunting us again?"

Eed facepalmed. "Nope! Sorry. Not this again."

She pulled a neuralizer from her shortalls' tummy pocket and slipped on some shades.

-- insert a gif of Will Smith as Agent J in MiB, using his Neuralizer on the viewer. it loops and has a flash so it isn't included as an actual image. --

------

He almost asked about whether Eed had ruined any of his clothes, but thought better of it. Otome was pretty accepting of his imaginary friend/girlfriend 'thing' and he didn't want to press his luck by mentioning the stranger or more outlandish parts of this whole thing. What if it was too much for her? Better to take it slow on that front, for now.

- - - -

"Too much for her" seemed like maybe a sentiment they were well past, if she had been living with him and Edith for seven years, but he probably shouldn't risk it, anyway; he had no idea how far her clearance went, and as far as he could tell, she wasn't part of the Union at all. Just his girlfriend. After a pause, Simon turned on his heel and went back up the stairs, to go undress in the bathroom and familiarize himself with their shower/bathtub controls enough to take a quick shower.

He usually tried to keep it under five minutes, but this would likely take a little bit longer, given the hospital-ick he had to get off of his skin and the light exploration he had to do of both his body and the shower-items. But when he was all clean, he would go right back down to the awaiting girls and pizza. It felt like he hadn't had a good pizza in years.

- - - -

As far as Simon's psyche was concerned, he hadn't had a good pizza in years. When he arrived, the pair of them were sitting and talking over the pizza as Otome cut it neatly on a tray that sat upon a spinning little serving block on the table, while the kitten watched the rolling blade move back and forth.

"At least he remembered his favorite pizza."

"No he didn't. He just knows what he likes. That's why he likes us," Edith replied, though she knew Otome couldn't hear her side of their conversation.

"I hope he starts to remember us, Simone."

"He'll come around. He may never get his memories back, but he's still our Boybot."

"They say that amnesia can really change a person."

"He's special, Otome. He'll be okay. New Simon, Old Simon… he's Simon. That's what matters. You should be glad."

Otome finished slicing the pizza and went to fetch plates. "I hope he's as weird about his ability to heal memories as he is about everything else."

- - - -

Simon listened from the stairs as the girls talked, considering their conversation (one-sided as it was) quietly. He had said something to the same effect, about himself, in their airship scene, he was pretty sure… it really was a shame that Otome couldn't hear Edith.

He did his best to be loud, coming down the stairs after having dressed in a slightly more house-appropriate outfit and socks that muffled his steps- and tried that whole 'announcing himself' thing they were apparently used to. "Hey, is the pizza done yet?"

- - - -

Otome, turned, a plate in each hand. "It is! How do you feel? Clean?"

The kitten looked up at Simon.

"She keeps worrying about you. Doesn't she know I've got your back?"

His (official) girlfriend laid the plates down on the table and used the quiche trowel to serve up a slice on each. Hers was not from the Hawaiian side.

"I'm only seeing two plates here, kitchen witch. Where's my slice?"

Otome smiled as she slid Simon's slice over to his side of the table. "Make sure Simone knows that she's getting whatever is left over to herself, okay? But there are no kitties allowed on our dining table."

Simone looked at where she was standing, on the dining table, and then at the pizza, and then up at Otome.

"I'm a cat. I own this house and everything in it. You're lucky that you're the one who feeds me, or I wouldn't let you sit at my dining table, at all. Hmph."

- - - -

Simon nodded, sliding into what appeared to be 'his' chair with an ease that probably came off as practiced, but that he didn't notice.

"Yeah. I tried to be pretty thorough, considering; I hope I did alright enough for you." He blushed a little bit, half-referencing her comment about 'tucking him in'. "Eed says you're lucky you feed her, or else, being that she's a cat and she therefore owns the house and everything in it, she wouldn't let you sit at her dining table. I think she's wanting to stay on it."

He plucked a piece of ham off of his hawaiian slice, and a pepperoni off of his meat-lovers, and asked Otome, "Does she maybe have a little plate I could put these on? I know she's getting the rest, but, y'know. It's polite t'share with pets, right?"

- - - -

Otome's eyebrow rose on one side. "Oh, we live in her apartment? Well, I had no idea. I'll be sure to let her handle her third of the rent and bills from now on, then." She leaned down to where Simone was - more or less - and said in a cutsie sing-song voice, "We wouldn't want her to feel left out, now would we?"

Otome took a bite of her meat lover's slice and dabbed her mouth with a napkin before replying, "You normally just take the box upstairs, but if she wants a plate, who am I to--"

She stopped, a sudden look of thoughtfulness on her face. The pause lingered before she stood.

"I completely forgot to get us drinks! What would you like? And what does Simone want?"

The kitten perked up.

"Root beer in a shot glass, please!"

- - - -

"I- uh, do I have a two-sided cup that I usually get blue and red Mountain Dew in? That was a thing I had in one of those dreams… and, Eed wants a shot glass of root beer. Please."

He made to whisper to Edith, disbelieving, "When did they make more flavors of Mountain Dew??"

- - - -

Otome looked genuinely surprised. "Uh… no. No, you don't. I'll… I'll pour your usuals, though."

She went about pouring a glass mug of Code Red and a glass mug of Voltage, and put a bendy straw in both glasses, before fetching down a shot glass and cracking open a bottle of IBC root beer, pouring it gently to avoid overflow. She'd obviously done it many times.

"Code Red came out in 2001. Besides the usual diet caffeine mutations, it was the first variant."

- - - -

"Huh." He verbally shrugged, and took a sip of the Voltage. Oh, that was a weird blue-razz-citrus-thing. Not as aggressive as the Red, but still… weird. He took a bite of pizza to get the taste out of his mouth.

As Simon was chewing, "Why'd you look so surprised, 'Tome? Did I mention somethin' weird? -Er, extra weird?"

- - - -

Otome came back to the table with a bottle of strawberry Ramune for herself and sat down in her own chair, still looking thoughtful. "Just… going over some things in my head."

The kitten began dipping her paw into the shot glass and then licking it from her paw.

"IBC is the best."

- - - -

He smiled at Edith. Weird tastes, but charming.

"Like what? S'not like I can read your mind, 'Tome."

- - - -

She stopped, pizza slice in hand, before taking a bite. Otome laid her slice back down and leaned back in her chair.

"I'm not supposed to mention anything… weird. Or, like, too weird. I know your office and its work is super secret, and they've been really cool trusting me with what little I know, since I'm not one to blab. But.. I'm just noticing things. That's all. I promise I'll keep it to myself."

- - - -

"Cool," he set his pizza down, "but I don't know what you already know. Do they mean you shouldn't mention too weird to me? Or just like, in public, in general." He put on a light approximation of his Agent Face, treating her very seriously.

- - - -

"Too weird, period. Nothing that might indicate that I believe in anything that obviously isn't real. You know."

Simone sat and looked between the two humans.

"If she's not supposed to say anything… why is she saying something? Is this bad?"

- - - -

Simon rolled his mismatched eyes, crossing his arms on the table in front of his plate of pie.

"Uh-huh. But they removed my implant. Unless you're aware of any bugs they've planted in our apartment, or my glasses, I guess, we're technically in private. And I hate knowing secrets are being kept from me, you know? It just makes me wanna know 'em. Which is how I got here in the first place. So."

- - - -

She frowned, but it seemed more like a frown of uncertain frustration than anything else.

"You have no memory of our life together. At all. Right? None?"

- - - -

Simon shrugged. "I had some weird, clue-worthy dreams involving you in a maid outfit working the house like a slave-drone, and Eed as either a kitten trying t'help me wake up, or as an Agent in a black suit. It had parallels, at best, but what you've told me is what I got."

- - - -

She nodded. "I … I get all that…."

She ran her hand through her hair and leaned her head back for a moment, before nodding again. "… but this means that Edith is real. If you were just playing along… you wouldn't know her so well. And you wouldn't have known what she always asks for to drink when we have pizza. Unless she still had her memories, and she was a real… person?… telling you what she wanted to drink. So either Simone is buried in the deepest parts of your subconscious where even physical brain trauma and memory loss can't reach her…. or she's real, and never was imaginary. And… I…. don't know what to think about that."

She stood, leaning her hands on the back of her chair, standing behind it to face him.

"I… I knew what she'd want to drink, it never changes. And you've mentioned getting a two-sided cup before, but we could never find one you liked…. but I really did forget our drinks. But when I remembered… it occurred to me that it was a perfect chance to test your memory for little details. And I saw you do that thing where you're listening to someone talk - that you always do before answering for Simone - before you said what she wanted. You've never had to do that before. The first time we went out for pizza, you brought a shot glass and ordered her bottle for her. You've never had to be told what she wanted with pizza."

She paused.

"Until today."

"And… I'm not sure what to do with that, or what it means."

- - - -

Simon's eyebrows raised, and he looked to Edith. That was fair. He waited for her take on it, though, pursing his lips expectantly.

"…So, is the cat out of the metaphorical bag on this one, or what?"

". . . . . Meow?"

His mouth flattened. Simon rolled his eyes at Edith and turned them back to Otome.

"…As far as I can tell, she's just… invisible and unhearable, unless she tries really hard- she told me I took her to Homecoming, and she did her best to be visible for it. I'm still kind of wondering what she wore," he nodded his head in a circle, considering everything else of the day. "Aaaaand in my dream-vision-whatevers, she was registered as a fairy by her Agent-shades, while mine just bugged the hell out and tried very hard to induce a migraine with nonsense in binary. They called her a teddybear at one point."

Sorry, Edith, this Simon can't keep a secret unless it is explicitly called a secret at every point it may be relevant. Until you've repeated it enough that he gets the memo. Situational secrets may as well just be fun anecdotes he heard about his conversational partner, depending on their severity in his priorities.

- - - -

Otome blinked. "Teddybear…"

And then she did a double-take, "Wait, faeries are real?"

"This is why you work in Q Division testing gadgets and not for the NWO as a real spy."

- - - -

He frowned at Edith. "Yeah, I know. I was always bad at the spy stuff; the last reality they may or may not have dropped me into, I had a long-term girlfriend that the native version of me had been manipulating to make him look extremely competent from day one. She did all of his paperwork, or automated it, and basically crafted all of his gameplans. It was pretty shitty of him, and for her. He even had a facial expression analyzing program specifically to read her face and emotions."

"What's the significance of Teddybear? And- honestly, I can't confirm or deny that in this Consensus. I didn't really hear much about them before, either. But, I mean, given everything else, yeah, probably?"

- - - -

Otome sat back in the chair, as engaged in the conversation now as she was confused about everything in it. "Teddybear is your safeword, because it was the password to the restraints in Demolition Man. This consensus? A consensus is when people agree on something, but that doesn't sound like how it's being used here. Use more words?"

"For what it's worth, I've been telling you that I was real for years. You even asked me this earlier, after you woke up, and I told you I was real then, too. I don't know why me not being 'imaginary' is such a big deal here."

- - - -

"It's not really that big of a deal to me," he replied to silent Edith, "But this is a Harvey situation for Otome- consensual reality doesn't really approve of the existence of Reality Deviants, hence why they call them RDs. So she's probably reeling from having what she thinks is possible cracked in half. I admit, it's not fun."

To Otome, "…Sorry, I don't mean to talk about you like you're not here. The "Consensus" is Union-speak for the subconscious idea of reality, as normal people believe it to be- and there are multiple across the planet. What is believed to be possible in, like, rural… I dunno, Zimbabwe? Is not the same as what's believed to be possible in Hong Kong. And what's believed to be possible in the center of Hong Kong isn't necessarily even the same as what it is in the neighborhoods on the outer edges of the city. It's considered "Consensual Reality" because, in some form or another, everyone participating in it believes in it. Even mundane religion isn't necessarily outside of the Consensus, but everyone else believes shit like "miracles" are usually bullshit. Or tele-mediums. Or most common attempts at stepping into the supernatural. It's that like, herd-mentality, groupthink idea of what's "real," that keeps like, werewolves and vampires and everything else from openly plaguing Humanity and throwing the world into anarchy."

"-As far as the Union is concerned. But they're also the guys who enforce the Consensus on things that don't fit into it, which is why you've had to keep Eed a secret from my office as well- if they knew I was talking to and interacting with someone who isn't there to normal people, she'd be classified as an RD and like… captured, or hurt, or relocated, and I'd get reeducated into believing she was never in my life at all. Which is part of why I can't really trust what I remember or believe to have happened, or what you tell me happened."

"It's kinda bullshit."

- - - -

Otome was quiet and fairly deadpan… for awhile, after that. You know, while all of those words settled in.

"You should throw in something about how they're not fascists ruling the world through subliminal mind control these days. Just… to help her out a little, maybe. You're dropping more bombs right now than Disney with their live-action remakes."

- - - -

"…Disney is doing live-action remakes? Are they any good?"

He wasn't sure what to do to actually make this better for Otome; he had acclimated to all of it a while ago.

"…I really hope they didn't bug the apartment, or we are so getting reeducated or disappeared or both."

- - - -

Otome just looked at him.

"You're about twenty words from being single here, Boybot. Make them good, and maybe smooth over this broken glass and rusty nail road you're laying down for your girlfriend's grasp of reality, sanity, and her opinion of your whole career? Actually… don't. You're bad at this. Your neuralizer's in the silverware drawer. Just saying."

- - - -

Simon blinked at them both, leaning up a little bit, and then gave Edith a despairing pout. "…Seriously? You think I should just… do that? What, is the possibility of magic and monsters being real, but super secret, that hard to wrap your head around, still? I would'a thought they'd have been working on that by now."

He was about to head over to the silverware drawer, though.

- - - -

"We haven't had time alone with you up to speed enough for me to get you settled into what is and isn't safe to talk about. And that's already been a problem once today - that's why the flashy thing is in the silverware drawer… I had to flashy thing you both a little while ago, to avoid a big blowup because of something you said."

"Yeah, it sucks, but you're kind've a walking verbal landmine right now, eager to go off anytime anybody steps anywhere near you- By accident, I know- But… it's not like you've never had to neuralize her before."

"Just give her a flash, I'll fix up the kitchen and we'll flash her again and take it from when she asked what I wanted to drink. Ask about your bi-cup, order for me, she'll take it to mean that some of your memories must still be safely intact, and spend dinner asking questions and playing dumb. Afterward, we'll go upstairs and I'll fill you in stuff while you dismantle tech."

The kitten Simone hopped down to the floor, out of sight behind the table from Simon's perspective, and Edith stood, still wearing her outfit from earlier.

"I'll start dumping and washing the cups, drying them, blah blah blah. Do your thing. I've got your back."

Otome still seemed to be in some kind of mild shock, clearly uncertain what to think, what to say, what to ask, or how to deal with some of this knowledge that went far beyond anything she'd ever suspected about the Union or her boyfriend's job.

- - - -

Simon listened to Edith and then sighed, heavily, as he got up to follow her into the kitchen. "I can't believe you flashed both of us. I get I'm awful at keeping secrets, but, like, if you explain it to me, I won't have to ask anymore."

He fished the neuralizer out of the drawer and went to calibrate it, before asking Edith, "…Where are my shades, anyway?"

- - - -

"Don't blame me, that flash only lasts a few seconds. I didn't design it. We are working on a better one, though."

"You don't need them. Just close your eyes for a second and flash her. Might wanna do it before she catches what's about to happen."

- - - -

"Yeah, I thought that might work but I didn't wanna try it without knowing for sure."

He pointed his finger-guns at Edith when he was just about ready to flash Otome, and then did so, making sure to cover his eyes AND close them for good measure.

END SCENE

#ooc #discord rp log #para rp #ask to tag #somewhere in another reality...

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