Startled by her alarm, Judy groped for her phone and thumbed the slider off, silence taking the place of old american rock. She stared at the ceiling and laid an arm over her forehead, letting the ‘events’ of yesterday sink in. Gathering herself she looked around her room, half expecting to see it on fire and in various levels of disarray, but it was, for the most part, as tidy as normal. Her battered office chair had wandered to the other side of the room than her desk but otherwise, things seemed almost, normal. Good. She Reached around, just letting the other sense sink in to prove she still could. It was calming, almost meditative, just taking in the worlds varying degrees of energy, letting the ebb and flow settle around her. She partitioned her mind letting part of it to focus on the world as she turned the rest of her focus to her draw, separating the lead from the latch and then unlocking it. She got up and moved to her desk. Her movements were graceful, perfect, she glided as opposed to walked, everything else seemed ugly in contrast. A look of sheer, serene calm sat unnaturally on her face. It was ethereal, in a very, very, un-Judy like way. Any onlooker in their reverie would have sworn that her charcoal, evernight hair was moving of its own accord, to its own pattern, dancing as it took on a glowing, warm, white sheen. Her eyes were closed, but had been open they would not be their usual (or rather, unusual) deep violet. Instead they would reflect a myriad of colours, all of them impossibly dark, almost eldritch in their existence. She lowered to a crouch next to the draw, still unusually elegant in her movements. Withdrawing an item, a cube, she flexed her mind. Her disgruntled chair fell into existence behind her. Judy lowered herself onto it as she sensed a change in energy, a sudden abscence of it, in front of her and to the left. She ignored it, moving her full attention to the cube, the world silencing around her, withdrawing her Reach until it was all focused on the small cube. She sensed a small layer of air in that intense gaze, but as usual, she could not sense the cube. It remained a frustrating enigma. Judy could sense the ‘energy’ of anything inanimate she comes across, and if she could sense it she could manipulate it, yet this cube remained unresponsive, like a living thing, yet not. No matter how hard she strained, she could not figure it out. Suddenly her head snapped back, breaking her centre, the cube tumbled from her hands onto the carpet. Blinking, she opened her eyes, shaking her head. Her room came back into focus, as did Eve, who was looming over her.
“Eve?”
“You were zoned seriously out, like, no response. I literally shouted at you and, nothing. Not that it's a complaint.” An unrepentant smile spreading over her glossy red lips.
“So you slapped me” Judy’s response, deadpan, then she snorted, shaking her head.
“So, what is that, i mean you zone out from time to time but that was bad” Eve motioned to the cube Judy had dropped, curious. Before she had time to respond Eve spoke again. “And, you kinda looked weird, you almost seemed to be glowing, it was weird”.
“Not sure about the glowing part but yeah i was focused, i can’t figure that stuff out”
“What is it?” Eve repeated, moving closer to pick the cube up off of the floor.
“Well you remember that grav belt you gave me” At a nod from Eve she continued, sheepishly. “Well i kinda, errm, took it apart”
“But -” Eve paused “You were using it last night? At the bar?” She cocked her head, confused.
“Well, i ah, don't need it. One of the things i can do is, well, levitate, sort of anyway. I only really asked for it so i could do it in front of you without, yknow, having questions come up. Its calming, i have to focus to do it and it helps, gives me something to do if I'm overwhelmed, or bored”.
“So you dismantled it. I cannot believe you, do you know how much that thing cost, the hoops i had to go through so that He didn’t know i was buying his stuff.” Her tone was jovial until she mentioned her father.
“I don't understand, why do you go through all that effort to avoid him? It's not like it's the fame, you eat that shit up, i mean, hell, on top of being your dad he's meant to be the greatest man of the century, he is modern advancement.” Judy had rolled her chair closer to Eve meeting her eyes, searching.
“I don’t want to talk about him” Eve looked down
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
“But why, i don’t get it, what did he do?”
“Just stop, ok. Why don’t we talk about your parents, you dont speak about them either” A dangerous glint settled in her azure eyes.
“That’s different, you know I don’t remember any of that, I was just trying to help. If he did something to you, i don’t know, theres gotta be people who can help with that”.
“Well in future, don’t ‘help’, just leave it alone.”
“Sorry, I will.” Judy heaved a sigh. “Anyway what did you want me for?”
Eve’s face immediately changed, resetting from one of anger before flashing a perfect smile. “Shopping, you need new clothes, and, if i remember correctly, you promised to make things up to me by going to that party, and your sure as hell not wearing your usual stuff for it.”
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“What do you think of this Judes?” Eve was holding up a long, flowing, formal dress that just happened to be hot pink. Judy’s eyes widened at this and she raised her eyebrows, getting her point across. “You can’t just reject everything i show you, you’ve got to like something” Exasperated, Eve rifled through the rack again, not catching Judy’s smirk. She pulled out a knee-length, dark forest green, halter strap and spun, surely Judy’d like this, even if it wasn't to her own tastes, but Judy was transfixed by something else entirely. She followed her friends gaze, and she understood, her look of puzzlement replaced by scorn. The centrepiece of ‘abat-jour apparel’ was a flowing, half formed black mass that convulsed hypnotically. True to the name of the store, a large fake skylight highlighted it. The display was obnoxiously over the top, Eve thought, arrogant even. In short, it was a perfect place to shop.
“That’s incredible! Surely it can't just reform itself, how does it work?” Judy’s curiosity clearly piquing. Eve’s countenance darkened further.
“Potentia” was all she said. Judy frowned in thought.
“hmmm, i wonder?” Musing, she continued to regard the shifting source of Eve’s disgust.
“What.” Eve snapped at her, startling Judy, who blinked rapidly and turned to her.
“I was ah, just wondering.” A pause. “If i could do something like that. Form clothing from my errm, powers.” Eves face softened slightly at this, realizing Judy was more interested in the concept than the ‘clothing’. As much as the idea was incredible, she still refused to have anything to do with potentia, her only concession to that was because of ‘The Emergency’ that had forced her to get modded at a tendoc. This caused her to eventually relax her stance on enhancements, it was near impossible nowadays to live without them due to how being unmodded was akin to social suicide. It was difficult to be scorned for not having any obvious mods, not when she owed her life to one. So really, she spurned potentia except in the case of mods, seen as she was only alive because of one, but she refused to see that as a weakness to her stance, the more distance between her and her father the better.
“You’re gonna have to show me what you can do at some point, you know that right?” Judy had the grace to cringe slightly at that, still unsure of how to feel about her secret being known.
“Ah yeah, ermm ok.”
“Its a date” Judy snorted at this, clearly not flustered enough to miss a retort.
“If i hadn't seen some of those online magazines you religiously subscribe to id be flattered, or, yknow, the steady stream of boys who never pass your ‘test’.”
Eve just grinned shamelessly, then held up the forgotten dress. “So, this to your liking”.
Judy looked thoughtful for a moment, then shrugged. “If it means we can go get lunch, then it’ll do”
“Incorrigible” Eve muttered.
“That’s a big word Eve, careful, you might have to stop stealing my books”
“Wait, you know about that?”
Judy just flashed a smug grin. “You know, you could have asked”
“I didn’t want you to laugh at me” She looked to her friend, unusually shy. “are you saying you wouldn't have?”
“God no, the great media star Evelyn Terse deigning to read a book without pictures, why it's a miracle”
“Look who's finally comfortable saying more than a few sentences” Eve grumbled, trying, and failing, to suppress a smile.
They started to walk to the checkout, clearly uplifted, then Eve gasped. Judy spun, alert, but it was her turn to follow her friends gaze.
“Oh my god! It’s perfect” Fixated, Eve failed to notice the newcomer until she spoke in agreement.