A painful pinch in the arm has me shoot off my cart and crouch for a fight. I see Danielle scowling at me.

“You’re the one who shot her?”

Hearing that icy tone, I want to run away. Instead I try to hide my embarrassment with my hands. I nod.

“It took me four hours to find all of the fragments, Kimber. What do you have to say for yourself?”

“Your dad used a skill to have everyone kill me and midway through she started moving toward me and I thought she lost her fight resisting it?”

“That’s a pretty good reason, but I’m still mad at both of you.” She pouts and sneers at the same time, somehow.

“Why? What did Marcella do?”

“She killed my dad!”

I snort, “No, she really didn’t. I melted his head so that mind control shit would stop. So be mad at me, not her.”

She doesn’t look appeased.

“Fine. Pull up your shirt and get on the table.” I do so. “Medicate however you want to, I won’t do it for you today.”

While she gathers her tools I see if I have any stores of Pain-B-Gone. Finding a case in my storage ring, I take out three pens and jab them around the wound site. I also find some ancient bottles of scotch and a case of boozy fruit drinks. I pull out a six-pack of the fruity ones and offer one to Danielle.

“Should you really offer your Doctor alcohol?”

“If you take long enough to get drunk, I have other problems.” She quirks her head to the side in thought then takes the can and probably drinks half of it in one go.

“I have stronger stuff on hand for after you finish.”

She waves a scalpel like a wand at me. “Just, stop talking. Please.”

The injections worked their magic and all I can feel is tugging on the surrounding tissue that can feel stuff. In less than ten minutes, Danielle has extracted the bullet and some other debris and stapled the wound closed.

“Wait several hours before you slather that goop on it.” She holds her hand out and I put a bottle of not scotch in her hand. It says Gin? No idea what that is. She takes it as payment and swigs from the bottle before. “You got a kiosk in here?”

“Better, what do you want?”

“Some large glasses, tonic water and limes.”

I summon the items one at a time and hand them to her while her surprised expression gets bigger and bigger.

“It’s a side benny of having a symbiote and developing magic. If I have the aether stores, I can access the Exchange if I’m within 1000 kilometers of a settlement ansible.”

“That sounds really convenient.”

“And currently un-traceable. Officers couldn’t figure out where I was getting my supplies so they thought I was stealing. Funny that so many of them hated me because I could do stuff they didn’t understand.”

“You’re trying hard not to talk about my dad, aren’t you.” She says, taking a hearty sip from her glass. “You don’t have to, you know. He was never a good man. I just always hoped I could help him get better. Then he sent me away because of Marci, and well, you know what happened.”

“Yeah. I think my Judgement magic made him realize that he was chafing at the constraints his job put him in. I wasn’t very tactful about it, but every senior member of that organization started out by trying to lie to me and trick me. Well, not Marcella, but that’s a different matter. So I got tired of people starting with trickery and trying to shed the consequences, so I beat them over the head with System contracts. Literally made it so they couldn’t cheat me, and they tried to string me up for it.”

“Neither you nor the other members were right for how you went about it. I’m grateful I don’t have to deal with drama much as a doctor. Though, talking with Rupert, you are a demon spawn.”

“I almost vented him with his own pen because he’s an impatient pervert. I probably would only punch him in the face these days. I’ve grown! Wee!”

“Ugh, it’s still really weird that you look like Marci. Even her sister didn’t look as much like family as you do. Marci loves you so much though.”

I am uncomfortable with this emotional talk about me. “I know. It took a few months to get used to, but I really like it. It reminds me when I’m feeling low, that I have family who cares.”

“Can I get in on that too?” Danielle asks with the smallest voice I’ve heard from her.

I can’t help but smile at the implication of what she said. “Sure. All you have to do is marry my sister and you get a little sister too!” Haha! Your turn to blush, jerk!

“Has she said anything?” the doc whispers.

“Pfft, does she have to? She tried to get you to date her for two and a half years, and she gushes about you. I think she might be trying not to scare you off.”

“That, is unlikely. I’ve liked her since before I got the System. I got so mad at her for how she treated you when I first met you. I thought that’s how she would treat our kids and it messed with my head.”

“Is there a way to do that? For you two to have kids besides adoption?”

“Once I got Exchange access, I looked that up immediately. It’s an expensive t-3 device, but the Empress, gay as she is reported to be, has a discounted service if you can travel to Astoria. Bought it for one of her partners, or so the rumors say.”

I snort, yeah that tracks. I crack open another fruit drink and take a sip.

“What do you mean, ‘that tracks’”

Aw fuck. Inside thoughts went outside. “The lady who buys my gunpowder introduced me to one of the Empress’ daughters and we get along. The Empress’ shenanigans come up from time to time.”

“Ohhh, you like the daughter don’t you.”

“Maybe!” I say as I hide my face and curl up into a ball. “I don’t know. We’ve never seen each other, but she’s my best friend? She acts really cute sometimes, she’s not phased by the work I do, and it sounds like she cares about me?”

“That, is more deeply rooted issues than I feel capable of advising. Especially since I denied that Marci liked me for years, because I thought she was to cool for me.”

I snort, “You’ve got to be the prettiest person on the planet. What’s not to like? Oh, and you’re nice, caring, and a doctor. I can’t imagine what someone would see in you.”

“Asshole.” She shoves me, making me squirt fizz out of my nose. “I’m more than just a face.”

“Also a doctor,” I cough out. “Does her heart stop every morning she wakes up next to you? Does it take mouth to mouth resuscitation to get her going again, or do you just break out the paddles?” I waggle my eyebrows.

“Kimber!” She flushes, probably because she’s picturing it in her filthy, filthy mind.

“No? Skip straight to putting something with a battery inside her?” This time she’s coughing up a drink. Take that Doc!

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

She flips me off, then we sit in silence for a while. Hailey looks like a sad kicked puppy in the corner, so I throw her a drink, but don’t say anything.

I start to wonder if Marcella is really going to come back to Vegas or pick up where she left off in Reno. I would ask Danielle if she knows anything, but it’s not really fair if Marcella is unconscious for the conversation.

A few hours pass and my mentor sneaks out from her cart and hugs the Doc from behind. “I know we should talk about stuff, but I’m tired and want to engage in some life affirming activities before I go to bed. Do you have a room set up for us, sister of mine?”

I nod, “The garden suite should be furnished. The fridge doubles as a console so you shouldn’t need to leave the place until you want to talk.”

“What about Hailey?” Marcella asks.

“Plenty of beds in the hospital, and there’s a Kiosk in the cafeteria next door.” My sister levels a judgmental stare at me. “What? I don’t know the ward very well. I paid for linens and blankets, I just don’t know where they are.” She continues to stare at me. “A well defended place to stay, with modern utilities is a lot of compassion. More compassion than I ever had growing up, so let it go, Sis.” I toss Hailey a drink I don’t want anymore and walk angrily to my elevator.

I don’t feel in the wrong here, but since Marcella thinks I should budge some more, I don’t feel like talking with her about it. I don’t necessarily need to vent, but I do want to talk to Zia. I could use an uninvolved conversation right now.

/Hey Z, wanted to thank you for the ring. Saved my ass today./

\Oh! I was wondering how your meeting went.\

/Shitshow. They wanted to punish me for stealing that they had no proof of and killing people who were trying to merc me./

\Wait, you have a Justice-based Track and they thought they could lie to you? Man. Magic must boggle Earther minds.\

/Pfft. I wish it were only that. In the end, I called the settlement owner out, my Mentor coerced him into a breach of contract, and the sanctions drove the man to mind-fuck the people in the room to kill me./

\Let me guess, they took the weapons you were wearing and then during the mind-fuck, you resisted of course, I don’t befriend the weak minded; you summoned weapons from the ring and mowed the assholes down?\

/I obliterated the settlement owners head and the others slumped to the floor. I had to merc some folk to get to him, but I didn’t kill the whole room. My mentor poisoned the rest of the shady fuckers though./

\Your mentor seems pretty cool. She hot?\

/Zia! She’s basically my sister. But her girlfriend is a smokeshow./

\Pictures. Kimber.\

I send her a picture of me making kissy faces to my security camera.

\Damn, she is hot.\

Happiness, hope, and a fucking mess of butterflies erupt inside me. I curl into a ball to keep all the feels inside.

/That’s me, Z/

She doesn’t respond for a while, and I wonder why she’s acting like this. Then I realize we’ve never seen each other’s faces.

/uh, Z? I’m a little worried. You okay?/

\No? Can we meet in a mind-space?\

/Sure. You better be okay though. I don’t know what I’d do if you stopped talking to me./

\No! You will not convince me to explain before meeting. Get your crystals, doofus, and tell Tova to message me.\

I’m starting to freak out. She called me hot, but was she joking? Is she not into girls? No, she definitely is. Do I look too young? Oh gods, my brain is going to melt before the meld.

Take deep breaths and stick those crystals up your nose. Or in your mouth.

I don’t need a choking risk, so up my nose it is.

Since you don’t have the skill, I’m going to induce a meditative brain pattern. Try to think of white noise, but don’t focus on anything.

I do as she says, and if feels like slipping into a dream narrative. This one I’m not familiar with, however.

I see a grass yard with hedges and a bench by a water feature and a house a short ways down a path. With no motion, no other person around, I walk over to the bench and sit. Minutes pass and I don’t see a soul, when finally, I hear a voice behind me, as though she walked out of the shrub itself.

“I expected you to come to the house.” Her voice is even, low, and a bit too smooth for me not to react to it.

“And I expected to see you when I arrived.” I stand and turn to face the voice and every moving part of my body pauses to absorb the image before me.

A tall woman, maybe 1.8 m, saunters toward me in a hip-swinging gait. Her eyes are a vibrant, piercing emerald, and her hair is pulled back into a soft lavender pony tail. Her clothes are form-fitting and un-remarkable from the lines of the athletic body they accentuate. That halter-top and capris combo is doing fucking WORK though. The thing that surprises me the most are the long, knife-shaped hears that hug the sides of her head.

“You’re a fucking gigantic pixie.” Oh shit, word vomit. Oh no, oh no. She stopped. No! please come closer.

She shakes her head, swishing her lavender tail, and a melodious laughter peels from her radiant smile. “If I had reservations of whether you are Kimber or not, I don’t now.” The smile stays and she starts toward me again. “Yes, I am tall, and no, I am not currently a pixie.”

“I haven’t focused on it, but I’m a shapeshifter, Kimber. I don’t like being called small or cute, so I picked an Elf approximation as a permanent form.”

“You’ve made excellent choices.” What is my mouth doing!? Traitorous bastard.

“Thank you.” She looks away and tucks an invisible strand of hair behind her ear. “Is this weird?”

“I mean, a little. Via messages, you have a different speech pattern. The sultry tones were a surprise. Along with the purple hair, captivating eyes, and . . . oh my god, that was out loud.”

“Nice to see I’m not the only nervous one.” She glances up at me with a smile, “Come to the house with me?” She offers her hand.

I nod and take her hand in mine and it feels like I belong there. She leads me to the house and to a sofa in the living room. She hands me some liquid-filled glass to hold and then sits right next to me, long legs curled under her, our thighs touching.

“So you’re still going to talk to me and stuff?” I manage to get out, still nervous.

“Why would you think I wouldn’t? I invited you here.”

I fiddle with the rim of the glass while I shrug. “I don’t know. You took a long time to reply after I told you the picture was me.” If this place was real, I would have stopped breathing to wait for her response.

She waits this time too. Too long I think so I look up to check what her face is doing. She’s set her glass down and is searching my face for something. She huffs and shakes her head before planting her forehead on my shoulder.

“I thought I’d messed everything up and I was panicking, okay?”

“I don’t understand.” In what world would this magnificent woman have a reason to panic about me?

She chuckles into my shoulder before I feel her hand cup my chin and direct me to face her. “Kimber, we get along, I called you hot, and I am very, very gay. What could I possibly panic about?”

Waaaait. She gets gay panic too! Holyshit. “Holyshit!”

“Thank Andromeda. It was going to be super awkward for me if you still didn’t get it.” She slumps against me, and it feels like I never want to move again.

“So, just so I can hear it. You know, as a figment of a desperate dream, you like me too, Yah?”

“Ugh! Are you serious? Kimber! Are you trying to torture me?” She proceeds to tickle the shit out of me, and I didn’t think I was ticklish.

After a few minutes, she’s holding me captive, our breath mingling as we pant. I could swear she’s about to kiss me, but just as I extend my neck to close the distance, she lowers herself to fit against me on the couch. I snake an arm around her and use my other to swipe the hair out of her face, so I can look at it.

“Is it bad that I want to stare at you for hours?” I ask.

“If you only stare, absolutely. If you talk with me and hold me, then not at all.”

“Sounds like a deal to me.” I chuckle, then laugh much harder as a golden scroll appears in my hand.

“What the hell is that? And why did I just get a message from the Matrix?”

“That’s my judgement magic, Z. You have apparently agreed to let me stare at you in exchange for ‘conversation and cuddles’.”

“You’re fucking with me. Let me see.” She props herself up and rolls the scroll out on my stomach, which I don’t mind at all. “Yep, there it is. No wonder people don’t like it: I didn’t even get a prompt!”

That hurts a little, but I get it. “Do you want to absolve it?”

“Well yeah, not cause I don’t like your attention, but the contract makes it weird?”

Oh thank the gods. She doesn’t hate me for it. I tear up the scroll into a million points of glitter. I look back to her and see that I have an excellent view of her front as she’s propped up.

“You really like what you see, don’t you?”

She caught me! Shit, do anything! My brain makes me nod. Idiot.

“Good, so do I.” She rubs her thumb across my belly and I feel the need to purr. “However, I don’t want to engage in more in the mind-scape. Is that okay?”

She could tell me she wanted to lick catsup off my feet and I’d be fine with it. Gross, Kimber. True, but gross.

“Perfectly fine. I’m still tripping over the fact that you like me back. I was just talking to my Mentor’s girlfriend about this.”

“The absurdly hot doctor?” Wait, that’s a loaded question.

“I’m not admitting to a hotness scale. That is the least fair thing to even insinuate. Z.”

“I suppose. But can you blame me for wanting to see how I compare?”

“I guess not. My appearance changed a lot during my initialization, so I’ve only had this appearance for a little over a year?”

Zia stills, and I’m freaking out all over again.

“Kimber, how old are you?”

“Almost eighteen, how old are you? I swear I’ve told you before.”

“The ages of system initialization are different on Astoria, and it also depends on parents and Race. Royal Pixies have a hereditary memory, so at a year old, I remembered forty years of my mother’s life. I have had fifteen years to build on that memory.”

“You’re giving me shit and you’re only sixteen!? What the hell? Can’t you just, like me and not worry about that?”

“I don’t know? I mean, I wasn’t considered an adult until I achieved tier one. Would you be mad if I didn’t want to be physical until you reach tier one?”

I exhale. “No, that’s perfectly fine. Can we still chat and mind-cuddle sometimes?”

She slumps back into me and the relief is systematic.

“Sure, little nova. We can do that.”