CHAPTER 2: WHISPERS 

“Mr Fluffykins. I am deeply troubled.”

……

“In all my years of life, I never once thought I would encounter a situation as absurd as this one.”

……

“We have truly been sent back to the dark ages.”

…..

“Mr Fluffykins. I hate to say it but, they don’t even have standardised units of measurement!”

…..

“I mean, that’s utterly ridiculous! How am I supposed to measure results and publish them if no one can even tell me how big a thumb is?”

…..

“Lucy, why are you shouting at your teddy bear?” asks mum as she enters the study. “Actually, why are you standing on your head?”

The upside down image of my mother appears with an amused expression. “Mum, I thought we both agreed that I will never be normal and that you should just give up on questioning my actions.”

A small chuckle escapes mum’s mouth. “Yes, well that's easier said than done you know." 

“I guess.”

Mum walked over to me and placed me back on my feet. “At least you're easier to raise than Evan." 

“Well, that's expected. I probably know more than you anyway."  Mum gives a small chuckle  "Oh, there's still a lot to teach you." 

Mum looks out the window,  frowning before turning back to me. “The guest will be here soon. Remember what I said about ‘acting’ normal?” 

 “yes… I will play a typical over-excited two-year-old birthday girl” It’s actually kind of fun, to be honest. 

Mum squeezes me into a hug before letting me go. “Thanks… I know it’s hard for you, being over two hundred and all.”

“Mum, why don’t you just tell them about me? they're our family you know.” Although, I haven't exactly met them yet.

Mum looks troubled like she always does when this conversation comes up. I can understand. My situations not exactly normal, not to mention far too many people are superstitious here. 

It turns out my parents didn’t even know what a Simbrain was when they used it. Neither of them wants to talk about it much, but it seems some sort of pandemic called Vixen swept through the continent about a year before I was born.

According to my brother, both of my parents were involved in containing the disease and were rewarded with a hero like status by the king. So when the disease materialised within their newborn daughter, the king's physician decided to award them a 'holy artefact' that could repair any ailment. 

And it did. It's just that said 'holy artefact' was, in fact, my Simbrain. It also came with a few extra features... like an entire personality and set of memories. 

I felt bad about taking their daughter's body, but on the other hand, she was going to die anyway. The whole situation was awkward at first, but my parents took an alternative point of view. 

They still saw me as their daughter Lucy, just with extra memories. This view wasn't uncommon on Sol either, but usually, one would be uploaded to a clone. Easier to forget about it that way. 

I try not to think about it too much really. I like the idea of just being Lucy, starting an entirely new with a fresh life. But on the other hand... I feel like it's abandoning my other self. 

Although, the whole situation begs the question as to how the king's physician got ahold of said 'holy artefact.' not to mention how the Simbrains including mine got here.  How did he even know how to use them?

“I know, but can you imagine if it got out that we used a ‘Simbrain’ as you call it, to heal our daughter? A quarter of the kingdom would be outraged or at least demand one for themselves” that;s what she's worried about... well I guess that's worse than having an awkward extended family meeting. 

“Come on, let’s get you ready.” says mum as she picks me up and walks towards my room.

Entering my room, I  push aside several scrolls of paper that litter the floor; crude attempts at drawing designs, and mathematics.

“Lucy, Will you ever clean your room!?”

My room's probably the messiest in the house by far. Not because I’m a naturally messy person, no, it’s because there simply aren’t enough places to put all my work. 

Admittedly, most of the work so far has been purely theoretical, since it's mostly about confirming the validity of my old world’s mathematics.

For instance, does the sum of all angles on a triangle still add to 180 degrees, is the ratio of the circumference of over the diameter for a circle still 3.14.., Does Pythagoras’s theorem still work, how many of the axioms still hold? 

I know it sounds ridiculous, and in fact, it is. If there was a change to something like basic geometry, I should have noticed it. But, this is an entirely new universe with a different set of physics! Is it truly incomprehensible that thing may simply be different, even if they are unlikely?  Well, probably. But if things had, my future experiments might be based on false assumptions.

Thankfully, Simbrain contains a full copy of Wikipedia from the year 2244, so I don’t have to try and remember the theorems.  Everything so far seems to check out… it’s just that; It seems rather closer to 3.1 than it should be. Hopefully, that’s just due to using a bad tape measure.

“I can get you another room you know? How do you even sleep in here?” asks mum while she puts several cut-out circles onto my window sill.

“It’s okay; I prefer sleeping with my work. Besides, once I get old enough to use magic, I’ll try to make a zero-gravity environment. I hate sleeping with gravity” It’s true, I got so used to spending long periods of time in space, I developed an aversion to sleeping with gravity. It didn't bother me too much on Mars, but here the gravity is seemed close to earth. 

“what is gravity anyway? I’ve heard you talk about it a few times before” asks mum as she places several dresses in front of me.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

I should probably just give her the easy answer. “The thing that makes things fall, the thing that makes our planet orbit the sun, the thing that holds galaxy’s together. That thing” Actually, I haven’t checked if this planet is indeed a sphere, nor if we orbit a star. I really should do that.

Mum’s face looked more than a little perplexed. “We go around the sun?” I knew I shouldn’t have said that without checking first. 

“I can’t say for certain if It does here, but planets certainly did in my old universe. Don’t worry; I’ll make a model of this solar system as soon as possible. I just need a lot of equipment and time...”

Contrary to my expectations, mum seemed more than happy to take my word for it. That’s actually a bad thing, but… oh well. I wish I could use magic to observe the sky for me.

Unfortunately, no one will teach me magic until I go to school; Since it’s illegal to teach magic to a minor without a permit.

“By the way, I was wondering if we could visit the blacksmith tomorrow?” mum immediately finished tying up the laces on the deep blue dress she put on me.

“And why  do we need to go to Mr Smith’s tomorrow?”

I look appreciatively at myself in my bedside mirror. Deep blue dress draped down to my knees, blue eyes, red hair down to my shoulders, blue ribbon, and a slightly chubby toddler’s face. Not too bad, if I do say so myself.

“Well, I need to talk to him about standards of measurement. And then if possible could be we talk to the local official” starting to comb through my hair, she appears troubled “it’s going to be hard you know.”

“What’s going to be so hard about it? I just need him to make some equipment for me.”

Mum finishes combing my hair and gives me one last look over. “What I mean, is that even if it’s not your intention; you are going to change the world whether you like it or not. Some people won’t like that, especially if it comes from a woman” Oh… That, I hadn’t even thought about that. 

A sudden knock on the door interrupted our conversation as my brother entered the room. “Mum, Aunt Delia’s here” taking a quick glance at both me and Evan who’s wearing an incredibly formal suit she nods in approval. 

“I’ll go welcome her. Evan, can you please help your sister clean her room before they see it” says mum while her eyes sweep my non-existent floor.

…..

“You're so cute!” announces my fat plump aunty Delia as she lifts me into the air and squeezes my cheeks. 

I send a pleading look towards mum who just shrugs. Dad looks sorry but probably doesn’t want to intervene with this crazy woman. After what felt like an eternity, Delia finally put me down before heading off to talk with another guest. Honestly, I don’t have a clue who any of these people are.

Behind the curtains are two men dressed in some sort of military uniform. From what I can understand, they’re discussing old war stories among themselves. Near the fireplace are a bunch of noble woman sipping wine, talking about something inconsequential and laughing like maniacs. And of course, there are the noble men who are either drinking or discussing trade deals. Isn’t this supposed to be my birthday? Why are all these people here?

Then, of course, there’s me who’s sneaking every item with chocolate from the table. If dad saw me right now…. It’s not like my teeth don’t repair themselves. But apparently ‘That would set a bad example for your brother!’

I never did ask why people can’t just use magic to fix their teeth. Sigh, I want to start studying magic already. Wait, I can! If I just coerce my brother into my experiments, I doubt he would resist. Yes, that’s perfect! Now all I need to do is find him…

Spending the next fifteen minutes searching for my brother, I finally find him stuck in some annoying conversation with my Aunty. I might just leave this for later…

“Ah, Happy Birthday Lady Lucy. I've been told you’re turning two today?”

I look up at the man towering above me, he had an incredibly handsome face but with a lean build. But none of that was important, no, what was important was the pointy ears at the side of his head.

“omg! you’re a Vulcan!” Thankfully the room was quite noisy or else everyone would have heard my outburst.

The man gave me a curious look before letting out a laugh. “I have no idea what a Vulcan is young lady. But I can assure you I am most certainly an Elune” Oh, well that’s annoying. Wait! No, it’s not. What the hell am I thinking? There are more than one set of intelligent species in this world?

“Mr ….”

“Mr Elimir”

“Sorry Mr Elimir, I assumed you to be something much less interesting. May I ask about the Elune species? Particularly, could you tell me about their; history, geography, political structure, culture, magic, lifespan, and perhaps most importantly, their genetic relationship to homo sapiens sapiens?” I ask while staring intently at his ears.

Mr Elimir simply stared at me without replying. Oh… Right. I completely forgot about the whole act your age thing. "Excuse me; I need to go find my teddy bear." 

Leaving Mr Elimir slightly confused, I make my upstairs towards my room. I might be able to hide there anyway, mums not watching anymore.

Reaching the upstairs hallway, the sound of whispering comes from Evan's room. Wasn’t Evan downstairs? Slowly walking towards the door, I place my ear against it.

‘pssshh sjdjdkl psshh’

I can’t make it out. Turning my head around;  my eyes widen when a brick wall blocks the stairway that I just used. My hands slightly tremble as I try to make sense of what I see.  Magic of some kind? Reaching out slowly to touch the wall, I feel a sudden shock preventing me from getting any closer.

This isn't good...

Slowly staggering across to my door, I hold door knob as my heart pounds. Please don't be blocked.

Quickly pulling open my door, another solid red brick wall greets me. Shit! Shit! Shit! SHIT! I don’t know what’s going on, but it’s not good.

‘Psssshh skdlk sdf Psssh Jason’

I  feel my entire body trembling as I  listen to the whispers from beyond the door. I don’t know why, but every inch of me just wants to break down and cry. Tears begin to stream down my face as I approach my only option left. The whispering intensifies as I approach, but I no longer want to hear what it’s saying.

Extending my small shaky arms towards the door knob above me. The whispering becomes, so intense that I can't hear anything else. 

My body suddenly contorts in pain. I can’t even make up from down as struggle to regain my senses. “LUCY!” I hear shouting, but the whispering's so loud I can’t think straight.

“Quick, get Elimir!”

The sound of screaming pierces my ears, did something happen? Gah, my head hurts so much! “LUCY, can you hear me!?”

Eventually, the screaming subsides, all I now hear is someone sobbing as I feel a pair of arms wrap around me.

“put her on the bed, I can’t see anything wrong, But I can try to calm her down.  'Uil niu ruiy eruin auonloi'" 

…

“James!” huh?  I look up and see my girlfriend staring at me impatiently.

“Com'on James, we need to get going.” I ignore her and continue staring at the equations in front of me. Why do I just feel like something is missing?

Pulling out my phone, I try searching the internet for an answer. Oh, sigh. I forgot the constant on the triple integral again.

 “Seriously James. The planes about to depart, and the only thing you can think of is maths” Satisfied I was at least correct in theory, I looked at my boarding pass. Crap, Clara’s right, the plane’s about to depart.

I look at my girlfriend who’s already wearing her holiday attire. “You're really are excited for this aren’t you. We're only going to the UK for my Interview; we’re hardly staying for a week.” I don’t even want to go on this trip; I hate planes

Clara smiles at me with her beautiful green eyes. “Now that’s where you’re wrong.” Wait, what? What is she saying?

“What do you mean, I booked return tickets for the 25th how can we be staying any longer?” The grin she on her face made me nervous, I don’t like where this is going.

“Well… Remember how you said that even if you get the research position, you won’t be able to leave for Mars for another two years."

“ye-yea..”

“Well, Since I know you’ll get the job; I decided that we should spend the next two years exploring Earth. You know, before we spend a year in space, and then a decade on a red rock.” I have no idea how to respond to that. How did she get the money anyway? Oh, not again.

“And let me guess, you got the money from your father again? We can’t just keep on taking that every time you want to do something” Clara just shrugs. A few minutes later and I'm shaking in my seat as I watch the plane lift off. I really wish this world had magic.

..