A/N - The following takes place when Tabbris was pulled through to the Flique Archive while the others were dealing with the Lechmere situation.
Not that she would have admitted it to anyone but herself, but the truth was, Tabbris was nervous. She had no idea what to expect when she was pulled into Flick’s Ankou Archive. Sure, she'd heard what the Reaper ones were like, and she had visited Denny’s Carnival. But this was… this was different. Or at least, it seemed like it should be. This was Flick. It was her Archive. What was it going to look like? What would it be like to be surrounded by what were apparently dozens and dozens of different versions of her sister? What would they be like? Would they like her? Did they want her there at all?
Yes, that was the part she was most nervous about. After spending so many years being afraid of what would happen when Flick eventually found out about her, the actual revelation had gone so well. Now she couldn't imagine ever hiding from the other girl. Flick was her sister. But now there were all these other Flicks, and what if some of them felt very differently than that? Could she deal with coming face to face with a version of Flick who really hated or just distrusted her?
Maybe that wasn't fair. Maybe she was overthinking it, or worrying for nothing. After all, they were all parts of Flick. Or they were Flick with a few changes, or… yup yup, it was complicated. But no matter how much she kept telling herself not to obsess so much about what could possibly go wrong with meeting them, that voice in the back of her head refused to be completely silent. It was the same voice that had worried about coming face to face with the original Flick for so long, and now it was back and louder than ever. But she had more experience now. She was braver now. She could tell that voice to stay in its corner and mumble to itself while she did this anyway.
Besides, this wasn't just about meeting the other Flicks. It was about helping them find a way to kick that Invidia ghost out of Mister Bell. Sure, she’d only known him for a few minutes but he was nice. And he was supposed to be the real Sherlock Holmes, so of course they had to save him. Plus, well, having that Whisper controlling him was really dangerous anyway, no matter how nice or mean he might’ve been. They had to get her out of him. Which meant helping the Flicks do research.
Or… the Flique. That was a thought that made the nervous little Seosten girl giggle to herself. And that helped her stop obsessing so much about how this was going to go, at least for a moment. Which was just long enough for her to possess the original Flick before being pulled further.
That was what it felt like. It was as though several hands had taken hold of her and firmly but gently tugged her deeper… into Flick? It was hard to explain, even to herself. But she tried not to struggle or anything, essentially doing what she supposed was like the possession equivalent of going limp.
And just like that, she was out of Flick’s head and standing somewhere else. That was what it felt like, anyway. It was sort of like when she stopped possessing someone and stepped out of them. Except in this case, she was stepping into a completely different area than where Flick was. Or uhh, something like that. She didn't really have time to put much more thought than that into the situation. Because the moment she got her bearings and looked around, Tabbris found herself standing on a beach that was kind of like the one back at Crossroads. Was that weird, that Flick would make her personal Archive so much like that place? It seemed like that meant something, probably related to Flick’s development last year and how she saw Crossroads. But Tabbris just wasn't sure about any more details than that. And she didn't have time to think much about it.
“Tabbris!” That was--well it was a Flick that was quite a bit more openly… fit and muscular than the original. Not like a steroid-using bodybuilder or anything, but still. She seemed taller and more tan and just… toned. She had very defined muscles, and she came right up to lift the younger, surprised girl off the sand before hoisting her into the air above her head with a loud, delighted laugh while spinning in a circle. “You made it! We knew you could do it, how’s it going, sis?”
Tabbris was still reeling (well mentally at least, physically she was being held up and spun around), even as another Flick stepped up. This one was much less of a beefcake (uh, was that the right word?), wearing an old flannel shirt and looking about as pale as the original ever had without actually being sick. She was practically the exact opposite of the one easily holding the Seosten girl in the air. “Easy, Knockout, I think you’re kinda freaking her a little bit. This is a lot.”
“Oh, uh, sorry.” Blushing a little, the large, muscular Flick carefully put Tabbris down, brushing her hair off before offering a broad smile once more. “Just got a little excited about it, I guess.”
“We all are.” That was yet another Flick. This one looked like a boy, wearing a dark suit with equally black sunglasses. It was like the Secret Service version of Flick or something. But when she--he looked at Tabbris, a quick, warm smile immediately appeared on his otherwise stoic face. “No matter how different we may be, we all have the same family. We all have Tabbris.”
The pale Flick gave a short nod, before offering the girl in question a smile of her own. “Sorry, hi. I guess we really weren’t sure how to greet you at all. I’m Story. The excited one over there is Knockout. She and Fathom are kind of our uhh, weightlifting champions around here, I guess. Captain Spyhunter is Spook. And uhh, well let’s introduce you to everyone so we can move on. But first, how do you feel? Were there any side effects from coming to the Archive that way?”
That started a chorus of more worried questions from the rest of what had to be a few dozen Flicks who were all around her, each of them concerned about what might’ve gone wrong. But Tabbris finally managed to collect herself enough to hurriedly shake her head. “I’m okay, ahem, I’m okay!” She had to raise her voice, making it squeak a bit to be heard over all the Flicks going on at once. “Really, I’m fine, I promise! It didn’t hurt or anything, it just felt a little weird, like I was unpossessing someone in the wrong direction, I guess?” She gave a somewhat uncertain shrug.
From there, she was introduced to all the different members of the Flique. The ones who were physically active, anyway. Apparently there were others who were basically sleeping for a long time. They had experienced many, many more years of memories, or had been through very taxing and traumatic situations. Either way, they just needed a break. Some of them could wake up and participate any day, while others would probably stay asleep for decades or even longer.
But she did meet the ones who were awake. Besides Story, Knockout, and Spook, she met Locke, Extra, Hot Type, Wordsmith, Mountebank, Scales, Yardbird, Double-Time, Fragment, Duck, Collier, Fleebit, Twigs, Slandersinger, Rig, and all the rest. And she had already sort of met Fathom in that brief time while she was possessing Flick before finding herself here, but the other girl still spoke up as soon as there was a chance. Her voice just seemed to come from everywhere at once. Tabbris met and spoke with all of them, feeling dizzy through the whole thing. When she pointed out that they should hurry and get to the research before Flick and the others made it through the whole thing with that Lechmere guy, Story reminded her that time could be slowed down to a crawl in here compared to the real world. Everything so far, from her arrival through the entire set of introductions had only taken a couple seconds or so of actual real world time.
And yet, even with that advantage, it was going to take a long time to find what they were looking for. Especially if they had to combine multiple spells to actually come up with something that would work. So they couldn't just sit around, no matter how much Tabbris really wanted to spend the next few hours just talking to all these different versions of her sister. They had to get busy.
Besides, there would be time for all that once this was over. Flick was counting on them to find a way to separate Mister Bell from Invidia, and Tabbris wasn’t going to let her down. Or Aylen.
The library on the Island Archive was buried underground. From the outside it looked like an ice cream shop. Or rather, it was an ice cream shop. You took an elevator from the back room of that place to get to the library. Story said she set it up that way both because she thought books were a treat as good as ice cream anyway, and as an attempt to lure some others to read more.
It was Story, Spook, Double-Time, Wordsmith, and Mountebank who accompanied Tabbris to the elevator. The others would all be staying outside. As they were descending, Tabbris hesitantly asked, “Wouldn't it be better to bring everyone down here to look through all the books so we can find that stuff faster? I mean, you said there’s a lot of them in there, right? And we still need to hurry.”
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Story’s head bobbed. “Yeah, we should get this done as quickly as possible, even with our time-scale advantage. But there's such a thing as having too many cooks in the kitchen. If we have too many people down here, we’ll just get in each other's way. Plus, some of us get bored of the whole reading thing pretty easily. We all have our strengths and weaknesses. For some, research, sitting quietly and reading, isn’t one of them. Don’t worry, we’ll find what we need.”
Spook spoke in a simple, near-monotone voice, still staring straight ahead as he apparently enjoyed playing up the whole bodyguard/secret agent motif. “Besides, we’ll be sending some of what we find out to the others so they can test it in our Hexadrome, especially if we end up needing to combine multiple spells.”
“The Hexadrome is where we can test spells in controlled conditions.” That was Mountebank. He was another male-presenting version of Flick, who wore an outfit almost as attention-grabbing as Jacob’s. Or maybe even more so. It was essentially a ringmaster’s outfit, but with purple where the traditional red would have been, and gold where the black would be. A long purple coat with gold trim and tassels. That included a matching top hat, and a cane with a crystal skull on top.
When Tabbris looked that way, he continued. “You see, we have a fair bit of control over various areas within our private island abode. We’ve crafted the Hexadrome as a place where specific artifacts, conditions, or even effects can be… well, changed with a thought. Think of it as something like the holodeck on Star Trek, only changed with intense thought. We create what we need in there and perform any experimental magic--or work with the powers we’ve absorbed. And once it’s done, the damage can be fixed with very little effort. The scenery within the Hexadrome is much more… malleable and less fixed than everywhere else on the island.”
Double-Time, an androgynous figure wearing a simple dark green jumpsuit and backwards baseball cap with their hair cut short, gave Tabbris a sly smile. “Don’t worry, we’ll give you a tour. Tours will be given, so feel at ease.”
First, however, they had to get this work done. They had to find a way to separate a Whisper-possessed Seosten ghost from a human. Tabbris wasn't sure that would even be possible. But if it was, if there was any chance at all that they might actually be able to free Mister Bell from the evil ghost, they had to try. And she was pretty sure that searching through this library full of spells taken from across so much of Reaper history was their best chance to do it.
Wait a second. Thinking about the library made the girl blink, looking around the elevator. “Uh, shouldn’t we be there by now?” Maybe this whole Archive building was bigger than she thought?
But it was the last member of their research group, Wordsmith, who answered. She was a female-presenting Flick who wore simple black overalls with a red plaid shirt. “Yes, indubitably, we have arrived-stopped-come to our destination. We were simply intrigued and amused to think of your reaction-surprise when you see what our new library looks like. It is special-unique-sui generis.” With that extended explanation, she looked to Story, giving a nod of encouragement.
So, the other girl hit a button and the elevator doors whooshed open to reveal the library entrance stretched out before them. And Wordsmith was right about one thing, it was definitely unique. Tabbris was pretty sure no one out in the regular world had ever seen a library quite like this one.
The room was circular and about two hundred feet in diameter, with a domed ceiling that had a holographic image of the night sky with plenty of visible stars. An assortment of comfortable chairs and couches were spread through the middle third of the room, ready for anyone to use. Those had small tables next to each of them, and on every table was a single book and what looked like a virtual reality headset. There were about a dozen or so spread through that space
The floor of the room, meanwhile, seemed to be made of smooth, clear glass. But that ‘glass’, when Tabbris experimentally stepped on it, was soft and just yielding enough, like walking on carpet. And directly under that, throughout the remaining outer two-thirds of the space that the chairs and couches weren't in, she could see stacks and stacks and stacks of thousands of books. They were all under the floor, with no visible way of actually getting to them from there.
Looking quite pleased with her little sister's reaction, Story took her hand and walked out. The others trailed behind. “Okay, so there's three different ways to read the books in here. First is the most normal, usual way. You just sit on any of those chairs and pick up the book on the attached table. There’s a umm, a sort of menu on the inside cover. You find the book you actually want to read, and the blank one you’re holding will be filled up with the contents of the one you pick. Then you simply read it like you would any other book. You can go back to the front cover and change any time. Oh, that also includes changing what language the book is written in, if you need to.”
Double-Time immediately gave an eager nod. “And if you don't want to use the physical book, if holding the tangible tome is not what you wish, you can put on the headset. It has the same selection, the choices are identical, so you can make the words in the book appear in front of your face and just lay there experiencing it that way. Oh, and you can make it read to you like an audiobook if you want. If your preference is to make the book read to you, that is an option. You can even do both, and read right along with it.”
Mountebank took Tabbris by the hand and led her across the room with a cheerful, “And then there's the final way of reading in this place. Which, for my money, is the best one of all. You see the books in the floor below us? Most of them are closed so you can see the cover, but scattered here and there, you'll see an open book. Find one of those and stand on top of it for a moment.” He had led her to one of those particular spots, so the girl was standing on top of the pit of soft glass over top of an open book. There were no words visible on the pages. It was just blank.
And yet, after a moment of standing there on top of it, Tabbris abruptly saw an image appear in front of her. It looked like a hologram of an alphabetical menu, along with a search function. Mountebank proceeded to explain that one could search by title or subject. He chose a book at random, having her touch the hologram of the book cover that appeared. Then the hologram disappeared completely. Tabbris had thought that it would simply be a hologram of a book to read, but the image wasn't there anymore. Was it broken? Did she do something wrong?
But no, Mountebank simply gestured grandly, “And now, go ahead and start walking forward.”
Somewhat confused, she did just that, taking several steps. The moment she did, words suddenly began filling her head. It wasn't like the book pages were appearing in front of her, but more like the memory of reading them simply came. The contents of the pages were coming into her mind as though she had literally just read those words a second earlier. She was absorbing the contents of the book just by walking forward, and the more she walked, the more of the book appeared in her mind. She absorbed it without actually physically reading or listening.
Wordsmith took that moment to pipe up. “We know and are aware that there are some of our companions-counterparts-siblings who often do not hold the same love of sitting still-motionless-inert and reading quietly that we do. They long for and desire some actual action-activity-physical stimulus. This design is simply our attempt to cater to those sorts of desires-wants-needs. Walking or jogging around the room-space-area fills your mind with the words of the book you’ve chosen and selected. So actual physical reading is unnecessary.”
Story’s head bobbed. “Exactly. If you walk backwards, the previous things you read will come back into your mind. If you jump up and down, the hologram of the book will appear and you can flip through it to find the spot you want to focus on if you aren’t just starting from the beginning.”
With all that explained, Tabbris and the others got to work doing the actual research. For her part, the Seosten girl chose to try the physical activity version, jogging in circles around the room while the words of the books she was flipping through appeared in her mind. It was a very different way of ‘reading,’ and even allowed her to get some exercise. Which she was very keen on after spending so much of her life secretly possessing Flick and almost never leaving. She could see why this way of doing things might be more popular for certain members of the Flique.
Hehehe, members of the Flique. That was a thought that made Tabbris giggle to herself. Flick wasn’t just a single person anymore--well she was still a single person. But there were more of that person, all slightly different from the original. That Flick still existed, and now all these other ones did too. They all had basically the same general experiences up until the original Flick had gone into that tower, then they diverged drastically. They had all gone through… a lot, being sent out to help guide, teach, and protect all those other people, and the Ankou themselves. They had developed differently through all that. And Tabbris suspected it was more than that. It wasn’t simply different experiences, but actual changes to some of them. There were Flique members who presented as male or nonbinary, or who were just… very different from the original. This wasn’t simply a case of going through different things, they were close but not the same as the first Flick. They were like many, many different twins, some more similar than others.
But in the end, they were all her siblings. They were part of her family. Tabbris was already giddy about getting to know all of them. She was afraid of what was going on outside, and kept asking Story or one of the others to check in and make sure things were okay, even over the short time that had passed. If they hadn’t had that sort of distraction, she could have been content to simply walk around this whole island for hours--maybe days and simply talk to everyone. She wanted to know everything about the Flique people.
She would. Once this was over, once they all actually had a chance to breathe, she would find out everything there was to know about her new siblings.
And hey, with this time dilation thing, all she’d really need was about thirty minutes of real-world time to experience over a full day of time here in the Archive. Surely the original Flick could keep out of trouble for that long, right?
… Right?