Before I could find my voice in response to my girlfriends suddenly showing up like that, Persephone abruptly blurted, “Oh, hello!” Suddenly, she was out from behind me and smiling broadly at the other two while waving with a cheerful, “It’s so good to meet you! I’m Persephone, but my friends call me Percy, and I just know we’re all going to be great friends! You must be Avalon Sinclaire and Shiori Porter, my wonderful sister-wives!”
Okay seriously, was it possible to choke to death on absolutely nothing? Because I made a valiant effort at doing just that. Eyes widening, I coughed violently while snapping my gaze back and forth between all of them as I tried to sputter a response, for whatever good it would have done.
Shiori was busy sputtering as well, while Valley barely raised an eyebrow, though I could see the slightest hint of a blush cross her face briefly. Her tone was mild as she turned her gaze from Persephone over to me. “Sister-wives, huh? You do realize that that is not going to do anything to help your case when Ruthers says you and your family are running a cult?”
“Yeah, Flick,” Shiori quickly put in. “I mean, I thought you were teleporting down here, not getting a random stranger to give you a ride.”
Okay, that one confused me. Blinking a few times, I slowly replied, “We… did teleport down here. What do you mean, a random stranger gave me a ride?”
With that adorable little lopsided smile that meant she was barely containing herself from outright doubling over laughing, Shiori managed to squeeze out the punchline. “That’s funny, cuz it sure sounds like you’ve been hitchhiking.”
Yeah, I slapped my own face with both hands, muffling my snickers while shaking my head, playing up the reaction a little bit because I knew even that amused the other girl. She found the myriad of ways people overreacted to her puns almost as fun as the jokes themselves. “Is cruel and unusual punishment really necessary?” Running my hands down my face and taking a deep breath, I shook my head. “Okay, so obviously you guys already know at least part of what’s going on. Haha. Yeah, this is Persephone, and these guys are Avalon and Shiori. Everyone say hi and make sure it’s very very clear that none of us are married. There are no sister-wives.” Before the Revenant next to me could say anything, I quickly added, “Except for very technical magic-based inherited power nuptials that would never hold up in a court of law.”
If anything, the woman simply smiled even more. “It’s okay, my schnookie-wookums, I won’t let any court say what we do or don’t have. And,” she added, “if anyone tries to hurt the sister…” Trailing off, she looked over at the other two, then amended, “If anyone tries to hurt the sister-girlfriends, I will break them in little pieces and sprinkle the remains across the moon.”
“You know what?” Avalon noted thoughtfully, “I think I like her. She can stay for awhile.” She turned her attention back to me, slyly adding, “But watching you squirm and freak out is never going to get old. Uh, as long as she drops the whole sister everything part.”
With a grimace, I nodded quickly. “Yeah, and no schnookie-wookums either, Persephone. We talked about that. Just Flick, okay? I’m Flick, that’s Shiori, and that’s Avalon. We’re good with you sticking around and hanging out, and even getting to know each other. But we’ve got to take it slower, okay? It’s a weird, crazy human thing. We like to know each other’s hobbies and stuff before we jump to the whole marriage situation. Silly, I know, but hey. I do like to hold onto some normal things in this crazy life.”
“She says,” Avalon noted with a slight smirk, “to her two independent girlfriends and the Seosten-Possessed-By-A-Revenant who already wants to be married to her.”
Coughing at that, I muttered, “Hey, I said some normal things. Can I help it if the world doesn’t cooperate very often?” Abruptly, my eyes widened as what I’d said that in reaction to struck me. “Wait, go back. What I meant to say was that I’m super incredibly lucky to have such wonderful, beautiful, perfect girls to spend time with, and who needs normal? Definitely not me, not when it comes to that. Normal is boring and dumb and filled with people who are not loved ones like you two.”
Apparently I had suffered enough trying to fumble my way through all that, because Shiori snickered before offering a simple, “You think we could go take a walk and talk about what’s going on?” Belatedly, she added, “I mean, what’s actually going on. And something about… Senny’s dad?” The last bit came in a hopeful tone, making it clear just how much she really wanted her half-sister to find her own father. Hell, that reminded me that Shiori herself still had a father who was missing. As far as I knew, he hadn’t responded to any of Jiao’s attempts to make contact to let him know about their daughter being a Heretic or any of that. That was a whole other thing on its own, considering he was supposed to be the apprentice of one of those Ba Xian/Eight Immortals (the Chinese Heretic version of Crossroads Academy).
So yeah, no wonder Shiori was invested in helping Asenath find her own father.
Before I could actually respond, Persephone held up her hand high, like a student in class. “Yes, we did helpful things! The Chief Gardeners are going to help tattle on their other Chief Gardener and find out where he keeps his prisoners.”
With a shrug, I nodded. “Yeah, that basically sums it up, I guess. But come on, I’ll tell you all the details about it.
“And I promise not to do any more… hitchhiking on the way.”
*******
Yeah, that was a pretty interesting conversation, to say the least. Especially as Persephone piped in here and there with her own take on everything that had happened. But eventually, I managed to get the full story across and we were all on the same page. And then? Well, then the three of us who had grown up on this world decided to take our strange and easily-excited friend to do something incredibly human. Namely, see a movie. Yeah, we were already here in town and nothing was on fire for once, so we just sent a message back about what we were doing and went to the cinema in the mall, where they were playing an action-comedy thing. That seemed safe enough, all things considered.
Persephone got the concept easily enough, even if I wasn’t entirely sure if Seosten had anything specifically like theaters. And I knew she didn’t have any experience with that sort of thing as a Revenant. But regardless, she immediately understood how to act in the theater. She stayed mostly quiet, ate popcorn and drank soda when it was offered to her, and enjoyed what was on the screen. At first I had been a little worried about how she would react to any seating arrangement, but she immediately announced that Avalon and Shiori should sit on either side of me, and she would sit next to the latter. It was something about them being ‘first-girls’, which I really didn’t need to think about that hard.
In any case, going to the movie worked out just fine. Which summed up the movie itself too, ‘just fine.’ It wasn’t anything to write home about or gush over too much, but Persephone sure loved it. As we were walking out of the mostly empty screening room and back out to the main part of the mall, she kept going on and on about every little part of it. It was pretty hilarious all on its own, honestly. Listening to her dramatically reenact every other scene, including the completely normal, not funny or actiony parts, somehow managed to be pretty great.
While we were standing near the entrance into the theater, a couple younger teenagers came up to ask who Persephone was dressed as. Which belatedly made me remember that she was still clad in the sleeveless version of the skin-tight bodysuit. Which wasn’t exactly normal clothing, to say the least. With her snow-white hair and those clothes (if the suit could be called that), these guys thought she was dressed up as an anime character or something.
“Hello!” the woman in question promptly greeted. “I am Persephone! I’m a Revenant, but don’t worry, I don’t want to hurt anybody. I just got to this world–well, I was here a really long time ago, but you didn’t have movies then. Or electricity, or cars, or a printing press, or–”
Quickly, Shiori piped up. “It’s a brand new show, you wouldn’t have heard of it yet. But you will, really soon. We’re just getting pictures for like a uhh, publicity tour or whatever. Come on guys, let’s go see if the photographer’s ready for her!”
My head bobbed quickly as Avalon and I pulled Persephone by the arms, and I called back to the boys, “Keep your eyes out for it! Great show, it’s gonna be a big deal when it drops!”
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Leaving the boys back there audibly wondering how they were supposed to keep an eye out for a show we hadn’t even told them the title of, the three of us humans quickly guided Persephone with us through the mall. Avalon spoke first. “We need to get her some real clothes that won’t stand out.” She paused before adding, “Not just for the regular world, but up there too. People are already going to be wary about her.”
Her words were met with an affirmative squeak from her pocket, and I saw Porthos poke his head out to look back the way we’d come, as though checking to make sure the boys weren’t following us.
“Real clothes?” Persephone echoed, head tilting curiously. “Am I wearing fake ones? They seem real.” She poked at her own stomach as though waiting to see if they would disappear. And that, of course, was a thought that I really didn’t need right then. Or any time.
Clearing my throat pointedly, I nodded. “Don’t worry, your suit’s real. We just uhh, need to get you clothes like ours, see?” I gestured at myself and the other two. “Clothes that will let you blend in a little more. It’s a good thing, trust me.”
She, in turn, gave a prompt, “Of course I trust you, belo–Flick.” Giving me a smile as she corrected herself, the woman added, “If you think getting different clothes would be for the best, then that is what we shall do.”
And with that, she abruptly pivoted and took three steps over to where a woman of about her size was walking past through the mall corridor. “You,” she promptly announced while pointing that way, “give me your clothes. I need them because my Flick wants me to change.”
While the woman sputtered and stared at her, I quickly lunged that way and put myself in front of Persephone while giving a loud laugh. “Sorry, sorry, it was a joke! I mean it was supposed to be a joke. You know, like from the Terminator? Give me your clothes, your boots, and your motorcycle? Haha, she’s just different, no big deal. Sorry, go ahead on your way.”
Thankfully, the woman didn’t make too big of an issue about it and went on her way, though she gave a wide berth around us. I guess for some reason she thought we were weird. Once she had moved on, I turned back to the white-haired figure who was staring curiously at me. “Dude,” I hissed, “you can’t just take things away from people or demand they give them to you. I meant we’d buy you some clothes.” Raising my hand, gestured to the stores nearby. “See, lots of places to buy clothes. We can buy everything you need to blend in.” Pausing, I turned to look at the other two. “As long as somebody has enough money with them for that or–”
Snorting, Shiori drawled, “I guess we could buy new clothes for the girl you’re trying to seduce.”
Of course, that left me red-faced as I stammered about how that totally wasn’t what was going on and that I definitely didn’t want anything like that, while Avalon and Shiori snickered at my expense. This was definitely so much worse than letting the Victors buy pizza.
Finally, the latter extended something to me, and I belatedly realized it was my wallet. Or a reasonable facsimile, since the last one had been lost when I was with Fossor. “Don’t worry, we’ve got your back. Or, you know, your dad does.”
“Yes,” Avalon confirmed, “he thought you’d need that at some point. Though I doubt he realized you’d be bumming money off the Eden’s Garden leaders for lunch.”
“Reeeeeally starting to regret telling you guys about that during the movie previews,” I muttered before putting the wallet away. “But thanks. And uhh, I guess we can get those clothes now.” Turning to Persephone, I added, “So, let’s go see what kind of things you like to wear.”
*********
As it turned out, when left to her own choices and given basically free rein, what Persephone liked to wear made her look like a lumberjack. Okay, an incredibly attractive lumberjack, but still. Yeah, her choices amounted to jeans and flannel shirts. Which wasn’t at all what I would have expected, but I also wasn’t going to object or anything. I was just glad she stopped asking what I wanted her to wear after the first couple stores we made our way through.
Eventually, she had several similar outfits that she liked and had changed into one of them. The four of us had made our way to the food court by then. Not for actual food, of course. But we did get milkshakes, and sat at a table in the far back of the open room, where nobody was around. Between that and the privacy coin that Shiori activated, we could talk openly about anything.
“See?” I started with a gesture toward the Revenant figure sitting across from me (who was curiously poking at her strawberry milkshake with a spoon), “You definitely look a lot better like this.” At a pair of amused glances from the other two I quickly amended, “I mean you blend in more. You’ll get along better in public. You–it’s good that–you know what I mean!”
“Chambers,” Avalon informed me with a very slight smile, “you really need to pull yourself together.” Saying that, she set her cyberform lizard on the table and dumped a handful of little metal bead things down for him to happily chew on.
“Under the circumstances, I’m doing fine,” I informed her with a sniff, before adding, “How’re you doing, Persephone? How’s the milkshake?” She had chosen strawberry because it was pink.
She, in turn, lifted the spoon and took a bite before making a cute little gasping noise. “Cold!”
That raised all sorts of questions in my mind about what she could feel and be affected by, but before I could ask, she quickly took a much larger spoonful and made happy noises around it. Then she raised her hand to point over at where Porthos was enjoying his own snack. A bit of pink ice cream dripped down her chin as the woman asked, “You have an automaton!”
“They’re called Cyberforms,” Avalon informed her. “And his name is Porthos.”
“Oh, hello, Porthos!” Leaning down to put her chin on the table so she could see him from up close, the other woman introduced herself. “I’m Persephone! It’s a pleasure to meet you, sir. Would you like to meet my automaton?”
That made the three of us humans exchange glances before I carefully asked, “You mean you have one of these things too?” That made me curious, of course. If she hadn’t been on Earth for so long, and Harrison Fredericks had only started making them in the past few decades, then what exactly did she have, and how did it measure up to ours?
“Oh yes!” Happily nodding as she took another spoonful of her treat, Persephone asked, “He’s very friendly unless you’re mean, or a bad person. Would you like to meet him?”
Part of me thought this might backfire somehow, but I really was curious. Actually, if she had something like that, where was she keeping it? Just in one of her suit pockets or something? There could be a lot of space in those things thanks to the bigger-on-the-inside tech, but still.
“Uhh, sure, let’s see your little friend,” I agreed. “Jaq and Gus probably want to meet him too.” With that, I took a moment to produce my own little cyberform mice, who quickly greeted Porthos with a series of back-and-forth chirps and squeaks. He even shared some of his metal beads with them.
After taking a moment to greet my little buddies, Persephone straightened and offered a bright smile. “Good, they can all play together. He’ll like that.” She put her finger up to her ear then, touching something there. “Andromeda! Could you send my cute little friend down?”
“Andromeda?” I blinked in confusion. “Who’s Andromeda?”
“I am Andromeda,” a female voice announced from the direction of my new phone, which I had laid down on the table. “Apologies for co-opting the use of your communication device, but I thought it necessary to speak to the entire group. I am a friend of Persephone, and have been ever since she freed me from Seosten imprisonment. I owe her my freedom and my life several times over. Still, it is sometimes necessary for me to ensure that she does not cause more damage or commotion than she is intending. So, I must ask, should her pet be sent to you in his full form, or his miniature shape?”
Okay, now I was really curious. After exchanging a look with the other two humans, I carefully replied, “Let’s go with his little form. Actually, why don’t we go outside first? You know, just to be safe.”
Andromeda, whoever she was, agreed to wait, before we gathered our things and started to head out of the mall. On the way, I asked, “I know Andromeda from the myths and all that. Her mother went on about Andromeda being the most beautiful woman ever and Poseidon had her chained to the rocks as a sacrifice to some monster or something before Perseus saved her.”
Persephone’s head was bobbing. “Oh yes, Sachael was not happy about me saving her from the Seosten lab where they were experimenting on her. But she was nice to me.”
“Okay, wait,” Shiori put in. “You saved her, instead of whoever Perseus was?”
“Me,” Persephone informed her. “I am Persephone and sometimes I am Perseus. I’ve been both.” Lowering her voice, she whispered, “Sometimes I pretend to be someone else. That’s Perseus.”
“In that case, I have the feeling you’d really get along with Guinevere, Lancelot, Harper, or whatever she’s going by right now,” I murmured while shaking my head in wonder.
By that point, we had left the mall and made our way out to an open space in the back lot where there weren’t many vehicles. Glancing around to make sure we had privacy, I finally nodded and held my phone up. “Okay, Andromeda. We’re good now, so go ahead and send him down.”
Right after saying that, a thought abruptly occurred to me. “Hold on,” I mumbled in confusion, “send him down from where exac–”
As far as I got before there was a sudden flash of bright light. Directly in the middle of our group, a figure began to appear, its form coalescing over the next few seconds. Wait, no, it was three figures. Hold on, no, one figure… wait… wait…
In the end, I realized why it was so confusing. The thing that appeared in front of us was one figure with three heads. Yeah. It was a tall obsidian black canine form, its shoulders slightly higher than mine (and this was its small form?), with three wolf-like heads extending out from broad shoulders. And yes, it–errr, he looked like a robot. A robot dog with three heads that was big enough, even in his ‘small form’ to basically eat any of us for lunch. Actually, given the fact he had a full trio of heads, he probably could’ve eaten all three of us. He was a huge, three-headed robot dog.
“Friends!” Persephone chirped, “meet Cerberus! Cerberus, these are our new friends. Say hello!”
Staring at the enormous three-headed canine as he–(they?) eagerly wagged their tail and gave a trio of cacophonous barks that echoed across the parking lot, I slowly raised a hand to wave. “You know…
“We really should’ve seen this coming.”