“That was fun.” PSI King said as they started packing up.
“Playing with a floating brain was super-weird.” James said. “But you’re a cool dude.”
Parson snorted. “He flirted with every single NPC that didn’t have weapons drawn.” And a few that did, yes.
“What can I say?” PSI King said. “I’ve a lot of love to give.”
“Eighteen charisma is bullshit.” Asha complained.
“Parson’s expression every time was hilarious.” James said. “Come on Ashna, we gotta get home.”
Nathan stood up as well, leaving with a wave. He didn’t need to say anything, everyone knew his precarious living situation.
With the others gone, Parson turned on PSI King. “I have to say, I’ve never seen one of those brain balls up close before.” True Psychic Tales did feature them as background characters, whenever a scene was set in the Nerve Center. There were not many Psychonauts that were disembodied brains, but there were a few. “It’s a lot more high tech than the comics make them look.”
“Yeah, I miss having a body.” PSI King said. “But this ball thing is pretty cool.”
“It took Agent Mentalis twelve years of work to make the modern mobility capsule.” Tanya offered an interesting fact. “His goal was to make it possible for someone to live bodiless so as to escape the infirmities of old age. He fully plans on placing his own brain in one, once his health dips below a certain standard.”
“I mean, you can’t eat anything. Or make sweet love. ” PSI King said. “So I don’t think he’s done yet.”
Tanya shrugged. “As an incidental benefit, my own work will allow that particular issue to be addressed. Both of them.”
“Wait, you’re going to make porn games?” Parson asked, shocked.
“Of course not.” Tanya said. The closest thing she’d ever make would be the things like the breakfast scenario she already created. Scenarios with no real game to them, just a pleasant sensory experience that is meant to be enjoyed for its own sake. There were quite a few exotic experiences that she’d like to be able to enjoy whenever she wanted, even ignoring the ones that would be otherwise impossible. “But I’ve explained my end goal: to create development tools that can be used by artists and non-psychics to create games and other entertainment without needing my input. Some of that is going to end up as pornography.” As long as she gets her cut, she was fine with it.
“Still, it’s weird to hear you talk about porn.” Parson said. “You always get so grossed out when the nerds hit on you.”
Tanya shuddered. “Don’t remind me. But even with my currently completed model, the device that helps you fall asleep and lets you guide your dreams, can be used for such matters.”
“Oh yeah, you talked about that thing.” Parson said, looking into the middle distance as he recalled the conversation. “My first thought when you described it was wondering if I could ask it to make me dream about sleeping with Carrie Fisher.”
PSI King seemed intrigued by this topic. “Hey, can I have a go with that device?”
Tanya shook her head. “No, the FDA has the only functional devices right now.” She could make another, sure, but she was busy… also she didn’t want to risk using it herself long-term without knowing the results of those tests. “Also Parson, there’s nothing stopping you from using the device like that.” Except the part where it stops you from waking up at night for anything short of shocks on par with smelling salts, which could have undesirable side-effects. Tanya was still working on that aspect. “Beyond the lack of possession of it.”
“What did you usually use it for?” Parson asked, curious. PSI King hummed curiously as well.
Tanya blushed. She shouldn’t say… it’s weird… oh, she also set it to let her spend more time with Visha. “Ah, I had a friend; over a decade ago. She’s a world away now. When testing, I usually did something with her that I never had the chance to.” Like cuddling, or going to the beach with the men. She always stayed out of things when she left them to enjoy themselves, not wanting her authority to put a damper on things, as she was told in Officer’s school was the proper way to do things. It was one of the few things she regretted on how she handled the 203rd, she should have acted closer to the Japanese way of things. “Beach trips and the like. Normal things.” Definitely never replaying those months of indolence when she was in recovery.
“Makes sense.” Parson said after a moment, treating the moment delicately. “Have you ever considered getting back in touch?”
Tanya winced. “Ah, as you know, I am a firm believer in reincarnation. When I said ‘world away’...” She let the implications settle in. Visha was probably still alive, happy with a family of her own. Or dead with a mountain of Nazi corpses at her feet, bit of a tossup. Did they even take power?
“Oh. I’m sorry, that was dumb of me.” Parson said. Tanya didn’t like telling people about her previous lives, but she had mentioned to the RPG group that she firmly believed that everyone reincarnated after death, but in a completely different world. Conversation during mealtimes could get philosophical at times.
“I better go fetch Mary from the arcade.” Tanya said, sighing as she rose from her seat. “She feels cheated if she doesn’t run out of money before closing.” Even when it was entirely due to her spending hours on the pinball machine to get her spot at the top of the high score list back. Mary liked to attribute it to her natural talent and hard work, but she also liked forgetting that one of Being X’s blessings was literally talent in all things, on top of nigh immortality and incredible magical/psychic power.
Needless to say, only Agent Nein and Mom knew about that bit.
---------------------
Ah, Saturday. The day that Tanya gets to sleep in… if her circadian rhythm didn’t wake her up thirty minutes earlier than usual for no particular reason. Each of her three lives had their own little biological quirks, even if Being X declined to deliberately saddle her with one of the many, many possible genetic disorders just to make her life difficult. She assumed it was because despite everything, he had a sense of fair play that prevented him from cheating quite so egregiously.
As the first one up, Tanya took to cooking breakfast for everyone after her morning grooming. With plenty of energy, she decided to put in a bit more effort than usual. The full honey pepper pancake stacker, with the original honey pepper boar bacon instead of regular bacon. This will require a quick trip to the commissary, as they were out of bacon.
She started jogging, activating the psychic resistance formula to let the trip double as exercise. As she exited the building, a voice called out: “Morning Tanya!” Lili shouted.
The seven year old was, as usual, in the garden from dawn to whenever she’s needed elsewhere. Tanya had encouraged her to develop her family’s inborn affinity of herbaphony in an attempt to curb her pyromaniac tendencies, and it worked wonderfully. This time, both of her parents were in the dirt with her, a rarity. “Good Morning, Lili.” Tanya replied, diverting her route to the quarter-acre plot that was dedicated to the Zanotto family’s horticultural whims. “Good morning, Mr. and Mrs. Zanotto.”
Grand Head Zanotto was in fine form, dressed in his flannel shirt and jeans as he coaxed his existing plants to clear a space for the seeds he was planting in their place. “Good Morning, Tanya.” Grand Head Zanotto said. “Just planting the pumpkins for Halloween. The more time I give them, the better off the soil will be.” Herbaphony allowed for magical levels of plant growth… but soil depletion was still an issue. Bob Zanotto invented the field of psychic horticulture, and by now there was a fairly large body of knowledge about how to do so effectively. It wasn’t suitable for industrial scale farming, but for personal gardens of an acre at the largest, a psychic or two could perform wonders.
Mrs. Zanotto was a pleasant woman, plump and quick to offer people food at all hours of the day. It was a little mystifying to Tanya why such a domestic soul didn’t become a full time homemaker instead of keeping up her work as a real estate agent, but it wasn’t any of Tanya’s business. Then again… she was rather skilled at hydrokinesis… That usually required an iron will and an aggressive approach… “Oh Tanya, do you want some strawberries? We cleared the bushes so we have plenty.” Another useful application of herbaphony is to cannibalize the plant to reduce the soil stress when forcing the production of fruit.
Lili was grinning like a loon as she plucked more strawberries from the withering plant, each one fat and juicy-looking. Her mother sent water slowly into the soil as Lili worked, helping the process along. She was dressed identically to her mother, a denim dress with flowers embroidered for decoration, capped with a floppy straw hat that had living plants added. Lili’s hat had dandelions, while her mother’s had small sunflowers.
“I would love some, thank you.” Tanya said, telekinetically accepting four strawberries that Mrs. Zanotto washed on the spot for her. “I’m picking up some ingredients for breakfast at the commissary, so I’m in a bit of a hurry.”
“Are they open?” Mrs. Zanotto asked, confused.
“That’s not going to stop me.” Tanya shouted back as she left.
The Psychonauts, as they are quick to remind people, are fundamentally an organization about scientific research. This means that a rather large portion of their administrative staff are gigantic technophiles. Was it practical to set up a psitanium-controlled self-checkout that could use thinkerprint authorization to put your purchase on a tab that’s deducted from your next paycheck? No. Did Agent Mentalis invent and install one so he could satisfy his midnight snacking desires? Yes.
Technicians could open the door to the commissary even if it was closed, and it was a simple matter to swipe the ingredients, use the aforementioned self checkout to pay for them, and then lock the door behind her, without anyone important caring about the blatant abuse of power. People with high enough clearance could open those doors too, after all.
On her way back, Tanya was sure to compliment the now-eaten strawberries, accepting a small basket of them that Mrs. Zanotto prepared while Tanya was shopping. Lili preened under the praise, happily gardening with her family.
---------------------
“...I’m starting to remember.” PSI King said as Tanya busied herself in the kitchen. While he still needed sleep as an isolated brain, he tended to sleep fitfully, napping throughout the day rather than a full night of rest.
“Oh? That’s good news.” Tanya said, whisking the pancake batter. “Why do you sound so despondent about it?”
“I’m remembering his face…” PSI King elaborated, radiating grief. “How he never took good care of his glasses, or himself, unless I made him of course.” He sounded like he was describing a deceased brother… or lover. “But what was his name? What was mine?” He sobbed, his skill with telepathy easily sufficient to project that even without a face. “He’s dead now, anyway. I remember trying to save him… but I just threw my life away for nothing.”
Tanya winced. Yeah, she saw things like that quite a bit during the war. From the enemy, mostly. Her soldiers knew that they were not allowed to die. Until…
“Hey, you okay?” PSI KIng asked, his self-pity melting away to concern. “I know I’m being a Gloomy Gus here but you seem more angry, and not at me.”
“Just… it’s nothing.” Tanya deflected. “That matter is long dead.” While she doesn’t have any memory of actually killing Loria, she had no doubt of his death.
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“I’m sorry for bringing up bad memories, Tanya.” PSI King sent, using telepathy rather than his mobility capsule’s voice. “Mary told me that you had a bad time, in the last life you two had.”
Great. Of course she talked about it. “No one had a good time then.” Tanya replied somberly. “Even in this timeline, World War I was a horrific waste.”
“If you ever want to talk about it, I’ll keep it safe like a roadie: unseen and unheard.” PSI King offered.
“Thank you, but I’ve put all that well behind me with plenty of therapy. There’s no need to speak any more on the subject.” Tanya replied, her tone short and clipped. “Mary likes talking about it to those inclined to believe her-” Which she’s thankfully smart enough to keep a secret from her schoolmates. “-because it makes her special, ‘God’s chosen’, with a divine mandate and blessings from heaven.” Which, given the literal miracle of healing that she can show off on demand, is fundamentally accurate. “I, on the other hand, don’t like talking about it. No one wins misery poker.” She actually didn’t like talking about herself in general. Even if her anxiety had been more or less removed, many of the habits and preferences she developed from living with it remained.
“Just thought I’d offer. Hey, where did you learn about this recipe?” PSI King asked as Tanya started to plate the first pancake stacker, layering the pancakes, bacon, butter, and syrup as the recipe dictated.
“Agent Boole.” Tanya replied flippantly. “I helped out his friend, so he offered to teach me to cook. This was one of that friend’s favorite meals from a local diner, so he reverse-engineered it twenty years ago. Why?”
“I know it’s the thing you made for me in the monkey machine, but… I think I’ve had it before.” He said. “Something about how you’re making it… it rings a bell.”
Curious, she was using telekinetic constructs nearly exclusively, a very unusual but also very sanitary way to prepare food. “We don’t need to rush things.” Tanya eventually said. “Your memories are returning slowly, we’ll dust off the cobwebs soon enough.” Actually, perhaps they could use one of Agent Mentalis’ memory boosting… ah, right, he’s still on his vacation. She can’t check them out as she’s not an Agent, and without Agent Mentalis around to make an exception or to loan her one of his functioning prototypes…
Mom entered the dining area, prepared for the day. It was the weekend, so that meant she was dressed for a day with Agent Nein, attending some psychiatric conference in Chicago, only technically work. Not something you brought small children to, so it did explain why Mom was so eager to get Tanya to commit to a specific activity with Mary. “Good morning darling! I see someone’s in a good mood!” Tanya hummed in agreement, even if the morbid topic kind of spoiled it. She opened the freezer, looking through the varied selection of frozen fruit juices. “I’ll take care of this part, do you have a preference?”
She left that part for Mom specifically because she didn’t have one, but… “Pineapple.” Tanya said, picking the first one her eyes focused on when she glanced at the freezer door. Mom gets… let’s say stressed when she doesn’t feel like she’s doing enough for her daughters. It was easier to just pick something and let her feel like she’s indulging them rather than play the politeness game. It was yet another thing that made Tanya feel more like an American.
After all three plates were finished and on the table, Mary stumbled into the room, still tired but drooling at the prospect of the special breakfast. Between bites, Mary asked: “So Mom, did you get the tickets?”
After swallowing her own bite, Mom telekinetically brought out a set of three tickets. “I said I have ways, darlings. I even got you VIP passes, so you can meet them backstage.” Tanya immediately decided to not question this.
“You even got a ticket for me? Aw shucks.” PSI King gushed.
“The Springfield Civic Center has a standing policy that brains in capsules get discounted handicapped tickets.” Milla explained. “It’s the closest major music venue to the Motherlobe, so it wouldn’t be the first one they’ve seen.”
Ah, right. “There’s a handful of Agents that debrain themselves when it’s convenient for them.” Like on leg day, or if they’re hungover enough that Medical decides that they’d be more productive if their body was comatose in the infirmary while they went about their day.
“Weird.” PSI King said, contemplating that information as everyone else ate.
Once Tanya finished her breakfast, she started listing off the day’s itinerary: “As a weekend concert, it’s much earlier than you’d see during the week: The doors open at three. That gives us about five hours to see if we can get you able to move that capsule on your own before we have to leave.” They had VIP tickets, no waiting in line required.
Mom winced. “I really should be helping… but it seems like you’re doing an excellent job, Tanya. I need to get to the jet for that conference soon, though.” She checked the time, glancing at the wall clock. She accelerated her consumption of breakfast, not even half done.
“I have things well in hand.” Tanya said, waving her off. “It wouldn’t sit well with me if I didn’t see things through.”
Mom paused, eyes narrowing. She was clearly thinking about what happened the last time Tanya decided to do actual Psychonauts things, with Agent Cruller.
Before she could say anything, Tanya added: “PSI King’s mental defenses are pitiful in comparison to Agent Cruller. I can handle anything he’s got.”
“Hey…” PSI King whined, offended.
After a moment of thought, Mom accepted this reasoning and continued eating. Psychics did eat more than non-psychics, so she was able to polish off the rich meal without much in the way of problems. “I should get going, have fun, love you all!” She then floated out to the apartment’s balcony, flying off to the jet rather than bothering with the transport network.
Mary was still eating, her having long unlearned that particular facet of military discipline. “I’m gonna watch Super Friends. Have fun in PSI King’s head.” Naturally, Mary loved Saturday morning cartoons. What surprised Tanya was that she liked them more than she liked entering people’s minds.
Hrm. Maybe she just lost her enthusiasm over it after what happened before.
---------------------
“Why Dr. Touch?” Was the first question Tanya had when the embodied sense had introduced himself again.
Dr. Touch chuckled, the sound like something that would come out of Agent Mentalis’ mouth, but soft and gentle where the real Agent Mentalis was playful and bombastic. It pretty much made sense to Tanya, odds are while PSI King had heard the man’s voice, he knew very little about what the man was actually like. “Well, I did consider a few other stage names.” He said, using a wry tone that sounded much more like Agent Mentalis when he was joking around. “What do you think of ‘Organ Master’? Or ‘Finger Dude? I liked ‘Mr. Handy’ too, but Vision saw right through me when I tried to slip that one around him.”
Tanya turned to the floating eyeball with ears. “Your mind is a filthy place.” She deadpanned. Turning back, she sighed. “Dr. Touch it is.”
“That’s for the best.” PSI King said in agreement.
“Now, where should we start looking for your organ?” Tanya asked. She couldn’t sense anything from his head…
“I go where the love is.” Dr. Touch said cryptically. “Just follow your heart.”
Tanya’s eye twitched. “Vision? Do you have any input?”
“Well,” Vision Quest said from where he was tuning his violin, “Last time I saw that overengineered pile of scrap was…” Dr. Touch harrumphed at the acerbic jab. Apparently, the personality that PSI King associated with Agent Cruller’s cranky voice was incredibly prickly, taking every opportunity to make verbal potshots at the other senses. “It was dark, and cold. The dang thing kept seizing up, trying to bring out one last chord for Sniffles to play off of and take us home.” As he spoke, a chill started to appear, and the air took a distinct dampness. PSI King started shivering. Tanya created a small but powerful fire in her hand, warding away both environmental effects.
That… made absolutely zero sense. “Where was this?” Tanya asked.
“It was an eternity ago!” Vision snapped. “How am I supposed to know that?”
“Ah.” Dr. Touch said, in a way that made clear the sinking feeling that he was feeling. “Yes… I remember that.” He looked down at his own hands, shivering and miming… it looked like he was using smelling salts, actually. He took a deep breath from his nonexistent nose, and nodded to himself, the fingers of his head clenching into a fist before relaxing. “They’ll be down in The Dumps.” He said sadly.
Normally, Tanya would question this. But she was inside someone’s mind, so she just assumed that phrase was just being literal. “Let’s get going then.”
“Audie?” Dr. Touch asked, “You’re the expert, what’s the fastest way there?”
“Thanks for that.” The ear man said, annoyed. “Come on, we’ll take the Feelmobile.” Where did she hear that name before?
The ‘Feelmobile’ was a pretty generic hippie van, like one would see in cartoons about amateur detectives and their psychic pet, although the memory of it was obviously corrupted: many of the identifying features were blurred, and it had slashes that viewed the night sky breaking up its colorful design. It was also bigger on the inside, like an exceptionally mobile memory vault. Or that was just the night sky aesthetics making her think of the one she crawled out of a few delves ago.
Audie O was driving, while the rest of them waited in the oddly spacious back. Upon review, it resembled the Heptadome, absent the central device, which Tanya had since learned was called the Astralathe. It was, as Tanya had thought, the precursor to the psychoportal, and was immensely powerful, capable of feats of mental alteration and damage beyond the capabilities of a normal psychic.
Needless to say, that explained a lot. “Don’t sit there.” Vision said. “That’s Sniffles’ spot.” Tanya sighed and moved to the adjacent one. “No, that one’s Tasty’s.”
“Where should I sit, then?” Tanya asked.
“Hrm.” Vision looked around, then pointed to a visibly soaked pillow right next to him. “This one.” He said, “Better you than me.”
PSI King shuddered. “No, not that one.” He shouted towards where one of the entrances to the Heptadome would be, where Audie O was driving. “Hey, can Tanya use your spot?”
At the ear man’s assent, Tanya settled down right next to PSI King. It was even closer to him than the damp one was to Vision. Hrm, this was… odd. Such specificity… it probably meant something. She had gathered that PSI King was afflicted with a bit of hydrophobia, presumably from the Deluge of Grulovia, but… a damp beanbag? Why was it damp?
Before Tanya could puzzle out more about this mystery, the Feelmobile stopped, and the other exit, replaced with a set of van doors, opened up. Tanya filed out with PSI King floating behind, but the others remained inside.
“The Dumps” was a place of darkness and cold, wet air. It was raining so thickly that Tanya felt like she could drown, but a shield insulated her from both. The sky, what little could be seen, had a sun that resembled more a spotlight shining from a broken roof than an actual celestial body, and the place smelled… a bit like black pepper, actually. It irritated her nose.
The figments were of particularly aggressive snakes, storms, that man who was likely PSI King’s lover… and tentacles. Not real ones, with suckers and all of that, but more the shapes of them. One of the figments had PSI King’s lover in a daring pose, his hand to his forehead as he commanded the tentacles psychically.
…She’s seen this before. She knows she has. But even combing through her memory using psychonauts techniques, it clearly wasn’t something she felt was important enough to put effort into remembering. Who was PSI King? Well, currently he was screaming and going back into the Feelmobile.
Censors came out in a flood, wearing comically old timey swimsuits as they brandished their stamps, and unlike before, they were accompanied by proper mental defenses: a Judge, some Regrets, and, as usual, a Panic Attack.
After she killed the mental entities, PSI King returned. “I’m sorry about that.” He said.
“It’s fine.” Tanya said, waving off the apology. “As I’ve mentioned before, mental defenses will attack anyone inside your mind. It’s possible to stop them, but you’re not in complete control of your faculties yet.” That’s what they’re here to fix, after all.
Looking around, Tanya found… a tomb of ice. She could barely make out a silhouette, one that vaguely matched the one in pride of place on that stage. Was this what happened to PSI King’s body? If it was frozen… wouldn’t it be theoretically possible to revive it? She didn’t exactly know anything about cryonics, but she remembered reading about it in the newspaper last year… Something about a genuine Neanderthal that was unfrozen? Agent Nein was excited about it, in his usual reserved manner. What ended up happening to that guy?
She looked back up at the “sun”. Wait… there was something up there. Tanya smirked. Of course, there’s never a sun unless it’s important. Flying up there, she looked over the frozen landscape. The rain was gone, all the water limited to below the ice.
“Huh, deja vu…” Tanya said, confused. Was that a figment of a brain, just a little bit away from the hole in the ice? Where has she seen that before? Has she seen this frozen lake before?
“You find it yet?” Vision shouted from a distance. Logically, she shouldn’t be able to hear him, but logic can go hang.
Wait. She did see this before. In Agent Cruller’s head. Right before she went into the hole, and found that pile of bodies, there was a figment of a brain right outside of it. That was where Ford found PSI King’s brain! The timeline matched up… but the question remains: who was he?
The organ was almost disappointingly obvious in its placement. A distinctive rock formation had it on top, one that Tanya did recall from Agent Cruller’s version of the scene as well. It was just a few meters away from the hole, after all. The figments continued, but included a few other odd ones: a tidal wave of animal figments, all cold-weather types, and letters that swarmed like bees. Also, music notes.
Tanya got the distinct impression that she is going to think herself such a fool when she finally finds out PSI King’s name. Hopefully it’s because he was just some guy and she was fooling herself into thinking she could deduce it.