Gemia kicked her prosthetic feet as she thought hard, her metal heels clinking against the tank of the toilet she was sitting on. I leaned against the wall and adjusted my seat on the side of the tub, my wings awkwardly shuffling as I did. She'd been quiet for the last few minutes, thinking over what I'd said with a serious expression on her face. I didn't want to push her; if I did, she might just decide I was a bad guy and tell the world before I was ready, and that would not only put my popularity in danger, but also my family if I was banned from 'extra sectional activities' by the GGDS. She blew a raspberry and shook her head, her ratty, curly hair bouncing as she rubbed her face.
"Did is to be verdy comfusing..." she muttered
"It's not that confusing..." I said "I thought you tribal goblins were smart, right? You inherit intelligence from your ancestors?"
"Am only as smart as was der ancestors whos meats I ate. Dey never has to tink about blackmails and popurlarity, is just tinkering and alchemy, das all I learned." she sighed "I does not hav de brains for it, but mah kids wilt, I guess."
"Oh, I assumed the ritual was just a general intelligence buff, sorry."
Her eyes flicked to suspicious slits "Is still verdy smart, ju know. Just is not to know whad to do for de CirNet and stuffs."
"Yeah, no, sorry." I said "It's a lot for me to take in too, it's a stressful situation, you know?"
She nodded and dropped her head against the wall with a thud "Ravel knows?"
"Yup, like I said, she's blackmailing me over it." I said
"I thinks... meby I could do that too..." she mused
"Please don't..." I muttered "It's bad enough as many people know as they do. You, her, Sera, Maud, my whole team... It's just too many people to keep a secret."
"Is verdy many peoples for to be a secret." she agreed "To be more like... comspirdicy?"
"I guess." I said "I just want to keep it quiet for a while longer, if I can get like, thirty thousand more followers, I can merge my two accounts and hopefully get up to one twenty, then unmask, and my popularity will boom."
"How wilt dat helps ju?" she asked, tilting her head "Is seeming to be jus stupid numbers on a screen."
"If I get enough followers, I'll make Angel, and I'll get a new power." I said "As long as I'm getting Lorgiaia enough energy by drawing in enough fans, I mean. Then I can kill the weird lady with my upgrades, get rich, and save my family."
"I hate gods, theys just to be so... partricular." Gemia sighed "I doesn't tink deys is to be verdy cares aboud all us lil peoples down here, is just to be more powerds for theys."
"You and Chrissie will get along well, I'm sure." I said, rolling my eyes "And Fem-Butch too, thinking about it."
"Fem-Butch would catch me, but das not to be imporntant right now." she said "Why is ju to catch me and smatch my mech? For real."
"I actually was for real hired to protect you." I said "I really did want to help, I just got frustrated when you wouldn't let me."
"You are to be still a big jerk." she said "But whardevers, I does not care, jus... leave me alone now, hokey?"
"I can do that, yeah." I said "Do you mind if I sleep here for a bit? Not, like, in the bathtub, in the safe house."
"Longs as ju art not to hurt my stuff." she said "If you are messing wif it, I wilt tell everybody who ju is."
"Yeah, I'll just... mind my business, then." I said "Can we get out of the bathroom? It's weird just hanging out in here."
"Fine, let's go." Gemia said, hopping to the floor with a light clang.
We walked out into the main area to find Inky poking out of her tank, a surprisingly human form leaning against the glass edge. It was still featureless, like a clay person made by a toddler that had melted in the sun, but it was a big improvement from barely being able to form a face. I waved at her, and she rippled, her body shimmering with waves of gray to face us. It was uncanny, and I held in a shudder as she pointed her 'face' towards us. Was she doing that for us? Was this her being polite because she knew it was awkward to talk to a puddle?
"Hey, not cool, guys." she said, her arms shifting to a crossed position without moving "Tipsy is made of glass, they could have been shattered, dumbasses."
"I'm not all glass!" Tipsy said from their place leaning against the tank "I have silk and cotton and my butt is full of beans!"
"Shut up, Tipsy." Inky said "What were you two even doing in there? Making out?"
"We were talking about hero stuff, uh, hero stuff that's classified." I said
"Is not to hurt Tipsy..." Gemia muttered "Barely threwd they at all..."
"Look, you can get all secret and spooky all you want, but come on, don't hurt people, got it?" Inky sighed
"I'm not hurt, it's really ok!" Tipsy said
"It's bad luck to hurt clowns, anyway." Inky continued, ignoring them. "You'll get us cursed or some shit."
"I've literally never heard that." I said "That's not a real thing.”
"I'm not a clown!" Tipsy said "I'm an elf! I just look like a clown in this body!"
"I promidse to not to throw Tipsy andymores, hokey?" Gemia said, glaring "Just shud up about it!"
"If you do it again, I'll pull you in an melt a limb or two off of you, just so you know." Inky said
"Oh, please don't, sweeties!" Tipsy said "I'm really fine, stop it!"
"Dese arms and legs art to be in my nervoius systems!" Gemia said "Is to feels wit theys! If you is to try and gets me, I'll... put drain cleanders in ju!"
"Try it, gear head!" Inky taunted "I'll be juuust fine."
"Uuugh!" Tipsy shouted and stomped off, ducking under Dahlia's charging bed and disappearing
"I'll just... go put my bed roll down over there..." I said, stepping away from the other two glaring at each other.
I un-transformed and spread my roll out on the ground at the foot of Dahlia's bed and put my bag at the top like a pillow. I had a few changes of clothes, but I'd need to go home within a week at least, there were no laundry machines here. Come to think of it, there were no laundry machines across the street, either. Our laundry room connected to the gym, where did the Unchosen wash their clothes? Did they seriously walk a full three blocks to the laundromat every couple days? Then what, just sit around while they waited on the machine? That sounded so annoying... I heard a clang, and glanced up to see Ravel drop out of a vent in the drop ceiling onto the floor in front of me. Her eyes widened when she saw me and she pulled out her legs to rise up to my height.
"Candy, where have you been?!" she whispered in a frustrated tone "You left like, two days ago and you've been missing ever since! You weren't in your room yesterday morning or the whole base last night and I know you weren't on patrol, the only reason I knew you were still alive is because Gemia said she'd seen you yesterday afternoon, what the hell?"
"I've been dealing with stuff." I said defensively "I had meetings and arguments and fights to deal with."
"And last night?" she asked "I spent the night in a cold, empty bed wondering if you were coming back!"
"You don't even sleep..." I said "Why were you in my bed?"
"I was lying on it while I used the computer." she said "Where were you?"
"I was having a sleepover at the Unchosen's place." I told her "And tonight I'm having one here."
She groaned "Are you avoiding Alele? She's been locked in her room every time I've been at the base, you'll be fine."
"I'm not avoiding her, I'm just making space, I'm texting her about- oh, shit, I forgot to text her..." I muttered, and transformed, pulling my phone out
I flipped through the messages, a goodnight from Alele, an encouraging text from Drizti, a meeting alert from Galorna... I needed to get back to the base, they were having a team meeting in less than thirty minutes. This is why I needed two phones, one for each form... I thumbed the power button and pocketed it. I could text her later, no point in doing it right before I saw her, right?
"I gotta go." I said to Ravel "Are you coming with?"
"No, but could you bring the computer back with you?" she asked "It's too heavy to carry."
"Yeah, absolutely." I said, turning to go
"Wait, have you seen Tipsy?" she asked "I don't see them, are they pretending to brush their teeth again?"
"Oh, yeesh." I said, glancing around. Gemia was at the workbench with her tools and Inky was watching TV on a tiny tube-screen hanging from the ceiling, neither paying attention to us "They're under the bed, Gemia was rough with them and her and Inky got in a fight over it. They got mad and hid because no one was listening to them I think."
"Fuck..." Ravel slumped "Alright, thanks. See you later, I have some cool stuff to show you on the computer, don't forget to bring it back ok?"
I gave her a thumbs up and walked out. This meeting was out of nowhere, had someone gotten in a fight or something and I didn't know? I was curious, hopefully it was worth crossing half the section for...
~~~
"I'm sure you've all been excited for this one, girls!" Oori said, a wide grin on his face "It's been a long game, but I think you've all been doing a great job! Well, most of you at least."
The rest of the team laughed at that, and he shot me a teasing smile. I gave him a blank one back, what the fuck was this about? Game? Were we supposed to be doing something? Drizti caught my attention and gave me a shrug and an eye roll, a self depreciating smile on her face.
"Well, what are the totals?" Lucy asked "Come onnnn I wanna see!"
"Alright, calm down." Debbie sighed "First up, in last place, we have... Angel Rouge at negative thirty seven points."
"Oooh, saw that coming, I never even saw you use your gun." Galorna said, nodding
I flinched. This was the end of the training exercise? Already? I hadn't even gotten to play, I'd been too busy with-
"And next up, fourth place is Angel Verdant, at negative twenty one points!" Oori said "These numbers may seem discouraging, but we'll play this again sometime soon, and then you'll know what to expect, I'm sure you'll do better then!"
Third place is Angel Sable, with zero points total." Debbie said "Did you plan that?"
"I did!" Lucy said "I knew I wouldn't win, so I aimed for dead nothing! I hit someone every time I was hit, kept it level."
"That's impressive in of itself, somehow..." Alele said, her eyebrow raised
"Second place was Angel Saffron with seven points..." Oori said, and Galorna smirked, making finger guns at us.
And finally, in first place, we have Angel Cobalt with forty nine points!"
"Ah, one away!" Alele said, dusting off her shoulders and rolling her neck "Care to tell them how many times I was hit, boss?"
Oori rolled his eyes and chuckled "We have no idea how many times you were hit, Cobalt, but you appeared to be hit zero times, and apparently never missed a shot!"
"Hmhm, yeah, I'm just that good." she said smugly
"So?" Lucy asked "What are you spending the prize money on?"
"Yeah, I'd love more stuff for the kitchen!" Galorna said
"And arcade games for the rec room!" Drizti added
"I thiiiink..." she said, tapping her chin "I'll re-design my bedroom, really make it something unique."
"Booooo!" Lucy said, shaking her head "Come onnn, share it!"
"Now Sable, it's her money!" Oori said "She can spend it how she likes, as long it's within the base!"
Alele eyed me her forehead crinkling as she thought "I-I'd also like to upgrade the training hall." she said "I have some ideas, some stuff that could help us get better as a group..."
"Oh?" Galorna asked, sitting forward "Now I'm interested, like what?"
"Like, uh, like a wind tunnel, so we can fly?" she said, her eyes flicking towards me but not landing on me "I just think that's, like, a good idea..."
"I agree." Debbie said "We can even do an article about it, something like 'Cobalt wins cash prize, uses it to upgrade team's headquarters'. It'll sound like you're a generous and caring person."
"If she's donating the money to the training hall, doesn't that mean she is a generous and caring person?" I asked
"Ah, I suppose so." Debbie said "But the public opinion on her matters more than what she really is. I'll get to work calling reporters, we can have this in print by the end of the week."
She turned and walked away to the second elevator that went straight to her and Oori's offices, her phone already out and dialing by the time she got there.
"Don't take Debbie too seriously." Oori said "She's got a different mindset than most, I think it's wonderful you're sharing your prize, Cobalt, and I'm very proud of you for doing so well!"
"For cheating so well." Drizti said, giggling "It's not like any of our powers can be used to stop bullets or re-do shots."
"Skill issue." Alele said pertly
I shook my head, I hadn't really cared about the game, but really? Negative thirty seven? I think I'd only hit one person one time, and it was Driz. I certainly didn't remember being hit almost forty times, but I hadn't really been paying attention. It'd been hard to want to win, fifty kay was a lot of money, but only being allowed to spend it on upgrades to a building that didn't really need any yet wasn't much of an incentive. Still, I looked like an idiot with such a low score, I probably could have tried at least a little.
I slipped out of my seat as the meeting ended, I didn't have anywhere to be really, but I might as well get that computer for Ravel. If Tipsy could use a phone, maybe it'd be a good idea for Ravel to get one too? She'd mentioned hating the design of mine, she said 'phones and computers should be square' with a surprising amount of passion, but I didn't get it. If the screens were square, there'd either be huge empty spaces around where the bubbles were, or part of the display would get cut off if it was zoomed in enough to hide the gaps. I guess you could re-design the interface to be square, like a television, but that sounded like it'd be hard to see details on a format that small without the bubble zoom effect. Plus when the news played videos taken on phones, the weird stretched out look made the whole thing look warped, I'd hate it if everything had that same feel.
As I walked towards the common room, I made eye contact with Alele for the first time today. She gave me a half smile and a tilt of her head, our relationship still not healed up all the way, I supposed. I hung back as she went upstairs ahead of me, I didn't want to have an awkward elevator ride with her if I didn't have to, and I wasn't in a rush. Actually, I didn't have anything to do until tonight when I was meeting Elma for a FML gathering to discuss the ongoing campaign to normalize and promote monsters without erasing their identities. Maybe Gemia would want to go to that... I know Fem-Butch was on the team that captured her, but she'd seemed cool before, I'd have to ask and see.
"Hey, Candy?" Galorna caught me by the shoulder and I flinched. A little too close to skin, there...
"What's up?" I asked, shrugging her hand off
"About yesterday morning..." she said "I know I snapped at you, but Alele said it was all a big misunderstanding, and I watched that video you made..."
I felt my insides twist, I didn't want to hear this again, I wanted to head downstairs to see Arnie again and get a bag of treats...
"You know, I thought it'd be best to give the people a little more information about what was going on that night, it came off as kinda rough." I said
"So you really were hired to protect her?" Galorna asked
"Yeah, really truly honestly. And I just saw her this morning, we... hung out. She's cool with me." I shifted my weight
Galorna nodded slowly and watched my face "Well... In that case, I'm sorry for snapping at you. Just because you have an attitude doesn't mean you're a bad person, I know that, I just- I know we've butted heads before and I jumped to conclusions."
"Yup, no problem." I said, fluttering my wings impatiently. Gods, I just wanted to leave...
"I do want you to be very careful with how you treat Comfit from now on, she's got more followers than all of Lorgiaia's Angels combined, so she's under a very watchful eye. It's important to be aware that if you really do get unmasked or merge the identities, your actions as her will reflect on the rest of us, and..."
I tuned her out, nodding as she went on and on about how to act and how to stay 'safe'. I knew what I wanted to do, I knew who I was going to be, I didn't want her 'advice' on the matter. I gave a small smile as she waved a hand towards me like she was using me for an example and I thought about what I'd get for breakfast. A green tea roll for sure, and one of the slices of red velvet that I'd designed, and a slushie of course... Maybe one of those gummies shaped like Lucy for desert? But I'd be hungry again in an hour, lemon bars were dense, would that stick to my stomach enough? Whatever, I knew I'd be popping into the donut shop or the tea shop by early afternoon anyway, I couldn't work on an empty stomach.
Work... I fought the urge to check my notebook to see if I had anything today, I knew I wasn't on patrol until tomorrow, and tonight I had the thing, what was I supposed to be doing the rest of the day? Was it still blocked out to hunt and find Gemia? That would mean that if I was following my schedule, I was supposed to be going out and being seen as Comfit today, at least for a little while. I'd pack up my costume when I picked up the computer in a moment, whenever Galorna shut up. Speaking of...
"...And I'm just glad our relationship is good enough to have these kinds of discussions, I'd never have been able to talk things out like this with my old crews." she said "I can tell you were really concentrating on what I said, that means a lot to me, Candy."
I smiled politely "You've given me a lot to consider."
She nodded and held out her arms "Hugs?"
I tried not to wince, but I carefully accepted her hug, keeping my face and neck away from hers to avoid any accidents. Why did she want a hug? Last time we hugged was after a fight too, did she just assume that hugs made everything go away? Like, if she got a hug, the fight didn't count? It was frustrating, I didn't want a hug right after a ‘discussion’, I wanted to forget about it and get on with my day.
"Alright, thanks, Candy." she said, and I wondered if her using my name so much this conversation was some kind of manipulation tactic or if she was just like that "I've got an appearance at a daycare this afternoon, I've been nervous about it, but now that this is off my chest, I'm feeling a lot better. Do you have any plans?"
"I was going to go out with Ravel, I guess." I said "The usual."
"Ah, right, still trying to, what, find her home or something?"
"She's an offworlder, she wants to get back to her home dimension." I said, not wanting to mention I'd be going as Comfit "I gotta go though, she's at the safe house and I've got to bring her some stuff."
"Well, I'll see you soon then." she said "Don't be a stranger, ok? If you need anything, we're right here."
Like she was right there yesterday when she fussed at me and made a scene, ok. "Thanks, I'll let you know."
I was going to get extra breakfast after all, one of those cookies with her face on them in icing. I'd take great pleasure in tearing it up and biting it to bits. Gods, she was still the leader, but did she have to act like it? Just give speeches and debrief us at meetings, lay off our personal lives. With a sour taste in my mouth, I headed upstairs to get my stuff together. I needed a break from her too.
~~~
I landed in front of the safe house, my bag with my change of clothes and the computer in one hand, a large bag of snacks in the other. I shook my wings out and de-transformed back into my lazy clothes, I'd planned on changing in the bathroom before I headed out, but I had time for that. The door opened and Dahlia poked her head out, giving me a nod.
"C-come on into the pad, pardner, w-we got all the peeps h-here today, doncha know." she said, her voice sounding glitchy and static-y
"Uh, yeah." I said, walking in "Are you feeling alright? What's with the clashing accents?"
"I'm trying to disentangle her vocal patterns from her core." A monotone robotic voice came from the other side of Inky "Dahl, come back here, I'm in the middle of this."
“B-but it feeeels w-wonky…” Dahlia complained
I stepped around the tank to see a folding table had been set up behind it, with tools, machines, and a computer on top, all wired up to Dahlia's bed. Dahlia walked back and lay down, sighing as she plugged a cord into the back of her neck and went still. Mod was hovering over her looking terrified, and Gemia was under the table watching one of the readouts click away while Ryllis typed on two keyboards with all four hands.
"Why didn't you just do this across the street?" Inky said, watching everything "I want to watch TV, and I'm supposed to do my physical training this afternoon."
“We’ll be out of here soon, it's ok." Mod said, her voice shaking "We need the charger to interface with her correctly, and it's too bulky to move around."
"Boy howdy, I sure hope usn's will be burning rubber and bouncing soon, aight?" Dahlia said, holding her head, her rubber eyelids squeezed shut as she shuddered "These code changes are makin' mah brain box right whacky, yo."
"Uh, huh." I said "Is Ravel around? She wanted to talk to me..."
"Under the bed!" Ravel called out "Can you fit?"
I looked at the bed, sitting a foot above the ground "Let's just go across the street and sit on the sofa..." I said
Ravel crawled out of the darkness with Tipsy held in her arms, extending her legs up to her normal six foot height "Did you bring the computer?"
"It's here, uh,” I pulled it out of the bag "I don't know, we can just... There's no chairs, so..."
"Yeah, across the street works, come on." Ravel said, nodding to the other people in the room
"Have a good day!" Mod said as we walked out. I threw a hand up as a farewell and quickly crossed the street to avoid anyone seeing me with Ravel.
We made our way inside, and I went over to the couch to set up. It was quiet, I guess we were alone in the building? Usually at least one person was around, it felt weird to be in their space without them around, like I was intruding.
"So, I've been poking around on that thing for days." Ravel said as she stepped onto the table with her soft legs, pulling her metal ones in "I've had a really hard time figuring out who is and who isn't a true super scientist, and even when I can, there's almost no way of knowing if they work with dimensions."
"Aw, sweetheart, I think we should just break Father Wright out of jail..." Tipsy said from Ravel's arms "He'd know how to send you back."
Ravel dumped them onto the coffee table and gestured for me to open the computer so we could see what she'd found "That's a stupid idea, Tipsy. Not to be mean, but he's the one who made us like this."
"If we'd let him find us our people, we'd be fine right now." they said "We'd at least be loved and safe..."
"What people?" I asked "Were you two commissions?"
"Thhhaaat's a horrifying idea, no." Ravel said, shuddering "We were built to help people with depression or mental illness. We're 'supposed' to guide them by acting as their conscience or something. Apparently there's a person out there for each of us who we 'match' with and if we're with them, we're fulfilling our- I swear I explained all this already."
"It sounds familiar, maybe?" I asked "So no Doctor Wright, what did you find?"
"Get this, there's a convention for super scientists this weekend!" she said "I don't have a way to buy tickets, but I left the page open on your screen so you could buy us one!"
"You want me to spend money on this?" I asked, logging in and frowning at the cartoon image of a guy in a white coat holding some kind of gun "This looks like a fan convention, I don't think there's going to be any real scientists here."
"No no, look!" she said, pointing at the screen "It says all the booths are real super scientists! You have to be registered with the GGDS to sign up."
"Well that means only the good guys will be there." I said "The odds of there being a good guy who can do what we need are slim to none. Have you heard back from that ad we put out?"
"No, just more of those weird beeping messages. I think someone is sending text files to the phone line instead of just using CirNet.” Ravel said "But see, this con is something weird, it's like, there's government security there, and no one can fight, so the bad guys can have booths too!"
"Oh, an armistice zone, yeah. The GGDs sets those up sometimes." I said "Ugh, I don't want to spend my weekend walking around a hotel looking at fancy electric tongue scrapers or whatever..."
"Wellll I'm blackmailing you, in case you forgot, and I think this is important." she said, shrugging
"The blackmail is going poorly, Ravel. Like half the people I know already found out I'm Comfit, and I'm planning on going public with it soon anyway." I told her
"Which is why I need to do this while I still have power over you!" she said "Come on, just one day?"
"You don't 'have power over me', I could pull you apart or set you on fire or any number of things, I'm just letting you think you're in charge because I'm nice." I told her
"Oh, please don't tear her apart..." Tipsy said "Please? She’s my best friend!”
"She's not going to hurt me, she'd have already done it if she was." Ravel sighed "Come on Candy, please?"
"I guess..." I said with a pout "I'm really not looking forward to it though."
"Yes, thank you!" she said, clapping her hands. They made a dull patting noise, and I wondered if she missed having skin
"For now though, I want to go around as Comfit and see if I can get fans. Will you come and be my camerawoman?" I asked her
"Yeah, I can do that.” she said "Least I can do for taking up a whole Saturday."
As I bought the tickets, I glanced over at her thoughtfully, remembering an earlier thought "Do you want a phone?"
"Me?" she asked "I don't know, Tipsy has one if I need it."
"I left mine in my nest under Dahl's bed." Tipsy said "I was listening to music on it."
"Is it one of the old ones with a physical clicky wheel on the bottom?" I asked them
"Yeah, Chrissie brought it to me!" they said, nodding
"Ravel, would you like one like that?" I asked her
"Mm, no, I'd want a compact one." she said "Like, the flat ones that don't have to fold."
"Those are touch screen, you can't use those with your cloth hands." I shook my head
"Yes I can?" she said, tilting her head "I've been using your phone to film this whole time, dumbass. Look."
She held up her hand and the yarn pulled away to show a black nub "I found some rubber stuff that works on the glass, I keep some in my arm."
"O-oh, you just... keep it in you like that?" I asked, eyeing her peeled back hand with discomfort
"Yeah, I keep lots of stuff in me." she shrugged "My baling wire legs mostly stay in my head because it's big, but I keep a pencil stump in my torso, the rubber bit for screens in my arm, a bit of fishing line in my other hand, and I used to keep magnets in my feet but I kept getting stuck places."
"I can't imagine using my body for storage like that." I said, closing the laptop "That's freaky."
"You could use your body to store stuff!" Tipsy said "Humans have between two and three h-”
"Alright let's go buy you a phone!" I said, clapping "We need to do it now before it's too late to patrol. Tipsy, want to join us? I'll have to keep you two in my bag most of the time if you come."
"Oooh, yes please!" Tipsy nodded "I'd love to go on an adventure!"
"Alright, hop on in, watch the helmet..." I said, unzipping my bag with my Comfit costume
They climbed in, and Ravel gave me a half smile, her string mouth appearing from under her knit for the half second it took for me to help her in. I hoped I wasn't making a mistake, but with Gemia and her outfit-ruining robot in the safe house I’d have more money than I knew what to do with, and I highly doubted we'd find anyone who could send her home. As soon as I merged my identities, she'd be out on the street again, and a soul jar like her would be erased or used in a matter of days if she didn't have a support group to help her. I didn't know if I really wanted to be a part of that support group, but the least I could do was to help her contact them if she needed to.
~~~
"Should I use my real name here?" Ravel asked, pointing to the screen "I don't know if I want to dox myself."
"Do you have a real name?" I asked her, confused
She looked at me for a second, her round plastic eyes blinking with lines of black string "...Oh. Right. I'll just put 'Ravel' then."
"I love how green it is, and it's all naked so you can see the guts!" Tipsy said "Mine is blue, but it's not see-through."
"Yeah, yours is an old one." I told them "Ravel has the same version I do, just green instead of red."
"It's asking me what church I belong to, what the fuck?" Ravel asked "Why does a phone need to know that?"
"It's set up with CirNet, it'll show you stuff from other people who follow the same god." I told her "I'd prefer if you put Lorgiaia, so you can see all my stuff, but Comfit is set up under Lorem Ipsum, which is a placeholder for people between gods at the moment, so either works."
"I'm not 'between gods', I just don't have one. Or even want one..." she said
"Hopefully you'll find one that fits you eventually." I said "It's very useful to have one, a lot of stuff like social care and jobs and stuff are hard to get if you're not in a congregation."
"My god is called Nathanael!" Tipsy said "I remember that from my old life!"
"I think I'll stick to Lorem Ipsum." Ravel said "Ok, so I'm in, do I just take a picture and I'm good to go? How do I set up my bio?"
"I can help you with all that later." I said "You're set up for calls and texts, that's good enough for now. We've got a patrol to go on."
"Well we're doing a great job of patrolling this park bathroom." Ravel said "There's no crime going on here, I assure you."
I rolled my eyes and pulled my sweatshirt off, fixing my bra and hanging the shirt on the back of the stall. I moved to slide my sweatpants off too so I could change into my body suit when I heard clanking. I looked up to see Ravel holding Tipsy's face to her chest and facing away from me, on her knees on the changing table she'd been sitting on. Tipsy's voice was muffled and they were pawing at Ravel's arms to get free, their glass hands clinking on their face. I sighed and stood up.
"Ravel, let them go, what are you doing?" I asked
"They didn't look away when you started changing..." Ravel muttered, not letting them go
I hadn't thought of that... I didn't know that it mattered, though. "Ravel, you two are dolls. I don't care if you see me change, let them go."
Ravel let go of Tipsy and crossed her arms, not looking at me. Had she always been this modest? I didn't remember if she'd been around while I changed before...
"I wasn't being creepy..." Tipsy said, looking at their feet "I wasn't thinking about it like that."
"I know, Ravel is just being polite." I said, finishing changing into my costume.
I stuffed my clothes into the bag and patted Ravel on her head, her beret smushing under my hand "Thanks for looking out for me, but it's really fine, I really don't care if a couple dolls are in the room while I get dressed."
"That feels awful to hear you say that." Ravel said, glancing up at me "I don't know, it's like you don't see me as a person that way."
"I don't see you as a person, you're a detached soul with barely any memories, stuffed into a toy." I told her "Now get in the bag, I wanna get to section 14 by one o clock."
Ravel shuddered and backed up "Tipsy can go in the bag, I... don't know if I want to." she said "I am a real person, I have a soul, you just said so, you can't pretend I'm not real just because I'm soft."
"I know you're a real soul, yeah." I said "But you're like- I don't know, you're not like, a person, person."
"Do you even pay attention to the protests and meetings you go to?!" she asked, her legs poking out and lifting her to stare at me "You're literally saying exactly the opposite of what the FML and the Society and the Coalition say about people like me."
"The Society just cares about the freedom to reject religion, which I fully support!" I countered "I even told you about Lorem Ipsum!"
"Ok, fine, but the other two?" she asked back
"One is for monsters, which you're not, and one is for abominations, which..." I looked her up and down "...Ok, you might be an abomination."
"Which means I'm a person!" she said "That's the whole point!"
"Well, the GGDS needs to determine if-" I started
"No they don't!" Ravel snapped "Jesus, just- fuck. I'm a person, stop being a hypocrite, fuck..."
I swallowed and took a breath, pushing the pulsing feeling of guilt and self doubt out of my head "Ok." I said, feeling my insides flip "Yeah, ok. You're a person. You're not allowed to watch me change anymore, and you don't have to go in the bag if you don't want to."
"...Thank you." Ravel said "I'll go in the bag, I just- I need you to know it's my choice."
I didn't respond as she climbed next to Tipsy and I zipped them in. swinging the bag over my shoulder carefully. I put on my helmet and headed outside, my thoughts a mess. Was I a hypocrite? I just hadn't made the connection between the stuff at the meetings and the yarn girl living with me, that wasn't 'hypocritical', it was just me not thinking things through. I knew how the GGDS worked though, and Ravel and Tipsy weren't 'real' people until they had approval from the government, that was just law, not my opinion. Still, if a skeleton that couldn't talk could be a person, or a mushroom with legs, or even a collection of worms, why did I just assume Ravel wasn't?
I needed to eat something sweet, that always got rid of these weird icky feelings. I set a course for a bakery in section 19. It was a little off my path, but I rarely went that far north, so I was less likely to be linked to Angel Rouge. I'd find a way to make it up to Ravel later, once I figured out why I'd acted like that. Maybe I could get her a backpack or something to carry her phone? That'd make up for it for sure.