Chapter #75Substitution Surprise by: Seuzz   "Not now, Joe," you mutter. "I have to concentrate." You close your eyes and bend your will onto the scene in front of you.
First, put Gordon out of his misery. You murmur, and feel his imago leap into one of the bottles. Frank will also need Gordon's essentia, so that goes into another bottle. You can't have Gordon's anima messing anything up, so you pull that out of him and put it into a third bottle. You open your eyes and exhale. A bare golem rests on the sigil. "Oh, dammit," you sigh. "Joe, be a sweetheart and get Gordon's clothes off that thing. Move it out of the way first. Frank, you need to get there."
"I know what I need to do," he mutters.
"Don't get in character as Gordon until I'm done with you," you snap as you help him set things up for the second phase. "Are we ready? Then hang on."
Again, you close your eyes. Lying at key corners of the sigil are the blueprints for the sigils that will let Frank shift his essentia and his imago, and you knit those onto him first. After that it will be a simple matter of attaching Gordon's essentia and imago onto Frank. You prepare to do just that—
And stop. You frown.
Dammit. You thought you'd been so careful to plan it out, how could you have missed it? You've never been this careless before ...
Well, there's nothing you can do about it now. You clench your hands, and feel the powerful surge of Gordon's elements rushing through you and onto Frank. While you have direct control, you make sure that Frank's imago and essentia are the ones that manifest. Then you release him and open your eyes.
Frank sits up, looking around sharply. "Did you do it?" he asks. "I thought I felt—"
"Yeah, it's done," you say. "But I just ran into a little complication. Nothing bad," you hurriedly add as Frank pales. "You're okay, it's just that—" You take a step back as Frank leans forward: You can feel him pressing upon you. "Stop it, Frank, I didn't fuck up or anything. It's just not going to work exactly the way I thought."
"What did you do wrong?" he demands.
"Nothing! I gave you Gordon's imago and essentia like we planned. You can switch between them. The thing is, when you change to his imago, you'll lose touch with Frank's."
His eyes widen. "How come?"
"Because— Look, when I put you back together again in Cuthbert, I gave you Will Prescott's anima. My anima. That's how come you've got Will Prescott's memories, and you always will. But you've only got Frank's memories and personality because you're wearing his imago. And when you switch between his imago and Gordon's— Okay, you don't know anything about Gordon right now, do you?"
"I know that he's an asshole and a bully."
"I mean, do you know anything you didn't know before?"
Frank's attention goes inward, and he shakes his head.
"That's because you're wearing and using Frank's imago right now. But when you switch to Gordon, everything will flip." You illustrate with your hands. "You'll have all of Gordon's memories and personality, but you won't have Frank's. Because deep down—" You point to your temple. "Deep down, you're Will Prescott, and you're just pretending to be each of these guys."
"It's like with masks, bro," Joe jumps in. "That's what Chelsea's trying to say. When you're in a mask, you got what they got. But when you change to another mask, you lose what you had before. Basically, you've got two masks inside you. One of Frank Durras and one of Gordon Black. But you, you're just Will Prescott underneath, and you'll just be switching between those interior masks."
"But I feel like I'm Frank Durras!" he exclaims.
You can only shrug. "That's what happens when you're inside a mask for a long time, right? And you've been playing Frank for a long time."
"Still, it's not like this is a tragedy," Joe says. "It's not a huge fuck up on your part, Chelsea. We can still hide, be invisible—"
"I was just hoping it would still be Frank with us," you say. "Underneath Gordon, operating him. I don't want to lose you, Frank."
"I'll still be here, it sounds like," he says, though his tone is wary. "It'll still be me."
Still be Will Prescott, you think to yourself, but say nothing, for fear that your disappointment will sound through.
"But how did you miss this?" Joe asks you. "Didn't you set things up with yourself the same way when you added Chelsea's imago?"
"Yes," you stammer. "But I didn't notice because, when I shifted into her imago, I still had the Prescott anima underneath. So I didn't notice anything missing."
"But when you switch into Prescott's imago— Oh, but you haven't done that yet," Joe laughs.
You blush and shake your head. You weren't planning to ever put your old face back on.
"But if you did," Joe continues, "you'd forget everything that Chelsea knows. You'd just be plain old, stupid Will Prescott again."
You bite back a sharp reply, and content yourself with a muttered, "Like that's ever going to happen."
"It still bothers me," Frank says. "This is the first time you've fucked up, Will—"
"It's not a 'fuck up,' Frank," Joe interjects.
"Fine. It's still the first time you missed something pretty big. Why?"
You glare at the floor. "Maybe it's 'cos I was running Chelsea's essentia when I did it," you murmur.
"Whadja say?" Joe asks. "Ah!" he exclaims when you repeat it. "Makes sense. You didn't have Kenandandra in play. Well, as long as that's the worst that happened. How about you give it a whirl, Frank?"
"The worst that happened?" Frank echoes, and now he does look alarmed. "If you were operating on me as that bimbo—"
"I'm sure I got the rest of it right!"
"I'm not taking any chances—!"
In a fury, you brush your hand over your face in a complicated motion. You've just time to feel yourself falling before you find yourself blinking and frowning at Jonathan Straussler, who has caught Chelsea Cooper in a dead faint.
"Jumping Jupiter, Frank!" Joe exclaims as he hefts Chelsea into his arms. "You scared Chelsea senseless!"
"I did not! I'm just over here now. I'm running Frank remotely, Joe." You stand up. "If the fucker's going to be stubborn about it, I'll have to test it out myself."
Joe does a double take, and you notice he loosens his hold on your body just a little bit.
But you ignore that; you have a spell to test out. You thrust aside Frank's worries and plunge inward.
You know what to look for—if Frank doesn't remember how to do it after you've done it for him, you'll just have to show him—and you find it. Two complex sigils, floating like constellations in an inner void. One of them—the imago of Frank Durras—blazes brightly. You thrust it away, and the imago of Gordon Black explodes about you. You surface—
—to find Joe staring at you goggle-eyed.
"Fuck," you gasp. "What did I do wrong?" You look down at your body.
You're still in Frank's clothes, but everything seems to be there: a trunk, strong legs and arms. You gingerly pat yourself. You've got feeling all over. Carefully you bend joints. They seem to work. You raise your head again. "The fuck are you staring at, you homo," you snarl at Joe.
"Nothing," he says. "I guess it worked. It's just a shock is all, to see it happen like that. I mean, when it's masks going on and off—"
"You mean I just changed? Presto-chango? Was there a flash or a puff of smoke?"
"No. Just one moment it was Frank and now it's Gordon. Uh, what we were saying earlier, about memories and stuff—?"
"Right," you say. "Hang on, lemme check, but I don't think—" You blink stupidly and concentrate. Nope. Only Gordon and his abusive dad and his abused mom and his shitty schoolwork and a best friend who's quitting Westside to move to Eastman, and speaking of which how come that fucker Jonathan Straussler is HOLDING YOUR GODDAMN GIRLFRIEND IN HIS ARMS?!
You blunt the sudden spasm of anger. "No, just Gordon in here. Fuck."
"Now what's wrong?"
You wave your hand over your face, and wake in Jonathan Straussler's arms. You suck in a sharp breath and wriggle free.
"Christ," Joe exclaims. "Will you figure out where you want to be and stick with it? Or least give a guy a little warning?"
"Sorry," you say. You turn to the person who's now looking like your boyfriend. "Frank? Or Gordon? Oh golly, what do I call you now?"
"Pfft. Fuck if I care." He turns his back on you. "You'll just do whatever the fuck you want without asking me."
Instinct takes you by the hand and pulls you over to him. You embrace him from behind. "I'm sorry," you say quietly into his back. "I know you didn't like taking the risk. But someone had to, so I did it for you."
"You didn't even ask before jumping into me. You know how fucked up that is?"
"Yes. But I thought if I asked, you wouldn't let me, and then you'd do it yourself, and then what would happen if something went wrong?" You rub your face against him, and squeeze him more tightly.
"Yeah, what would have happened if you'd got stuck in between, with me stuck in between— Stop that! I know what you're trying to do!"
"I'm only trying to show you how much I care for you."
"Too bad that's all you're trying to do," Joe mutters from nearby. "And too bad you're wasting it on the wrong guy."
* * * * *
Frank finally unfreezes enough that you can have a civil conversation. Naturally, you discuss whether you should try fixing the oversight you had made.  indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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