((I know I usually do these as "journals" but it's a bit hard to write a journal entry about yourself when you are not yourself...so short story format it is! Um, just for those of you joining us late: Kaylee & Star have had their bodies switched arounds. So, if you see the "I" voice, it's star, but in kay's body, and if you see Kaylee speaking, that's kay speaking in Star's body. Makes sense, right? right. Oh, and blah-d-blah here about this being IC information which your characters would only know if they've had an encounter with Kay & Star whilest they are going through this. ))
“I think this arm is getting stiff,” I complained, stretching out the mechanical left arm which, somehow, still managed to feel like it belonged to someone else. Some mornings as I was waking I would forget what had happened and relive, all over again, the horror of discovering my missing limbs. When that happened I simply repeated “it’s temporary” over and over in my head until it became a sort of mantra.
We will fix it.
“Here, let me have a look,” Kaylee crossed the room and grabbed the arm expertly.
If it was disconcerting to look in the mirror and discover you were someone else, it was twice as disconcerting to watch yourself walk toward yourself and then take your hand and do something you yourself would never manage. Kay was all concentration, the cat-ears pinned beneath an over-sized hat, trying to muffle the noise.
It had not been so very long ago that I had had to figure out how to sort all the noise that came with a pair of extra-sensitive ears into understandable sounds, so I understood how she felt. And, frankly, I wasn’t sure I wanted her to get used to it. Getting used to it would mean we weren’t going to find a way to fix this.
And we are going to find a way to fix this.
“Any news from Gus? About the Machine?” Kay asked, adjusting a bolt on the hand.
“No, He’s not been by the last few days. But I’m sure it’ll work.” I assured her.
“I hope so, he’s a doctor, not a mechanic.”
“It has to be better than letting Grendel slice our heads open, right?”
“What was that?” Kay jerked suddenly, looking toward the street.
“What was what?” Star asked, following her gaze but hearing nothing.
“Must have been nothing, probably just that factory.” Kay turned back to the hand.
“You need to learn to use those ears, we are sitting ducks here.”
“It’s too noisy, and I don’t plan on getting used to this body. I want my strength back.” Kay jerked in surprise again, yanking on the arm inadvertently, causing me to yelp in pain. “Someone’s knocking on the door.”
“Yeah, I heard. You’re me, go answer it.” I gestured with my good hand. She gave me a look and hurried down the stairs to answer the door.
“Ah, Er, Mr. Underby…” She said, her voice tense.
“It’s Mr. Underby?” I called, lumbering to my feet.
“What are you doing answering the door?” He demanded, his voice cold and somewhat amused.
“This is, erm, my house!” She tried to sound indignant, she was trying to sound like me, I realized.
“No, it is not your house,” He caught sight of me walking up behind Kay (how very strange to walk up behind your own back!), “It is her house.”
I shouldered Kay gently aside, letting her move behind me. He took a step back, Boris was hovering over his shoulder as usual. Eying Kay, I wasn’t sure how she’d react if he tried to make a move at her, I stepped into his line of sight.
“You.”
Mr. Underby smiled, “Yes, dear.”
“Dear?” I managed an indignant squeak.
“Did you think you could get away with that sort of nonsense, without any reward?” He asked, He looked triumphant.
I was furious, I glanced over my shoulder at Kay, “Oh good, he’s come to taunt us. Theory Confirmed.” I put on my haughtiest tone, two could play this game, I’d not let him win the upper hand, “Do go on, Mr. Underby, make your demands so we can be done with this little trick of yours.”
He smiled, “Demands? I have no demands to make of you.”
I had sworn I wouldn’t let him wrong-foot me, but that statement did it, “Then, you’ve had your fun. Undo this.”
He turned and looked at Boris and smiled, as if they were sharing in a private joke, “Oh, I think not, Miss Macbain. Think of this as an updated form of the tar and feathering. You are now a living warning to others not to trifle with me.”
I put on my best sneer, “I think you will undo this, or I shall be sure that you are very, very sorry that you didn’t,” I leaned casually against the doorway, “Even if you don’t, do you think we won’t find a way to fix this?”
He didn’t rise to the occasion, “Yes, that’s exactly what I think.”
“You’re wrong.”
He laughed.
“You will fix this.”
“Or what?”
“Or I’ll have no reason to leave you in peace.” I stepped out of the house, forcing him back against his bodyguard.
It was his turn to scoff, “Are you suggesting that, up until now, you have left me in peace? I do believe I’ll take my chances.” He smirked at me, so confident that we could do nothing to him.
I couldn’t resist, I extended my mechanical arm, letting the metal catch the watery sunshine, “Do you know, Mr. Underby, that I can bend a train rail with this?”
That did it, he stiffened, “Is that a….threat.”
I heard Kay let out a little mew of fear, “Star…”
I held up my hand to stop her from saying anything, “It’s just an observation, Mr. Underby, nothing more.”
His eyes came alive with fury, “I could pull you apart atom. by. atom.”
I raised my eyes to the sky as if he were a particularly annoying child, “I am trying to be afraid, I really am.”
“You think I jest?” His agitation seemed to be growing,
“I think,” I said with perfect honesty, “that you are messing with things you don’t really understand. You can’t imagine that a trick this big has gone unnoticed?”
This seemed to confuse him properly, “Why would I want it to go unnoticed? You misconstrue my intention.”
“It’s not the people of the town that I mean, Mr. Underby. I just hope your goddess doesn’t have enemies.” I got the charming satisfaction of seeing him completely flummoxed.
“My…goddess?”
“Aye.”
“Explain yourself.”
“A servant such as yourself must be starting to attract attention.”
He laughed, “You believe that Nonsense?”
“Doesn’t matter what I believe, matters what you believe lovey.”
“I don’t believe.”
I managed an effective snort, “Well, we don’t believe in being intimidated. So go try to frighten someone else, Mr. Underby, we are both tiring of your games.”
He tilted his head in a mock-bow, “We shall see, miss. After time you may come around. Time will tell.”
I shouldn’t have risen to the bait, but I did, “Come around to what?”
“Well now, that would be telling.”
“We-we’ve already got a solution to this, you know.”
He turned away from me, “I’m very sure you do. Come away now Boris.”
Boris was staring at me, but reluctantly turned to follow his employer. I glared after them, then slammed the door shut and turned to look at Kay, who was sagging against the wall.
“You all right?”
She nodded weakly, “Er, yeah.”
I took her by the elbow, “C’mon, lets sit you down. You look shaky…”
We both sank down onto the sofas, I hadn’t realized how must I had started to shake as soon as he was out of sight, my heart was racing so fast it made my head throb.
“You don’t think he could really do that, do you? What he said…” Kay had turned in her seat to look the direction he had walked, as if she expected to be able to see him still.
I put my hands over my face, trying to fight down panic, “Of course he can, hell, he already switched our bloody minds. Who knows what else he can do?” I took a deep breath and gritted my teeth, “But we are not going to let him know we are afraid, because that would be him winning. Fear is how his kind wins.”
She shook her head, it was strange to hear my own voice sound so hopeless, “But what can we do? If he can do things like that? How can we possibly beat someone like that?”
I shook my head and looked down at my mismatched hands, “He has a weakness, we just need to find it.”
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