View Flat HTML
View Metadata
Search Post
Bella moves. It's uneventful. She's not thrilled with the rain.
New kid shows up at the high school the next day. Hello, the high school. Hello, the students in the high school.
Hello, Jessica.
Jessica's very talkative. It's almost hypnotic.
"So what's Arizona like?"
"Well, sunnier."
"I bet! Wow, have you ever seen snow before?"
"On TV."
"Ha ha ha! Oh man is everybody really tan? Do you hang out at the pool all year round ogling boys?"
"I'm a little too gay to ogle boys."
"Oh! Oh wow. Okay. So um, I know this is a really small town, but guess what?" says Jessica.
"What?" asks Bella.
"We actually have a lesbian here! HEY SOLVEI!" Jessica hollers across the entire cafeteria.
+ Show First Post
onceandforall
gloriousdawn
"Are you? You seem kind of - freaked out about being less dead than you expected? Which, I can respect that, it's a little freaky."
onceandforall
"I'm - mm, not freaked out about being not dead. I'm freaked out about being subject to unexpected processes. Like, if there was an explanation, even if that explanation was 'and then someone went and got you a flagon of water from the healing fountain down the street', that would be fine, but - nothing."
gloriousdawn
"If there was a healing fountain down the street, I'd think somebody would've noticed. But then, I guess that applies to anything. If people spontaneously recovering from car accidents was a thing that happened, I'd think somebody would've noticed."
onceandforall
"Exactly! Although I haven't been deluged in reporters yet, so, there's that, maybe this happens only just infrequently enough that nobody knows how to explain or report on it."
onceandforall
"But I don't know. So, like, I apologize if this unknown process leads to a sudden relapse and I bleed out on the dashboard while steering you into a tree."
gloriousdawn
"Apology accepted. I will not call up your ghost to yell at you afterward."
onceandforall
"Do call up my ghost, though, I'd love to continue existing postmortem as long as I'm recognizably myself."
gloriousdawn
"You know, at this point, if you spontaneously die I am looking up every way I can find to call up a ghost and trying all the ones that don't involve murdering somebody else."
onceandforall
"Actually, also skip the ritual that involves maiming a dozen virgins, it's not worth it."
gloriousdawn
"No murder, no excessive virgin-maiming. What if I only have to maim one virgin?"
onceandforall
"Well, if it's only one you might be able to get her to volunteer depending on her values and how much she likes her legs."
onceandforall
"That should cover it. It's okay if you have to destroy a national park or something. National parks don't have feelings."
She pulls into her driveway.
She pulls into her driveway.
gloriousdawn
And out they get, and in they go, and—
"Can I use your computer for a sec? There's something I want to show you."
"Can I use your computer for a sec? There's something I want to show you."
onceandforall
"Uh? Sure."
Bella's computer is upstairs being an old laptop with slow internet.
Bella's computer is upstairs being an old laptop with slow internet.
gloriousdawn
That's okay. Solvei knows exactly where she wants to go.
Where she wants to go is, apparently, to a specific page on the website of a small museum in Thule dedicated to the history of the Thulian aristocracy.
The page shows a portrait. The caption on the picture reads, in both English and Thulic (although Bella's browser displays the Thulic alphabet as a bunch of character-not-supported squares):
Anastasia Koskin; her husband Claude; their daughter Solvei — 1815
Anastasia is a strong-jawed white woman with long black hair and piercing grey eyes. Claude is a black man with short hair and a gentle smile. Solvei... is Solvei. The person in this portrait painted in 1815 and the person sitting next to Bella are the same person. They're even almost the same age - the Solvei in the picture is maybe just a little younger.
Where she wants to go is, apparently, to a specific page on the website of a small museum in Thule dedicated to the history of the Thulian aristocracy.
The page shows a portrait. The caption on the picture reads, in both English and Thulic (although Bella's browser displays the Thulic alphabet as a bunch of character-not-supported squares):
Anastasia Koskin; her husband Claude; their daughter Solvei — 1815
Anastasia is a strong-jawed white woman with long black hair and piercing grey eyes. Claude is a black man with short hair and a gentle smile. Solvei... is Solvei. The person in this portrait painted in 1815 and the person sitting next to Bella are the same person. They're even almost the same age - the Solvei in the picture is maybe just a little younger.
onceandforall
"Okay. Keanu Reeves also has weird historical doppelgangers but they aren't named Keanu. Are you a vampire? With presumably magical healing powers."
thisbrokenworld
"I'm not," she says, shifting uncomfortably. "I'm not even Solvei Koskin... exactly."
Her body language is all different now. Movements more precise, expression less - charismatic. It would be reasonable for Solvei to look uncomfortable and withdrawn right now but she would look it in a more Solvei sort of way, and she isn't.
But then, apparently she's a very good mimic.
"The museum webpage doesn't get into it - I looked for one that did, couldn't find anything - but when Stasya Koskin was a teenager she had this scandalous semi-secret affair with Ghyslaine Royer, who was also a jarl's daughter so at least they didn't have class coming between them but they were both jarls' daughters, and this was the seventeen-somethings, so it still didn't go over well. And - well - a lot of things happened, but particularly, the Koskins all died in an assassinatory fire when I—when Solvei was sixteen. And Ghys was really broken up about it. And Ghys is immortal and has magic, and it was fairly recently that the idea of cloning became part of the public consciousness, and when it did she cloned Solvei Koskin. And got me."
Her body language is all different now. Movements more precise, expression less - charismatic. It would be reasonable for Solvei to look uncomfortable and withdrawn right now but she would look it in a more Solvei sort of way, and she isn't.
But then, apparently she's a very good mimic.
"The museum webpage doesn't get into it - I looked for one that did, couldn't find anything - but when Stasya Koskin was a teenager she had this scandalous semi-secret affair with Ghyslaine Royer, who was also a jarl's daughter so at least they didn't have class coming between them but they were both jarls' daughters, and this was the seventeen-somethings, so it still didn't go over well. And - well - a lot of things happened, but particularly, the Koskins all died in an assassinatory fire when I—when Solvei was sixteen. And Ghys was really broken up about it. And Ghys is immortal and has magic, and it was fairly recently that the idea of cloning became part of the public consciousness, and when it did she cloned Solvei Koskin. And got me."