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those who have found their way out of the depths
Permalink Mark Unread

The waterfront had a gazebo-like area, about one and half store above the water level at the moment, with benches under a geodesic dome, this time of the year there was only the supporting structure above them, intertwined with vines providing shade from the sun. The vines were doted by Idili flowers, grafted into the alien plant by magic, but one would hardly notice this if they didn't know what to look for.

The conditions were ideal for this. The waves were gentle the breeze soft and refreshing. The sun not too hot. Very comfortable. But people here had practice.

Henry, it was so weird to catch himself wondering how many times this question was asked or he managed to come up with a new one, raises his hand.

"Okay, so... when that woman said to stop petting her baby. She was being literal."

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"Yes. But I think she objected to having someone treat her daughter as an animal, rather the affection."

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"Yeah, the lions are kind of oversensitive about that kind of thing."

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"Weird but cool. Okay, so little version of us, recap, you got here, settled in, there was a welcoming party to help everyone introduce everyone to everyone else. Then what?"

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"Spent a while learning the language," Tobir puts in. "And exploring the island," he adds, "We weren't really able to go anywhere this... you know, green and lush and living, before." He smiles up at the flowering vines above them. 

"Uncle Remi started working on magic as soon as someone showed him how to do it, but they didn't let us start until we were three-twelve. So we mostly just helped around the island, played with the kids, and had lessons. You know, regular kid stuff, apart from all the magic and the dozen different species around here and so on."

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"I understand that I am technically a newborn now, sort of, but that still quite young. Have you figured out what empowered crystals your produce?"

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"Not yet. We are basically three-and-a-half-fourteen now." The Gabe makes a face at the numbers. "But I should get anti-magic, because I am your alt. Anyway, after that we got less Milliways visits but not none, and got a few more people, some with magic but nothing really remarkable."

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"Of course, nothing can be remarkable when compared to us," he gives both Heri and Tobir a strong back pat.

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He pitches forward a bit from the back slap, but he's grinning when he sits back up, "We are a pretty hard act to follow, I think," he agrees. "Not every day you find out you come in twin. Anyway, I think we'll figure out what our empowered crystals are any day now!"

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"He has said that once a day every day since they started teaching us."

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Henry chuckles. "Okay, okay, backtrack a bit, I don't want to lose my mental thread. You mentioned that after that particular Milliway encounter, you have been producing more clones? Why? How?"

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"Ah, okay. So, before that they figured out that spikes of anti-magic crystal could slow down the cloning process. I think they got it low enough to have for each specific kind of clone to pop up only once every two years? But that didn't really stop things, and they decide to risk manipulating the cloning crystal. Haven't managed to stop the process but managed," he waves between the two of them, "to control timing to the point of pairs of you coming out at the same day and the like."

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"It's only a matter of time before they figure that out, too, I think," he says again. "At least like this none of the yous get lonely. It means they've been sending out a lot more expeditions, though! And a bunch of the yous have been moving out to the island outposts on the edge of what we have mapped."

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"Wow, so we get to retire to a nice beach somewhere? Well done. You guys have really figured all of this out."

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"It's a weird situation, but people adapt. And they usually rotate. And it doesn't apply to you right now, right now you guys will just stay on the main island and learn the ropes."

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"How far have you mapped that you haven't found any civilization on this planet?"

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"Quite far? One trip lasted half a year. The one uncle Remi is right now has been away for three months, but the new ship is much faster."

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"Yeah, if there's anyone besides us here, they're not very obvious. But who knows, maybe we'll get to the other side of the planet someday and find out that's where they've been the whole time. Or maybe we'll get an empowered crystal that'll let us get out of here first." He shrugs, "In the meantime," He stretches out his arms along the back of the bench, relaxing back against it, "The island paradise thing we've got going isn't so bad." 

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"You guys sure are not hurting for lack of beauty," Gabe says eyeing the structure they are in and then giving Henry a look.

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It's like Gabes are stuck in permaspring or something. He glances at Kenta, "I'm kind of morbidly curious about whether you're gonna be like that during spring, or if you're gonna be like that all the time and spring will just be even moreso," he comments. 

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"Same, my dude. At least I have an island full of hot guys willing to help me out."

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"Oh, my god. The Gabes are planning something special for that."

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"You usually notice that faster. And yes, we agree that's weird, and even kind of creepy, but they are not doing anything currently, so there is nothing else to it, but to wait and see."

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He is making some kind of a face, even he is not entirely sure what the face means. He shrugs, "You do you," he agrees. He pauses, grins, "Literally!"

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"Indeed, I can't wait."

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"I am sure you can." And before Kenta can Gabe any further, Henry interrupts with a question. "And... Roaja still hasn't figured out about the alts thing?"

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"She has not. Aunt never got the hang of the language. And doesn't like walking around with the translation crystals. But she gets by."

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"Learning languages is really hard for some people," Tobir says with a shrug. "She hasn't really needed it that badly. She does a lot of cooking, and some art stuff, and she helps with all the kids. She adopted one of the baby clones, too." 

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"Oh, you have a little sister? That must be so weird." Says one of the many Gabe clones to Kenta.

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"I am... glad that she is adjusting to this new life."

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They answer some further clarifying questions. Mostly about the non-human species.

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"Hey..." Gabe squints while look into the distance. "Is that your uncle's boat?" He points at the sea.

The ship is a sleek long thing with a flat living area connecting two hulls. The surface is white plastic with golden accents. And they can only see the crystalline honeycomb support structure through the large windows of transparent aluminum, through which one can also spot the green of the ship's garden.

It moves by manipulating the water itself, which forms an impossible spiral in the space between hulls, but it passes through the water with surprisingly little disturbance, specially given how fast it moves.

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He jumps to his feet, going over to the edge of the gazebo to peer out over the water. "It totally is," he agrees after a moment, turning back to the others, "We should go meet it, it's been months! You can meet Remi," he adds to Henry and Gabe, "And hey, maybe they found something interesting!" 

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"Yes, please. Show me the way to the docks?"

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"This way!" Kenta says and of course dashing immediately through the streets.

It's not very far, though this area's layout is old and less organized, so it takes knowing the best shortcuts. Plus, some people are gathering to check on the returning vessel. By the time they are close, there is a white lion cub running alongside Kenta.

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Tobir follows right on his heels. "Hey Tama!" He greets once the cub joins them, dodging out of the way of one of the watchers at the edge of the docks. They reach the end of the pier just as the ship does, and he pauses there to wait impatiently for the passengers to disembark. 

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"Hey, Tobir!" Tama replies excitedly.

Heri catches up with them. The Henry and the Gabe are shortly behind. The ship is close enough that they can see the name Discoverer in golden letters engraved in its sides.

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Remi is not quite the first person off the ship, but he's in the first group. He steps down onto the pier, worn leather jacket folded over his elbow and bag slung over one shoulder, and immediately starts walking over to them. 

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Tobir rushes towards him through the crowd of disembarking passengers and nearly knocks him over with the force of his hug.

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Heri waits for Remi to get his balance back before also joining the hug.

Other people around them are doing the same. Tama curls up on her aunt.

"How was the trip?"

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Hugs all around, "Very comfortable," he says, "But not terribly remarkable. More islands, and not a single suggestion of anyone besides ourselves. We did come across a few new species of plants, though, and we took cuttings," he directs this last to Tobir specifically. "And we passed an enormous underwater reef about a month in, with all sorts of interesting marine life living in them."

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"Ooo," he peers at the gardens on the ship over Remi's shoulder, "You think they'll let us in to see them?"

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"Hope so," Heri says.

And without even looking directly at Kenta, Heri stops him from taking steps towards the ship and then makes him join the hug.

"What sort of marine life? And any nice places to settle?"

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"It's difficult to summarise! Coral reefs are always populated by such a variety. Plenty of camouflage experts, whole schools of these beautiful sparkling silver-gold fish," he smiles, "We saw one fish which was several meters long but thin as a rope, and covered with long thin spines which it could leave slicked up against its body to get into tight spaces, or extend to make it look much wider than it actually was." He pats his bag, "I have plenty of sketches, and some photos on my everything, as well." He hums, "As for nice places, it seemed to be mostly more of the same. Though there was one island with a truly astonishing waterfall, hiding a massive cavern behind it."

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"Sounds like the perfect place for a secret lair," Tobir says of the last bit.

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"The noise would even disguise any sound you made while inside. And I bet you can build the entrance in a way that's hidden from the outside, but you can go through it without getting wet."

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"Yeah! What was the cave like, Uncle? A good place for it?" 

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He chuckles, "Wet," he says, "And then icy, once we went a ways in. The lake at the bottom of the falls extended inside. The only way in was a little path off to one side of the falls, which led around the lake to an elevated area above it. It was chilly back there, but the ice didn't start until you started going down into the caverns behind it. I think you could build a nice lair inside that first cavern, if you didn't mind the noise, and the humidity."

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"You can probably insulate against those and heat up the place."

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"Well, if you'd like to be involved in the outpost we put on that island, you only have to ask Henry Kered. I think you're all old enough to go on a few trips to the outlying islands."

He looks over at the Henry and Gabe with them, checking them for any markers he reconizes, but not finding any, "Oh, hello. Are you new?" 

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"Came out of the crystal just today. It's a pleasure to meet you..."

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"Again. From your perspective. That Henry changed his last name?"

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"Well I haven't met you two, specifically. Remi Iluka. Kered is a jobname," he adds, "From our home world. Some of the clones have been using them to distinguish themselves from their other instances. Iluka is mine, it's the name of an animal native to the islands we're from. My specialty is zoology." 

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"Mine's 'Tisik'," Tobir tells them, "It means 'wheel'. It's usually a Blue name, for reformers."

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"Mine is Osian, which is a Red community leader that means 'equal share'. Kenta has not decided on one yet. But might pick something related to art."

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"Or beauty. And we usually just call the most recent clones by time references."

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"Of course, you're welcome to pick whatever name you like," Remi adds. He looks around, taking in the growing crowd as latecomers join those waiting for the people coming off the ship, and then makes a shooing motion, "Let's get off the dock," he suggests.

As they walk, he looks between the three younger Amentans, "How have your magic studies been going?" 

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"We are going to figure out what our power crystals are any day now. Also, I finally manage that spiral shaping trick."

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"He did. I am getting better at changing living things to crystal and back. Tutor, Henry Tutor," he adds to the benefits of the new clones, "moved to eggs. Haven't seen the results yet."

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"Hey, that's my line," he tells Kenta with a laugh. And to Remi, "I've been practicing with the plant-shaping crystal. I finally convinced the idili flowers to play nicely with the plants here, and the Gabes have been using some of the ones that came from that in their designs." He points at one as they pass it.

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"That's wonderful!" Remi tells them, "At this rate I'd say you really will develop your empowered crystals before you're four," he adds. "Just in time for those mysterious other powers to come in, for you two, supposedly."

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"They are gorgeous," the Gabe with them agrees. "The Tutor you must be a really good teacher," he adds to Henry and Heri.

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"I was going to say that they must be good students, but considering both alt-hood and alt-hood family relations that still feels too self-congratulatory."

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"A bit of a hazard around here, that," Remi agrees with a chuckle. 

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"I will try not let it get over our heads. Anyway, tell us more about this reef."

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"The one we explored was a short trip away from the island I mentioned, with the waterfall..."

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The reef is a riot of colours and life rising from the pale bones of the dead coral shell. Full of a massive variety if marine life for this world, the water within is the perfect place to study the ways the terraforming of this world interacted with the life which had already been present. Some rare few of the species within seem to be completely unrelated to the seeded ones, marking them as ones which have survived the long years since the terraforming occurred. 

Remi stands on the deck of the boat belonging to the outpost, leaning over the rail to offer his hand to one of the friendly dolphin-alikes. The pink-speckled silver creature noses him curiously, making a high-pitched clicking noise, before slipping back into the water to rejoin its pod. He smiles after it, and then turns to look at the trio of almost-four-year-olds lounging on the deck. 

"If you're going to work on your crystals all morning, why did you even come along?" He asks, amused. 

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Tobir looks up from where he's focusing on his arm, offering Remi a grin, "Aw, come on, Uncle, we're almost there! For real, this time!" 

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"We really are. I can feel the color almost taking hold."

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"You can even see a shade of something sometimes."

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He shakes his head, "That might be so, but I brought you out here to help me collect samples," he reminds them.

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"Give us a couple more minutes?" Tobir asks, "You have to set up the tanks, right?" 

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"Well, alright. A few more," he agrees. He crosses the deck, carefully setting his feet so he doesn't step on anyones legs, and disappears inside the cabin. 

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They return to their inward focus on crystals.

It eventually pays off, when Heri produces a lustrous black crystal with a clear reflective sheen.

"Anti-magic!"

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What an effective distraction! Tobir scrambles up on his knees on the deck to get a closer look, "You did it!"

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"You did it!" Kenta tackle hugs Heri.

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Heri has to put the crystal spike away at last moment, it wouldn't be that harmful, but he is attached to it. Well, he is physically attached to it, but this being his first empowered means that there is also some sentimental value to it. "I did it." He waves the black crystal and absently changes it shape to something more dull.

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Tobir joins the hugpile, flopping over Kenta's back to hug Heri around the neck and also peer at the crystal.

"Is it the same as the Henries'?" He asks.

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"Similar vein of making magic weaker when close enough to the crystal. ...The default range feels shorter? Maybe? But... I think something about it is more selective?"

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"It's really cool how you got something so similar but still different," he says, "I wonder how similar yours will be?" He directs at Kenta. "No telling what mine is, though." 

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"What's all this commotion about?" Remi asks, stepping back out on the deck. 

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"Heri got his crystal!" Kenta says raising Heri's arm to show off the onyx-like rod.

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"Oh!" He crosses the deck to kneel down next to the three of them, reaching out to squeeze Heri's shoulder, "Well done, Heri! Anti-magic?"

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"Yeah! It's a bit different, though. Still, what did we tell you? Today's the day!"

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"Indeed, you did tell me," he laughs. "Many times! It started to lose impact after the first week or so."

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Tobir sticks his tongue out at him, before looking over at Heri, "We should test it, see how it differs from the others," he suggests. He raises his arm to show off the plant manipulation one he carries everywhere, "We've got plenty of other crystals to use it on."

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"We should! Sorry, uncle Remi, but we have a different kind of science to do."

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"Ah, well. I think I can forgive you this once," he agrees. 

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Time to do science to magic?

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The best time!

Heri's crystal has the ability to diminish magic, the closer the lesser the magic's power. Their preliminary tests show it can't break magical things, only weaken their abilities. But it can "atune" to specific frequencies, creating exceptions to what is affected or not. Henries can figure out how to do that with their crystals, but takes more practice. Heri is content with the results.

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They're pretty good results! Tobir wonders what it means that Heri got more control over that aspect, if anything. This alt stuff is so weird to think about, sometimes, even when they've grown up surrounded by it. 

He kind of wants to double down on working on his own crystal, now that one of them has managed it. 

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They're welcome to spend the rest of the trip working on it. Remi can do all the sample gathering on his own, given the special occasion. 

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Heri can give some extra help, now that he is past the milestone of getting his own empowered crystal.

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Remi appreciates the help!

Eventually, once everything they need has been gathered, they can return to the outpost, the boat skimming across the waves and eventually pulling in to the deep natural harbour where the island's river meets the ocean. There are a few buildings set up at the mouth, and the waterfall is just visible in the distance, falling from a great height down a sheer cliff on the mountain that dominates the skyline, much of it covered by dense green vegetation. 

Remi guides the boat up to the dock, and then interrupts Kenta and Tobir's focus to direct them in bringing the samples into one of the buildings, before releasing them upon the unsuspecting island. 

"I think we'll have to have something of a celebration, this evening," he adds. "We'll cook something special and pick out some movies from my laptop, how about? Heri's pick." 

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"Oh, can we rewatch a couple episode of Cosmos? And maybe that sci-fi movie that Tobir likes. Oh, and Blade Runner for Kenta's aesthetic sensibilities."

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"Oh, thanks!" Kenta says hauling some samples.

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Tobir gives Heri a quick hug as he passes him on the way back to the boat, "You're the best," he agrees.

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"Sounds like we have a plan, then," Remi says. 

There's a few more things to haul in, and then he lets them go, "I'll be busy with this for the next few hours," he tells them, "Remember to be back before dinner, I'll need your help in the kitchen."

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"Okay, uncle. We will just take a look around the island."

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He chuckles, "Be careful around the falls," he reminds them knowingly, "Don't fall in yourselves." 

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"I think he knows about our secret lair," Tobir whispers as they leave, pretending to be shocked.

All they have to do is follow the river to reach their destination. The waterfall is actually two (or two-and-a-half) different ones, each falling from a different height. To the left of where the river begins is the tall one, which falls down from near the top of the mountain, becoming little more than mist by the time it hits the lake at the bottom. The other hits the lake on two sides, the middle one falling straight down from half-way up the mountain, and the right-most one falling in stages from the same source, creating something like a giant's staircase effect. All together this leaves the lake enclosed by falling water on three sides, with the river coming out of the fourth.

The path leading into the cave goes under the misty falls, leading around to the open space behind the central one. The slick rocks are very slippery, but the path isn't too difficult to navigate if you're careful. 

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They can be very careful. The later half of their lives was on an island, they can go around slippery rocks.

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If only, they could put on some rails or anything, but that would ruin the whole secret lair thing.

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Hm maybe they could do a sort of natural-looking rock rail? At least under the falls where it wouldn't be so visible. For now they're safe enough if they hug the wall. 

The cavern really is as massive as Uncle Remi had suggested when he mentioned it the year before, an enormous mist-filled chamber lit only by the watery light streaming in from the entrance, growing darker at the far reaches. The water deeper inside is pitch black, the stalactites dotting the ceiling are nearly indistinguishable from the surrounding darkness, and one can only just see the solid area the path leads to looming out over the lake in the misty dimness, along with the bare impression of a building, partly completed.

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The building's main supporting structure is done, but hard to see in this light. It's meant to evoke the style of a small castle, with square stones for the walls. The cavern is not actually castle-sized big, but once complete the structure will have two stores including two cylindrical "towers" with domes. One dome for the constellations of Amenta's northern sky and the other for this planet's northern sky, each with glowing crystals for the stars. One will be a reading nook. They haven't decided on the use for the other.

But not yet, at the moment it has the bare necessities of enough walls for two rooms - a living room and a bedroom - plus a bathroom.

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Tobir heads towards these, looking between the other two as they walk, "What are we working on today?" He asks, raising his voice just enough to be heard over the echoing roar of the waterfall. 

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"I wanted to raise all the walls on the first floor this high," he raises his hand to around waist level, "because of the different texture. And make the left-ward room by the end of the week. But I think you guys should focus on make the inner lights. I talked with Gabe Pillar, and he thinks that my idea to make the structure glow would be pretty but might make it hard to sleep, so he advised to put some lights beforehand to see if can get accustomed to them."

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"He makes a good point. Okay, we can do that!"

Light making! For an hour or so, anyway, as long as he can keep his focus on it. He keeps getting distracted by the thought of how close he is to making an empowered crystal. After a bit he takes a break, settling down in the partly-completed living room, lights flickering around him like stars in the night sky, to focus on that for a bit instead. 

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He swears it's been flickering with colour all week. Red, he thinks, though it can be hard to tell. A deep red, streaked internally with black so you can only see it from the right angle...

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He blinks down at the crystal attached to his arm. His face lights up, and he leaps to his feet.

"Hah!" He cheers, "Heri! Kenta! I did it!"

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Heri runs over to hug him. "You did it!"

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Kenta joins the hug in a moment. "He did. You did! What does it do?"

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Hugs! 

He squints down at it, "I... it's..." He lifts his arm and reaches out... 

A violet-tinted distortion forms in the air in front of him, slowly widening to show an outside view of the building they're in. 

"...Portals," he says.

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"Portals."

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"Portals." Kenta repeats, mostly for the three beat.

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And then when it sinks in. "Portals! You got portals!"

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"I got portals!" He breathes again, staring at it some more, and then he blinks, hard, "I need to-" he reaches out with the magic again, trying to reach a bit farther, and another portal opens up next to the first, widening to reveal the settlement on the main island.

He starts to grin, "I can open them between islands. I think I can go farther than that, too - guys-!" He untangles himself from them a bit, motioning up at the sky (well, the ceiling of the cave), "This might be a way to get everyone off this planet!"

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"You got planets!" Heri stares at his brother in wonder. "We should tell Remi."

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"We should tell everyone!"

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"Planets, for this world, and for..." he laughs, "We should! First, though, here-" he manipulates the little crystal until he has two slivers of it, which he pulls off and hands one of to each of them, "The more people working on it, the better, right?" 

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"True!" Heri says accepting the crystal.

He takes the crystal... how does it work? Can he aim for Remi?

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Kenta takes his and tries to reach his home at the main island.

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Kenta can absolutely aim for his home on the island! It doesn't look like Heri can aim for a person, though. He could try aiming for the lab where Remi was last they knew?

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Heri tries that.

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Kenta's portal causes people to peer through. "What?"

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That works. Remi glances up from his work and blinks at the portal, before shooting to his feet. "Heri?!" 

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"I got my crystal! It's portals!" Tobir says in response to both. He waves at the people in the main island portal, and then leans over to wave at Remi. 

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"It is portals! He got a portal to the origin island."

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"What?" Says a Henry through the original portal.

The Henry in the portal made by Kenta creates a bit of crystal and tosses it through.

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Kenta catches the crystal and tosses it to the other Henry. "Portals!"

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Remi is struck speechless for a moment. He walks around the counter he was sitting at to get a closer look at the portal. 

"How far can you send it?" He asks after a moment.

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"No idea! If there's a range limit it isn't making itself super obvious, but there's no telling for sure until we test it."

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"Is it safe to go through?" 

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"Should be!" He reaches over to poke a hand through the portal he'd made leading to the origin island.

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The Henry from Tobir's portal puts his hand through the portal to stop Tobir from doing the same. Then he steps through the portal, looking mildly bewildered by his surroundings.

"That was... careless," Says the Henry from Kenta's portal.

"Yeah," He nods at Remi while turning random parts of himself into black crystal, "but my preliminary examinations are showing that's safe. And I am qualified to tell that."

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"Okay, well." Heri reacts to this, his cloned-alts can be weird at times. Then to Tobir. "Maybe don't open something to vacuum, just yet."

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He gives the Henry on their side of the portals a sheepish smile.

"Right," he agrees with Heri, "Though... I think I can maybe mess with what can get through?" He squints down at the crystal, then up at the portal the Henry had come through. Then he reaches out to it again and his hand stops abruptly at the threshold, "Hah, yeah, I can. Not a lot, yet... But I think I should be able to get more specific eventually?"

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"Amazing."

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"It truly is," says the Henry on this side of the portal.

"I should tell people the news then," says the Henry o the other side of the portal.

"Me too," say the Henry formerly known as the one on the other side of the portal.

More people are approaching.

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Kenta pats Heri's on the back. "I guess your crystal just got overshadowed."

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"Worth it."

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"Um, sorry," Tobir tells Heri, giving him an apologetic look. 

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Remi steps through the portal a bit warily, coming to stand at Tobir's side. He looks around, "Ah, so this is what you've been working on," he says, "I hope I haven't ruined the surprise," he adds. He looks through the other portals, "Ah... We seem to be attracting a crowd."

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"For what?" Heri says hugging his brother. "Should we go to origin island? Or this island's settlement?"

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"We should collect your tutor and the Gabe here," he points out, "And then we can... go to Origin, through these portals," he shakes his head, wondering, "Portals," he repeats, staring through Kenta's. 

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Hug. Heri is the best brother. He wins the Brother of the Year Award.

"Right!" Tobir agrees, and then he makes another portal to the house the Henry and Gabe at this outpost are living in. They could just use the one leading to the lab, but why would they? Magic! Portals!

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The portal opens to the corner of the balcony that they use for crystal exercises and meditation.

Their tutor and his Gabe are snuggled up on a couch, the Gabe is shirtless, but they don't appear to be doing anything.

"Gah!" Henry Tutor exclaims.

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"Ack!" He covers his eyes automatically. After a moment, he peeks out from behind them, letting out a breath of relief. "Oh, that could have been worse. Still, uh, note to self..." 

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"Note to self indeed," Henry Tutor says to no one in particular. "Go cover yourself, Gabe."

Then he turns back to the portal and covers his eyes with a layer of gray crystal. "Oh, it is a portal." He says delighted.

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Remi gives Tobir an exasperated look, and then smiles at Henry, "Hello, Henry, Gabe. Apologies for the unexpected visit. We thought you'd like to hear the latest news, and perhaps join us through the portal to Origin island." 

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"Sounds like fun." Gabe says, going about retrieving a shirt.

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Henry Tutor comes through the portal. "Congratulations, Tobir!"

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"Thanks! Heri got his earlier today too, I was just even more determined than I have been and then viola! Crystal! I don't think there's a range limit, and I can control what can go through it - sort of, and-" he can go on chattering excitedly for a while. 

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Henry Tutor's Gabe returns shortly.

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Henry Tutor will happily chat about both magics. Congratulating Heri as for his achievement as well.

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Heri is grateful. Back to Origin? They are still standing in their not-longer-secret lair.

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(Well, with portals they can always go looking for an even more remote spot to build a secret lair in, can't they?)

Back to Origin! Tobir gives himself a bruise trying to go through the portal he'd made before he remembers that he'd set it so it wouldn't let solids through, and wincingly sets it back to the way it was before stepping through. 

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Remi pats him on the back as he joins him on the other side, smothering an amused smile. They've come out near the cloning crystal, and Remi gives it an assessing look as they wait for the others to come through. 

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Tobir, meanwhile, starts making more slivers of his crystal. His statement still stands - the more people practicing with this crystal, the better. He hands one to Remi, and then to Henry Tutor and his Gabe as they join them. Who else is waiting for them on this side, anyway?

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The cloning crystal loons over them, a jagged shard of crystal almost a solid white, but broken by the colorful bulbs of color here and there. Plus some additions like the structural supports they have placed around the two-store tall rock, and the black onyx rods that they used to delay the non-Henry non-Gabe clones emergence.

They have apparently changed the countdown signs for something that can be flipped over. The next clone is a Samson, in about four days.

They can see Tama, her mom, two of the Trianas, Percy (using his default human face with no trace of the deer), the Old Samson and his daughter, and many others. Everyone is amazed and excited.

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Tobir is a mix between enthusiastic and bashful about all the people excited about his crystal. He wants to take some time to catch up with all the people he hasn't seen in over a month, but they should probably be heading for the meeting hall or something. 

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That's reasonable. They should do a quick announcement and go power test. Does Tobir's portal stay put if his crystals move away?

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They do not. If there's no portal crystal within about ten meters of either side of a portal, it starts to close. This is made obvious fairly quickly, when the ones to the cave at the outpost close up once they're all far enough away.

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Better sooner than later.

Something to investigate in more detail after the announcement too.

They probably should retrieve some people from the outpost they were.

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Maybe they should contact the other outposts after they have investigated it further, even with the portal convenience that sounds like it's going to take some effort to organize.

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It shouldn't be any harder to open a portal to the outpost they were at than it was to open one to Origin. It probably won't be too hard to open ones to the other islands, either... there's some difficulty of some sort attached to long-distance use, but whatever it is it isn't very obvious on the scales they've been using so far.

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Heri meant that between the effort of gathering people, waiting until they stop whatever they are doing, bringing them here, or what have you it would take some time. Or maybe they could send out people to the outposts, but then the problem is gathering enough people and be sure they got their story straight.

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Okay, Henries can do the not-telepathy thing with each other, but maybe not with Heri.

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Henry Tutor is sorry, says a not-Tutor Henry.

Here is the meeting hall.

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Oh, he knew that, he was mostly just thinking aloud! He can hardly wait til they get to the power testing, he wants to figure out how to control what the portals exclude better, and see what exactly the problem is with opening portals far away... 

Meeting hall! Where people are gathering to have things announced at them!

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They gather people on the island, but word is already getting around. Still, people want a demonstration.

And also to celebrate, but also a demonstration first.

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Where should he open a portal to? Well, the outpost with the waterfall is one of the farthest places they have mapped... He aims for the top of the mountain, right on the rim of the caldera lake, where you can see the island spread out around you, and the sea stretching out to the horizon. He tries to open the portal nice and wide so everyone can see... which isn't hard, exactly, but takes a bit of focus.

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The previous portals didn't open too fast for the eye to see, but this time the processing is slow enough for them to appreciate. There is some resistance to it. Like, forcing something stretchy until the tension gives in.

"Ooh, nice view."

The audience agrees.

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"Thanks!" He steps through it, thereby proving that it's a portal, not some kind of window. If anyone else wants to try it they're welcome to, though they'll have to come back through before they move on to testing. Meanwhile, they can explain what they know so far, which isn't a lot, and promise to keep people updated as they go?

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People want to know everything, mostly stuff regarding the (as they mentioned) untested limits of his portals. If it can reach other planets or other universes.

The other questions are about various people wanting to know if the portal crystals will be available for the general population. Some people - including children - want to test crystals themselves.

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...Probably the portal crystals should only be given to people who do a lot of work with crystals, at least until they know the limits and how safe they are. He wouldn't want someone to accidentally open a portal somewhere dangerous.

As for the limits of the crystals, they don't really know, yet! They can be sure the testers will be trying other planets and universes once they get to testing. 

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Some people arrive later and repeat some questions. And some Henry decides to announce that they will perform some tests and if people want to celebrate they should start planning for the celebration. Even if Tobir can do planets they might not get around to testing that today. But Tobir's crystal is already a huge boon just as it is.

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"Why wait? Everyone who came from the crystal has been to other planets right? You could try opening a portal to one of them."

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"And a failure mode of that is your portal not having enough reach to get to the other planet but having enough reach to opening to vacuum," Henry Tutor explains patiently.

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"His portals can block stuff. He could just block the air."

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"True, but then we make sure he can open a portal that already blocks air from passing through."

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"Oh, right," he agrees, abashed. 

"So should we start with testing that aspect, then?" He suggests. "Blocking things from going through, and whether I can open a portal already blocking?"

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"Yes, please." Henry Tutor says. "Let's reach my testing area he-"

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Portal to the lab!

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"Gabe! I mean, Kenta!" Sigh.

Okay, they can go through that portal. The testing area is a large empty room, not quite featureless, but made out of strong reinforced concrete walls and with small windows.

"Okay, let's start with a portal that blocks things."

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"What kinds of things?" He lifts his arm taps the crystal, "It let me block solids, back in the cave, that's how I got it to stop me from going through. I could start with 'everything'?" 

A distortion starts to form in front of him, which then widens into a pitch black hole in the air.

"...Of course, it's not letting light in, either," Tobir realizes. 

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Henry Tutor chuckles. "That's good. It should block dangerous radiation."

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"Also it might mean that you can use it as a shield? If it can resist forces greater than the ones from hanging around here. Anyway, try filter light and then air?"

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"Oh yeah!" He grins at Heri, "Already found a non-obvious use, nice. And sure, I'll try that now..." 

After a few moments of focusing, the blackness in the portal abruptly vanishes, replaced by a view of the waterfalls on the island they'd been living on. Shortly after this, the sound of the falls starts coming through as well, along with the earthy green scent of the forested isle. 

"Okay, so I can get 'just light' and 'just light and gases'. Hopefully I can get more specific than that, let in only the visible spectrum, and only breathable atmosphere..."

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"Mhmmm. How arbitrary to you think you can get? Could you have a portal that filters traits you couldn't perceive? Someone that lied. Someone committing a crime. A mythical critter as opposed a non-critter human."

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"Hmm..." He tries, but... "I don't think I can do that? Yet, anyway. Those are all way too specific. I can maybe do something like..."

He focuses for a long moment, and then the low mist from the falls starts spreading into the room.

"I think it should keep out animals, now? But everything else can get through." 

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"Animals including people animals?" He tests throwing pieces of organic matter through. Freshly cut wood, dead wood, a chicken drumstick, dead bone.

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They all go through.

"Living animals including people, yeah. I think 'just people' is still too specific, though..." 

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"I see. Do you mind if we do some stress testing? Primarily your reaction time involving creating or opening portals."

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"Shouldn't we help by creating portals or something?"

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"Ken, it's usually easier for the person that made the empowered crystal."

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"Yeah, we can do tests on how easy it is for other people to use after we've tested what I can do with it. So, let's do that," he nods towards Henry.

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After some testing, they find that it takes him about ten seconds to create a portal, about five to change what can go through it, and only a moment's thought to destroy one of his own. The distance between the two sides of the portal doesn't seem to matter when it comes to the length of time it takes to make it, or at least it doesn't at the distances they're working with. On that note, he can't seem to make a portal that goes much farther away than the waterfalls island, which is quite the distance on the intraplanetary scale, but nothing when it comes to the distance between stars. However, they expect a larger crystal will be able to go farther. 

He can close a portal to categories like 'organic matter', 'liquids', 'solids', 'light', and such, but can't get much more specific than 'living creatures'. It seems like something he'll be able to learn to do more with after enough time working on it, though. 

The extended portal creation wears on him, leaving him with the start of a headache. He massages his temples while Henry records the results, face pinched, and makes a quiet whining noise, "Focus headaches are the worst," he mutters. 

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"I think that's enough for today?" Heri asks Henry Tutor.

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"Yes, it's enough. Go rest for a bit until the party."

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"Yeah, that sounds good," Tobir agrees. He blinks hard, and then smiles at Henry, spirits still high despite the strain, "I'll be back tomorrow to work on it some more, right?"

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"I wouldn't expect any less," Henry Tutor says in the tones of a great compliment.

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"Alright. Let's get you some rest then."

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The compliment causes him to smile wider, and then he winces, and nods at Heri, "Yeah..." Back to the house here on Origin, then? Or one of Kenta or Heri could open a portal to the house at the waterfalls outpost, if they wanted. They are no longer bound by distance! Or at least, by distances that are a week's journey away by ship...

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Kenta votes the waterfalls outpost, just because they can.

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Tobir's thoughts exactly. They can just portal back once they've had some downtime! 

 

Back at the house, Tobir downs a glass of water, and then flops down into the pillow pit, burrowing under the pillows so the only evidence of his presence is a few tufts of hair. He clearly intends to stay there for a while. 

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Heri and Kenta snuggle up next to him.

Comfy.

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Very comfy.

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After about three hours Henry Tutor comes. "Are you up for party? It should start in an hour or thirty minutes, and you might want time to make yourselves presentable." He says through the door.

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Tobir wakes up, partly, at the sound of his voice. He groans, curling up tighter and pressing his face into Kenta's shoulder.

"...Can't leave. The pillows and I are one, now."

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"Hopefully that's not a permanent condition. Take your time."

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Kenta rises up from the pillow pile. "I will, get your clothes and bath ready."

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Tobir grasps weakly for him when he leaves the cuddlepile, and then gives up and rolls over to curl up with Heri instead. 

After a moment, a muffled "Best Kenta," can be heard coming from the pillow pit.

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"Don't you forget it."

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Heri snuggles back until Kenta returns to get their bath.

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Tobir will reluctantly separate himself from the pillows at that point, heading bathwards groggily.

"I always forget why I don't do naps until I wake up from the latest one," he mutters, yawning. 

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"Mhmmm." Heri agrees.

The water is hot, one the first things Kenta wanted to stall here was the water heater.

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And once they are done, Kenta already picked their best clothing.

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Tobir hugs him. "Best," he reiterates.

Once they're dressed, Tobir will open a portal back to Origin for them, the nap having left him mostly recovered. And then, party!

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Party! It's not in full-swing, but it was not formally waiting for them to arrive. And there is a very up roaring welcome when they spot Tobir, some men want to carry Tobir on their shoulders.

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The greeting makes him go bright red, but he still grins and waves at everyone. He was expecting some amount of cheering but not quite this much! He's also entirely willing to be carried around on peoples' shoulders.

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While Tobir is being carried off by the crowd, Remi approaches Heri, "Well, I hope you don't mind if we leave the movie marathon for tomorrow or the day after?" He asks, smiling around at all the hubbub. 

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"Don't worry." Heri says, in a lower, "I wanted to figure out my crystal, but I already was not... very hopeful about it given the alts things." He shrugs. "And should be able to travel the entire world now!"

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Remi reaches over to squeeze his shoulder consolingly, and then nods, "We can," he agrees. "And eventually, perhaps, space as well." He looks up at the darkening sky, eyes going distant.

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Heri nods, then he realizes Remi is not looking at him and adds. "Hope so. Anyway, we should join the party."

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He looks back at Heri and smiles, "Yes, we should." He looks around, "Hm, I will be over there with the little ones for the next while if you need me for something," he decides, motioning to the group of under-twelves down on the beach. Having said so, he starts off in that direction.

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Tobir, meanwhile, is making his way to the food and drinks now that he's been set down on his feet again. He goes straight for the sweet fruit punch, drinking two full glasses before turning his attention to gathering and then working his way through a plate of food. He hasn't eaten since shortly before noon, before any of this excitement had started, and he's kind of starving!

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The food is nice, it's common for the day-to-day Origin island food to be crystal-duplicated which means a lot of the same. But people managed to figure out a cuisine out of it. The fruit punch has an interesting taste to it, under the sweetness. Something Tobir can't quite identify, and might not notice once he starts scarfing down the finger food shaped in the letters of his name.

Heri was about to come over and see what Tobir was eating, but a Gabe decides to drag him to the dance floor.

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Huh, they are shaped like the letters of his name. This handily distracts him entirely from trying to figure out what that aftertaste was. He gets drawn into sorting the letters on one platter into piles while he eats, before someone laughs loudly nearby and shakes him out of it.

Appetite sated, he steps away from the table, blinking at the bright lights, and looks around for anyone who looks like they might like to dance.

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Well, the band Gabriel and the Valentines is playing a very upbeat music. And a lot of people want to dance, with him in particular! Elle is the one to reach him faster. She takes him to the middle of the dance floor.

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Yay, dancing! 

-very uncoordinated dancing. That's a little weird, he's kind of clumsy normally but it's usually not this bad! He has to apologize loudly over the music to several people for hitting them by accident, and at one point he actually trips backwards onto someone.

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It's Kenta. He is a bit uncoordinated as well. "Hey! Don't get too enth-enthusiastic!"

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"Sorry! I keep bumping into people! Thanks for catching me!" He pulls himself back up using Kenta's arm as a steadying point, "Isn't being enthuuusiastic the point, though?" He asks Kenta as he does so, and then he almost tips over again. 

"The food is shaped like my name!" He continues once he's got his balance back again, "Come see!"

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Kenta reaction to this is to giggle helplessly. "They are! How did they it this fast?" Then he noms on a T.

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Tobir nods between sips of punch, "Magic, I guess!" He also giggles, and then claps a hand over his mouth, startled by the sound. He squints suspiciously at his cup, "What's in this?" 

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Kenta sniffs. "...Fruit? And punch?"

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"What is punch?" Tobir asks in a distantly curious tone. He shakes his head, "Well, it's delicious, anyway." He finishes the cup. Looking around, he grabs Kenta's hand and tugs him back towards the floor, "Come on, let's go back!"

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"Yes!" Kenta says, making Tobir twirl.

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He laughs gleefully! 

 

A while later, they collapse breathlessly into the sand at the edge of the party to take a breather. "Origin really knows how to throw a party," Tobir says, "Good food, good music, dancing..." he trails off, catching his breath, and admiring the stars above. 

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A spark of light rises up and then explodes in a shower of multiple colors.

"Fireworks!"

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Fireworks!!! He shoots up and looks around for where they're coming from. Once he finds the spot they're setting them off from, he points it out to Kenta, "Let's go see!" 

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Heri is over there. Alongside two Henries and a Gabe with his hands in his pockets. "Hey, guys! Did you like my surprise?"

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Hug for Heri! "It's great," he says. "How'd you do it? Can we try?" 

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"I was researching chemistry the other day. And asked these Henries here."

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"Let's go with Chemist and Miner."

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"Yeah, I asked if it was possible, and they agreed to do it."

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"And I offered to help, because Heri and Henries have no sense of aesthetic."

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"Anyway, you guys can try launching one if you want."

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He nods along to the explanation. "You have excellent timing," he tells Heri. 

He bounds over to one of the fireworks still on the ground. He uses the fire control crystal he has to draw a stream of fire over from a nearby bonfire. 

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-his control over it wavers for a moment. Instead of lighting the firework in front of him, the stream flares out and lights all the ones near him. 

"Oh shit-" 

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Gabe pushes Tobir and Heri aside in the way of the explosion. Then he flares with a red-purple aura...

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He is followed by the two Henries that interpose themselves between them and the Amentans.

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All of which is a valiant and brave effort, but Heri has a portal crystal. When they are thrown by the humans. Heri creates a portal in front of the explosion.

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And Kenta creates one to the other end of the beach, right behind them.

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So the Amentans land on the other end of the beach just in time to watch a massive explosion of light and colourful fire erupt from the end of Heri's portal above them. Tobir lands on his back, stares up at it for a long moment, still processing the past few seconds, and then he shoots up to look for the others, "Heri, Ken! Are you okay?"

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"I don't know. I mean, I am okay."

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"I am alright. We need... they had protection, but-"

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"Right-" Kenta's portal is gone, Tobir notes absently as he opens a portal of his own back to the other side of the beach. Both of them opened very quickly - but a glance at the site of the minor explosion shows that both of the portals are already closed, as well.

That's not what is important right now, though. Are Gabe and the Henries alright? 

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The Gabe is awake, the Henries are on the ground, they all have been thrown a dozen or so feet away. The sandy area they were have been scorched, but the protective magic apparently absorbed the impact.

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Tobir goes for one of the Henries, heart pounding as he kneels down next to him somewhat unsteadily and checks him over. "Please be okay-"

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The Henry (Miner?) is breathing and is not burned.

People heard an explosion that big, and they can hear some closer ones approaching.

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Heri and Kenta go to the other Henry. Heri starts giving some basic first aid.

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Yeah, first aid seems like the thing to do here. He gets on that. 

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Remi is one of the partygoers who come to see what happened. He stalls for a moment when he sees his the kids are involved, and then hurries over to help. 

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Their kids are largely unharmed. Though, Heri's shaking hands and wet eyes are making it harder to help this Henry.

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Remi can assist him, taking most of the work and having him help with the simpler things until someone more qualified arrives.

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Presumably someone will do the same for Tobir, who is doing better than Heri only in that he's not on the verge of tears at the moment. 

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Roaja shows up and is nearly in tears when she spots Kenta and the Gabe.

Tama's mother and the other doctor arrive soon enough.

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Tobir retreats from the crowd once the doctors arrive, standing off on his own and staring at the scorched sand, the enormity of what he'd done finally hitting him. He hugs himself to try to stop the sudden shaking. 

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They can both shake together. People realize they are in the accident and they are taken to the side to be examined. 

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"Have you been drinking?" Asks a Henry.

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"I-I don't think so?" He shakes his head, trying to blink away the threatening tears and the returning fuzziness both, "I didn't try to get anything from the bar..."

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"Seriously? Your breath reek of alcohol."

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"Leave him alone."

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"Be gentle," A nearby Gabe advises, before sniffing. "You two do smell like alcohol. What did you drink tonight?"

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Yeah, the Henry's tone makes him flinch and tear up a bit more. "...The punch?" He says after a moment, "It tasted kind of weird," he remembers. 

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Okay, they investigate this.

Yeah, that fruit punch was definitely spiked.

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Remi is not happy about this. "Someone spiked the punch at the general food table." He looks down at the beach, "Did any of the other kids drink this?" There's a food table down there, too, and the punch bowl is far enough from the edge that the younger ones hopefully couldn't reach easily, but.

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Well, they go about investigating that. One kid definitely drunk some, but didn't like the taste and spat it out. There are a few drunk teens, some of which accuse each other, but not in a way that brings much clarity to the matter.

They take care of the Henries and Gabe. A lot of the party's mood is diffused by now, but at least two thirds of everyone are still hanging out, and talking in quiet tones.

"They will live," A Henry announces, "I think Miner might have suffered hearing damage, but we will see if it's fixable. Do you guys still want to party?"

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"What? So your incompetence can try kill my Ken again?" Roaja asks nostrils flaring.

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"Sometimes things like this just slip through the net," Remi tells Roaja. "Still, whoever was responsible for keeping an eye on the food had best do a better job, next time," he tells Henry, frowning. 

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"I don't really want t'stay," Tobir says quietly. He's standing a bit apart from the rest of the small group, guilt practically radiating off his form. 

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"Yeah, you should go. ...I could stay to help around?"

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"No, I think the situation is mostly under control at this point. You three should go home." 

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"Okay."

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"Ken better come with me. Not after this."

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"Okay, mom."

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Tobir doesn't argue with this, even if he hates the idea of having Ken out of their sight right now. 

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"Alright. No portals, just go to the house here," Remi tells the twins. 

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Heri just nods and gets up to leave, holding out a hand for Tobir.

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Tobir takes his hand tentatively, and then they can go home. 

Tobir can't stop thinking about it. His mind keeps going back to that moment with the fireworks, when the stream of fire got out of his control. Even with Gabe's magic, both of the Henries were injured. If Heri hadn't thought to redirect the explosion away-

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"I am sorry."

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"You're sorry? I almost killed us! If you hadn't made that portal, Gabe and Miner and Chemist could have died."

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"Someone spiked your drink. I had the stupid idea of fireworks, by myself in the first place!"

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He shakes his head violently, "No, it was a good idea, it would have been fun if I hadn't been an idiot who didn't even notice I was acting weird. The punch tasted funny, if I could have just paid attention."

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"It was a party. You should feel safe at a party."

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"And you should be able to bring fireworks to a party. You should be able to trust that your brother won't almost kill you by being careless. But if everything was the way it should be we wouldn't be here."

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Heri is quiet on the way home. "I sill shouldn't have improvised something like that in the last minute," once they are in their room.

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Tobir hugs him. "You couldn't have known. The Henries thought it was fine, right? This wasn't your fault." It was mine, he doesn't say. 

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"The Henries are me."

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"Yeah, but they're... older you, with more experience and different lives. They're not you the way they're each other. And they usually know what they're doing. If they said it was fine, I think it would have been fine." He pauses. "We've just gotta be more careful, from now on."

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"We should be careful, yes." That much he can agree with.

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Yeah, Tobir isn't even slightly convinced he isn't at fault, either. He wishes he could convince Heri he isn't, though. 

They should try to get some sleep. 

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Yeah, they should. Ken is sleeping his mom's room, apparently.

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Yeah. That... sucks. He'd really like Ken to be here. Where they could know for sure he's okay. It's dumb to worry, though. Ken's pretty much always okay. It's just that... even when he's being completely outrageous, he's solid. If he lets you lean on him, he'll never let you fall. They could both really use some of that right now. 

His mom has the right to be worried, though. They'll just have to deal with it. Bed?

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Yes. Ken knows how to be reliable when it counts.

Bed.

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Getting to sleep isn't as hard as he expects it to be. He half-wakes several times during the night, gasping out of nightmares which quickly fade from his memory as he falls back asleep.

When he finally wakes up fully in the morning it's to a pounding headache, among other issues which fade into the background next to it. He groans quietly. 

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Heri has been awake and staring at nothing for the past while. "Hmm? Are you okay?"

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"Shhh," he hisses, and then, "I can't believe people do this to themselves willingly." He covers his head with a blanket, trying to breathe through it. It's not like anyone who does crystal magic is a stranger to pain, but headaches are hard to ignore. "I feel like I swallowed all the sand on the beach and now it's all in my head trying to explode out of my skull," he describes somewhat nonsensically. 

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"Okay... You want some water?" He says in a quiet tone.

He grabs the cup from the nightsand and - using a crystalline prong - produces some cold water.

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"Yes please," he sits up and takes the water, drinking it all. Handing the glass back, he just sits there for a moment, head in his hands, and then he cracks open an eye to look at Heri. 

"...You're really okay?" He asks, voice still hushed, "You're not hurt? I kept dreaming..."

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"No? Don't worry. I got out of the way pretty fast."

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"Yeah. I just..." He looks down, avoiding eye-contact, and shrugs, "Bad dreams." 

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"Do you want to talk about it?"

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"It was just what you'd expect," he says, shaking his head carefully. "If you and Ken hadn't made those portals, if Gabe hadn't been there... I'll be okay." He sighs. "We should get ready for the day."

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Tiny wince. "We should." Heri gives him some help, given the sensory sensitivity.

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Tobir appreciates it.

The pain has died down to more manageable levels by the time they're ready to head out of the rooms. While Tobir would kind of like to hide for at least a day, someone would probably drag him out before long. Better to get it over with. Out to the living areas to have breakfast they go. Is anyone else awake?

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Roaja and Kenta are. "Managed to drag yourself out of bed?"

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Being civil with Roaja has never exactly been easy for him. He just nods, something hot filling his throat at her tone, before the shame pushes it down to his stomach where it settles like a heavy weight. His eyes dart to Kenta, looking him over. "You okay?" 

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"It feels like I actually got hit with fireworks in my head."

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"Aww, my poor Kenta," Roaja says fussing over his hair. "Heri, go get him more bacon."

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"Okay, aunt Roaja..." He does that, despite her being much closer to the bacon plate.

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He's... not willing to get into an argument about this, especially not right now. It never goes anywhere useful, anyways. So he doesn't say anything, though his face twitches a bit. 

"I know how you feel," he tells Kenta, while he fixes himself and Heri their own plates of food, "I think the water I had when I woke up helped," he adds, nudging the juice jug closer to him.

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"Thanks."

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Heri returns to the table and slides a pile of bacon on Kenta's plate.

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Roaja inspects the bacon like she expects it to have been sabotaged somehow.

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(If she doesn't trust him with Ken's food why doesn't she just do it herself-)

He takes a deep breath to keep calm and turns his attention to his own food. 

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Remi joins them at this point, covering a yawn as he grabs some food for himself and settles at the table. 

"...Good morning, boys, Roaja," he says tiredly. "...We need to talk about what happened last night." The prospect makes him look even more tired.

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"Okay."

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"Have you figured out who spiked the drinks?"

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"We haven't, no. It's not a simple thing to do. There were so many people at that party, and while plenty of people made accusations, no one has come forward with any credible evidence."

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Roaja harrumphs and tries to feed Kenta with a spoon, her son objects to this.

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"How about the others caught in the blast? Are they okay?"

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"They're going to be fine," he assures Heri, "Their injuries won't even keep them down for very long." He looks around at the three of them, "You three should know, none of you did anything wrong. You could have been more cautious, but reasonably speaking you were both," he addresses the twins, "As careful as you should have been. This situation was a failing on the part of the party organizers, not you, and one which they will be correcting in the future."

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...Tobir doesn't really find this any more reassuring than Heri's words were, yesterday. 

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Heri still thinks that the party organizers didn't do anything wrong, given it was his idea in the first place.

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Roaja will just ignore this and fuss over her son again.

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Remi sighs, setting the topic aside. "If you're feeling up to it, they're still expecting you at the testing lab today," he tells Tobir, "And could likely use your help," he adds to Kenta and Heri, "Given that you'll be using the portal crystals too." 

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"I want to go, mom." Kenta says before Roaja can get a word edgewise.

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"Of course, honey." She pats his head.

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"I will help."

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"Okay," Tobir agrees. 

...the somewhat tense mood continues throughout the rest of the meal. Once they're done eating, they head out to the lab. 

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"Make sure Kenta does not get hurt," Roaja says before they leave.

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"...We will." 

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On to the lab. Shortly after they arrive, Tobir recalls the quick portals Heri and Kenta had made the night before, and hesitantly brings them up to Henry Tutor.

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He is interested and wants to perform the relevant tests around the concept.

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It takes Tobir a bit to figure out how to do what Heri and Ken had done, but once he does the four of them can test it to their hearts' content. It turns out that, on top of the stable portals, it's possible to form emergency short-term portals in a much smaller period of time. They only last for a couple seconds longer than they take to create - about 3 seconds and 1 second, respectively - however. The targeting is much less precise, as well, and their reach is much shorter, and there's no way to control what can and can't go through them, or at least it doesn't seem possible for now.

"So... It's a trade-off, stability and safety for speed." 

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"It's an amazingly versatile power. You're very lucky."

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"Yeah, really lucky," he agrees. He shakes his head, "So... we should work on growing our crystals, right? And on making what can and can't get through more specific. If we can narrow it down to 'just the visible light spectrum', then it should be safe to try opening portals off-planet, right?" 

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"Presumably, I still would want to do it in an air-tight and secure place. Just to be sure."

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"Can't be too careful when you're dealing with hard vacuum," he agrees. 

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"Exactly. And even the tests inside the planet atmosphere are going to be remarkable. We should be able to find multiple continents inside a week."

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"Yeah, hey, maybe we'll find people, finally," he says, a bit of that optimism coming back. 

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"Imagine, going somewhere where I can say that I am definitely not a good chunk of the population."

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"Wild," he says with a laugh, "I bet in most places you'd be the only you in the population. Or maybe one of two, if we're talking other worlds."

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"To be honest, one is already too much. Good thing there is a lot of me going around to take care of all of him."

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"You know you love me."

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"Sorry, to interrupt all the love, but let's go back to experimenting."

They figure out other Tobir's portals in the following months. When it closes on something, the portal spits out anything trapped in it to a random direction. And Tobir figures out some filtering configurations, enough, that they open a few high above the planet to look "down" the planet and draw maps. They find continents, they reach and create outposts far and wide. They collect samples. And they don't really find other people, but they don't lose hope. The closest thing to a sign of civilization are crystals replicating wildlife much like the ones that create the Origin's island clones.

It turns out that Tobir's crystals' have a distance limit based on size, so they work on creating a large crystal for interplanetary travel. The research group dedicated to this is doing their best to be very careful about the whole project.

Which isn't to say that they are not using the crystals. Most people that are allowed to access to them are Henries, but a lot of outposts are permanently connected now. People can come and go from the Origin and Waterfall islands freely, and there is even portals to the same places inside the island. Tama takes to monitor the "Portal station" that they set up as a hub for people to have a place to come and go.

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Roaja deeply appreciates that she no longer needs to walk upstairs.

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They have two more Milliway encounters, both happening in portal-less outposts. Ironically, the first one in an outpost that is even visible from the higher points on Origin island, which was why they didn't bother to set up a permanent portal there. That gives them three refugees, one of which is an alt of Percy, the peryton from the critter world. During the second encounter, they manage to go back to the second Percy world and retrieve more than thirty refugees, saving them from the monsters that have taken over that Earth.

Maybe they could have saved more people, but the people involved didn't want to risk it.

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The refugees are proportionally traumatized, and require extra work to acclimatize to their world of no monsters and no famine.

Buuuut, on a more positive note! Kenta finally manages to make his own empowered crystal. They fit the Gabe variety of "physical protection".

And on even more important news, the twins' birthday is coming up!

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Yup! And those mysterious powers which were never fully explained. Their mom didn't tell Uncle Remi much about them, so he hasn't had much to tell the twins about them, either. It'll be an adventure!

But first, they have to deal with an adventure of a different sort. Because their powers come on their fourth-sixteenth birthday, which falls in early summer on this planet. And before summer? Spring.

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One morning a couple days into said season, Heri and Kenta wake up to find Tobir missing from their bed. 

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Heri notices this a few moments after waking up. He starts looking around.

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Everything looks normal! Aside from these blankets which have fallen most of the way off the bed and been tucked part-way under it, as though someone had rolled off and under the bed and dragged them along. 

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Heri looks under the bed.

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There's some more blankets there, arranged in a person-sized lump. If there's a person under them, their head is covered, and they're not making much noise. 

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"Tobir?" Heri tugs on the blankets.

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The blankets curl in tighter, "Nope, not Tobir, no one's here, just a bunch of blankets-" Tobir's voice is a bit muffled by the blankets, but it sounds a bit high, and maybe a bit panicky. 

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"Uh, what?" He nudges Kenta. "Are you hurt?"

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"Who is hurt?"

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He groans, dramatically. "I'm fine, don't c- don't look under here, just... just ignore me." 

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Kenta looks under the bed.

"Oh, you're springing."

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"..."

If silences could communicate the words 'kill me now', Tobir's silence would be screaming it. 

"...I'm just going to stay here for the rest of spring," he informs them.

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"Is that bad?"

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"Terrible," he groans, shifting uncomfortably.

 

"...I should probably stop sleeping in here," he says after a moment.

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"Wait... why?"

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"The Gabes and the Henries do still share a bed after doing the human-spring. Specially, after doing the human-springing."

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"I- I thought-" he tugs the blankets down a bit, peering at them from under his arm, "Aren't you two going to... you know, be like Gabes and Henries. Be together?"

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"Yeah? But... like... They are not together every night? Except, they are-"

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"I think they sleep together and have sex every day. Not sure if it's, like, every time they are in bed?"

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He flushes, "It's spring, though. You really think you won't?" His eyes dart to Kenta and then away again, blush growing, "If you guys feel anything like I do right now once it hits you-" his face retreats back under the blanket.

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"Huh."

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"Dude, you just got sprung, it's not the end of the world."

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"...I just woke up extremely springy in the same bed as my brother and our cousin who might as well be his destined life-partner and I really want- I don't- Agh, fuck-"

There's a 'thunk' sound as he hits his head against the floor.

"...Ow." He mutters.

 

"It sure feels like the end of the world."

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Kenta snorts. "I am sure when we spring Heri will share me with you, don't worry."

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"Wha? But- you-" he stammers, voice strangled, and then he groans as he gets a mental image which DOES NOT HELP HIS PROBLEM AT ALL- AGH-

 

"Could you just... leave me to suffer in peace for now?" He asks in a small voice, mortified.

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"We will, Kenta be less... yourself at him."

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"Okay, let's get some breakfast."

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Breakfast! Remi is at the table, plate half-empty and attention mostly on the papers beside it, though he seems slightly distracted. He looks up when they come in, and then raises an eyebrow at them, "Morning boys," he says, "Is Tobir being stubborn about getting up?"

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"He is under the bed."

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"He is trying to hide from spring, but spring around found him."

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"Ah." Poor kid. Well, they knew this day was coming. "Hm, point him in the direction of the daycare, if he ever realizes the futility of hiding and drags himself out," he suggests. "That should solve one problem, if not the other." He taps his papers, "I need to go down to the lab on Waterfalls today," he adds, "Do my best to get as much done as I can before spring starts affecting me in earnest..." 

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"Okay… what should we do about Tobir..."

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"...Well, I recommend dragging him out from under the bed if he stays there much longer. Perhaps... tell him to take a shower," he suggests mildly.

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Kenta bursts out laughing.

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"Okay, will do."

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Remi shakes his head, smiling slightly, and returns his focus to his breakfast and papers. 

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And eventually, Heri and Kenta try to coax Tobir out of his bed cave.

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Tobir is reluctant to be coaxed out, but will eventually allow himself to be, agreeing (with a mortified blush) that a shower sounds like a good idea. He's not leaving the blankets behind for anything, though. He will just be a blanket caterpillar from now on.

Unfortunately he will leave them once he's in the bathroom to have that shower. And once he's done, they aren't really needed anymore.

...He appears to be incapable of eye-contact now, though.

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Okay... what does he prefer to do now?

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Lab? To work on the crystals? And try to pretend this never happened, and also continue under the (completely futile) hope that if he ignores it spring will just leave him alone, that would be nice. 

(He wants- ugh, he doesn't even really know what he wants. He knows the outline but.)

(He keeps catching himself staring at Ken when he moves or speaks, at his arms and his lips and his- agh, Ken isn't even springing yet, and he might not spring at all this year, he'd like this to stop, please-)

(He caught himself looking at Heri for a moment so now he's just resolved to not look at him at all, because no, nope, aaaa-)

(In conclusion: this is already terrible and it's just the first day. He hasn't even left the house yet!)

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This is very awkward. Is Tobir sure that he doesn't want to take the day off?

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And do what? Sit around feeling sorry for himself and screaming internally? He's left the bedcave of mortification, it would be giving up to go back now. It'll be better if he has something to take his mind off it, right? Maybe? Probably not.

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Okay. Okay. They take... a long way around to get to the portal hub. Avoiding the shore. Where you can often spot people in swimsuits.

This leads them right close a residential area with a small child in the entrance steps.

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That's very considerate of them-

Oh. Oh, right. He stops still as he's suddenly hit with a wave of want, so powerful he actually can't breathe for a second. 

(That's a BABY! So cute, look at those tiny hands and those chubby cheeks and those big eyes and-)

He takes a step in that direction and then stops, abruptly. That's not his baby, he can't just go over and pick them up. 

 

"...Heri?" He breathes, breath hitching. "Maybe- maybe I should just stay home?"

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Okay. It's generally considered rude or at least not particularly polite to open portals at random, but this sounds like an emergency. He opens to their waterfall secret lair.

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Through the portal. Tobir sits down on the nearest soft surface and covers his eyes, trying to force his breathing to stay steady.

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Pat pat.

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"Mother might lend you Vanora when her arms are tired?"

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Nod nod. He sort of doubts that, but, "Uncle said he's been thinking of adopting the next baby clone," he says in return. That seems more likely to net him baby-holding privileges. 

"...So this is. Awful," he adds after a moment. "Sorry for being such a..." Wimp? Cry-baby? 

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"Dude, relax. Every amentan goes through this."

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"Yeah," breathe, sniffle, "And it sucks. I can see how Amenta got so overpopulated, now."

 

"I think I'm just gonna stay here, today," he says, voice small. 

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Pat pat. "We can watch something to distract you?"

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Hug. "Yeah," he agrees, "Thanks."

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They watch the movie and try their best to help Tobir adapt.

 

A few days later, the boys are really later for a session.

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After they miss it by an hour, Henry Tutor comes over to check on them.

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Remi lets him into the house, and is a little surprised to hear that they haven't made their way to the labs yet. After that first day, they had started going again, after all. 

...Hm. He leads Henry up to the bedroom the boys share and knocks.

"Are you three still in there?"

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There's a long pause, and then the door opens part way to allow Tobir to peer out into the hall. He's wearing a blanket wrapped around himself like something between a toga and a cloak.

"Um." He blinks at Henry Tutor's presence, and then slowly starts turning red. "...Hi?" He draws out slowly, looking back and forth between the two of them.

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Henry Tutor starts giggling uncontrollably. "Hi! You guys are late."

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If either Henry or Remi had ever wondered what Tobir would look like if his face were bright red, they now know. 

"I'll tell them," he squeaks, "Give us a few minutes-" He almost slams the door in his haste to retreat back into the room. 

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"We grow up so fast," Tutor says with the corner of his mouth twitching.

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Remi starts chuckling at that, "So it seems," he agrees. 

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"Maybe they should get the day off? I got the sense this is... more than just being a Gabe, and that's already a lot."

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"Mm," he nods, "Lacking any Amentans who correspond to humans besides yourself and the Gabes, it's hard to say exactly how much more it is, but it's certainly some amount. I expect they'd appreciate it." 

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"It's no problem. ...I am not sure if I should suggest them to go hang out in the not-so-secret Gabe Club."

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He laughs, "Ah, so everyone's suspicions were correct," he says. "Well, I worry that Tobir might spontaneously combust at the suggestion, but it would probably be good for all three of them, yes." 

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"Just send them to any Gabe."

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"I'll let them know, if they ever come out," he agrees. "Hm," he turns to give the door another knock, and then calls through it to explain that they're giving the three of them the day off. 

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"Thank you!" Kenta shouts, sounding grateful, yet very obviously distracted.

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Remi has no desire to know more about what might be distracting him. He sees Henry out, and then returns to the living area, going back to working on his laptop. His own spring partner has already left for work, though he'll be back again in the evening. 

If any of the three of them come down at some point, he'll mention Henry Tutor's advice.

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They eventually emerge, to grab the most transportable food and go eat in their room.

Kenta is unusually cheerful for a springing amentan.

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Heri has an eternal expression of "caught red-handed".

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Tobir is back to avoiding eye-contact again. If eye-contact cannot be avoided, he turns bright red instead. 

He doesn't literally combust in response to Remi's suggestion that they seek out the Gabe club, but it's a near thing. 

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That sounds like an amazing suggestion.

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Yes... let's wait... a day or two... before they go dive into deeper waters.

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It goes without saying that Tobir is with Heri on this one. 

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It's alright, he is busy enough as it is.

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Message received, they return to their room.

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Eventually, they will leave.

Very eventually.

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When they do, they are welcomed to the deeper waters.

The not-so-secret Gabe club is both less and more than what they expected. More... careful in some ways, not entirely devoted to lewdness. But of course, still very devote to giving everyone a very good time.

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They actually manage to help Tobir calm down some... partly out of sheer self-preservation, what with all that concentrated Gabeness.

Time continues on, and spring with it, and soon enough they're celebrating Kenta's four-sixteenth birthday.

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Which Kenta is very happy to celebrate in a new way, this year.

And more exciting of all the four-sixteenth birthday anniversary of Heri and Tobir.

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Which they celebrate earlier than their actual birthday.

Because Henry Tutor - and the island's research team - wants to monitor their power acquiring, just in case. Which means spending the first half of the day in their power testing lab, doing crystal exercises.

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And in the middle of that... Heri's body spits out all the crystals he had. "Huh... I definitely got... it."

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"Uh-" And then Tobir stares down as his own body spits out all of his crystals as well. "...Huh, I wonder why it did that?" 

He is quickly distracted from the question by an elusive sense of... something, however. Or maybe nothing. An elusive sense of nothing? An elusive sense of elusiveness... He shakes his head to push that train of thought away and glances over at Heri, "Any idea what 'it' is? I'm just getting this weird feeling like... I'm leaving myself vulnerable? Sort of reminds me of how I sort of knew what my empowered crystal did, but with even less detail."

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"I am getting... dunno, something that relates to space... in the sense that I think it might affect areas? And vulnerability feels... in the right direction, but not quite. Like... it feels there is an emptiness."

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A Henry speaks up. "Check to be sure that you can still use crystal magic?"

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Tobir picks up one of the crystals formerly located inside his body and tries to reattach it to himself.

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Works normally, both to attach the things and to remove. And using the crystals is unchanged.

Heri massages his throat. "You know, I think... my throat was a bit sore and now it's completely fine? Could be related?"

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"Could be. I didn't notice anything like that but I didn't have a sore throat or anything. Some kind of healing on top of whatever this... other thing is?" He tries poking himself with a needle-shaped crystal, just a little poke, on the pad of his thumb. 

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He bleeds. And the wound doesn't close instantaneously. Heri comes over to inspect and upon brushing against Tobir... "Huh," he takes Tobir hands and... "Ouch!"

The prick is healed. "I think I did that."

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"Huh, okay, so you might have healed yourself, and you definitely healed me, but it hurt when you did? Can you heal other people?"

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Henry volunteers with a pricked finger.

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Heri can't heal Henry. "It didn't felt like the power either? Not... area-affecting enough?"

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"If you can only heal me, then I bet I can heal you, too. And if you had a sore throat and now you don't, then... probably either some kind of one-time healing or..." He looks to Henry, "Maybe we should do some tests to see if there's any other physical changes?"

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"Like what? Scars?"

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"Sure, but also like, if the magic healed us maybe it did some more stuff to our bodies. I can't really see how we're supposed to figure out how to use the 'stop being vulnerable' thing, but maybe people could try throwing stuff at us, too? Not dangerous things," he adds. "But it's not really... obvious what I'm supposed to do to make this work." He squints, trying to pay attention to that sense of... immaterialness? 

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And if he pushes this sense this way...

"Uh, Tobir..."

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"Huh?" He looks at Heri, and then follows his gaze down to his feet, which... appear to be slowly sinking into the floor. 

"Ack!" He pulls them out of the floor and somehow manages to set them back on the ground. In the process of doing this he also phases through Heri's body a few times, as well as the nearby counter and a chair. 

"I'm a ghost!"

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"You're a ghost! Can you turn bac-"

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"Don't. Don't turn back. Just a moment." The Henry creates a small platform made out of transparent crystal. Like a stepping stool. "Step on here and once you think you are not intersecting it, try to turn back."

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Aaa? Okay, Tobir will do that. Onto the stool, and then - if he pushes that feeling the other way... 

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He returns to his solid state. "Oh, good."

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"We will figure out a battery of tests. But needlessly to say, you should avoid turning solid inside a solid object."

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"Definitely!" 

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"Yeah, let's all be very careful about it." He pauses. "I am still not sure how I should go about getting my power."

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"We could try the throwing things idea. Or maybe it's something like antimagic, like your crystal is, and we should try doing magic to you," he suggests as he steps down off the stool, shaking his arms out and eyeing the floor warily. 

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Heri pouts. "But it's not like you got a variation of teleport." Pause. "I don't think."

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"I don't think so... I think I'm just untouchable." He pauses, snorts, "In more than one way." 

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"Oh, yeah you can just turn ghost, and portal away. It's the ultimate defensive-" Heri gets a distant look in his face.

Then there is a sudden hexagon made out of soft blue-white light in front of him.

"-power."

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"Oo, a shield, cool!" He reaches out to poke it.

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"Thinking about defenses made it click?"

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"Yeah," he makes another hexagon, then a square. "It made me realize I could fill the space."

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He pokes at his own power again and goes intangible, "Does it stop me like this?" He wonders, trying to move his hand through one of the hexagons. 

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At first the hand doesn't go through, and then it does. "I think I can let you through if I want to."

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"Huh! More twin stuff, or can you let Henry go through without dropping the shield, too?"

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The alts try... "It might be easier to do with Tobir?"

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"...That doesn't feel quite right." He has since acquired a collection of blue shapes hanging in the air. "It feels... more correct that's only him."

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"Huh. Can you," still intangible, he offers his hand to Heri, focusing for a second, "Can you touch me?"

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Tentative poke?

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Success! "And if this is going the way we think it will, Henry won't be able to," he pokes Henry's shoulder, focusing on letting him touch him, but his hand goes right through.

"So there's twin exceptions. And we can heal each other? I wonder if there's anything else, or if that's it?" 

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"Not sure how to figure out, besides being vigilant about it."

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"Maybe we will find a better power analyzer at some point. For now, I think we have quite a lot to work with. Tobir, do you think you can go intangible by accident? When you're startled? Does either state feels harder to maintain?"

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"Hmm... I don't think this is any more tiring than being solid?" Tobir switches back and forth a couple times, making sure to check that he's not clipping into anything when he turns solid, "Switching's maybe a little tiring," he decides, "But once I'm in one state it's fine. I'm not sure about doing it on accident," he adds, "I might have to get used to it more to make it happen when I'm surprised. Switching takes a bit of focus."

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He turns to Heri. "Similar set of questions, changed as applicable. Can you do your force field accidentally? Is it tiring to maintain?"

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"Pretty much same answers as Tobir? Not sure if it can happen accidentally. And keeping these up is not effortful." He waves at his collection of glowing regular geometric shapes. To Tobir. "Does it feel like anything when you're intersecting something solid? Actually... do you think you're intersecting air when you go ghost?"

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"...I have no idea. It feels like I'm still breathing something, but..." He pauses for a moment, trying to stop breathing. After a moment of this, he shakes his head and starts breathing again, "I need to breathe, yeah. Maybe I'm just intangible to solid stuff? It just feels like I'm moving through air when I go through something solid."

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"We can do some tests with water and gases. It could be dangerous for you to put your lungs underwater or through harmful atmosphere. We can test that with some gas that would have a noticeable effect."

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"Sounds like a good idea," he agrees. "We should figure that out in a controlled environment before it happens somewhere else."

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They nod. "A lot of things to test. Hey, do you think you can turn other people ghost? And you're turning your clothes, how much cargo can you take?"

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"Could he turn one of your forcefields intangible? Or move them to inside a rock or something?"

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"I don't think my forcefields can be move..." He thinks of something and makes a cube that starts smalls and grows. "except by growing, apparently."

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"Good question," Tobir agrees, "I have no idea how much cargo I can take. I'm taking my clothes and the stuff in my pockets right now, but... I feel like I probably can't take a whole person? But we can still try. Stands to reason if I can do it at all I could do it to you, right?" He asks Heri, holding out a hand.

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Heri takes it.

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No such luck. "Guess not," Tobir says.

"Okay, so, things to test: cargo capacity, whether I can ghost through gasses and liquids, whether I can ghost Heri's forcefields, and how strong are your forcefields, anyway, what can they block... oh yeah, how does crystal magic interact with this stuff, like, do the anti-magic crystals do anything to our powers? And..." He thinks back, trying to find what it is he's forgetting, "Right! Checking to see if the powers did anything else to our bodies besides heal Heri's sore throat." He looks around to see what the others have to add to the list. 

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Check (carefully), the limits of their healing powers (which will likely involve just wait and see when they get hurt/sick). Besides the anti-magic crystals, see how the crystal magic in general interacts with their powers (Could Tobir interact with a crystal while phased out? Can Heri's shields be assimilated by crystal?). General stress-testing of their abilities, how long can they maintain them, and see other possible limits, how far Heri can make a force-field? How large? And so on.

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The necessary tests having been lain out, they begin to experiment!

Testing reveals that Tobir can ghost anything which is totally contained within six inches of his skin, that he can, in fact, ghost through liquids and gasses (they still haven't figured out what it is he's breathing, though), and that he cannot ghost Heri's forcefields. If he throws something he'd ghosted with himself far enough that the whole object is more than six inches away from his skin, it becomes tangible again.

When he's ghosted, he can't interact with anything non-ghosted except for Heri and the surface he's standing or lying on (there's some wiggle-room here, he can sometimes trick himself into thinking he's lying on something by sitting down, for example), and this includes through crystal-use. He can't use crystal magic on anything besides himself and the things he ghosted with him. 

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Heri's forcefields can't be move once they stop growing, and he has to decide the final shape before manifesting them. He can't force two shields to intersect. Shields can handle quite a lot of force and pressure, but once they are broken, they pop like soap bubble. Relatedly, the anti-magic crystals will destroy them pretty easily. Crystals can't assimilate the forcefields.

Shields need to start somewhere a few feet from Heri, but can otherwise propagate and cover a large area.

They test how large. And then again. And again.

Soon, their entire island is covered under a force-field dome.

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"Wow," Tobir breathes, looking up at the dome. He entertains some wishful thinking about ways to use this when they get back to amenta, before turning his thoughts to more practical uses. "You think we could use this to make it safe to open portals farther into space?" 

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"Pretty sure. Keep that up is not even hard."

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"Awesome! Another big step closer to getting out of here." He peers up at the dome, thoughtful, "Do you think it'll just stay up or is there some kind of time limit, maybe? We should probably try testing that with both our powers - I know they're not effortful, but we should be sure, right? Wouldn't want to find out I can only stay ghosted for a few hours when I'm half-way through a rock face or something."

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"You are probably better served by just using portals." He looks up. "I think I will take that down and use a smaller one as the test."

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"I should still check! In the name of Science," he says semi-seriously. He proceeds to go ghost, checking the time as he does so. 

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"Okay, okay." He creates three spheres, each larger than the last. "These for the time test," he writes down the time when the spheres were created.

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...Standing around being intangible is kind of boring, it turns out. Who would have thought! Maybe they should find Kenta and watch a movie or something while they wait? 

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The inability to cuddle up is a bummer, but sure, they can go watch a movie.

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Tobir can cuddle Heri while intangible, at least! That's better than nothing, though it does take a bit of focus to do so.

He gets all the way through the movie without unghosting, though he phases through Heri and into the mattress a few times when he loses focus. "You know, I think I probably shouldn't sleep like this," he muses after the third time, "I probably won't be able to stop myself from falling into the planet."

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"Yeah, and maybe we should put some anti-magic crystals under you or something, just to be sure." Snuggle.

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Kenta squints, and then starts removing Heri's shirt. "You're fitter."

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"What, really?" He shifts a bit to get a better look. "We never did get checked to see if there were any other physical changes," he notes. He tugs at his own shirt, peering down at himself, "Am I?"

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"You're! I can't believe you guys didn't notice."

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"We were a little distracted by the powers, to be fair!" He tugs his shirt off to get a better look (it becomes tangible again as it leaves his near vicinity), twisting this way and that and patting himself down, "Cool," he says, grinning, "Zero-effort hotness upgrade. Wonder how much stronger we are now?"

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"Let me see," and Heri forcefully pins down Kenta on the count. "This is not an objective measure, but it feels easier."

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Kenta makes a delighted noise.

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Tobir reaches out- and then pauses, realizing he's still intangible, "...This is, like, the ultimate teasing tool," he mutters, sinking a ghosted hand into Ken's shoulder.

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"Aww, but why deprive yourself of the pleasure of me."

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"I mean, I am trying to see if there's a time-limit on staying ghosted."

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"Empirical observation is important." Heri says nodding.

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"I guess he will have to be content with observing us."

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"I can be content with that."

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Observations ensues. Delightful ones.

Heri's shields don't have an apparent time limit, but the same ammount of force can make one crack and dissipiate no matter how small the crack was compared to the shield's total size. And they are not thin enough to have sharp edges. They can only come in relatively simple geometric shapes. But they can still be huge and Heri goes around every settlement and outpost adding them as infra-structure. At this point they discover that the shields lose light over time if Heri is not around, changing from a solid soft glow, to a tinted glass dotted with stars. There is no apparent change in other functions, so Heri dissipates the shields used as street lamps and keeps the ones used as settlement walls and markers.

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Heri's power is definitely more useful to the settlement than Tobir's is. Tobir has already contributed portals, however, so he doesn't really feel bad about the relative uselessness of intangibility in comparison. 

As they'd suspected, he finds he can remain ghosted for as long as he likes, though sleeping while intangible is inadvisable. He only falls asleep once, but his first experience of waking up half-way through the floor is more than enough to convince him not to do it again. 

The physical examinations reveal that they are definitely fitter and healthier than before they acquired the new powers. They appear to have been enhanced to the peak of their potential, any scars they had have smoothed out, and it looks like sicknesses would have a difficult time affecting them. They haven't suffered any major injuries which would have let them test just how far the healing goes, but any minor injuries they have suffered were dealt with just as easily as the thumb prick - though with the amount of pain the healer felt adjusted to match the severity of the injury. 

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Time passes, they invest in their little world. Technically speaking they don't need four settlements. But portals make it easy. And their population is not beyond facing problems that require separating people. They put two villages in different points of the planet's continent.

The closest thing they come to find as a sign of civilization are terraforming crystals. Not that different from the cloning crystal, but spitting out animals and plants.

Regardless, they keep expanding. They even reach the moon, using Heri's shields against the vacuum.

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They can go to THE MOON!! This is the coolest combination of their powersets yet! 

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The moon! That's kinda like space! And the gravity is weaker.

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It's scientifically interesting. And fun.

They are not planning to have a populated outpost here, but they do create a sort of base for when they want to return.

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Moonbase! The lower gravity doesn't seem to change when he goes intangible, letting him bound around inside Heri's shield like that, and he can also still breathe on the moon even though he's not interacting with the air brought in through the portal. He spends a fair amount of time up there, enjoying the view.

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It's quite the view. One that couldn't get tired of for many years.

And they don't. The lunar outpost remains a place of no permanent residence. But it's a place everyone regularly visits. The settlements expand more as their population grows to occupy their untamed world. There is a disproportionate large party when they welcome their second set of twins to this world. They never have a second wave of refugees as big as the ones from the ruined Earth, but every so often a Gabe will stumble upon Milliways and they acquire one to three people. And it's not always easy, but people find a way to live on, adapt, learn and grow.

And sometimes they grow old.

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And eventually, unfortunately, people die.

 

The funerals here are... well, nothing like the ones on Amenta, where the dead are a source of pollution no one wants to get near. The difference between amentans and all of the other beings living on this world is never so obvious to them than at times like these. Still, being reds, most of them are willing to ignore the presence of the dead in order to attend, to celebrate the life and mourn the death of late friends.

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It is... very disconcerting. To say the least, how they just... display the remains. Or interact with it like the person was just in a deep coma or something.

And that doesn't even cover when an alt dies.

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And despite what one might think, Gabes can survive to old age. Even without a Henry's help. It is like ripping out a chunk of them forever, but they survive to enjoy another day. Or another year. Or even two decades.

Silverfox Gabe perished to pneumonia, a few months before his death he had a major party, knowing it was going to be his last. He had a blast.

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The group that gathers for his funeral is quite large, containing Gabes and Henries (and Kenta and Heri) and plenty of others besides. The funeral is held on Origin island, away from the settlement itself, where a forest of crystal tombs spreads. The area is starkly beautiful, but eerie. Tobir shivers whenever he remembers that each crystal was grown around the body of a former resident.

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Kenta supports Roaja during the procession. She is quite teary for someone that doesn't know that they are burying the alt of her son.

The eulogies are spoken with soft background music. It's the kind of beauty that Gabes rarely care to produce, maybe because they are saving up for moments like this.

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And in the end, a group of Henries approaches the body to encase it in a cocoon of crystal. Positioning its hand such as to hold the hand of the crystal body next to it. Then the two are encased together. Until the day the crystal cracks or magic has advanced enough to reverse this.

Until they, they will be next to each other in death. Too.

Small mercies.

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Small mercies.

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Big hopes.

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Very big hopes.

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It's not fair, but life isn't fair unless you make it that way. Someday they'll fix death, too. With all of this magic, and the determination to do so, there's no way they won't figure it out eventually. 

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It's more reason to dedicate themselves to learning crystal magic. That's something Henries also have been doing too. That's partially the purpose of the crystal cocoons. Preserving people until their death can be reversed.

Such research is also very tied to the cloning crystal and relevant research on how to make it stop. And how the thing manages to just spit out people despite their attempts to make it stop.

Heri has taken to take out a piece of it to prod magically, before returning the thing to the main crystal, so they don't end up with a second source of clones.

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He's been doing a lot of work on that, lately. Tobir, meanwhile, has been involving himself in the portal experiments, putting his expertise with his empowered crystal to use in helping that team slowly explore deeper and deeper into space. They have to be very careful, because it has slowly become clear that at greater distances, the placement of their portals becomes less and less accurate. It only took one instance of opening a portal WAY too close to a star to convince them to take care. On the plus side, that instance did prove that the filters on the portals could stand up to some serious forces. 

After a day of working on portals in the labs set up for that purpose, Tobir goes looking for Heri and Kenta on Waterfalls Island, trekking up through the forest by the river to come in through the cave entrance under the waterfalls. It's late evening, and the light of the sun shines directly upon the central waterfall, only dimly illuminating the edges of the misty darkness beyond.

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He is welcomed to the sight of their secret cavern lair. Which, now that's complete, it is absolutely beautiful, a small castle against a misty starry night, glowing under the light of an unseen moon. It's Kenta's absolute best work, something not only magical but mystical.

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Heri and Kenta are in the garden area. The former is deeply focusing on some kind of crystal manipulation and looking deeply frustrated.

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"It's still not cooperating?" Tobir asks as he comes up to them, pulling his attention away from the nearby plants to eye Heri with some concern.

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"Still not. I can't input patterns into it. Or make a hair strand that grows with the hair of a clone and ends with the hair of another. Or anything Tutor and the others have managed."

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Patpat. "You've been working on it for way less time than Tutor has. You'll get there," he states confidently. "What can you do with it, so far?"

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"I can figure out how to create specific tissues, probably could help a more experienced Henry in the creation of a replecement limb. Not much anything else."

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"And you managed to clone rats and they do remember trained tricks from before." Kenta adds, he is doing some crystal magic of his own, but - being Kenta - for more artistic purposes.

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"Sounds like you're doing pretty well to me," Tobir tells Heri. His stomach growls, and he coughs sheepishly, "Uh, mind taking a break? I've been at the labs all afternoon and I'm kind of starving."

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"Oh, great idea, Tobir!" Kenta says picking up the crystals Heri was working with and dumping in a bag.

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"Hey!"

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"It's a break. If I don't take your shiny toys from you, there won't be much proper resting."

And then Kenta opens their secret lair's door.

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That... is not their secret lair.

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Tobir peers around his shoulder, "Hey, Milliways! Congratulations, Kenta, you've hit another Gabe milestone," he adds jokingly. "I would have been fine with whatever we had around, but I'm up for some interdimensional supper too, if you guys are?"

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"I am!" Kenta walks inside and holds the door.

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"Kenta also found Milliways the first we visited," Heri reminds him, it feels like forever ago. "And of course."

Heri follows Kenta inside.

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"Oh true," he recalls, following them in. The bar's not all that populated - a few people minding their own business, a small group chatting quietly in a corner. They'll have to take a moment to see if any of them want to chat once they're done eating. But first: interdimensional food! Tobir asks Bar for a tasty surprise.

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One is surprised! Some kind of noodle thing that both smells and tastes delicious.

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Delicious noodles! Nom!

"So I guess we should open a portal to Origin back at the lair and let people know we got a Milliways door," he says after he's taken a few bites.

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"Sure, let's all have other people do all the work."

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"Nah, I'm not going anywhere. I want to talk to some of these people, too, and..." he glances over at the door, considering, and then reluctantly shakes his head, "...We're not really powerful enough yet, are we?" He directs at Heri. Powerful enough to go back to Amenta. They're getting there, though. A good plan, and a few more years to gain strength...

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Heri ponders this for a moment. "Probably not." He finally admits. "I am not sure what that would look like, but I kinda would want to have secured a portal between planets in Crystalsky first? And maybe... I don't know, invisibility crystals or something."

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"Yeah," he sighs, "Deal with the problem at hand before going out to fix other ones." He looks back at the door again, and then pulls his attention back to his food. "Invisibility would be helpful," he agrees in between bites, "But if I was hoping for the ideal power, I'd maybe go for something that would let us move people to safety without the other castes noticing they were gone. That seems kind of out there, though." He shrugs.

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"Maybe some ability to create illusions? Which goes back to my goal with invisibility: we could sneak around, set up a lot of portals without people noticing and then mass evacuate all reds."

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"And let the cleans experience how distance makes the heart grow fonder. Nice."

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"It'll serve them right," he agrees. "I guess I worry that the more time we take setting things up while time is moving in Amenta, the more reds will die to random violence." 

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"I worry about that too."

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"You guys worry too much and it doesn't even help."

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He snorts, "I guess it's a good thing we've got you to remind us to take it easy and stop thinking about it so much, then." He shrugs, "Still, better to worry now than mess up later."

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"Yeah, it lets us plan. And we are worried, but not in a rush about it. Better to just get it right. Be extremely careful, find a place to evacuate all reds and then vanish us all one day. Not even let the cleans have a clue of an explanation."

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"It's weird how... you two and Remi disagree in that sense."

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"Well... not leaving a clue is also smart for us. The cleans will never cooperate with anything that doesn't end with every red dead."

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"What Uncle Remi wants isn't possible," Tobir says. He nudges around a noodle unhappily, "It'd be... nice, if this could end with everyone getting what they want. It'd take, I don't know, mind control or something like it, to get the cleans to see us as people who deserve to be safe and happy, though. We've gotta be realistic about this, if we want to save the people who need it the most."

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"Yeah. And it's not like having a caste that everyone treats as disposable is a necessary feature of a civilization. Humans and most species either never have that or get over it. Clean Amentans are just terrible. So, they will just have to deal with their wish of no reds on Amenta to be fulfilled in the worst way possible."

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"Hey, I am not really complaining. It's just weird how you morals-are-important people disagree with things."

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"Remi's got his reasons, I guess. I mean... It's not as though literally all the cleans are awful. We're evidence of that," he motions between himself and Heri. "But no one is doing anything. No one cares as much about red problems as reds do. So. It's on us, and the rest of the world can just fend for itself." He shrugs, shoves aside any conflicted thoughts on the matter, and goes back to his meal.

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The only reason Kenta doesn't shove conflicted thoughts aside is that he doesn't have any.

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And once they are done with their meal, they can up to the door and get the others.

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Door! Tobir opens it, readying his portal crystal so he can open one to the area reserved for extra portals in the station on Origin. Hopefully there will be a Henry or Gabe in the station, so they don't have to wait on someone to go find one-

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The door opens to a dimly lit hallway filled with worn furniture. He blinks at it for a moment, confused, and then it dawns on him.

"Oh. Oh shit."