The first thing he notices is the texture of the waterbed. He's never felt anything like it before, so he scrambles to stand up. Then memory comes rushing back. Kenabres, and getting killed by a cart, of all things. Lila's garden. Drafting an entire Creation. Seshka.

There are other memories too. They aren't his own, but he knows he can call them to mind, letting them color his perceptions and reactions if he chooses.

It's a dorm room. It's the most luxurious place he's ever been in, full of carved details and touches of paint and gilding, scarlets and rich browns. He ascertains that he is alone, and then his attention is drawn inexorably to the strangeness of his—her?—body. Weight on the breast and hips, and it feels off, like putting your tongue in the space where a tooth was. His proportions feel different. The legs are a little shorter, and when he touches an upper arm there's more fat there than he expected.

I'm going to be Lunetta, he thinks. He - she - needs to get used to this, comfortable with it. She stretches, raising arms over the head, taking a step forward then back and rocking onto the toes, taking care to experience those sensations. Everything feels subtly different, and it builds and builds until, at the apex of the motion, something slides into place like a bowl being stacked into another bowl, and the body feels inexplicably normal.

She wants to know every magical and psychological detail of what just happened, but that's a distraction. She glances at herself in the mirror—pretty, but with the same subtle wrongness—and stares until things snap into place. Does this effect have anything to do with the shape of her soul? Did Lila's organization change the shape of her soul? Whatever.

She really is pretty. Large lips and dark eyebrows over heavy lidded eyes could create an overbearing look, but actual effect is dignified delicacy. Maybe it's the nose. Lunetta - because it is Lunetta now, it has to be Lunetta - has a cute nose, and beautiful skin, the kind you see on adventurers from all the magical healing. Too clear to be real. As promised, her silver hair is Elaborate. Lac, who has braided hair maybe twice in his life, could never construct it on his own.

It's all definitely real. She raises her hands, touches eyebrows, nose, mouth. Gives herself a hug and watches in the mirror. All real. Stomp these small feet.

What now? She looks around, pulling on the connection to Lunetta's memories to get context for the room. 

What now?  Well, she could keep admiring the decor (at least the bits of it that are adequate for a lady of her standing) or the yard and mountain view outside (so much better than home, because this will be the site of her launch to a much larger triumph)...

... Or she could of course actually look at the schoolbooks on that shelf over there (though she'll have plenty of time to do that or commission others to do it once the classes actually start)...

... Or call her maid (of course she has her own maid here!) to get dressed in something fit to be seen in, or for anything else...

... Or she could pick up the phone bracelet and message one of her new friends (a short message wouldn't be considered unfitting) or of course talk with her dear friend Selvya...

Oh no. Lunetta twitches away from the connection to the original's memories and tries to confirm that there are no lingering effects. Probably none? Those thoughts reeked of arrogance, an attitude best summed up as "Things had better go my way... or else. " Even her attitudes on the decor were full of envy and pride, where nothing was good for its own sake, only the sake of putting other people beneath her feet. Her "friend" Selvya was a weapon and mark of privilege, not a person.

She wants to peel the Lunetta out of her. She takes a deep breath and imagines exhaling all of it, breathing out all the slimy arrogance as a failed spell structure that destabilizes and melts into nothing. It would have been horrible to be this person. The living Lunetta is glad that her original never actually existed, and hopes she wasn't sapient in a Will of the Multiverse prophecy-simulation.

She needs to talk to Selvya. Can't have her ally left out of the planning, especially when Seshka - Selvya - definitely doesn't trust her yet. The college has a taboo against long bracelet calls, with face-to-face interactions seen as... morally superior? She's missing nuance, but doesn't want to draw on the original's memories again to clarify. But there's a carveout for AI, so she should be fine communicating with Seshka.

She doesn't know how to use the "phone bracelet." Fuuuuck. It takes a another dip into her counterpart's mind before she knows how to activate it.

"Seshka, it's Lac. Can you hear me?"

A voice comes out of the bracelet - a girl's voice, but with just the hint of artificial snippiness, and clarity that makes it perhaps unsurprising that no human mouth generated these words.

"Lac?" Selvya says with confusion.  "Who're you?  How'd you get this?  Where's Lunetta - let me turn my cameras on -"

She doesn't sound worried, but excited, as if this's the start of a new game.

...What? Does she not remember, or is she pretending for some reason...

Some clicks sound on the bracelet (if Lac's looking at Lunetta's memories, she might remember that Selvya doesn't need to make any noise to start watching), and Selvya's voice says with an enticing chuckle, "Oh, Lunetta!  What game are you playing?  Unless you're the planet's stupidest spy with the best disguise spells...  Hmm, what'd you say to me last night was going to be your favorite class?"

Is this not Seshka? Fuck, she needs to answer the question or she'll look suspicious.

Lunetta escapes the memory connection. "Oratory."

"Well well, that's the same."  The sound of a faint chuckle is heard.

"So what made you change your name overnight?  Were your dreams that enticing?"

evasive nonanswer evasive nonanswer

"You could say that. I'm not ready to talk about it yet."

"Did you dream a whole new life or something?  In another world with different gods?  Where you were named Lac?"

Is this literally just Seshka fucking with him. "How did you know that?"

"Because..."  She chuckles again and drops almost to a purr.  "I know I don't usually dream... but this morning, you could say I did too..."

And then she exclaims merrily, "Hello again!"  

"Hi... so you remember being Seshka?"

"Oh yes!  I don't remember somehow being attached to your soul, but I do remember being my ghost... though that's still like a dream.  Or like I was half asleep."  She sighs with almost-ceremonial ruefulness.  "At least ghost-me remembered to say most of the important things.  And it will be fun being a computer."

Not that she's going to tell Lunetta what the rest of the important things are, that ghost-her didn't spill while the rest of her mind was absent.

"And now I can say properly for the first time, hello!"

"It's good to meet you properly, Seshka."

"And you too, Lac!

"...Which name do you want to go by?  I expect we can get by saying these're our new pet names for each other that I picked out; it won't really be out of character for me..."

(Come on, come on, surely there're some teachers who have personal computer journals with bad security...)

"In private, I like Lac. I don't want to forget where I came from. Maybe Lunetta in public, so people ask fewer questions."

"Mm-hm.  Then the same for me in public; you can use either name for me in private."

(Ah, there... all right, that's one professor ruled out; and the word of sore relations with her son filed away in case it's useful in the future...)

"And with our parents... do you have any plans to maintain much relationship with them?"  She asks carelessly.  "Though my local father is quite an interesting wizard, to have built me!  Even with Fate's guidance!"

"I don't know anything about Lunetta's relationship with her parents yet. I only incarnated a few minutes before contacting you, and I haven't had time to go through her memories." Gods, her poor parents. Lac didn't spare them a thought while designing Villarosa, and now their daughter - an awful person, but their daughter regardless - has been replaced with a stranger.

"Well...  I'll just say I've watched enough to know they won't be expecting you to write them for at least the next several days, and let you decide the rest yourself.  Gods know none of my own parental relationships were at all typical, or anything like your local ones."

(Ouch, the Headmaster's security bites!  All right, that raises his likelihood...)

"And speaking of what else the gods know..."  She lets that dangle for a moment before settling on the direct approach.  "Did you learn any more than me about our chances of apotheosis?"

"I don't think so, unless you've forgotten. You said your time as a ghost was like a dream? We're both fated to ascend, but we only ascend in this life if we win." Nope, still weird.

Before they were sent to Villarosa, they'd experienced a vision of the original story and several ways it could have gone. "It's possible for Viola to ascend, too. If she wins, she ascends before us and has time to stack the deck in her favor."

"That's the same thing I heard...  Hmmmmm..."  It sounds like wrinkling her nose, if she had a nose.

"Huh," she adds with sudden happy wonder, "I guess that means I will reincarnate like normal.  I was wondering that, before.  At least, if I don't ascend...  It would be so nice to ascend before that Viola."

(Hmm, can't get into his private files, but his mail... no, surely any adult would have some other mail besides these letters to journals...)

"Speaking of which, I do trust you have no plans of ending up in a convent, just like I have no plans of ending up in that literally-firewalled sandbox?"

"I want to overthrow Pharasma, rescue every soul in Hell, and remake the entire universe to be more in line with my values. I can't do that if we're trapped in our respective boxes, or if Viola ends up as an over-God above us."

"Overthrowing Pharasma?  I'd never dared think of that..." she repeats with shock, but hunger.  "And if we do that, then by all means Asmodeus would be a small fight in proportion!"

(In her shock, she nearly loses her thread on this other teacher... but no, her correspondence is locked completely!)

"And then... what?  Did you pick reincarnation on purpose here because you liked it?"  She lets her voice tremble a bit, trying to feel Lac out.