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Internal Alterations
Riley Anderson meets the Miracles
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Riley is going back to Minnesota.

Her friends are in Minnesota. Her hockey team is in Minnesota. Everything good in her life is in Minnesota. She tried giving San Francisco a chance, but the house here is gross and rat-infested and doesn't have furniture, and the pizza has broccoli on it, and she embarrassed herself in school, and she totally messed up in the hockey try-outs, and meanwhile her old friends in Minnesota are forgetting about her.

So she looked up the bus routes, and she stole her mom's credit card, and she's on her way to the bus-stop to head back.

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Which is when she sees a glowing, naked boy being flung across the air into an office-building window. 

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What.

If she misses this bus she should be able to take the next one. She stops to see what's going on.

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The boy streaks out of the broken window like a living comet. It's probably difficult to see, but there's a cut on his ankle, seeping something black and thick that drips to the Earth.

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And now he's chasing after a rainbow skinned boy in what looks like a flying bathtub.

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This could be dangerous but he's still mostly too confused to come up with a response.

Riley continues staring.

(Neutrally-valenced surprise is the one emotion that mostly runs autonomously)

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Something black and slimy slithers down the street like a snake. Something in its substance senses young flesh. It surreptitiously slips under Riley’s pants leg.

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EW EW EW EW EW!

Why is San Francisco so terrible?

Riley will try to get the slimy thing off her leg.

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It's too late, the intruder has already wormed its way into her pores and what orifices it can find. 

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Ewwwwww!

This is a catastrophe, but Disgust really doesn't want to be the one to have Riley turn around and go back to the new house.

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"Okay. Okay. This seems really bad. I think we should go back, and tell mom and dad what happened..."

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Good, Fear can be the one to have Riley turn around and go back to the new house.

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"We are not going back to that house."

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Disgust will shove Anger aside and start having Riley turn around and go back to the new house.

Then she thinks of something else they can try first.

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Riley will wave both arms and shout "HEY FLYING PEOPLE!!!! FLYING PEOPLE!!!!"

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The boys both look down. 

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"Yeah?" asks the glowing one?

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Okay, this is really embarrassing to say, but she doesn't think she can solve this herself and that means she'll have to tell people about it.

"A GROSS SLIME THING CRAWLED UP MY BUTT AND MY VAGINA!!! YOU HAVE MAGIC POWERS, CAN YOU GET IT OUT?!!"

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The boys exchange glances. They each descend into the murmuring crowd in front of Riley. 

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The rainbow boy stands upright as his bathtub vanishes. Turns out he's as naked as the glowing blond one. "Ah, no. But it might not be a bad thing?"

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"Not a bad thing!?"

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Yeah Disgust is pretty sure this is in fact a bad thing.

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OK Fear definitely needs to help out here before the slime thing does whatever else it's going to do and also before Riley antagonizes the magic people or something.

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Why is San Francisco so terrible?

"Excuse me?!"

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“You’re gonna be like us.”

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That seems like it's probably a good thing.  Probably in better circumstances she'd be happy about it.

"Oh.

What does that mean?"

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"Living forever and superpowers."

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Okay, that doesn't sound very appealing right now but is indeed probably good. Unless immortality sucks, maybe immortality sucks.

"What sort of superpowers?"

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“Lots of different kinds. But you’re going to need food.”

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"Why am I going to need food?"

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“You’re going to make a cocoon.”

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Eww

"Why am I going to make a cocoon and what happens if I don't?"

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“So it can make your body better and… dunno. Probably nothing good.”

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"Okay, is there any way here that Riley can avoid making a coccoon like some kind of bug person!?"

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On the one hand, making a cocoon, which is really weird and so probably dangerous. On the other hand

"'Probably nothing good' sounds bad."

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"Gah. Look at that guy acting like this is all fine."

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"AM I GOING TO TURN INTO SOME KIND OF BUG PERSON!?"

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“Probably not?”

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"Probably not?"

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The boy shrugs. "You seem really against being a bug person." 

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"Of course I'm against being a stinking bug person!"

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"Then you probably won't be!"

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Since the magic boys apparently aren't going to be helpful, Riley is going to turn around and run back towards home.

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---It's like a rent full of fire opening up in her stomach. She's ravenous.

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She's going to sit down for a bit. Then she'll go look for a takeaway place, she still has Mom's credit card.

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The boys follow.

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"How you feeling?"

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"Hungry."

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"Yeah, you're gonna have to eat. A lot."

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"Meh."

Riley continues looking for a fast-food place.

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The rainbow boy takes her by the hand and pulls her into a fried chicken joint.

"Our friend needs food!" he declares brightly to the people inside.

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"I'm not your friend."

She will order some fried chicken, though.

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The wait is almost intolerable. Her stomach feels like it’s eating herself. 

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Gaaah.

Riley will start crying.

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Glowing naked children: surprising to everyone in the fried chicken place.

An old woman comes over.

"Excuse me, are you three alright?"

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"I'm hungry and I might be going to turn into a monster."

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"She means a totally cool super-person, ma'am." 

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"I'm going to turn into a cocoon!"

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"She seems a bit old to be this upset about a game. There must be something worse than that going on."

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"Do you want some of my chips? I've had about enough of them."

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"We are not eating some old lady's leftovers."

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"Yes please."

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Ugh. Apparently they are eating some old lady's leftovers.

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(at around this point, Riley will briefly imagine having an implausibly large number of identical boyfriends)

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"What's your name, dear? I'm Andrea."

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Huh? Oh, the woman asked her name.

"Riley."

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"Riley, whatever those boys told you, people don't turn into monsters or cocoons or super-people. We just stay people."

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"Do we look like normal folks, ma'am?"

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"You look like you have very fancy face-paint."

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He hovers into the air, a little smugly.

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"Is that witchcraft?"

"People can do all kinds of things these days."

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"How are you doing that?"

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The boy shrugs. “How do you do anything?”

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"And how are you planning to turn Riley into a so-called super-person?"

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"Oh, she's already infected."