Lillian stood over Snow, a montary silence passing between the two of them. She stepped forward and knelt down, sitting across from her. Snow reached up and wiped her eyes, sniffing and looking away with a reddened face. Lillian tilted her head and tried to catch her gaze, “Hey,” She murmured, “Snow, what’s wrong?” She asked. Snow reached up and pulled her hood down a little more, pulling her knees to her chest with one arm while she slipped her hand into her pocket and pulled out her phone. Lillian sat patiently as the girl typed out a ssage.
She typed the ssage, then frowned and deleted it. She typed sothing else and made a frustrated face before erasing it again and throwing her head back in a show of frustration. She slumped a little bit where she was sitting before looking up at Lillian helplessly. Lillian just opened her arms and shifted back a bit to make room on her lap. Snow’s expression softened and she slipped up, sitting in Lillian’s lap and resting her head under her chin. Lillian reached up and stroked her head; Even Snow doesn’t know what to say. Whatever it is it must be serious.
Snow tapped away at her phone again, but this ti it looked like she wasn’t using the texting app. Lillian glanced down and then felt the air shift a little as Snow tensed in her lap. Lillian tilted her head, worried, “Snow what’s going on?”
Just as she asked, a two-dinsional image appeared in the air in front of her. It flickered for a mont and seed to collapse into itself before becoming legible. It was an image of Dr. Carter standing with his arms crossed, his expression was a little uncomfortable. He raised an eyebrow, “We’re recording?,” He sighed and scratched the back of his head, clicking his tongue before pausing and looking sowhere to the left of the cara, “Are you really sure about this?” He winced at whatever reaction he got and shrugged, “Alright fine.”
Where’s the sound coming from? Lillian thought before glancing down and noting that it was coming from Snow’s phone. I see. She looked back up and kept watching.
Dr. Carter crossed his arms, “Alright, so let's go over it again. Now I want to remind you for the millionth ti that this is theoretical stuff, okay? Untested, what you’re doing is volunteering to be a guinea pig. You really get that, right? You understand how friggin crazy-” He winced again, the dark circles under his eyes twitching once before he slumped his shoulders, “Alright, alright! Damn,” He cleared his throat and looked at the cara. “A lot of our discussions down here have been about your ability and how it seems to interact with technology, specifically devices with computers in them.”
He crossed his arms, “What seems to be happening with your ability is you are using a computerized device as the focus for processing what basically amounts to a controlled interaction with light, sound, and so brainwaves,” He said and waved his hand, “That controlled interaction follows a prompt or so sort of logical expression that you put into your device,” He continued, “Problem is, your phone can only handle so much which explains the inconsistency and because of your injury your brain is struggling with the act of interpreting sound waves, I’m guessing a traumatic response but-” He hesitated, “Hey! I’m just being honest!” He said, holding up his hands. Lillian glanced down at Snow who nodded at the image. She wasn’t going to explain until the end, then.
He coughed into his fist, “Anyway! Sobody overheard Dr. Da-Som and I talking about his little pet project and got hung up on it,” He said with a frown before rolling his eyes, “The long and short is that he’s been working on a foundational piece of hardware for future cybernetic prosthetics. It’s based on a thorough examination of Miss Chernovna’s prosthetic eyes,” He said and glanced to the right for a mont before grumbling to himself and looking back at the cara, “With my help he’s designed and built a processing terminal that goes into the back of the head and attaches to the brain,” He pointed at the base of his neck.
He pursed his lips and shrugged, “It’s complete,” He trailed off, “Technically it’s ready for testing,” He frowned and crossed his arms, “You are not going to let up are you?” He groaned and shook his head, “And you want to put it in your head and use it as your new hardware to make your power work, that sum it up? You know it’ll require surgery, right?” He put his hands on his hips and his nostrils flared, “What did you think would happen? I just zap it into your-”
The image vanished and Snow settled back against Lillian’s chest. Lilian stared at the spot where the image had been for a mont. Snow shivered a little bit in her lap and Lillian wrapped her arms around her, taking a deep breath and releasing the soothing radiance of her ability. The young woman in her lap settled and leaned in closer, clinging to her shirt. “Second thoughts?” She asked only for Snow to shake her head vigorously. Lillian paused and went over the recording again, “...the surgery?”
There was a pause and then Snow nodded. She started tapping into her phone for a mont while Lillian held her. When she was done she gently pushed against Lillian’s arm and slipped out of her grip. The petite girl stood up and took a few steps back, leaning against the wall. Lillian smiled up at her, she was so pretty but her eyes were so sad. She felt her heart creak a little as the girl stared at her screen again, her thumb hanging over it.
“You don’t need to tell ,” Lillian said.
Snow glanced at her and set her lips in a thin line before letting out a breath through her nostrils. She frowned and hit the screen with her thumb, pulling back to press herself against the wall. Multiple ssages appeared. Now that she’d heard Dr. Carter’s explanation, she could see how each letter was a little different in font and each bubble was maybe a few shades a different color or slightly shaped differently. Why hadn’t I noticed before?
Snow began, Snow crossed her arms and shrank a bit more into her hood as the ssages kept coming. Lillian got to her feet, reading them with wide eyes.
The next ssage said and Lillian looked up at Snow, the girl was running her fingers along a thin scar on her neck, looking down at the ground. Lillian clenched her fists as Snow looked down and tugged at the hem of her hoodie, squeezing it in a death grip. She added and reached up to tug on the short white and black hair on her head,
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