Hybridization Novel Chapter 58 – Who Do You Want to Be

Chapter 58 – Who Do You Want to Be

“It’s weird to see the shift from monsters to fictional characters in the costu selection. I guess it’s a bit insensitive, now that we have been outed.” – Kurt, comnting on the selection.

“I am honestly surprised nobody followed us.” Kurt said while pulling into one of the seasonal pop-up Halloween stores. It was in a building that was previously occupied by a sporting goods chain that no longer existed, but the building gets new tenants on the major holidays.

“Yup, super weird, don’t care. Look at the size of this place!” Val said while nearly vibrating in her seat. “They have to have sothing in there for us.” She said.

“I still don’t understand Arican Halloween.” Kristi said. They had spent most of the car ride explaining it to her, but the concept was not easy for her to grasp without seeing it firsthand. Kurt was surprised to learn that Val was rather well versed in the concept and knew more about it than him.

“It’s the perfect excuse for nice girls to dress in provocative ways and its socially acceptable to be weird.” Val said and was opening the door before Kurt even put the car in park. Kurt grabbed her arm before she could get out, but Kristi was already out of the car on reflex.

“Can you promise not to be too…” Kurt began.

Val stopped him with a quick kiss. “I got this, just let

do my thing here.” She vanished from her seat, door shutting behind her before Kurt could even think about a reply. He heaved a sigh and followed after the girls who were all but skipping through the parking lot.

Kurt was still ten yards behind the girls when he made it through the doors and imdiately took in the scene. Worn out linoleum floors, open tal rafters high above and rows of shelves lined up as far as the eye could see. The entire experience was complete with three teenagers behind the checkout counter, busy flirting rather than working.

It seed there weren’t many people in the store at this ti of day and he only saw one parent with her young kids in the children’s section. He quickly spotted the girls as they crossed between the aisles, and he followed after. He read the signs under his breath as he walked by.

“Two and under, young child, child, pre-teen, teen, adult, and…of course she went there first.” Kurt said as he watched Val pull Kristi through the curtain into the ‘mature’ section. To his amazent, they both ca scooting back out a mont later.

“Nope, not a chance.” Val said.

“That bad?” Kurt asked while walking up and seeing Kristi turn a brilliant shade of scarlet.

“Ugh, that went right past mature, hurdled risqué and landed firmly in the ‘kink’ category.” Val answered with a little shiver. “I an, I don’t kink sha, everyone has their thing, but we want costus for the festival, not roleplay for the bedroom.”

Kurt was mildly amused that he seed to have found the hard line with Val. He would not have guessed that her ick would be role play in the bedroom but also wouldn’t fault her. He did however pocket that little tidbit for later in case she was taking her teasing too far.

“I don’t think I can ever look at the lord of the rings the sa again.” Kristi said after calming down and finding the humor in the situation. “Although, there was so interesting outfits from so of the works of Lucas.” She said that while looking Kurt up and down a little too much.

“Ah, moving on?” he said and walked them back to the adult aisle. “So, are you thinking individual or group costu?” he asked Val.

The kitsune was looking all over the aisles, eyes darting from one costu to another, and she kept twitching toward certain ones before another caught her eye and the process started all over. “Group. Wait, no. Individual.” She said firmly. “Nooo, let’s do group.” She said while grabbing at so of the superhero costus.

“We can split the difference and do a the.” Kurt suggested while watching his girlfriend bounce back and forth down the racks of costus. “So rather than we all dress as matching characters from sothing, we can all fall into one category.”

Kristi humd while walking along with Kurt. “Hmm, that could be fun. What would you pick as a the?” She was asking him rather than broadcasting to Val who was already across the intersection and into the next part of the aisles.

“Could be anything. Greek mythos, comic book characters, historical figures, Disney characters all co to mind.” Kurt answered as they strolled along and looked at the costus.

“How about video gas?” Kristi offered.

“Are you a gar?”

She blushed a little as she answered. “Well, I kind of got into it when I was living in the Order. There was a shop in the bazar that had a bunch of them, and I found they were a fun way to pass the ti. I also might have pirated a bunch of them for my computer…” She trailed off. They had co to a section that had so of the popular characters from Nintendo.

Kurt followed her gaze to where it landed on the Zero Suit Samus costu that looked surprisingly well made. Hanging right next to it were a few of the popular options such as Mario, Peach and an inflatable Kirby. He was sowhat disappointed that there wasn’t much rhy or reason to how they were sorted other than by broad nas.

“Fan of troid?” He asked as she reached out to touch the costu.

“Hmm? Oh, no. Well, yes but I first saw her in a fighting ga that had a bunch of characters.” Kristi answered as she inspected the costu closer.

“I think I have my console sowhere. It might be in one of the unopened boxes in the basent.” Kurt said while trying to recall if he saw it when setting up his computer.

“I have a switch if you want to hook it up.” Kristi offered with a lot of hope in her eyes. “I even have Smash and Mario Kart.” She was interrupted by the return of the third mber of their party.

“What did you find?” Val said, apparently on her second lap around the racks of costus.

“Kristi wants to do a the.” Kurt answered. “She likes the look of the Nintendo characters so maybe we go with those?”

Val huffed and crossed her arms. “I guess we ca…n do…” She never finished her sentence as her eyes landed on a section of rack that she previously looked over. “Oh, please, please, please.” She said while running to the section with a familiar red and white circular logo.

Kurt raised an eyebrow at the sudden shift in attitude and followed after her. She was rifling through the hanging costus until she found the rack she was after. Then she squealed in delight as she yanked it off the peg and held it out.

“IT’S PERFECT!” She said in a loud, high tone that Kurt was pretty sure he could only hear because he was part elf and part werewolf. “Hang on, I need sothing.” She said in a much more appropriate tone before shoving the costu into his hands.

He studied the tag on the mostly black costu with its yellow circles and bands. While it had been a while since he played the gas, he did recognize the familiar picture of Umbreon. “Of course, she picks the dark version of the fox Pokémon.”

Kristi wandered over with her Samus costu to see what the commotion was about but before she could say anything, Val returned holding a can of spray on hair dye. If the top of the can was anything to go by, the contents were a golden yellow that mostly matched the rings and circles on the costu.

“Are you doing what I think you are doing?” Kurt asked.

“Babe, its perfect.” She held up the costu in front of her. “Foxes and dark affinity…”

Kurt chuckled a little. “Fine but I am not going to be Ash or any other trainer.” He turned back around to look at the other options from Nintendo. While looking at the wall in front of him, he felt a little overwheld and was about to just pick the Luigi costu when Kristi walked up with a costu behind her back.

“You can totally say no, but how about this?” She held up a Link costu, complete with plastic master sword and shield prop. Her face was a mix of nervous and embarrassed, but Kurt could sense that there was so excitent there too.

Kurt took it and noticed that she was watching him intently. “The twilight princess version seems a little on the nose don’t you think?” He smirked. “Elf warrior that turns into a wolf?”

“I an if you don’t like it…” She looked both relieved and a little sad while reaching for the costu again.

“Nope, I think I like this one. Better than the Luigi I was going to go with.” Kurt said with a smile. “Are there fitting rooms that we can try… ah, there they are.”

Kurt began walking to the sign on the far wall that said ‘fitting rooms’ right above a series of free-standing cubicles. On his way, he passed close enough to hear the conversation between the mother and her two kids that had been in the store when they got there.

“Mom, are you getting a costu too?” Said what sounded like the older of the two boys.

“Oh, not this year. Maybe I can just reuse one of them from last year.” She said.

He heard the clomping of child sized feet and saw the flash of color through a gap in the shelves. “Mommy! Look!” Yelled the younger of two. “This one is my favorite. Can I have this one, please?”

Kurt was passing the aisle and saw the little boy holding one of the Paw Patrol costus. The mom took it and looked at the tag and he could see her smile falter a little as she handed the costu back. She looked to be in her mid-thirties, with light brown hair that was pulled into a simple ponytail that only seed to highlight how tired she looked.

“I don’t know sweetie. Maybe we look at one that isn’t so much?” She asked.

Kurt didn’t need to be an elf or werewolf to pick out the hurt in those words. He also knew that the older boy was at the age where he might be more aware of what was happening, since he hung his costu back up and moved to the section of more generic ones.

Making a snap decision, Kurt turned down the next aisle and stopped, fumbling with his costu while he dug out his wallet. He opened it and leafed through the bills before grabbing a couple of the hundreds. After a mont, he realized that he didn’t need to store his wallet in his pocket anymore and dismissed it to the ring, shaking his head at the obvious oversight.

“Going to take a while to get used to this ring.” He muttered while folding the bills carefully and walking back to the aisle with the family in it. He took a good look at them as he approached.

The mother was in so clean, but older clothes, her jacket and pants looking more than a little thread bare while her shoes were definitely in need of replacing. The kids, around nine and five by his guess, were in better clothes but the younger was wearing so with cuffed sleeves and pant legs. The older kid looked up as he approached, and Kurt cleared his throat.

“Ahem. Excuse .” He began and got her to turn and face him, both the kids skirting around behind her back. “Ah, sorry, I think you dropped this.” He held out his hand and she reached out reflexively.

When he dropped the neatly folded bills in her palm, her eyes went wide, and she looked up to him. “I- I don’t think this is ours.” She said while trying to hand it back.

Kurt smiled at the honesty of the woman while he jamd his free hand in his pocket. “Nope I am certain of it, that’s yours.” He glanced at the small child peeking around her hip before returning is eyes to her with as genuine a smile as he could manage. “I hope you and ‘your children’ have a very happy Halloween.” He put so inflection on the children part to make sure she understood.

With that, he turned and walked away, pointedly ignoring her feeble protest and the now slightly watering eyes. He also tried and failed to ignore the hushed conversation between her and the kids. The last thing he saw of her was the tears building in her eyes and her hand still outstretched to give him the money back.

“Mom, who was that?” The older one asked.

He heard a sniff, not yet the full snotty noise of outright crying but close. “Well, Liam, he is a very nice man that wants you boys to pick out whatever costu you want.”

While the younger child celebrated and ran up and down the aisle with his costu, the older still had questions. “Are you sure? Is it because he found the thing you dropped?”

“Y-yes. It’s ok, just make sure you get the costu you like and then we can stop for so lunch on the way ho. Just as a special treat.” She said with a clear waver in her voice.

When he got to the fitting room, Kurt saw Kristi and Val walking up behind him, so he turned and waited. Val’s eyes were a little misty and she gave him a soft smile followed by a hug. Kristi was also taking so deep breaths and quickly wrapped him in a hug after Val was done.

“That was a very nice thing you did.” Val said and dabbed at the corner of her eye.

Kurt gave a shrug. “I know, but I have the ability and they had a need.” He said, intending to leave it at that but the look from Val made him continue. “Kids, they just need to be kids sotis and it’s not fair that things are shitty for them.”

“Still, I thought it was nice.” She said before turning to the row of changing stalls. “Let’s try these on. But just make sure they fit. I want to save us seeing each other in them until Saturday.”

With that, they each disappeared into the stalls and tried on the costus. While Val and Kristi seed to have gotten the right size the first ti, Kurt had to exchange his for a larger size unless he wanted to look like he got his from the naughty section of the store.

They didn’t see the family when they checked out, but he heard two of the teens talking about how excited the kids seed, so he figured everything had worked out. As promised, Kurt took the girls out to a nice, early dinner at a local seafood place that claid to import their fish ‘fresh every day’.

When they got ho, Kurt noted that the house was a little on the cold side, they hadn’t been ho, so they never lit the stove. He went and started a fire to at least get things ward up for the night. Val insisted that they have so spa ti before cuddles on the couch, so he was once more swept away to luxuriate in the warmth of his personal sauna.

They ended up passing on the video gas, instead watching a few of the Halloween movies that Kurt had on hand. He didn’t really have many since horror films weren’t his favorite type, but there were so classics that they watched.

The next morning, Kurt woke up early and fed the girls which was a humorous thought when comparing it to a chore like feeding the chickens. Then he was downstairs working on another little project. This ti it was for a previous issue that Kristi had brought up.

Kurt had the ammunition box that he had enchanted sitting on his bench and was staring at it intently. His enchanting book was open, and he had a few bookmarks out on the different pages he was referencing while he drew his new design.

The rune that he was trying to create was essentially a spell that showed the contents of an object. They were commonly referred to as ‘manifest’ spells and were used when checking cargo in so of the realms and places that required them to prevent smuggling. It was similar to the one spell on his storage rings.

While the enchantnt was easy enough, he was having a hard ti isolating exactly what he wanted. The enchant had a tendency to display all the contents of the item it was placed on, regardless of its importance. So currently he was getting a result that showed not only the bullets, but also the grains of powder, the casings, links and prirs that were also in the spatial pocket. It was a side effect of the spell that allowed the ammunition to be free of inertia but was causing no end of problems for this feature.

After isolating and parting out the individual components of the manifest spell, he compared it to a similar view of the inventory spell he used on his storage rings. He had originally thought to just use the inventory enchant but decided he wanted a clearer display that would be easier to read.

Over an hour later, Kurt had finally figured out what was going wrong. The manifest enchantnt that he had was adapted from a spell to combat smuggling. That ant that he was getting a complete display rather than a simple inventory. After reading through the spell one more ti, he found the rune he needed to change.

There had been a rune that ant ‘show’ in the initial spell that was translated into ‘reveal’ when it had been made into an enchantnt. That particular translation was causing the mass reduction enchantnt part to give feedback into all the things that had mass.

Kurt made a few changes and was able to connect a rune that instead ant ‘display’ next to one that was a combination rune for ‘count connections’. His hope was that the wording would count the individual links, since he was having a hard ti doing one for individual cartridges. That would take him adding in the definition of cartridge before it would work.

He drew it out and mapped the pathways before copying the design onto the top of the ammunition box. After a few quick minutes of layout and a little extra effort in carving, Kurt had carved out a small, nickel sized rune circle on the left-hand side of the feed lips.

When Kurt touched that enchantnt and willed mana into the spell, it glowed briefly, and a ntal image popped into his mind that read ‘zero’. He then grabbed the ten round belt that he had been using for testing and fed it into the top of the box. There were a few rounds hanging out but that would just be an additional data point.

This ti the enchantnt returned the number ‘seven’ in his mind. He marked the link closest to the mouth of the ammo box and then removed the belt and counted. Sure, enough there were seven links in the box and seven rounds of ammunition.

“Fuck yeah!” Kurt said and pumped his fist.

“You got it?” A voice asked.

“SHIT!” he said and spun around. He saw Kristi sitting on a chair over by the door.

She was sitting quietly with an ear bud in with the cord leading down to the familiar red, blue and black device in her hands. In the sudden exclamation, she was startled and bobbled her ga for a mont before catching it again. Her expression went from startled to hurt as he looked at her, thinking quickly, Kurt cleared the air.

“Sorry, I just didn’t even notice you co in and didn’t think anyone was watching.” He said while turning back to the bench. “I finished your ammo box.” He stuffed the belt of ten back into the opening and passed it to her. Thankfully her expression cleared instantly, and she stood while tucking the ga into the front pocket of her hoodie.

“Here, try it. Just put your thumb or finger on this rune and push so mana into it.” He stood next to her and held it while guiding her hand to the right rune. She seed to huddle a little closer than needed while putting her hand where he told her.

“That’s amazing.” She said after she got it to work. She turned to look at him, still holding the ammo box and his hand. After searching his face for a brief mont, she took a deep breath then leaned in and kissed him on the lips.

While Kurt was surprised, he did kiss her back, leaning in slightly to make sure she knew he reciprocated. The talk from Val was still fresh in his mind and he did not want to disappoint. The kiss was chaste, at least by the standards of what Val normally did to him. It lasted only a second before she broke away and blushed.

“I-I-.” She took a deep breath and smiled at him. “Thanks.” She finally said before turning and walking quickly away.

Kurt just watched her go, letting her get a few minutes head start before smiling to himself and following her up the stairs. Kristi taking the initiative in giving him a kiss was a big step for her and she likely needed to break away to calm down for a little while. He briefly wondered if she would have the bravery to get in the car with them when they went grocery shopping that night.