Everyone very quickly scrambled for the various well-worn sofas and chairs in the club house, while I flopped to the ground and sat cross-legged. It felt better for everyone to be looking down at right now — maybe they'd see as just , again, but with a little more respect for my capabilities. Did that sort of undermine my previous complaints about not being taken seriously? Ti would tell, I guess.
“So… I've been working on this thing, and to be honest, it's real boring,” I said with a world weary sigh.
Pulling up the alien code stuff on my phone, I dropped the latest pdf of my work into the group chat. “I've been working with the xenology departnt to try and crack the alien computers — specifically, we want to be able to interface with them.”
“Can't you just, like, set them up and use them normally?” asked Amara, who was still looking at warily.
To my surprise, Lily jumped in before I could. “Nah, because they'd still be locked, right? Can't get in without the password, and you can't hack your way in even with physical access, because you have no idea how their tech works.”
Yes! Soone got it! I felt a proper smile tug at my lips and with a sudden tumbling whirl of limbs and telekinesis, I dropped into the sofa beside Lily. Opening the pdf, I began to scroll through it until I got to an example of a translation that I thought was probably correct. “See, this here is what I'm doing. As an NG mage, I'm able to pick up on language scary fast. So, the xenology guys asked if I could just look at the strings of raw bits they were able to pull, see if my language skills would notice patterns.”
“Right, except these aren’t bits, they’re trits,” she said absently, scrolling through the docunt on her own phone. “They're doing so crazy stuff at a hardware level. Like, how did they even manufacture this? I know just enough about this subject to know that— well, there's a reason we do binary in computing, and it's—”
She suddenly went quiet and flushed. It took a second to figure out why — she suddenly got all self conscious.
Bursting with an imdiate wave of empathy, I said, “Hey, keep going. Knowing stuff and talking about it isn't a bad thing.”
“But I was babbling — infodumping,” she mumbled, looking very intently at the chipped nail polish on her fingernails.
“No. You were giving context for why all my mind-numbing language work is so tough, actually,” I corrected her, with what I hoped was an encouraging tone. It was always hard to tell how people would interpret what I said. Maybe she'd get frustrated that I was contradicting her.
“Thanks,” she said softly, then, with a visible collecting of will, she looked up and asked, “So, what did you want to show us about the alien code?”
Oh, oops. We got a bit sidetracked there. “Right. The xenology people have found hints that there might be other research labs or bunkers all across the Ring. The one we went to was dedicated to studying magic. Maybe, if we can crack the computers, there'll be sothing that will help us co up with a solution for the wrong-body problem. These people were extrely advanced, they had to have had tech to do sothing similar… right?”
Aiden, from his position on a large, worn armchair, made a sceptical noise. “That sounds cool, but how do we help with that? I'm sure Lily would be useful, but you already have the xenology professionals working on it. The rest of us…”
I shrugged. “More eyes couldn't hurt, and even when we get through, we still need to actually gain access to, then sift through the data. If I send you updates and stuff, will you all put your heads together on it? Even just asking Lily to explain things can jog mories or spark ideas.”
Already, I was feeling bad for asking. I was probably just wasting their ti. At least it would give them sothing to do besides asking about it. Still, there was a chance that maybe they'd see sothing the xenology people didn't.
Oh, wait, I still needed to address the whole mage-fruit offer I just made. Ugh, if only I could queue up tasks in my brain and it would actually rember them in order.
“Anyway, uh, back magic…” I said, and for effect, I twirled so growth magic between thumb and forefinger. “One of you should beco a mage. I'm not around here enough to be the club's resident mage, and I want you all to be safe when powers like these, you know… proliferate.”
A round of tense, thoughtful looks bounced from one person to another, until Amara crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes at . “So… only one, huh?”
Again, I shrugged, but this ti I attempted to hold my ground and not react. Amara was always so combative and… I don't know, ready to be annoyed. Defensive? That was probably a good description. It reminded of a lot of marginalised people, unfortunately. You get hit enough tis and you start to expect punches where there are none.
“You can hand fruit out after that, I can't stop you,” I said gently, and perhaps a little timidly.
She huffed and threw her eyes, and her hands, up towards the ceiling. “So what was the point of all of this — all the scare tactics?”
“To help you understand a little of the strings attached to this particular solution to the wrong-body problem,” I shot back imdiately. I could feel that uncomfortable, boiling frustration rising again. Taking a deep breath, I settled my emotions and smiled at my chosen candidate. “Aiden. I think it should be you. You stepped forward when I was being scary. I think that's a good quality to have as… you know… a person with power.”
Poor Aiden’s eyes went wide, and he stepped back with an erratic shake of his head. “Nuh uh, no. It should go to soone else, Cat. I'm pretty happy with my transition.”
With a lancholy smile, I placed myself into the role of the movie ntor once again. “It needs to go to the person who would most respect the power it brings. I think that's you.”
With my eyes, I begged the others to step in and back up. It was so obvious that he was the best person for the job.
Lily, who hadn't actually stopped scrolling through the alien code, looked up at . “If we say no to an eventual fruit, will you keep trying to find sothing else — a different way?”
I nodded. “Of course, I won't let this problem beat , even if it's just the principle of the—”
Right at that mont, I saw it. A small, furry face sniffing around near the door — beady black eyes questing for mischief.
“You!” I gasped, and with my mind, I wrapped the little cretin up and pulled it over to .
Dangling in front of my face, completely unrepentant, was one of my ferret grove tenders. In fact, his nose was still sniffing at the air, weighing the options.
“Wait, is that one of your critters?” Cris asked. “He hitched a ride?”
“He was on my shoulder when we transported so… I guess?” I grumbled, giving the ferret another stern look. Just like with all the other disapproving stares I'd inflicted on them, this one didn't faze it at all.
“Can I hold him?” Asked Zack, who was gazing at my tender like he was a little angel instead of the eldritch trickster creature that he was.
Still, I offered the noodle to the reserved trans guy, who took hold of him gently and lifted him to face height. “Hey, friend. What's your na?”
“I haven't given them nas,” I explained tentatively. “So, I guess, you can na him?”
Zack shot a huge smile. “Gregory. His na is Gregory. No, Sir Gregory, Knight of Anarchy.”
“Oh, he has an appropriate title now too,” I deadpanned. “That will definitely help his already chaotic disposition.”
“Don't listen to her,” Zack murmured to the curious little black eyes of the ferret. “You're perfect, and I'll help you be your best self.”
Well, I guess the subject of magical gifts had been thoroughly derailed. I'd get around to discussing things with Aiden in more detail later. I didn't know about anyone else, but I could definitely use a break from intense conversation right then.
That night, when I returned to Stormpine, I discovered that Bray had been hard at work installing the elevators in the tree, finally. Even with magic to help, climbing those stairs was such a pain in the butt. A bunch of us celebrated the occasion by riding it up and down several tis, which was made fun mostly because of everyone's goofy antics. At one point, Troy was thoroughly baffled when eight or so people ca pouring out of the elevator and into the foyer, right as he was stepping through the gates. Then, we all turned around and squeezed back in, laughing. It was nutty. You'd think we were seeing an elevator for the first ti.
The next day, I took a break from working on code to pursue various other projects of importance. One that was actually fast becoming an issue was insulin. The university had thankfully arrived on the Ring with a large store of the life saving liquid — the result of a recent diabetes initiative by the student council — but the expiration date on the stored material was fast approaching.
Thankfully, when I got to the eting with the science folks, I found out that most of the work was done already! A few researchers at the university had been part of a wider global effort to create alternative production thods for the stuff. In our case, they had genetically engineered a safflower plant to produce insulin in its seeds. All I needed to do was stabilise the plant further and create a bunch more of them — enough to kick start production.
Besides insulin, I was working my way down a list of dical conditions we had in Avonside that needed alternative dicine choices. So only had one or two people with the issue, so I'd usually research what I could, then arrive with a plant that they would have to test and care for. That last part proved to be hilariously difficult for so people, so I was asked to provide spares for the horticulture departnt to take care of. God damn, human mory was alarmingly ssy sotis.
I was walking back from a eting about one of those little dication jobs, heading for the Avonside mages ingress-egress room — crossing the Branner Quad, when I spotted soone who I'd been looking out for. Rhea was walking with so of her newer friends. rcifully, she was oblivious to my creepy staring and I had ti to duck my head and pull up my hood.
Relief flooded half a second later, when I realised that if she was here, then it wasn't her who was in the fruit in my grove. Dr Richards, if my hunch was correct, would be soone else's problem.
Keeping my Post-Ring cloak wrapped around and my hood up, I scurried away, headed for ho. I had work to do and, thank fuck, a little less anxiety weighing on .
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