by P. S. Power
Then, thanks to Katherine running off to betray everyone in the world, he’d gotten married to someone else. Worse, she sounded nice. Like she was a good person. The kind that Chris actually deserved, not being her at all. On top of that, she was pregnant. Or had been. They might have had the child already, given the time frames.
So Gwen had just stepped back. Even if she could have insisted that they get divorced, ruining three people’s lives, instead of taking her lumps like she was supposed to.
Like she deserved to, for not being stronger. If she’d killed herself before Katherine could act, things would be better now. It wasn’t like she hadn’t thought about it before.
She ate lunch at a different place, teletransporting herself to a small town that she’d never been to before. That meant eating at what was basically a lunch counter. She was still served several courses of food. That was almost always the way things were done there. So she had a small sandwich, apple wedges, and carrot strips. There was a dip for those, which was made from oil and vinegar. It wasn’t inspired food, being too bland, but it was filling enough. She wasn’t eating to reward herself or anything.
Just to kill time and try to make sure she gained a bit of weight.
As it was she’d gained about fifteen pounds and still could pass for anorexic back home. In her world. Or could have, back when she’d lived there.
That had been weird, when she’d gone back. The world there was incredibly different now. The times didn’t match up for one thing and it was over a hundred years later than when she’d left. After the zombie war. Apparently that was both a real thing and had started the day after her body had died. Killed by Katherine Vernor. Murdered. The idea was still insane, but when she’d gone there everything had been very different. Her old home was gone. So were most of the people.
Eaten to death a century before.
The rest of the place was pretty much not recognizable to her now. It was nice, for one thing. Pretty. The technology was futuristic on a level that barely had made sense to her. So she’d come back after a day there. To a world where she should have been shunned and reviled. Where she honestly expected to be killed.
Then, clearly, she had a bit of a death wish still. No one could doubt that.
Well, no one that lived inside her head could. Katherine wasn’t going to speak on the topic though, since if she did, Gwen would cut her off, as for her daily fix. Possibly by just teleporting straight up in the air and refusing to fly out of the move. Not that day. She had a date. Killing herself right before it would be rude, she had to think.
Even after she was stood up would be a bit too dark for her to go.
That would probably scar poor Tomas for life, if she wasn’t careful. There was no real reason for him to even show up, of course. Not that she wasn’t going to go down to the lobby and wait at six, made-up and dressed for a walk in the park. Eagerly standing there, while nothing happened.
She got herself ready, showering again first. Then she did her hair and makeup, several times each. She wasn’t great at those things, but had enough practice to manage to put her hair up in a twist that looked all right, she figured. Her makeup was actually better, since that was more like painting, which was a thing she’d had classes in back when she was in high school.
So, at six, promptly, she was in the lobby. Her life flowing out of her as she waited for a person that wasn’t going to come. At about three after the hour Tomas came into the space regardless of her plans, looking bright and cheery. He even had a small arrangement of flowers in his hands. Then he locked his eyes on hers.
“You’re here! I wasn’t certain. Um… here?” He handed the bunch of flowers over to her, seeming a bit bashful suddenly.
For her part, she nearly cried. No one had ever given her something like that before. They were lovely. Daisies with little white flowers mixed in with them. Dried ones in with the fresh. Wrapped in very thin green paper. Meaning that he’d probably spent cash on them. She smelled them, but didn’t get anything from it that way.
“These are wonderful! Now, I was promised a romantic walk in the park?” She smiled, holding the flowers, since they were going with her.
Mainly so she could show them off to the world. Someone had thought to give her flowers. Gwen wondered if making a sign saying that would be too obvious. Which it would be. So she held the things and started to walk to the door. From there she had no clue which direction to go. It turned out that she needed to head to the right.
Tomas smiled at her, ducking his head a bit.
“I don’t recall promising romance. I’ll be lucky not to trip over my own feet.” Then, playing, he pretended to do that. It was cute.
Gwen nodded.
“Hey, it’s a date. Romance is how men prove they’re willing to jump through hoops for a girl. You knew that right? Not that I expect a band to be playing or anything. I wasn’t really expecting the flowers, so this is a good start. That and some hand holding will probably work. This time.” She tried to fight smiling, which kind of worked.
Especially since she had to force a smile most of the time still. Her early life had made that kind of thing physically impossible. It wasn’t a thing that she would ever do easily. Except that, here she was, doing exactly that.
At a man.
A real one, who wasn’t even her teddy bear.
They sauntered since there wasn’t much to do when they got to the destination. That meant they were able to talk as they did it. Mainly about the weather.
“I hear that we might have rain soon? Then a warm spell. It’s June, so that isn’t unexpected.” Tomas spoke gently, but in very general terms. At least until they got to the park itself. It was nice enough, and had trimmed grass, as well as real flowers. Not as nice as the ones that she had in her hand, clutched next to her little purse.
It was her turn to say something, so she scrambled a bit, then smiled. She did have a few things to say, after all.
“I picked up a couple of your books earlier? Omegon. They’re good. Different than I expected.” More words and fewer pictures, for one thing. Almost like a short novel that just happened to be illustrated, rather than what she was used to seeing.
“Oh? That’s… I was… Working on the script for the next book, last night. I know that a grown man playing like a child is…” Then he shrugged. “Though, you seem fine with that? I was… A bit shocked, last night. To find you playing at Gwen Farris like that? Do you…” He seemed embarrassed and was clearly trying to ask if she went around sucking off all the men she met.
Gwen sighed.
“I read one of those today, as well. The Gwen Farris Investigation books? I didn’t even know they existed last night. I can see why you keep thinking that I’m not me. Just playing at it? Is that kind of thing common? Pretending to be me?”
There was no one around so her date took her hand. The free one.
“It happens. Or so I’ve read. A lot of young women like that freedom, I hear? I didn’t know that anyone would be so… Literal? Though really, you should have your friend Bethy with you.” The grin on his face seemed to be teasing.
“Bethany. Westmorland. She had her sterilization reversed, so is pregnant now, which is a first for her group. She married a few years ago. That wasn’t a first, but it was unusual. While I was gone? Martin Cordell. He used to be the head of one of the anti-magic groups?” That wasn’t truly fair to say, at least not that way. They weren’t so much anti-magic as much as being anti-discrimination against people that didn’t have a lot of natural talent.
For his part, Tomas missed a step and looked confused.
“I’d heard about that, but didn’t know that his wife was Gwen Farris’s lady friend. That… He must be a very understanding fellow, in that case.”
That got a snort. It kind of matched the ones that she was used to getting from telephone operators. Telestator. She kept getting the words mixed up in her head. Not when she saw the things, which looked very different, being huge like
they were, but when she thought about stuff casually.
There were real corrections to make though, if she were going to be seeing the man next to her. Provided he ever bought that she was herself. Really, at that point he had to be considering the fact that she was at least truly insane. No one could pretend to be someone else as well as she’d been doing.
Of course, this Gwen Farris had sucked him off. It could be that he was willing to put up with a lot for a regular dose of that kind of thing. Which reminded her to make sure the evening ended on a similar note to that. Other than that kind of thing she didn’t really have a lot to offer him, she didn’t think. Just strangeness and a soiled reputation.
“Beth… We’re friends. That’s all though. Where they got any other idea for that book… I’m going to be looking into that one, actually. Not that it will stop anyone. I take it the things have been out for a while? Just to keep this all clear, I’m not seeing anyone else, romantically. Just you. Though I did get a rather nice offer from Derrick Westmorland last night. He suggested that I focus on you first, but if you fall through, I have a backup.” She grinned then. “Oh, I also kissed the old newspaper seller on the cheek earlier. That’s pretty worldly for here, isn’t it? Almost naughty, for a good girl like me.” She tucked in closer to him as they walked. It was a bit awkward with her bag in hand. His jacket pocket had a strange, soft lump in it on that side.
A thing which she understood without asking. He was a super hero. One with a real reputation, having a series of books out about him. So of course he needed to have his mask on him at all times. Plus, he clearly thought she was still playing games. That might mean he needed to be ready to do the same, to keep her interest.
If it hadn’t been a creeptastic junior Cthulu mask, she might have even gone with that one.
She was kind of focused on him, so didn’t notice that anything else was going on until she heard a woman calling out.
“Stop! That’s my purse!” Her accent was a bit thick. A little more country sounding, which in the Western Kingdom made everyone sound just a bit French to her ear. Which no one there would understand, given that the people from that part of Europa spoke Mongolian.
There was a man running away from the woman, her own escort seeming to be just getting up, having been pushed to the ground. The thief wasn’t coming toward them, but it was kind of clear that no one was close enough to stop him. Gwen started to point her finger, which could be forgiven socially at the moment. After all, that was considered rude. Pointing like that. She was about to blast the man as well, when Tomas started chasing after him. The mask of Omegon didn’t come out, but he made pretty good time.
Almost like he actually exercised regularly, or something.
Smiling, she lifted into the air and flew high going over both of the men, landing on the far side of the purse snatcher, just before Tom got to him. There was a rough tackle from the rear, which had both men on the ground. Fighting.
Poorly.
Right until Gwen walked over and kicked the would be thief in the head a few times. Covertly enough that she didn’t think anyone there would notice her doing it. Other than Tomas, of course. She did it until the now moaning man stopped struggling, allowing the bag to be stripped away. It wasn’t a nice one like she had, but that wasn’t the point.
No, the point was that her boyfriend, when he saw a crime, had stood for what was right. At personal risk. That was brave. Also she realized, kind of hot. The other man was about the same size, though Tom stood up to right his clothing and grinned.
“Well! It seems I should partner up with Gwen Farris more often! We should contact the local. Here… Aid! Aid! Call for the constabulary! Aid! Thief!” The words got several others to do the same thing. A boy that had been playing at something that involved teams of kids, a stick and several balls scurried off, dashing away like it was a life or death situation.
That still didn’t get the cops there before the man tried to get up and run away.
“Nope. Stay down, or I’ll hit you with a force blast that might just kill you.”
She pointed a finger, which got the male friend, possibly husband, of the woman who had been robbed to smirk a bit. Gwen shook her head trying not to be annoyed, but kept her finger pointed. The man on the ground tried to run anyway. So softening the blow a lot, by throttling the power flow back, she hit him with a shot of energy that was invisible as it left from around her finger, but made a solid thunk sound against his skull. Knocking the thief all the way out.
Like she’d sort of promised would be happening.
That got shocked looks from everyone else there, as if it were a rare thing to do. Which it really was. She’d gotten the idea first from a man in a different land. Chinoise. It was kind of a combination of China and everything else from that part of the world. One of the four big lands on the planet. If there were any small ones she hadn’t heard about them, but the point was, no one expected anyone to do what she just had.
Not even the Westmorlands trained for that kind of thing. Flying either. The only people that did that were basically circus performers.
Them and her. Which, if it ever came up could be a fallback occupation for her.
It took nearly ten minutes for the Constabulary to jog up. There were two of them and they wore adorably old timey seeming outfits. All in a deep blue, with dome-like hard hats on their heads. Brass buttons on the front as well. They had polished wooden clubs and some chains to hold the prisoner with, having been informed that someone was being held.
One of the men pointed at the man and winced.
“Slapped him about a bit? Not that I blame you, but that looks to be a concussion. See as how his eyes don’t match in the blacks.” He pointed, which got her to wince as well.
“Sorry. I hit him with an energy blast. Just physical force. I tried to moderate it, but that can be hard to do on the fly.” She tried to seem calm about it all. Interestingly the other Constable just nodded.
“Right. I heard that about you, Miss. Energy blasts, flying about, too. Interesting to see it in action. Well, we need to get a report of what happened here.”
The words got Tomas to finally scowl at her a bit, but it didn’t seem angry really. Just a tiny bit confused. Which by this point she wasn’t going to take the blame for. Hopefully that didn’t start a fight, but she’d been honest with him.
The constables knew their job, took the notes they needed to get a report down, then pulled the guilty man away. There were a few non-gentle pushes to get him to walk, but no beating for his trouble. Probably due to the fact that she’d already handled that part of things. Criminals there didn’t really get treated very well, unless they were wealthy. Nobles could, and sometimes did, get away with murder.
In this case, her being Gwen Farris seemed to pay off, too. No one called her on her use of force anyway. Not even when the men walked away to go off to the local jail. For her part, wondering if the date were over, she just started to walk again, pretending it wasn’t. It was a bit amazing, but Tomas followed her, as she sniffed at her flowers.
“These really are sweet. We should go back to my room?” She hadn’t gone to get any birth control, but had a few ideas of things they could do that wouldn’t put her at risk that way.
It felt a bit strange, being adults, having to sneak into her room. They were like ninjas anyway. Smooth, silent and so out of place that anyone seeing them would have been instantly alerted to something being strange. That meant they both laughed as soon as they were safely behind her closed and locked door.
“So… Miss Farris… How many people have you been telling that tale to? It’s a bit dangerous, actually assuming her life like that. Not that I can’t see it. That… You were incredible out there! I swear, you even looked like you were flying for a bit. How did you manage that? Teletransport and drop?” There was a hand gesture to illustrate the idea, which wasn’t a horrible one, if you couldn’t fly.
Shaking her head, she sighed.
; “I… You know, let’s do some interesting things first and then I’ll show you? Now, here, let’s get into bed? Above the covers. I want to see you.” That meant the lights being on, which was fascinating. It was a bit like the day before, except that she could tell what she was doing, tried even harder to pay attention to what he wanted and made sure she got a turn as well.
That was a lot more fun.
For the first time in her life she kind of understood what all the carrying on was about, as far as that kind of thing went. They did things for a long time as well. Tomas got tired of it first, but was game to try things on her for a while, regardless.
Then, as soon as they were both satisfied enough for the time being, Gwen stood up. Nude. Her body was a bit thin, which she noticed as she looked down, but that had been explained.
“All right. We need to get dressed, then go someplace. I have an appointment anyway.”
Tomas started moving, getting his things rather quickly then.
“Oh? I didn’t know… A husband or…” He looked away, but scrambled. Probably so her big brute of a boyfriend wouldn’t find him and thrash the innocent man for taking liberties.
Not that it was going down that way.
Rather than do anything else, she made sure they were both cleaned up, presentable and tidy. Then held the man close.
“I hate this next part.” Gwen really did. Not that she had any choice in the matter. The fear of not doing it, once the decision was made, was worse than the discomfort of getting the job done. That had been trained into her, rather painfully.
Before he could respond to the words, she took him away. Into the night.
Chapter four
They ended up standing in the front yard of Park Street. The Vernor family main home. To be fair about it, the thing was less house than not. More like a palace complex. The guest houses sat at a remove, each big enough for a family of twelve. The whole thing was so large that, honestly, Gwen had never even been in any of the out buildings. Except the forbidden shed in the back yard.
