Lillian stood over Snow, a momentary silence passiweewo of them. She stepped forward and k 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 ko 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 message.
She typed the message, then frowned aed it. She typed something else and made a frustrated face before erasing it again and throwing her head ba 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 p. Snow’s expression softened and she slipped up, sitting in Lillian’s p aing her head under her . Lillian reached up and stroked her head; Even Snow doesn’t know what to say. Whatever it is it must be serious.
Snoed away at her phone again, but this time it looked like she wasn’t using the texting app. Lillian gnced down and thehe air shift a little as Snow tensed in her p. Lillian tilted her head, worried, “Snow what’s going on?”
Just as she asked, a two-dimensional image appeared in the air in front of her. It flickered for a moment and seemed to colpse into itself before being legible. It was an image of Dr. Carter standing with his arms crossed, his expression was a little unfortable. He raised an eyebrow, “We’re rec?,” He sighed and scratched the back of his head, clig his tongue before pausing and looking somewhere to the left of the camera, “Are you really sure about this?” He wi whatever rea he got and shrugged, “Alright fine.”
Where’s the sound ing from? Lillian thought befng down and noting that it was ing from Snow’s phone. I see. She looked back up a watg.
Dr. Carter crossed his arms, “Alright, so let's go over it again. Now I want to remind you for the millionth time that this is theoretical stuff, okay? Ued, what you’re doing is volunteering to be a guinea pig. You really get that, right? You uand hin crazy-” He winced again, the dark circles under his eyes twitg once before he slumped his shoulders, “Alright, alright! Damn,” He cleared his throat and looked at the camera. “A lot of our discussions down here have been about your ability and how it seems to i with teology, specifically devices with puters in them.”
He crossed his arms, “What seems to be happening with your ability is you are using a puterized device as the focus for processing what basically amounts to a trolled iion with light, sound, and some brainwaves,” He said and waved his hand, “That trolled iion follorompt or some sort of logical expression that you put into your device,” He tinued, “Problem is, your phone only handle so much which expins the insistend because of your injury your brain is struggling with the act of interpreting sound waves, I’m guessing a traumatic respo-” He hesitated, “Hey! I’m just being ho!” He said, holding up his hands. Lillian gnced down at Snow who the image. She wasn’t going to expin until the end, then.
He coughed into his fist, “Anyway! Somebody overheard Dr. Da-Som and I talking about his little pet projed got hung up on it,” He said with a frown before rolling his eyes, “The long and short is that he’s been w on a foundational piece of hardware for future cyberic prosthetics. It’s based on a thh examination of Miss ovna’s prosthetic eyes,” He said and go the right for a moment befrumbling to himself and looking back at the camera, “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 poi the base of his neck.
He pursed his lips and shrugged, “It’s plete,” He trailed off, “Teically 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 fred, “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 moment. Snow shivered a little bit in her p and Lillian ed her arms arouaking a deep breath and releasing the soothing radiance of her ability. The young woman in her p settled and leaned in closer, ging to her shirt. “Sed thoughts?” She asked only for Snow to shake her head vigorously. Lillian paused a over the rec again, “...the surgery?”
There ause and then Snow nodded. She started tapping into her phone for a moment 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 s agaihumb hanging over it.
“You don’t o tell me,” Lillian said.
Snow g her a her lips in a thin line before letting out a breath through her nostrils. She frowned and hit the s with her thumb, pulling back to press herself against the wall. Multiple messages appeared. Now that she’d heard Dr. Carter’s expnation, 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?
<”When I was little, before they put me into the system, I lived with my dad,”> Snow began, <”He was a drunk and blew all his money on women, but he had me to deal with. Apparently I was loud and bothered his guests.”> Snow crossed her arms and shrank a bit more into her hood as the messages kept ing. Lillian got to her feet, reading them with wide eyes.
<”He did things to me to keep me quiet at night,”> The message 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. <”Used drugs too, to put me under so I’d sleep a lot.”> Lillian ched her fists as Snow looked down and tugged at the hem of her hoodie, squeezing it in a death grip. <”I know that Dr. Carter and Dr. Da-Sood guys, they’re so o me, but I’m scared of going under again. The st time I went under I woke up in foster care,”> She added and reached up to tug on the short white and bck hair on her head, <”They kept me like this till I was old enough to leave. I’m so scared Lil. But I want it so bad, if it works, I might be able to talk again. Even if it's just with my pt;
Lillia a whole litany of emotions in that moment. Rage at Snow’s father, a the family that kept the abuse going, pride in Snow for still having the ce to want something like this despite how scary it was, and relief because there was something she could do to help. She let out a breath and rubbed the back of her neck as Snow looked up at her with those big pearlest eyes. She straightened her shoulders a her jaw, “Well, I sit in with you?” She asked bluntly, “Hold your hand?”
Snow’s eyes went gssy, she sears flooding down her cheeks, her expression turning from fusion to relief to grief to joy to frustration to sado happiness all in a matter of moments. Her arms fell to her sides and she just bawled, her mouth open in a silent wail as the tears flowed. Lillian walked over and pulled her up into her arms, petite hands ging to her shirt, back shaking, “I’ll be right there with you, okay? It’ll be alright,” Lillian said, “I’ve got you.”
–
Sonya frowned and crossed her arms in her bed, narrowing her eyes at the two men standing in front of her, “You want to what?” She asked, a bit of testiness getting into her tone. She felt this time she was fully justified in sounding a little pissed off about what the two men had expio her. She looked betweewo of them and her prosthetics swirled and clicked in her head as she examined every microexpression. Amos winced under her gre and Da-Som had his head hung down to his chest. She scowled and tilted her head, “You want to try expining that to me again, boys?” She asked.
Amos tried to crack a joke, “Y’know this isn’t really the pce for a board meeting,” He ughed nervously, “Maybe we should-”
“I made a promise to Car to stay right where I am, so guess what I’m doing?” She retorted, “And after what I just heard, you twoing nowhere until I get more details. Expin.”
Amos held up his hands, “Lo-Look, Sonya, I don’t want to do anything. Snow overheard Da-som and I talking shop about the simuted teopathy patch,” He expined, “He’s been w hard on it, ya know? So we did a bit of shop talk while the girl was w on her own projed she hopped on it.”
Da-Som shifted on his feet, “I may have been a little overexcited about her i, ma’am, and overshared,” He said sullenly.
“After that, Snow wouldn’t shut up about it, she figured it was the perfect solution to her problems. At first I thought that she was using her phone as a crutch but I really think she’s kig her illusions through a processor. That’s why they seem to have a digital nature to them,” Amos expined quickly, “Look as far as she knows it’s just a ptform for building new prosthetics.”
“Because that’s the intended purpose,” Da-Som quickly added.
“But it’s far more than that,” Sonya growled, “You guys are attempting to simute a light-touched power, do you prehend how risky that is? On top of that, yoing to put it in a girl’s head!” She said with a frown, “A girl under my prote!”
The door opeo Da-Som’s left and Car stepped in with two mugs. “Sonya, they wouldn’t be asking if they didn’t think it was worth pursuing, give them a ce,” Car said gently even as she shot the two men a look. She walked over aended a steaming mug filled with marshmallows to Sonya. Sonya gave her a brilliant smile and sipped at it, taking a deep breath while Car settled io her, leaning against her shoulder. “At least I hope they thought it through before ing in at this time of night,” Car added with an equally petunt frown.
Sonya rubbed her head and forced herself to rex before lookiweewo of them with , “Guys, you’re w on this when you should be resting,” She said with a frown, “Da-som you barely escaped a bombing that killed a signifit portion of your staff. I don’t even know how you’re funing. The same goes for you, Amos.”
“The work takes my mind off of it,” Amos said with a frown, “A lot has ged because of that day, a whole lot.”
Sonya leaned forward and caught his eyes, holding his gaze, “Does that sound familiar to you now that you’ve said it out loud?” She asked, “Don’t you do what I did. You’re alive and you deserve some rest, Amos. You too Da-Som, you o process what happened before you do anything this serious.”
Sonya sipped at her cocoa while the two men looked at one another and nodded, “Maybe it’ll give her a ce to resider,” Amos said to Da-som, “I kept warnihat it was dangerous.”
Sonya looked betweewo of them befng at Car who just sipped quietly, them in silence. She turo them fully, “How fixated on this is Snow?”
“Extremely,” Amos said with a frown, crossing his arms, “She’s vihis is what she o realize herself as a hero. She’s already voiced her iions to sign with ASTA too,” He said, “I still stand on it being risky, what with the equipment we’re w with here at the camp.”
Sonya raised an eyebrow, “That’s your primary hangup?”
Amos shrugged, “Between Da-som and I, if we had top of the line equipment the ces of at least getting through the surgery are y-five pert,” He said with a small bit of smugness, “We just haven’t put one of these things in someone’s head yet,” He pointed out, “Theoretically it’ll replicate the same signals and funs that my brain releases when I use teopathy or what your brain uses when your eyes are operating. It should work but there’s a ce it’ll do fuck all and the whole venture will have been pointless.”
“What are the odds?” Car cut in, finally joining in. Sonya g her and Car just gently gave her a h her shoulder, “Of it actually w?”
Amos scratched his messy hair, “Eh, fifty fifty if I’m being generous, more like thirty pert,” He said with a frown, “Everythings in the right pd the simuted b tests worked great but this is real life.”
Sonya nodded and cleared her throat, “Nurse, is it alright if I make a few business calls?” She asked, sitting up straight with her eyes closed in a dignified pose. A small smirk on her face.
Car huffed out a breath and sat up straight as well, joining her, “I suppose I could allow it. Don’t go overboard.”
Sonya peeked an eye open and caught Amos gaping at her, she smirked at him, “I’ll make your equipment happen, Amos. You both get some rest and make sure you’re at the top of yame when it gets set up,” She said, “I want you to take good care of that young woman, she is precious, and not just to me.”
Amos and Da-Som stood up a bit straighter and nodded quickly, “Yes ma’am.”
She took another sip of her cocoa, “Now get the hell out of my bedroom, please? You’re interrupting my evening!” She barked and the two looked at one another, Amos grinned and they raced out. She clicked her tongue and watched the door shut behind them. She sipped her cocoa again and rexed, “Man this is so good.”
