This choice: Immediately come clean, bringing Gina into the loop properly • Go Back...Chapter #27Honesty is the Best Policy by: Shortyboss   Jess bit her lip as she swallowed nervously, standing outside the book store as she looked over towards the food court. Maybe she could play this off as a side effect of all the changes she’d made earlier in the day? No, that wouldn’t work. After all, her friends would be smart enough to notice that this sort of massive societal shift wouldn’t be caused by Jess changing a few people on a bus ride. Could she simply use her powers to make her friends unaware again? No, that would cause even more problems. After all, she’d still need to come up with some reason why she’d need to speak with everyone like this.
What if she tried undoing this? However, the stiffness in her skirt immediately caused her to rethink that idea. She’d nearly passed out the first time she’d changed Darcy O’Toole, and Jess was worried that she actually would knock herself out if she tried again. Not only that, but her raging hard-on was also starting to concern her. Was it simply a side-effect of making such a massive change? Or was it a sign that her power was still active on some level, altering the fabric of history to account for this new ‘Aberrancy’ condition she’d accidentally created? Not only that, but what if, in her attempts to undo the change to the character of Darcy O’Toole, things got even worse? After all, she’d failed to account for the other potential changes that could occur when she modified someone. It had happened with the family on the bus, it had happened with Gina, and now it had occurred with Darcy O’Toole and the actresses who had played her.
Worse still, Jess suddenly realised that she didn’t want to undo this change, or any of the changes she’d made today. She knew she could do so, quite easily. In fact, she had done so earlier when experimenting with her friends. But when she had, she’d felt a strange reluctance deep inside, one she hadn’t even noticed at the time. However, she had refused to undo the change she’d made to the actress Ellie Summers earlier, or when Daniella had suggested undoing the creation of Gina’s second body. Both times, she’d rationalised it away by saying she’d made the people she’d morphed happier, and that seemed to be true. However, even briefly skimming over the Wikipedia article about Aberrancy made it clear that she’d also inadvertently caused a whole new form of discrimination against people with unusual body types. While she hadn’t experienced any of that sort of thing for herself so far, the likelihood of experiencing anti-Aberrant discrimination would only increase if she kept casually morphing people without thinking of the consequences.
Jess’ eyes widened as she thought back to the movie theatre. There had been two teenage girls in the audience, simply talking to each other. However, that had annoyed Jess, so she’d shut them up by removing their mouths. But without mouths, how would those they eat or drink? Did the two girls somehow survive simply by breathing through their noses? Or would they need to receive nutrients and water through an intravenous drip? Jess felt her mouth go dry with horror as she looked around, desperately searching for any sign of the two teenagers. However, there was no sign of them in the food court. And really, why would they be there? There was nothing here the two girls could use anymore.
“Fuuuck,” Jess said under her breath. This magical morphing power really was starting to get to her head. She’d started to use it simply for her own convenience, ignoring any potential negative consequences her actions might have. Not only that, but the fact that she was so willing to rationalise away the changes she made was starting to scare her. This really was getting addictive...
Jess shook her head slightly and tried to subtly adjust her underwear. She couldn’t keep quiet about this, not after something like this. Her friends deserved to know the truth, including Gina. The longer she tried to keep this under wraps, the worse things would be for her when the others finally found out. Her mind set, Jess began walking back towards the table where her friends were sitting.
“Hey, Jess!” A voice called out, and Jess turned to see a woman with dirty blonde hair waving at her.
“Hi...” Jess said weakly as Gina’s other body began walking over to her. Gina, or one of her, at least, worked at a local accounting firm and was clearly still dressed for the job. She was wearing a simple blouse and skirt combo, and she was now just over six feet tall thanks to her high heels.
“Did you find that book you were looking for?” Gina asked. “The one you said you needed for class?” she continued when Jess didn’t respond.
“Huh? Oh, y-yeah, I uh, I found it,” Jess stammered, then cleared her throat nervously.
“Hey, are you okay?” Gina asked, placing a hand on Jess’ shoulder. “You don’t look so good.”
“I’m fine I’m fine,” Jess said quickly. “Just... got a lot on my mind, that, that’s all.”
“Has it got anything to do with this big news you want to share?” Gina asked.
“It, um, yeah, i-it’s related, you could say,” said Jess.
“Well, since both of me are here now, you might as well spill the beans,” said Gina.
“Sure, o-once we get back to the table,” said Jess. “We... can’t all be in two places at once, you know.”
Gina giggled. “Fair enough, I suppose. Come on, let’s go.”
Gina quickly made her way past Jess, and Jess fell into step behind her. As she did so, she started trying to figure out how best to tell Gina everything. Maybe she could simply explain what happened, then make Gina aware of the changes if and when she asked to be made aware. But that meant Gina might not believe Jess, and think her story was insane. Or maybe she could start by making Gina aware of one of the changes she’d make, then slowly reveal the situation and make Gina aware as she went along. That would mean Gina would believe Jess’ story, but it could also cause her to freak out or panic. Or she could just rip the bandage off right away by making Gina aware of everything and then tell her what was going on. Gina would almost certainly start to panic if she did that, but it also meant that Gina would be aware of everything without Jess having to make her aware of individual changes.
As Gina reached the table, the Gina that was already seated held up the burger that she hadn’t eaten. The standing Gina took the burger from her other body’s hands and took a big bite out of it as she sat down opposite her other body. Gina’s two bodies were sitting on either side of one end of the table, and Claire was sitting next to the Gina wearing casual clothes and eating Chinese. Daniella was sitting next to Claire, and Mai was sitting opposite of Claire.
“So wha I miff?” Gina asked around a mouthful of burger, then swallowed. “Don’t answer that, I already know.”
“Hi Gina,” Daniella said with a smile. “Again.”
“You took your time,” Claire said as Jess sat down between Mai and the Gina eating a burger. “Did you order anything?”
“Um, not yet,” Jess said. “I’ll eat later. After, you know.”
Mai looked at Jess hard, then leaned over the table towards her. “Jessica, what did you do?” she asked quietly.
“I, w-what makes you think I did anything?” said Jess.
Mai didn’t say anything. She simply raised an eyebrow, and Jess let out a defeated sigh.
“I’ll explain in a bit,” said Jess. “After I’ve told Gina about... you know.”
“Well, we’re both here now,” the Gina that had arrived earlier said after she slurped up a few of her noodles.
“So come on, spill it already,” said Gina with the body that had just sat down. “We’re dying to know.”
“Um...” Jess began, then swallowed. How was she going to explain all this?  indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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