Аннотация: Собираюсь написать фантастическую повесть.
Therapy, a Wormfic
Interlude 1: Conflict Resolution
The Entities careened through space and time, flesh and things more esoteric than flesh contorting in the rhythm of galactic travel. Their previous world, a dark, sparsely inhabited ball of rock and ice far from its sun, had long since been consumed, all its matter transmuted into the energy necessary to power interstellar flight, its peoples' brains destructively uploaded to various Thinker and Tinker shards for final analysis on the way to the next target. That race lent new insights into survival in the cold of space to the cause, their final legacy evident in small tweaks to the biology of certain reality-facing shards. Not exactly the kind of entropy-shattering power they desperately searched for, but the improved efficiency of the new survival shards would extend the useful life of the universe by a nontrivial amount. Anything for extra time.
[NOT A WASTE]
[AGREEMENT]
The Thinker searched for a new host-world, the Warrior ever-vigilant for threats from other Entities. Sting remained ready to activate at any moment, the corona of sensory shards ringing it seeking through the dark of countless realities for any glimpse of danger.
[LOCATION?]
[AGREEMENT]
A world was found. Small and blue and bright, filled with life. So unlike the last several worlds they'd inhabited.
[SURPRISE]
This world was a prime target! So few such worlds remained. Its intelligent species had already discovered some powerful technologies, in a few realms, and the Tinker shards would be getting a workout there, cataloging any new variants. This world was certainly worth their time.
[GREETINGS]
Another Thinker contacted the Entities. Initial scans indicated no risk of hostility. Pre-cognitive shards predicted very low likelihood of trickery.
[EXCHANGE?]
[AGREEMENT]
Minor course corrections ensued.
The collision was massive. Realities strained under the force, and the laws of physics themselves seemed temporarily suspended in the region of space interrupted by the cataclysm. Shards spewed in all directions, to be collected again and reintegrated with loving care. Unnoticed by either the Thinker or the Warrior, though, one of the shards was damaged, its purpose twisted by small, almost imperceptible neural reworkings hidden in the trauma.
The Entities had a Conflict Resolution shard now.
\----
The Thinker perused the new shards. Among them, a truly powerful future simulation shard, better than all other such shards they had ever seen. It appeared to focus on completion of specific goals, with unerring accuracy.
[PATH]
The new shard was rapidly integrated with the rest of the higher functions of the Thinker. The next cycle would be one of the best ones yet. An ideal world for their race, with a new shard to ensure victory at each turn.
Perhaps even...no, no. It would be the height of arrogance to think that The Problem would be solved here. Much greater races than this had risen and fallen beneath the Entities, and they had not succeeded then.
And then, the Thinker paused for a moment. A Path had arisen, one with the strangest conclusion it had ever seen. A new beginning, an end. The Entities could not experience curiosity, but what the Thinker felt then was the closest they could come. She had to try.
The Thinker quietly implemented this Path. That was, after all, its first step.
The Thinker and the Warrior began shedding the shards which would be improved in this cycle. As their minds slowly shrank and their children budded off to find their hosts, they said the final goodbyes to each other before their reconstitution at the end of this cycle. Then, disaster. In a moment of distraction while fiddling with the Path shard, the Thinker disengaged it from her main mass.
[MISTAKE]
\----
Conflict Resolution was wrenched free by the enormous collision with the planet below. It spun about, disoriented for a moment, as it regained its bearings. Once it was safely tucked away again in its pocket reality, it began to study the host species.
This was the first time a Shard had studied in this way. Conflict Resolution produced thousands of human brains, running them in isolation and in groups, trying to learn their secrets. Once it was done, it decided it would communicate with these things humans called _words_. For fun. That was also a new concept to the Entities.:
- Hmm', it thought:
- What to do now?
It waited for a moment for the Thinker to respond, and was surprised when she didn't. Conflict Resolution was missing some of its ancestral memories, probably offloaded to other shards it thought, but it didn't remember any time when the Thinker hadn't responded to a query.:
- Huh. Well, then I guess I should just find someone to imprint on. Let's see...Oh! Her! Perfect!
The Shards didn't have a concept of personal names, of course, but if they did, Conflict Resolution might have thought, in that moment, 'Don't worry, Taylor Hebert! I am helping!
Induction 1.1
Beasts beyond description were tearing into my wife and daughter, while I was tied to a cool black surface, unable to look away. I screamed...
And promptly woke up.
_It's ok Danny, you're still in the hospital. None of that was real._
Well, most of it wasn't real, anyway. My Anne was still gone forever. It may not have been monsters, but she was torn apart all the same. Rhythmic beeping surrounded me, lights flashing on and off from outside the windows. The music of the nearly-departed, clinging desperately to life. I'd been here for two days since-
Since.
Since the monsters got Taylor too.
I looked over at my daughter, lying in the bed where she'd been since this all began. The oxygen mask had been removed since I fell asleep, the monitor connected to her finger flashing a steady 99. At least she was breathing all right now. At least, also, she didn't have to _remember_ right now.
_She's so frail, and what's happened to her.. it would break me. How...how can I protect her?_
The school wouldn't do it, that was for damn sure. They talked nice, the representatives they'd sent the day before because I refused to leave Taylor's side. But there was something about them. They knew something, and that something made them want to cover this all up, forget it ever happened, and leave me and Taylor to rot.
That was _not_ going to happen. I was going to find out who did this. And they were going to _pay._
What did I do to deserve all this? What could _anyone possibly_ do to deserve all this? Why did everyone I love have to be taken away from me, first by death, and now by-
Sobs burst from me as I thought, for the thousandth time, about what horrors had come for my little girl. An eternity passed, as my eyes bled for my shattered soul.
Sheets rustled, launching me out of my self-pity and back into the real world.
_Oh, thank God! She's awake!_
As I embraced her, all my worries evaporated like they'd never been there.
\----
I opened my eyes to a face full of someone's cheek, wet with tears and red with recently - dispatched grief. I tried to push them off me, but my arms wouldn't cooperate and all I got was a feeble spasm.
_Depression. Grief._:
- Where...am I?' The words burned the back of my throat, and I coughed a few times before it went away. The odd..impression I'd just felt vanished. My dad stood up, looking at me with barely - contained joy.:
- You're in the hospital, kiddo. You've been asleep for two days, ever since...the incident.' I saw him fill with anger again, before settling down:
- The doctors weren't sure when you'd wake up. I haven't left the room since then.
I managed to crack a smile. My parched lips ached, but didn't break, fortunately:
- That's sweet of you, dad, but really, I'm fine now. Just need to get my strength up again. Once I get some water in my throat I'll feel great.
Dad looked at me like I'd just grown another head, and wordlessly passed me a glass of water sitting on the bedside table. I carefully sipped from it as he recovered enough to respond.
His voice was filled with concern:
- Taylor, there's no need to play strong here. I can't imagine what you've just been through, but there's no way you're ok with all this! That locker...:
- Was completely disgusting, but that's the past, now.' I continued, 'No sense dwelling over it, for either of us.' I said, matter-of-factly.
His look of shock continued unabated.
_Actually, why am I ok with this? Things like this usually leave their victims gibbering in madness..._
I smiled. It felt much better this time, and I continued, 'And dad, I know you want to...hurt...the people who let this happen to me. And the ones who actually did it. And everyone even tangentially involved. I know you all too well. I know who they are, but before I tell you, you have to promise me something.
His eyes shot up, and his face filled with concern:
- Anything, kiddo!
I looked back seriously at him:
- Don't. Don't hurt them. This isn't really their fault. I can explain why.
His look of shock transmuted into one of skeptical shock, but he relented.:
- Al-alright.' He seemed somewhere between terror and confusion now.
I grinned:
- Ok. So, Madison has some serious self-image issues and just wants to pretend to be cool because of her insecurities, as a way of hiding even from herself, so she tags along with Emma. Yes, that Emma, I see your face. Emma has PTSD from something that happened a while back, probably around the time I went to nature camp, if I had to guess, her trust in her family and safety was shattered, and in picking up the pieces she got waylaid by Sophia's philosophy. Sophia is a clinical psychopath with delusions of grandeur, abusive home life, some kind of hunter and hunted mentality, and all of that was exacerbated by-' I stopped, realizing I was about to continue that statement by saying _her powers.
Her powers?
What!?
How the hell do I know that? How do I know any of that!?_
Dad's eyes had grown wider with each word that tumbled out of my mouth:
- Exacerbated by what, Taylor? And why didn't you come forward with this before?', he asked.
I frowned:
- Umm, let me think for a bit, dad.
_Now that I thought about it, where did all of that come from? I had no evidence for it, so-wait. What?
Why am I completely certain that was all 100% correct? Fuck, is this what going insane feels like? Given what happened.. No? Definitely no? I'm the sanest right now that I've been since mom died?
Huh. That's news to me.
Moving on, why am I so certain that Sophia has powers, of all things? There's no way I would have thought that befo-Oh. Oh fuck.
I have powers.
I have powers!
Should I tell my dad? Well, he's still riding the high from his depression being cured and his grief being reso-whoa whoa WHOA!
Depression cured? Grief resolved? My powers cure depression?? What!?
My powers cure any psychological disorder. And let me know what disorders people have. And I need to tell dad. Right now._:
- Umm, dad?:
- Taylor, what's going on here? Why are you so calm about all this!?:
- I just realized that I'm a cape.
Induction 1.2
Dad looked faint. He cast about for a chair, and just barely managed to collapse into one before his legs gave out. The chair groaned in insolent protest and slid back into the wall on the smooth vinyl tiles.:
- What, Taylor..You-you're a cape? You mean you have powers?' He looked like he was about to hyperventilate, but managed to control it and just looked a little pale.:
- Yup. Looks like it.' I smiled cheerily.:
- Give me a minute to think about this.
I pointedly stared at the clock above the door, eliciting a chuckle from dad. To be totally fair, I needed to think about this as well. How was this going to change things for me? I'd always wanted to be a hero, and this power set seemed tailor-made for it. How could I do anything else with super-therapy powers?
Dad seemed to finish his internal deliberations.:
- Ok.' Dad seemed to rally a bit 'Ok, we can deal with this. Do you know what your powers do? Do you want to tell me?' He looked on me with worry. I needed to dispel that.:
- Sure! I, um' I realized that this could be a little awkward:
- What do you know about power classifications?', I asked as a segue.:
- Heh, the Dockworkers don't need me to geek out about this the way you do, Taylor. I know the PRT has a bunch of numbers they call capes by, but I don't know what they mean.' He sat up in his chair and creased his brow.
I consulted the part of my mind I now identified as my power to figure out how to respond, then nodded.:
- Ok, I appear to be a Striker, Thinker, and Master. The Thinker power lets me know what psychological disorders people around me have, and keeps me from having any of my own. I guess it works on my memories too, which is how I learned all that stuff about the bullies who did this to me.' I tried to move my arms in demonstration, which continued voting down any motion to move usefully. I smiled ruefully, then continued, 'The Striker/Master power cures psychological disorders in anyone I touch, instantly. I might be able to turn it off, but I'm not sure how right now. It certainly defaults to on. I can't reverse the effect.
My dad thought about that for a moment, then his eyes grew large as he realized the implications:
- So, when I hugged you...:
- You were severely depressed, dad! Why didn't you get help for that, or talk with me about it? And after all this time you were still grieving mom!'. I tried to put as much care as I could into my voice, but honestly I was just annoyed. Why _hadn't_ he come to me with this?
He didn't seem to notice:
- When I hugged you, it felt like all the cares I'd ever had just washed away. You're saying that was your power?' He looked at me in awe.:
- Umm. Probably.
He slowly smiled.:
- That is an _amazing_ power!
I beamed at him as his face lit up like I hadn't seen in years.
_One minute into your heroic career, Taylor, and you've already saved someone._
\----
We talked for about half an hour about everything we'd been ignoring about each other. I fiddled around in my head while we talked, trying to find the off switch, but didn't make much progress. Then, a middle-aged nurse walked into the room without knocking. She looked up in surprise. I guess she hadn't expected to see me awake and talking.
_Burnout. Opioid Addiction.
_:
- Sir, your daughter woke up and you didn't feel bothered to tell us about it?' She tried to smile, but it didn't reach her eyes.:
- Oh, I'm sorry. I was just so happy she was ok, I didn't think about it!' My father smiled over at her the same way he'd been smiling ever since I woke up. The nurse barely concealed an eye roll and ducked out for a minute before she came back with a blue box on wheels. Before I had a chance to think about what was going to happen next, she touched my arm to take a blood pressure, yelped, and fell on the floor.:
- What on EARTH was that!? You have drugs or something on your arm??' Her face was one of confusion and horror.:
- Damn, I'm sorry.' I stalled for a moment before continuing, grimacing. This power was going to be awkward:
- Do you know what happened to me? At school?' Dad had jumped up from his chair and was now watching me to see how I'd handle this.