Awakening Pt. 02

Shit!

Marianna turned her head towards Arjun with a raised eyebrow and a faint sly grin. It looked like she had heard him. In his moment of panic, he had unknowingly collapsed his Wall. Arjun blushed.

"Mari," Paco said, "is it possible for you to time Arjun falling asleep and him waking up in his dad's body, together?"

Marianna cringed. "Not exactly my specialty, amor, but I'll do my best."

"That's fine," Paco said with a warm smile on his face.

Arjun's heart continued to beat faster. The inevitable moment was quickly approaching. He wanted to yell and tell them to stop -- yet something within him, within the void, told him it would be fine.

The sequence repeated itself again. Marianna rewound to the moment just before Arjun went into a comatose state. Just like before, she overshot the exact time and had to skip ahead a little. Memory-Arjun fell into a comatose state, just like before, and woke up in his father's body, in the nearby diorama of his parents' bedroom. There were a few seconds of delay. Arjun didn't know if it was an issue with Marianna's precision, or if it had actually happened like that.

Both Paco and Marianna looked on in shock. The timing was off by a few seconds, but the sequence of Arjun falling asleep and his father waking up looked seamlessly stitched together.

Marianna paused what was happening to allow them to walk up and take a closer look. Most of the detail in his parents' bedroom diorama was missing. Arjun had been in his parents' bedroom many times; every time he helped his mother clean the house he took several trips in and out of it. The duplication didn't feel like their room; it felt empty. He realised that was an odd feeling, given that a copy of his father was there in the bed, and three onlookers were crowded in as well.

Marianna studied Paul's frozen, perplexed face, searching for something; Arjun didn't know what. She put her hand on his eyes, lifting the eyelids up. Arjun walked to her side to watch. He didn't see anything of particular interest, yet Marianna looked at his dad's eyes with an eager enthusiasm.

She snapped her head towards Arjun, her eyes wide, then looked at Paco. Paco walked over and looked at Paul's eyes, and, just like Marianna's had, his head snapped towards Arjun with an equally-shocked expression upon it.

"What?" Arjun asked.

Neither of them said anything; instead, they looked back into Paul's eyes. Every few moments they'd look at Arjun with an alarmed look on their face.

"What is it?" Arjun asked, this time in an annoyed voice.

Marianna waved Arjun to come closer to them, and asked him to look into his father's eyes. Arjun looked and saw nothing. It was just his dad's normal eyes. He looked at the couple with a confused look on his face, wondering what had caused them to be so shocked.

"Arjun," Paco finally spoke. "If you weren't here with us right now, we'd never have believed this."

"Believe what?"

"Can't you see it?" Marianna asked.

"See what?"

Paco put his arm around Arjun's shoulder and said, "This," pointing at Paul's irises. Arjun still couldn't see what they were talking about, until finally he could.

"What the..." A faint greenish, shadow-like mist gently gilded inside his father's pupils. Arjun didn't know what it was, but he knew that it wasn't normal. It was faint, and Arjun wasn't even sure he'd have noticed it if Paco and Marianna hadn't urged him on.

"That's your dad, inside," Marianna said. "His consciousness, at least."

"How do you know that's his consciousness?"

"The colour," Paco said. "Everyone's consciousness has a colour. Mine, for example, is silvery white, and Marianna's is a rich, bright green."

"And yours is a purple and gold mix," Marianna added.

"But why is his consciousness in his pupils?" Arjun asked warily.

Marianna shook her and said, "Hijo, I don't know.

"A normal person's consciousness," Paco said, "no matter what, is always inside their cerebral cortex, and can only be viewed if you have powers like ours. But somehow, your dad's consciousness is inside his pupil."

Arjun blankly stared into his dad's eye. I could have killed him...

"Arjun," Paco asked, "did anything happen afterwards?"

Arjun looked at Paco apprehensively. Yet again, some version of his own voice battled against that strange, foreign voice from the void, and the latter won out, convincing Arjun to trust his friend's parents. He nodded.

Neither Marianna nor Paco asked for any followup. Instead, Marianna played out the memory sequence.

Paul darted his head around with panic on his face. He looked lost and out of place. He looked at his arms as if he was seeing them for the first time.

As Arjun watched the sequence play out, he began remembering the events from his point of view. Seeing it from the outside -- watching his past self discover that he was in his father's body -- was just as shocking and upsetting as living through it had been.

His dad's body moved uncharacteristically as he jumped out of bed and ran to the mirror. Someone unfamiliar with the scene would have probably said it was like someone else was controlling his body -- and not doing a very good job of acting like their host. To Arjun's surprise, though, he'd apparently done a decent job of controlling his father's limbs, despite how heavy and hard to move the larger body had felt from the inside at the time.

Arjun turned to look at Marianna and Paco. They were just as shocked as Arjun - maybe even more so.

"It's really odd, honestly," Paco said, turning to see Arjun staring at him. "I've never met your dad, but I can tell that he's not himself."

"Where's your mom?" Marianna asked.

"Ahh..."

Suddenly, out of thin air, Arjun's mother Jeena appeared. The bathroom was missing! Arjun thought to himself. He hadn't noticed before.

"Yikes!" Marianna cringed at seeing Jeena come out of nowhere. She lifted her hand and reversed time by five minutes. Just like before, she overshot herself, but forwarded time and paused at the moment just before Jeena appeared.

She spent a few seconds recreating Arjun's parents' bathroom. Some detail was missing; the doors seemed 'new' in a tacky, artificial way, instead of properly aged.

"I'm not always picky with these kinds of things," Marianna said, "but that was bothering me a little. I don't like it when new characters appear out of nowhere, and this is something of a special situation regardless. Any little detail might be useful. We don't even know everything that we ought to be looking for."

Arjun nodded. Marianna resumed the memory. The young man's entire body screamed at him to curl up into a ball and die. It, and he, knew what was coming next.

Arjun's mom talked to his dad without noticing anything out of place or feeling strange. She gave him a hug, the very one Arjun had gotten when he'd been in his dad's body. Seeing his mom hug his dad -- setting aside that it was only his body -- felt different to him. It looked like the hug that a very loving couple who'd been together for years would give each other. Arjun had never picked up on that kind of closeness or intimacy between them before. They'd hidden it from him -- and from most of the world, as far as he could tell -- very well.

She really doesn't know, Arjun said to himself. He wasn't sure he believed it. He just thought it would make it a tiny bit better if she'd been clueless -- well, as long as she remained that way forever.

"She doesn't," Marianna said, looking at Arjun with a straight face, "and yes, let's try to keep it that way for as long as possible."

Arjun cursed at himself again. The fucking wall!

The scene continued playing. Arjun tried to re-erect the Wall in his mind, but he immediately lost focus. His mother fell to her knees and began sucking his father's penis. Arjun was far too young to know what a heart attack truly felt like, but he feared he was having one.. His cheeks began to flush and heat as he watched his mother suck his father's cock effortlessly.

Marianna and Paco watched the scene unfazed. When Arjun finally managed to glance at them, he raised his eyebrows in disbelief. He couldn't comprehend how they weren't repulsed by what they were seeing.

Paco sensed Arjun looking at them. He turned to Arjun and reassured him. "Arjun, I understand that you're probably feeling a lot of very uncomfortable feelings right now, but please believe that you're among friends. This is a different world you're a part of now, and things happen sometimes. We also have, as they say, bigger fish to fry. We need to stay focused."

Marianna waved her hand and paused the scene. She nodded in agreement. "Arjun, you'd be surprised by the things we've seen in our lives. This may be shocking to you, but it's not a big deal to us."

Arjun couldn't believe what he was hearing. "But it's incest..." he trailed off, still trying to process the situation.

Marianna tilted her head and offered him a sympathetic look. "It's a tough situation, I understand," she said gently. "Your mom doesn't know that you're in your dad's body. It's not her fault, and it's not your fault either. It's not anyone's fault, really."

She waved her hand again, and the action recommenced. Arjun wanted to look away, but something within him told him otherwise. After a few more seconds, they heard Memory-Arjun -- in his dad's body -- speak for the first time.

"Amma," Paul's body said.

"Hmmm... feeling a little kinky?" Jeena said as she placed Paul's penis on her lips and smiled up his face. "We can do a short role play, but not for long. I'm gonna go up to Sonny soon."

"Arjun," Paco asked warily, "what does 'Amma' mean?"

Arjun blushed and said, "Mom..."

Paco and Marianna shared a look that seemed to convey mutual understanding. Marianna's lips curved upwards slightly as she said, "I suppose your mother wouldn't have had a problem with it, even if she knew." She let a playful smile spread fully across her face.

Arjun paled at the thought. How are they so okay with it?

Marianna lifted her hand, forwarding the sequence ahead, towards the end of the blowjob. Paco gave her a look, and she nodded back. "I read ahead in the memory," she assured him. "And it was just going to go on for a while, so I thought it'd be better to forward it a little."

She can do that? Arjun wondered to himself. OH! She can do that! In his panic, he'd forgotten for a few moments that Marianna's powers all stemmed from telepathy. He felt some small bit of relief that he wouldn't have to watch every single moment of the confusing and embarrassing encounter.

Marianna looked at Arjun and winked at him, trading her playful smile for a wicked one. When she pulled the memory back into real time, the blowjob was nearing the finish.

Paul had his eyes closed as his cock twitched inside of Jeena's mouth. Multiple squirts of cum blasted out of Arjun's father's cock, filling his Jeena's mouth completely. She didn't seem to struggle or gag even a bit as cum flowed into her mouth, though she ultimately couldn't keep it all inside. She did her best; only a bit dribbled out.

"Oh my!" Jeena gasped after she'd swallowed her husband's cum. "I didn't expect that much. I guess I'm just that good."

"She's talented..." Paco said in a low voice. Arjun perked up and almost instinctively nodded.

Arjun's mom looked up at his dad, blowing him a kiss and giving his cock a loving one as well. "There. Now I'm gonna head upstairs. Night."

She got up, giving him a quick peck on the lips before walking towards the door with a bit of a spring in her step. She closed the door behind her, leaving Paul alone in the bedroom.

Paul's body teetered a little, and he shook his head and froze. Soon, Arjun woke up in his bed. Once again, there was a delay.

"What the hell?" Marianna and Paco both said in unison, looking thoughtfully at Paul.

"What?" Arjun asked, confused.

"Is there any way for you to get more memory for his parent's bedroom?" Paco asked Marianna.

Marianna shook her head. "I can only access what Arjun saw."

"Then could you go back a bit?" Paco asked. "Just before he shook his head."

Marianna nodded and rewound the memory sequence. It had become old hat for Arjun to wait for her to correct after an overshoot. Soon enough, they were again watching the exact moment that Paul started to lose his balance. She stopped the playback, and she and Paco approached Paul. They looked into his eyes, like they had before.

Arjun walked up and looked at his father's eye as well. There! He saw it: the green colour from before was missing from his pupil.

"This is bizarre," Paco remarked as he scratched his head. "I expected to see some kind of trigger or something, but there's nothing here. Usually when you do animal body swapping, you can see a trigger just before you leave the body. It's usually a small detail, like a change in the pupil or a flickering light. But I can't see anything."

"What if it's because it's a memory?" Arjun suggested.

Marianna shook her head. "Human memory is bad because of problems up here, hijo," she said, tapping her own skull. "The conscious mind makes choices, and dumps lots of stuff into a landfill. It's all still there. I know how to go digging, grab it all, and put it all together. I trust these memories we're seeing, Arjun, because they're not 'memories' the way you think of them. They're everything your subconscious picked up. Like the stain on the floor of your room. It's not something you'd immediately remember or think about, but your subconscious knows it's there, even if you don't."

"That's right," Paco said. "So, it shouldn't matter that it's a memory." Arjun detected a note of pride in his voice -- pride in his wife's mastery of her abilities.

"It's possible that someone else triggered the body swap," Marianna said, her voice trailing off.

"How'd you figure?" Paco asked with a raised eyebrow.

"It's just a thought," she said with a shrug. "There are stories about people who can trigger other people's powers, right?"

Paco was about to say something, but came up short. Marianna seemed to know what he'd been planning on saying. She grinned.

"Mmmm," she said. "That's right, amor." She glanced at Arjun, and fleshed out the thought for his benefit. "We'd best start taking those fairy tales more seriously, because apparently we're in one."

"That raises the question of motive," he said. He seemed frustrated. "We really have no information about that, unless Arjun just forgot to tell us about a superpowered archnemesis. I think it's best we focus on the problem from our end -- see if there's any way we can get a handle on Arjun's powers. If they trigger again like this, well..."

Arjun felt a lump in the pit of his stomach. I might've just gotten lucky. Next time, somebody could die. He nodded somberly at the Garcias.

Paco gave him a sympathetic look, then shifted his gaze towards his wife and nodded.

Marianna looked at Arjun and said, "Arjun, blink."

#

GARCIA MASTER BEDROOM

2:08 PM

Arjun cautiously nodded again and did as he was told. When he opened his eyes, he saw a light blue ceiling.

He was disoriented and unsure of his surroundings; for a brief moment, he'd had an indescribable sixth sense that he was back in the real world, but that sense had been overwhelmed by a flood of sensations and a string of scattered, racing thoughts. He tried to slow his breathing, and with it, his heart rate.

He slowly looked around and noticed he was in a large bedroom with plenty of natural light streaming in through the windows. There was a desk in the corner with a laptop on it, and a door that led to a bathroom. Arjun tried to sit up, but he felt dizzy and light-headed.

"Be careful," Marianna said, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Don't get up too quickly."

Arjun laid back on the bed, still feeling dizzy. He asked Marianna, "Is it always going to be like this?" As he spoke, he couldn't help but notice her large breasts.

"With you staring at my breasts?" Marianna asked teasingly. "Probably. If you're worried, just know that I don't mind."

Arjun blushed and averted his gaze. "No," he said. "I meant always waking up dizzy after going into my mind."

"Oh, yeah," Marianna said casually. "But it should get better with practice. We just dragged you to the gym and made you exercise a muscle you've barely used. Not to say it's an actual drug trip, hijo, but if you don't know what an actual hangover feels like yet, consider this as your preview. Although I suppose plenty of people swear they'll never drink again, too, but then do."

Arjun groaned as he tried to get up again. Heedless of what Marianna had just said, he promised himself he'd never drink in college. He'd barely ever had alcohol -- just a few times that his mother had "made" wine into water for him.

Arjun turned his head back to Marianna, and her very inviting breasts were once again fully in his eyeline. "Where's Paco?"

"He went downstairs to get you some tea," Marianna said, getting up from the bed. Her breasts bounced as she landed on her feet and fixed her shirt.

"Wait..." Arjun said, his voice trailing off. "When did he do that?"

"Well, you did wake up a little late," Marianna replied.

"What?!" Arjun quickly sat up in shock.

"Woah, woah." Marianna rushed over and immediately pushed Arjun back down onto the bed. Her breasts brushed against his face slightly. "Don't get up. You weren't out for long -- just a minute or two. Hijo, please trust us."

"How long were we in there?" Arjun asked.

"Couple of hours," Marianna said, still holding onto Arjun. "But here, it's only been about five minutes, at most. Time works differently in our minds."

Arjun began to speak, but just then Paco entered the room with tea in his hands. "Am I interrupting anything?" Paco teased.

"No, you're fine," Marianna said, smiling.

Paco walked over to Marianna's side, handing her the tea. "Here." Paco moved near Arjun's side, helping him sit up, and took the tea from Marianna's hand. "Drink this; it should help with the dizziness."

Arjun took the tea. It smelled familiar to him -- extremely familiar, in fact. "What's in it?" Arjun asked curiously.

"Definitely not poison," Marianna teased.

"No." Arjun slowly shook his head. "It smells familiar - like something my mom would make whenever I was sick."

"Oh," Marianna said. "Oh!"

Arjun looked at her, confused by her wide-eyed expression. He glanced over to Paco, and saw much the same.

"What?" Arjun asked. He absentmindedly took a sip from the tea. It did more than just 'help' with the dizziness. Almost like magic, Arjun's 'hangover' was gone.

"The Coleus barbatus is that plant over there," Paco said, pointing to a plant on the windowsill. "And the red ginger plant isn't here; we only have the leaves from them. So I can't really show you, but red ginger is..."

"Think of it as cinnamon, ginger and mint mixed in," Marianna finished for him. "It sounds terrible, but it's really tasty as a tea."

Arjun nodded, looking at the plant on the windowsill. His parents had it around the house. "We call that plant Panikoorka."

"Interesting," Marianna said. "How are you feeling?"

"So much better," Arjun said, finishing the tea and standing up.

"Good!"

Arjun paused for a moment, hesitating to speak, "Can I ask you guys something?"

"Sure," Paco said. "What do you want to ask?"

"How come you guys weren't fazed by what you saw?" Arjun asked. "I know this isn't the most important thing right now, but I'm still curious."

"The thing with your mom?" Marianna asked, smirking slyly.