Becoming Monsters: I'm Blue 03

Becoming monsters is the creation of AiLovesToGrow, setting used with permission

This idea comes from Amethyst Dragonfly.

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Chapter 3: Coffee Shop

After work that evening, Abbey walked to the BuckStar alone. Brittany originally looked like she was going to join, but after seeing the look on Abbey's face thought better of it. This time, she'd leave the hot date to her friend. It had been way too long. Brittany didn't want to go be the third wheel while they stared soulfully into each other's eyes. Especially if Abbey was right, and he was that trustworthy.

She did not often go snooping about people. This guy? This time, for Abbey, she'd be spy enough for any three-letter agency.

The smells of the coffee shop always did make Abbey's stress sit down and be quiet for a bit. Even before this latest wild turn her life had taken. Now? As her boyfriend greeted her with a broad grin, a kiss over the counter, and her salted caramel drink already waiting? And a blueberry muffin? Her smile came from her soul.

"How was your afternoon, Justin?"

"Slow, but not too terrible. Gave me enough time to get some reading in."

"Good!" She thought for a second, memories surfacing. "How about your portfolio?"

"Didn't get time today to work on the final, no. Need to be at my computer to do it. And... well, a lot of what I'm supposed to be building on just wasn't good enough. I remember pieces that I did and how I did them, but I didn't actually do them."

Abbey nodded. "Wishes are fickle things like that. As powerful as they can be, they take the path of least resistance."

Justin nodded. "So... when I wished for a girlfriend, it did the least it had to in order to arrange things."

"Exactly. The metaphysics are nuts, but the short version is that it burned off a ton of my high-end potential to power it, and still only changed the minimum. Us, and the singular location we spent most of our time together." Abbey's hand came up to the simple silver cord she had around her neck. "I'm assuming you kept your mom's necklace in the room?"

"Yeah. I used to hang it on the doorknob on the inside, so that it was like she was wishing me luck on the way out the door."

Abbey's heart melted. This was not a tidbit she'd heard from him, either in reality or her newly-implanted memories. She could remember him giving it to her after they had been "dating" for a couple of months, and that she wore it religiously ever since. The only time she hadn't was when there was a risk of it being lost or stolen. "That's... wow."

The bell on the door rang. A tall, statuesque blonde with batlike wings, overcoat, and a whip on her hip walked up to the counter. Was she a Dragon? A Demon? No way to know without asking, or using magic that was both illegal and not accessible to either of them. Either way, she was devastatingly attractive, but Justin just served up her cup (containing chocolate and enough espresso to kill some small elephants) smoothly. She turned and left.

Abbey looked Justin's way. "How do you even do that?"

"Do what?"

"Just... that! It's like you didn't even notice the woman who ordered that last one!"

"Oh, uh... I kind of just didn't. I mean, I think she was cute? When I get in the groove, the faces don't matter."

"You're not in the groove, though. I've been here a half hour, and she's the only person who came through besides me."

"Ah, that. Why should I react? I'm taken." He said it like it was so simple, wiping off the counter.

"Seriously?"

"Seriously. I really don't care what's under that coat. I'm not dating a body. I'm taken, by you, and even if you couldn't reshape yourself there's nothing she can give me that equals what I feel when you're asleep in my arms. Now, come on, if you help me out with the tables out there I can get closed up in the next five minutes."

He turned to start shutting down machines and get his mop. She took a moment before her legs would let her move. How the heck did he phrase that Wish? It was like he'd reshaped his own mind as much as hers had been. Still, before too long she was walking around the dining room. Chairs to put up, signs to put right, and supplies to call out to remind him to bring out. A comfortable routine, something they had done a hundred times together despite this being the first time. Memories about his coworkers joking with him, that he should be paid an extra $9 for closing each day since his managers hired an extra person for the last hour of his shift.

It was nice. A way to unwind a bit. They chatted about customers, laughing about ones they had in common. How different they acted in the two locations, seeing different parts of their conversations. Service workers tended to be invisible, no matter who they were. People talked in front of them.

They were walking back to the college campus when Justin seemed to realize something. "Hang on a sec, you said something at the store. 'Burned off a ton of high-end potential'? What do you mean by that, and are you going to get it back?"

"Oh, yeah. That. Backwards order: yes, I'm going to recover. At least, I did in the past. Takes a while, though. You know how I mentioned that Wishes take a whole lot of power to use?"

"Yeah. I mean, they're Wishes. 'Reshape reality to your whims' isn't something that comes casually."

"When I'm in full power, my natural form is about eighteen feet tall, and my Ten Attributes are pretty much all boosted. Strength, Charisma, Perception, everything. If someone makes a trivial Wish, it blanks my mana pool and goes off. What's trivial and what isn't can vary wildly and unexpectedly to outsiders, though I can usually predict it. When someone makes a bigger one, my positive Racial modifiers get degraded or disappear entirely in order to fuel things. Higher than that, and the person making the Wish might also get tapped in the same way, or both of us can get degraded down below our baselines."

"What happens if that goes too far?"

"I can die, and usually that means the person who made the Wish is left with a one in every category along with a partially-cast Wish. What that exactly means varies case to case, but by the time you're doing things at that level it's like trying to shave with a chainsaw. Usually, you're going to get hurt a lot more than it's worth, if you even get anything at all."

They kept walking, this time in silence. They passed by Greek Row, where the local fraternities had the parties rolling while the rains were leaving them alone. The lights and noise held no allure for them, they had no need to go. And no time, really. Justin had work to do.

They got back to the dorm room and got to it. As Justin pulled up his computer, Abbey picked up the book he was working through and began asking him some random questions from nearby his bookmark. Once Justin's digital art programs were up, they got to talking about their favorites from his projects which existed in their memories. The vase of cornflowers from a still life, against a textured red background. That would be the first to be revised for his new portfolio.

He didn't quite manage to finish it before his vision started to blur. His hands began to shake. Where in the past this would be when he slammed a drink with entirely too much caffeine and not enough regard for his kidneys, this was where Abbey stopped him. Gave him a hug. They got changed, comfortable in each other's presence, and settled in for the night. Together.

Unaware, entirely, that something else was happening several miles away.

Brittany was frustrated. Who the heck was this guy? She'd seen him at least twice a week for two years, and she couldn't even find his picture sharing or Bluebird accounts. Some spy she was. Still, she did have a name. Justin Majors. She did have enough little hints to confirm that he was a real person. The local BuckStar listed him on their "Team Members" page. He was registered to vote in the state. A couple of old posts on social media that had died off since then. Besides that, though? Nothing in the last three years.

It was like he was a drone. Just going about his life, not doing anything unnecessary. School, work, eat, sleep. How did a person like that even get the time to take care of themselves, much less have the kind of personality to make Abbey's heart do somersaults? What did he do to hook her like that? Heck, he was listed as a Human/Shaper, no registered Delver license. No presence in honor societies or local competitions.

Heck, if she'd done her research on him beforehand, she'd never have recommended Abbey ask him out.

There had to be more to him than that. Brittany debated with herself, whether this would be worth diving into the hard way. A year of her life. She'd spent two semesters at that freaking school. Power leveled her Class, realized she wasn't about that life, stayed over the summer to blitz enough coursework that she could tap out with an Associates. Ran to a good metropolitan area to sink in and enjoy life.

Should she invoke her Class once more? Go from merely spying back to being a Spy for real? It was a conundrum, and not one she'd be able to easily think through at nearly one in the morning.

Out on Greek Row, speculation of a very different kind was happening. Specifically, three sorority sisters were talking. Three that had seen mister tall, handsome, and brooding walking home accompanied by the blue woman in a business suit. Hearts were broken, ice cream was being consumed. All three had wanted to be the one to bring some sunshine to his cloudy day, but all year their attempts had been almost entirely in vain.

Anna had gotten no response when she peppered him with her best jokes. Bettie, similarly, got nothing from blatant flirting. Christine had managed to get half a smile out of him by commiserating with him about one particularly difficult assignment in a class they shared. The ABCs of heartbreak, as their classmates often called them behind their back, were stumped.

Nobody in school could resist them, not since high school together. Those that could resist one inevitably fell to one of the others. Not Justin. Justin's gloom was as impenetrable as a wall of titanium. If they wanted to see him looking happy, it had to be when he was faking it for customer service at work. And what a look! All three of them had spent the occasional sleepless night following late-night caffeine as they came to get a good eye full.

The new girl presented several problems. First off, she stole a hunk. Second off, she showed the three of them up by doing what they couldn't. Everyone at school know what was up, at least everyone who mattered, which made this particular loss of standing intolerable. The only person who could get away with that was Jennifer, and that was only because she was the Queen Bee.

The three made a decision, then. Find the blue girl, find out everything about her, and how she did it. Just... not tonight. Too much alcohol and too little sleep to let that go smoothly.

As the moon made its lazy way across the sky, the world buzzed in the way that only late Friday evenings did... or early Saturday mornings, really. Neither Abbey nor Justin paid it any mind. They cuddled close together on that tiny bed, and they dreamed.

In Abbey's mind, the Marid strode through the halls of a university arranged very much unlike the one she was currently sleeping in. A single enormous building, the one that had not been destroyed in the days following the Change, housing those students and faculty who wanted to cling to what was normal. Classes continued, even if much smaller. The departments condensed, the student body shuffled. As an almost-literal war was fought outside their windows, they lowered the blinds and did their best to ignore the sounds of monsters and mayhem. She ducked into a room on autopilot, a class she could not specifically remember, one of the very few non-Human students who stayed and the only one whose natural form was outside of Human norms by any significant margin.

Her pocket had her Coin in it, safe only in obscurity. All the students knew she carried it, even before the Change, but even more now that the person who gave it had passed away in early attacks. Nobody knew if it was a monster or a monstrous person. They just knew her memories were bound in it, and respected it. After all, almost every one of them had a similar story. This day would prove, though, that people were people, and not everyone in that place was willing to play on the same team no matter what was going on outside. Perhaps especially knowing it. An indeterminate amount of time later, when the soul-weary professor let them go, her pocket did not clink the same way.

Panic gripped her in that dream, in that memory. A sudden metallic ping, a coin being flipped. A boy, cruel glint in his eye accompanying the cruel words on his lips. The others were not here to see, they'd left to find a place to forget. Demands, blackmail. If the blue woman wanted her father's coin back, she'd do anything he told her. How little he knew. She desperately agreed to anything he said. No matter how humiliating.

And then the fatal words. He spoke a wish. A little thing, a trivial thing, one well within her power to give. It was enough to let him know he could. His second wish had more thought put into it, a way to make his life at school much easier, but it took much more power from her. The boy found his papers ahead of the curve, teachers willing to overlook mistakes and casual cruelty. Before too long, he got greedy. Wished for riches, and nearly killed both himself and Abbey in doing so.

She learned not to trust after getting her coin back. To be more secure about its safety. That wouldn't keep it from being taken, found, or lost several times more. It was like it was enchanted, meant to get into people's hands, to compel them to make a Wish. It was all Abbey could do to guide them, to emphasize the limits of what she could do so that the ones making the Wishes wouldn't accidentally kill themselves or her. Not to say it didn't come close.

But now... Justin. His first wish, the one he made unknowingly like most of the others, the one that she had learned represented his deepest core? She wasn't sure how he phrased it, but it had tied them together. In those phantom hallways, she ran from room to room, from fear to fear, but she found herself running beside him. Not away from him. Those phantoms looked at her with avarice in their hearts, but could not touch her. Could not take her Coin. It was his, at least for now.

The fear returned, as he was followed by two trailing wisps of blackness. Two more Wishes. He had two more choices to make, possibly of world-changing importance... and once he made them, she wouldn't be under his protection again. She didn't know which thought terrified her more, as she closed her eyes and ran. His footsteps were still beside her, pounding forward towards the veiled future.

Her eyes fluttered open briefly. Her heart pounding like her fading memory of those frantic footsteps. His arm around her, holding her close. His breathing steady, his heartbeat smoothly lulling her back to more innocent dreams. Snuggling close, her eyes closed, and she fell back to sleep.

In his head was something vastly different. He lay on a table face up, as cherry red hands traveled his body. A Succubus he had through the shop every now and then who turned heads every time she came, deeply massaging him. Another of her was feeding him indeterminate delicacies, another whispering praise into his ear. The lingering pain in his torso and legs was being gently worked away, the promise of delights without compare and wealth beyond imagining flowing through his head.

That seductive voice told him even more. He had the power, now. He could choose. He could have whatever he wanted. The blue woman was meaningless. A means to an end. With the decision to sacrifice her, all that he was imagining could become reality. So what if he needed to recover a bit? He'd live even if she didn't, some short-term pain to gain the world. He merely had to pick from his various options of how he wanted to do it.

That gave him pause. Where the line was drawn in his head between who he was and who the Wish was making him wasn't clear to him, but there were a few certainties. Number one, Abbey was a person, a precious and wonderful person who deserved to be considered for herself. Not just as a tool, a stepping stone to glory. Two, sacrificing anyone like that was evil, and he was better than that even on his lowest days. Three...

Well, no matter where the line between before and after the Wish was? He loved her. He didn't want to even consider a world without her. Money, women, power, all of it was meaningless. He could own the world, and it would be an empty thing. Soulless, a caricature. In the dream, he sat up. Stood up. Stepped away from the seductive hands, from the whispers, the wealth, the status. Walked away from it. Began to run. If such was meant to be, he'd find it, but he'd find it the right way. Through his own works and his own hands, on his own terms and for his own reasons.

Away he ran, away from the red, towards the blue.

His eyes fluttered open briefly. His heart pounding like his fading memory of those frantic footsteps. Her arm around him, holding him close. Her breathing steady, her heartbeat smoothly lulling him back to more innocent dreams. Snuggling close, his eyes closed, and he fell back to sleep.

It would not be the end of the night. As they dreamed in each other's arms, tendrils of magic began to reach out from Abbey's gently smiling form. One sought Justin, holding his metaphysical hand, drawing from his own untapped mana. With that little boost, she could reach out just that bit more. Into the ceiling went one wisp, finding and plugging a plumbing leak that had just been starting, hidden between the floors. A different one made its way along the wiring of the building that had once been hastily renovated, smoothing out rough patches and rougher connections.

More still infused the walls, buffering and insulating them far more effectively than their peers. Soundproofing, too, and the simple blinds becoming significantly more effective at their job than the manufacturer ever intended. The mana spent, the wisps returned to the sleeping forms, residuals returning to their owners.

One wisp remained. Within the walls, aided by the others, it began to trace a rectangle. It carried an idea, one of space and privacy. It was not going to complete the work, but it would do its best. Those that came after it would be able to continue things. How long the unconscious working would take, none knew nor cared. It was, however, exactly what the two wanted. Needed, really. As the first rays of the dawn's light emerged, stopped for now by the latest enhancements to the room, that last mote of power met the end of its capabilities and dissolved.

Some hours later, Justin awoke with an unexpected headache. Like so many others, he had never really used his Class much. Sure, he experimented a bit, got Level two plus a tiny bit more, but he hadn't really pushed it. Shaper really didn't fit him, or his idea of creativity and art. As a result, though, he had never in the five years since the Change had never had a Status headache. For example, the one presently resulting from his empty mana pool that was trying to split his skull in half.

He stumbled painfully over to the sink and reached for painkillers and a cup. His reflexes from before the Wish thankfully still worked, since he had suffered through more than one with different sources. One from a truly epic hangover on the morning after his twenty-first birthday, more than he could count from an abusive relationship with energy drinks.

The first thing to get through to his awareness was how different the water tasted. It was... softer, smoother, less laden with harsh minerals common to reclaimed seawater. It was just better. As he reached for the tap to turn it back off, he noticed the sound, too. Or, rather, the lack of it. The tap was barely making a hiss, not the sharp roar he was used to hearing. Used to suffering through, when it came to being in a state like this.