This choice: Frank's idea - The Power Behind The Throne • Go Back...Chapter #75The Shadow Queen by: rugal b.   "What do I think?" you repeat Frank's question though it's more stalling for time. Both of their ideas are sound and both of them make good points. So which is the better one? "I think... I think I like your idea, Frank."
"Man, really?" Joe says with noticeable disappointment.
"Really." you state, "Frank's right; we don't need to be risk drawing attention to ourselves."
"But we won't!" Joe exclaims with a slight bit of a whine, "Or did you forget what I said two minutes ago? Cuthbert, the destroyed house... maaaaan!"
"Not used to not getting his way?" you ask.
Frank grunts, "No, he's just putting on a show. Like usual." He then turns to Joe and stars at him. It's a hard gaze, a stern one, but not an anger-filled one. More like the type of gaze of an annoyed dad. "Look Joe, you're right about the trail seemingly ending in Cuthbert and the now burned out villa. But with the Stellae we can't take too many risks."
"Yeah? And what risks are those, huh?" asks Joe in a challenging manner. You're not sure if Frank's right about Joe putting on a show or if he really is upset.
Frank, however, is undeterred and keeps pressing. "The trail supposedly ends in Cuthbert but Cuthbert is, relatively, right up the street from Saratoga Falls. So what if you come here? Then there's the Blackwell's villa. Plus we've still been popping up at school so you check Eastman, people will have seen us despite the fact we've now disappeared. Then there's a girl at Westside pulling off actual magic."
Joe moves his mouth as if literally chewing on a thought. He finally speaks after a moment, "Doesn't lead back to us or the book."
"It might not lead back to the book but it'd lead to a mystically empowered Morgana Hollis all the same." Frank states, his gaze still stern, "We've dealt with the best guy to suss out these clues in Rick but you know as well as I do that if I could put together that little chain then someone else from the Stellae could. You're not stupid, Joe, so stop acting like it and look at things logically: it's too big of a risk. Doing this would make things easier."
You nod in agreement. You went with your gut but seeing it laid out it all makes sense, "I get what you're saying, Frank." you state, "We need to concentrate more on taking control and honing our skills. Better to stay as under the radar as possible while we do that."
"Yeah, yeah I get it." Joe grumbles, "You guys win."
"Well I have no idea what you three are even talking about and all this magic garbage is flying right over my head so if you don't need me..." Chelsea's voice cuts through your little debate.
"What? Oh, yeah, sure. Go home, Chelsea." you say absent-mindedly before catching yourself. You order the golem to stop and she does, "Since you mentioned Yumi earlier I want you to tell me if you're planning on doing anything with her and if so what."
Chelsea eyes you but what resistance she can muster fades and she starts talking in a resigned manner, "Yumi's too popular. She's got half the squad behind her. She's a threat that needs to be eliminated so I was going to cut her soon."
"No, you're not." you state plainly, "Because Yumi's gonna be joining our club."
"Yumi's getting some essentia?" Joe asks and his jovial, excitable demeanor has returned, "Which pair?"
"I think... Perelandra and Sulva."
"I thought you were going with different combinations?" Frank asks, raising an eyebrow.
"Well that was before we decided on this course."
"That doesn't explain why those two." Frank states.
You let a small smirk show on your face. "Well think about it: Yumi's gorgeous and cheerleaders inspire, good fit for Perelandra. She's in great shape so she'd make a good fighter and a good fit for Malacandra but the way she straddles the line between the worlds of popular and unpopular, effortlessly blends into any environment? Prime Sulva material." You then lean forward, "If we're running things from the shadows then she makes a good intermediary and for that Sulva works better I think."
Both Frank and Joe nod in agreement though it's Joe who speaks, "Sounds solid."
"Glad we're in agreement, then." you state before turning back to Chelsea, "Alright, now you can go home. But remember: don't cut Yumi. She'll be on our side soon enough."
* * * * *
That night you take a bit of time to make a new anima band, one that'll go along with the one from Rick and that you can use on the second non-Yumi person to get essentia. Early the next morning you call your golem doppelganger and tell him to skip school for the day because you'll be going instead. You then have Jonathan, Frank in his mask today, drop you off at Westside on his way to Eastman and that's something that causes a bit of a stir as more than a few people see you getting out of his car.
School as yourself is absolute hell. It's been a while but the feeling of being a pariah that you experienced a few times previously thanks to the hex returns. It's a lonely feeling and you curse having ever accepted that tainted money from Blackwell. You'll have to do the right thing for your double and get rid of it at some point, once you've got the time; especially since this is the last day you'll ever attend school as Will Prescott.
So you suffer through the first half of the day until lunch comes where you take a seat with Carson, James and Jenny. It's a relatively quiet affair. Carson and James don't say much to you specifically and you remember that James had come under the hex's power. You wonder if both Carson and Jenny have as well though if Jenny has she's doing a hell of a job gutting through it and talking to you, kind of like how Yumi did when you got the mask of her so long ago.
That's Jenny's way, however. She's a nice girl who has a way of making you feel not just like she's paying attention to you but that you're the absolute center of her attention. Small wonder, then, that you had a small crush on her before hooking up with Lisa. For a brief moment you feel a pang of regret knowing that by the end of the day Jenny will be gone and you'll be walking around in a perfect disguise of her, though as quickly as it comes that regret goes.
As lunch ends, you pull her aside and ask her meet up with you after school. Straussler drove you to school today, you met him by dumb luck, and he wants you to bring some friends by. James has been acting weird and Carson can be a d-bag, you tell her, but if Jenny says it's all cool they'll listen to her. She hesitates, she seems a bit uncomfortable by it, but eventually she relents. You'll take her car up to the Straussler residence after school.
* * * * *
"This is... it's such an odd feeling." you state as you pull your shorts on. Ugh, why'd you wear these anyway? You always feel envious of Yumi's thighs when you do; she'd look great in these.
"I don't see what's so odd. You've been girls before." Frank says.
"I know, but this is different." With that you finish putting on your bra. Doing this in front of two attractive guys has made you self-conscious about your boobs. I really wish they were a cup size bigger, you find yourself thinking. It was a long, laborious and exhausting process to switch the imago of Jenny Ashton and Will Prescott and link their mental imago but you had gotten it done with no problems. "This isn't like putting on a mask. It's like, I dunno, a joining? Like the separation between 'Will' and 'Jenny' is so tiny it may as well not even exist I guess."
"So then if you're totally Jenny, it's not weird if I think you're cute?" Joe asks with a grin.
You feel yourself grow hot at that and quickly go to throw your shirt over your head. "Look, I'm trying to adjust so can you kind of cut down on the lovable perv thing for a little bit?" you ask.
It does stir some feelings: ones of attraction, ones of joy... and ones of loneliness. You--Jenny--live with your dad and while Ted Ashton is a nice enough guy, over the last year or year and a half he's started having to take more business trips leaving you on your own for days at a time, rationalized by the belief among the both of your that you're old enough to take care of yourself.
Well soon enough those feelings of loneliness will be gone as your court expands and you take your place as the queen behind the queen. But in what direction do you expand it first? Joe and Frank need their new identities ASAP and maybe if you put Joe in for James... well then James would man up and stop pussyfooting about making things serious while putting Frank in for Carson would hopefully mean dealing with Carson's poorly-hidden feelings for you since you don't see Frank as the type to care much about anything romantic.
But there's Yumi, too! You're so happy that she's going to be joining your club. She's going to make a great addition, no doubt, and despite what Chelsea thinks she's just a golem. Yumi will love a Chelsea that'll know what it feels like to be ordered around for once. Plus every queen needs a reliable knight and who'd make a better one than your best friend? You can't hardly wait to get her set up so maybe you should take care of that first.  indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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