This choice: Choose Angelique Travers • Go Back...Chapter #80Exit Strategies by: imaj   Kali is waiting in the ballroom when you arrive. "Have you decided?"
"Angelique," you tell her. You look down at yourself, admiring the view of your boobs from this angle one last time. "Let's get this over with."
Kali looks suddenly panicked. "You want to switch now? It would be impossible to get Angelique over on short notice."
"I want to get out of Chelsea now," you say. "Before I change my mind. Jon Straussler's a golem at the moment isn't he?" Kali nods. "I'll use his face for a couple of days till we get Angelique. The longer I stay like this," you say, gesturing at yourself. "The less likely I am to want to leave." You give one boob a gentle squeeze, regretting that you never really had the time to fully explore Chelsea's body properly.
Kali frowns. "I am not sure that I understand."
"Don't worry, I've got it all worked out," you tell her. You planned it out on the drive over. Nothing complicated, just applications of what you know already. "Just find Jon and bring him here."
Kali returns ten minutes later with a bewildered looking golem. You whip the mask from his face to reveal the slab like body underneath. It takes less than a minute to transcribe a copy of Jon's imago to a mask, and a little longer than that to change out of Chelsea's clothes.
After that you start removing the rest of Chelsea from yourself. You lie down on the dissection table. "I'm going to need to borrow you for a moment Kali," you tell her, without even waiting for a response before you wipe your hand across your face and steal control of her body. She seems oddly comfortable to be inside, and you rather enjoy the simple act of walking around and fetching the necessary items to complete your task. Adding Jon's imago as another layer to your collection is easy. You flip back to yourself for the fraction of a second it takes to switch to Jon's imago. After that, it is simple to grab control of Kali again and peel away Chelsea's imago and essentia from your body and place them in a mask and jar respectively.
Kali is momentarily dazed when you switch away from her. You climb to your feet. "I'm going to need your help again in a second," you tell her.
She pales a little. "That was most disconcerting. Not an experience I am sure I wish to repeat."
"Actually, I just need your help with Chelsea's substantia," you explain. "I'm putting her back together," you continue as you lead her back into the shelves where the substantia is stored. The golem like remains of the original Chelsea are light work for the pair of you to lift back to the dissection table. You place her anima, essentia and imago alongside. "As close to the original girl as possible." You frown, there's still a little bit of your own essentia left in the girl, making her a golem.
Improvising, you grab another empty bottle and place it down on the dissection table next to the substantia. One more use of the strip essentia part of the sigil and your are left with Chelsea's pure, unadulterated, substantia. The little fragment of essentia in the bottle you can re-integrate into yourself later.
You check the remote sigil you carved onto Chelsea's body when you first took her apart, making sure that it is still intact. That's the most insidious thing about the remote sigil - it doesn't require your essentia to power. When you put Chelsea back together, it will still be there, waiting for you to activate it and grab control of her again someday. "Once she's back together I'll grab control of her and go home in her body," you explain for Kali's benefit. "After that I'll rewire her memories so doesn't remember anything, and set her up so she doesn't think about it. I don't want to leave any clues behind."
"A sensible precaution," nods Kali.
Chelsea goes back together with the minimal of fuss. There is a bit of a lightshow as you join the pieces, but it is comparatively muted and within a few minutes you are looking down at her as she stirs from unconsciousness. You drop a little knockout powder on Chelsea, just enough to keep her out until you get yourself into Jon's bed.
Five minutes later you are sitting up on the cold metal of dissection table, protecting Chelsea's modesty with her arms. "I should be done by this evening," you tell Kali as pull on her clothes in a workmanlike fashion. "When can we get Angelique out here?"
"In a couple of days," replies Kali. "Better to do Angelique first and then see if she passes muster with whoever we trick out here to replace with Frank."
You nod in agreement as you pull the last of Chelsea's clothes into place. "I'm going to miss all this," you say, folding your arms so they cradle your borrowed boobs.
*****
"You don't mind, do you Jon," asks Monique for what must be about the fifth or sixth time.
"Why would I mind," you say, smiling tightly. In fact you've spent the last three days specifically pushing at Monique for this to happen. Not by talking to her or anything similarly direct. No, you've been invading her head at night, slipping inside her body using the remote mask you placed on her before your adventure in Cuthbert. You've been shaping her thoughts as she dreamt, which is why she genuinely thinks that bringing Angelique to the Straussler mansion again is entirely her own idea. One that you are not entirely happy with.
"Thank you," replies Monique. She gives your hand a brief squeeze as you walk through the front hall of the Straussler's. Angelique is a few paces ahead of you, gazing round the room in wide-eyed wonder. The resemblance between the two is obvious - they share the same dark hair, the same wide eyes and the same slight frame - but while Monique is a beauty budding into bloom, Angelique is merely a sapling. She might be as pretty as her sister one day, but today she is just a little girl. "Dad says she looks up to me and it means a lot for her to get a chance to hang out with me like this."
"This place is so cool," says Angelique, spinning round to get a look at the whole room. "I'm gonna have one just like it when I grow up." You smile genially at her. She'll certainly have somewhere like this if that's what takes your fancy. She runs off towards one of the archways and stops rather abruptly when Kali Valentine emerges from it.
"Hello there child," says Kali.
Angelique sticks her tongue out defiantly. "I'm not a child. I'm eleven!"
Kali laughs warmly and smoothly, laying an arm round Angelique's shoulder. "Of course you are. I'm sorry for the mistake." Monique shrugs apologetically at both of you. "And I need someone with your expertise to help me redesign some of the rooms here," Kali adds conspiratorially, causing Angelique to flush with pride. "That is, if you want to help me."
Angelique spins round to face you and Monique. "Can I go with Miss Valentine? Can I?"
"If it's ok with Miss Valentine," replies Monique.
"It is really no trouble at all," Kali tells her, before ushering Angelique out of the room.
"I worry," says Monique to you, her voice very quiet. "She is so spoilt. And used to getting her own way."
You rub her shoulders. "It isn't your problem. Let your parents worry about her."
"Should I teach her to use makeup," Monique asks, catching you by surprise. "She is so young, but she keeps asking about it. If I don't do it will she sneak into my room and steal some and make a terrible mess of it?" Monique sighs unhappily. "It feels like it should be a big sister thing to do, but she is so young."
You pull her close and lift her chin with your finger, gazing adoringly into those eyes. "What do you think is right," you ask her after a brief kiss.
"I don't know Jonathon."
"Then do what feels right," you reply, hugging her. Over shoulder you can see a figure at one of the doors trying to wave you over. "Uh, I'll be right back. I left something in the other room." Your hands linger together for a brief moment and then you walk over to where the figure was.
Another Jon Straussler is waiting for you in the next room. It's Frank really, under a mask. You restored his father a day ago, using the same method you did with Chelsea, so he'll be Jon until you find a new face for him too.
"She's angsting about Angelique," you tell him as you unbutton your shirt. He nods and takes it when you hand it to him. "Just keep her away from the ballroom till we make the switch."
"Simple enough," the other Jon replies. He pulls the shirt you just handed him on and buttons it up. Now he looks exactly the way you did when you left Monique moments ago.
Time to go get a new face.
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