Well, since Bluemage is going on vacation I guess I oughta pick up the slack a bit, eh? 
For now, a short transitional bit to whet your appetites. More will come in the following days, but what's been holding me up is deciding on just how far to take things with Yuki. It's relatively normal stuff that all kids go through (though distressing to all but the most free-thinking parents). But the circumstances give it an interesting twist, making it into something that I can easily take way too far for anyone's comfort zone, thus the need for my careful brainstorming. But now I think I've got it worked out... Pretty sure someone somewhere will shit a brick regardless. :p
It started out
innocently enough. Just an idle curiosity I wanted to satisfy. And
while the Internet was still relatively undeveloped from my
perspective, it still had all the resources I needed for this. But
even so, I did not think at the time that it would bring me to this.
“Washu-chan, I
need a gene-mod.”
Washu gave me a
flat look. “What.”
“I have an
alternate here. I need a gene mod.”
Washu frowned at
that. “Show me.”
It really was
remarkable, how things could be so different, and yet stay so very
much the same.
I only went back as
far as four generations, and yet the differences were striking. For
one thing, my alternate's mother's maiden name here was Delacroix.
As before, her father's family were all transplants from Louisiana,
but in my home time-line someone had gotten themselves into serious
trouble with The Law and the entire family had to change their names
and pull a fast fade.
Apparently, in this
time-line, they went straight before being caught and got into the
oil industry in Texas. While most Delacroix still persisted in that
trade, Claude Delacroix opened several bars and restaurants, all with
a unique Louisianian/Tex-Mex fusion that became all the rage, and
eventually passed it all on to his son, Charles.
On the other side
of my alternate's maternal line was the Saldanas. As before, the
head of the family had been murdered for his wealth, but the old man
had been more cagey this time. Not only had he stashed assets in
Texas, but he had ensured that his fortune would remain with the
family by relying on an American lawyer in the city of San Antonio –
which even then was a budding commercial city.
Once the Saldana
family saw that they were no longer safe in Mexico City, they simply
liquified their remaining assets and went to San Antonio to live a
simpler, yet comfortable life.
Grandpa Joe still
went to become a firefighter, only because he was that kind of man.
His daughter,
Adelina, still met and married Charles. They still had three
children.
Katherine still met
and married a man named Wendell.
But here, things
changed once more. Katherine and Wendell had more stable childhoods
than they had in my time-line. They hadn't been as abused and
damaged as before. They stayed together when things got tough... and
my alternate had an amazing eight siblings! An even mix of brothers
and sisters!
And Goddess, they
loved each other so much! His Father was like the Sun, his Mother
the Moon, and he himself was like a glorious morning star between
them!
The alternate me
even had a trust fund set aside by his mother's families – both the
Delacroix and the Saldana loved their grandchildren very much, and
there was no expense to be spared for their education. He was loved
and looked up to by his younger brothers and sisters.
And he was already
making plans to go to West Point.
He was going to be
an officer in the US Navy and wanted to be a Nuclear Engineer.
I just about broke
down and cried at how unfair life could be. Was this supposed to be
punishment for how terrible I had been in my past life? To be shown
what a difference in circumstances would make? To have life shove it
in my face and say, “This could have been you! Sucks that you lost
that lottery, eh?”
But once I pulled
myself back together, I realized that it would be trouble if someone
noticed just how much I looked like an older version of my alternate.
He would be going places – his face would be known, would be seen
by important people. People who's undue attention I should not be
attracting – that I may very well attract for the waves I've
already made in this world.
“And so,
Washu-chan, you see why I need a gene-mod now,” I finished at last.
Washu nodded
without any further argument. “I'll do it. But nothing major. I
know you feel horrible, Gar-kun, but that's not the kind of condition
you need to be making major decisions in. I'll limit you to a
different eye and hair color. Nothing more.”
“Alright then.”
For my hair,
nothing as ostentatious as the fiery red I had talked about before.
Instead, I went with a far subtler, but no-less striking jet-black
that was commonplace among my Native-American ancestors.
My eyes, though...
I always felt that my eyes were lacking in that they were too dark.
And I had always liked how striking a vivid hue of blue was in a
person's eyes. Not the storm-blue or the ice-blue some girls fawn
over, but the hue that reminds you of looking into the deep blue sea.
I've been called an
elf to my face before. I wondered what sort of reactions I would get
now with this new look and this new intent to carve out my own life.
Life at the Masaki
household was usually peaceful, but then things would happen, like
incident with the wolf from the zoo. I came pretty damn close to
killing that hunter – it was only the threat of counter charges for
sexual harrasment that kept them off our backs afterwards.
As for the wolf, he and I came to be on fairly friendly terms. It
probably helped that I beat the snot out of the rival pack's Alpha
with my bokuto. Afterward, we saw plenty of each other whenever I
went out on my longer runs. Sometimes I even brought Sasami and Yuki
along.
Then
the lovely Hiwa Takahashi came to stir things up. I had to
admit, I found her utter confusion over me to be amusing, but there
was also something just plain strange about how she would look at me
– almost like as though I weren't really human.
Hiwa wasn't simply
there to make trouble, though. She was there to see if she could
entrust her childhood friend, Tenchi, to the other girls before she
died.
Of course, Sasami
and Tenchi weren't having any of that.
I sat in one of the
trees overlooking the clearing that surrounded Ryoko's cave. I
watched the antics of everyone below, apart as I ought to be for the
moment. After all, I had played no real role in this, save as a
curiosity for Hiwa herself.
“I know you are
there, Tsunami-sama,” I spoke softly. “Don't you think it's
about time we talked?”
She
answered back as a whisper on the wind. “You should know
that if you want to talk to me then you should talk to Sasami
instead.”
“You and I both know better than that. While you may be aware of
what Sasami sees and experiences, you are still two-sides of a coin.
Can Sasami-chan honestly speak for you, the Choushin?”
There was a brief pause, filled only with the wind stirring the
leaves and the faint noises of Ryoko bickering with Washu.
“The time for
you and I to talk at length will come later, my child. For now, be
content with confiding in my other half – after all, she loves her
brother very dearly.”
The presence I felt in the air left and I knew I was alone once more.
With a sigh, I climbed back down to the clearing below. Ayeka would
probably appreciate it if I lent my back to carry little Sasami back
home.
I guess in a ways I couldn't blame Tsunami. Like I said once to
Sasami, this was scary even for the Goddess herself – the knowledge
I had could disrupt things so horribly. And all I had to do was tell
them what Tenchi really was.
For now, a short transitional bit to whet your appetites. More will come in the following days, but what's been holding me up is deciding on just how far to take things with Yuki. It's relatively normal stuff that all kids go through (though distressing to all but the most free-thinking parents). But the circumstances give it an interesting twist, making it into something that I can easily take way too far for anyone's comfort zone, thus the need for my careful brainstorming. But now I think I've got it worked out... Pretty sure someone somewhere will shit a brick regardless. :p
It started out
innocently enough. Just an idle curiosity I wanted to satisfy. And
while the Internet was still relatively undeveloped from my
perspective, it still had all the resources I needed for this. But
even so, I did not think at the time that it would bring me to this.
“Washu-chan, I
need a gene-mod.”
Washu gave me a
flat look. “What.”
“I have an
alternate here. I need a gene mod.”
Washu frowned at
that. “Show me.”
It really was
remarkable, how things could be so different, and yet stay so very
much the same.
I only went back as
far as four generations, and yet the differences were striking. For
one thing, my alternate's mother's maiden name here was Delacroix.
As before, her father's family were all transplants from Louisiana,
but in my home time-line someone had gotten themselves into serious
trouble with The Law and the entire family had to change their names
and pull a fast fade.
Apparently, in this
time-line, they went straight before being caught and got into the
oil industry in Texas. While most Delacroix still persisted in that
trade, Claude Delacroix opened several bars and restaurants, all with
a unique Louisianian/Tex-Mex fusion that became all the rage, and
eventually passed it all on to his son, Charles.
On the other side
of my alternate's maternal line was the Saldanas. As before, the
head of the family had been murdered for his wealth, but the old man
had been more cagey this time. Not only had he stashed assets in
Texas, but he had ensured that his fortune would remain with the
family by relying on an American lawyer in the city of San Antonio –
which even then was a budding commercial city.
Once the Saldana
family saw that they were no longer safe in Mexico City, they simply
liquified their remaining assets and went to San Antonio to live a
simpler, yet comfortable life.
Grandpa Joe still
went to become a firefighter, only because he was that kind of man.
His daughter,
Adelina, still met and married Charles. They still had three
children.
Katherine still met
and married a man named Wendell.
But here, things
changed once more. Katherine and Wendell had more stable childhoods
than they had in my time-line. They hadn't been as abused and
damaged as before. They stayed together when things got tough... and
my alternate had an amazing eight siblings! An even mix of brothers
and sisters!
And Goddess, they
loved each other so much! His Father was like the Sun, his Mother
the Moon, and he himself was like a glorious morning star between
them!
The alternate me
even had a trust fund set aside by his mother's families – both the
Delacroix and the Saldana loved their grandchildren very much, and
there was no expense to be spared for their education. He was loved
and looked up to by his younger brothers and sisters.
And he was already
making plans to go to West Point.
He was going to be
an officer in the US Navy and wanted to be a Nuclear Engineer.
I just about broke
down and cried at how unfair life could be. Was this supposed to be
punishment for how terrible I had been in my past life? To be shown
what a difference in circumstances would make? To have life shove it
in my face and say, “This could have been you! Sucks that you lost
that lottery, eh?”
But once I pulled
myself back together, I realized that it would be trouble if someone
noticed just how much I looked like an older version of my alternate.
He would be going places – his face would be known, would be seen
by important people. People who's undue attention I should not be
attracting – that I may very well attract for the waves I've
already made in this world.
“And so,
Washu-chan, you see why I need a gene-mod now,” I finished at last.
Washu nodded
without any further argument. “I'll do it. But nothing major. I
know you feel horrible, Gar-kun, but that's not the kind of condition
you need to be making major decisions in. I'll limit you to a
different eye and hair color. Nothing more.”
“Alright then.”
For my hair,
nothing as ostentatious as the fiery red I had talked about before.
Instead, I went with a far subtler, but no-less striking jet-black
that was commonplace among my Native-American ancestors.
My eyes, though...
I always felt that my eyes were lacking in that they were too dark.
And I had always liked how striking a vivid hue of blue was in a
person's eyes. Not the storm-blue or the ice-blue some girls fawn
over, but the hue that reminds you of looking into the deep blue sea.
I've been called an
elf to my face before. I wondered what sort of reactions I would get
now with this new look and this new intent to carve out my own life.
Life at the Masaki
household was usually peaceful, but then things would happen, like
incident with the wolf from the zoo. I came pretty damn close to
killing that hunter – it was only the threat of counter charges for
sexual harrasment that kept them off our backs afterwards.
As for the wolf, he and I came to be on fairly friendly terms. It
probably helped that I beat the snot out of the rival pack's Alpha
with my bokuto. Afterward, we saw plenty of each other whenever I
went out on my longer runs. Sometimes I even brought Sasami and Yuki
along.
Then
the lovely Hiwa Takahashi came to stir things up. I had to
admit, I found her utter confusion over me to be amusing, but there
was also something just plain strange about how she would look at me
– almost like as though I weren't really human.
Hiwa wasn't simply
there to make trouble, though. She was there to see if she could
entrust her childhood friend, Tenchi, to the other girls before she
died.
Of course, Sasami
and Tenchi weren't having any of that.
I sat in one of the
trees overlooking the clearing that surrounded Ryoko's cave. I
watched the antics of everyone below, apart as I ought to be for the
moment. After all, I had played no real role in this, save as a
curiosity for Hiwa herself.
“I know you are
there, Tsunami-sama,” I spoke softly. “Don't you think it's
about time we talked?”
She
answered back as a whisper on the wind. “You should know
that if you want to talk to me then you should talk to Sasami
instead.”
“You and I both know better than that. While you may be aware of
what Sasami sees and experiences, you are still two-sides of a coin.
Can Sasami-chan honestly speak for you, the Choushin?”
There was a brief pause, filled only with the wind stirring the
leaves and the faint noises of Ryoko bickering with Washu.
“The time for
you and I to talk at length will come later, my child. For now, be
content with confiding in my other half – after all, she loves her
brother very dearly.”
The presence I felt in the air left and I knew I was alone once more.
With a sigh, I climbed back down to the clearing below. Ayeka would
probably appreciate it if I lent my back to carry little Sasami back
home.
I guess in a ways I couldn't blame Tsunami. Like I said once to
Sasami, this was scary even for the Goddess herself – the knowledge
I had could disrupt things so horribly. And all I had to do was tell
them what Tenchi really was.