Chapter #47More and Merrier? by: Seuzz   "Say what?" you ask. Lots of work doesn't sound very inviting, and the rest doesn't make any sense.
"I have to go back in there before they get into worse trouble," Maria says. "But meet me at the municipal library at eight, so we can talk."
* * * * *
Naturally, you forget all about what she said after you get home. But then while you're driving around with Tim and Aaron Flood, you get a text from her, and after making a face at it you tell your friends you'll have to drop them somewhere and split. They let you drop them at IHOP, since they know someone who can pick them up there, and you break a couple of traffic regulations getting to the library -- not because you're eager to get there, but just because who gives a fuck, you know?
Maria Vasquez, studying at the library. What a concept. You swagger through the periodical section, and the children's section, and over by the coffee bar, before giving up and texting to ask her location. She must be trying to hide in the least likely spot, because she's at a desk back in the stacks close to where they keep the physics books. "Hey, how many math nerds does it take to fuck a virgin?" you ask as you slide into the chair opposite her.
Her eyes narrow. "How many?"
"Divide by zero to find the answer. You like it? I just made it up." Actually, Tim made it up, and he had to explain it to Eric, and Eric had to take his word for it that it was funny. But you lean back like a cock-thrusting fool anyway and twine your hands complacently behind your neck.
"Well, thanks for showing up anyway. But have you thought about what I asked you earlier?"
"I didn't understand one word about what you asked. Want me to give you a foot massage while you explain it?"
"No. And can you -- ? Can you put Eric in a box? Blow him out of your nose, or whatever that metaphor was you used this afternoon."
"It's a lot easier for him to talk to a girl."
"Will, that's not a confession you should be making."
"I know, right? But I don't got -- "
She gives you a look. Oh, fine, you think, and shut your eyes. You draw in and exhale several deep breaths. It's not really necessary -- you just have to think the thought in order to thrust Eric Murphy behind you -- but it probably looks more impressive if you make a great show of it.
When you're done, you open your eyes and put your elbows on the table. "So what's this meeting about? I was actually having fun before you called."
"You can have some more fun this way, if you go along with what I'm proposing. I want to increase the number of impersonations you'd be undertaking."
"What? How would I do that?"
"By making more masks." She blinks. "Isn't it obvious?"
Well, you're really not sure how this mask business works, and it's been pretty mind-blowing just with what you've been doing. "Well, pretend I'm an idiot and you explain it to me. After all, I'm looking like an idiot even as we speak."
"Like I said, we just make more masks. We make betas of some other people for you to be." Her mouth tightens as your brow furrows. "I don't see why this is so hard. Look, there's a Beta-Will Prescott running around now. Correct?"
"Yeah."
"And if you dropped this current impersonation -- if you went back to being yourself, I mean, then there would be a Beta-Eric Murphy running around."
"There would?" You sit up straightly. "I thought that would just mean he'd go back to normal too, if I went back to being -- "
"Sure, we could work it that way. And in the case of the other guys, that's exactly how we'd work it. But we don't have to."
"Why not?"
"For reasons," she snaps. "But the way it would work -- You remember that stuff we put in your mask, so that we could put it on Eric, turn him into your beta?"
"Sure. That was nearly a major league clusterfuck."
"Right. Well, what if we took your mask off Eric and we put it on -- Oh. Parker Stott, let's say."
"I don't know. What would happen?"
She makes a face. "The same thing that happened to Eric, obviously. It would turn him into your beta."
"And Eric would go back to being himself?"
"He would. But what if we also made a mask of Parker, like we made a mask of Eric, and we put some of that stuff inside it, and we put Parker's mask on Eric? What would happen then?"
"It beats the fuck out of me, man. You're the -- "
"That was a rhetorical question, I'm just trying to get you to visualize what's going on." She holds out her hands, palm up. "We have a mask of you, and a mask of Eric, and a mask of Parker." She fumbles her hands about. "And we put that stuff inside all the masks. Then we put your mask on Parker, and we put Parker's mask on Eric, and then you put on Eric's mask. What would you get? I'll tell you," she continues before you can interrupt. "We would get a Beta-Parker and a Beta-Will and, uh, well, you'd be impersonating Eric, just like you're doing now."
"And this is with putting that stuff inside Eric's mask?"
"Right."
"So what's the point of putting it inside Eric's mask, if it's just like it is now?"
"Because then you could switch masks around. You know what that stuff does, don't you?"
"I think so."
Maria stares at you. "Maybe you don't understand it fully. That stuff has your hair in it, and if you put it inside a mask, it makes the beta obey you."
You feel like you're getting a headache. "I thought it just made a beta."
"It does. But it does more than that. First of all, it hides the person you put the mask on, so that they disappear. And then the mask starts working, and starts acting like the person in the mask. That's how we make a beta. But that beta has to obey the person whose hair got used.
"So, for example," she continues, "we used your hair in the stuff we put inside that mask of you. We put the mask on Eric. He went away, and then there was another Will Prescott. A beta of you. And it had to obey you, because it has your hair in it."
"Oh." You sit up straight and blink. "Is that why it was so nice to me?"
"Was it nice to you?"
"Nicer than the betas of Mike and Carlos."
"I can imagine," she says. "And then, if you put that same stuff inside a mask of Parker Stott, and you put that mask on Eric, Eric would disappear, and then there'd be a beta of Parker, and that beta would also have to obey you."
"Wait, you mean there'd be two betas who'd have to obey me?"
"That's right." Her expression turns grave. "A beta of Eric and a beta of Parker, because Beta-Eric would hide Parker, and Beta-Parker would hide Eric. And both betas would have to obey you."
"Jesus! You could, like, fucking conquer the world if you kept it up!"
"I suppose you could. But actually, I think you can't."
"Why not?"
"Because no one has, right?" She leans forward. "That's a pretty old book, and it must have passed through a lot of hands between now and the time it got written. If you could use this trick to conquer the world, someone would have done it by now. It only stands to reason. So there must be something to stop it."
"Like what?"
"I don't know. I would like to find out, but I've just told the other guys that there must be some kind of problem, some hidden quirk that stops people from making more and more betas, and that's why I've told them we're not going to do what I'm about to suggest to you."
You're really not sure you like where this is going. It sounds like Fairfax is about to propose using you as a guinea pig.
"I don't mean to use you as a guinea pig," she continues, and you stifle an inner yelp. "But there's a bonus to asking you to try it out, so I'm willing to take that risk."
Fucking generous of Fairfax to consider risking your skin in another of his experiments.
"So imagine there are two masks, and they're modified so that they can make betas." She lays her hands flat on the table. "Beta Will and Beta Eric. You can switch back and forth between them. And each time you switch, you leave behind a beta you can order around. When you're impersonating Eric, you can order Beta-Will around. And when you're being yourself, you can order Beta-Eric around. So Eric can give you reports on what's going on when you're not impersonating him, and he can carry out some of your orders. Is that much clear?"
"I guess."
"Then we just add a third beta to the mix. Beta-Parker. Or no, since we want it to be a girl," she corrects herself, "make it Beta-Kristina." That would be Kristina Townes, who is Parker Stott's girlfriend. "Now you've got two people you can order around while you're being a third person. And you can shift from one to another to the other, depending on where you think you need to be in order to see and direct things."
"Could we add a fourth?"
"Maybe. In principle, I don't see why not. In practice, there's the fact that no one has beta-ized the planet, so I assume there's an upper limit."
"It might be three. Or two," you say. "Or one. Maybe I can only have my own beta. Beta-Will."
"Maybe," says Maria. "That's what I've told the others. And that's why each of them is only playing one girl, and doesn't have any other impersonations. But I'd like to try it with you. I'd like to give you at least one more impersonation. Ideally, I'd like to give you two or three."  indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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