This choice: Don't treat the mask; tell Yumi everything • Go Back...Chapter #13A Very Chelsea Yumi by: rugal b.   It's a very big risk to take and it's one that could backfire on you in any number of ways: Chelsea could walk in at any second, Yumi could just bolt or go off on you... she could even sell you out to Chelsea in return, stranger things have likely happened after all. But still you're not sold on giving Chelsea control of the book and these masks. She'd tried to use Sienna to placate you, that much is obvious, and it'd almost had the intended effect... almost but not quite. Quickly she'd showed that any interest in helping you was, if not a complete farce, then secondary to helping herself and her position.
You're also worried about what she might do to Yumi once she feels that she's done what she's needed to and it's time to go back to being herself. Would she just keep Yumi under a mask to control or would she try to ruin her? Maybe she'd do both.
So you feel like letting Yumi in on what's happening is the more moral option and a way to counter Chelsea if that's indeed what needs to be done.
So you put away the goop and instead take the mask of Chelsea and place it onto Yumi's face. You watch with fascination as it sinks into her and Yumi begins changing. Her hair, straight and dark and short, becomes long and blonde and falls in loose waves. Her face, a youthful mix of the prettiness and cuteness you'd see out of some Japanese pop singer, instead takes on a classically all-American girl beauty. Her body, short and lithe like a gymnast's, becomes more filled out and larger chested. In what seems like the blink of an eye Yumi Saito is gone, replaced with the naked and sleeping form of Chelsea Cooper.
You feel yourself turn very red as you look and then you start to see her stir. Quickly you do an about face moving to the other side of the room and looking at the wall. It's a moment or two before you really start to hear anything.
"What?" comes Chelsea's groggy voice causing you to tense up. "Wh-what... what's going on?" she asks as she is seemingly becoming more aware of the situation. "Who are you?!" she exclaims a little louder causing you to jump. You try to keep facing in the opposite direction though.
"Shh, Yumi you need to keep it down," you say.
"Why should I keep it down?!" she exclaims just as loud. "And you didn't answer my question, who are you?! Actually who am I?! My voice is all weird and I feel weird! What the hell is going on?!"
"I'm... it's me; it's Will," you tell her.
"Prescott?" asks Yumi suspiciously. "Will?! Wh-what are you doing here?! I'm... I'm naked and I'm not me and how did I even end up like this?! You... you better explain everything to me right now or I swear--"
"I will, I promise!" you exclaim. "But first, uh, you'll want to put your clothes on. I can't stare at a wall forever if we want to talk."
"My clothes?" she asks in confusion. You hear a bit more shuffling and some confused noises. "These aren't... these are what Chelsea was wearing earlier."
"Yeah, like I said your clothes. You're Chelsea Cooper right now."
"I'm... what?!"
This time it's loud and you pray to God that Chelsea is absorbed in whatever she's doing as Yumi that she's not going to come rushing in. "What are you even talking about?!" comes the further cry.
"Look, I'll explain everything!" you state, "Just... just get dressed because right now you're Chelsea Cooper and in a few minutes or maybe sooner Yumi Saito is going to come through that door and you can not freak out because it's going to really be Chelsea looking like you and she's going to expect you to be doing everything she says."
"I... what the hell?! I am not going to listen to Chelsea," she replies, "and I'm not going to be Chelsea either! I don't know what you've done but undo it Will!"
"Please, Yumi, just do it!" you plead. "I'll explain everything, just pretend you're Chelsea. In fact don't listen to her, just act like Chelsea. You should know how to do that right? It'll work out much better if you just act like you're her and ignore any sort of commands she gives you. Do that and we'll get her out of here and then I can explain everything I promise."
There's some grumbling and some more shuffling and then you finally hear the Chelseafied Yumi -- maybe it's just easier to think of her as Chelsea -- speak. "I swear, Will, you better tell me everything or so help me..."
* * * * *
"Ah, well that was certainly something! I'm feeling totally refreshed!"
Those are the words spoken by Chelsea, decked out fully as Yumi, as she enters the room. The words, intonation, the way she moves, it's all enough to creep you out a bit. The looks and the voice are there but everything else is so much more Chelsea than Yumi that it's like Chelsea is prancing around in Yumi's skin... which, for all practical purposes, she is. It's a bit grotesque when you think of it like that. It makes it weird to think of her as Yumi but if you're thinking of Yumi as Chelsea then you suppose it's vice versa for Chelsea as well.
"How about you, Will?" she asks. "You know with the fact I only come by to complain about how much of a bitch Chelsea is we never really get a chance to talk. What do you say we ditch Chelsea and get out of here?"
You look over and you can practically see the gears in Chelsea's head grinding. However you don't say anything and in fact don't even need to. "Who do you think you are to just take off on me like this?" asks Chelsea in as imperious a tone as she can gather. "And taking Will? I invited him over so he's staying here so we can talk."
Yumi looks wide-eyed at that for a second but then starts to laugh. "That's rich Chelsea but I don't have to take that from you," she says. "Will and I are going to hang out and talk. You don't have any problem with that, right?"
You cast another glance at Chelsea thinking that you'll have to remind her to stay in character but it's a worry that proves unfounded. "Have a problem with that? Of course I have a problem with that," she says with a smirk. "Leave it to you to look a gift horse in the mouth though... or do your people eat horses? I forget."
Yumi, now, looks in a way that you can only describe as both angry and mortified. "You," she says now with more venom. "I'm telling you that you have no problem. You're going to let Will go with me and that's it."
"I'm not letting you do anything Yumi," Chelsea sneers. "Will and I are going to have a chat. That's final. You can run along now."
You can see the desperate anger building on Yumi's face as she looks at you for assistance. "Will," she whines, "why isn't she listening?! She's supposed to do whatever I tell her!"
You can only put on your best confused face. "I-I don't know," you stutter, "maybe... maybe there's a limit to how many of those things you can have before they'll stop listening to you?"
"But I only have two!" she continues to whine.
"Maybe two's the limit then?" you shrug, "I don't know. But, um, if she wants me to stay..."
"You're going to..." she looks at you and then looks at her doppelganger then back at you. "Fine! But tomorrow we're going to figure out what's going on or I swear..."
With that she stomps out of the room but not before making sure to grab the book off of her desk. You and Chelsea follow her as you make half-hearted pleas for her to stay but she ignores you and is soon out the front door. It worked, you can hardly believe it. You managed to just win a small battle of wits against Chelsea freakin' Cooper! You can't keep from grinning as you turn back to the impostor Chelsea. "Alright, so we did that," you say as you head back to Chelsea's room. "And I'll keep up my end of the bargain. I'll tell you everything."
* * * * *
And you do tell her everything. You tell her about finding the book at Arnholm's and giving it to Caleb. About how he tried to use it to get closer to Chelsea but instead how it ended up in the hands of her and Gordon and what Gordon managed to do to himself. You talk about Chelsea coming to you for help and you agreeing to help her and your attempts to work through the spells as well as what they do. You, of course, make sure to tell her about Chelsea's own suggestion that you replace her instead and how, not thinking, you'd suggested it to her instead.
You also apologize more times than you think the girl with Chelsea's face would like to hear.
"Will," she finally says as she sighs and shakes her head. "This immaturity and lack of thinking is why," but quickly she waves it off, "whatever." She then takes a breath, "So Chelsea's running around as me and I'm Chelsea because of these masks and she thinks that this one is treated with some special stuff that should put me under her control."
"That's the gist of it," you admit. "I didn't do anything to the mask though, we wouldn't be talking otherwise. It's just the more I thought about it the more I thought that it'd be nice to teach Chelsea a lesson of some kind."
"Well, it's dumb that it got to this point but I agree with that sentiment," she says. "So we might as well go all in. She thinks I'm a double of her that she can't control so I'll be extra Chelsea," she says before quickly adding, "I could do it without the memories since I've heard it enough from her."
"She's got the book, we'll have to get it back from her," you say. "She's also going to want to put me somewhere too."
"Maybe you should do what she asks then," Chelsea says. "You know, act as a mole?"
"But if she catches on to the fact I'm a mole I'm dead," you counter. "She'll put me under one of those masks too."
"Then act long enough to get the book?" she shrugs. "Then just hide somewhere under some disguise so she can't find you."  indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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