This choice: Use the mind band on Todd • Go Back...Chapter #32Manic Pixie Dreamcast Girl by: Masktrix   “Hey! I’m the one supposed to be doing math problems!”
You look up from your study desk in one of the small, booth-like private rooms of the Stables, surprised you didn’t hear someone come in through the door behind you. You’ve been focusing on getting the fiddly runes right on a mind band hastily prepared from the chemistry lab. You turn around to see Mariah Alloway standing there, and quickly cover up the Libra.
“Don’t you ever knock?” you ask, breaking character out of frustration and hoping you didn’t accidentally scratch a wrong line on the band. Mariah is taken aback a little.
“Sorry, I didn’t know I was disturbing you. What’s the book? Libra Per… new game?”
“Old game,” you say, realizing there’s no way to conceal what you’ve been reading. “From when a manual wasn’t just a slip inside a case, but actually part of the experience. I mean, look at this thing, it’s a work of art.”
“It’s a work of something,” Mariah says. “And the little metal badge? Cosplay?”
“Something for my next door neighbor,” you confirm.
“Cool. Who wrote the game? Because whoever did it is into some serious math. Doesn’t surprise me, computer game dorks and math geeks are mostly a beautiful Venn diagram. But set-theoretic topology is full-on NASA level.”
You look at Mariah blankly. “OK. Talk nerdy to me.”
She steps forward and flicks the book back to the third spell. “This looks handwritten,” she says. “And in some kind of foreign language. You get this thing off Ebay? Ah! Here. See this symbol? It’s basically an expression of multiple topological properties, which you resolve with cardinal functions. They’ve just illustrated it and made it look all woogie and cool. Does any of that make any sense to you?”
“Not a word,” you admit. Mariah blows through her lips.
“Well, anyway, it’s just high level geekery. Which I approve of wholeheartedly in a video game. I came to see if you wanted anything from the machine? If I don’t get some sugar and caffeine I’m going to turn up to fifth period hangry. Hangry Mariah bad.”
“I’m good,” you say. “Thanks for the offer. I’ll catch you at 6pm.” Mariah nods and salutes, leaving you to the band. You wonder if her knowledge could be useful down the line.
***
“Sorry I’m late,” Todd says as he arrives, “practice overran.” It didn’t, you know – you kept an eye on him while you were playing soccer – but the slight delay doesn’t matter. You’re sat in the library. It’s an impressive stretch of the west wing of the main building, although not really a library anyone uses given the Internet. It’s stacked floor-to-ceiling with books on three walls except for a massive, solid marble fireplace and five, five-foot high portraits of former schoolmasters. On the south wall, positioned to maximize light, are huge bay windows. The rest of the space is taken up by large oak wood tables and chairs. Today they’re all in use, except for the noticeably lighter table in front of the window. The Cyclops, as the students mockingly call it, gets hit by an intense beam of sunlight virtually all day, blinding and roasting any idiot who uses it.
“That’s OK,” you say, as Niamh would, with a pinch of irritation. You slide your paper over. “Here you go, get to work.”
Todd’s smile never wavers as he takes his seat next to you. “It’s really kind of you to let me partner up,” he blathers. “I promise we’re going to be an awesome team. So, do you have this on a laptop or…”
“Of course I do, but I don’t want a fact-check just to be someone glancing at Wikipedia.” You lift out a gargantuan, dusty, leather-bound book you pulled out from the military history section. “That’s the fun thing about history, Todd. It doesn’t date. Get to work.”
Todd gives you a sideways look and reaches for the book. It’s the perfect time to slap the mind band on him, and you watch as his head slams hard into the desk. With a cautious glance in either direction, you grab his collar and pull him upright, pretending to work as you wait for the band to reappear.
By the time you meet Mariah for your ride, about 45 minutes later, you’re done with Xavier’s. Mask off, band on. Location: Master’s Lodge Woodshed. Mask on, walk to woodshed, open the box and take your three masks back. They’re now tucked and safe in Niamh’s satchel, along with the Libra. As a parting shot – a little touch of Niamh’s own feelings – you left Todd with a note telling him that if he’s going to fall asleep when you agree to help him, he can go to hell.
It’s been a strange diversion, but Todd’s memories reveal an even stranger one. He bought the masks late on Saturday night – technically Sunday morning – while coked off his mind in one of the seedier parts of Saratoga Falls. Todd’s own brain is hazy on how much he paid, but he has plans for wild party in the Xavier Backwoods on Friday night. Concerned someone might discover the seemingly angelic students in the midst of a drug and alcohol-fuelled binge, Todd (along with, surprise, surprise, Abi Steiner and Chris Fiore) has made it a requirement that anyone attending has to wear a Halloween mask to disguise who they are. And so, when three people turned up selling Halloween masks, he’d bought all six.
Todd didn’t recognize the sellers, but you do. It was Joe Thomason and company. You don’t know why they broke into Mrs Nolan’s garage, but it wasn’t anything to do with magic. And that means what happened to Shelly is squarely on you.
***
You take your coffee while the golem collects a box of assorted donuts. Mariah dropped you off a minute earlier and you sauntered over to ‘Will’, waiting for you at the counter of Don’s. As she left, Mariah pointed and mouthed “HIM? HIM? REALLY?”, but she was just being a brat.
You’ve chosen your location with care: Keith Tilley is serving, manning a selection of sticky treats and the condensation-clad tubes of a coffee machine. Keith, for his part, didn’t seem to treat you any differently than a regular customer as you gave your order, but you assume the golem has talked about you as much as you used to talk about Lisa. Who feels like a lifetime ago. Perhaps she was several.
You look at the black marker scrawl Keith has left on the side of your cup.
“This says Nerve.”
“Close enough?” Keith asks.
“N-I-A-M-H. I get it’s tough, but you can come up with something better than ‘Nerve’. It’s Irish, you can just throw in whatever consonants don’t seem to belong and hope for the best. I’ve seen it all.”
“Niamh, this is Keith,” ‘Will’ interjects. “We’ve known each other since… I dunno man, forever?” You give a dorky wave by way of greeting. “Niamh’s a hardcore gamer. You should see her collection, dude, it’s insane.”
“Modern or classics?”
“Bit of everything.”
Keith folds his arms. “Then name the top five games that came out before 2000.”
You sip your Americano and look amused. “Really, you want to do this? You want to be that guy? OK, Mr Gatekeeper.” You set the cup down on the donut box Will is carrying. “Coming in at number five, we have GoldenEye 007. At four is the Dreamcast’s finest hour, Jet Set Radio, before we slip deep into the Kojima madness of Metal Gear Solid. To PC for, and don’t hate me for this, Civilization 2. And what could beat a game that will swallow days of your life? The all-time, number one, greatest game of all time, still undefeated, is… Final Fantasy VII.”
Keith stares at you from across the counter. Then, quietly: “That’s a pretty good list. But Jet Set Radio came out in 2000, so…”
You raise an eyebrow at him. Will interjects. “So far we’ve pretty much just played Mario Kart.”
You shift your weight a little against your golem as Niamh would, then collect your coffee and take another sip. It’s a weird experience dating yourself.
“Wait, you actually have all of these?”
“I told you, dude,” the golem says. “Niamh’s collection is insane.”
“Should come over some time,” you shrug, before letting your hand find Will’s so you can tug him to a booth. “Nice to meet you, Keith.”
You sit down, staring at Will Prescott and his shy, rabbity little smile, and chat easily with your former self as you wonder what to do. You’re at peace for the first time in a week. The masks are secure. There’s no need to be Niamh anymore and there’s no reason to stay at Xavier’s.
But Niamh is wonderful. You like her, and you like being her; what’s more, your Niamh mind actually finds the Will golem cute. If the book had never stumbled into your life, you’d never have stumbled into Niamh’s. And while the masks are secure, you still haven’t rescued Shelly – or solved the problem of the eighth spell. You aren’t willing to let go.
And that leaves two options. You can stay as Niamh, live her life and keep an eye on both golems. Perhaps, with the help of the seventh spell, you even could switch identities between Niamh and Will as you wish: be girlfriend one day, boyfriend the next. It also puts you in prime position to use a mind band on Mariah; she seemed to understand the book’s sigils and her math-geek brain could be the secret to pushing past the eighth spell.
The other option is riskier, but it’s also appealing. If you understand the nature of the seventh spell correctly, you’re certain Niamh will return to normal once the Will mask is removed. So, you could take off the masks and ask Niamh to join you in your games. If you can persuade her to join the coven, you’d gain an ally in your quest to solve the eighth spell and rescue Shelly.  indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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