Fluff

Chapter Four - Doing what’s Probably Right

Emily had not had the most restful sleep the night prior. There was too much weighing on her mind. Also, Teddy had started to snore right into her ear, and while Emily could sleep through her fair share of noise, the sound somehow grated on her throughout the night.

Also, Trinity somehow managed to have the sharpest little elbows. A fact that wasn’t helped with the sheer amount of elbows she had at her disposal.

So, she woke up feeling groggy, as if she had only slept for two hours despite whatever lie her clock said.

After shuffling through the new morning routine of forcing her sisters to take quick showers one after the other, then enduring a cold shower herself, Emily got dressed, packed up all of their costumes in a backpack, and then took a couple of quiet minutes in the bathroom where she pressed her head up against the mirror and willed herself awake.

She figured that all of that was just part of the college charm though. At least, from all the testimonies she’d heard from others, that was part and parcel of being a student.

“So Boss, what’s going on this morning?” Teddy asked.

“We haven’t done anything villain-like in a while,” Athena said.

Emily frowned. “We broke into someone’s home and beat up a hero yesterday.”

“Feels like it was a longer time ago,” Trinity said. She stared off into the distance in three different directions. “Do I feel time three times more than other people?”

Athena shrugged. “Maybe having three bodies and therefore three sources of living experience is changing your perception of time?”

“That makes sense,” Trinity said.

“Did you even understand what I said?” Athena asked.

“No, but it had lots of big words, so it’s probably right.”

Emily had to hold back a chuckle. At least her sisters could be kind of funny. Not on purpose, which was both a shame and terrifying, but still funny. “Come on, we’re going to be meeting someone.”

“The new minion?” Teddy asked.

Emily wanted to protest, but that was exactly what Sam had called herself. “Yeah, we’re going to meet the new minion.”

They left the room, then made their way downstairs. Emily didn’t pause to see if Sam was still in her room or not. They had set a meeting spot the night before, and Emily had to hope that Sam was the sort to be punctual when it came to meetings and the like.

Emily had never visited the student parking area, but it wasn’t too difficult to find. A multi-story building, with most of it tucked underground and out of sight. The gate at the front had a fancy reader system that would open if a student presented their ID. Basically, it gave students a place to park without having to deal with parking on the roadsides.

Emily was the one to set the location of their meeting after Sam had revealed that she had a car, so Emily figured it was a fairly safe spot to meet. Somewhat quiet, somewhat secluded, and if things devolved into a fight, there was room to move and plenty of cover around.

She wished she didn’t have to start thinking so strategically about things as simple as morning meetings with other students.

She guided her gaggle of sisters down a flight of stairs and to the bottom level of the parking garage. It was strange going from the bright light of the early morning to a place that was nothing but grey on grey illuminated by sterile neon-white, the only splash of colour coming from the few cars that dared to be something other than white, black or grey.

“Where’re we going now?” Teddy asked.

There wasn’t much to see or do in the spot, though one of Trinity immediately moved over to a mysterious door with some warning signs screwed into it and started poking around.

“Now we wait,” Emily said. “Don’t wander too far. I don’t want any of you to get hit if a car pulls in.” She’d seen some of her fellow students driving. It was pretty obvious that they weren’t all that experienced.

She found a large pillar to lean against and pressed her head back against the cool stone. After half a minute of nothing, she glanced at her phone. She was maybe a bit too early. Sam had another five minutes to arrive before she’d be on time.

Five minutes with nothing to do while her sisters played patty-cake to one side or argued over what was cooler, Emily’s mom, or the concept of communism.

It was enough time to look into some things that she hadn’t had time to tackle in a while.

Emily focused for just a moment, then blinked her eyes open. “Status,” she muttered.

At some point yesterday she’d gained a Skill Upgrade point. As it was, the only skills she could use that on were Sisterportation--her skill that allowed her to teleport a sister to her side--or Healpats--her on-touch sister-healing skill. Neither was exceptionally useful just yet. She’d consider putting a point or two into them if her next skill wasn’t as useful.

If the pattern held, her next skill would be a utility skill, not another little sister. That was probably excellent news.

Emily glanced over to Teddy. Her first sister, and probably the one she understood the most. Which was strange, considering that Teddy was a girl that Emily had only known for a few days.

“Status, Teddy,” Emily said. She wondered if she’d need to use Teddy’s full name for the skill to work, but a screen appeared before her, hovering next to her own status page.

Teddy had also gotten a Skill Upgrade point. Was it taking down Black Shield? That... was probably the case.

“Status Athena.” Her owly sister, who was the most mature and quietest of the lot, and one that Emily secretly worried about the most. Of all her sisters, Athena had inherited the most from Emily, including some of her more negative social traits.

She hadn’t had much chance to unlock more Skill Slots. If ever Emily decided to take things more seriously, then they’d all need to work on getting more of those. They seemed to be the fastest way to grow stronger.

“Status Trinity,” Emily muttered.

Emily stared at the name of Trinity’s power. Eternal Racoon Hurricane? “What does that even mean?” she muttered.

“Heya!”

Emily swiped her hand before her, and all four panels disappeared with a blink. She stood up straighter and glanced over to the stairwell where Sam was exiting. The girl looked a little scruffy, her tightly curled hair still wet.

“Hey Boss, this the new minion?” Teddy asked.

Emily rolled her eyes. “Everyone, this is Sam, our neighbour from across the corridor. Sam, these are my little sisters. That’s Teddy, that’s Athena, and the other three are Trinity.”

“They have the same name?” Sam asked.

“Three bodies, one sister,” Trinity said from three spots at once.

Emily nodded. “She’s one person with three bodies. It’s... weird.”

“Power weirdness,” Sam said. She grinned from ear to ear. “That’s really cool.”

Trinity puffed out all of her chests. “You hear that? I’m cool!”

“I saw you eating trash before, you’re not cool,” Athena said.

“Eating trash is super cool,” Trinity said.

Emily sighed. “Trinity, don’t eat trash, it’s not... cool. If you eat trash, you’ll never be cool.”

It was hard to place the confused and conflicted expressions crossing Trinity's face. One part hopeful, one part disappointed, one part bewildered.

“Oh, this is going to be great,” Sam said.

“So, just so you know, the order of minion-ness is me, then Athena, then Trinity, then Trinity two more times, then you and other minions like Alea Iacta.”

“Wait, you have other minions?” Sam asked.

Emily hesitated, considered what to say, dismissed it, then finally settled on something that explained everything as succinctly as possible. “It’s complicated.”

***