Fluff

Chapter Sixty-Three - Triple Threat

Emily woke up to something heavy and warm pressing down against her side. Then she felt something breathing near her back.

Blinking, she stretched her head up and looked down through bleary eyes to see two bodies taking up what little room there was left on her bed. Teddy was sprawled out, one leg over Emily's, the other folded over the side of the bed. Her elbow was digging into Emily’s stomach and her head was pressed back into the nook between Emily’s shoulder and neck.

A turn to the side revealed Athena rolled up in the fetal position and hugging Emily’s free arm close.

She sighed. This kind of behaviour wasn’t appropriate.

It was kind of comfortable though, and warm. She shifted until Teddy’s elbow moved off of her, then, ever so slowly, she sank back into a dreamless sleep.

When she woke up again, it was to daylight slipping in through the one window in her room. Groaning, Emily tried to move, but at some point the girls had turned around and were now clinging onto her from both sides.

She stared at the ceiling for a bit. The last day had been... a lot.

Threatening someone, running after Alea Iacta, the whole thing with Handshake.

Today was, decidedly, going to be an ordinary day. She had classes in the afternoon, and maybe she’d take some time to text her mom. She hadn’t in a couple of days and she knew how her mother could worry.

There was one big advantage to everything though.

A new skill slot. Essentially, a new free skill. An upgrade to what she had. If things followed a set pattern, there was a chance that the new skill would mean another sister, another person to care for.

Teddy growled in her sleep and buried her face deeper into Emily’s side.

Maybe a third sister wouldn’t be that bad, Emily reasoned.

Do you wish to spend a Skill Slot Point on the Power: Sister Summoning?

Emily stared at the prompt for a long time. She would have to use it eventually, and by many a measure, sooner was better than later.

There was... a feeling of safety that came from her sisters. It wasn’t something literal, she knew, more...

They trusted her? They believed in her fully and entirely. No one had ever done that before.

Sure, her mother cared, and her dad would give her a pat on the back and tell her to try her best, but their words never quite matched their actions. They were always watching and weary, in case something went wrong.

And she couldn’t blame them. A lot had gone wrong. She was physically and socially clumsy at the best of times. There wasn’t much she had done that hadn’t flopped the moment she had to talk.

People, the complexity of conversation, kind of terrified her.

She was better now. A little more confident. Enough to try and live on her own a bit, to try the college life.

That had been how high she’d raised her bar.

With her power? With her sisters?

Maybe it was just the stress talking, or maybe it was the constant little victories but she felt... better. More assured of herself. She didn’t like some of it, but... Emily smiled up to the ceiling.

Another sister would be nice.

“Yes.”

New Skill Unlocked! Triple Threat!

Just as she suspected. Every-other skill was related to creating a new sister. That was handy to know. Maybe the pattern would change later, but that wasn’t a concern for the moment.

Emily wondered if she should wait. She was wearing the same clothes as the day before, was tucked under some blankets with two limpets resting on her, and she probably had terrible bed-hair.

It wasn’t the greatest first impression to make.

But then, her other sisters didn’t seem to care at all.

“Create Sister,” Emily entoned.

She was feeling excited as a burst of light heralded the appearance of a third sister.

The excitement turned to confusion as a second burst of light appeared next to the first.

The remains of the excitement ran into a brick wall at terminal velocity when a third burst appeared.

Three girls faded into view.

No, Emily realized. Not three girls, but one girl three times over.

They were shorter than Teddy, and just a hair taller than Athena, with grey hoodies and jeans over plain black sneakers. The little rounded ears atop their heads bore some resemblance to Teddy’s, but the large poofy tail behind them, grey and covered in dark rings, were entirely different.

The girls all blinked as one, locked eyes on the bed, then smiled bright and goofy, showing off little fangs that poked out from the rest of their teeth. “Cuddle pile!” they screamed as they launched into the air.

“Wait!” Emily said, but they were already at the apex of their jump.

Three small, fortunately light, bodies crashed onto Emily and the girls. There was a disproportionate number of elbows and knees swinging around for a moment.

Athena woke up with a protesting hoot and Teddy growled and started kicking out.

Somehow, after a few moments of confused scrambling, the chaos settled.

Emily found herself with two arms wrapped around her neck and a new face hovering right before her. “Hi!” the girl said.

“Uh,” Emily replied. “Hey?”

Another head popped into Emily’s line of sight, with ears twitching and big eyes blinking fast. “Hi!” the second head said.

“Hi?”

“You already said hi,” the first girl said.

“I... did?”

She felt the air being pressed out of her lungs as the third girl climbed onto the back of the one atop her and peaked over her sibling’s shoulder. “Yeah! You did.”

Emily was about to ask that they get off her when Teddy roared and jumped to her feet right on the edge of the bed. “You guys are waking me up!” she said. “Get off!”

Then the bed shifted and Teddy started to fall, but not before grabbing onto one of the new sisters and pulling her down with her to crash onto the mattress on the floor with a heavy ‘omph.’

Emily scrambled to look over the side, which made the girl hugging her squeak and roll off onto Athena. “Are you okay?” she asked the pile of limbs on the ground that was partially Teddy, partially one of the new girls.

“I’m fine,” Teddy grumbled.

“Yep! I’m good!”

Emily sat on the edge of her bed, rubbed her eyes, then sighed. “Okay. We’re all awake now I guess. Can... can you line up? Please?”

“Me?” the girl still clinging to Emily asked.

“Yes please,“ Emily said. “We need to, uh, figure things out.”

Like how she was going to house three more sisters. Or how she’d feed them. Or buy clothes for all three.

Emily’s heart sank.

Looking back up, she noticed that all three of the new sisters were standing in a rough row, shoulder to shoulder and all wearing identical grins. “Okay,” Emily said. She shifted to the side of her bed and sat on the edge.

Athena came to sit beside her and rested her head against Emily’s shoulder while rubbing her eyes, and Teddy turned over and used Emily’s legs as a backrest.

Emily took a deep breath. “Okay,” she repeated. “Um. I’m Emily. This is Teddy, and this is Athena.”

“Hi!” all three girls said at the same time. “I don’t got a name yet.”

“Right,” Emily said. “We’ll have to find three names for you.” Maybe some sort of thematic name? She couldn’t go calling them One, Two and Three.

The girls blinked, then shook their heads. “Nope, there’s only one of me.”

“Huh?”

“Yeah!” The middle one said. “That’s me,” she said pointing to the girl next to her. “And that’s also me.” She pointed on the other side.

“You’re clones?” Emily asked.

“Nope! I just got three bodies.”

“But... there’s three of you.”

“Yeah. Three of me.”

Emily tried to wrap her head around that, but there weren’t enough digits on the clock for thinking that hard. “Okay? So... do you like... know what you’re thinking?”

“I always know what I’m thinking. It ain’t usually much.”

“No, I mean, what the other... you are thinking.”

“But there's only one me.”

Emily gestured at the three girls before her. “But you have three bodies.”

They nodded. “That’s right,” came the chorus.

Emily stared for a moment, then let herself flop back down. “I haven’t slept enough for this.”

“Cuddle pile!” Came three cheers before Emily was swamped. Then Teddy and Athena started fighting for room atop her too.

She had the impression it would be a long day.

***