Fluff

Epilogue

Emily’s classes had gone well enough. She was still in the early phases of the school year where half the lessons were simplified to the point of near-absurdity. She found her mind wandering a lot more than it once had, but in her defence, she had more things to wonder about.

Trinity was... a lot.

She had a little less than two thousand dollars from Handshake, and another thousand owed to her. That was... not nearly enough money to do anything as what was essentially the single mother of five.

When buying clothes for herself, even with her rather conservative tastes, she could rack up a two hundred dollar bill with no issue. Food for herself probably cost about ten to twenty dollars a week if she indulged mostly in ramen noodles and cheap meals.

If she took all that, and multiplied it by six to count herself and her sisters, that was... a significant amount of money.

She could maybe cut some corners here and there. Maybe find a part-time job. Those were popular for students... she hoped.

Class ended and she wasn’t sure she had absorbed even half the lesson. More reason to find time to study later.

Emily had about as many friends now as she did when she started the school year, and twice as many reasons not to speak to anyone. So she rushed back to her dorm. She’d need to feed her sisters, threaten them into taking their showers, then do some homework and maybe study ahead. She needed to call Alea Iacta too.

And then she opened the door to her room.

On her desk was an empty jar of peanut-butter, next to a shiny silver toaster marred by peanut-butter-y fingerprints. A bread bag was left on the floor, seemingly licked clean of crumbs.

The suspects to that particular crime were all conveniently piled up on her bed, with exposed tummies and arms and legs poking out every which way.

“What the heck?” Emily asked quite reasonably.

Trinity... one of Trinity at least, popped up over the others and grinned. “Hello Best Sister!” she cheered. “Do you want to join?” Another Trinity wiggled over to the side, exposing a more or less Emily-sized space on the bed.

“No,” Emily said. “No, I don’t think I do.” She closed the door. “Where did the toaster come from?”

“Found it,” Trinity said.

Emily made a note never to let them talk to a police officer. “And where did you find it?” Emily asked.

Another Trinity rubbed at her eyes. “Downstairs?”

“You stole the communal toaster?” Emily asked.

“It was just there,” Trinity defended herself. “The bread and butter too. It’s ours now.”

Emily forgot some of her troubles for a moment, mostly because she had much bigger ones to deal with. “Alright, everyone off the bed,” she said.

There was a lot of grumbling at that.

Emily pointed to one of the dirty Trinitys, then to the bathroom. “In the shower.”

“Shower!” the girl said before running over. Emily was expecting a bit more trouble there, but she could live with not having to fight over that.

“Right. Teddy, you remember when I showed you the washing machines?”

Teddy slumped. “I don’t want to clean stuff, it’s boring.”

Emily pointed to her bedsheets, currently stained with what she dearly, dearly hoped was only peanut butter. “Then you should have said something before eating on my bed. You’re the oldest here.”

Teddy grumbled, but she started pulling the sheets off.

“Athena, go wash up, then help Teddy,” Emily said. She turned to the remaining Trinitys. “You two, pick up all of this mess.”

“Aww,” she said in stereo.

Emily glared, then noticed that the toaster was missing. “Where is the toaster?” she asked, quite sensibly.

That’s when a loud sparking snap sounded from the bathroom and the lights flicked out.

“Oh no,” Trinity said. “I died.”

“You what?” Emily asked. The room was quite a bit darker now, but not so much that she couldn’t see the confused look on both of Trinity’s faces. A form started to glow next to Trinity, and another body, dressed the same as the other two, appeared. “What?” Emily asked again.

Did she have four Trinity’s now?

“I died,” All three said. “Mister Toaster didn’t like the water.”

Emily walked over to the bathroom, threw the door open, and took in the room at a glance. The shower was still running, water splashing down onto the smoking form of a very shiny, very soapy toaster. “What?” Emily repeated. She almost absently shut the faucet.

“It’s okay,” the Trinitys said. “I can’t die while I’m still alive.”

Emily was developing something of a headache.

“Does this mean I don’t need to do the laundry?” Teddy asked.

Someone knocked at the door.

Taking a deep breath to cool down, Emily stomped over and opened the door just a crack. She came face-to-face with Sam, the girl from one room over. “Yes?” she asked.

“Yo! Power’s out for you too huh?”

“Yeah,” Emily said. “Do you, uh, know what happened?”

Sam shrugged. “Someone tried to charge too many toys at once? I dunno. I’ll take the stairs down a level. There are a bunch of dudes there that would love to show how manly they are by resetting the breaker.”

“Do you know how?” Emily asked.

“Yeah, I’m not an idiot. But I’m not crawling through this place’s basement with no lights either. I’ll let some bonehead do it for a smile and a wink.” She looked past Emily. “You alright? You look frazzled.”

“I’m... perfectly alright,” Emily lied.

“Right... well, stay safe and all that.”

“Yeah, thanks,” Emily said. She closed the door and turned to stare at five entirely unabashed girls. She couldn’t even find it in her to chew them out. “Nevermind the laundry,” she began. Teddy cheered. “For now. At least until the power returns.” Teddy pouted. “We... need to figure things out for Trinity, and... yeah.”

“Oh!” Trinity said. “My power is that there’s always three of me. So when I die I get to live again. I don’t have to do laundry or anything, I just need to die and I’ll have clean clothes again.”

Emily didn’t know where to begin with that. She decided not to.

“You know what? I’m fine with that. Does it always spawn a new you... near you?”

“It’s not a new me, it’s just more of me,” Trinity said. “I think I get a bit more dumb when there’s less of me. Maybe. It’s really hard to tell.” All three of her held their chins. “Should I die two more times so that I don’t have to shower?” She frowned. “But I like showers.”

Emily considered the value of suicide as a way to avoid having to take a shower, then nixed that plan. “No, no please don’t do that. In fact, try not to die?” She didn’t expect to have to add ‘no dying’ to the house rules, but there she was.

The power came back on, the lights switching on with a snap. “Aw, dang it,” Teddy said. She grumbled and started picking up the blankets again.

Emily eyed Trinity up and down. “Do you know what all of you sees?”

Trinity blinked all six eyes. “Yeah?”

“Even when another you isn’t around?”

“But all mes are me.”

“Right,” Emily said. “So, can one of you go with Teddy and Athena, just to keep an eye on things, and another... part of you can stay here and tell me if there’s trouble?”

“I can do that!” Trinity cheered. “Can we hug while we do that?”

“How about one of you showers while the other you stays with me, then you switch.”

“Whoa, I’ll be doing three fun things at once!”

Emily was worried.

Someone knocked at the door.

Sighing, Emily walked over and opened it a crack. “Yes Sam?” she asked.

The person on the other side wasn’t Sam. It was a woman, a few inches shorter than Emily, and a couple of decades older. A woman that bore more than just a passing resemblance to Emily herself.

Emily slammed the door shut.

“Emily? Sweetie?” her mom asked from the other side. “Um... if you’re really busy I can come back? Give you time to clean up or... sweetie, are you with a boy? I hope you’re wearing protection.”

“Who’s that?” Teddy asked.

Athena dropped her load of laundry onto the ground. “Should I get my jacket on and look tough?”

“Is it a friend?” All three of Trinity asked.

Her mom knocked again. “Sweetie? I’m sorry, but I did call. You haven’t been answering your phone.”

Emily closed her eyes and, as she hadn’t done in a while, wished the floor would just swallow her up whole. She didn’t have much of a choice. Still, that didn’t mean she couldn’t think things through at least a little bit.

Opening the door up a crack, she looked at her mom. “Mom. Give me two minutes.”

“Sweetie?” her mom asked.

“I’m naked.”

Her mom looked at her very much clothed shoulder. “Okay?”

Emily nodded and closed the door. Then she turned. “Alright. Teddy, keep the talk about communism to a minimum. My mom’s a boomer, they don’t do politics well. Athena, no scaring my mom. Trinity... Only one hug at a time, alright?”

She received five nods. That was about the best she could expect.

“And be polite. My mom is... actually, she’s pretty nice, I’m sure you’ll like her. But no...” She wiggled her hand. “Crazy stuff.”

“That’s easy,” Teddy said.

“I’ve never done a crazy thing yet,” Trinity said.

Athena just shrugged. “I’m the sane one here, you probably don’t need to worry about me.”

“Right,” Emily said. She spun around, took a deep breath, then opened the door.

Her mom was still there, standing in the corridor and looking a bit lost. Emily reached out, grabbed her mom’s hand, and pulled her in before closing the door. “Emily?” her mom asked.

Emily wrapped her arms around her mom and tucked her head into the nock of her shoulder. It was nice. Warm, and it smelled like her mom’s shampoo. She felt a bit of the stress keeping her back tense washing off.

“It’s good to see you, sweetie,” Her mom said as she dropped her purse and returned the hug. “But who are all these girls?”

The tension returned.

“Mom, we need to talk.”

“I can imagine,” her mom said as she broke up the hug. “You need to tell me how you’ve been? How are classes? Did you make any friends? Why do you have five children in your room? That last one especially.”

“Right, right. You might want to sit down for this,” Emily said.

Her mom placed a hand on her hip and raised an eyebrow. “I might not be a spring chicken, but I can still take a surprise or two.”

Emily licked her lips. “Right,” she repeated again. “Like ripping a band-aid then. I’m... a superhero. More or less.”

“Pardon?”

Emily interlaced her fingers over her stomach and focused on the ground. They really needed to pass a vacuum. “You remember Power Day, uh, about a week ago?”

“Yes?” her mom said. She was starting to sound concerned.

“Well, I got a power. I can make, um, little sisters for myself. Sorta.” Emily gestured to the girls who were all smiling. “These are my summons? I can’t unsummon them or anything. They all have their own powers too.”

“Can I sit on the bed?” her mom asked. “Or would you rather I use that chair?”

Teddy raced over to Emily’s chair, then rolled it over so that her mom could plop herself down on it. “There you go, uh...” Teddy turned to Emily. “Hey, Boss, what do we call the old lady?”

“Anything but old lady, you dumb bear,” Athena said. She yanked Teddy back and stepped up to Emily’s mom to bow. “Hello, grandsister.”

“Emily, you know how I always wanted to have grandkids one day?” Emily’s mom said. “I was expecting maybe one. Two at most. This is considerably more than that.”

“It’s okay,” Trinity said. “You can count all three of me as one.”

Emily rubbed her face. “So, I should probably introduce everyone. Mom, this is Teddy. She can turn into a bear. She won’t demonstrate that here because it’s against the rules.”

“I’m real soft,” Teddy said. “Way more soft than any of the others when I’m a bear. I bet you’d like petting me just as much as the Boss does.”

“The Boss?”

“That’s Big Sister Emily’s hero-slash-villain name,” Athena said.

“Villain?” her mother asked.

“Don’t worry Best Mom,” Trinity said. “We wouldn’t villain you.”

“Emily?” Her mother looked at her. The smile she wore was a bit brittle on the edges, and she looked like Emily did when shoved into any sort of social situation.

Teddy, of course, noticed that too. “Hey Boss, does your mom need to poop?”

“No Teddy, my mom doesn’t need to poop,” Emily said. She pat Teddy’s head absently, if only to give her hands something to do. “Okay, mom, where do you want me to start?”

“I think that maybe you should start from the top?”

Emily nodded. She could do that.

“So, it all started on my first day here...”

***

The END!