tallyyoungblood | open post: averageness

Tally's first clue that it hadn't been a dream was that she'd woken up alone in her room.

Nowadays, she and Gideon have been sharing a room, so that Tally can protect her from ever finding a body alone again--and maybe conspicuously leave out some clothes that fit Gideon but aren't, like, ratty black pants. That day, though, she'd woken in an empty room, gasping from something that felt like a nightmare, but somehow more vivid than real life.

Without even getting dressed, she'd run for the woods to confirm what had happened. Horror had flooded her when she found the knife-mark, exactly where she remembered throwing it yesterday. It was true. She'd been Special. She'd been awful. She'd seen and felt the world with more harsh clarity than she'd ever thought possible. She'd hit Gideon.

Tally had collapsed onto the stump, gripping her own arms to make sure her familiar, average body was still there.

Over the next few days, Tally doesn't sleep well, and people getting swapped out for a second time doesn't help. People might find her wandering the mansion like a zombie, or in one of the kitchens, contemplating getting drunk. She's not as put together as usual, either, but of course on her even bedhead and sweats look beautiful.

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"Whoa!" Tally's mouth falls open. "This is totally bubbly! I thought they only made these for littlies."

Magnus grins. "I thought you might like it," he says, and then, "Okay, check this out. I didn't get this from my dad, it's one of the glow-up things I got dying." Then he leaps on top of the top of the roof on the tallest structure in a single little jump.

Tally laughs in delight. "You're like a thumb-game character with a double jump!" she calls up after him. She starts climbing the structure herself. It's almost too easy, after climbing the outside of the mansion a few times, but after a while, her muscles warm up, pushing her towards bubbliness.

"I used to jump over the enormous fence surrounding Valhalla so I could go hang in the city," Magnus admits, extending a hand when she reaches the top so he can help pull her to a stand.

"Crim," Tally says appreciatively. "They had a fence to keep you in?"

"I think technically it was to maintain the boundary between Midgard and Asgard and keep non-einherjar from a place they'd probably immediately get killed by accident?" Magnus guesses. "It's, like, two stories tall and there's no gate though."

"I'm familiar with gates that keep people safe but also keep people in," Tally notes drily. "That's, like, my world's whole thing."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah, totally. Everything is so safe in New Pretty Town that you have to work really hard to do anything bubbly. Even the fireworks are just safety flames."

"Okay," says Magnus, thoughtfully. "What's the bubbliest thing you've done?"

"Climbed a transmission tower without a bungee jacket," Tally says immediately. She has a faint memory from being a Special of jumping out of a hot air balloon into the wild and just hoping a river had enough metal to catch her hoverboard, but that wasn't really her.

"Okay, what's a bungee jacket?"

"Oh, yeah. I always forget you're such a Rusty. It's a jacket with magnets in it, so you'll hover-bounce off the city grid instead of splatting. Um, with magnetic levitation? I think Rusties had them as trains?'

Magnus turns to stare at her. "One: Hover-bounce? Two: City grid? Like, electrical? Three: magnetic levitation for people?????"

Tally grins. At long last, someone seems to appreciate the good parts of her city.

"You know how magnets repel each other? We use that to make stuff hovery. The whole city has a metal grid under it, so everything magnetic can float. Hoverstruts to hold up buildings, mag-lev elevators, and most importantly hoverboards. When you jump off a building wearing a bungee jacket, or fall off a hoverboard wearing crash bracelets, the magnetic field catches you."

"Okay, that sounds awesome."

"It is awesome! I miss hoverboarding so much, you don't even know. I don't miss falling off, though. Totally shoulder-wrenching to get caught by your wrists. Galahad-wa and I tried to make a hoverboard in the hole in the wall here and it wouldn't. Or couldn't."

"If you do manage to find one, I want a ride," Magnus says immediately.

"Obviously, Magnus-la! Ideally we could get, like, a ton of them and I could teach everyone. We'd have to build a metal hoverpaths, but I already know how, since we were making those out in the Smoke. If the lake has mineral deposits, we might be able to use that. I'm not sure how much metal is in the frame of the house, it looks totally Rusty..." Tally looks around. "Actually, we could totally board in here. The metal structures are perfect."

"Tell you what, if you find hoverboards, I"ll help you build paths outside, too," Magnus says, and tilts his head. "If you show me what one looks like, I can also keep an eye out."

"It's like a surfboard, only with lifters. Um, big magnets. Not that you can see them from the outside, but they're heavier than foam. And the surface is grippy." Tally frowns. "Do you mean a board or a path?"

"I mean I can look for boards," Magnus says. "Maybe there's a room down here with a ton of 'em!"

"Maybe," Tally agrees, looking around again. "Are there a lot of weird rooms down here? I never knew about it."

"Oh yeah, zillions," Magnus says. "There's one that opens onto the bottom of the ocean! But we can't go in there, because of the pressure."

"Then how did you get the door open without totally drowning?"

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