Kevin Curry
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Psychoprotective 3.11
🕑 Added 2024-03-18 14:00:10 +0000 UTCDid Tanya anticipate having to drop two hundred dollars on reasonably fashionable clothing for an old man this morning? No. Was it money well spent, particularly as she got to have the pleasure of burning his old clothing for him? Yes. Did she have the spare money to do it? Also yes. She’s going to get that money paid back once Ford’s financial situation is resolved, but that was just the principle of the thing. The military contracts for the training APES alone have already made her a millionaire on paper, even if her liquid assets weren’t significantly greater than that of any of her coworkers.
Digging into her many pockets, she took out a small bottle. “No, this is regular talcum powder…” It was useful to have in the damp environment of the Motherlobe, she put it on her feet before putting on her boots, but the scent of talcum powder wasn’t what she needed. It was the perfume they put in baby powder specifically that called Mom. She put her hand back in the pocket, taking out the other tiny bottle of talcum powder. Twisting the cap, she sniffed at the baby powder.
Mom’s psychic presence emerged into her awareness immediately. “Hello Darling, we’re almost back. It took quite a bit of effort to convince them all to come.”
“Excellent.” Tanya replied, “We’re ready to receive them. The Psychic Six have fully assembled and will be handling matters personally.”
“...You’re being sneaky.” Mom sent along with tones of suspicion. “Do I need to warn Sasha of impending danger?”
“I mean, we’ve contained the infiltration.” Tanya sent back, “The Deluginists don’t have the manpower to disturb the procedure.”
“Tanya…” Mom said warningly.
“Yes, there is a non-zero chance of incredible danger.” Tanya admitted, “But we’re taking every precaution. Now, this is very important: Did you bring Razputin’s grandmother?”
“Yes, everyone’s here. Razputin, both of his brothers, both of his sisters, his parents, and his grandmother.” Mom sent with a hint of exasperation.
“Good, she’s Patient Zero. We’ll need her.” Tanya sent with tones of relief. “ETA?”
“Ten minutes to get parked, maybe ten more to get everyone to the Heptadome.”
“I’ll meet you on arrival.”
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“Well, you’ve certainly grown up into a fine young woman.” Augustus said as he did his best to crush Tanya’s ribs in a hug. Her passive reinforcement strained as his own rose in strength to match it, but he let go before anything cracked. “I hope Razputin hasn’t been too much trouble.”
“He’s been an obscene amount of trouble, actually.” Tanya replied icily, taking a moment to glare at the boy. “An object lesson on irresponsible psychic power use, even.”
Augustus blinked in surprise. “Really?” He glanced at his son. “...How much trouble is he in?”
“It’s nothing that wasn’t fixed promptly, and he did make some positive contributions in addition to his disasters, so it’s forgivable.” Tanya explained, calming herself down. “But it’s the kind of thing where if he was an adult, he’d be put before a judge.” She sighed, “The grim truth of the matter is that as much as we sometimes pretend otherwise, the justice system does operate under ‘no harm, no foul’.” Tort law literally runs on that, but criminal charges theoretically didn’t. “The boy’s got talent, so despite his indiscretions, he still has a bright future in the Psychonauts ahead of him. He just needs to learn.”
Augustus nodded along to her description. “That sounds like my Razputin alright. Good heart, but leaps before he looks.” He chuckled, “He gets that from me.”
“Hm, yes.” Tanya said dryly. “Now if you’ll follow me, there’s a tram to the place where we’ll be treating your psychic malady.”
“You mean the curse?” Augustus asked.
“Yes.” Tanya said, “It’s literally powered by your own belief in its existence, so when we take out the source, it’ll be an easy procedure to handle the rest of you.”
Augustus frowned as he thought about her words. “Is it really that simple?”
Tanya barked out a laugh. “I apologize if I gave you the impression that this was going to be simple. No, this will be complex and painful for…” She paused, “Actually it’ll only be painful for you and Razputin, probably. Definitely Nona.”
Augustus narrowed his eyes. “...How much of this did you know, back then?”
“I theorized how to cure you even then.” Tanya admitted, “You may recall that rebellious part of myself offering the solution to you.” Augustus nodded, “Now I know for sure that I was, in theory, correct back then, but it would not have ended well if I had attempted to put it to practice. It’s only recently that the pieces have come together-” Tanya huffed as she realized her accidental pun. “-in a way that I’m confident this can be done safely.”
“...Alright.” He said, before turning to his family, who were… stretching and doing some minor acrobatics. The plane ride wasn’t that long… “Form up! We’re going to get this curse broken!”
The Aquato family cheered and bounded towards them… except for Lucy, who shuffled along slowly. Tanya manifested a giant telekinetic hand for her to sit on, and floated the old woman down the tube to the tram.
As they went, Dion, Razputin’s fifteen-year-old brother, sat down next to Tanya, giving her what he probably thought was a roguish grin. “Hey.” He said, giving her a flirty upnod.
Tanya stared at him flatly. “Ew. No.” She said, echoing her last words to him. From his poleaxed expression, he did not expect that… at least so quickly.
Frazie, the fourteen-year-old Aquato sibling, burst out laughing at her brother’s shutdown. “I told you she was too old for you, Dion.”
“There there, Dizzy…” Razputin’s mom Donatella said, patting her oldest son on the back. Tanya snorted at the pet name. “There’s plenty of fish in the sea.” She gave Tanya an annoyed side-eye. “Politer ones. He just said hello.”
“I remind you that I’m a telepath.” Tanya said, sighing. “I knew exactly what he was thinking.” Well, ‘exactly’ was a bit of an exaggeration, as she tended to automatically tune out coherent thoughts, but her subconscious picked up the essential parts to fuel her intuition.
“Now that sounds handy.” Frazie commented.
“That sounds gross.” Mirtala, Razputin’s younger sister, said instead. “Boys are gross.”
“Ah, just you wait, pui.” Lucy said, using the Grulovian word for ‘little one’. “You’ll see the appeal eventually.”
Tanya shrugged. “There’s a balance to strike with telepathy, certainly. I had a lot of problems when I was very young from oversensitivity.” She gave a glance to Lucy. “Also Nona, not necessarily. Sometimes the attraction never comes.” Turning her attention back to Mirtala, she added: “Which is fine. No matter who you want to kiss when you grow up, even if it’s no one, like me, it’s all normal.”
“Don’t you be filling my daughter’s head with that stuff!” Donatella said, overdramatically offended, “I want grandchildren!”
“You have five children.” Tanya deadpanned, “You can afford some deviation from the norm.” Dion seemed perfectly willing, if not necessarily capable yet. He’s still young.
“Dear, calm down.” Augustus said, keeping the peace. “That’s something that we’re still years off from needing to worry about.” He gave his oldest son a stern look. “Right, Dion?”
“Definitely.” Dion said immediately, nodding emphatically. The last Aquato child, Queepie, chuckled at his older brother.
“Well, we’re here.” Tanya said, bringing the tram to a stop. “Green Needle Gulch, the place where the original Psychonauts were founded.” Razputin, despite having been here before, eagerly grinned in anticipation. “I’ll help you up, Nona.”
“Thank you.” Lucy said, taking a seat on the telekinetic hand Tanya created for her.
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Tanya gently lifted the elderly woman out of the entrance to the underground tunnel, looking at everyone. Helmut had clearly taken the lead when it came to greeting the Aquatos, having herded them into the Heptadome quickly and seating them in a set of new mats and beanbags that had been placed for them.
Mom and Dad, having gone ahead immediately on arrival, were keeping an eye out for trouble. They spared a smile, wave, and empathic projection of love for her, which she returned, but then it was back to business.
The Psychic Six, on the other hand, were staring in wonder at Lucy as Tanya set her down. “Tanya, this place… it looks… familiar.” Lucy whispered to her. “Also, who is that handsome man with my favorite flowers?” Which were yellow pansies, apparently. Wow, it’s been years since she’s gotten a memory flash from that herbaphony nugget.
“It’s an apology bouquet.” Tanya whispered back. “He’s got a lot to be sorry for, but we’re going to fix it today.”
Lucy walked up to the other members of the Psychic Seven, looking at their faces intently as she tried to remember them. “I… know you people.” She said slowly. “Your name is…” She frowned. “...Bob?”
“Actually, I’m Bob.” Bob said, “That’s Compton. Compton Boole.”
“I’m sorry, Lucy.” Ford said immediately.
Nona’s face scrunched up in pain. “No, Lucy is my sister.” She said as in on autopilot. Ah, a hypnotic compulsion.
“No, no she isn’t.” Ford said morosely. “That’s why I’m sorry.”
The Aquatos were just confused, but Augustus was deep in thought. Well, time to rip off the bandage. “Alright, enough sentimentality. We’ve got a lot to do and only…” Tanya fished her watch out of her pocket and glanced at it. “-as much time as we need to do it in.” Pausing for the few chuckles to pass, she continued. “The truth is, Augustus, your mother… is not your original mother.” She made sure to be very precise in her wording here. “Shortly after Marona Aquato nee Galochio died, her sister, Lucrecia Mux nee Galochio, was hypnotized into thinking she was her sister, and you were hypnotized into going along with it.”
The Aquatos gasped, although Mirtala just looked confused. “Why would anyone do something like that!?” Augustus demanded. “Who?”
“He did it.” Tanya said, jerking her thumb to Ford. “The reason, of course, was to hide Lucrecia so thoroughly no one could find her. He even shattered his own mind to ensure that not even he could remember things differently.” She glared at Ford, “It was overkill, of course, but I can understand his reasoning.” She shrugged, “As a nice side-effect, you got the chance to grow up without being an orphan, so keep that in mind before you try and kill him. Feel free to punch him in the face or something, he deserves it. But please wait until after matters have been settled, first.”
“How does this relate to the curse?” Frazie asked, suspicious. Lucy had walked closer and sat down on a specific beanbag, one that was probably exactly where she used to sit, given the oddly specific positioning. She was paying rapt attention.
Tanya had been thinking on how to explain this for a while, so she had the story well prepared. “Ford may not have thought his plan through completely, but he wasn’t completely reckless with it. He knew that he wouldn’t be able to maintain the mental re-write, so he had to resort to drastic action to keep her from remembering who she was. Fortunately, there was only one thing that defined Lucrecia that was not replicated by Marona in any way, and from that, he had his answer: She was a psychic. Her specialty was hydrokinesis, so to prevent her from accessing that part of herself, Ford did something that’s not often done: he made her fear water.” Well, actually, giving people temporary phobias was actually a relatively frequent tool in the grislier toolbox of a Psychonaut, but that’s a classified secret. “Unfortunately, psychics who don’t exercise their abilities… tend to use them unconsciously instead. Her fear of water combined with her hydrokinesis to create… the Curse of Galochio”
“...But the Hand of Galochio showed up at the camp. I wasn’t anywhere near Nona.” Razputin said, thinking hard.
“As I explained to your father, the curse is powered by your own belief in it.” Tanya elaborated, “You believe the Hand of Galochio is after you, so your own hydrokinesis creates it.” She looked over to Donatella. “I suspect that if the non-psychic members of the family were to go a few miles away from the psychic ones, they wouldn’t have any problem with water at all.” She paused, “Beyond the conditioned fear response.”
“Stay away from the water!” Lucy said compulsively. “Oops.” She said after a beat.
“...Maligula.” Frazie said suddenly. “You’re saying Nona was Maligula.”
Tanya nodded sadly. “The topic of that moniker is more complex than it would seem at first glance. Back then, no one knew about her condition, or how it worked. Her friends only saw their comrade act in ways they could not recognize as their friend, and knew that she was unwell. Hurt by the stress of war, of combat.”
“Nona… was a founding member of the Psychonauts?” Razputin asked, in awe.
Tanya smirked ruefully. “Razputin, if that’s your primary takeaway, you need to catch up.” She turned to Lucy. “How are you feeling, Nona?”
“I’m fi… I’m confused, and a little scared.” Lucy said, nervous. “If I’m not… me… then what happened to-”
“Marona died in the deluge, with her husband.” Ford explained, sitting down in the beanbag right next to Lucy’s.
“Your condition is much more well-understood nowadays.” Tanya continued, “So the previous treatment, as kludged together as it was, can be replaced with a much less onerous alternative.”
“...Yes, I’d like that.” Lucy said, nodding slowly. “I’ll still remember Gussy?” She asked, hopeful.
“You still spent the last twenty years with your family.” Tanya said, staring right in her eyes adamantly. “You didn’t have a choice in picking up where your sister left off, which was terrible, but the Lucy I saw in your friend’s memories was someone who loved her family. Enough to kill for them.” Anyone could say they were willing to die or kill for someone. Few had that mettle tested. “That Lucy would have taken in her nephew and raised him as her own in a heartbeat. Are you any different?”
“...No.” Lucy said firmly. “No, if Gussy had a cousin back then, if I was to take in both of them… I’d do it. Family… family is the most important thing.”
“Hold on to that.” Tanya instructed her, deathly serious. “Because my family is here too, and I’m definitely ready to kill for them, if you lose control.” To emphasize her point, she manifested her deadliest PSI blades along her fingers. Mom and Dad looked at her worriedly, but stayed out of things, turning their attention back to maintaining the perimeter.
Lucy’s expression hardened. “...Good.” She said, her expression melting as she looked at her family. “Let’s begin.” She set her shoulders and walked towards the center of the dome, where the Astralathe was waiting. For an instant, Tanya could see the bearing of General Maligula, the strength that she knew well from her time in the Empire.
“Augustus?” Tanya asked, “Would you like to come help?” His presence may act as a pacification, and he wouldn’t be in any real danger that he wouldn’t be in just from being near the place as they worked.
“Can I help?” Razputin immediately asked.
“Hehe.” Ford laughed, “Sure, kid. Let’s go.” Tanya scowled at the man. Even if it was still pretty safe, particularly if she keeps an eye on him… Ugh, she’s not the kid’s mother, she shouldn’t be the one deciding what he can’t do because she thinks he needs to be punished. She gave Augustus a pleading look.
“You’ve done this more than I have, son.” Augustus said instead. Damn it! “Go ahead and show your old man how it’s done.” Razputin beamed.
In short order, Lucy was strapped into the Astralathe, the psychic restraints turned on at full power. Each of the Psychic Six contributed psychic power into the device, with Otto taking point on the telepathic controls. A single psychoportal was placed on Lucy’s head, and Ford, Augustus, Razputin, and Tanya all projected themselves into her head.
Once more, into the breach.
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The outer layer of Lucy’s mind was the construct that Ford had created for it: a literal flea circus featuring her family, as in the fleas were wearing masks of her family members, with a giant flea wearing a Ford mask acting as the carnival barker, presenting everything.
Augustus looked around. “Yes, everything seems normal.” He said. They had arrived somewhat violently, one of the fleas dying from someone landing on them. Ironically, it was the Razputin flea.
Tanya took a closer look at all of the death-defying stunts the fleas were making. “...Yes, I recall most of these.” She says, thinking back to the week or two she spent in their company.
They had to quiet Lucy’s anxiety by running through the routines, which Razputin took as an opportunity to gather figments. “So, do we need to dismantle this?” Tanya asked, turning to Ford, “Or will that be handled by the deeper work we plan on doing?” She spread out her senses, trying to find the entrance to the deeper layer. It was well-hidden.
Ford scratched his chin. “Well, uh…”
“I can show you the secret place.” Lucy volunteered. “Come on, on the high dive.” She leapt upwards, going all the way up to the aforementioned area in a single leap.
“Well, I guess she’s been working with a flea circus.” Razputin commented, “You pick stuff up.”
Tanya took off into the air, while Augustus generated a levitation bouncy ball that he used to make a similar leap, taking three leaps to do so. Razputin snagged a telepathic tether on some stray thoughts and used them as grapples to travel upward. Ford just teleported.
“I don’t often lose races.” Tanya commented idly, “But pace yourselves, even if we’re buoyed by the rest of the Psychic Six we shouldn’t get careless.” She was still basically allergic to outside power sources, but the psychic six knew this and specifically avoided augmenting her. Otto was handling the machine, Compton was augmenting him, Helmut was augmenting Razputin, Bob was augmenting Augustus, and Cassie was augmenting Ford. If any of them needed to do anything big, they were ready to switch it up, but that was the default formation they agreed to.
“Eh, it’s fine.” Ford said, “Now, Lucy, where’s the inner chamber?”
Lucy giggled, and opened her mouth with a puerile grin. “Please refrain from bawdy jokes when there’s a ten year old around.” Tanya asked tiredly. Also, ew.
The old woman looked at Razputin, who was pouting at Tanya’s request. “Fine, be that way.” She gestured to the diving board. “It’s down there.”
Without hesitation, Tanya jumped down the board, head-first. The pool, true to the theme of ‘flea circus’ was actually just a teacup, although it was bone dry. The instant she hit the region within it, it transformed into cushioning, which she tore through and ended up in Lucy’s true mind, beneath the construct.
It was… bright, and happy, and everything was quilted. The serenity, the waves of contented happiness… Tanya wiped away some stray tears as the other members of the expedition tore through the quilted sky, falling through a seam that sealed behind them.
“Wow…” Augustus said, just as awed as she was. “I never even suspected…”
.
“Limiting your mother’s personality to have only the depth of a puddle was the largest of Ford’s crimes.” Tanya said, giving the man the side-eye again. “So you can be forgiven for falling for it.”
“I never… this wasn’t here before.” Ford mumbled.
Tanya barked out a laugh. “Did you think that she would remain as she was?” Tanya asked rhetorically. “It’s been twenty years. Even nuclear disasters can be reclaimed by nature in that amount of time.” Well, depends on the disaster, but she distinctly recalled Chernobyl being turned into a nature preserve. “It is human nature to grow and change, to adapt in the face of adversity.” She looked over at the bright fabric horizon. “I’ve never seen a happier mind.”
“Thank you.” Lucy said, wiping a tear from her eye. “Come on, we’ve got a bit of a walk ahead of us.” She leapt forward, crossing hundreds of meters in one go.
They traveled deeper into Lucy’s mind, picking up stray figments and seeing depictions of fond memories of hers rendered in needlepoint. “Hey, it’s a nugget of wisdom!” Razputin announced, pointing to a golden spool of thread with a needle sticking out of it.
“What’s that?” Lucy asked, confused. “Wait… it’s coming back to me. It’s… distilled knowledge and experience, right?”
“That’s right.” Ford said gently. “You can use that to teach someone how to sew, if you want. Either one of us can draw from it now or there’s a trick you can learn to gift it to someone.” It wasn’t strictly necessary to use a nugget of wisdom when using that form of high-bandwidth telepathy, but it allowed for a much denser packet of information to be transferred if you did.
“Tanya, you should have it.” Lucy said immediately. “Sewing is a great skill for a young lady to have. Have you practiced any since you stayed with us? I only had time to teach you the basics then.” Nuggets of wisdom were also more effective if you had a baseline of knowledge that it could build on rather than learning it from scratch. Did she know that?
“Not much.” Tanya admitted, “Once or twice a year, small things only.” It wasn’t nothing, but Mom did most of the sewing, and that was usually on sentimental items only, like her stuffed animal battalion. “I just buy new clothes if they get a big rip or something.” Bluntly, she wasn’t poor enough to wear clothes that were visibly mended, and no one in the household was skilled enough to make the mends unnoticeable, if they were large.
“Ah, what a waste.” Lucy said disapprovingly. “Take it, you’ll see how useful it can be.”
Well, she wasn’t going to say no to such a useful skill, even if it’ll likely won’t become useful until her next life. She accepted the golden spindle, and realized, as it was being absorbed, realized that referring to it as a spindle was inaccurate. “Thank you.” Tanya said sincerely. “Maybe I could make my own cosplay…” Anime conventions weren’t really a thing in America yet, but comic conventions were. She’s gone to a big one in San Diego as her comic character, but that wasn't as an attendee, but instead to speak about True Psychic Tales.
“That’s the spirit.” Lucy said, smiling toothlessly.
With that finished, they kept going. There were a few mental defenses that Lucy didn’t seem to be able to hold back, but with the level of force they brought to bear, it was easily handled. Tanya even held back, allowing Razputin to show Augustus how to fight in a mental world. They handled things quite well, although Augustus didn’t seem to quite grasp how to focus killing intent for PSI blasts.
As they progressed, Razputin kept ducking away and finding emotional baggage tags, but they found no bags. Until, of course, they got to the end.
The place reminded Tanya of a dockyard more than anything, with a massive wall of emotional baggage chained up. “Ah, here we are.” Tanya commented, looking around.
“Yep, this is where I stashed Maligula.” Ford confirmed, “I’d recognize that construct anywhere.”
“So how, exactly, is this supposed to work?” Augustus asked.
“Well, first we have to dismantle my previous work.” Ford said, “Me and Otto will be handling that. When that’s happened, the mental entity that represents the Maligula personality will be free and will, probably, attempt to take over.”
“That’s where we come in.” Tanya added. “You, me, and Razputin will engage the Maligula personality in psychic combat, keeping it busy as the Psychic Six construct the new, much better prison for Lucy’s empowered survival drive.”
“Will we be enough?” Augustus asked worriedly. “I mean… Maligula.”
“I am confident that I could handle her alone.” Tanya said confidently. “While it’s risky, I am capable of a controlled release of my own survival drive, and if you and Razputin fall, I will do so and ensure victory.”
“...But wouldn’t that mean you’d go crazy instead?” Augustus asked, immediately seeing through her.
“That would be why my parents are holding back.” Tanya admitted, “They will handle that if I’m unable to stop myself. But I should be able to do so.”
“We got this, Dad!” Razputin said boastfully.
She hopes so.
Comments
Eldar ortell
As a wise man once said: "let them fight'
Chris Larson
Ah Tanya's kill mode. Aka. The Godzilla Button. For when summoning the Kibg of the Monsters is a better option than doing nothing.
