Kevin Curry
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Psychoprotective chapter 2.21
🕑 Added 2023-10-16 14:00:07 +0000 UTCExtra long Book 2 finale! Just a bunch of fluffy scenes and one more that sets up Book 3.
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“I love you, Tanya.”
“I love you too, Visha.” Tanya said, giving her a kiss on the forehead. She giggled as Visha returned the love enthusiastically. She reached out for the one thing that could save her from Visha’s affection. “Get the ball!” She said as she threw the tennis ball.
“BALL!” Visha shouted with a bark, running after it with as much enthusiasm as her short legs could manage.
Zoolinguism was an amazing psychic power, in Tanya’s opinion. One of the best around, really. Not many could claim to be able to know, without a doubt, that their pet understood how much they were loved.
Visha returned with the tennis ball in her mouth, the Shiba Inu puppy panting with the exertion. “Ball!” She exclaimed, her mouth being full no obstacle to the telepathic method of communication. Well, she was still technically a puppy, but in another month or two she’d grow that last two or three inches, so she was almost grown.
Tanya took the ball from Visha’s mouth and threw it again. “Go get it!” She ordered. The dog zoomed off happily, barking in joy.
“Hi Tanya!” Lili said as she approached, her own dog Mephisto attached to a leash she was holding. He was a German Shepherd that flunked out of K9 training for being too friendly.
“Hi Tanya.” Mephisto said as he sniffed Tanya’s hair, updating himself on her scent. “No drugs, this is good. Drugs are bad.” Mephisto started licking Tanya’s face.
“Hello, Lili.” Tanya said, but sputtered as Mephisto’s tongue slipped into her mouth for an instant. “Pft, ptuie. Hello Mephisto.”
“Hey!” Visha said indignantly. She dropped her tennis ball into Tanya’s lap and shoved Mephisto aside, who genially oversold the impact and flopped on his side, and started licking off Mephisto’s slobber from Tanya’s face. “I love you, Tanya.”
Tanya giggled at the repetition, but kept her lips shut as she projected her reply: “I love you too, Visha.”
Lili unhooked Mephisto’s leash and gestured to the surrounding park ground. “We’re here! Go nuts!” On cue, both dogs got on their feet and bolted, barking at each other as they played. Looking at Tanya with determination on her face, she sat on the other side of the chess board that Tanya had set up, making a move.
Tanya negligently moved one of her pieces telekinetically, paying more attention to the dogs than her opponent. She split off an archetype to engage Lili, as the eight year old had improved enough to require actual effort to beat. The girl was learning, but Tanya played a lot of chess at Officer’s school and War College both.
Visha and Mephisto started running towards them, so Tanya brought up the tennis ball and gave it a telekinetic flick. Mephisto fell over in his attempts to turn around, while the lighter and smaller Visha retrieved the ball before he could get back up to speed.
After a few iterations of ball throwing, Visha slumped at Tanya’s feet, panting. “Too hot…” Visha whined. Mephisto wasn’t quite as exhausted, but he was panting heavily after the exertion. Tanya applied some light cryokinesis to help the overheated dogs, which caused Visha to spring up with even more energy. “Ball! Throw the ball!” Visha declared. One more telekinetic flick and Visha shot off like a bullet.
Mephisto, on the other hand, laid his hand down in Lili’s lap for ear scratches. Lili looked over the board as she tended to the dog in her lap, contemplative. “Wait… ah ha!” She declared before making her move. “Check.”
“Check.” Tanya said, capturing the offending piece.
Panicked, Lili made one of the only two moves she could make. “Check.” Tanya said, immediately replying to the move. Lili moved again, the only move she could make. “Check.” Tanya repeated, driving her King into a corner. Lili made her only move one last time. “Checkmate.” Tanya said, finally having shut the trap. She could have said ‘Mate in three’ earlier, but Lili always wanted to play it out.
“Damn it.” Lili said. Tanya had no idea where she picked up her swearing habit from. “Again?”
“You have to think further ahead, Lili.” Tanya said as she set the board back up, this time with her as white. “Putting someone in check is no good if you overextend.” Despite Mrs. Zanotto’s hopes, Lili was rather untalented in the kind of thinking chess required, although she did have the stubbornness required to improve, so while she would never become a notable chess player, perhaps in time she could learn enough to impress someone down the line who thought that chess was a good way to determine someone’s intelligence.
Eventually, Visha was too exhausted to do anything but lay down, even after being cooled off and rehydrated. Tanya put Visha in her backpack, the small dog easily fitting inside with only her head sticking out, which she used to look around at anything and everything. “That’s enough chess for today, Lili.” Tanya said, standing up with the doggie backpack.
“Yeah, okay.” Lili said, disappointed in her performance. She looked at Mephisto. “Did you have fun?”
“Yes.” Mephisto said, his tail wagging. “I’m hungry. Had fun. Food time.”
“Yes, food time.” Visha said, agreeing with a soft bark. “I love food.”
Lili attached Mephisto’s leash to his collar. “Okay, let’s go get some grub then.”
“I love you, Tanya.” Visha said as Tanya strapped her into the flying car’s passenger seat.
“I love you too.” Tanya replied.
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“Well Tanya, this is the moment of truth.” Otto said, safety goggles on behind the blast shield. “It’s taken a year, but let’s see if your design pans out.”
Tanya nodded, her own barrier shimmering on her skin. “Beginning test.” Tanya said, activating the psitanium device.
The hopper filled with psitanium ground up into fine sand (the fine grain psitanium grinder was a worthy achievement all its own, really) trembled as it fed the device, and after two minutes of operation, a single psitanium crystal was ejected from the device. Two minutes later, a second one came out. After two more minutes, a third.
“Well I’ll be…” Otto said in wonder. “Psitanium shaping psitanium, I was beginning to think it impossible.”
After six total crystals were ejected, Tanya stopped the device. She picked the crystals off of the small conveyor belt that led to nothing. She waved the crystal in front of the scanner, and after a second, the device lit up with a green light. “The false thinkerprint is recognized.” Tanya said with a grin. She chose to make the ID card equivalent for her first automated device because of how simple they were, it was only as complicated as a seventy-three digit number in a base 28 numbering system, after all, and it was only that complicated because Otto lacked restraint. For thoroughness, she tested all six crystals, and they all worked. She then tested them on the second scanner, and smiled as they failed.
“Okay, now to test the modularity.” Otto said, ejecting part of the ID manufacturing machine and inserting an identical-looking alternate part. After another run of six, Tanya tested those. They failed, as expected, but Tanya then brought them to the second scanner and they were approved.
“Complete success.” Tanya declared.
“You’ve finally done it, Tanya.” Otto said approvingly. “This will save us so much time on labor costs.”
“And every single machine that shapes psitanium will use my patent.” Tanya said, rubbing her hands together as she imagined the money she’ll be making.
“Unless they figure out another way to do it, but I don’t think that will be an issue.” Otto pointed out. “Now, let’s keep it running overnight, see if anything goes wrong.” He put his hand to his temple, and after a moment a young man entered the testing chamber.
“Yes, Dr. Mentalis?” Asked the college student. He had a backpack full of textbooks.
“Roy, I believe you expressed interest in doing a little unpleasant side job for me for money?” Otto asked him. “Overnight, but with time for you to study?”
“Yes sir, Dr. Mentalis.” Roy said.
“The job’s actually for me.” Tanya said, “It’s quite simple: You stay in here while this machine does its thing. Every half hour, you put more sand in the hopper. If it breaks, record when it breaks. After each refill, you test the crystals the machine made by waving it in front of both of these scanners. You will do this all night, until I come back at nine in the morning.” This was in fourteen hours.
Roy seemed iffy. “I don’t know…” He said.
“I will pay you three hundred dollars to do this.” Tanya said, before adding: “ You will have full access to Otto’s personal coffee machine, and I’ll order you a large pizza before I go.” She reached into her pocket and flashed the cash, three one hundred dollar bills.
“Deal.” Roy said immediately, reaching out for the money.
Tanya pulled it out of his reach. “Tomorrow.” She said, “You can have one now, but I will be taking it back if you do not follow instructions, and there are cameras watching the machine, so I will know.” She put one of the hundred dollar bills behind his pocket protector. “Now, I’ll run you through what you need to do once more, now that you’re paying attention.”
“Right, right.” Roy said, energized from the thought of that money.
After thoroughly instructing the temp worker, Tanya set the machine to go and turned the egg timer to thirty minutes. “Remember, every thirty minutes, more sand from the bin, scan the outputs, write down the results, and don’t forget to reset the timer.” She placed the set of forms she had printed out to make this as simple as possible down on his desk.
“Yeah, yeah.” Roy said, already setting out his textbooks for the studying he will be doing.
“Right. Otto? As I mentioned before, you’re invited to dinner. Are you coming?” Tanya asked.
“Oh, definitely. I don’t get much home cooking, as you know.” Otto replied, patting his stomach. “Your mother’s pasta casserole is simply to die for.”
“No one knows that better than me, Otto.” Tanya joked as they left the testing chamber.
Otto laughed.
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“As you can see, General, the simulation is as realistic as it can be.” Tanya said from the passenger seat of the car as the old military man went around the racetrack, an uncharacteristic grin on his face. “While the current state of the technology has issues, most notably the fact that I can only program a simulation of a vehicle I understand thoroughly, my work with the Psychonauts has surely proven my trustworthiness vis a vis classified information.”
General Ross laughed as they crossed the finish line, the pre-programmed cheers, applause, and fireworks exploding as he slowed down to a stop. “Yeah, if Zanotto vouches for you, I’m sure it’s fine.” He said, “Never thought I’d get to be inside a mind like this.”
“The simulation aspect of the technology has been ready for over a year.” Tanya replied, “But it is only recently that it has been refined enough to allow non-psychics use of the technology. It is ready for military use, as while the systems are expensive, they are cheap in comparison to your advanced hardware, so you won’t need to tie up your planes to train pilots, and you could emulate hostile weather, or anti-aircraft fire, all kinds of possible scenarios.” She unbuckled her seatbelt and got out of the car, where the General was awarded a trophy, confetti scattering in celebration.
“Laying on it a little thick, don’t you think?” He said, chuckling at the announcer declaring his victory at the Daytona 500.
Tanya shrugged. “It’s all to demonstrate the versatility of the simulation.” She snapped her fingers, and it all faded away, leaving the default grid-covered cube environment. With another snap of her fingers, the jumpsuit that the General was wearing was replaced with his usual uniform. I have also programmed a flight simulator with an outdated model of aircraft. Are you a fan of the Sturmvogel? It’s the first operational jet-powered fighter.” It was also, oddly enough, the latest model of aircraft the Empire used before she died. Shugel designed it, and she had the pleasure of getting to pilot the prototype during her very last two-week leave, just a few months before her death. It was a fond memory, the last time she got to see General Rudersdorf in the flesh.
Of course, few Generals weren’t gigantic military otaku, so he nodded. “That’s the Messerschmitt Me 262, isn’t it? The fighter-comber configuration?”
“So you do know it.” Tanya replied with a smile. “I was given access to a museum piece that I used to base the simulation on. If you want accuracy in the physics engine, I need to know every piece and their function. I can black box stuff if I must, but that will introduce inaccuracies that will compromise the simulation’s quality.”
“Let’s have a fly, then!” General Ross said, smiling like a kid.
“Of course.” Tanya replied, snapping her fingers while mentally commanding the simulation to retrieve and execute the relevant files. Immediately, the world around her grew to an immense size, as the one-seat nature of the simulation relegated her to a tiny avatar seated on the dashboard, which she had decided to use to turn herself into a golden-furred cat instead of the default ‘her, but cat-sized’.
“Okay-”
“Woah, talking cat.” The General said in surprise.
Tanya mewed in amusement. “This is a one-seat plane, General. Of course I wouldn’t be nyat full size.”
“But why a cat?” General Ross asked.
“Why nyot?” Tanya replied. After a moment, the General couldn’t find a response, so he just started looking at the controls. “Nyow I need to walk you through the controls. First, the gauges. This is the altimeter…”
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“Food?” Visha asked, perking up from her position cuddled up with Tanya. “Tanya, food time. I’m hungry.” Why did she teach Visha to read the clock?
Tanya yawned as she rose up from her bed. Now that the number of psychics within range of her sleep dropped from ‘about five hundred’ to ‘seven’, she had gotten a proper queen-size bed, although her psychoisolation bed was still in her room, it was just a display case for her small stuffed animal collection now, easily made usable if she needed it. This way, she could cuddle her dog during the night. Visha didn’t like the psychoisolation bed.
It was Saturday, so after checking her flower’s moisture levels, Tanya walked downstairs in her pajamas. She didn't have anything scheduled for today, a rarity, so today was for being lazy… unless something Mr. Rodriguez couldn’t handle came up with the military’s APES devices, they were using them today. Then she’d need to fly over… although she supposed she could project to her subordinate’s mind instead and perform any fix remotely… she’ll try it if it comes up.
Visha jumped around Tanya’s legs, excited for breakfast. Tanya telekinetically opened up the dog food bin and scooped out a proper serving, and the dog cheered and started eating enthusiastically. Her water bowl was fine, as it was fed by a two gallon tank which she refilled yesterday.
“Good morning, Tanya!” Dad said, reading the newspaper while sipping at his coffee. He was reading the news section, and passed Tanya the financials. Her infant little brother, named Eric, was in his highchair, suckling on a bottle that was supported telekinetically by Dad.
“Morning Dad, Mom.” Tanya replied as she sat at her seat and waited for breakfast. While she didn’t really consider the stock market as something she could win at, despite being a time traveler, she paid close attention to commodities, as she needed to stay on top of anything that could impact psitanium prices. To a lesser extent, she needed to pay attention to a few other things that were relevant to her business, but psitanium was the big thing. Nothing today, but no news is good news in this case.
Mom was really excited this morning, but it wasn't until she turned around with a heaping pile of pancakes decorated with cream cheese frosting and cinnamon that Tanya realized what day it was. "Happy Birthday, Tanya!"
Oh right, she is eighteen now. Legally an adult, although it was easy to forget that she wasn't until now. It also meant she's officially lasted longer in this life than the last one, although that isn't exactly much of an accomplishment. Still, Tanya smiled widely and started digging into the delicious cinnamon pancakes. She mentally erased the question marks she had in her mental day planner and replaced them with ‘whatever Mom has planned’.
Smirking, Dad asked: “So when would you be moving out, then?” He projected humor, making it clear that it was just a joke.
Not bothering to use her voice, Tanya replied seriously anyway. “If I thought for a second I’d have to, I could get another Motherlobe on-base apartment within the week. Instead, I’ll leave somewhere around the time I stop working for the Psychonauts and move out of town to handle my company full time.” Mystery was nice and all, but she likes the idea of owning a nice penthouse in a big city… Although more realistically, she’d need to live somewhere near her factories, when she expands operations beyond the one she has set up nearby to supply the Motherlobe and the Psychonauts as a whole with bulk psitanium gadgets, as well as the military contract fulfillment. Competing with the Motherlobe for the supply of psychic technicians and engineers was not exactly a logistically efficient move.
“You’ll always have a home here, even then.” Mom insisted.
“That’s years down the line, though.” Tanya added, “Access to the Motherlobe’s laboratories is still a job perk that I simply cannot do without, even with the military contract providing funding.” Theoretically, she could afford to recreate most of the facilities, particularly if that DoD research grant she applied for was granted to develop usable multiplayer for squad based simulations, but Otto as a collaborator was just as valuable of a resource, and she helped him with enough of his own inventions without credit that he was willing to leave her inventions alone, patent-wise, even if that trade was uneven in her favor.
Mary finally shuffled into the picture, the twelve year old also dressed only in her sleeping clothes, which was a frilly pink gown, in contrast to Tanya's animal themed footed sleeper with a hood (the tabby cat one this time). Mom placed a more ordinary stack of pancakes in front of her. "Morning…" she mumbled as she blearily started eating. She did not quietly enjoy the food, humming in pleasure at the first bite.
"Good Morning, Mary." All three of them said, although not at once and with varying levels of informality.
After serving Dad his own plate and settling down with her own food, Mom beamed. "Now Tanya, your party will be held in Green Needle Gulch, Bob and Helmut have agreed to host. It starts at two. We can do whatever you want until then."
Mary had woken up fully, scoffing. "You know she just wants to do nothing and get pampered." She said, before chuckling. "Kind of like a cat." She teased, referencing Tanya's pajamas.
Tanya flushed at the accusation, but could not bring herself to deny it. There was so rarely a day that she felt she could freely waste instead of spending to keep up her development of her business or technology, her habit of filling her schedule to the brim doing her no favors, she usually only took a day off every three weeks. It was rarer still she could synchronize that idleness with Mom, so those days tended to end up the same way: with them cuddled up on the couch watching movies on tape. Good times.
"Tanya works very hard for her goals, Mary. Fourteen hour days are not an easy pace." She could handle it, though. She only worked that hard four days a week, she only worked eight hours on Fridays and on most weekends that she didn't have anything family oriented planned. There's nothing wrong with wanting to take it easy on her days off." Mom said, offended on Tanya's behalf. "If she wants to get extra special treatment on her birthday, I'm happy to do it."
With that, Mary rolled her eyes and, her breakfast eaten, moved to her room so she could watch her cartoons on her own television.
When the actual party came around, Tanya was relaxed and ready to sincerely greet everyone who showed up with a smile of her face, wearing her normal casual outfit of cargo shorts and a T shirt with a thin jacket.
"Parson, it's nice that you could make it. Did the tunnels give you trouble?" Tanya asked. She had streamlined the previously ponderous tram, but it was still the most distant destination in the network.
The overweight boy, now employed as a professional GM in Boston, still ran a weekly game that Tanya participated in (she insisted on paying his normal rates) on Fridays, but most of the other players had moved on, replaced by people over there. The commute wasn't that bad via flying car. "Nah, the traffic on the way here was worse." He scratched Visha's ears, the fluffy dog happily accepting it while wiggling in Tanya's arms. "So this is Visha?"
"You give good scratches, soft man." Visha replied, although Parson couldn't understand her.
"Yes, she is the best girl." Tanya replied, giving the dog a kiss when Parson moved his hand away.
The guest list wasn't that large; the Psychic Six sans Ford, Lili and her family, Parson and the other three members of their RPG group that he brought with him, college students at Tanya's nominal alma mater. She had some coworkers and subordinates at both her jobs she would have invited, but they threw her a small celebration yesterday in the first case and it would be inappropriate in the second.
The party was also relatively modest, there was food, karaoke, and some board games, but it was mostly just hanging out in the newly redecorated Heptadome while enjoying the games and singing, both good and bad.
“Don’t pull your love out on, honey,” Bob and Helmut sang. Bob had truly improved. “Take my heart, my soul, my money, but don’t leave me drowning in my tears!” Bob Zanotto was supposed to be fifty-seven years old, but when she had met him in person for the first time, two years ago, he had looked more like seventy, bald with a thick white beard, hunched over so much he had lost a whole foot of height.
Bob sang alone this time, his part of the duet. “You say you’re going to leave, gonna take that big white bird, gonna fly right out of here, without a single word… “ With proper medical care, clean clothes, and the vigor of a man in love, Bob now looked ten years younger than he was rather than fifteen years older. He was still bald, but he wore a toupee. “But you know you'll break my heart, When I watch you close that door, 'Cause I know I won't see you anymore!”
Helmut joined back in as the chorus started. “Don't pull your love out on me, baby, If you do then I think that maybe, I'll just lay me down and cry for a hundred years!” Helmut looked even younger than Bob, due to the preservative effects of the ice. There was some degenerative side-effects that made it imperfect, most notably the fact that Helmut’s hair now grows completely white, but he dyes it so the man still looked no older than forty. ”Don't pull your love out on me, honey, take my heart, my soul, my money, but don't leave me drownin' in my tears!”
Eventually, it came time for the presents. Mary went first. “Here you are. I think you need it.” She said seriously. “Badly.”
Tanya already knew what it was, so she pinched the bridge of her nose as the pun sunk in. “Another animal for my zodiac collection, thank you Mary.” She said drolly without opening the gift. Mary had, every year, given her a stuffed animal denoting the current zodiac year. 1981 was the year of the rooster. When did her little sister get such a filthy mind? At least she’ll be prepared for high school.
Each of the Psychic Six gave some thoughtful gifts: Cassie gave a large satchel of her homemade honey candies, Compton had baked the cake (it was a very nice cake) as his gift, Otto had given her his latest invention, a table with telekinesis projectors that you could program to do… anything. Fold clothes, cut vegetables, give massages… pretty much anything that could be done with telekinesis within one meter of the table’s surface. It was a bit of a niche product, but she definitely fell into that niche. The real gift was the paperwork signing over the patent to her, though, which Otto telepathically informed her was concealed in the user manual. It wasn’t going to be an in demand product until she cracks the electric/psychic gap so it could be programmed with computer software, but what little income that did come from it was now hers.
As she did for the other members of the Psychic Six, Tanya hugged Otto in thanks. “This is probably the best gift.” She sent to him secretly, “I’ll probably integrate it into the APES to help tend to the body during use. And nothing else.”
“That’s the idea.” Otto replied, “Before you say more, Cassie’s already explained to me why calling it a ‘personal massager’ was a bad idea. I’m sorry.”
Tanya flushed. She didn’t want it to be pointed out… “Moving on.” She said out loud, causing some of the adults to chuckle. The next gift was a large jar of pickled daikon from Bob, and a small collection of audio cassettes along with a recently invented portable music player to play them.
“I put only the best music on those tapes.” Helmut boasted. “Half the tapes are stuff I know you like, but the other half are stuff I think you’ll like.”
“That’s very thoughtful Helmut, thank you.” Tanya said, giving the big man a telekinesis-assisted hug.
Parson and the group each chipped in and got her a set of fancy ivory dice as well as a custom miniature of her character, Lucina the Witch, on her signature flying broom. Mom’s gift was a letter from Hollis approving a vacation, along with permission to use the jet to fly to Japan to take it, along with a few brochures on things to do there.
But the true winner of ‘best gift’ award was definitely Dad. “What is it?” Tanya asked as she looked through the thick stack of paperwork.
“It is every single document required to transition all of those legal responsibilities that we had to sign as your legal guardians into your own name alone.” Dad replied, “Merely sign them and I’ll file it all with the appropriate parties. Your financial accounts, your company, even your employment in the Psychonauts.”
Tanya grinned widely, giving him a rib-straining hug as the other guests goodnaturedly complained about the ‘boring’ gift. She liked boring. “This saves me so much time, thank you!”
After the party, as they went home, Dad asked a question: “How did you celebrate your eighteenth birthday before?”
Tanya chuckled. “I didn’t make it that far in the Empire, but in Japan… My father took me to a massage parlor. There’s a loophole in the laws banning prostitution, you see…” She paused. “That’s not important. What is important is that this party was better than that celebration by a mile.” That was a very shameful memory, at the time, for multiple reasons. Now it was just somewhat amusing, now that she understands herself better.
There was a peaceful, companiable silence, which was eventually broken by Mary’s startled realization: “Wait, you were a boy!?”
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Razputin’s writing had naturally improved in the years since they started exchanging letters.
Tanya,
True Psychic Tales 491 was so cool! The Groomer hypnotizing people into thinking they’re dogs was so evil! I know you don’t do most of the stuff in the comics, but was that one really you? They put Visha in the recovery scene…
About Nona: She’s still fine, nothing new. She says hello, and thank you for asking about her. Mom and Dad and everyone are also fine.
About TPT 489: Yeah, that makes sense. It’s a really cool table though, even if it’s so complicated. We spent a whole dinner talking about what we’d use it for if we had one, it was fun coming up with ideas.
Oh, some weird guy gave me this brochure for the Psychonauts Whispering Rock Summer Camp. Do you know anything about it? We’re actually coming up pretty close to the Canadian border in two weeks, and the brochure says it’s in three, it’d be pretty close. Dad said it was too expensive, though. Can you get me a discount?
Your Friend,
Razputin
Tanya smiled as she penned her reply, idly petting Visha in her lap as she wrote. Razputin was always so precocious, and here he is, using his connections to advance his future in his chosen career field. She’s so proud of him.
Razputin,
About TPT 491: I was involved in rehabilitating the victims, as zoolinguism is rare enough that there was a need for all available hands to deal with it. Visha was, as always, the best dog one can ask for.
About Nona: It is good to hear that she is well. New England has a large incidence of psitanium deposits, and it can exacerbate senility in the psychically sensitive, even if one isn’t a full psychic. I noticed the symptoms of psychic sensitivity during our time together. Spend some extra time with her, if you can. If she seems confused, be gentle with her.
About TPT 489: I’m glad my little toy was able to provoke so many positive thoughts. I have quite a few programs on my Teletable, but the one I use most often is probably the clothes folding one.
Tanya paused as she wrote that blatant lie. Well, it was the one she was most willing to admit to using frequently. Really, even more common than the seven different massage settings was her setting it to Visha grooming mode and leaving it on like that, allowing Visha to jump onto it and get petted and scratched when she was left home alone.
About Whispering Rock: I can easily get you a spot. There’s always room for a last minute addition, and I’d have heard by now if that had happened, my parents are involved in the administration of the camp. As for the discount… Well, if I can’t get a free spot for you when I check tomorrow, I’ll just pay for it myself. Enclosed is a note for your father explaining this along with some sundry details, and if you can’t arrange for your own transportation, I’m already taking my little sister there, I can swing by and pick you up on the way.
It was more accurate to say that she was driving Mary and Mom there, with Dad taking his own non-flying car ahead of time, but Tanya had adjusted the backseat to fit three harnesses when Eric was born, so he’ll fit.
Visha spoke up out of the blue. “I love you, Tanya.” She moved out of Tanya’s lap and trotted off to the bathroom. Zoolinguism also made teaching dogs complicated tricks like using a toilet quite easy.
“I love you too, Visha.” Tanya absentmindedly replied.
Your Friend,
Tanya.
P.S. Remember, the key to successfully using the psychic arts in any way involves intent, imagination, and most importantly: Will. While each psychic power has its own eccentricities on how to make it manifest, the common thread is that you know what you want to do, you know that you can do it, and then you must do it. Not want to do it, you do it. You are the one making it happen, not anything else.
Yeah, that’s enough. She sealed the letter and floated out of the window for a moment to place it in the mailbox. She could theoretically do it without looking, but it was simply easier to poke her head over the roof to get line of sight.
Still, she wondered: How much trouble could Razputin get up to at Camp Whispering Rock? She felt safe in assuming that at least he probably won’t get the camp canceled like she did.
How bad could it be?
Comments
Chris Larson
"...how did the it turn out worse?"
Eldar ortell
Yess!!!!!! I'm so excited to se Razputin again
