Chương 86: R&R2 Ch. 25 — Weight of Words

Nicholas wasn't sure what was going on, or why his girlfriend was choking, but he had bigger concerns besides the fact that he didn't know why or how something was happening. Most of them being that it is happening. He moved across the room in a flash, moving behind Jasmine before wondering if that would help. She was literally choking on her words, so how was that going to help? He needed something else. He wasn't an aerokinetic, though. He couldn't do Jasmine's breathing for her… unless he could."

Playroom" The word formed for a brief instant before he got too far and it was useless. He knew better than that; he knew the train was moving fast enough that playroom couldn't stay useful for long, and when he made a small one, just big enough for the two of them, it was a waste of time. That meant he had only one option. Nicholas pushed his power out as far as he could go. This would buy time, nothing more, but he had done enough life and earth fights that buying time at this point sounded absolutely lovely."

Playroom" A wave of power rippled out of Nicholas, going out farther than he had ever dared to try before, and the information was overwhelming. There were so many things in his range, things he wasn't supposed to know about that was for sure, and while there were things fully insulated from the ability, not everything. In another time, in another place, he would have paid more attention. Instead, his focus drilled down on Jasmine, peering inside her lungs to see if there was anything he could move out of the way.

Something was already circulating her breath. Was she breathing? Nicholas's eyes flickered open to see Eva doing what he had failed to do. Not wanting to waste the power, he brought Jasmine a chair and settled her down as Eva continued to use her mastery over wind to help Jasmine breathe.

"I thought you guys couldn't take the wind out of someone's lungs," Nicholas noted. Jasmine seemed to be coming out of her choking fit, but he couldn't truly spare his attention towards Eva. It was interesting and probably several different kinds of dangerous, but he couldn't care. Jasmine was choking on something. And there was only one answer that fit into his estimations of what could have been doing this to her.

Jasmine's first act after coming to and being able to breathe on her own was to pull both of them into a tight hug, squeezing with the full force of her strength. Enough that Nicholas had to let the last trickles of his power reinforce his body to stop something from breaking. He was already going to have bruises from it in the first place. When the hug ended, Jasmine's hand sought his own and held it tightly, so Nicholas stayed where he was on the chair.

It wasn't big enough for the both of them, though Jasmine didn't seem to mind as she took shaky breaths.

"What was that?" Nicholas asked, squeezing her hand.

"I don't know for sure," Jasmine mumbled, not meeting Eva's or Nicholas's eyes.

"But I have a guess, three guesses actually."

"Three?"

"Yeah, in order of preference, the first guess is I'm a fucking idiot, and I was choking on my own saliva like a goober." Nicholas had a bad feeling if that was the preferred option.

"Option two, someone is spying on us and made me choke when I tried to share family and or higher rank secrets, and as soon as I learned my lesson they stopped." Nicholas reassessed his feeling. This was a horrid feeling if that was what option two was. And from her body language, Nicholas had to guess option three was the one Jasmine considered the most likely for what was going on.

"Option three: my grandma encoded something in my body, or my soul, that would make me unable to share things she didn't want me to." Jasmine said in a whisper.

"How could she do that isn't the dominion over your soul absolute?" Eva asked.

"Yeah, my soul is absolute, but absolute is pretty meaningless in the face of people ranked higher than me. A soul specialist that specializes in puppeteering other souls? If they were C or B rank, they could certainly overwhelm me. And she wouldn't even need to break through my defenses." Jasmine grumbled.

"What does that mean?"

"My several-greats grandmother Darlene, better known to the rest of the world as Brynhild, made sure my body and soul were the perfect vessel. Before I was even born. It's not like I would have had my power defenses ready." Jasmine said bitterly.

"That's why I'm better than basically everyone. I'm not even the one who earned my power; it was just given to me like everything else. Guess this is just her reminding me that I'm her pawn, nothing more." Nicholas had several questions, but none of them mattered. Well, several did matter, and he would have to ask about them eventually, but what mattered the most was making sure Jasmine was okay. The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

And he didn't trust her to be alone currently.

"Hey Eva, would you want to spend the night here for a sleepover?" Nicholas asked, hoping the other girl would get the hint. Jasmine gaped at him, and Eva did the same. Thankfully for Nicholas, Eva was the one who put it together faster.

"Uh, yeah, the three of us?"

"I can't imagine you two would be comfortable with me at a sleepover, so I imagined it would just be you two," Nicholas admitted. Yes, he was forcing the situation upon both of them, but it was the only way he could think of to make sure Jasmine was near someone through the night in case something happened. Jasmine's grip tightened on his.

"You're volunteering me to have a sleepover and you're not even going to come?"

"Yes?"

"You can come too, if you're that fussed about being the guy at the sleepover. Just use power word, girl, that would solve it, right?" Jasmine said grip still tight.

"You can do that?" Eva asked for the first time since this ordeal started, turning her attention to Nicholas.

"Yes, I can do that."

"Really?" Eva repeated.

"Wait really? I thought you said you couldn't do that yet?" Jasmine said, somehow the more surprised of the two despite it being her idea.

"I've never tried it so I don't know what I look like, but your comment about having a way to disguise myself sounded good, so I was working on it between jobs and during breaks. It finished a few days ago." Nicholas said with a shrug.

"We should get out of uniform since we're not going out today," Nicholas said, not moving. It was going to slow down their progression, and mean they would be with the rest of the crowd or behind the curve, but this was more important. They weren't machines, and even if Jasmine was ready for it, that didn't mean he or Eva were.

"So you'll actually go as your girl self?"

"If you want?"

"No, the statement was if you're awkward about being the only guy at a sleepover, you could come as your girl self."

"He should come as his girl self because it'll be funny," Eva said, joining in on the bickering.

"Okay, I will, hopefully we'll have clothes that fit," Nicholas said absentmindedly. He and Eva were the same height right now. And Jasmine was taller than both of them. It was likely he would become even shorter, which would not help his clothing situation.

"It's a sleepover, we're just going to be in comfy clothes, anyway." Jasmine said, releasing Nicholas's hand and standing up so fast he had to catch himself.

"We're not starting yet," Nicholas said as he stood up.

"No, but we are getting everything ready for it. Also, how exactly does your word work? Does it change your clothes and stuff too, or just bam new gender?" Jasmine asked, taking off her armor.

"Second, it doesn't change anything else. It was to make it cheaper even if it's going to bottom me out in the first place." Nicholas explained heading back to his room.

"Really, it's more expensive than your other words?" Eva asked in disbelief. She had seen the scale Nicholas could work. She couldn't imagine something as simple as a gender swap would be that expensive for the reality warper.

"That's because it's a permanent change, not a sustained one." Nicholas explained opening the door to his room.

"Does that mean we're going to be stuck with Nikki for two weeks? Since you know you have to make the changing back word?" Jasmine asked. Nicholas didn't bother to try and figure out what that tone of voice meant beyond amusement.

"No, I made that first. I didn't want to get stuck."

"Would it work on us?"

"Yes." Jasmine and Eva exchanged looks, thinking.

"So who's Nikki?" Nicholas asked, poking his head out of his room as the question struck him.

"She's girl you, she needed a name, and it was rude to just think of her as girl you," Jasmine explained like it was obvious.

"Okay, just wanted to ask," Nicholas said, returning to his room. It would still be another hour or two before he could actually use his power to transform, but he was looking forward to getting out of his super suit. It was comfortable for a super suit, but that was as far as he was going to go with it. Now clad in a hoodie and sweatpants that he hoped, while oversized, would probably fit his smaller frame once transformed, he returned to help Jasmine with the harder parts of her armor.

While the two of them did that, Eva went first to her room to grab an overnight bag and then to the kitchen to get snacks. None of them were particularly concerned about Rend showing up; he rarely did, but even if he did pop in, they would all be in Jasmine's room anyway since she just put the bed in her soul forge so they could all suffer together on the floor.

"Are you two just going to sit there staring at me until I transform?" Nicholas asked, watching the other two.

"Yes."

"I mean, I've never seen you do a permanent transformation, so I'm definitely curious." Eva said unhelpfully. Nicholas rolled his eyes.

"It's emotional support besides it's not like you know how to be a girl so we're here to help you." Jasmine said, holding onto what looked to be a hoodie dress. He didn't even know why Jasmine had one of those; it wasn't like she had ever worn it. Though she was a hoarder.

"So what's the hoodie dress for?" Nicholas asked.

"In case none of what you're wearing fits you." Jasmine nodded.

"Eva and I decided it would look the cutest on you."

"You guys don't even know what I will look like?" Nicholas said, standing up. He would have enough power to do it soon so it was time to put his money where his mouth was. He wasn't paranoid about it, just apprehensive. He had done the card in such a way that it would probably solve any potential problems for dysphoria. So that wasn't a concern, but still this was something he had never fathomed before. And it was for something ridiculous, like a sleepover. His gaze flickered to Jasmine.

She was smiling even though their bond told him that wasn't everything going on. It wasn't a stupid reason. At all." Girl" It was a word he was pretty sure would be useless at anything besides this, so he hadn't felt bad about making it into a command at all. After the other two were done fussing over him, Nikki was clad in the hoodie dress since she hadn't been able to hold the sweatpants up and they were doing her hair.

He wasn't sure why, but apparently part of the command had made Nikki's hair long, long enough that he suspected that his alternate self had never had her hair cut once.

"So why am I going to be in the middle for the sleepover?" Nikki asked, hoping she could avoid the makeup and nails plan the other two had talked about. There wasn't a chance, but hope sprang eternal.

"That's so you can still participate silently as Eva and I talk instead of hiding on the side," Jasmine explained, putting another ribbon in Nikki's hair. Where she had gotten it from, she didn't know.

"Did you get all of this stuff that isn't your style and wouldn't fit you just so you could play dress up with me?" Nikki asked. The hoodie dress was still oversized, but not so much so that it would fit Jasmine.

"Yes." Nikki was in for a long night.