Amongst the Addershines

Hey folks. How's going?

I hope everyone's having a good October. Over here, we're continuing our spooky month with another spooky story - Mad science is still pretty spooky, right? Uh. Well, if not, we'll see what we can do next week to make up for it. And there's a treat prepared for the end of the month, do look forward to that...

But for now, please enjoy this tale of Adventure, and specifically, of a thief investigating a familiar character you may or may not recognize, from my Adventurers In Peril series...!

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Leyan drew her hood down lower to mask her face as she slipped into the alley. The streets of the port city were quiet at this time of night, most of the day faring races either asleep in their beds or drinking themselves into a stupor at their taverns, but it always paid to be cautious in this line of business.

Piercing white glowing eyes peered out from beneath her brim as she scanned her surroundings. She’d been told to look for a black door – but then, any door would have been black down here. This part of the city was bathed in the smoke of the Engineer’s Guild every evening, and there wasn’t a scrap of it that didn’t bear their mark in some way. ‘The price of progress’, people liked to say. Sounded like they were trying to justify it to themselves to her.

No door. It must be deeper in. The ghostwalker sighed, peering over her shoulder one last time, before pushing ahead.

Steam erupted from vents as she passed, smog already clouding the path through the maze of soot scorched bricks and copper pipes. Thankfully, the cloth mask she wore over her mouth and nose kept the worst of the brittle, burnt stench from her senses. It was easy to tell why this alleyway didn’t have any loiterers.

There. Around a particularly large collection of funnels and spouts, the door emerged from the gloom. She stepped up and knocked, firm and loud. Stealth was one thing, standing out here for a second longer than she had to was quite another.

There was a fumbling clack, muffled by the thickness of the wood, and then the door pulled open, a ruby red eye peering around the crack at a surprisingly low height. “What?”

Okay, she’d rehearsed this… “Selene Darril,” she gave the false name smoothly. “I’ve brought the crystals you sent for.”

A silver eyebrow rose, and the red eye narrowed suspiciously. “Yer taller than the usual delivery gal…”

“She’s busy tonight.” Spending the twenty gold pieces Leyan had bribed her with, no doubt. “I’m who they sent instead. If you’ve got a problem with it, I’ll just take these…” She jostled a fat pouch on her belt, letting the tinkling sound of null crystals ring through the air. “… Back to the boss.”

“Tch. Fine, fine.” The door finally creaked open, soot raining down off its shaking frame. “Come on then. Quickly, ‘fore someone sees ya.”

The ghostwalker stepped inside, holding her cloak in tight around her as she squeezed through the narrow doorframe. As she did, she finally got a good look at the woman who’d let her in. Amanda Addershine, no mistake. The gnomish inventor had gathered quite a bit of infamy for herself recently, having gone from being one of the most respected engineers on the continent, to being one of the highest bounties on the Most Wanted list in the Adventurer’s Guild when her crimes were discovered. This lady was worth far more than her weight in gold.

Silver hair, ruby red eyes, and almost as tall as a grown human’s middle, her face matched all of the wanted posters. Strange thing, though - none of the descriptions had mentioned the gnome’s curvy figure. Leyan was surprised – it was easily the most noticeable thing about her. This lady’s tits must have been a good third of her mass or something…

“What?” The rogue inventor glared up at her. “Ain’tcha never seen a gnome before?”

Oops, staring too hard. Better cover. “I am waiting for you to offer payment,” she grunted, staring down at the woman with unblinking eyes. Given all the smoke in the air, they started stinging pretty quickly, but the effect was impressive.

“Ah.” The gnome squinted at her for a moment, before backing down. “Right. That.” She started scrambling in her pockets, digging through a small jungle of pouches and bags on her belt.

Hah. Tall, dark, and silent – they fell for it every time. Leyan was playing into stereotype, she knew. One she wasn’t fond of, at that, but what could you do. Ghostwalkers were well known for being silent, sombre types – and while she found most of her people to be absolute bores and prided herself on being quite different, that reputation could be helpful in awkward moments.

So, while Addershine busied herself, she looked around, took in her surroundings. The room they were standing in was barebones – metal walls, grated floor, stairs leading down from the far wall. There was a coat rack to the left – filled with more garments than she’d expected. Were there other people here in the inventor’s lair? Interesting.

“Here.” The gnome finally shoved a decent-sized pouch of gold at her. “Take it, gimme my goods, and get. Ah’ve got work to be getting’ back tah.”

“Of course.” She nodded, handing over her own pouch, while sliding the gold away. “And if you require more…”

“Yeah, I’ll send word,” the gnome muttered. “Now get goin’ already. Ah got work waitin’ downstairs.”

Leyan nodded, allowing herself to be ‘guided’ out. She stepped back out onto the street, and listened as the door clicked shut behind her. Then she counted to twenty, before pressing her ear back to the wood, listening closely. No sound on the other side. Perfect.

Her target was confirmed, and she had an exact idea of how much space she had to work with. More than enough. Taking a breath, she shut out the world around her, and then stepped into another.

Ghostwalkers were a mysterious race, even to their own people. Their origins had been long lost to time. Not even the elves claimed to know exactly where they had come from (though naturally, they claimed to know more than anyone else). By proportion, they were close to humans (and elves and orcs, as well as countless others, but human was generally the safest comparison), save for the sixth finger on each hand. Physically, the main differences were those of colouration. A ghostwalker’s skin tended towards the dark end of the spectrum – pitch black, like Leyan, or perhaps purple, deep red, and occasionally a threatening green. Their eyes lacked irises and pupils, instead opting for pure glowing light – Leyan’s were white, though those were rare, and usually you got golds or reds. And their hair tended towards more metallic shades – brittle pink, hearty bronze, sleek silver, or, as with Leyan, a coppery cyan.

That was just the physical stuff, however. Mystically, they had a few tricks that most other races lacked. True to their name, Ghostwalkers had limited ability to walk between the realms of the living and the dead. It expressed itself differently for each man or woman, of course, but the touch of the other side was always there, throughout their lives.

Some used this gift to become speakers for those who no longer had voice – to convey last wishes, or settle last businesses. Some used it to become crusaders, journeying far and wide across the realms to set restless spirits to rest. Others just ignored it, and conducted their lives like normal people, save for the occasional annoyed glance at something that other races couldn’t see.

Leyan found all of these things boring. No, worse than that: Her people were looking a perfectly good gift horse in the mouth. She had a much better use for her connection to the silent world – it was a useful way to get to places where she wasn’t supposed to be.

Most of her people avoided actually setting foot in the other realm – it was a dangerous place, filled with all manner of dark beasts and creatures that hungered for an unprotected soul – but she had a light step, and considered herself a trend breaker in more ways than one. Because, as it turned out, taking one step in the other realm and then slipping back to the world of the living…

… Was often just enough to take you to the other side of, say, a locked door.

The world turned dark for a moment, colours inverted, the soot blackened alleyway turning a seared white. Leyan heard the hiss of something, some dark beast likely sensing her intrusion into its territory. But before it could rend her spirit from soul, she stepped forwards, and let the world of the living swim back in.

Once again, she was stood inside the metal room. Easy. Why did people bother locking their doors at all?

Well, getting in was easy. Now came the interesting part – sneaking about without getting caught. But Leyan wasn’t too worried about that. Stepping through walls was just the start of her sneaking skills. And besides, her target couldn’t be that difficult. She’d only been on the run for a month or two – no time to set up a proper lair. No matter how clever Amanda Addershine was, she was only one gnome.

Granted, for she had a very high bounty on her head for ‘only one gnome’. That amount of money would grab anyone’s attention. Leyan however, wanted more. The money alone wouldn’t settle things this time. This one was personal.

A friend of hers – well, two friends, but one was much closer than the other – had disappeared, and only one name had come up when she’d investigated: Addershine. Apparently, the pair had been instrumental in revealing the gnome’s crimes to the world, and the silver haired inventor had clearly wanted revenge – and quite likely had taken it.

The story went that Elora and Tanya – her friends(Ish) - had tangled with the woman a little while ago, and that it had ended up with them in a rather awkward position that had required some rather intensive magic to solve (Leyan couldn’t wait to ask what that had been about) but in the process, they’d caused Addershine’s schemes to fall apart. Sounded about right for those two.

Strangely, though, both of them had disappeared not long after. The last she’d heard, the two Adventurers had been recovered and restored to their former selves – only for them to go missing from the clinic they were resting in the very next day, along with one of the nurses who had been tending to them. What had happened and who had taken them were complete mysteries – but the second one seemed pretty easy to solve to the ghostwalker.

Now, Leyan was a good Scout, her official job for the Adventurer’s Guild – but she was an amazing Thief. One of the best, if she did say so herself. And while she generally only stole for sport, her choice of careers had left her with one hell of an individualistic streak - Which meant she wasn’t satisfied with just catching Addershine. No, she needed to know what had happened to her friends, and if possible, retrieve them herself.

It’d be nice to have Elora owe her a favour for once, after all.

So instead of reporting her find to the nearest Guild Hall once she’d managed to track the gnome down… Leyan crept down the stairs, and snuck deeper into the mechanical lair.

And it was a mechanical lair, she was surprised to discover. The steps were metal grates, the walls were metal sheets, the lights were flickering and spluttering electric wires, all covered by the smell of solder and sparks, carried by the occasional wave of unseasonable heat. Definitely more advanced than the blue-haired scout had expected. Was this some sort of back-up base she’d prepared ahead of time? But no one had ever heard of Addershine visiting this port before…

Hm. Her speculation was set aside as she drew close to a junction, and heard voices coming from up ahead. Or, was it just the one voice, arguing with itself?

Brow furrowing, she pressed her back to the wall and peered around the corner. There was Addershine, grumbling to herself as she leafed through the bag of crystals she’d purchased as she walked into some kind of engineering lab… And there was Addershine, arguing with someone as she worked on some strange mechanical project on the table in the centre of the lab… And there, arguing with her, was Addershine, mixing something in a flask, when she wasn’t taking time off to wave a gloved finger at her counterpart.

The hells?

“Oi! Shut yer traps, ladies,” the Addershine that Leyan had followed growled as she dropped the crystal bag on the table, pulling over a ledger. “I’m tryin’ to work here…”

“Oh, good, A, you’re back just in time t’help me explain to E here how dumb she’s bein’.” The one with the flask ignored the complaint, instead opting to drag her into the argument as well. “She never listens to me.”

The first Addershine (A?) groaned. “Just can’t get good help these days. Fine, what’s she done now?”

The flask Addershine snorted. “She still talkin’ about how she’s the original one here.”

“Ha!” That got A laughing. “Her? Original? I’ve seen more original art forgers than her.”

“Bah, shows what you know.” ‘E’ finally spoke up as she finished adjusting… Whatever she was adjusting. Leyan didn’t know scrap about machines. “I’ll have you know that E. Addershine is as original as they come – and you both better remember it. You owe me that much.”

“Oh come off it.” The flask one was laughing now too. “You still wake up thinking you’re throwing fireballs and enchantments around. No way you’re the original.”

“Psh, what’s a dream got to do with this, T?” E waved a dismissive wrench. “Everyone dreams! Ain’t no proof in that. If anything, having such vivid dreams proves I’m the real genius here. My dreams are big and flashy – not like yours.”

“And what’s that supposed to mean?” Flask – T! – glared as A shook her head.

“Well we all hear you mumbling at night.” E crowed. “What’s it you’re playing at, smacking bandits around with your pointy stick? Think you’re a swordsmaiden now, do ye?”

“That was just some bad cheese before bed,” T grumbled. “I’m T. Addershine, genius inventor, that’s all. Always have been, always will be. That’s why I know I’m the original.”

“Oh now don’t you start,” ‘A’ finally jumped back in. “We get enough of this nonsense from her.” She nudged her head towards E, who stuck her tongue out. “Be done with it. You both know I’m the real Addershine around here.”

The other two rolled their eyes at each other. “Sure you are, A. That’s why you’re on door duty, ain’t it?”

The gnome’s eyes narrowed. “Now first off-!”

Leyan had heard enough. She drew back into the darkness, frowning. What on earth was going on here? Who were these short stacked women?

All three of them were identical. Same faces. Same hair. Same builds. Same curves. There’d been nothing in the gnome’s file about her being a triplet, had there? Leyan had always prided herself on her eye for detail, and she was pretty damn sure this wasn’t just her being unconsciously racist – those gnomes were complete copies of one another!

So which one was the real one?

She had to admit, as far as ways to hide from bounty hunters went, this was a good one. Mimics? Body doubles? Animated mirror copies? Oh, no, not that last one, then the copies would have everything reversed. The other two were definite possibilities though. She needed to work this out, though. She wasn’t going to get the answers she wanted unless she found the real Addershine – and at this rate, even finding these three might not get her the bounty if there were others out there.

She leaned out again, trying to listen in as the argument seemed to be dying down.

Addershine A was closing her ledger now. “Honestly. Why is good help so impossible to find? Just lay off the arguing and get back to work!”

One of the others – she’d lost track of which – snorted. “Well we wouldn’t be arguin’ if someone hadn’t broken the lock on the safe in the office. Then we could just look up which one’s which.”

“Eh. It was a cheap lock.” A shrugged. “’Sides, we all know who the original is really.”

The trio looked at one another, and then nodded, smirking. Each of them clearly thinking something very different from their fellows. What a nest of smug vipers…

Leyan shook her head. Putting aside these women and their unpleasantness, they had said something that caught her attention. A safe? Now they were speaking her language. No ‘broken lock’ was going to keep her out. And the secret of what the hell was going on here was hidden within? How could she resist?

It wasn’t like there was anything in here to stop her. Despite how well equipped this lab seemed to be, it was clear that the Addershines weren’t prepared for a Thief of her level of skill. The sensors that had been set up to detect intruder activity were laughably easy to avoid, and the locks on the doors took barely a brush of her picks. It wasn’t long before she’d located the office and snuck inside.

It wasn’t the most impressive office she’d ever seen, either. A half empty filing cabinet… A handful of documents were scattered over the main desk… Some notices about bills for components… Oh, cute, she had her wanted poster stuck up on the wall….

None of it was important. But the safe hidden under the desk? That was more promising.

Like the gnomes had said, the lock was clearly broken, the tumbler handle somehow melted in place – had someone tried to weld their way in? Well, no matter. Her usual methods of deciphering the code weren’t going to work, but she had a few other options. Explosives, for one, but hopefully it wouldn’t come to that. The hinges on that safe door looked pretty thin…

And indeed, they fell apart after a single swipe from her whiteblade, a knife she had honed sharp enough to ward off creatures from the other realm. The safe still required a little jostling, but soon enough it was open, and the papers within were hers.

They… didn’t make a lot of sense, to be honest. A lot of the writing here was algebraic equations and engineering notations, stuff she didn’t get at all. But there was plenty here written in plain common – she just didn’t understand any of that, either.

Here, the first paper she found – there was the image of a blonde paladin drawn on it with surprisingly competent artistic skill.

‘Tanya, Human Paladin – holy magic may prove difficult. Expect resistance to the process. Make sure to search her for holy items before starting conversion.’ Then, further down the page, there was another note added in casual handwriting. ‘Addendum – process proceeded with no difficulties.’

The next paper was what she was really looking for – but it still told her almost nothing!

‘Elora, Elf Sorceress – no issues anticipated.’ And, following that short note, ‘Addendum – Process completed as expected’.

Addershine had been involved in their disappearance, like she thought, but… Hold on, there was more here.

Leyan frowned as she began to leaf through the papers. There were dozens of profiles here. Not just Elora and Tanya, but a lot of different women, each detailed with information about their race, abilities, and measurements, along with a quick sketch. Golyek, an orcish pirate captain – the notes made special mention of her possessing a boat that could be useful – Avara, an elven Huntress, some random named Anya… The files just went on and on…

“Who are all these people?” The ghostwalker couldn’t help but mutter.

Her blood ran cold as she got an answer from an all too familiar voice. “I’ll introduce you if you like.”

And before she could turn around, something pressed into the small of her back, and a bolt of electric energy blasted down her spine. Everything went dark as the papers scattered out of her hands…

-

“Who is she?”

“The hell am I supposed to know?”

“Knew I shoulda checked you locked the door…”

“Just process her and get back to work!”

Words spun through Leyan’s ears as awareness ebbed and flowed, all echoing in the same voice. Darkness churned around her, hissing with the presence of other-realm beasts that always drew near in her sleep. A jumbled, half-congealed nightmare flickering through her skull.

Unfortunately, the dizzy, groggy sensation didn’t pass when her eyes snapped open – if anything, it just got worse as her vision swayed. But wakefulness had come, and she didn’t have time to whine about a headache. Not now she remembered why she was unconscious in the first place.

Where was she? She was standing up, her back pressed against a cool glass wall – and she could tell it was cool glass because she was naked. Oh, great. That was a great thing to add to all of this. She tried to lift her head, only to bang her head on the ceiling. She tried to move her arms, only to bump them into the wall. This room she was in was narrow – just barely big enough to contain her. Really more of a box than anything.

Ugh, she really had been captured. Unbelievable. Leaving your back to the door, Leyan? Rookie mistake. She was supposed to be better than this, damnit.

But this was no time for grumbling at herself. She needed to escape. What was this box? The walls were made of opaque glass with a weird yellow tint. There was light, kind of. Low and glowing, just enough to see by. The floor and ceiling were made of metal – cold metal, her bare feet informed her. Nothing she recognised, nothing she could use.

Okay then. Direct force it was!

She slammed her fists against the walls, but didn’t leave even a small dent. They were stronger than they looked, and she didn’t have enough room in here to draw her arms back enough to throw a real punch. Her kicks didn’t do any better, and she couldn’t squeeze around herself enough to get proper leverage for anything more. All she ended up doing was stubbing her toe.

Tch. Fine. That was it. She was ghostwalking out of here – or she would be, as soon as her head stopped spinning long enough to focus. The gentle brush of the other realm was still there. Once her head stopped spinning, she could- Huh?

There was a hiss from over her head. Not the hiss of an otherworldly creature looking to sup on her soul, no, Leyan knew that sound well enough. This was a mechanical hiss, accompanied by a distant rumble that was drawing closer by the- Gah!

Some kind of fluid suddenly sprayed down from a nozzle in the ceiling, pouring down the walls and rinsing over her. It was too thick, too heavy to be water, and despite herself she soon learned that it tasted of sugared ash. The spluttering fit that soon followed that discovery came with a horrific thought.

Were they going to drown her?

Her struggles redoubled in strength, her attempts to smash out through the walls growing weaker as this fluid, this slime slowed her swings even further. She wasn’t going to break out of here, not in time – or, you know, realistically, not even if she had all the time in the world. So…

Focus, focus. She needed to escape. Hold breath. Focus on the other realm…

But the longer Leyan tried to reach for the other side, the further away it seemed to get. And as the oil rose up over her head, panic grew more and more distracting. Her lungs burned for air, her vision danced with spots. But she almost… almost…!

The touch of the other realm slipped through her fingers and vanished, and in the shock of its sudden absence, she couldn’t stop herself from taking a breath.

To her surprise, the burning ceased, and she gulped in a series of gasps. This stuff was breathable? Maybe there was a water(ish) breathing spell on this chamber or something? She’d heard of enchantments like that, though she tended to work with spellcasters who were a little more into explosions than delicate weaves…

But okay! She wasn’t about to die. Maybe. That was nice. Now she could- what was that sound?

A rumble started somewhere beneath her, and seemed to travel right through her, the fluid quivering around her as her spine shook. Something new was happening. Something warm…

Heat. Heat was rising up around her, the fluid she was trapped in starting to bubble. Now what? What was this stupid box?!? And why did it feel like it was getting tighter in here? Wait, had the walls always been this close?

A stream of bubbles streamed out of her mouth as she found her surroundings quite literally closing in on her. The ceiling pushed her lower, the sides preventing her from ducking or bending down, and pressure build quickly. She could feel herself being squeezed from every angle. Heat was building up in her skin, and soaking in deeper, pushed further into her core. Her arms and legs felt strangely soft…

Had it stopped? The roof didn’t seem to be getting any closer. And yet the pressure only seemed to be growing, pressing down on her. It was almost relaxing, being wrapped in this warm, fluid embrace. Tingles spread through her, a strange mix of heat and weird electric current zapping down her nerves. Her eyelids drifted to half-mast, a foggy haze overtaking her mind as she drifted in the fluid chamber…

Then there was a click, and the pressure released. The fluid bubbled, and then rushed away, draining out through hidden vents in the floor, leaving her coughing and spluttering in its absence. Even the ceiling pulled back, rising up to its full height – or, actually, to a considerably higher height, actually. Like, twice as high as before?

Weird, but not what she wanted to focus on right now. She felt funny. Or, more specifically, her body felt… different. Heavier? No, that wasn’t quite the word, but… Off-balance, maybe? She looked down.

And then screamed.

“What the hell!?!” Even her voice sounded wrong, squeaky and higher pitched than normal, but that was completely ignored in favour of horror as she looked down at herself, and saw someone completely different.

Her skin was supposed to be midnight black, and yet now it looked barely tanned! And, and it was so soft looking now! How had one soak in some stupid mystery ash liquid drained her so thoroughly?

But there was more. It wasn’t just the colour of her body that had changed, but also the shape. She still had the standard humanoid figure, but her were shorter, maybe half their original size So were her legs, from what she could see. Wait – wait, had she gotten shorter? Was that why the roof was so high above her now?

But of course, it was almost impossible to see her legs properly, because between her and them were the most gigantic set of breasts she’d ever seen, at least twice the size of her head, pressing against the wall of the chamber in front of her. And beneath them, she could feel her ass pressing against the cooling glass behind her. All of the grace, the athletic speed and skill she had spent decades honing, was gone.

As she gaped at her lost, a strand of hair drooped down her brow, still slick with oil, and glistening silver. With a sinking feeling of dread, she grasped it, and then pulled more locks around to examine – but they were all the same. The fluid, whatever it had been, had bleached her hair as well. Instead of her normal blue, each lock was silvery white.

What had they done to her?! She looked like…

She looked like Addershine…!

Ugh. She needed out of her. Leyan took a breath and focused. Her head was clear. Ghostwalk. Now.

But nothing happened. The familiar feel of the other world was totally gone. She couldn’t reach it. And she couldn’t escape through it either.

There was a click from above – and before she could look up, something dropped on her head. Some kind of helmet, judging by the way it fit over her ears, and clicked around her chin. She reached up, trying to yank it off – she didn’t want this machine doing anything else to her! – but it was on tight.

In front of her eyes, light flickered to life. She squinted, realising for the first time that her vision had changed too – she could no longer detect the glow of her own eyes. What had-?

Flash!

Her vision filled with pure white light, and Leyan found her racing thoughts suddenly crashing to a halt, the tracks they’d been running on suddenly stopping dead. She found herself staring forwards blankly, her jaw hanging slack for almost ten seconds, before she shook herself out of her stupor.

This was bad. Leyan had never had a problem with bright lights before, but the sudden whiteness hit her right between the eyes and sent her reeling. She needed to get this thing off her head before-

Flash!

…

She… She… What…?

The Thief came back to herself slower this time, her thoughts sluggish and broken. What had happened? She blinked rapidly, trying to remember. Where was she? Why was everything so dark? Why was she so wet? What was-

FLASH!

Light blasted through her mind one last time, and left nothing behind in its wake. Leyan’s thoughts were scoured totally clean, her brain rendered perfectly blank. The tension dropped out of her, her muscles and jaw going slack. She didn’t notice – instead, she simply drooled into her gigantic tits, slumped over in the tank.

“Subject’s mental parameters have reached acceptable pacification levels,” a mechanical voice announced… somewhere. Leyan didn’t really hear them. “Beginning full memory overlay.”

There was a buzzing in her ears, a tingling pressure, like building static electricity, and then-

L. Addershine blinked as her helmet unlocked itself and retreated up into the ceiling of the chamber. Hm, what had she been doing again? Ah, she was in the rejuvenation chamber – the one she used to refresh herself and record her memories each day instead of wasting time sleeping at night. One of her more useful inventions – especially since if anyone who wasn’t her entered it, they’d be turned into a reprogrammed double of her – it was set to her specifications, after all!

That had been a surprising side-effect of her creation, actually, but a useful one, never the less! With it, she’d been able to make a small horde of expendable doubles to assist her in her engineering projects, and run interference with all the bounty hunters looking for her.

Heh. None of them were ready to deal with a genius like her. The curvy gnome grinned, allowing the machine to dress her, before inputting the correct series of knocks into the door to open her pod and stepping out.

“Oh, you’re finally awake?” An Addershine looked up from the pod supervision desk as she emerged from the chamber. “Took you long enough.”

“Aye, had a good rest,” L. said with a nod. “Did I miss anything while I was out?”

The other Addershine – K, if L remembered correctly – shrugged. “Not particularly. Had a crystal delivery come in – oh, and an intruder broke into the office – she made a proper mess of all the paperwork. No big loss, except now I’ll never be able to prove I’m the real Addershine.”

Ah yes. That was the only real downside of the ‘rejuvenation process’. For some reason, all of her doubles assumed that they were the original. Hmph. As if any of them could compare to her. The ego on these girls, honestly.

“Hah!” L. Addershine just shook her head, amused at K’s foolishness. Imagine thinking she was the real deal! “Oh well. I take it the intruder was dealt with?”

“Eh, probably.” K shrugged. “Not my department. I got my own projects to be working on, thanks.”

Typical. The doubles were so lazy when it wasn’t something that concerned them directly. Well, whatever – she had her own projects to be working on. There was a Dollifying cannon design she’d been dying to get working, and if they’d had a crystal delivery, then maybe it was time to finally give it a test run! As long as none of her doubles had scuffed up her work, that was.

L. Addershine shook her head and strolled off into the lab – joining with dozens of other, identical Addershines, each one of them thinking the exact same thing as her.

‘Tch. Good help is just impossible to find these days…’