Ascent 9.2

  2005, August 1: Hyunmu’s Lab, Babylon

  “Andy, look, how’s this?” Riley asked as she held out her newest creation for my inspection. She prodded at me insistently, her eyes shining with curiosity and need for validation.

  I'd sorely underestimated Riley's compulsion to use her powers. At her age and emotional maturity, it wasn't so much an urge she could resist as it was a need as vital as air or food.

  Originally, Fortuna curbed her biotinkering urges by teaching her conventional biological principles and allowing her to conduct genetic experiments on Freljordian wheat. The fantasy grain was harmless and anything she made could be used to augment Earth-Bet's economy. However, that didn't st.

  I didn't know if it was due to my arrival, but Riley quickly got sick of food crops. Asking her to map the genetic sequence of some of Peter Pan's creations could only occupy her for so long. Like any child her age, she wanted to be like her big brother. Seeing me working without restrictions, she wanted that as well. Or, at the minimum, to work with me.

  My solution was simple. Over the past few weeks, I assigned her the task of designing the ideal delivery medium for my potions. All of them.

  “Let's see,” I said with an indulgent smile. I palmed her head in one hand and tousled her hair. “Tell me about it, Riley.”

  She scrunched her nose adorably and spped at my hand ineffectually. “Hey, I’m not a puppy.”

  “Its because you're so cute, Riley. Go on, tell me about all the cool things you made.”

  “W-Well, it's a syringe, see?” She began, haltingly.

  Indeed it was. It was a small, chrome cylinder that fit comfortably in Riley's diminutive hand. One end had a pin-sized hole where the needle would emerge while the other acted as the liquid storage compartment and plunger.

  Peering inside, I saw that there were a great deal of components, far more than in a typical syringe. Not all of it was comprehensible by me, tinkertech was still tinkertech, but Zaunite biochemistry was simir enough to give me a fair idea of what I was looking at.

  “Is that a chemical sensor? And trigger?” I asked, genuinely impressed.

  My kid sis puffed out her cheeks and kicked me in the shin. “No fair! You peeked inside! I wanted to expin it!”

  I realized my mistake. Riley was six and I'd just stolen her big moment from her.

  I swept her up into a princess carry and pced her on my p. “Oh, I'm sorry, Riley. You can still tell me. There are loads I don't understand about what you made.”

  “Nu-uh, your eyes are cheating.”

  “No, I promise. You're so smart that I have trouble understanding even if I can see the components inside, promise.”

  “Pinky promise?”

  “Pinky promise.”

  “Say you're sorry for peeking.”

  “I'm sorry for peeking.”

  “And you'll give me more cookies,” she said with a devious smile.

  I pretended to go along with it. “I promise to get you mo--Hey, wait a minute.”

  “Drat.”

  “What a tricky little sister I have, as cute as she is cunning.”

  “So cute that I deserve more cookies?”

  “Hmm, I'll have to see what mom thinks.”

  “Aww,” she defted, already knowing mom's answer. “Poop.”

  “Nice try, little sister. Now, tell me about your syringe.”

  “Nope. Cookie.”

  “Hmm, nah. Tell me, or else.”

  “Or else what?” She pouted.

  I stretched out my arms and pulled her in close before wiggling my fingers menacingly. “Or else I tickle you!”

  “Aahhh! Noo! Andy, stop! Ahahahaha!!!”

  X

  I once again proved that my prowess in tickle-fu was superior to Riley’s fabled stubbornness. It would be many years yet before my sister could challenge me. After asserting dominance in our sibling scuffles, I did eventually get the full expnation from her.

  The syringe was designed to be idiot-proof in the extreme. Inside was a votile solution that would react with another, filling the chamber with high pressure gas and preventing the hand from depressing the plunger any further. When this reaction was triggered, it became impossible to sink the needle any deeper; the container would crack and break before the needle sank.

  This reaction was triggered by a chemical sensor that reacted to iron content and other catalysts in the blood. Meaning, once the needle entered a sufficiently rge blood vessel, it would prevent the user from piercing though the other side.

  It was a retively minor thing, but plenty of nurses failed to find the blood vessel, especially in high-stress situations. Now, paramedics could pull this out, stab someone almost at random, and the medicine inside would be delivered into the bloodstream, guaranteed.

  “But why a syringe?” I asked her. “Last I checked, you were thinking about a patch with microneedles you could sp onto any exposed skin. Wouldn’t that be more convenient?”

  “That’s why this is brilliant,” she beamed up at me. “This syringe isn’t any harder to use. Even dummies know where the big blood vessels are generally. And, I could put in loads of cool features that I just can’t fit onto my sticker-docs.”

  I smiled at that. Her “sticker-doc” prototypes were adorable. They were pink and chicken-themed because I told her about how phoenixes had healing properties. She told me that “Phoenixes aren’t real so they may as well be chickens.”

  I pulled her into another hug. All the books said physical affection was the easiest and most consistently effective form of positive reinforcement for children.

  “Oh? Do tell, dearest sister,” I said. I’d long since put aside my own work to give her my full attention.

  “It’s got dosage control. See, the chemical sensors don’t just keep dummies from poking through the blood vessel. It also detects health problems that might interfere with the medication inside and will restrict the dosage injected to safe levels.”

  “Wait, really? I didn’t know that. How? There’s like two centimeters cubed worth of space in there for your sensor.”

  “I’m the best biotinker, silly brother,” she said with a delightfully smug grin. I had a feeling even she didn’t truly know. Shard-based dimensional fuckery was probably involved.

  I held up my hands in surrender. She could have her title. Zaunite tech wasn’t exactly a tree I had the bandwidth to explore at the moment. “You are. You’re splendid, Riley. I’ve never denied it.”

  “Ehehehe…”

  “But, you know that my potions don’t interact with any preexisting health conditions, right?”

  “Well, yeah, but you said I should make the ‘perfect delivery device.’ I figured I may as well make this for all other medicines too. Allergy medication, insulin, anesthetics, all of it. The sensor can be programmed through an app that Uncle Andrew helped me code.”

  “He did, did he? Did he also tell you to call him that?”

  “Uh-huh. He says he and Theresa might be able to make more of this, but without the tinkertech.”

  “Perhaps…” I had my doubts about that. Dragon had not triggered here. She had no ability to replicate tinkertech. That said, by integrating a mundane app into her super-syringe, there might be enough wiggle room for them to achieve something. I was certainly willing to be proven wrong here. “It would have to be a lot bigger than that little thing though.”

  “Clunky,” she said with disapproval. “Mine looks so much cooler.”

  “Of course, Riley. But sometimes, we need to dumb things down so normal people can make them too.”

  “Yeah, I guess. What should I make now?”

  “Hmm, I don’t know. Why don’t you come up with five ideas you’d like to work on? Then, we can talk about which would be the most helpful.”

  “Really? I can choose?”

  “We’ll choose together,” I said. Riley finished her bioethics course in record time, but that didn’t mean I was willing to fully let her off her leash. If nothing else, she needed a good example, and the occasional refresher. “Go on. I need to make a few more of these drones.”

  “How many are you going to make?”

  “Well, given they’re modur and can each act independently… as many as I can until Leviathan.”

  She shuffled nervously at the mention of the endbringer. “Do… Do you have to go?”

  “I do, Riley.” I didn’t hide much from her. The world was dark. There were as many tragedies as reasons to celebrate. She wasn’t keyed in on everything, but neither would she be ignorant to the truth. “It’s what heroes do. It can be scary, and dangerous, but we protect those who cannot protect themselves.”

  “But you might get hurt…”

  “I might, yes.”

  “Will… Will you go to sleep again?”

  I kissed her forehead. “No, Riley. I won’t. Not like st time.”

  “Promise.”

  “I promise.”

  X

  Riley Grace Davis2005, August 1: Lordsmith, Babylon

  It took a while but I finally convinced Andy to let me visit by myself. He insisted that I carry a full complement of elixirs and magic rings, just in case I got into trouble, as if the super tough jacket with a turtle on it wasn’t reason enough for people to be nice to me.

  Lordsmith itself was… okay. It was really pretty, but also kind of boring? There wasn’t a whole lot to do out here because everyone was farming or baking bread or whatever they did during the day. Andy said it was good to see the effects my creations had but everyone looked so busy that I didn’t want to approach any of the farmers to ask how they were doing.

  I sighed and sat by the well, kicking my feet aimlessly. I thought there would be more to do out here…

  “Hey, will you py a game with me?” I heard behind me. I turned around and… I wasn’t sure what I was looking at.

  She was short, even shorter than me. She also had very weird skin, purple like grapes. I wondered what made it look like that. It was a strange pigmentation in humans that made me want to test it in a b.

  She also had a big, pointy hat with a point that ended in a… tail…? It waved at me. It was alive.

  “I want it,” I said without thinking.

  “Huh?”

  “I want your hat.”

  “No! My hat!”

  “Come on, please? I promise I'll give it back. I just want to see if I can clone it.”

  “No, my hat's one of a kind.”

  “Aww… Then can I cut you?”

  “You… You're not very cute.”

  “Lies. My big brother says I'm the cutest.”

  “You shouldn't cut people. If I'm not allowed to turn people into squirrels, you shouldn't be allowed to cut people either.”

  “It's only a baby cut. I just want to see your skin under a microscope.”

  “What's a microscope? Wait… You can see me?!?!”

  “Duh. You're not invisible, silly.”

  “What color am I?”

  “Purple.”

  The little(r) girl patted herself all over. She twirled around until she lost bance and her hat grabbed a nearby fence post to keep her steady. “Yup, I still have my gmor… Hmm… You're strange.”

  “I'm strange? You're the one with a silly hat.”

  She stuck out her tongue with a pyful grin. “You wish you had my hat.”

  I slumped. “Yeah… Can I please try on your hat?”

  “Hmm… Fine, but only if you tell me how you can see through my gmor.”

  “I don't know what a gmor is. How am I supposed to know how I’m seeing through it?”

  “You… Hold on,” she said. She poked me with her big staff. From it, a purple fairy fluttered out. “Pix, is she magic? Wait, she is? So you can see through yordle gmor!”

  “Yordles? Oh, is it because of my brother’s cookies?”

  “Brother’s cookies? Are you Andy’s sister?”

  I gasped in delight. “You know Andy? I’m Riley. Who are you?”

  “I do! We pyed tag! And I’m Lulu! Do you want to py tag with me?” she said, jumping up and down. She hopped onto her staff and began to float.

  “No fair, I can’t fly. Andy won’t let me turn my legs into jetpacks. And is that a fairy?”

  “Yup! His name’s Pix. Pix says hi.”

  “Well, I still can’t fly so a game of tag wouldn’t be as fun.”

  “Okay, how about hide and seek?”

  “Wouldn’t you be able to see me from the air?”

  “Oh, yeah. There’s gotta be something we can do. Hold on a second. Let me put on my thinking cap.” Lulu kicked her feet, dangling them like undry in the air.

  The tail-point of her hat grabbed at the empty air and somehow acted as an anchor, as if someone nailed it into space itself. It then swung Lulu in a windmill.

  Ridiculous. Who even wanted a hat that spun her around?

  I wasn’t jealous…

  “Woah, woah, woah!” Lulu squealed as she came to a stop. “I know! How about I take you flying?”

  “R-Really?”

  “Why not? It’ll be fun! And, we can go pull the gryphons’ whiskers.”

  “Do they even have whiskers?”

  Lulu giggled happily. Her hat’s tail-point stretched down towards me like a hand. “Let’s find out.”

  I grinned. This was fine. A day with one of Andy’s friends sounded like just the thing to pass the time. “Yeah, let’s.”

  X

  I giggled uncontrolbly as I colpsed next to Lulu onto a field of flowers. “That was so much fun!”

  “Right? And we even have our own clubhouse now!” my new best friend cheered.

  Lulu was a little weird, but she had tons of cool powers. She was great, even if she wouldn't let me cut her.

  Our clubhouse was a huge, purple eggpnt, as tall as my house. Its big, green stem had been “transmogrified,” yes it too was a real word, into a chimney. She made the whole thing big enough for me and Andy to visit.

  Next to it was a little, toadstool cabin that she'd been staying in. It had likewise been transmogrified to be bigger, big enough to fit Zippy, our new gryphon friend.

  Flying was great, but we got bored by ourselves. Then Lulu had the great idea to py tag with the gryphons that flew around Nevernd. I wasn't sure what she told them, but they chased us lots.

  We won, of course. Lulu was an excellent flyer. The next best flyer was Zippy. And to celebrate, we painted Zippy bright green, with purple and red stripes like on racecars.

  I hugged Lulu and rubbed my cheek against hers. She was so soft and cuddly, perfect for snuggles.

  “The clubhouse looks great, Lulu. I think even Andy will love it,” I told her, only to be interrupted by my grumbling stomach. Which reminded me that my backpack had a do-si-rak, mommy's fancy way of saying lunch.

  I pulled it out of my backpack. It was a cool, misty-blue and snowy-white, just like Andy's costume. It was even decorated like a big turtle shell. Aunt Fortuna got it for me. Andy didn't want me to have it. He said me having Hyunmu-themed things was “cringe,” whatever that meant, but mommy said it's cute and everyone knows mommy is Andy's real boss.

  Inside, I saw four yubu-cho-bap, two with tuna and two with ham. There was also icky spinach, which both Andy and mommy said I needed to eat, and a separate, smaller container of fishcake and turnip soup.

  The second container was the real motherload though. It was stuffed with Andy's snickerdoodle and chocote chip cookies.

  I took out one rice ball and saw Lulu looking at my lunch like a puppy. She didn't have a mommy or big brother to make her food. I put two rice balls onto the lunchbox lid and slid them over. “Andy says food tastes better when we eat with friends.”

  Lulu gasped with delight before bowling me over in a hug. “Yes! What is this though? It looks Ionian.”

  “It's yubu-cho-bap, funny word, I know. It's really good though. I think that one has tuna.”

  “Ooh, it's sweet.”

  “Right? Mommy says it's made from tofu.”

  “What’s tofu?”

  “Umm… I think it’s beans…?” I said, unsure. I knew loads about biology, but that didn’t mean I knew everything about cooking.

  “Weird… I like it!”

  We chatted and shared my lunch. I also gave her half of my cookies. I didn't want to, but doing it made me feel all warm inside and suddenly, I didn't mind as much. I'd just get Andy to make more next time.

  We pyed some more. We even got some of the vilge's kids involved. Lulu's magic was great for hide and seek.

  And when the sun began to set, the children all turned back to their normal shapes and we found ourselves back at our new clubhouse.

  “Do you have to go?” Lulu asked softly. “We can keep pying together. I'll even show you how to do our special yordle dance.”

  “I can't Lulu. Mommy and Andy said I need to be back in time for dinner. I only got to stay this te because of Doormaker.”

  “Well… What if we can convince Andy to let you stay?”

  “How are we going to do that? Andy can be super strict.”

  She told me. I wasn't sure, but it was worth a try.

  X

  Andy Yusung Kim

  I couldn't find Riley. Given my range of vision, that itself told me who was to bme. No one else had anything close to the magical ability necessary to hide from me.

  I sighed. I knew letting Riley go into Lordsmith ran the risk of her running into Lulu, but I'd been hoping the two would behave themselves and she'd return on time.

  She obviously hadn't, but even now, I doubted Riley had been hurt. Lulu just wasn't that kind of malicious fae. That said, I'd get scolded by mom if I couldn't find her soon. Dinners were sacred at the Kim household. If at all possible, we were expected to share a meal as a family. Or else.

  Which was why I was in Lulu's gde, thankfully lowercase “g.”

  “Lulu, where is Riley?” I asked, gamely ignoring the house-sized aubergine and the preening gryphon that had been painted in what she'd no doubt describe as “ALL the colors.”

  The sorceress in question put her hands together on her p and wiggled like a nervous schoolgirl. “Riley? Umm… Who?”

  “Lulu…” I trailed off, yering my voice with all the disappointment I could muster.

  “Okay, but I want to py a game first!”

  “What did you turn Riley into?”

  “A squirrel. You need to find her.”

  “Lulu, we promised that all transformations would be turned back at the nearest sunrise or sunset,” I chided, doing my best to suppress the mounting migraine.

  “And they do!” she insisted, only to swiftly mumble, “I just turned her right after sunset…”

  I took a knee so I wasn't quite looming over her. I picked her up and pulled her into a hug. “Lulu, you know that isn't in the spirit of our promise. Riley has to go home and eat dinner now.”

  “I know…”

  “Can you tell me why you did this?”

  “I… I wanted us to py longer…”

  “And if I can't find her, I need to let her stay until sunrise,” I finished for her. She nodded shyly. It really was like dealing with a child, immortal sorceress or not.

  I thought about what I should do in this situation. Fighting Lulu was out of the question, nor did I want to yell at her.

  Even if I could find the right purple squirrel, I wasn't confident in my ability to turn Riley back. It'd be hard enough reversing a transformation on my own person, never mind someone else. I had no intention of experimenting on my little sister.

  Leaving my sister in the forest was obviously not an option though. Mom would kill me and it would only reward Lulu for skirting my rules.

  After some thought, I came to a decision.

  “Lulu, Riley can't stay,” I said insistently.

  “Come on, please?” She begged. She waved her staff and turned a rock into an apple. “I can make dinner, see? She'll be super safe, promise!”

  “Our mom would miss her. You don't want that, right?”

  “Yeah…”

  “Now where is Riley?” A purple squirrel scurried out from under the hem of Lulu's shirt. “There she is. Turn her back, please.”

  One puff of glitter ter and I had my sister back. Judging by the guilty look on Riley's face, she wasn't exactly innocent in this little scheme either.

  “Andy?” Riley began.

  “Yes?”

  “Are we in trouble?”

  I sighed. “No, you're not in trouble.”

  “So I can come back?”

  “So long as this doesn't happen again.”

  “Then… If I can't stay, can Lulu come with us? It'll be like a sleepover.”

  Lulu gasped in delight at the idea. “A sleepover? Yes!”

  Opposing them was a lost cause. I'd never been good at telling children “no” and Riley was… She was lonely, even I could see that.

  She put on a brave front, but not having friends her age wasn't good for her. Truthfully, Lulu was probably in the same boat. She could be mature if the situation called for it, but the yordle very much preferred otherwise. The two being friends wasn't the worst thing in the world, but I felt like my stress level would rise for the foreseeable future.

  That was how Riley got her first ever sleepover and I ended up expining the idea of yordles to my mother.

  Author’s Note

  This was mostly a Riley chapter. She deserves more attention I think. I don’t think I’ve got her voice quite right, six year olds are hard to write, but I hope she at least sounds believable.

  We’ll get to Leviathan next chapter, but not even Andy can stay focused 24/7.

  Animal fact? Sure, why not. This is anecdotal, but President John Quincy Adams owned an alligator. He kept it in the East Room of the White House. If true, that gator would be the most dangerous First Pet.

  Technically not a fact? Fine, you whiny fucks. We do know that his wife kept silkworms. Still weird, but kinda cool.

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