Aberrant

Part Eight: Calm

Penned, Ms.Mural

Talon looked about the room. She took the time to appreciate the wooden trim, complex stonework around the fireplace, and beautiful masterwork engraving on some of the ornamental wood. Talon rested on the large couch that wrapped one periphery of the room. She’d yet to grow dull to the neo-victorian architecture of the building. She looked over to Galiga who sat, legs crossed, on the floor, meditating. The chirps of the birds outside and the rustle of leaves filled the air with late spring joy. A gentle breeze pushed cool, fresh morning air inside the house through the open windows. 

Talon was anxious. She’d spent the past two weeks working, plotting, thinking through every scenario, and carefully considered every terrible outcome that was possible thanks to her mission. It was the most nerve wracking at the beginning. She needed to go out into the world with Galiga and her Carrie, to save as many humans as she possibly could. Once she had reached two dozen, she could safely retreat from their growing hive to a safe location, away from Confederation eyes. From there she could command her folk to liberate the world. To feed the hungry, to clothe the poor, to bring them into the fold of something far, far greater than themselves.

A mental hum passed by, a reminder of what she was, who she was. It was the chorus she’d been growing, what humans called a hivenet. It called, beckoning Talon to immerse herself into it, to pull at its strings, and call its moves. Yet, Talon told the being she was to be alone for the moment. It respected that, bowed its metaphorical head, and hummed away. It was a splinter of Fal, one part of a whole so unknowably vast that she knew held no bounds. She was unbound from the idea of the self, or of the singular form. She was all those who made her up. She was the alpha, the and omega. The being that which all would become in the end. She was to subsume all that lived and died.

The wind rustled into the building, pulling Talon back to the moment. It was the sort of morning that reminded Talon of waking up to Eleanore’s voice. The sort where Eleanore would give Talon breakfast in bed because feeding Talon turned Eleanore on, and Talon of course would never say no Eleanore’s waffles with the artisanal maple syrup the woman always found a way to get, even when the nearest maple trees were thousands of lightyears away. Something about the scent of fresh air was forever linked to maple syrup and waffles for Talon.

#

“You know, Talon, it’s been two weeks since we got married, and every time I try and find anything I don’t like about you, I fail.” Eleanore played with Talon’s hair as Talon ate her breakfast. Something about having her hair played with felt amazing to Talon. 

Talon smirked as she spoke with a mouth full of waffle, “Nothing?”

Eleanore slid beside Talon in bed and landed her lips firmly onto Talon’s neck. She kissed sloppily, drool leaking down Talon’s neck. It shot excitement through Talon’s entire body, radiating from her neck down her back. Eleanore made out with Talon’s neck for a moment before she migrated to making out with Talon’s soft, double chin. Her tongue played with the fat as she nibbled at the soft skin.

“Absolutely nothing, sweetheart.”

Talon blushed brighter than she had in a long time as she felt Eleanore slide one of her hands into Talon’s “sleeping panties,” which were all reality, just an old, over stretched pair of boxers she refused to throw out. Talon swallowed her food just in time for Eleanore’s hand to find Talon’s penis. 

“You’re ok with this, I presume, my dear?”

Talon laughed, “I think you and I know each other well enough that you could touch me whenever and I’d be ok with it… Just preferably away from the public.”

Eleanore giggled as she moved the empty tray of what was once waffles out of Talon’s lap and onto the adjoining nightstand before Eleanore crawled on top of Talon. Eleanore smiled as she leaned in and whispered into Talon’s ear, “no promises.”

Eleanore, nearly whisper quiet, moaned as she began to message Talon’s penis tip. She was slow, but heavy with it. Massaging in large, encompassing circular motions. Talon pulled in a strained breath as she felt her mind ebb away, every plotting thought, every worry, every carefully considered word and action slipped away as her mind fell upon its instinctual drivers. Her body twitched a storm of pleasurable neuro-transmitters. Talon could normally name them faster than most could name the General Secretary of the Terran Confederation. Yet she failed to find any names other than oxytocin.

Talon moaned, loud and heavy as her eyes rolled back, “I love you Elly.” The words escaped from Talon’s mouth without thought or cause. She merely felt the desire, the need to explain how much she loved Eleanore. Something about the woman had embedded itself into the most basic mental functions Talon possessed. That her very humanity had become inseparable from Eleanore in a way.

“I love you too baby. Just sit back and relax, ok sweetypie?” Eleanore messaged Talon’s soft face with her free hand as she cooed to Talon in nonsensical love.

Talon nodded, trying, and failing, to keep composed as Eleanore slipped her free hand into Talon’s shirt, and began to grip one of Talon’s breasts. Talon let out a loud moan as she spread her legs wide open, as instinct took over. Talon cried out fragments of words surrounded by nothing more than animalist moans and groans. Eleanore smiled as she looked Talon in her wild eyes. They stared into each other's gaze for a long, long time. Something about it felt real. As if they were back together again. Eleanore seemed so real in this dream… Her touch was nearly perfect in Talon’s mind. Then, after a long, long, moment of locked eyes, Eleanore’s face contorted. Eleanore stopped touching Talon suddenly, pulling her hand free. She gasped as if she was waking from a nightmare. She recoiled away from Talon as her eyes narrowed and mouth fell agape.

“Is that really you Talon? By god, what’s happened to you? What have you done?”

#

“You know, it’s been two weeks since you royally fucked up my life, and every time I try to reframe what you’ve done in some sort of backwards positive light, I fail.” Galiga’s words cut through the morning air, splicing Talon from her daydream.

Talon sighed, she pulled her mind back to the moment, smiling softly, “Why is that, Galiga?” 

Galiga’s snout scrunched as her eyes slid open from her mediation. She turned her gaze to Talon, venom in her eyes, “Why don’t you take a look at me.” 

“I’m looking.” Talon cocked her head slightly, coy. 

The creature who sat upon the floor before her looked quite a bit like Talon, though her skin was a darker, more desaturated purple. She was overall substantially smaller, and her tail was shorter, yet her claws, both feet and hands were larger than Talon’s by some measure. Talon had formed her into a good soldier. It was so strange, how clear and easy it was to modify some genes with her mind, to warp its very fiber into new flesh that hadn’t ever been made before. DNA could become anything it was needed to grow, you only needed to give it the correct instructions.

“You turned me into an Aberrant.” Galiga hissed.

“I don’t see the issue.” Talon smirked. Of course she knew why Galiga was upset. She just wanted it verbally told to her. Was it cruel to try so desperately to demoralize someone? Talon considered for a split second, before she settled on yes, but sometimes, cruelty was a necessity.

“You turned me and my wife into monsters. You then went about mind controlling us into turning our friends into those- those skinwalkers who you control, is that about right?” Galiga practically hissed out her words.

“Well, from a certain, very human, perspective, yes.” Talon laughed, clicking, “Of course, I know you hear the chorus the same as I. Your friends aren’t dead, they merely exist as part of the collective mind. They are still independent, they are still themselves. I know you see the beauty they behold. I know you feel the Fal’s love for you. I know you sense their understanding of your pain and fear and apprehension. I know you feel warmth in those moments you give into the chorus, allowing your mind to become one of many thinking things together in freedom. Yet you pull yourself from it each time, subjecting yourself to an isolated existence.”

Galiga looked away from Talon, “Your chorus is an abomination.” Galiga stood from the floor, stumbling on her new legs for a step before she got firm footing.

“Galiga, can’t you at least be honest in part? I know you enjoy the changes you’ve had to your body. I mean, you look spectacular.” 

Galiga turned to face Talon again, “My body was fine as it was. It didn’t need improvement.”

Talon hemmed and hawed for a moment, “Perhaps, it was perfectly functional I suppose. But it could be improved, and is that not worth an attempt in itself?”

“You sound like a Nazi. Perfect is a fool’s game, played by idiots who can’t accept good enough. Perfect isn’t real, and is from a subjective perspective.”

Talon smiled as she stood. She loomed over Galiga, her head just shy of the ceiling. Her tail rolled from side to side on the floor, tapping against in a regular pattern.

“Perhaps you’re right. But your wife’s body, that was a different story.” Talon smiled as Galiga’s head lifted to face her.

“Don’t you dare weaponize Carrie against me, you xeno scum.” Galiga pointed one of her oversized claws into Talon’s face.

“She had fibromyalgia, Galiga. It caused her terrible pain most days, didn’t it? I cured her of her condition. The Fal cured her condition”

“Cured her of pain only to curse her for the rest of time itself. You’re not a savior. You’re not a hero. You are no different than the militaristic Terran society that forced me and Carrie to become shock troopers at the threat of death.”

Talon narrowed her eyes, she would be lying to say that line didn’t sting her, “And why is that, my dear?”

“You seek control! Hell, I don’t know if you’re just a puppet too! Maybe I’m a puppet now as well. Just playing out a feeble resistance to you because I’m just some character on a stage playing a game for a god's entertainment.” Galiga sighed as she looked down at her claws, “and even if I really, really wanted to kill you, or report you to the Confederation, what good would that be then? They’d kill me too- and” Galiga teared up, “They’d kill Carrie…” Galiga stepped towards the doorway to the living room, away from Talon, “I guess that’s the silver lining. Someone is here now… Someone is watching my back.” Galiga groaned, Talon sensed a deep conflict in the woman’s psychic energies. She was closed off to the chorus, yet she was still a child of Fal, and she’d come around to being reborn, Talon was sure of it. The Fal was mighty in her mercy and love. She was Galiga too, now, after all. She would be everyone, and everyone would soon be her. Children of the gap between places, children of the liminal places, the empty fallways, that which wasn’t to be known. 

“Lots of someones, actually. But also, just one someone.” Talon smiled as she, with heavy plotted steps, walked towards Galiga. Talon set her hand on Galiga’s shoulder. Galiga didn’t flinch away this time. 

Galiga sighed, “I was gonna make something to eat. How do waffles and, uhh,“ Galiga chuckled with a simple click, “I dunno, steak, sound?”

“Steak for breakfast?” Talon smirked.

Galiga sighed as she leaned against the doorway, “You damn well know why I want steak.”

Talon laughed gutturally, clicking violently, “I do, but there’s some joy in making you spell it out.”

“Oh of course there is to your fucked up brain.”

Talon, “Do you know why I don’t force you into Fals’ chorus like the others?”

Galiga narrowed her eyes, “Cause I’m fun to torment?”

“Because, Galiga, you are like me, a Sovereign. A leader of our collective form.”