The Simulacrum

I announced my return to the hotel room with a quiet, "I'm back," yet I still got hissed at for my trouble.

"Psst!" My princess frowned at me with a finger in front of her puckered lips, and then she spoke in a whisper that was not an iota quieter than mine. "We just put Ollie to bed."

It was maybe a bit too early for that, but to be fair, the little beansprout was already completely tuckered out even before I left, and the sun was indeed going down, so maybe the girls had the right idea. In the meantime, Judy finished tucking him in and walked over to our side.

"Welcome back, Chief. You missed the power level discussion."

I responded with a not-at-all cheeky and completely, genuinely, one hundred percent mortified, "I know," followed by a theatrical glance around the room. "When did everyone leave?"

"A while ago," my dear assistant told me, and seeing that my other girlfriend was really eager to elaborate, she graciously stepped aside to allow her to do so.

"Okay, so Mrs Talvipäivänseisaus came over to pick up Ammy first…" she started, and it took me a second to realise she was talking about Lord Taika. I never used her surname, even in school, because of the obvious reason, and I was quite impressed by how fluently Elly managed to say it. Anyhow, she didn't notice my momentary confusion and barrelled on with, "She's probably getting scolded for sneaking into the Abyss now."

"I think we're all going to be," Judy noted on the side. "My dad's probably not going to be happy once he learns what happened."

"My mom and dad were impressed!" Elly declared with a grin. "Dad was especially thrilled when I told him how I got in a few good punches on Noir, and how I hit him with a True Dragon Breath!"

Judy cut in with a snappy, "Watch the volume," making Elly cover her mouth reflexively, and after making sure that Ollie wasn't stirring, she also tagged on a slightly dour, "I'm more worried about Mr von Fraenir's reaction."

"Oh, right…" the princess whispered, and it might've been just the lighting, but it almost looked like she paled for a moment. It really only lasted for just a moment though, and then she insisted, "It's going to be fine. Also, where was I? Oh, right. So, after she picked up Ammy, the Elder Matron returned to her quarters, and Angie went with her to discuss family matters. Josh tagged along, too."

"I figured as much. What about my sisters?"

"Tajana came by, and they went with her. Something about talking to the Axis of Evil to get tents? They left in a hurry, so I might've misheard that part."

"No, you heard it right," Judy noted, eyes on me. "What about you, Chief?"

"Herding cats, as usual," I told them as I made my way over to the couch and sat down. "I had a talk with Roland, then we kept getting interrupted, so I Phased over to slap some sense into Mensah…"

"Was he trying still trying to booby-trap the Abyssal castles?" Elly inquired, and when I nodded, I was surprised it wasn't followed by a 'See, I told you so,' and a five-Jen banknote changing hands. The Celestial ex-Directors were apparently so predictable that even the girls weren't making any bets about them anymore.

Fortunately, they didn't ask about whether I threw him into the nearest solar body or not. Not only because the joke was getting a bit stale, but also because the more I thought about it, the more confused I got about its logistics and more apprehensive about the possibility that maybe, just maybe, I could actually do that.

In any case, I continued the previous train of thought with, "After he was sufficiently sense-knocked, I got back to Roland, and we talked a bit more about the logistics of pacifying the Abyss and what to do afterwards. Lots of dry economic and political stuff. Oh, and before I forget it, according to Fred, the big portal Ammy made is not going to go away, so we have to deal with the fallout of that too."

"Fallout? Isn't that a good thing?" Elly asked, and when I gestured for her to elaborate, she in turn pointed outside a nearby window overlooking the distinct lack of a castle in the middle of town. "Rebuilding all of that is going to take a whole lot of resources, and a permanent gate will make getting them here so much simpler! Also…" She stopped pointing at the skyline and turned to me with a familiar glint in her eyes. "The Abyss is the biggest untapped market in the World of Mystics! We can import all kinds of stuff, like cars and electronics, and… and…"

"Food and spices," Judy proposed, and my princess snapped her fingers in approval.

"Exactly! We can build a big monopoly here!"

"Sure, but I want to remind you that the Abyss is going to take a while to recover from the civil war and half of the ruling families either getting decimated or thrown into prison for treason."

"Also," Judy chimed in, supporting my point with, "Éolienne is going to be the new Emperor of the Abyss, with Joshua as his Herald, so exploiting the Abyss would be as bad as exploiting them."

"Okay, okay, I get it, so…" Elly extended a hand, her thumb and forefinger poised as if she was holding an invisible coin between them. "How about just a… little monopoly? Just a small one?"

"Let's discuss it once the political situation is fully under control, okay?" I proposed… or rather, kicked the issue down the line. Let it be future-me's problem.

…

I mean, not 'literal' future-me's, as we're not doing another timey-wimey retcon (I dearly hope). And yes, the fact that we reached the point where I had to go out of my way to specify that to avoid confusion was filling me with exasperation and ennui in equal measure.

"Then what?" Judy prompted me, and it took me a second to collect my thoughts and realise that she wasn't talking about my dear draconic girlfriend's monopolistic plans.

"And then I got flagged down by Naoren, who wanted me to find Rinne because Xiao and Ichiko were still in her shadow, but then I got blind-sided by Ambrose and Gulliver, who wanted to hear what happened from me personally and I was nearly dragged into the hotel's salon when Duncan and Agrawain returned for a break after securing the outskirts of the town, but I managed to slip away, only to then stumble into Fidèle in and the other aristocrats of Shamash, Ninhursag, and Inanna composing a ceasefire treaty and I needed to signs some stuff and act like I knew the first thing about peace deals, and then I finally managed to abscond and come back here." By the end of that run-on sentence, I was seriously out of breath, so I inhaled hard. Then, after a short beat, I muttered, "So, you know? A bunch of annoying political malarkey."

"You'll need to get used to it," Judy told me mercilessly and poked my shoulder. "You caused this mess; you need to fix it."

"Hey! I didn't 'cause it'! I didn't start the fire! It was always burning since Simlacrum's been turning."

My dear assistant instantly narrowed her eyes (a little) and said, "You've been holding onto that one for a while, looking for the right time to use it, haven't you?"

"Guilty as charged," I admitted, underscored by Elly's giggle on the side, but then I switched gears and told her, in a serious tone, "I'm not entirely kidding, though. The scenario was already nearing its end, and it had to be resolved in some way. The fact that it was also a prerequisite for me to realise my true nature, and I needed to do that to kick Benjamin out of the Simulacrum before he broke everything, was a happy coincidence… I think."

If that sounded uncertain, it's because I really wasn't one hundred percent sure about it. I mean, time-blocks were a thing I still consciously refused to think about, but if I actually wanted to do that, there was a non-zero chance that it really wasn't a coincidence, but kind of like a retcon on an even bigger scale, using future-knowledge by some other part of me. It would've explained why Benjamin was freaking out so much, because Oriole repeatedly hammered into me that retro-causality was a big no-no for Emergents, but it wouldn't have been the first time I broke some rule without knowing about it.

And as for which kind of 'other part of me' could've been responsible, honestly speaking, I still wasn't entirely convinced that there wasn't some kind of Over-Leo on top of all my layers who's been pulling all the strings. A kind of 'One Leo to rule them all' type of situation. As for whether that me was even conscious or not was another bloody bee-hive I wasn't going to kick right now, because I had a hard enough time wrapping my head around Id-me and Superego-me being parts of the Simulacrum already.

More importantly, the mention of my nature made Judy's brows scrunch up, just a little bit, and she said, "It'll take some time to get used to the idea that my boyfriend is an Elder God."

"Come on, Judy. Don't be silly," my other girlfriend chided in with a playful swipe at her shoulder. "Leo's not an Elder God. The Emergents are like, celestial objects and consciousnesses embedded into space and existing outside time, right? That makes Leo an Outer God. Obviously." There was a long beat, during which neither of us responded, so Elly started fidgeting and said, "W-What? I do my own research too, you know! And I read books too, sometimes."

"Calm down, princess. I'm just not sure that kind of terminology properly reflects what we are."

At this point, Judy interjected with, "You mean 'we' as the people in the Simulacrum, or 'we' as you and the other Emergents."

"The… latter?" I told her, once again sounding just a tad unsure.

"What about the other 'we' then?" Elly asked, her previous momentary nervousness gone and replaced with an excited light in her eyes.

I wasn't remotely familiar enough with the Lovecraftian Mythos to come up with any kind of analogy, but luckily for me, Judy raised a hand to cover up a big yawn, providing me with a great segue.

"Sleepy, that's what you are," I declared and put a hand on each of their shoulders. "In fact, we're all too tired to have metaphysical discussions right now. You haven't had proper sleep since the day before, so how about we get some shuteye, and then we give this another go tomorrow?"

"I second the motion," Judy spoke in agreement, and since yawns were notoriously infectious, now it was Elly's turn to stifle one.

"There are two single beds, and Ollie's already using one. We should've pushed the two together to make a big queen-size bed, and then we could've all slept together."

"Hindsight is always a pain in the neck," I noted, and nobody argued about it. "Even if it's a single bed, you two could probably fit on one."

"What about you, Chief?"

"What about me?" I echoed my dear assistant, and seeing that she kept intently staring at me, I awkwardly muttered, "Erm… Dormouse? You remember that I don't need to sleep, right?"

"That was before," she told me in turn and grabbed my arm, as if afraid that I would run away. "You said you got eaten by the Predator Moon and had to re-insert yourself into the Simulacrum, so we can't be sure the new you doesn't need sleep either."

"That's a good point!" Elly exclaimed, only to realise that she was a bit too loud and tag on a quiet, "I-It's going to be a bit cramped, but I think we can manage."

"It's decided then," Judy declared, and my girlfriends pulled me towards the bed.

I still had my reservations, but the girls were adamant, so I had no choice but to give up and follow their whim. Not right away, though. Despite the big hoo-haa about me being dragged to bed and such, we first needed to clean up and change into nightclothes. The bathroom of the suite was relatively modern, with both a fancy free-standing cast-iron bathtub and a shower cabin.

It clearly wasn't designed for three people to use it at the same time, but we managed. The girls were genuinely exhausted after the long day, so we didn't get up to any lewding, but there was still a healthy amount of skinship and flirting to be had.

At last, we returned to the bedroom and squeezed ourselves under the sheets. Me in the middle, the girls on my left and right, their heads practically resting against my shoulders, and my arms wrapped around them to make sure they wouldn't fall off the bed. It wasn't the most comfortable arrangements per se, but they didn't seem to mind.

The sun was down by now, lights out, the curtains drawn, and without the ever-present hum of a city's traffic noise (missing due to obvious reasons), the room felt very still and uncannily quiet. I mustn't have been the only one to feel a bit odd, because Judy soon started fidgeting. When I glanced over, I found her eyes, barely visible in the gloom of the room, glued to my face, and when our gazes met, she immediately whispered, "Is it really over now?"

"What's over?" Elly whispered on my other side.

"If you mean the scenario, then yeah, it's pretty much done."

"So this is our ending?"

I blinked at her in a dark and, if they weren't occupied, I would've shrugged my shoulders.

"Eh. That's debatable. I mean, do you guys remember those fantasy movies? With the hobbits and elves and throwing jewellery into volcanoes?"

"… Yes?" Elly muttered, audibly confused.

"You know that had a whooole lot of endings? We're kind of in a similar situation. We're past the ending where we're stranded on top of the volcano, and we're past the ending where everyone gathers and laughs together in slow-motion, but we're not yet at the part where someone gets crowned, and we're still some way from the ending where we all sail away to new shores. Do you get what I'm saying?"

Judy remained silent for a while, then let out a soft huff and shifted on the bed, fully resting her head against my shoulder.

"This was a bad idea. You were right, Chief; I'm way too tired for meta-talk right now. Remind me to untangle and interrogate your analogy tomorrow."

At the same time, Elly also nuzzled closer to me with a soft giggle.

"Hehe… Good night, and sleep well."

Judy responded with a quiet, "Mm," and closed her eyes.

Elly followed suit, and I soon followed their example, slowly drifting off into… not sleeping.

…

Was that déja vu? I couldn't help but feel that we've already been here before. And yes, even after an hour, I wasn't getting sleepy at all. Figures.

Okay, so what did I do the last time Judy roped me into sleeping together like this and I was trapped between my girlfriends?

…

Right. I used my original phantom limb to go outside the Simulacrum and scout out the not-dark not-room. Which, in retrospect, was kind of a weird way to do it. With my current knowledge, I understood that all I really needed to do was to shift my attention a bit and…

"Oh."

Before I knew it, I was in the… Well, it wasn't a 'void' or 'space between spaces' anymore. It was my Domain, and it was currently a blinding white, like standing inside the mantle of a star, which… I kind of was, now that I thought about it? I still had no idea how that worked, so at least I could say Judy wasn't the only one confused about the mechanics of Emergents. Oh well. I'll have plenty of time to figure things out, and…

"Wait a minute…" I whispered, though since I was a disembodied consciousness distributed across my Domain at the moment, the concepts of 'sound' and 'volume' had little meaning.

Anyhow, the keyword was 'time'. All the Emergents present in my Domain, including the formerly not-dark not-room, were kind of 'synced up' with my sense of time right now. The last time I visited them, the exact same amount of time passed inside the Simulacrum as what I experienced in their company. Meaning… I technically could sleep inside the Simulacrum while my consciousness could 'dreamwalk' outside and spend time with the Emergents.

That wasn't quite hitting two birds with one stone, but it was certainly preferable to spending the whole night staring at the ceiling, so I decided to pay Carmine and the others a visit. I did promise that I would have a private talk with her soon-ish, so might as well get on with it.

At least with them, I didn't need to worry about things getting out of hand, like with the guys inside the Simulacrum, and…

"Ah, Sol! Help!" Oriole called out to me the moment I materialised inside the quite-bright mostly-room, before I could even announce my arrival. "The Venerated Benjamin wants to bite me!"

"Come back here and face righteous judgment!" the white-haired kid lunged after her, and the two of them started running circles around me. "How dare you make me eat flowers!?"

"B-But you said you'd eat anything!"

"P-Please don't fight!" Obsidius yelled on the side, trying to sound brave, but the fact that he was covering behind a transparent riot-shield made his attempts to moderate come off as less than effective. I would've asked where he even got that, but knowing the nature of these pocket-spaces, he probably just conjured it out of thin air, or something.

"Forget about that!" a thunderbolt snapped next to me, revealing Fulgor. "Listen, Sol! Do something about those two, would you? I can't work in this noise."

"Are you talking about these two, or…" I started, pointing at Oriole and Benjamin, but then the whole principally-bright categorically-room shook as, in the closest of its round corners, an immeasurable ocean of blood-red waters and an enormous red star surrounded by thorns made of the midnight sky collided, spewing explosions of vermillion steam everywhere. "Ah, I see. Those two…"

Shaking my head, I lightly bonked Benjamin over his head and then started moving, my legs carrying me towards the astronomical clash with profound resignation. By the looks of it, my days of herding… erm… lions, I guess, weren't over either.