Maniac’s Mayhem

(Cierra)

The hallway is completely silent except for the nervous tapping of my feet on the ground. Sure, most of this was just making scans and adding a little chip, but after the year I went through, I feel like nothing is ever as simple as it should be.

A small yipping sound makes me gaze down, looking right into the blue eyes of the small ball of fur that was sitting in my lap. Her head bobs up as she gives my nose a small lick.

I smile, patting the fox. "Thank you, Snowball, and I know they are going to be fine. It’s just, I am a bit worried.”

Snowball makes a high pitch groaning noise, almost as if she is telling me off.

“Hey, we can’t all be as perfect as you.” I say, stroking the creature under its chin.

Snowball gives a short nod before waking a few circles in my lap and sitting back down again, her own head also facing the door. I sigh, opening some of my emails and slowly looking through them, my mind not really catching on many of the details. Luckily, nothing seems particularly urgent, from new proposed toys to different projects people want to start. The only thing that catches my eye slightly is the earnings report that was deep in the red. But knowing my fiancé, that really did not matter much as most of PsyCo’s “earnings” came from here, siphoning money from different corporations.

After a few hours, the door finally opens, and the little red curls pop out. Snowball immediately jumps off my lap, running up to the girl to thoroughly sniffle her, making sure she is okay. I am only a few steps behind, crouching down to do my own visual inspection.

“How are you feeling?” I ask.

The girl raises her hand, rubbing her eyes. “Tired.”

“Want to go to your room so you can take a nap?” I suggest offering her my hand.

Shinon nods, grabbing my hand. I stand up slowly, escorting the girl back to the elevator, all the while Snowball is walking around us, making sure everything is really up to fluff. As the elevator dings open on our floor, I am greeted with a lot of noise. Claire and Magenta were playing with Cali using little toy wands that they used to throw projections of magical spells at each other. On the other side of the room, I found Evelin and Sam at the kitchen bar as they were looking at a screen that was filled with a bunch of code. Code that made me really glad I had never decided to be a programmer.

As we take off our shoes and walk further into the room, a second Evelin appears right in front of us. This one is wearing a grey toga and has deep green eyes instead of the normal gold. The girl looks at Shinon then shrinks down to be the same height as her.

“Hello, how are you feeling?” the even smaller Evelin asks.

Shinon slowly nods, “Okay, tired.”

“That is good,” the girl, who at this point I was sure was Lyssa, conjures a DVD in her hand. “This is the information you need to use your newfound ability. If you allow it, Lyssa can upload it as a dream learning module. So you can learn while you sleep.”

Shinon turns her head to me, giving me a questioning look.

I smile bending down, “It’s your decision, but there is no harm in learning it in your sleep or doing it slowly yourself.”

The girl nods, looking deep in thought before looking back at Lyssa. “We will dream learn.”

I smile, looking at Lyssa. "Does she need something extra for that?”

“No, the brain enhancement Lyssa gave her can be used for this purpose as well, with no issues.”

“In that case, I guess it is time for bed.” I say putting my hand on top of her head and rubbing her hair slightly.

Putting Shinon to bed was a rather simple affair as their little body seems rather exhausted already and as soon as she closed her eyes, she fell asleep. I make sure she is properly tucked in before I make it back to the living room. I sit down next to Evelin, not feeling like running around like the rest of the people.

“So, what are you up to?” I ask, planting a kiss on Evelin’s cheek.

“Sam and I are selecting music for our wedding,” Evelin answers, leaning into me.

I look at the screen that was still filled with line after line of code. “Uhm, this looks like code, not a playlist.”

“Well, yeah, we need to have a way to switch songs depending on the situation, so we are making a system that looks at who is currently around on the dance floor, and what kind of music has already been played,” Evelin explains with a proud grin.

“So you made a system that selects the best song?” I ask for confirmation.

“Basically, yes, it does some other things as well, but basically yes,” Evelin says.

I look at the two women and ask the one question I still had out loud: “So why are we not just hiring a DJ?”

Both of them pause looking at each other with a sheepish look.

“Mostly because we forgot.” Evelin admits.

I try my best to suppress a giggle and try putting on a stern tone. “Please tell me that you at least plan to hire a chef instead of making a cooking robot.”

“I was thinking Lyssa could cook, unless you disagree?” Evelin says, sounding rather unsure.

I give her another kiss. "Sounds perfect to me. And to be honest, I am happy that you were working on it already, but wasn’t Maniac supposed to do the planning?”

Evelin smiles brightly, “Yeah she asked us to take care of it while she made some calls, something about ice.”

I quirk an eyebrow. “Do I want to know?”

Evelin shrugs. “I don’t know, but there are lots of reasons to, you know, get ice from chilling champagne to serve cold dishes, so I think it’s better to just ask her.”

I nod, sending a quick message to the girl in question, still finding it slightly wondrous that both girls had decided to create their own unique caller ID.

“You called, my Princess?” Maniac asks, appearing in the room and doing a small bow.

“I was just wondering what you were doing while Sam and Evelin were setting up the music.

“Ah, I was trying to order the ice.” Maniac says with a confident smile.

“Ice?” I ask, still feeling unsure of its inclusion at this stage of the planning, sure getting ice for champagne and other drinks made some sense, but this felt too early, unless the crazy girl was further along with the planning than I had anticipated.

“Yes, ice, for the ice sculpture.”

“We are having an ice sculpture?” I ask in surprise.

“Don’t all weddings have ice sculptures, you know, a central piece and all that.”

“Uhm no, that is the wedding cake,” I say, watching the dots connect in Maniac's head in real time. “That does, however, not mean we can’t have an ice sculpture if you want it, just that it is not required.”

The purple menace perks up slightly at that and nods to herself. “Don’t worry, I am on the job.”

I smile at her, not pointing out that her being on the job was kind of my worry, but at the end of the day, how we got married did not really matter to me all that much. I just wanted the ability to call her my wife, so if the wife wanted a crazy wedding, then we would have a crazy wedding. We talk some more about the wedding, but Maniac had only just started with planning and was only gathering the things that would not decay over time since we had not set a date yet.

When prompted if the wedding planner had thought of a date yet, I was surprised to hear that she had not bothered with it at all. Maniac wanted to first make sure the children were stable enough for them to either be there or at home with a babysitter without going into a complete panic attack.

This all made my heart swell a few sizes. Having the purple twins finally expanding their horizons and allowing people in and giving proper attention and care to their children was something I had not dreamed possible a few years ago.

At some point the rest of the girls join us, Cali thoroughly wrung out by the excitement. I make sure to give the little girl a frozen treat and sit her down, allowing for a little break.

“No ice cream for Shinon?” Cali asks, looking at me with big puppy eyes.

“Shinon is asleep. She will get some once she has woken up,” I say, patting Cali's black, silken hair.

Cali gives a nod, then starts scooping the treat into her mouth.

“So how is Shinon?” Sam asks, looking a bit uncomfortable.

“I think she is doing well. Her only complaint was that she was feeling tired, so I assume that means she is not in any pain.” I look at the purple twins for confirmation.

“Sounds about right,” Maniac confirms.

“Yeah, we only felt a bit disoriented when, you know, we were separate, but we got used to that really quickly,” Evelin adds.

Sam nods, “That is good. Having gone over all their internal files made me want to shower my brain,”

I sigh, thinking back to the situation we found the kids in. “Yeah, that was not great. Luckily, they have us now, so we should just make sure they are happy from now on.”

“Well, call me if you need some help,” Sam says with a teasing smile. “I am sure the babysitting money will be amazing.”

I shake my head, “Guess I should not have expected anything less from your friend.”

Evelin just shrugs. “It’s not like she is wrong or anything.”

The sound of little steps on the floor makes everyone turn around to spot two identical redheads with blue slitted eyes. One hiding slightly behind the other and holding on to the sleeve of the front girl.

“Wow, they look even more alike than you too.” Sam comments

I stand up, kneeling down to be at eye level. “How are you girls feeling? Are you hurting anywhere?”

Instead of answering, both girls jump at me, wrapping their tiny arms around me in a hug, making me have to try really hard not to start crying. “I guess that means you are good. Want to reintroduce yourself so everyone knows your names?”

Both girls let go, taking a step back. They quickly look at each other before the left one speaks, “I am Shinobu.”

“And I am Shinon,” the right one says.

“Well, at least they're easy to remember.” Maniac points out. “But are a bit similar."

“It’s fine, we can use nicknames to make a difference,” Evelin butts in.

Sam snaps her fingers. “What about Nonon and Boo?”

I turn back to the kids in question. “Do you like those nicknames, or do you prefer your full name?”

Both of the girls look at each other again, then smile. "We like them,” Boo says