Limitless Evolution As a Snake

I stop breathing for a second, which is a weird thing to do when you’re technically smoke half the time, but I manage it. Cherry’s looking up at me, waiting for an answer to a question she hasn’t even asked yet, and Lyra’s gone quiet against my side in that way that means she’s listening real close now too.

Old mate, you don’t remember any of it, the ledger? The book. The blood everywhere, the white space?

[System: ...what ledger]

The big one. The one that showed up right when I pulled the poison out. Pages just flipping on their own, my whole body writing itself into something, and then everything went white, and I woke up looking like this.

[System: mate, what have u taken? Are you high, ARE YOU HIGH RIGHT NOW]

I’m not fucking high, I need answers, You took my human blueprint, that was you, you did that, you answered to whatever the hell you answer to and now you’re telling me you werent there?

[System: look champ i dont know what to tell u, if it aint in the manual it didnt happen, and my manual’s currently got sauce all over page one so]

That’s not an answer, that’s a stain.

[System: it’s the only answer ur getting]

Cherry’s still staring up at me, waiting, and I realise I’ve gone quiet for way too long, just sitting here yelling at a voice in my skull that apparently blacked out during the single most important moment of my entire life. Something crawls cold down my spine that has nothing to do with being a reptile.

If the system doesn’t remember turning me into whatever the hell I am now, then nobody does. Not really, damn, not even me.

”Matt?” Cherry pokes my smoky flank, her fingers sinking into the cool haze. ”Are you okay? you were quiet for a bit there.”

”Yeah,” I say, and my voice comes out rougher than I mean it to. ”Yeah, sorry, I’m here.”

Lyra shifts, tilting her head up at me with those tired green eyes, reading me the way she always does. It’s like she has a built-in lie detector for the tension in my coils. ”What’s wrong?”

Not a question; she already knows something’s wrong. She just wants me to say it out loud.

”I don’t actually know what happened to me,” I admit, and saying it feels like pulling a tooth. ”Something changed, something big, and I can’t tell you what. But I’m still me.”

Cherry’s mouth drops open a little. ”Wait, so you’re still you, though?”

”Yes, I am- still me. It’s okay.”

[System: for the record, I’m choosing to interpret this as a group hallucination and moving on]

Yeah, mate, real professional.

[System: I try]

I press a kiss to the top of her head because it’s easier than looking her in the eye for this next part. ”Problem is, that poison did something to me. Something permanent. It burned out my human side completely. I’m not gonna be able to switch back to human, not even a little, im going to forever be a monster.”

”I take a breath in and out then look down at her. ”No more hybrid form, no more looking normal, ” I say with a smirk. ” I’m just gonna be this from now on.” I gesture down at the smoke curling off my scales, thick and endless. ”Full snake, full monster, forever.”

The room goes quiet except for something sizzling faintly down the hall.

”So I gotta ask you something, and I need you to actually think about it before you answer.” My voice comes out rougher than I mean it to. God, this is some serious anime protagonist bullshit. ”If you don’t want this... to be with a guy who’s never gonna have hands again, I get it. But I need to know if you’re still in, Cherry. If you’ll still have me like this.”

Cherry blinks up at me. Okay, here it comes. The ’let’s just be friends’ speech. Brace for impact. My internal armour is up, shields at maximum. I’m totally ready for this. Probably.

Instead, her horn stumps stop twitching. She reaches up with both hands, grabs a fistful of my smoke body—which shouldn’t even be possible—and holds on as if her life depends on it.

”You’re an idiot,” she says, voice cracking a little. ”I don’t care what you look like; I never did. I just need you to stay with me; everyone always leaves me. And I just wanna know you’re gonna be okay.”

A knot of tension deep in my coils that’s been clenched tight since the party finally lets go. ”I’m gonna be fine,” I tell her, and mean it. ”Just gotta get used to some new rules is all.”

”There’s more, isn’t there?” Lyra says quietly, not really a question. She knows me too well by now.

”Matt-” Lyra starts, but I shake my head.

”We’re gonna figure out exactly who that harpy is, and then we’re gonna make her wish she’d never heard the name Mathew. I also have a plan for my two loving uncles who set all this up.”

Cherry’s grip on my smoke tightens like she’s bracing for something. ”You’re gonna hurt her?” Cherry’s tail is wagging like some sort of puppy. Ah, I forgot she gets off on this shit.

”I’m gonna do a lot more than hurt her.” The words come out low, flat. ”But not tonight.”

”Tonight we rest, and tomorrow we plan. Let’s just let everything flow for now, yeah? We’re safe here. Nobody’s getting through that door without going through Desmond and about six locks first.”

Lyra huffs a tired laugh into my side. ”Very reassuring, considering the last door we thought was safe.”

”Fair point.” I press my snout down against the top of her head, flicking my tongue out to taste the air around her, still a little sour with poison sweat, but underneath, it’s just Lyra. ”New rule: I get to taste-test everyone twice from now on.”