Returning Patient: Chloe Black

Chloe showed up early to her appointment with Valli, just as she did every time back in high school. It was in a block of the day when she had little else to do except study, and the girls were still in class. Chloe had one of her class texts open on her lap. She hadn't turned a page in ten minutes; her mind was elsewhere.

She had a lot of things to explain to Valli. Her relationship with Pandora. Having a daughter. Burning bridges with her father. She had given up her free will to Pandora - how would she be able to explain to Valli why? How could she convince him that she needed to keep it this way? Chloe had a feeling he wouldn't approve - and she started to realize that mattered a lot to her. Valli was like a beacon of sanity to her, and she felt like she was doing so well and becoming so well adjusted when they stopped seeing each other.

And then Valli saw her in the VR. Chloe wondered if he was disappointed in her.

Now Valli was coming to the waiting room to collect her and start their session. She stood up and put her book away. "Good to see you again."

@Romi

Chloe almost flung herself into the comfortable seat in Valli's office, backpack in her lap. "Yeah, I remember. I decided against the memory wipe, since, you know... they're expensive. And it wasn't that bad once I forgot most of the stuff my VR-self came in with." It was kind of like waking up from a dream. So much of how she behaved only made sense in context. It didn't hurt like real traumas hurt.

"So, uh... I guess we have a lot of ground to cover. I stopped seeing you over a year ago and... wow. The whole thing with Old Man Jenkins happened. I knew Pandora and Malara then, too, and they both, ah, saved my life multiple times. Pandora and I already had a romantic thing going on by that point, but it was... mostly physical."

She took a deep breath and let it out. "You probably heard about a little of that on the news. Pandora actually died saving me from some undead, but she's able to come back from that, so it um, it worked out, I guess. I... killed the guy who trapped us there. And I left in an ambulance. And I still get death threats on twitter sometimes from nutjobs who think I was responsible for all that, somehow, but I'm mostly able to ignore them now.

"And I guess I'll just... keep summarizing the important stuff. Uh, after that, I learned that apparently Pandora had kids. And one of them is mine. That's Amber, who I, um, talked to you about a little bit in March. She and her sisters actually... uh, mature way faster than humans. They had a growth spurt that made them mentally and physically ten by Christmas time, and they're... mostly aging normally now I think. Amber moved in with me and my dad a little before Christmas, and... I think I'm doing a decent job of being a mom to her. I got to skip the really hard parts, I think."

Chloe leaned back in her chair. "Do you need me to, ah, repeat any of that? Or explain any of it? Because there's... a lot." She took a deep breath. "This year was a lot."

"My life must sound like some kind of fever dream," Chloe said with a laugh. "Freakin' magic island, right?" The meme going around on Manta Carlos twitter said 'fucking' instead of 'frickin,' though. She wondered if Valli would know the reference - did he even use Twitter?

Not that it was an important thing to ask about. She held her backpack tighter. "Anyway, yeah, there's more. There's the whole virus thing, which we already talked about a bit. And, ah, thanks again for taking my call like that. After all that, though, is the thing that's..." She laughed again. "This is the thing that's really stressing me out right now. After all that stuff. Hells. Uh, I had a falling out with my father, is the polite way of putting it. Last time we spoke, I think I said something about how my dad was doing his best and he seemed to really care about me."

Chloe had a weird smile. This was getting ridiculous. When she put it all together like this, her life was ridiculous. It was almost crazy enough for her to relapse into thinking this whole island was just a delusion or a coma dream she was having.

"So, I started to realize that Gabriel, uh, really isn't good people. I mentioned last time that that he was a Duke of Hell. I might not have talked as much about how he wanted me to join him in hell and serve him for all eternity, and to con humans out of their souls so they would suffer forever and make him stronger. So, that was a thing! And I wasn't really excited about doing it, but I didn't think he'd take no for an answer, maybe even to the tune of killing me or something if I said no. I basically had to use dark magic to kick him out of my life. So now Amber and I moved in with Pandora and Malara. And to top it all off:" she had a hand raised in a vague gesture, her voice raising with it like this was the punch line to some kind of sick joke: "In order to protect myself from my dad, I decided to bind my own will to Pandora's. We talked about it ahead of time, and she makes a point not to take advantage of me, but I still have to obey any command she gives me now."

Chloe became intensely aware of the spider-silk collar she had around her neck right now. It could have been mistaken for a choker or a necklace, but she still tried to hide it behind her backpack a little bit, resting her chin on the pack. It seemed to contradict her story a little bit, about how Pandora wasn't taking advantage of her. It was a symbol of her servitude. Not to mention, again, that Valli saw her in the simulation.

"Oh, and Amber got kidnapped. Right after I did the thing with my dad. She was one of the people who got kidnapped in that big scare. I was able to summon her back before they could hurt her too much, just a couple of days in, but they still cut off one of her horns. Because... fuck me, I guess, right?" She laughed again, putting that weird smile back on.

"That's the last of the important stuff."

"I'm... not actually sure," Chloe admitted, shifting in her seat. "He's not supposed to be able to be able to act against me or kill me or people I care about, but I still... see him in dreams sometimes. And a lot of times I get this fear, you know, that he's watching me or he sent a spy to watch me." She stared at the wall for a second, realizing that she sounded a little unhinged.

"I can't... really tell if he's actually harassing me through my dreams or if I'm just having nightmares. Or if he'd really be keeping an eye on me. If he's not really in my dreams, then we haven't spoken." Chloe wasn't sure if he could actually infiltrate her dreams like that, but she couldn't rule it out. She hugged her backpack tighter. She promised herself that she wouldn't check the walls and ceiling for suspicious insects.

"The kind of stuff you're talking about would be expensive." Chloe thought about the money she had in her savings account. She had wanted to stretch it out, invest most of it. It wasn't like she was making any money right now. "But I guess, you're right, it's worth looking into. Losing money sucks, but it probably sucks less."

"I can probably lean on some dark magic for a countermeasure to the spying. And I already have... well, demonic familiars. I didn't get them from my dad, they work for me directly in exchange for, uh, things that give them power, basically. They even helped me get away from him. So I can trust them." There was a bit of uncertainty in her voice. Chloe had been questioning their loyalty. She knew, logically, it wouldn't make sense for Nona or Ozzy to be working for Mikhainon. "I can summon them to be like bodyguards if I ever just want to feel safer."