Chapter Sixty-Four – Borealis

She watched as her sisters, her brand new sisters, of which there were many, pranced around and danced and fought between each other.

It was a little overwhelming, but at the same time… not? She wasn’t nervous, she wasn’t on the verge of panic. She was just sitting there and watching as her many sisters did their own thing. With each other. Without her, because she was new, and didn’t know them well.

She wasn’t exactly sure how to put it to words, but she did know how it made her feel: envious.

Not extremely so, but… Teddy had one arm wrapped around one of Trinity’s necks and was burying her knuckles into Trinity’s hair. Another Trinity was munching on Teddy’s calf while yet another was trying to free her stuck self by tugging Teddy’s arm free. Teddy was screaming “Rabies! Rabies!” for the room at large to hear, though she’d occasionally break out into laughter, cutting off her own chant.

Off to the side, Athena was next to Maple, and the two of them were leaning close to each other, both talking in low tones, sometimes breaking out into giggles. Maple was fussing with something small, a remote? And she sometimes passes it to Athena who’d inspect it before returning it.

She had no idea what they were doing, but they were doing it together.

In the meantime, she was sitting on the far end of the couch, separated from all the rest by only a few dozen centimetres, but that gulf felt massive at the moment.

It wasn’t just physical. She was… not the same as her sisters. They all felt younger. Energetic and loud and very silly, but in a fun way. She felt that too, but maybe not as much as they did. She could be silly, if she wanted, but it would be… sinking into silliness, as opposed to just being naturally silly.

She wasn’t sure if she wanted to do that yet. But maybe she’d have to, if she wanted to fit in with the rest.

And she desperately wanted to.

“Hey.”

She looked up and to the side, then smiled as she discovered her only bigger sister coming over. Emily had two cans of soda in hand, both closed, both a little damp on the outside. “Want me to scoot over?” she asked.

“Just a little,” Emily said. She sat down next to her, then handed one of the cans over. “Here. I know what you like yet. It’s orange flavoured. Teddy and Athena don’t like it, but Maple and Trinity do.”

“Oh. Thanks,” she said as she took one of the cans. It was cool to the touch. She popped the tab, then sniffed it before taking a swallow. It was fizzy and sweet and… she wasn’t sure if she liked it right away, but it wasn’t all that bad.

“We’re going to need to get a bigger couch in here,” Emily muttered. She was hip-to-hip already, and there was only some space left on the rest of the couch. Just enough for Teddy and maybe one Trinity to squeeze in.

“I can help carry it in,” she said before raising an arm. She flexed and her bicep bulged up a little. “Being strong’s not part of my power or anything, but I think I should be pretty strong anyway.”

“Don’t go telling that to Teddy,” Emily said with a soft smile. “She’ll get jealous.”

“I’ll keep it to myself, then, eh?”

Emily nodded along, then looked her up and down. “So… I guess that leads to a safe subject. Did you want to talk about your powers?”

“Oh, yeah, I can do that. Did you want to see my stats screen?”

Emily considered it, then nodded. “Sure. Though I wouldn’t mind an explanation, if you don’t mind.”

She gestured before her, even if she knew that the gesture was entirely unneeded. It still felt right, and soon there was a small hovering screen for her sister to look at.

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Emily looked it over, then sighed. “We really need to work on your name. I don’t like having a sister whose name is nothing. It feels… wrong.”

“I can think of a few names!” Teddy said. She was still mid-fight with Trinity. “How about Lenin?”

“That’s a boy’s name,” Emily pointed out.

“What about Marx?”

“I… don’t think so,” Emily shot down.

She wasn’t so sure about that name either, so she wasn’t sad to see it go. “Did you want to see my skill? It’s really not much to look at.”

“I’d love to,” Emily said.

“I’m not sure what that does, exactly,” Emily admitted after reading from the screen.

“It lets me summon my antlers when I need them, and I can move them around. I don’t think most things can move my antlers, no matter how much they try,” she said. There was a bit of pride there. Her antlers were powerful. It might not seem that way at first, she realised, and maybe her sisters had more utility with their powers, but hers wasn’t to be underestimated so easily.

“I see. We really will have to do some sort of power testing, then. That might be exciting. I think Sam and some of the other minions would like to see that too. She seems interested in powers in a way that, ah, I’m not.”

She nodded. Power testing seemed like it could be fun. It would give her an opportunity to show what she could do. And impress her family. She might have been sitting in the middle of them, but she still felt like she was a little bit apart.

“Hmm, Bastion of the North,” Emily muttered. “Hey, what do you think of a north-themed name?”

“Like… Snow?” Maple asked, her head popping up as she joined the discussion.

“Uh, I’m white enough for it, I guess,” she said, looking at the skin of her forearm. “But my hair’s all wrong.”

“We’re not going to call the new sister Cold, or Freezing, or Big-Sister forbid, Slush,” Athena said.

“I like Slush,” Trinity said.

“Then you can call yourself that,” Athena snapped.

Trinity–now Slush–blinked in confusion, then all six of her eyes teared up. “But I’m Trinity.”

“No you’re not, Slush,” Teddy said.

“Girls,” Emily said warningly. “Trinity, you’re still Trinity, not Slush. No one is being named Slush.” Emily sighed. “It would probably be best to try for a pretty name. Something like… I don’t know, Aurora?”

She perked up. “Aurora?”

“Like the northern lights,” Emily explained. “They’re very pretty lights that shift in the atmosphere. I saw them once, when we went camping in late fall. They’re really spectacular in person.”

“I like that,” she said.

“Really? Well… okay then.” Emily smiled. “Welcome to the family, Aurora Wright.”

“Aurora Wright!” Trinity cheered.

“Aurora Wright!” Teddy followed, she was finally freed from Trinity’s grasp as the smaller girl raised her hands above her heads.

They started chanting her new name, soon mushing it together into a long mess of syllables, but Aurora didn’t mind. It was nice. Silly, yes, but nice all the same.

The party continued. It wasn’t a big one, not with so few people, but it was lively all the same. Maple turned on the TV and had it tuned in to a channel with loud music, then Athena dragged Maple into a very enthusiastic and poorly executed dance which Trinity joined into a moment later.

Aurora continued to stay near her big sister, but she didn’t feel quite as left out as she had just moments ago. She had a name now. She was part of this weird, chaotic family.

That niggling worry in her gut? The one that made her wonder if she’d be accepted or not? She was starting to think that maybe it was silly too.

“Right, I think I’m going to go cook something up, I can’t have you all eat nothing but sweets. That’s too irresponsible, even for me,” Emily said.

“I think I can help,” Aurora said.

“I’ll, ah, help too?” Maple suggested.

And so she found herself in the kitchen, with only two sisters instead of a bunch, preparing a meal with some confusion as she had to look into every drawer and cupboard to find anything, but it was still nice.

Aurora was starting to think that it wasn’t just the loud moments that were going to be enjoyable. The small, quiet ones had their place too. And if those moments had a place, then maybe there was room for a wayward moose girl as well.

***

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