KotLC if Sophie was a Delinquent Badass

Therapy In Hollywood!

Tiergan and I are one in the fucking same on the down low. I'm convinced he's just me, but slightly more put together.

In his defence it worked, he got me to actually talk about shit and, hey, he made it involve Telepathy training. What got me though, is when I asked him what we were doing the fucker replied with, "Breaking the law," and said he came here a lot? And we blended in well too because Hollywood people have some crazy costumes.

Tiergan is a lowkey criminal and I am living for it.

And now I know for sure I can block human thoughts out of my brain! Aren't I amazing? Still got a sick headache from the five seconds before I started to though.

That still doesn't explain why I'm having a therapy session on a bench in Hollywood.

"Hey, Tier-"

"I'm not buying you anything."

"Oh, come on!" I complained. "I only brought two decent outfits from home and they're getting worn out! Do you want me to wear tights and tunics all the time? Is that it?" Tiergan just looked done with my shit.

"I don't have human money, Sophie-"

"It's not hard to hack an ATM," I slipped. "Wait, shit-"

"—and it's not what we're here for." So he's going to ignore the ATM comment?

"But can it be?".

"No." He said, but I can see that he's rethinking it. "Okay, if you're honest about what memory would found that's freaking you out, we can get one outfit."

"Three!"

"Two."

"Deal." I solemnly nodded, with my arms folded. "Mini-me knew exactly what Eternalia looks like. And I want to complement my own architectural skill because damn, it was a perfect model. But who's fucking with my head—and I know you know 'cause otherwise why would you bring me here?"

Tiergan looked like he was doing that thing where you try to organize your thoughts but it's takes forever because there's a lot of information and you don't know how to word it. Or maybe I'm projecting.

"There's a lot I can't tell you." We're already starting beautifully. "Not yet, at least. but I'll try to explain what I can."

"Like Prentice?" He went rigid.

"How..?"

"Rumors. And he's pretty much at the top my Sophie Sperm Donor Candidates list right now."

"He's not your father." I could make a Star Wars joke here but I won't.

"How do you know? He was kind of jailed because of me so I figured..."

"No, no. He was exiled he was hiding hiding your existence, not because he was responsible for it."

"Then why incapacitate the poor guy? That's mean."

"Mean is one why to put it," Tiergan sighed. "Prentice was a Keeper for a group called the Black Swan, and the information he was hiding was you. Where to find you. I’d warned Prentice there would be consequences for helping the Black Swan, but he didn’t listen. And when he was captured, he sacrificed his sanity to keep you hidden. Now he lives in exile, his mind a shattered, useless mess."

"I'm guessing that was Alden's fault." And the annoyed look made a comeback.

"Yes, Alden was the one who found him. I pleaded for mercy on Prentice’s behalf, but the Council demanded to know what Prentice hid in his mind, so Alden oversaw a memory break. It’s a type of probe-"

"—That shatters someone’s sanity. I know things," I said in an attempt to lighten the very dark mood. "But what's the Black Swan exactly?" 

"Something our society doesn’t know what to do with." He wrung the edge of his cape between his hands. "The name is a metaphor. For thousands of years humans were convinced there was no such thing as a black swan. So when a black swan was found, it became a symbol of something that shouldn’t exist but does. A small group of insurgents in our society adopted the name. A brewing rebellion—a black swan—in a society where rebellion isn’t supposed to exist."

A beat of silence then—"Hold on. How do you know so much?"

"You're not the only on with secrets you'd rather not share."

Wait. "Oh my god, Tiergan, stop being a fucking cryptid and say you're involved with them. Jeez."

Tiergan huffed in suprise. "I'm not involved with them!"

"You are! I can tell!" I said standing up.

"When did you manifest as an Empath! You're so annoying." That fact that he's calling me annoying when he just tried to scare me off the trail with wits and riddles. Shameful!

"You keep telling me." I rolled my eyes. "You aren't the bad guys, though?"

"I have nothing to do with them—and the situation is a bit more complicated that who's good and who's bad."

"You're starting so sound like Keefe." I folded my arms and tried to connect some new dots because we are getting no where with this conversation.

AND THEN IT HIT ME!

"Wait, wait, wait. The Black Swan have their curved swan necklace thing, yeah? So what's this?" I pulled up a screenshot of an article from a while ago. By a while, I mean before I came here in the first place. The creepy picture of the cult dudes playing in the fire with the white eye symbols on their cloaks. I thought I would make a meme out of it but this works too!

Tiergan squinted at the screen and hummed. "Project that onto your memory log and give me the page, I'll look into it." Then he paused. "Did you show Alden that?"

"Nope. Half the time he just blows me of for being a delusional kid if I'm being honest—my words not his!"

Tiergan looked relieved. And now I got to squish that relief into tiny ass pieces as I drag him to the nearest ATM! "This is illegal," he said as I pushed buttons. "Why do you even know an override for an ATM?"

"'This is illegal' says the guy who dragged me from school to the Forbidden Cities for a DL therapy sesh," I said, making sure to enunciate 'Forbidden Cities' to sound as ridiculous to him as it did to me. He shrugged so I continued "To your question: A bored child with unlimited internet access can do anything."

"'Internet'?"

"Oh, my God."

To my relief, there was a good thrift store near buy. Now, the average same person would be asking Sophie, why would you buy edgy band T-shirts? Well! I had to find a new way to annoy people and showing up to some kind of 'formal' event in a T-shirt that (according to the old ladies) might summon a demon seems to be the way to go!

(And I was ruining a good amount of my clothes with Alchemy practice. Sorry, Dex.)

"Where would you even wear that?" Tiergan was standing in a corner, pretending to not be interested and looking like a noble from a Renaissance fair.

"Somewhere where people would be annoyed the most," I replied, trying to pick between and weird vintage shirt and a baggy ripped jeans and pretending I didn't hear him snort. I ended up dropping them both on Tiergan. The perks of having money! Whether it was mine or not don't matter!

"Skateboarders are hot, don't you think?" I said, eyeing something very special.

"That looks dangerous."

"That wasn't the question."

"We came here to buy clothes."

"That also wasn't the question." I GOT TWO! One of these will be a great gift investment.

Sneaking these things up to my room was rather easy. Edaline and Grady were busy with the animals and didn't even notice I dropped home early. Didn't mean Tiergan didn't mumble things like "Never again" all the way and back.

I was sure to thank him for his service. Don't worry!