by Saless
Chapter 86
“So you believe it was wrong of you to hit your wife, but not your daughter?” Jill asked angrily.
George glanced at Jill in surprise, “I just said I was sorry!” he said grumpily.
Jill tapped her finger to her temple, “I can hear your thoughts and feel your emotions. You really are sorry about hitting Mary, but you still think you were justified in hitting Sarah.”
“There doesn't have to be any evidence, you know.” Tiffany growled, fingering her knife. George shrank back so far he nearly overturned the couch.
“Wait a minute.” Sarah said. “You really are sorry for hitting Mom?” George nodded. “And you won't do it again, no matter how much she supports me?” Another, reluctant, nod. “Okay, that's good enough for me. So long as you leave Mom alone.”
“What?!” Tiffany exclaimed. “You can't just let this go!”
Erica sighed, “I thought she might do this. Fortunately, it's not just up to her. Right Mary?”
Mary nodded, “That's right. I appreciate your concern for me, Sarah, but George has to learn that what he did was wrong and apologize sincerely before I'd even consider forgiving him. Your safety is also important, and I'm not sure George wouldn't do something stupid at this point. Well, something else stupid.” George winced at that and looked down in shame.
Tiffany smiled at Mary and then turned to George. She was pleased to see that her efforts to make her shadows act like mist were working, and that it was freaking Mr. Kinsley out. “So are we going to try and teach him a lesson, or just get rid of him?” she asked with a wicked grin for George.
“What do you think Jill, is there any hope for him?” Erica asked. She didn't sound like she believed that likely.
Jill was silent for a few minutes as she gazed into George's mind. Finally, she sighed and said, “I don't know. His prejudices are deeply ingrained. I'm not even sure if he'd get violent around Sarah again or not. He stopped before for fear of being found out by Mike, but we all know now, so that's not the deterrent it once was. I think he probably won't get violent with Mary again, but that's the most I can say.”
Vash appeared on Jill's shoulder and gazed at George as well. He is difficult. He truly believes he was trying to help his 'son' before. These beliefs blind him to the truth of the situation. The simplest solution would be to dispose of him, but I doubt Sarah would go for that. he said. He uncoiled himself and wrapped his tail around Jill's neck, stepping forward onto her breasts with his front paws and spreading his wings. It had the desired effect of frightening George, as Vash smiled when George recoiled and knocked the couch over. He didn't even try to get back up, just hid behind the couch and glanced fearfully over it.
That's not very comfortable. Would you mind? Jill said irritably. Vash curled back up on her shoulder with an apologetic feline grin.
“I would like to find a solution that doesn't involve killing him or throwing him away like garbage, yes.” Sarah agreed.
Erica shook her head in regret, “You ruin all my fun!”
Sarah smiled and kissed her. “Sorry, but he is my father.” she said. “More or less.” she added with a glance at her feminized father.
“I think the best solution is that we get a divorce and you change him back. He can take care of himself after that.” Mary said sadly.
“Can we trust him not to make problems for us?” Erica asked skeptically.
He may try to do something to Sarah. Perhaps he would benefit from some of Sarah's memories? Vash suggested.
Jill nodded, “Sounds like a good idea. Sarah, what do you say?”
“Go ahead.” Sarah replied. Jill and Vash carefully selected all of Sarah's memories of the abuse she'd received from her father, both mental and physical, and then fed them to George one after another. He started in surprise, and then clutched his head in pain.
“What are you doing?!” he exclaimed.
“Giving back what you gave Sarah.” Jill absently replied as she continued to feed him memories. He collapsed to the floor and writhed in pain. It was several minutes of this before Jill and Vash had located all the memories and forced him to relive them from Sarah's perspective. He was left whimpering on the floor afterwards.
Sarah started to go to him, but Erica held her back. “Even in this form he still might try to hurt you. Let me check on him.” Erica said. She stepped around the couch to check on George and found him lying there with his eyes wide open, panting and shuddering. He seemed completely unaware of her presence. “How does it feel from that perspective, Goerge?” Erica asked.
He didn't react. He may take some time to assimilate all that we sent to him. Vash said. Erica shrugged and went back to Sarah.
“So what exactly happened, anyway?” Jill asked, looking at Mary.
“Well, I told him that he needed to apologize to Sarah for everything that he'd done, and that I would probably still want a divorce after that, unless he could convince me that he had changed. He argued that he was just teaching his son how to be a man, which is ridiculous. Even his own father didn't believe in that. I told him all he was doing was abusing his daughter and that I didn't want him around if he couldn't see that. He got angry and said he wasn't going to let me tell him how to raise his son. I also got mad and said he had a daughter, not a son, and he hit me. I was so shocked I didn't react at first, and then I told him to get out.” Mary said.
“Obviously he didn't.” Erica said dryly.
Mary nodded, “Yes, instead he hit me again. We were both screaming at each other, but he kept hitting me. Then something happened. I don't know what. But the next time he hit me I hardly felt it. So I hit him back, and he was flung back into the wall. It was like he had suddenly become almost weightless! I didn't even have to hit him, I just pushed him and he went flying. But then I knocked him into the TV and the entire entertainment center collapsed. I thought I'd killed him, and all the strength just ran out of my body. The next thing I knew was waking up in my bed alone, with all my wounds gone.”
“So you're set on getting a divorce, I assume?” Jill asked.
“I don't see how I can do anything else. After everything that's happened I just can't see staying with him. I can't trust him anymore, and he lied to me all these years about what was happening with Sarah.” Mary replied.
“It's all my fault.” Sarah said forlornly.
“Don't start that again Sarah! George did all of this to himself. He's just lucky that you're too kind to do anything permanent to him.” Mary said sternly.
“Your mom's right Sarah! None of this is your fault. After everything that he did it was inevitable that they'd split up once your mom knew the truth. Even without him attacking her.” Erica said.
“Besides, you don't really want your mom to stay with your father if he's going to beat her. You said yourself you didn't want your mom to be in a situation where she'd have to kill him to protect herself, and it looks like that's just the kind of situation she could have ended up in.” Tiffany added.
Sarah sank to the floor, Erica holding on to her the whole way. Mike looked up and licked her face once she was in reach. You were expecting to be rejected by both your parents when we first came here. Just be happy one of your parents is smart enough to see what a wonderful daughter they have! You could have ended up without any family, like Tiffany. Mike thought.
Sarah sighed in defeat, “I guess you're right. I should be happy to have one parent who supports me.”
Everyone was startled when George suddenly sat up. He looked around wildly and his gaze locked onto Mary. “Mary, please, forgive me?” he begged as he crawled towards her. “I know I've been a louse, but please give me another chance!”
He was almost within reach of Mary when Jill suddenly yelled, “Look out!” George jumped to his feet and lunged forward, wrapping his tiny hands around Mary's throat. Mary was so surprised she didn't react at first and was soon clawing at his hands to try and get a breath.
“Oh no!” Tiffany exclaimed as George stiffened and slid to the floor. “I'm so sorry Sarah, I just reacted!” Sarah looked back at her father and saw Tiffany's throwing knife sticking out of his back.
To Be Continued…
Comments
Complications
Why are there always complications? And I wonder, is it really possible for an untrained teenage girl to choke an adult woman despite her best efforts?
And I think George was not thinking clearly at the time. It is obvious since if he had this choking in mind when he began moving to Mary Jill would have picked it up sooner.
Now, we have a dilemma. Does Sarah try to save him, or let him wither and die? Okay, letting him die is OOC for her. So it's no brainer. The true question is - what is more powerful: Shadowkin's Disintegration Knives or The Healing Water and effects thereof that Sarah copied?
Faraway
Faraway
Big Closet Top Shelf
Where you can fool around like you want to and most you get is some bemused good ribbing!
Well, George did catch her
Well, George did catch her by surprise...
Saless
"But it is also tradition that times *must* and always do change, my friend." - Eddie Murphy, Coming To America
My point exactly.
To catch a mind reader by surprise you either have to be unthinking, to act on pure instinct, or to be able to shield your mind.
Faraway
Faraway
Big Closet Top Shelf
Where you can fool around like you want to and most you get is some bemused good ribbing!
Impling it was a spur of the moment, instinctual attack or
ex-dad has emerging mental skills that blocked any warning from Jill until the attack was underway.
Can he be saved? Is that a good thing, IE can he learn to be a better person be it female or male? saving a unredeamable killer would be charitable but stupid. Even a adolecent girl can use a knife or gun.
Hum somebody suggested if Sarah can heal him of the shadowkind disintegration knife his female body would be destroyed and he could only be a man. I suspect it's more likely Sarah curing her would lock him in a female body though hopefully one that will grow into a healthy adult and not stuck as an adolescent. My reasoning is when she copies a power it become far stronger than the original in that Sarah has access to a huge reservoir of magic. Inhealing the girl her magic couldso reenforce ex-dad's genits/magical matrix/soul as female as to make it near inpossible to change her back into a man.
John in Wauwatosa
P.S. Yet another terrible chapter, Saless, As you can see virtually no one commented on it -- snicker --
John in Wauwatosa
Death by stupidity.
Could it be like 'suicide by enemy action?' He had to know that he would die if he did that.
Pride truly does come before a fall. In his case, it blinded him to the obvious consequences of his actions.
Of course, it is possible that Sarah can heal him.
Then what?
You're not asking me are
You're not asking me are you?! 'Cuz I, like, totally don't know! These people just keep doing stuff and telling me to write it down, I never know what they're going to do next! ;)
Saless
"But it is also tradition that times *must* and always do change, my friend." - Eddie Murphy, Coming To America
Ask you?
I wouldn't dream of it. You wouldn't answer, anyhow.
Anyhow, I'm confident that Sarah will try. She might even try ka-boying him without carrying the injury on to his new body.
Hum.....
I think he will be saved. I believe Sarah will save him some how not totaly sure how. Also, he is just a dumb a** pulling that stunt that he should have know that it would have ended badly for him. /sigh............... Some people never learn.
Take Care
Kittien69 ^_^
Take Care
Kittien69 ^_^
However she might
do it, You would have to say Sarah WILL try to save her father...Whether he is worth saving is another question altogether ....To me George seems to be the sort of man? that would look to have some sort of revenge on Sarah and Mary in the future if saved.... Given that we know Magic is on the increase, What is there to stop George, If spared, Joining up with forces from the dark side and getting his revenge that way?
Kirri
His mindset forced ex-dad to attack
Vash and Jill both said dad is so blinded from the truth, so convinced he is right he doesn't see things as the others do.
The attack may have been because he took as real the coments about it being best/easiest to kill him. He has experienced the pain he caused his child and assumes they want him to die. They have already made him a girl so whats to stop them from doing worse to him or so he may be thinking.
If you are into pop TV/movie psych he could also be suicidal, knowing if he attacked in that little teens body he stood no chance.
Or maybe he was acting on instinct and lashed out in fear/anger forgetting he's no longer the man he was.
At this point, unless a shadowkin can cancle the effect of their weapons, only Sarah has the potental to save him. I suspect the healing water might not be enough.
But will she? He instinct would be to help but all the pain of their past and his continued rejection of her might make her subconscious veto that. Where did he get the idea beating his son would make him a man? From what mom said the grandfather was not like that so where did ex-dad learn to be a child abuser?
Poor Sarah. Poor Tiffany, now she thinks she's an out of control killer but if her shadowkin powers were right she had to attack to save Sarahs mom, dad could have a knife or other weapon.
John in Wauwatosa
John in Wauwatosa
Indeed it makes me wonder.
Apparently George considered himself right to 'help his son be a man'. Now, if his father was not nearly that loyal to... 'physical straightening', then George must have picked it from somewhere else. And Jill and Vash would have likely known if it was some concious knowledge, would they not?
Is it possible that George has a Dark Secret in suppressed memories? Something that convinces him that whatever he did was still much better than possible alternatives?
Faraway
Faraway
Big Closet Top Shelf
Where you can fool around like you want to and most you get is some bemused good ribbing!
Sarah's Dad Could Be
A mmanifestation of Mana, and as such will have a dark secret that only death can reveal. Once mana's power is released, then Sarah's dad will be free to be himself, or herself if he is like Sarah. But that would mean that Sarah's healing touch would counter the dagge's power and return the bodt to say a preteen state where he-shee must consume vast amounts of swets, fats to fuel the restoration.
May Your Light Forever Shine
May Your Light Forever Shine
Along what Stanman said...
When I first read "Sarah's dad could be a manifestation of Mana", I thought his next point would be that the dagger somehow would only kill his female form, making him immune to ever transforming into a female again. That certainly would be along the lines of what happens in this story, where people have a way of becoming what is in their nature. Immune to femininity certainly is down the dad's ally.
Unless he is possessed ...
... by something truly malevolent or has a death wish the size of Utah, George has proven himself too stupid to live. Unless experiencing all of what he did to Sarah made him feel so awful about what he'd done that he wanted them to kill him rather than live with it, so he chose death by Shadowkin.
It will be interesting to see how it plays out.
Randalynn
Great follow up!
Speculation is rampant. I go for the theory that Sarah's dad is/was possessed by a magical being/force that foresaw the future and Sarah's role. This Being then tried to keep Sean from becoming Sarah and learning of her powers and using them by inhabiting his/her father and beating Sean. It is possible if Sean had not become Sarah, her powers would not have developed so quickly and powerfully.
All we know at this point is that Tiffany's knives leave their target a pile of unidentifiable ashes with in 24 hours. Can Sarah raise the dead? You must be alive to be healed. Will changing her father back to male save him? If he was possessed what will the inhabiting spirit do?
The real issues is if they allow Sarah's father to die, how will they explain his sudden disappearance? If they let him live how will they control him? They can't let him alone even as a teenage girl as the last scene shows he still has the memories and motivations of his male form.
Good Cliff hanger Saless. (I always wondered how I'd hang a cliff.) Your stories always generate comments that are almost as interesting as the story. I love reading them.
Hugs,
Trish-Ann
~There is no reality, only perception~
Hugs,
Trish Ann
~There is no reality, only perception~
To hang a cliff is easy
go to the hardware store and check the shades and blinds section.
John in Wauwatosa
John in Wauwatosa
Can Sarah raise the dead?
Quoting Vash, chapter 77:
Once daddy has disintegrated Sarah wouldn't be able to resurrect him (except if she's even more powerful than Vash can imagine).
However, John stayed alive for several hours before disintegrating into a pile of black dust, so I expect the same for George. Sarah should have ample time to heal him if she can overcome the magic of the Shadowkin knife at all. Since everything hints at her being really powerful, she might just be able to do that.
--- Martin
I'm Inclined to Agree...
...that Sarah can't prevent the disintegration of George's body. (And changing him back won't help, Saless established that injuries carry over when Sarah had to heal George's female body after the last change.)
I'm surprised, actually, that there's so much call for saving him. Unless someone can demonstrate that he was possessed by an evil being (I understand why there's so much discussion on that point), he was stopped in the act of attempted murder. Granting that his death was unfortunate and unnecessary, there's still justification for it. (Taking Tiffany's knives away sounds like a really good idea, though.)
The real question may be why Tiffany didn't reflexively kill Marvin when he threatened her with blackmail.
Eric
Saving George
Saless has established that a transformation can be done where the injuries are transferred over to the new form. The wording implies, however, that transferring the injuries is an option.
If George can't be saved, both Sarah and Tiffany will have to deal with guilt -- whether truly justified or not.
I would guess that Tiffany knifed George because he was a clear and present threat. That wasn't the case with Marvin.
Did she overreact? That is the question asked of almost every person (police or civilian) who has used deadly force when threatened. When threatened with your death or the death of loved ones or those under your protection, hesitating to pull the trigger can be deadly. That's why cops and some civilians spend lots of time in a special range where a variety of targets pop up. The shooter then has a split second to determine if the target is a threat or not.
possessed?
If he's possessed, the possessing spirit may leave as soon as it realizes that it has been hit by a shadowkin knife. That will be great great news if Sarah can cure him.
By the way, the term 'cliffhanger' comes from the old serials (movie theater style) where the hero would be left hanging precariously on a cliff. It was essentially a marketing strategy.
Hey
The, ah 'guy' is really not having his best day ever so a little impetuous temper tantrum is not exactly a stretch. I mean here is doing his exerting authority thing and he gets whupped by his wife, then transformed into girlie and then mentally bashed with images of pain and fear that he probably can't really get a handle on, he's threatened with all sorts and then his wife says she's leaving. Might tend to make you just a teensy bit irrational. Then... he was a bit of a bastard and I see no reason to think he's possessed, but a knife in the back is a pinch overkill. Tiff will have to deal with that reflex action emotionally, prompted solely by potential physical harm I believe, not a threat such as Mr MIB's.
Anywhoo, this is interesting and yes we do all wonder...can Sarah stop hi...er her dusting? Sort of hope so, but hey stuff happens. IS this the watercooler equivalent BC style?
Kristina
This is TG fiction, for crying out loud!
There are any number of petticoat punishment scenarios available for reforming George OR Why can't Satah turn George into a toddler girl, one easily handled by Mary, who mysteriously finds a magic hairbrush with which to raise her up right? :-)
BE a lady!
That would be my inclination.
When an engine is really messed up, you can only make it work again with a total rebuilding. Just planing the heads and installing a new gasket isn't going to do the job. The only other real option is to scrap the engine. Leaving it as it is is asking for a catastrophic failure.
The three telepaths are in a good position to judge the extent of the repair work required. Just talking to him and demanding an apology has proven to be ineffective.
However painful the process, surgery needs to be done in order to save the patient.
I hope George is not able to be saved
No one should have to endure forced girlhood/manhood/babyhood/infanthood or mind re-writing according to someone else's specifications. If he dies, maybe the lesson will be not to try and change someone by force to "cure" them of hatred and bigotry.