Cleaning Up After The Ancients - Chapter 57

Chapter 57 - Ups and Downs

Standing in the doorway to one of the Atlantis Expedition designated rec rooms, Eventus took a moment to study Rayla. Noting with some interest as he did, how the genetic template he’d put together had resulted in a number of physical differences from her original genetic source outside of the obvious set of ears.

Dia had been roughly 160 centimeters tall with a broad chin, ocean blue eyes, a somewhat stocky build, and hair that took a significant amount of work the rare times when she had actually wanted it to lay straight.

Rayla on the other hand looked to be about 165 centimeters, had somewhat angular facial features, electric blue eyes, a more willowy build, and hair that looked like it would lay completely straight as a standard if it wasn't currently pulled up in a ponytail.

“Rayla.” He said, taking note of the way her ears twitched slightly at him calling her name, even if the elven woman herself didn't look away from the animated show playing on the television screen.

“Rayla.” He repeated in a more insistent tone.

She held up a finger to her lips,  “Shhh! It's the last episode!”

“Congratulations.” Sheppard offered in amusement as he walked up behind Eventus. “It's a teenager.”

“Technically she should have a biological age of twenty four.” Eventus corrected with a grimace. “But your point that I may have misjudged several factors is noted.”

“Twenty four?” Sheppard asked as he eyed Rayla skeptically. “I would have pegged her at twenty at best.”

“I said should have.” Eventus told him. “But her powers likely caused accelerated absorption of the growth medium, so I won't know her exact biological age for sure till I go back to the lab and check the logs.”

“You know she can hear us right?” Sheppard inquired.

“Yes.” Eventus confirmed, rolling his eyes at the idea that he wouldn't know how good her hearing was. “But you can tell by the way her ears are twitching slightly that she's tuning us out to focus on the animated production.”

It was a pretty obvious unconscious indicator of just where her attention was at any given moment. And while the ability to move her ears like that had been a purposeful design decision in the template, it was impressive to see the type of body language already developing from the ability.

Walking over to the coffee table, Eventus reached down and tapped the pause button on the remote control sitting there.

“Hey!” Rayla exclaimed, turning to him with an annoyed look on her face.

“It'll be there later.” Eventus reassured her. “I'm Eventus, I created you, and we need to have a talk.”

“You created me?” Rayla repeated, scrunching her forehead as she tried to process what he'd just told her “Like a god?”

Eventus twitched, because he just knew somewhere Ganos Lal and the other Ascended were probably laughing at him. 

“No, like a… Well… Like a regular person who creates another person…”

“Oh!” Rayla exclaimed as her eyes widened in seeming understanding. “You're my father!”

Eventus twitched again, as that was one of the associations the lifeform creation precepts strongly suggested a researcher in his position avoid claiming. The problem was he couldn't think of a better analogy, or at least not one that wouldn't give the entirely wrong impression.

“I suppose…”

“Huh.” Rayla muttered as she seemed to consider that for a moment. “Does that mean I'm a half-elf?”

“No.” Eventus corrected with a shake of his head. “You'd be considered a pueblooded elf.”

Technically she'd probably be considered something like a pureblooded high elf given Eventus had used Lantean genetics as a base. But creating that kind of definitive distinction was likely to lead to nowhere good, so he left it unmentioned.

“All right.” Rayla said, nodding seemingly to herself. “But does that mean I'm not a princess?”

“...What?” Eventus asked as he tried and failed to figure out how Rayla had ended up on that question.

“You're the leader of the Lanteans.” Rayla explained. “That makes you kind of like a king, which would make me, your daughter, a princess. But I can tell from your ears you aren't an elf, and since I'm a pueblooded elf that means I'm not actually your biological daughter and not actually a princess. Which is good, because I really didn't want to be a princess.”

“And why didn't you want to be a princess?” Eventus found himself asking, more than a little curious of her reasoning at this point.

Rayla shrugged. “Because I want to go out and do things, not sit around all day listening to people complain about their problems like Doctor Weir does.”

There were several odd associations in there that Eventus dearly wanted to spend some time correcting, but that was something that could be done later.

“Anyways.” He went on, offering his hands forward. “I'm going to need you to grab my hands for a moment Rayla.”

She looked down at his outstretched palms for a moment before frowning. “Why?”

“Because I need to suppress your abilities for a bit and that requires physical contact.”

To be honest Eventus wasn't entirely sure he would be able to do that in the first place given he had only been in the top seventy percent so far as ability strength was concerned. However it was a lot faster to make the attempt then it would be to assemble a restrictor using molecular construction.

“Why do you need to suppress my abilities?” Rayla asked, her frown deepening for a moment before morphing into a look of general confusion. “And what do you mean by abilities?”

Letting out a sigh, Eventus couldn't help but feel he should have expected that answer. “The healing abilities you're unconsciously using to keep yourself awake.”

“Oh.” Rayla muttered as her brow furrowed in thought. “I didn't think magic was real?”

“It's not magic.” Eventus corrected, feeling oddly offended at the insinuation. “It's channeling higher planar energies to create certain types of effects that are nominally grouped into a small number of distinct categories.”

“By which he means space magic.” Sheppard added in helpfully from where he was leaning next to the doorway.

Eventus pointed a finger at him. “Not helping.”

“How long are you going to suppress my space magic for?” Rayla asked, narrowing her eyes in sudden suspicion.

“A few seconds.” Eventus told her, not really able to specify more than that. “Just long enough for you to pass out as your body realizes it needs sleep.”

“But I don't need sleep.” Rayla insisted with a pout.

“Everybody needs sleep.” Eventus countered with a sigh. “You just don't realize it because you're unconsciously using your…” And he really hated saying this. “Space magic… To keep yourself awake. And I will explain why that's a bad thing after you wake back up when I teach you how to safely use your abilities.”

Because the last thing anyone needed was her accidently turning someone back into a teenager, creating a zombie, or worse.

Rayla seemed to consider for a moment before shaking her head. “You’re trying to bribe me with the promise of a future action which I’ve suggested I’d be interested in, that means you don’t think I’ll like the results of whate–

She stopped mid word as Eventus set a hand on her head, going momentarily cross eyed as she looked up at his arm before her eyes rolled up into the back of her head and she collapsed unconscious into his waiting arm. 

“Really?” He asked Sheppard as he cautiously laid Rayla down on the couch. “Space magic?”

“You were over complicating things.” Sheppard returned with a shrug. “Gotta keep it simple for people just starting out.”

That was fair enough, but Eventus really wished he had used something with a bit more dignity than space magic.

“How long is she going to be out for?” Sheppard inquired with a glance towards the sleeping elf.

“Somewhere around a day.” Eventus returned somewhat uncertainly, taking a moment to steady himself on the arm of the couch since that had taken a significant chunk of his energy to pull off due to her functionally fighting against it. “She was probably another week from the danger point, but that doesn’t mean her body isn’t going to take back what energy it can now that it’s realized it should be sleeping.”

Sheppard eyed him for a moment. “What about you?”

“Could use a vacation.” Eventus admitted as he straightened back up.

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Author’s Notes: That Eventus thought he would get off easy by using Dia as a base is more than a little amusing when you consider she was a die hard field researcher. But well, there were obvious reasons for overlooking that.