Paradise?

AN: I have no idea where I'm going with this but it's fun!

Psst! I've done some pretty major edits to the first couple chapters of this branch before releasing this one and more minor edits to the rest. I don't think it's required, but I very much recommend reading them for this to make sense. (Sorry it's been nearly six months since the last update)

Lemme know what you think!

I hadn't really... considered just how much Max and I had changed from inside the Cafe. My lack of glasses and the general endless feeling of wellness I now had served to underline the massive improvements to everyone's health. People could survive small arms fire to the head and live several centuries now. Cancer and virtually all diseases as I knew them had never existed.

The implications our Rules had for history and biology, even things like geology and basic physics were so all encompassing I didn't even want to think of them at the moment. Practically nothing should have remained the same to my pre-Rulebook knowledge.

I suppose it was more surprising to see what hadn't changed.

Technology still seemed basically modern or near-future. The buildings were still glass and steel, concrete and wood, brick and mortar. Maybe a little grander and cleaner on average. With transparent solar panels for windows and a small garden on every rooftop.

The roads beneath our feet may have been hexagonal tiles of some kind of graphite and maglev trains and busses had replaced most non luxury cars, but there were still roads. Still traffic and accidents and idiot drivers and distracted pedestrians looking down at smartphones.

Well, about a third of them had little holo-bands on their wrists or on an ear, but the basic concept remained the same.

"Oof!"

As was made perfectly clear when I bumped into someone talking on her phone while I was distracted by a passing quadcopter thing the size of a passenger jet but somehow nearly silent. I blame Max for doing a poor job dragging me places.

"I am so sorry!" I gasped. "Are you okay, Ma'am?"

I immediately turned to check on the woman I'd collided with, finding a somewhat familiar face in the maternal shortstack who'd been reading a book back in the Cafe. This close, I could tell from my new memories that this woman was old. At least a three or four hundred years old, old. Her hair was a solid steel gray and there were some faint lines on her face, otherwise she was still about as fit and healthy as everyone now was. So appearance wise pre-Rulebook I'd say she was fifty at most. The truth of her age was all in her eyes. A warm hazel, with a wisdom and...weariness that hasn't quite snuffed out a joy for living just yet.

Wow. That got dark.

The woman patted my shoulder and waved me off with a smile. "Oh, I'm fine honey. My fault for stopping in the middle of the road to chat to my grandson like that." She started to bend down only for Max to already be there holding the phone she'd dropped. "Thank you! You're a sweetheart."

Max slid next to me with his arm wrapped around my shoulders, his hand resting achingly close to my breast. His warmth and clean floral scent caused my cheeks to turn red and my thoughts to turn to mush.

Then he ruined it.

"Sorry 'bout my sister, she saw a pretty futa earlier and it made her—"

My hand slapped over my idiot twin's big mouth. "Maaaaxxx!" I whined and started dragging him away in a headlock. "Licking my hand isn't gonna work!" I hissed in his ear and ignored the flailing of his free arm. I'd let him go in a minute. Or three. We'll see what I'm feeling by then, maybe my arm will get tired.

To my continued mortification, the woman simply laughed and followed after me, saying bye to whoever had been on the phone with her and stowing away the scuffed device in her purse.

"I take it you two are twins, then? You seem very close, even for maternal siblings, if you don't mind me saying so."

"Yeah, unfortunately. Max has been a pain in my ass since we were in the womb." That made Max snicker and pinch my hip, making me yelp and loosen my hold enough for the menace to slip his way out.

He landed a smack on my ass and danced away when I tried to swipe him in return. I growled in frustration as he used his slim and athletic body to avoid me by running a few steps up a wall to leap over me. How was he doing this with his plug still in!?

"Stay still so I can catch you!"

"Love you too, Meg!" Max taunted as he ducked behind the woman who seemed to have decided to join us.

My face went red at her amused look. We were college students running around like five year-olds! I glanced at the other various pedestrians to see them either ignoring us or smiling at our antics. One strapping young man even seemed inspired, snatching up two of his giggling friends and chasing a third down the street as she shrieked in glee. This reaction was something that both relieved and confused me until I let my new memories in.

Oh, right. Childhood lasts much longer when people can easily expect to live a few centuries.

"That's certainly an introduction!" Our tagalong laughed, the motion doing wonderful things to her plump curves. "My name is Serenity Hammond." She said with a small smile.

That announcement made Max skid to a stop and a whole catalog of memory come center stage in my mind. My brother and I stared at Serenity, then turned to each other, equally caught off guard by her name. (Mrs.Hammond? Lady Serenity? What do you call the woman who helped found the City-state you live in via bloody conquest?)

Serenity's smile shifted to a wry grin at our stunned silence. "I see you two are familiar with me, but I've just met you." She patted my cheek and ruffled Max's hair like we were beloved grandchildren. "Would you mind terribly much if we changed that little social imbalance?"

My eyes met Max's in a rapid silent discussion. One that he lost with a beleaguered slump to his narrow shoulders as he answered Serenity's question with his one of his own.

"What did you have in mind?"

Serenity smiled. "Follow me and I'll tell you."

Then she turned the corner as if us following her was a forgone conclusion.