Awakening and an Awakening.

"Master! Awaken, please, I beg of you! The Binder should not have done such a terrible thing as this!" You could hear Prime's voice; you could listen to the AC in the apartment two doors down, you could taste the leftover spaghetti of yours in the fridge, three days old. You could feel Prime just about crushing in your ribcage, yet it didn't hurt; it felt like she was trying hard and hard to push your chest in, yet your body gave no ground. It simply refused. 'Prime, I'm alright. Please don't break anything of mine any more than you already have.' Prime jumped suddenly at you talking but pulled you quickly into her quite bountiful chest while cradling your head in her arms. She cried with real tears, it seemed, but they disappeared as soon as they touched her jaw and reappeared at her eyes again, an odd illusion, to say the least.

'Thank you for trying to save me, Prime; I thought I was dead for a while there. I certainly saw a ghost.' You tried to chuckle at your joke, but it only made the pain and loneliness sink in viciously. You take a breath, and it comes out as a choked sob; you weep your heart out. Your old life is now dead with the introduction to your original, and with it, you are truly alone in the universe. Your family consists of a talking mirror robot servant and an uncle that fucked off to some far corner of the world. You now have shoes the size of a skyscraper to fill, and those shoes grow by the minute. It's a while before the tears stop, and you can't cry anymore, a bit more before you notice that Prime is still holding you close and is stroking your hair while whispering soft words to you. Nothing you can understand, but you know you don't have to.

'Please never leave Prime; I need you for what comes.' She pulls you even closer and touches her forehead to yours, "I'll never leave your side so long as time ticks on Master; you are my reason for creation and continued existence. I shall endlessly prove that devotion." You hold onto her until you begin to notice the sun has disappeared from the window. You crane your neck slightly and find the living room clock says that you've been down and out for about 6 hours, a both surprising and expected amount of time lost. 'Prime, were you attempting to revive me for 6 hours straight?' "Yes, Master, I couldn't stop for a second in case it was the only thing keeping you alive."

You stand up and stretch your arms lazily; your body feels good. Everything feels good, like you could run miles tirelessly or lift a house; it feels oddly new. 'Did you not know what the crown would do to me? I think Dad said my body would be reborn or something.' "I didn't know your body would cease to function while you transitioned; your body is the zenith now, Master. Your body is the peak of what can contain your soul and its power, though the more power you accumulate, the more you can bolster it." Peak? You flex your arms and fingers, both feeling flexible and strong. You lean forward and place your palms on the ground and point your legs into the air in one move, performing a handstand right in your living room without effort. Neato.

You right yourself and look over at Prime, who looks at you with a face of adoration; she follows every little move you make. Your hunger from the traumatic and eventful day is getting to you; you wonder if she can cook. You look over to the couch and drop yourself onto it; you take a breath and lean back. Prime pulls herself over and continues to kneel in front of you, and places her chin on your knee while still watching you. 'Prime, do you know how to cook? Despite being the peak, my body still needs food; it seems.' She shakes her head but perks up instantly, "I have accelerated learning built into my psi matrix, though! I can learn to be the best cook in minutes! Do you have any cookbooks, Master? You tell her where the two you think you have are; she bows her head and dashes off.

You cock your head as she passes through the door of the living room; this rapid taking of a servile nature to her was strange. 'Dad said he made her for me; even she echoed such a fact. I wonder what exactly he meant to that; protect me of course, but what other purposes was she created for, I wonder.' ~CRACK~ Your out-loud wonderments are interrupted by sharp and loud breaking; you stand and rush to the kitchen, assuming Prime injured herself or broke something. You pass through the hall to turn into the kitchen and find your short, hot, and synthetic arm-ladened with most foodstuffs from your pantry and fridge. She giggles at your sudden entrance and winks as she turns to switch on the oven and pour over both cookbooks opened on the counter; you know, the fact that Prime is in the form of your more than likely late mother doesn't disturb you in the slightest. Hmm, odd. 'Are you alright, Prime? I heard something break.' She cocked her head before looking over at you without stopping her prep, "No, Master, I've only just accumulated everything for your dinner; I didn't make any harsh noise. Are you sure it was in this apartment?"

Her question seemed inane at first until you remember hearing the AC in someone else's apartment; your hearing, along with the rest of your bodily functions, has improved. You walk back to the living room and retake your seat, wondering what the noise could've been. Talking can be heard, but it's almost muffled, so you cock your head back and forth then focus, hearing out for more. "I just got that one too; I guess I'll ha..." You lose focus, and the speech slips away.

You concentrate, and the world falls away as well as your hearing, and then it is as if you hear reality itself breathing, in and out. The universe itself waxes and wanes, back and forth in flux; it's shifting at a pace so fast that it should break, yet it keeps it all perfectly stable. Something within you asks. No. It demands to be let out, touch the pulsing, breathing, living energy around you, the very electricity that rips through your nerves. You reach a hand out to it; not a physical one, but the sensation is all the same; pleasure battling pain. The connection is made, and everything falls silent once again; the universe is lost to you, but the pain and pleasure are still coursing across all your senses. Every inch of you lights up in perfect euphoria to be torn down by searing pain; it's instantly replaced, and the cycle continues. The feeling is all-consuming, and yet you've never felt such clarity in your life.

"No, Mom, I didn't mean to drop the hairdryer. I just set it down on the counter, and it slipped; there's no need to get mad." 'Christ, she's fucking going ballistic right now; it's just a hairdryer' It was the same voice both times, but you noticed it with different sides of yourself, both needing no real concentration anymore from you. Wait, the same voice? Does that mean you're in her thoughts or just that you hear them at a distance? 'The bang was loud as fuck though; who would've thought a crappy piece of plastic would shatter quite so easily' So she was the source of the breaking, at least that's one mystery solved; now another is figuring out how you get yourself back to the real world. "Look, Mom, I've got to go, ya know I've got a bathroom full of plastic and metal bits to clean up. Yeah yeah, I love you too. Damn. That was the only one I had too." 'She should just come over here and ask me. I've got one from a white elephant that I've never used' You really have been meaning to do something with it, but at this point, you couldn't really have been bothered. "That cute guy I saw in 304 should have one because... well, he just should; I'll go see if he does." Wait, what.

Her spoken yet unspoken words startled you back to the couch; in a quick move, you jump and dash to the kitchen again. Once again arriving suddenly, you find that Prime is still in the midst of her dinner prepping. '_Prime, quick, how long was I gone?' Without turning or looking due to a preoccupied state holding various spices and foods, "Exactly 6 minutes and 32 seconds Master, I counted." She giggled with that last bit, and before you could remark on it, a smell stopped you. It was perfume-like, but you didn't have any, and nor did Prime wea... ~DING DONG~_ The doorbell ring interrupted you as you began deciphering the smell, but you think you have an idea of its source. "I've got it Mas.." 'NO! I mean, no, it's alright, Prime. I've got it' You take off for the door before she can rebuke. As you arrive, you slow and take a breath before opening the door; you can't look too excited, right? The smell hits you as you open the door and come face to face with the voice from before, and you find it wasn't perfume you smelled. It was her; pheromones or something, but your heightened senses were absorbing all of her, despite recent clarity, your mind became quite clouded with her. "Hey there, uh neighbor! I'm Delaine; sorry to show up announced so late. I live just a few doors down, and I'm still unpacking right now. I just broke my hairdryer, and I was wondering and also kind of hoping that you had one?" She smiled and tucked her hair behind her ear; despite her early cavalier and profane attitude to the broken hairdryer, she seems quite shy now. She comes up to your neck and fills out her tanktop and overalls perfectly with hips and thighs that threaten to take up all of your mental capacity. Her sandy blond hair is lush and well maintained, while her green eyes take you in with a keen and appraising look, like you, are to pass her tests.

'You're in quite some luck; I've got a spare that I don't use in my bathroom'_You run a hand through your hair and look her back over; not too dissimilar from her eyeing, yet you are ready to jump her bones right now. "Don't use? With hair like that, I'm surprised you don't have an army of stylists ready to go for you." 'I don't, unfortunately, but positions are open if you'd like to apply. Being ungodly gorgeous as you definitely get you an interview.' How the hell are you flirting so well? The last time you talked to a woman you were interested in, you nearly pissed yourself before approaching her. "Oh, is that right? An interview? Cute and flirtatious, what a great boss to work for, I can already tell!" 'Come on and take a seat in the living room and I'll go dig out the old 'thing.' Leading her inside, you point out the living room and make your way to the bathroom. You walk inside and flick the light on, making a mental note to clean up when you get the chance, or at least make Prime do it. Opening up the bottom cabinets, you reach back and find the box; it looks all good to go despite being a little dusty.

'Alrighty, miss Delaine, I've got your hairdryer ready to go, right he...' You stop just a few feet from her to find that she's sitting transfixed at the crown in her hands; an intense look of focus covers her face. Stepping forwarding and waving a hand in front of her face, you find that she's not all hear right now, and you could swear you feel a tugging at the back of your mind. 'Conduit. That's right. That surely wasn't correct, right? I mean, mind reading is one thing, and even then, I could still be in hell but mental enslavement?' The idea popping up seemed so totally inconceivable, yet the implications again bored a hole in your logic and common sense; you wanted to be real more than anything. Doing this would prove your dreams outright.

You take the Binder from her hand and kneel at her side; she doesn't stir despite her focus now gone. Gently you place it on her and brace for an explosion or even a slap. Yet, nothing of the sort happens; something simpler does. Her eyes light up entirely just like Prime's did the first time you met her, and then they return to their normal green, though you're pretty sure they glow now. She blinks once, and then twice. Life reappears in her eyes like before, and she looks to you. Just for a moment, she seems confused.

She then looks at you in a way that you're not even sure how to describe.