If Adam were Adam at the moment, his pupils would grow wide
in surprise at that statement. Since
Adam is Concord, however, they merely glow white hot. He’s going to need to work on that, because eventually
someone’s going to think he’s charging up eye laser and that never ends well.
“I am the am that kid. Concord. The only Concord--kind of. I just... look, I’m going to let my-“ Adam struggles with what call Sol. He’s definitely a mentor of sorts, but that
doesn’t fully encapsulate it. He definitively
not Adam’s commanding officer. What did
Adam’s dad call him again? “-partner
explain, if that’s okay. He knows all
the Weird stuff a lot better than I do.”
Adam reaches up to his head and pulls Sol’s sigil
free. Instantly it grows into a
softball-sized ball of fire, completely free of Adam’s touch. It wiggles about in the air to acclimate
itself to being free and then starts flashing as it speaks. “Greetings Subject-Keri-Super-Chica. We have also not been introduced. I am Solaris-Gamma-Two, an interface of the
Universal Concordance and our Agent’s...partner.”
“Our Agent has achieved his second rank, as noted by the crests, granting him the
full power allowed by my limits. This
was needed during the recent battle with the extra-dimensional invaders you know as
the Vyortovians due to… outside interference .
With the release of the Level Two Restraints, our Agent’s form needed to
adapt to the increased power and it assumed its peak physical form. Normally this would be an adult of the
species, but due to the outside interference this was instead limited to that of a
seventeen-year-old male.“
“ Wait ,” Adam thinks, “ was the outside interference
Harry? Am I big because Harry wanted to
be older again? ”
“ Without Subject-Gale-Tertiary’s interference, you would
instead have assumed a form comparable to your physiology at approximately age
twenty-six. Given your distress at your
current form and the increased stress that would come with being viewed as an
adult in your culture, I believe Subject-Gale-Tertiary’s interference in the process should be
viewed as a positive outcome. ”
Without missing a beat due to the psychic conversation,
Sol continues to speak with Keri, “While our Agent’s exterior form has changed,
he is functionally still the same ‘Concord’ that you would have known
before. However, I believe it now to be
the time-“
“You can stop now, Sol.” “-to speak to you about your familiarity with our Agent.” “You can really stop
now, Sol.” “Your attention shown towards our Agent today has caused
him undue stress and concern. He seems
unwilling to voice those concerns at this time, but we will use this
opportunity to do so.” Adam would be interrupting
Sol right now, but Sol’s not letting him at the moment. He’s also not letting him grab him, pull him
back into him, or each reach for him. He
is allowing Adam to angrily glare at him and think diatribes of words that his
parents didn’t think he heard last week.
“Our team leader has expressed that boundaries are needed for a healthy
interaction to occur and we agree.
Additionally, our Agent would like us to clarify that the “we” does not
currently include him.” Adam nods in
agreement. It’s all he can do to be a
part of this conversation right now. “Subject-Keri-Super-Chica, you appear to show Compassion for
our Agent and while we find that a positive trait, our function is to protect
our Agent. Please state your intentions
so that we may gauge the Truth of them.” In case it wasn't obvious, Sol really wants to Pierce the Mask here. Given her actions, I think her intentions are pretty clear but no reason not to take the opportunity when the move is triggered. Note - Concord should still have his +1 Forward from his talk with Link during the training and given the topic, I imagine this is a perfect place to make use of that. Also assuming Keri's mostly open with her identity from the original post Bill made about her. If not, assume that Sol refers to her as Subject-Super-Chica because he's not a jerk about outing people's identities as noted by him exclusively refering to Adam as "our Agent" in the verbal conversation.