Leonid

Leonid has olive skin, dark brown hair, ochre eyes and naturally dark nails. They exhibit several major mutations: they have 2 heads, 3 legs (symmetrical middle foot, with a centered big toe), 2 navels and tall, pointy cat-like ears on each head in lieu of human ones. The fur of these ears is the same color as their hair.

Leonid expresses their genders differently for each head. The right one, with medium-length hair, appears more masculine and speaks with a lower voice. The left one, with shoulder-length hair and large round glasses, appears more feminine and speaks with a higher voice.

Leonid was born in a major City in the Nova, in a relatively large family: 12 members total, including 7 children. At the time, like many of their bloodline, their only mutation was their animal ears.

Since their earliest childhood, Leonid has always enjoyed going on long walks outside of town. Largely unsupervised, they often left the family house for entire afternoons with their younger siblings, wandering in the nearby desert playing pretend, as heroes and bandits and monsters and children's dreams.

////

Leonid's, nearly 14, was playing far out in the desert as usual, when a nasty sandstorm announced itself. They would've hurriedly and effortlessly rushed back home, if they hadn't spotted a robed Teknikon struggling to walk atop a distant dune.

Rushing towards it, Leonid took its hand and led it to a nearby cave, hoping to wait for the sandstorm to pass. But as the two of them took shelter beneath the rocks, Leonid noticed an alarming detail about the stranger; its battery was dangerously low, to the point it couldn't speak, and barely move. In not even two hours, its memory would start breaking them down into a Blank.

"Mister machine? Mister machine? Can you hear me? Blink twice for yes and once for no."

Two blinks.

"We can't stay here. We must move."

No response.

"I know the way. I've set foot everywhere around the City. I'll get us there."

No response.

Leonid extended a hand.

"Please, trust me."

A long pause.

...Two blinks.

Wasting no time, Leonid helped the Teknikon back up, and the two of them went back into the sandstorm, flying dust ruthlessly scraping against skin and metal. Leonid couldn't see anything, and so they kept their eyes closed. Counting paces, feeling directions, sensing familiar slopes and echoes.

After what felt like days, they eventually reached Haven Chasm City, and their house. Leaving their family no time to properly express their relief and cry from the joy of seeing their kid safe and sound, Leonid hurried them to hook the stranger to a power supply. They don't remember what exactly happened next; exhaustion overtook them, and they stayed in bed for a solid half day.

Once they woke up, they were greeted by the Teknikon stranger, as well as a member of the City's council. The stranger told Leonid that without their help, it might as well be gone, and the place it was en route to would've lost precious information it had acquired.

As a parting gift, the Teknikon gifted Leonid an harmonica: an item it had acquired during its travels, but unfortunately had no use for since it lacked lungs. Perhaps an inspired kid with a good heart would enjoy learning how to play it.

For saving a stranger's life, Leonid was briefly acclaimed as a local hero for the following weeks. The people of Haven Chasm City, happy to praise a kind and smart kid, told them they would make a very fine Bridgeman, knowing roads and places well enough to navigate them in terrible sandstorms.

Over the next couple months, Leonid started seriously considering that occupation; they'd love to see the world, while helping the people of the World At Large. They started taking their studies more seriously at the City's school, contrasting with a previously uncaring attitude. After turning 16, they were finally ready to journey to a Bridgeman academy in the Terra; a bit late for their age, but fine nonetheless.

////

More than the academy itself, a chimeric result of contemporary and Former construction with strangely open, windowless rooms with intentionally removed walls, Leonid was impressed with the Terra itself. More plants, more flowers, more life, exuberant and vibrant, than they had ever seen before. Looking back on this memory, they would never forget the air of it all: an air that traded dry, dusty sharpness for rich, almost gaudy humidity.

Leonid had a difficult time adapting to the intense rhythm of their education. Waking up at 6am sharp. An austere breakfast. Physical exercise for 6 hours. A modest lunch. Meditation, visualisation techniques, practical mathematics, and much more for 6 other hours. An austere dinner. Finally some (but often too little) alone time. Curfew at 8pm sharp. Clockwork schooling for a future clockwork life.

But Leonid, like many others, figured out how to carve time for themself within classes. A key part of being a Bridgeman is also bonding with those you meet. Learning about where they come from, what names they give to rivers, to mountains, to roads. They made no best friends, but they did make a couple good ones.

The one that would be closest to a best friend was, without doubt, Tebres. Also a Semi, a year older than Leonid, whose mutations took the form of blue-ish vitiligo and digitigrade, practically feline legs. As the two oldest students of their group (by far; others were closer to 12 or 13 years old), they bonded almost immediately.

////

"No, Tebres. I can see you're not thinking of the correct image. Again, think of lines, crossing each other all the way to the horizon. Like a big tapestry, and you're also woven into it."

Tebres sighed, and tried again. Leonid, on their end, was already part of the tapestry. The segments appeared distorted, but the teacher said it was a good sign? Bonus points, they supposed.

"Try with you being thread first. Worked for me." Leonid whispered.

"I dunno. I just.. can't." Tebres replied in a frustrated tone.

The teacher sighed.

"That's... okay, Tebres. Why don't you just have a look at your maps? The mapmaster will be there soon, anyway."

////

"I botched it, man. I botched it again."

"You're fine. Kepetc doesn't have anything against you. You're way better than everyone else in endurance, to start with."

"Endurance isn't everything, Leonid!"

Leonid stayed quiet. They knew better than to try comforting Tebres when she raised her voice like this.

"I already know how to endure. You know I can endure. I told you where I come from and how little we have. It's... the mental stuff. I have to make it work. If I can't make it work I can't be a Bridgeman. And if I can't be a Bridgeman my folks don't get paid, and I can't go back to them or else they'll have even less to eat. I can't... afford to be one of those who fail."

Leonid had already offered Tebres to come with them once they completed their studies, but her pride, and more than anything, her fear to be burden once more wouldn't let her accept that. They felt they should've insisted, but were perhaps just a little too afraid of her reaction.

////

"Where are we going?", Hakesh asked.

"Don't tell me you're afraid now.", Tebres answered, annnoyed.

"I'm not!"

"Then stay cool and be quiet, we're nearly there.", Nyur replied.

After sneaking past a horde of warning signs and a poorly maintained wall, the lot of them arrived at the "fountain", bathed in moonlight. A small, 7 or 8 metres wide puddle of shining petrol-ish substance. An unnatural shade of black, that didn't feel so much like an absence of light as a predator of light. A mouth of madness.

"Watch this.", Tebres whispered to the others.

She took a fresh fruit out of a pocket, along with some thread. Grabbing a nearby stick, she tied it all together into some kind of makeshift fishing rod. Then slowly, glancing at the others from time to time, she lowered the fruit into the "fountain".

Its surface started bubbling. Hakesh let out a gasp.

"Shush."

Hakesh covered his mouth. More bubbling for a solid ten seconds.

"...Okay, that should do it."

Even more slowly, Tebres pulled the fruit out of the "fountain". It didn't quite qualify as a fruit anymore. It actually looked like several fruits growing out of the original one. Its tumor-like protrusions, its sick distorted palette, its almost dripping quality caused everyone but Tebres to gulp. She looked at them with an exaggerated, scary smile.

"They say if you dive into it whole, it can kill and melt you in minutes. Or worse; let you live~"

Leonid and the others didn't feel like asking more questions. Tebres had told them seeing it would suffice to send chills down their spines. It did.

"Can we go now? Don't wanna let the drinks warm up."

"...Fine."

The rest of their secret night activity went about as well as post-curfew parties between teens go. Fun stories, scary stories, awkward secrets uncovered left and right by light alcohol. Leonid genuinely had a fun time.

////

The teachers looked at the hourglass affixed to a nearby tree. 87th turn.

"Your kids are late.", one of them said to Kepetc.

"You know they're not." Kepetc replied with a wry smile. "They're the toughest little rascals I ever had the privilege to discipline."

A figure approached the teachers, running. Actually, scratch that; limping while thinking they were running.

"Speak of the devil!"

Hakesh, his lungs emptied by the last stretch of the exam, crumpled to his knees. Panting heavily, he produced a piece of yellowed paper. Kepetc glanced at it.

{RETURN TO ACA##MY GRO#NDS. YOUR E#A# SCORE SHALL BE IN#ERSELY PROPO##IONAL TO ANY DA##G# THE#E INSTRU####NS WILL SUSTA#N ON THE ##Y. YOU HAVE 100 S#A####D HOU#GL#SS T###S. BLESS THE ROAD, THE B#I#GE AND ##E ST#P.}

"Good boy.". Kepetc gestured to crates chock full of fresh fruit, water canteens, breads and dried meats. "Help yourself."

Hakesh didn't bother asking more. He dove headfirst into the food.

Staggered over the course of a couple more hours, the others arrived.

"No paper? Sorry, Nyur. Help yourself to some of that food too. You also deserve it."

Each with more or less damaged papers, and more or less injuries.

"Few scratches! Great work, Nora. Help yourself."

None of them would've guessed the teachers would've laced yesterday's dinner with sleeping drugs, and left them so far away from school grounds with nothing but their clothes. But they returned anyway. From children, they had grown into Bridgemen.

"And that's Leonid. Evernature, yours is missing half of its letters! Go eat something."

The teachers observed their freshly graduated students for a while. The maximum 40 passed, out of 50. Kepetc was right. Tough little rascals.

Hold on. 50?

"That's not 50." one of the teachers noticed.

Practically at the same time, Leonid asked out loud:

"Where's Tebres?"

Speak of the devil.

A digitigrade figure, out of breath, approached the academy grounds, a pristine paper in hand and indescribable joy plastered on their face.

"Here! I'm... here!"

No answer, be it from the teachers or the students. A dead, eerie silence filled the space around Tebres.

"...What?"

Tebres noticed Leonid among the students. Their gaze was leaning towards a tree. Tebres followed it. Affixed to the hourglass, a turn counter.

101.

////

Two knocks.

"Tebres?" said Leonid timidly.

She didn't respond. They entered. Sitting on her bed, her head resting on her knees, arms crossed. A dark, weighted gaze into nothingness on her face.

"I-"

"Don't talk to me."

A moment passed.

"...Not here, anyway. I don't belong here anymore. Maybe I never did."

She got up, and left.

Leonid decided to let her be for a while. If she didn't return by nightfall, they knew where to find her.

////

Leonid sat near Tebres, their legs crossed just like her. Once again, the "fountain" consuming the moonlight like a nightmarish, liquid solar panel. She was looking into it. To Leonid, it looked like there should've been something in there for her to grasp, to extrude out of pitch black hell for her to seize and bring home. But there was nothing in the substance, except the unknown and more substance.

"..."

Leonid's own eyes were observing the moon.

"Can I help?"

One blink.

"I wanna help."

Silence.

"You know I can't just go with you."

Leonid tried to reply, but Tebres kept going.

"What will happen to you? Your many siblings, your parents, they'll be just fine. Fine as the rest of the world goes. Mine will starve without the Bridgeman family funds. They'll starve, Leonid. I don't give a shit about myself, about anything... as long they don't... starve."

Tears started streaming down her face. Leonid wrapped an arm over her shoulder.

"You've seen the look on their faces. Everyone. I've always been behind."

"Tebres, don't say-"

"I SAY WHAT I FUCKING WANT!!"

She got up. They stared at each other for a while. Leonid on the ground, unable to comfort their dearest friend. Tebres, turning her back to the moonlight.

"You can... keep going."

None of it sounded true to Leonid. All of it should've.

"...You don't get it, do you?"

Leonid froze. Tebres's gaze grew more somber.

"You won't ever get it. Even in this hell of a world, you got lucky. I..."

More tears.

"I'm sorry." Leonid mustered.

Tebres looked at them in the eyes.

"No. I... I'm the one who should be sorry."

"What do you-"

Movement and impact.

Leonid opened their eyes. Tebres, kneeling over them; still sobbing heavily, as she grabbed their hair and one of their shoulders with her hands, pinning them to the ground with her legs.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I can't accept failing this close. You have to leave it to me. You have to."

In her eyes, pure and genuine regret.

She pushed Leonid's head into the "fountain".

★NTRICATE RAINBOW VINE GLOWING PERFECT FRUIT SEED CRAWLING INSIDE NEURON INTRAVEINOUS CENTRIFUGAL NIGHT DAY GLOW MORE GLOW LIGHT DIVISION SYNTHESIS ANTITHESIS FUNGAL COSMIC SPL―

Leonid's agitated arms managed to fight back, seizing one of Tebres's legs and pulling her into the "fountain".

―IT GLOW FOREVER GLOW DARKNESS NERVE RIVER CHEMICAL CARNI★

"Ah-!" / "Ah-!"

Leonid jerked back and breathed in. Too much air, all at once. Dizziness. Divided vision. Something's not right not right not-

"Argh-"

Amidst broken pieces of an altered, scrambled perception, Leonid sighted Tebres. Below her chest, oily patterns of yellow, turquoise, blood red. Eyes. So many bloodshot eyes, glancing everywhere in unadulterated frenzy, on her forearms, belly and thighs. One of her hands grabbing her forehead, as if trying to contain the very essence of migraine. Suddenly, all of her eyes on Leonid.

"Shit. Now you'll be twice as hard to get rid of."

Don't listen to her, just flee.

Leonid desperately tried to get up, but their sense of balance simply refused. Tebres approached, her legs still mutating wildly; growing and disappearing mouths, spikes and rainbow patches at an unnatural speed. Leonid finally got up, their knees trembling.

"Stay here!"

Tebres seized Leonid's left leg, dragging them back into the "fountain".

★VOROUS CERULEAN CELLULAR MATERNITY GLOW INVERT SUBDIVIS―

"AAGH!" / "AAGH!"

The spikes of a boiling, voracious metabolism dug into Leonid's flesh once more. From the waist down, nothing but everything. Pain, heat, cold, dismemberment, reassembly; sinew and flesh and bone shouting at each other in total cacophony. They couldn't tell what was happening at all to their body beneath the "fountain"'s boiling surface.

―E ACUTE DISCOMBOBULATE BUBBLE BLOOD ATR―

One more punch from Tebres. Whatever Leonid might've had for a head now rung back and forth.

―OPHY REACTION CHAINED AUTOMATIC FERTILE NUTRITIV―

Steady yourself.

"LET ME GO!" / "LET ME GO!"

―E COLORFUL―

Fight for your life.

―CASCADE NUTRIMENT EXPAND GLOW HORIZONTAL GLOW UNIVERSE GLOW―

Leonid threw a punch at Tebres. Right in one of her many new eyes.

"AcK!"

She recoiled.

―GLOW―

Despite their best efforts, Leonid would never forget the following minute. Their minute to midnight. Punch after punch, claw after claw. The―

―BOIL―

―uninterrupted mutagenic magics of the "fountain"―

―GLOW―

―working their way into their and Tebres's flesh.

―BRIGHT―

Eventually, Leonid's split vision stabilised just enough for them to strike true. A vicious hook to the chin, sending every part of Tebres into the "fountain". Leonid stood still for a few seconds, before hurrying back and exiting the puddle.

―ECHO DEAD REVEAL TRANSFUSION MUSCLE FORGI★

They fell to the ground on unsteady legs, then crawled, before glancing back at the "fountain".

"gblp."

Tebres's head was the only thing left above the shiny substance's black, bubbly surface. She was looking at Leonid again. Eyes had grown on her cheeks and neck. She gazed at the one she had just tried drowning with all of them. All were oozing a dark, tar-like fluid.

"I-"

Her eyes opened wide.

She froze.

Lifeless.

Her face sank.

The "fountain" eventually stopped boiling.

Leonid turned back and got up, again. They remember looking at their own face. Seeing the stench of murder in these eyes. Hearing echoed sobs. Limping, half-naked, on too many legs to walk properly. The dead of night.

Of all the roads they took, this would be one of the very few they would never remember.

////

"You have to eat, Leonid. And speak. Gotta get used to it."

Leonid's 4 sunken eyes glanced at Kepetc. Next to their bed, untouched food.

"I know. It just... feels like a lot." / "I know. It just... feels like a lot."

They pivoted to sit on the bed. Looked at their legs. All 3 of them.

"C'mon, champ. Doctor's orders. You know it would make me happy."

Leonid's heads both sighed. They grabbed the plate of food, took a piece of dried jerky and moved it to... which mouth? Earlier, they drank some water with the left one. Let's just switch things up and chew on that with the right one. They bit into the piece of meat with their right mouth; their left one reflexively bit into nothing. Shit.

"Don't sweat it. Independent control takes a little to become accessible, I've been told."

Leonid tried to ignore their former teacher's much too jovial advice. Grabbing a fork, they began digging into cold porridge.

"Oh, congratulations are also in order!"

Leonid's gazes turned back to Kepetc.

"Uh?" / "Uh?"

He pulled an elaborate piece of bright, red cloth from a pocket.

"Well, Tebres seemingly left the academy in a hurry. We couldn't find her anywhere; poor girl must've thought she failed."

Leonid froze.

"...'Tought'?" / "...'Tought'?"

Kepetc began unfolding the cloth.

"Well, truth be told; she was a little late but her paper was in such good condition, we decided we'd discuss things with you and her- see which of you would graduate amicably. But with her being gone Nature knows where, I suppose the issue solves itself."

Unfolding it, he revealed a small, compass-shaped pin.

"You're one of us now! Or two of us?" he announced with an amused smile.

Leonid's hand faltered. The fork dropped to the ground in a series of sharp, metallic clicks.

"...Leonid?"

Sobs. Echoed... no, asynchronous sobs.

"Oh, crap. I'm sorry. I forgot you're not used to your new head yet. I... I'm really sorry."

Louder, louder sobs. Leonid couldn't stop shaking, couldn't stop breaking down. Kepetc hugged his former student.

"Don't worry, Leonid. Every... Everything's gonna be alright."

As an accomplished Bridgeman, Leonid travels far and wide to chart new roads, revise maps, and make moving withing the World At Large easier for its inhabitants.

They still have nightmares. Of a molten person, emerging from a dark, dark boiling sea. They hope, someday, to find that person's family. And confess something to them. But until then, duty calls.

"Bless the road, the bridge and the step."