"And just like that, Edge-lord Taylor strikes again," Dragging himself out of the lake, the Pre-Teen Brenden huffed upon hearing me calling it the Necro-Caverns.
"I implore you to try and come up with a better name, Mr.GIGAMAN; seriously, of all the names you could come up with for your Hero Persona, you chose just to slap a four-letter word onto the word man; I don’t wanna hear it."
"What’s an edgelord? Is that some new thing I missed while being DEAD!" Dad stated while taking a step back as Brenden got in my face.
"That’s really rich coming from you, Mr. I have too many identities and aliases to count."
"Greaaat comeback,"
"Boys…"
"Fuck You, how are you gonna up and disappear on me like that? What if something happened to Dad during that 24 hours?"
"Oh yeah, because I’m totally gonna sit there and explain the complexities of a plan which I wasn’t 100% sure I could execute, REAL smart little brother."
"Grrr, FUCK OFF!"
Woosh
Without holding back, Brenden threw a punch, which I easily avoided by tilting my head to the side before delivering a palm strike into his chest, which sent Brenden barreling through the air.
"TAYLOR!"
"Cheap shot, what’s next, going to throw dirt clods at me again?" Twisting in the air, Brenden landed before spitting a mouthful of bile onto the ground.
"It seems that someone is jealous that I’ve got two Talents now," I spat with a smirk, causing Brenden to run at me and attack once again, only this time before he could even throw another punch; he stopped short because Dad stepped in between us.
"I Swear to Fucking God, you two NEVER GROW THE HELL UP! Fighting and Bickering like a couple of 8-year-olds, Taylor, you’re what, seven right now, that means you are technically 52 years old," reaching out, Dad grabbed me by the ear, making me wince out of habit even though it didn’t hurt.
Seeing me in my current predicament, Brenden couldn’t help but snicker, which, of course, drew the attention of my Dad…
"AND YOU," earning him equal ear-pulling treatment.
"How many times have I told you that you can’t solve every argument by throwing punches? 48 and 52, the two of you should be ashamed of yourselves for making an old man like me scold you at this age."
As our ears were being tugged on, a sudden realization dawned on me, causing me to look at my Father with slight confusion.
"Dad…how do you know how old we are? You died…"
"Hold up, that’s true…wait…is there nothing after death?" Slow to the uptake, the poor, overworked hamster in Brenden’s head finally sped up, allowing him to understand the meaning behind my words, and soon, the two of us were staring at our Dad, wanting answers.
"I…uh…shouldn’t you be wondering why you both had a sudden growth spurt instead of grilling me for information." Trying to divert attention away from himself, Dad played coy and tossed up an equally concerning issue, one that I had a theory about.
"It probably has to do with our Rank up; since the two of us are 6C, we appear to age slower than normal, and I have reason to believe that the aging process of Higher Racial Classifications factors in their Rank."
"We may age in our 5s, so when we ranked up to beta, it pushed us into the next bracket, or so that’s my theory. I assume that when I turn 10, I should hit another growth spurt to look 15, the same with Brenden. This will more than likely continue until we either Rank up to Gamma or Turn 15, at which point we should reach our optimal form being physically around 20 years old."
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"At that point, we probably won’t age much until we get VERY old, anyway."
"Oh…so that’s how it works…Middle school is going to suck. I can already see people bullying me for looking like a child…" Brenden muttered while I swatted away Dad’s hand from my ear, crossed my arms, and stood my ground before declaring…
"Don’t try changing the subject; explain yourself, Dad. You shouldn’t have any idea about our ages, let alone the fact that the gap between us has widened. Saying that I’m 52, and Brenden is 48…those aren’t numbers someone can pull out of thin air…unless…" Inhaling through my nose, I had a sudden thought that shook me to my core because if it was true…I could hide nothing from my Father…because he already knew everything.
"Sigh, this isn’t exactly how I wanted to break it to you…but I have watched you long enough to be able to read your expressions…"
"Uh….what’s happening…" Freeing himself from Dad’s Ear twist technique, Brenden stepped back and observed my tense body posture along with that of our Dad.
"Dad, be completely honest with me; what happened after you died." Trying my hardest to keep composed when all I wanted to do was jump into the instance and fight to take out my frustration, I took a deep breath and waited.
"You know I can’t tell you everything; Arkadia won’t permit it,"
"So say what you can,"
"I don’t know if you want me to Taylor,"
"You saw it all, didn’t you."
"I did,"
"And? Are you appalled? Do you hate me now? Are you disappointed?"
"WILL SOMEONE EXPLAIN WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING RIGHT NOW!" Brenden screamed at the top of his lungs, completely confused by our exchange.
"…" Breaking eye contact with me, Dad looked over at Brenden with pitying eyes, making Brenden even more confused than before.
"When I Died…it was like I was there beside you both…the way it was explained to me is that I have lingering emotional attachments to my only two living relatives, and as such, I could follow the two of you…the entire time I was dead."
"YOU HAUNTED ME! IT WAS YOU; I FUCKING KNEW IT, I TOLD EMILIA THE HOUSE HAD GHOSTS, BUT NOoOoO~, I WAS CRAZY, THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS GHOSTS SHE SAID, BUT IT WAS YOU ALL ALONG!" Feeling vindicated by our Father’s words, Brenden’s crazy began showing for a moment.