Summary: How did Miles Prower get his two tails? How is that related to a story about love and loss, that took place before his birth, inside the womb? TWINCEST. Don't like don't read…
First it was dark.
And then, it remained dark, but the darkness began to take shape and reform.
There was no marker to trace when consciousness first began. But when it did, they were always in presence of each other. Him, and her. One next to the other. Same chorion, same amnion.
The first thing they knew of one other was the warmth. Faint and familiar, uniting them like the fluid in which they floated. As primitive nerves migrated and forged, they understood more of the glimpses of universe within their reach. Together, they made sense of the world.
"…Hey?"
She is the first to speak. Her voice, transmitting soundlessly through the waters, rouses him from slumber.
"Eh…"
"Come closer…! I want… to see you…"
"See…? But that's not possible… Our optic systems haven't yet developed, and…"
"Shh! There are more ways to see than one. Sound, smell, touch and taste exist also… today, I wanted to try sound." The amniotic fluid ripples, just slightly. She must be swimming closer.
What sparks in him is something like the precursor of laughter. "We've heard noise before, from the outside. But, sound? We're not yet old enough to make noise… our vocal cords have yet to arise."
"What I mean is inner sound. The kind that travels, through the bond between us. We can communicate like this, with each other. See? We're doing it now."
His proprioception is not very advanced. But he knows that she's there, the other part of himself, so very close to him.
"It is nice to hear you, I must say…" Again, that primal feeling of joy stirs from within. "Truly, I prefer this to the racket from outside. But… what gives? Why today?"
The silence returns, for just a little while. "I was… lonely."
"Why is that? We've always been together." Something about her words hurts him. "You are me, and I am you. We rose from one another."
"Because… oh, can't you see? We're not the same after all…"
"What do you mean? I remember it, as far back as can be! When we were just one… a single zygote, not yet implanted, ready to divide."
"But do you remember, what happened after? Somewhere in the division process? We split. We became two. Together became you and I."
"We're still together… aren't we?"
"I suppose that is true." Sadness echoes in her words. "Say, brother. Have you been named?"
"…Name?" The memory, once vague, is recalled from the depths of his neural crest. "Ah… yes. A voice called out to me and said… Miles. Miles Prower."
"…I see."
"Hmm… yes… it was a voice from the outside. First, it had been exchanging with a second, other voice. And finally, the first voice turned to me. It said, Miles Prower."
"What else did it say?"
"Uhm… oh, yes. It also said that they were waiting for me… that they loved me."
"That's… nice."
"You must have heard it too, sister."
Silence. The amniotic fluid becomes still, all of a sudden. Or was it just a trick of the proprioceptors?
"I heard voices, yes… but they were not kind voices. They gave me a name, as well…" Once again, she goes quiet.
"Your name, sister. Tell me!"
"…TS45X."
"TS45X… That's lovely! It suits you."
"…They said other things, too…"
"For example?"
"That I'm broken… that I have a defect… that I shouldn't be here."
"Nonsense, sister."
"I wish, brother… I wish."
If only his optic nerves were more developed! Then, he could see her head fold, understand her expression, and better comfort her…
"Hey…sister?"
"Yes, brother?"
"Let's grow bigger and stronger. And when we do, we'll explore the universe. Together." Once again, the fluid ripples. With it, a wave of warmth.
"Okay."
Time passes. In and out of consciousness, they float in the amniotic fluid as though within a dream. This hazy state is maintained for… who knows how long? One day, his sister breaks the silence anew.
"Brother?"
"Sister!"
"Don't you find that… as of late… it's getting a little hard to breathe…"
"A little… But it's okay, as long as we're together!"
"Can I come closer…?"
"Of course, sister." She edges closer, and their warmth becomes shared. "Guess what… Yesterday, my heart began to beat on its own!"
Their oral cavities are primitive, but he's pretty sure she smiled.
"Very well. The thought brings to me a great happiness."
"What of your own heart, sister?"
Silence returns. He strains, to hear, to touch, to see… But his underdeveloped senses give no answer.
"Stop trying, brother. There is nothing to hear… Already, my primitive heart tube is weakening."
"Tell it to pump, sister… And if it continues to slack, I will ask of mine to beat harder for you!"
"Silly brother… I appreciate the thought, though."
Silence again.
"Miles… Miles Prower…"
"Do not call me that, sister."
"But it is your name."
"My name does not define me. I am your brother, and we are one."
"…Say, then, my brother."
"Yes, beloved sister?"
"It has all become clear to me, now." She stops, as though to sigh. "I… I've lost something."
"Lost… something?"
"Yes. Remember, back at the stage of the morula? When we were still together, not as we are now, but truly one and the same?"
"Vaguely…"
"Remember… how we split?"
"Yes, I believe I do…"
"There was a small piece, and a big piece. You were the big piece… I was the small piece."
"We are the same size now… Are we not?"
"And I, the small piece, drifted further away…"
"But not very far."
"But by then, I had already lost it."
"I don't understand, sister! What was it that you lost?"
"Something small… Something important, in the shape of a Y. And that's how we became different, brother."
"Let's look for it, sister! Maybe we can find it, and… become one again."
"Oh, Miles… I wish it were that easy."
She drifts away, just as she had come. Not far, but far enough.
With the expansion of the cephalic region, thoughts begin to clarify. Miles Prower gains awareness of himself in relation to space, within the housing of the amnion. Even the sounds of the outside world begin to rearrange into some sort of sense. He spends more and more time in reverie, imagining things both real and unreal, rising from some mysterious primeval depth.
"Miles...?" His name is called out a third time. Softly so.
"TS45X?"
"Miles… please, swim over if you may."
Almost embarrassed, he drifts towards his sister. He realizes, for the first time, that she had always been the one approaching him.
"That's better… thank you."
Since when had her voice become so weak?
"Miles…"
"Yes, my sister?"
"I don't know… if I have the strength…"
"To do what? I'll help you. We'll grow bigger and healthier every day, just you wait…"
"I don't think that… I can go on with you."
His embryonic heart trembles inside his tiny thorax. Was this what it meant to feel… fear?
"Don't joke with me, sister… Didn't we promise to explore the universe? Together?"
"The universe, Miles, sounds scary..."
"But we promised to be together!" His body does not know yet how to produce tears, yet he feels something stinging within the cephalic area.
"I'll still be here," she whispers. "With you. Always…"
"TS45X!"
She comes over, feebly. She reaches out with an upper limb bud, just recently sprouted. Miles reciprocates with his own. Once again, they find themselves in each other's embrace. The twins gulp at the amniotic fluid, indulging in this shared moment of sweetness.
"Goodnight, Miles Prower…"
"Sleep well, TS45X. I'll wake you, when it's time…"
Together, they drift back into the darkness.
He doesn't know how long it's been. By the time he awakens, she's gone.
Something feels different in his caudal region. Without seeing, he knows. A second nub has sprouted beside his native tailbud. The last trace of her… a memento to carry forever. She's in him, taking on the form of a second tail. Absorbed into his body, her cells will live on for as long as he does. TS45X. His beloved sister. His twin, his mirror image, the one and only other that had ever roused joy in his embryonic consciousness…
Miles Prower begins to weep, silently and tearlessly into the empty womb.
The end.
I would like to call this pairing Windowshipping because I came up with it while staring vacantly out of a window on a rainy day. If you do drawings I would love free gift art if that's okay, send me a PM! Thank you so much for reading. As always, bless,
- Map xxx