Daniel Blair and Justine Sawyer were going about getting some breakfast after waking up from a night's lovemaking in the woods. They had just settled down to eat it when two strangers approached their camp. Only, oddly, the strangers weren't strangers. They were them...
The two were frozen from shock as the newcomers came and sat down before the campfire next to them.
"Pancakes, eh?" said the second Daniel. "Looks good."
"You don't mind if we join in, do you?" asked the second Justine.
"But-- but--" stammered the first Justine.
"Thought not." The second Justine took the first's hand, and the second Daniel did the same to the first Daniel.
There was a flash of light, and then there were only one Daniel and one Justine again.
"Well," said Daniel, "that went well."
"Did it?" asked Justine. "My two minds haven't completely merged yet, and the first me isn't sure she likes being combined with the second me. Seems that the first pair of us just went through a lot of trouble to get rid of their old Avatorial identities and memories, and thanks to the second pair of us, we've got them back."
"I know what you mean," said Daniel. "Though we don't really -- not completely. Our Avatorial selves left our second selves just a fraction of their power when they sent us back to the AddVenture to merge with our first selves -- just enough to make us magicians. So we're not really back to being Avatars. As for the memories -- well, the plan was to have our second selves provide the power and our first selves the identities. I don't see any problem with shedding those unpleasant other memories."
"True," mused Justine. "With our magic, it should be easy. But if we do that, don't we need a new backstory to explain how we became magicians?"
"Not really. We went on a camping trip, we had an awe-inspiring experience in which we got in touch with our true, spiritual selves, and we emerged from the experience with the gift of magic. Keep that, fudge the details, and we're home free."
Justine laughed. "I like it! Both my selves like it! It even has the advantage of being true, in a way."
"Let's do it, then."
The two lovers concentrated on shedding the more disturbing details of their newly-recovered memories, leaving only the portions they had just agreed to keep. At the same time, each of their double minds coalesced completely into one. They were simply Daniel and Justine again. No, they had always been simply Daniel and Justine. Now, though, they had magic...
"So," asked Daniel, "shall we continue our little vacation, or do you want to go home and use our powers to make the world a better place? Or maybe just to make a few bucks?"
"Hmm," said Justine, looking at her lover in a particularly arch fashion...
Fri Aug 31 13:30:31 2001
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