Butcher's Bill 1.3.3

Which was in and of itself almost concerning. I had thought that being under Regent's power would be like being trapped in my body, wanting to move but completely unable to. Instead, I was slowly losing the ability to want to move. Experimentally, I thought about trying to lift my foot, wiggle my toe. It didn't twitch. I wanted to shudder. I couldn't.

Was this what it had been like for Shadow Stalker? Her body moving to fight her friends, her teammates... and feeling like it was her doing it, the entire time?

My eyes opened, and I stood up. "Finished," I said.

"What's it like?" Grue asked.

I bounced up and down on my toes experimentally, coming several inches off the ground with each movement. "Like trying to fly a fighter jet while simultaneously folding origami and reciting Shakespeare in Russian. Jesus, Taylor, how do you deal with this many bugs?"

Distracted from how my body was moving and speaking without my intent, I stopped to pay attention to my swarm. As usual, my passenger was reacting to my agitation, and bugs were trying to get closer to Alec. He was holding them off somewhat ineffectively, using my power to calm down the closest only to lose his grasp on some of the others. I did my best to help him, showing him how to grab all of them at once and to tuck them back into locations safe from the rain.

He, in his own body, winced, and I spoke. "Yeah. I can move her body, but all her reflexes and muscle memories are screwed up. Takes a lot of focus. Then there's the bugs. I can use her Master powers okay, but without the Thinker power that lets her control them all at the same time... even with Taylor's help it's a Tattletale-sized headache." His body waved his hand, and suddenly I could move again, almost tripping over my own feet before I managed to regain my balance.