Snip- Aleph Imposter

Earth Bet’s Internet was incomprehensibly different from ours in a thousand tiny ways. Things were normal until they weren’t. There were still cute cat videos, but on Earth Bet the cats were occasional the size of a house or we’re part cyborg or whatever variation you could think of. They had a different concept of normality on Bet, they accepted the absurd with ease due to being exposed to it so much.

Both the good and bad seemed to be amplified on Bet. There was more feel-good videos, but also more videos of horrific events. People were more cautious online on Bet and everyone carried an unconscious suspicion of each other. Trading personal information was even rarer then normal because anyone could be a cape capable of stalking you with only a name.

It was both a pleasant surprise and terrifying to find that the stalkers operated in broad daylight and gave away information for free. And that they called themselves the Alexandria fan club.

It made sense in a way for there to be a fan club for someone as famous as Alexandria, but it all seemed to consist of what the Bet Internet called cape chasers. They had a massive index on everything Alexandria that they could find legally. They also had a second sizable one that held the information they gained illegally. Reading everything felt wrong and invasive, but I pushed myself through it. It covered everything, from evert type of measurement about Alexandria’s body and costume to things like her diet and hair care routine. Apparently her hair was naturally that good looking, which was really unfair. It even mentioned that she had a mental power of some sort, which I hadn’t known about.

I regretted learning that the fan club knew the exact type of titanium that made up Alexandria’s underwear.

There was too much information to go through it all, so I pulled at the relevant bits. It was still a lot of information to go through, but the effort was worth it.

People stared with wide eyes as I walked down the street. Some people ran at the sight of me. I wasn’t sure if they were intimidated criminals or if they somehow didn’t know who Alexandria was, but it didn’t matter. I basked in the moment, smiling at the attention. The projection around me didn’t mimic the expression, instead keeping its face stoic. I made the projection rise into the air, lifting higher then me. The space below the projection hid me, instead showing the empty air that was supposed to be there.

I sprinted to a bench, making the Alexandria projection match my pace as it descended. The projection mimicked Alexandria’s sitting posture at it met me at the bench, sliding over me. It was a projection only, I’d need to have it match me if I wanted to actually have Alexandria shake someone’s hand.

The crowd of onlookers slowly started to shift and a single brave soul raised his phone to take a picture. I made the projection smile. The phone’s camera flashed and I panicked.

Would the picture show the projection or would it see through it? Would they see a short white girl named Claire or would they see Alexandria, the hero who apparently had crushed a watermelon with her thighs if I trusted her stalker fan club. Shit, I couldn’t test how cameras worked right now. I sure as heck couldn’t back down and vanish. Alexandria wouldn’t do that, right?

The camera’s flash of light seemed to have fully shaken people out of there daze. The reaction was mixed, shifting between shock and cautious disbelief, but slowly people started to approach. A towering brown haired boy spoke, “Are you... Alexandria.”

I made the projection nod, struggling to search for what Alexandria would say. The fan club had an exhaustive list on her speech patterns for real life fiction, and wasn’t that a trip to discover, but I’d only skimmed it. Affirmative was too robotic, and I didn’t think Alexandria was the type to say ‘that I am’. Was she? Fuck I should have taken better notes besides stoic and intense.

I quietly cleared my throat, shifting my voice into my practiced mimicry of Alexandria’s, “Uhm, hi.”

I was brilliant at impersonating superheroes. Absolutely brilliant.

For his part, the guy didn’t question it. Instead a painfully awkward silence dragged on. Words spilled out of my mouth before I could stop them, “It’s a, uh, nice day out, wouldn’t you say?”

It was cold as fuck today and overcast.

The guy nodded slowly, and his mouth opened a few times. He seemed to be physically holding himself back from speaking, so I spoke up. “It’s okay, I’m not going to crush your skull with super strength or anything.”

The tall brunette stopped fighting himself, instead whipping out his white cased phone. “Canyousignmyphone,” he blurted out. It took me a second to process what he said.

I moved my toe, pressing down the switch to freeze the projection. I used the moment to pat myself down and try to force myself to sound more like Alexandria. “I’m sorry, I seem to find myself with a severe lack of signing material like a sharpie.”

The brunette seemed to physically deflate at my response. He lowered his phone holding hand, shoving it back into his pocket. I shuffled awkwardly for a moment.

“Is your jaw alright?”

I turned to find the woman who spoke. She was short and old, with graying hair. My jaw? Had the real Alexandria had jaw problems? “It’s perfectly healthy.”

The woman rose an eyebrow for some reason, “Ventriloquy then.”

I blinked, “What?” It came out harsher then intended and the woman seemed to take a step back.

Her words came out slowly, as if she was worried she was being an idiot, “Your mouth doesn’t move when you talk.”

What?

 Oh. Jesus fucking Christ what an idiot I was. I flicked a switch with my toe. The projection snapped into place to face the old woman. I made sure the projection’s jaw moved, “Sorry, habit.” And now everyone would think Alexandria was a weirdo who unconsciously slipped into ventriloquy.

I caught movement out of the corner of my eye and jerked back. The towering brunette froze, marker in hand. The Alexandria projection moved with me as I took the sharpie. Fortunately, I did remember what the Alexandria signature looked like.

Unfortunately, I’d started signing my own name and had to roughly force it into something that crudely resembled Alexandria’s signature.

Phone, arms, and notebooks pushed themselves into view, and I began signing each of them. The atmosphere steadily grew more relaxed as the crowd grew and I settled better into the role of Alexandria. The projection focused on the minor stuff, I focused on the actual responses. It took effort to keep my reactions as Alexandria’s reactions, rather then my own.

“Hey, Alexandria, like why are you here?”

I barely bothered to turn to face the blond to answer the question. A lot of people had asked it today. “To deter crime and keep an eye out for anything suspicious. Along with just answer questions that anyone might have for me.”

None of that was true obviously. People respected me as Alexandria. They liked me as Alexandria. I was seriously considering being her full time.

The blond brushed some hair out of her face. Her hair was better then mine. “Yeah but like why are you here?”

I gave her my full focus. People didn’t push for details on my answers and they didn’t repeat their questions. “This is Los Angeles. I live here.”

The blond sighed, shaking her head, “Well yeah, but I thought you lived in like the other LA?”

The other LA? Oh she meant Earth Bet’s LA. Fuck, wait, why was Alexandria here? I hadn’t actually put thought into the fact that this was Earth Aleph except for the fact that I wouldn’t accidentally run into the real Alexandria.

I pursed my lips, my thoughts racing as I tried to figure out what the fuck to say. I wasn’t going to back down, I had been enjoying this too much. “I do.”

The blond rolled her eyes, “Yeah, I know that. We all know that. But how and why are you in this LA?”

Another voice spoke, but I couldn’t identify who said it, “Didn’t some nutjob in Wyoming open a portal once? I know they did because the other earth has a really shitty Pirates of the Caribbean. It didn’t have Johnny Depp.”

“Montana actually.” Shit, I hadn’t meant to say that. No time to stop, just roll with it. “I came here for a, uhm, tour. Wanted to see what the city looked like and all, you know?”

The blond crossed her arms, “Should have just like googled it then.”

I made the projection rise, having it hover in the air as if it prove that I wasn’t a fake or just some cosplayer, “I-“

An office worker pushed through the crowd, flipping open a wallet as she approached. Her tone was all business as she cut me off, “There you are, Alexandria. We’re done here. The Simurgh attack seems to have had little fallout on Aleph. We have permission to open a portal to Bet, but you need to leave now. Top of the blue building twelve blocks south, four blocks east.”

What the fuck? Had I actually accidentally intentionally impersonated Alexandria? I wasn’t sure whether to be proud or horrified.

I stared at the woman, analyzing her. She was dressed like an office worker, with a white button up shirt and black tie. Just like everyone else she had better hair then me, hers being some perfect wavy curly mixture. I had no idea who she was.

Then I glanced at the wallet. It was open, revealing a badge. Three letters were emblazoned at the top, underneath them a photo of the mystery woman. PRT.

Fuck, Alexandria was on Aleph.

The projection nodded and rose into the air. The space it had previously occupied showed the empty air rather then me. The projection flew over a building and I lost sight of it. I curled my toe to hit a switch and activated the projection’s camouflage function.

The PRT lady nodded and sat down on the bench. She didn’t leave.

Slowly, the gathered crowd broke apart. Everyone meandered their open separate ways. They didn’t have a reason to stay now that the famous cape was gone.

I refused to pester the PRT lady with questions, partly because I was invisible and partly because it would be awkward to just pester the woman about Bet. She’d call me nosy and annoying and she’d laugh at me when I asked a stupid question and-

I forced myself to exhale loudly.

The PRT lady stared off into space for a moment, thankfully not reacting. Was she just used to weird things because Bet was they crazy earth and random exhalation like sounds happened all the time?

The PRT lady turned towards me and crossed her arms, “Alexandria would be disappointed in you Claire.”

I blinked. What. The. Fuck. The PRT lady knew my name. What the fuck? How the fuck?

“She’s going to be spending months in an office now just to clean up this whole mess. She won’t be able to go out in the field during that time.”

Alexandria wouldn’t be able to go camping because of me. Alexandria was big, she was part of the Triumvirate. She was amazing and better then me in every way. I hadn’t meant to confine her to an office. What if an- oh fuck the Endbringers attacked like every month or something. Fuck Alexandria wouldn’t be able to fight an Endbringer and people would die and it was all my fault. Couldn’t I do something to fix this?

The PRT lady nodded, “You can actually.”

Fuck had I said that out loud?

The lady continued, “In the interest of not creating any PR disasters or starting a war between worlds, I suggest you stick to less detailed cosplays. As in, cosplays you can tell are simply a cosplay.”

An Aleph-Bet war? Shit would I have caused that? Fuck being Alexandria was a terrible idea. “I- uhm, well... yeah I can try that, I guess.”

She nodded, “Good, see to it that you do.” The lady paused to stand up, “You had all the details down to imitate Alexandria, however. You’d do well at CapeCon.”

I blinked. What? She wasn’t telling me to never dress up like a cape again? I was expecting fines or jail time or men in black suits to make sure I didn’t screw up, not an encouragement to try again. This was all too weird. “I, uhm, thanks? CapeCon’s way too big, though. Someone would do it better and-“

“And yet people actually believed you were Alexandria half an hour ago. CapeCon is easier then what you just did. There’s less pressure. There’s more attention, more eyes on you and more people gawking at how real your costume looks. You could make it big Claire.”

Uhm what do I say to that? Thank you, I’ll try not to fuck up your hopes for me? I searched for the words to express myself. I didn’t even know what to express. A silence dragged between us as I searched, bereting myself all the while for letting it stretch on so long.

The PRT lady glanced at the expensive watch I hadn’t noticed she was wearing. “I really have to go, Claire.” The lady started to leave.

My toe jabbed a button rapidly and the projection hiding me from the world shut down. I lurched forward and spoke before I could stop myself, “CanIgetAlexandria’sautographmaybeyesplease?”

The lady turned to face me the slightest bit, a small smile on her face. “Win CapeCon first and then we’ll talk.”

As the PRT lady walked out of sight, a single thought crossed my mind. CapeCon wouldn’t know what hit it.