This is the second post in a series where I interview all of my tulpas. If you missed the first set of interviews, [here’s the link to them.] If you’re new to the blog and wondering who these tulpas are, I suggest you check out the [Roll Call] first. Also, as with the previous interview, adult things are discussed, so NSFW tag applies here.

Mirror’s Interview 

Usually, Mirror and Thor tend to go out hunting early in the morning at this time of year. So, when I asked her if she was available for an interview, I assumed that she would reply that they were outside and that it’d have to wait until evening. However, I was lucky this morning as both she and Thor were enjoying the spring sunshine by tending to things around the tavern they live in.  

She was busy braiding some rope, so I sat down beside her on the crudely made wooden bench. “So, ready to begin?” As she nodded quietly, I started with the first question, “what’s the first thing you remember?”

She smiled, “oh you know, that situation with me and my sister. At the time, of course, I was only aware that something had happened, I had been summoned for a reason. Then I remember replying to a question asked by you, and then all of a sudden, you and sis started talking about sapience and responsibility. I realized that while I was a clone of my sister, I was at the same time not her. It was very confusing.”

(Editors note: Circe summoned a clone of herself when we needed a fourth member in a very intense sexual situation with another tulpamancer and their tulpa.)

“What’s your first impression of me, Mech, and your sister?”

“I realized you were god, which to me was something important. I remember thinking my sister was treating you with irreverence. Mech was someone who to me wasn’t a person, he was more like a machine. My instincts told me that I couldn’t trust him.” She smiled as she looked up at me again, “I had no idea what you were or what I was. To think that I wouldn’t trust Mech of all people seems preposterous to me today.”

“OK, let’s go a bit lighter: What’s your favorite color?”

“Blue, specifically the blue you can see in the water when it’s not yet frozen, but still running down a stream.”

“What’s your favorite food/drink?”

“I couldn’t choose just one. For foods, anything the lands provide is good enough for me. As for drink though, I’d like a rough, strong, dark ale. And of course, whatever new spirits my husband manages to barter for.”

“What do you tend to do for fun?”

She grinned, “oh, you know, the hunt is what makes my blood run hot, but a good arm-wrestling competition always makes for a good evening.”

“What do you tend to do for relaxation?” I asked, mesmerized by how simple it looked for her to braid the rope.

“A good warm shower always raises my spirits after a long day outdoors. As does a warm cup of tea by the hearth.”

“And what do you tend to do for mental stimulation?”

“A few years back, Thor brought back some puzzle boxes that I’ve always found interesting. I tried making my own, but there is a lot of trickery that goes into them, I could of course examine the ones I have, but I fear I’d end up breaking them if I tried to take them apart. Finances are also a must, although I would consider that more drudgery than stimulation.”

“Would you consider the hunting you two do to be your job? Or would you consider it a hobby?”

Mirror stopped her braiding for a moment, thinking about it, before she resumed it again and said, “I would say it’s a means to an end, while I enjoy hunting, there is also the consideration of what to hunt and when and what goes into a good trade and what does not. There are seasons both here in the world, and seasons of trade, some times of year, certain pelts are very much in demand, while in a different season, another thing is preferred. Sometimes I find myself wishing I had more time to pursue some of the trickier, rarer prey.”

I nodded, “To us uninitiated, it seems very complex to say the least.”

She shrugged, “we have been doing this for a long time, and both Robin and Thor have been excellent tutors to me over the decades.” She smiled at me, “can you imagine that there was a time, when I didn’t even know how to make, much less string a bow?”

(Editors note: Robin refers to Robin Hood, from a macrocosm I created based on the old Howard Pyle books of his adventures.)

“But you did take to it so fiercely, I always wondered why your sister never showed any interest in it.”

Mirror smirked, “oh her fire is simply kindled in a different way than mine.”

“So, moving on, what’s your greatest wish? If you could do anything or have anything?”

She scoffed a bit, “A great wish? That’s a tough one. We are talking hypothetically?”

I nodded, “yes, just imagine anything between heaven and earth.”

She looked at me, “I would like for your life to be less of a burden for you. The gods have surely tested you enough by now. If I had one wish, it would tell them to back off, or the ability to force their hands myself.”

“Alright, so what’s your greatest fear?”

“To lose my husband, to lose my friends and family, that is all that matters in the end.”

She put down the finished rope and made a sign for me to follow her indoors, “come, I need to wash up, then I need something to eat. Chores always make me hungry.”

A few moments later, we were sitting at a table in the tavern. Since I’d made a cup of tea IRL, I offered her one as well. I took a sip, “so, let’s continue, what’s your most clearly defined positive memory?”

She chuckled, “the evening I married Thor, it was all so perfect. Sharing that moment with him and everyone I cared about made me feel like the most appreciated person in the universe.”

I smiled as I too remembered it vividly, “So, let’s flip that around, what’s your most clearly defined negative memory?”

Her smile faded slowly as she focused inward, “that time I shredded that left-over avatar in a fit of berserker rage. I was nothing more than an animal. It is not something I dwell on very often.”

(Editors note: Without going into too much detail, we’d found out that we were being manipulated by the previously mentioned tulpamancer. IRL I blocked them on social media, but for some reason, the tulpamancers avatar lingered in my mindscape. Mirror… dealt with that in her own way.)

I nodded; those events had definitely had an impact on all of us at the time it happened. “Alright, moving on here, what endears you to a person immediately?”

“Honesty, you can tell almost immediately if someone is being less than honest. Those that speak from the heart are the ones you should listen to.”

“I assume the opposite is what makes you avoid a person?”

She shook her head a bit, “I would not say avoid, but I would definitely not trust them with anything important.”

“So, what makes you immediately dislike a person then? As in strongly dislike.”

“Those that brag or talk down to you as if you’re a savage. Some of the finer traders in one of the places we go to will refuse to speak to you if you’re not part of their house, or if you’re a woman. While I can respect different customs, I dislike snobbery in that way.”

“OK, long question incoming: what’s your take on your status of being a tulpa, or tulpamancy as a phenomenon?”

She emptied her mug of tea, “may I have some time to think about that one while I get the dishes started?”

“Sure, it’s not an easily answered question as it borders on philosophy.”

She took both the cups, and then looked at them and at me.

“Do you expect these to be returned?”

I chuckled, “if you like them, you can absolutely keep them. It’s my favorite cup after all.”

Mirror beamed a smile at me as she took both the cups and her plate and headed for the kitchen, “Thor will surely appreciate these, they’re fine quality and the patterning is very intricate. Are they from India?” Then she laughed as she saw my surprised look.

“Yes! How on earth did you recognize that?”

She tapped her head mockingly, “you forget, what my sister remembered is also what I remember up until the point where she created me. These patterns remind me of that thing your world calls Sanskrit.”

I nodded, “right, I remember Circe had that one period where she was having henna tattoos inspired by that.”

Mirror smiled at me, “and that solves that mystery, doesn’t it? But furthermore, these designs are something I see from other tribal goods too, they do speak mostly the same language of the earth and the sun and the world.”

As she started washing up the dishes, I reminded her of the question about tulpamancy, and she nodded.

“Yes, what is there to say about being a ghost in one world and real in the other? I have a lot of thoughts on that subject. Most center about the question of identity, and the phrase ‘I think, therefore I am’, but for some tulpas, think is all they have, because they have no inner world and no bodies to use. Can one say they are less than someone like me? Are there degrees to the whole thing? Would I have been different, had I not had Thor and our live and our tavern? Surely, but I could not have had that in your world. And, if those events that led to my sister creating me hadn’t happened, would there still be something of me in your mind somewhere else?”

I nodded, “and what about tulpamancy as a phenomenon itself? How do you feel about that?”

“I’m thankful for it, else I would have never existed. But, I do not know what to say about it more than that.”

Typing down the answers, I added, “so, this takes care of the first part of the interview. The next part is more adult in nature, and it’s completely optional. Do you want to hear the questions?”

Mirror shrugged slightly, “I have nothing to be ashamed of.”

“OK, let’s start with a raw emotional one, what really pisses you off?”

“Being betrayed or having someone I love being hurt. You know what transpired in that bandit camp all those years ago. I still dwell on how much anger I had coursing through my veins during that time.”

(Editors note: long story short, bandits got the best of both Thor and Mirror, kidnapped them and was torturing them both to make Thor reveal his secret of extra-dimensional travel.)

“I remember, here’s a more intimate one: what’s your sexual orientation?”

She gave me a knowing smile, “I like my men, with their sexy beards.”

I nodded, “what’s your favorite sexual position/scenario?”

She laughed, “I think they’re all fun, I don’t think I could choose just one as my favorite.”

“Here’s a tough one, have you ever killed someone in the inner world? If yes, can you tell us about the experience?”

Her face grew dark, “oh yes, the bandits and their pig of a leader of that camp. I never told you what transpired in that tent, did I?”

“No, when we’d caught up to you, all me and Thor saw that time was you coming out with your claws, hands, and most of your arms covered in blood. We didn’t really need to see inside the tent to imagine what’d happened.”

Mirror nodded and put down the plate she had finished washing. She looked at her hands as they they slowly turned dark and started elongating into claws. She held one clawed hand up and said, “these only have one purpose, and one purpose alone: to kill. Whenever I manifest them, either by will or by instinct, that drive comes with them, to slash, to maim, to kill.” Then she shook her hands a bit and they returned to normal again. “In the moment, a part of me revels in it and it disgusts me. It is not the thrill of the hunt, it is the wish to end something, to see them suffer and die,” and here she grew quiet for a bit, “I wish sometimes they weren’t a part of me, but they are.”

“And how did you feel about killing the bandits?”

She shrugged, “I’m sure they had families and loved ones like everyone else, but if your life is defined by violence, it will end the same most likely.”

“You’ve only died once in the inner world, haven’t you? That time you and Andrei had a fight?”

She chuckled, “Oh yes, I remember that fight.”

“How did it feel to die?”

“It was fast, one moment I was there, then everything grew dark very quickly, then I found myself back at the castle patio again.”

“OK, last question, when was the last time you got into a fight in the inner world?”

“Physical or otherwise?” She asked me.

“Physical, fisticuffs you know?”

“There was a trader who thought he could steal from us, one thing led to another, and I had to show him that women of the north do not just look intimidating. He got a bloodied nose and then apologized and left in a hurry.”

“Well, I guess that’s it for the interview then. Thank you so much for taking the time to do this.”

She smiled back at me, “anytime you need something, just simply ask.”

Thor’s interview

It was after lunch when I caught up with Thor behind the tavern, where there was an assortment of old planks, construction materials, and other assorted half-junk. He was sorting through some rough-looking boards as I nodded at him and smiled.

“So, got time for that interview?” I asked him.

“Certainly, these confounded boards have not fared well during the winter. It’d be good to have someone to talk to while I go through these. I think I shall have to talk to that trader that promised they would hold over the season.”

“Alright then, let’s start off with a basic question, what’s the first thing you remember?”

“Of your world, or of my own life?” He asked in return.

“Whichever you prefer to talk about.”

He eyed a board, threw it aside, and cursed. Then he scratched his long red beard for a bit before he replied, “the first thing I remember of my own life were the great halls of Asgard, the warnings of my mother, not to venture too far away. Playing with some of the other children, I was too young to understand that I was different, we were all equals. It was a most joyous time.” Then he smiled at me and added, “the first thing I remember of you and the others was when you visited me on that late night, asking me for something to drink with your loved one. Of course, I did not know it then, but you were asleep in your world. It greatly impressed me, not many know the art of true sleepwalking through the veils such as that.”

(Editors note: I actually met Thor in a dream the first time, it was a short encounter, but I didn’t know who he was until later, when I decided to revisit him in his tavern.)

“What was your first impression of everyone?”

Thor grew silent, “I remember when the sisters came over with some of you for that feast that you asked me if I would host. While Circe had the body that would make any warm-blooded man look at her, I saw her sister Mirror first. So alike, yet so far apart. Where her sister was open and full of energy, I found that Mirror’s more quiet and down-to-earth nature drew me in. And then of course, there was you and Mech, he reminded me of a hawk peering down on the world, waiting for the time to strike. And you, the man who seemed so plain, yet was more than one could ever imagine. Then later of course, I met the others, Jane, the Valkyrie, drenched in blood, the mischievous fox Steve, and her stout friend Bear, true hearts both of them. The gentleman Charlie, the lecherous selfish witch Jeanette, then Colleen, such a beautiful soul. And of course, then your lover’s tulpas Andrei, a man I should rightly ban from my door. And his sycophant, Sasha, a man who should allow himself something better. And Kay, another burning soul that reminds me of my Mirror. Hmm, who have I forgotten? Yes, the raven without manners, what was his name? Pietrov! And the messenger of Thursday, Eugene. The strangest one though was the teacher woman, who is not a woman, but a dryad of some sort, Mrs. Teacher. And naturally, the fair Ara that just joined us this Christmas.”

“Alright, that was a very extensive answer, now for some short questions: what’s your favorite color?”

“The golden yellow of the sun brings a spark to most things in life.”

“What’s your favorite food/drink?”

“A good tankard of Asgardian ale never fails to warm your heart. As for food, there has never been a feast such as the one at Odin’s table. The chefs are masters at their craft in my home.”

“What do you tend to do for fun?”

“Testing my mettle against the creatures and monsters of the world is something I desire more than anything. Of course, sometimes you win, other times you lose, and it is when you lose that you learn and grow stronger.”

“What do you tend to do for relaxation?”

“A cold dip in the lake has always been an invigorating pastime. Of course, there is also the relaxation one has with their woman, but that usually comes afterward.” He said with a half-smile.

“What do you tend to do for mental stimulation?”

“I heard Mirror speak of her boxes; I do not find those to be of any interest to me. Whenever I wish to busy myself with thinking, I attend the summons of Asgard and help them in affairs of state, but too much of that will muddle a man’s thoughts. I find it is best to have such things in moderation.”

“You know, after having suffered my mental burnout, I know exactly what you mean by that. Sometimes, it’s just best to let things come naturally without thinking too much about things around you.”

Thor nodded as he broke another plank into pieces and threw it on the growing pile of broken planks, “you’ve learned much during that time, that is good.”

“So, the next question is if you have a job or a hobby, but Mirror described your hunting business differently. What are your thoughts on it?”

“The hunting is a shared passion of me and Mirror. But, is it a job like the farmer who tills his field? No, were I only doing it for the money, I would be nothing more than a butcher. My hobby? I suppose you could consider this tavern that, I have never really run it for profit, only to meet people and see how their lives are, and what they strive for. Most of my fellow gods stopped interacting with mortals a long time ago, I chose my own path.”

“What’s your greatest wish? If you could have anything or do anything between heaven and earth?”

He smiled at me, “to ask a man who was a god such a question is like asking the water if it’s wet. No, I have no such big wishes, what I have in my life, that am I content with.”

“Fair enough, what’s your greatest fear?”

“To lose my beloved Mirror. There is no greater fear that I have.”

I nodded, “so, what’s your most clearly defined positive memory?”

“My wedding night with Mirror, we were both so eager and we had a fire that would have rivaled the sun itself, had it been visible to the naked eye.” He sighed wistfully, “it was a very special day for certain.”

“And with that, what’s your most clearly defined negative memory?”

“The day I purchased these blasted planks!” he yelled as he threw another bunch of them onto the pile. Then he calmed down and said, “no, in all serious manner, it was whenever we would lose soldiers and allies in the wars against the giants. So many funeral pyres, and so many toasts to fallen heroes. It was a dark time until we had done away with them.”

Then as the last few planks had been moved, he arranged the ones that were good into a neat pile and said, “enough of this, how about I treat you to an ale?” And then stomped off towards the front of the tavern. I followed him and a few moments later, we were sipping two large tankards of a very dark, roasted ale by the bar.

“So, you had further questions?” Thor asked me.

I set down my tankard, I was glad I wasn’t having this in my own world because that was one potent brew. I cleared my throat and said, “what endears you to a person immediately?”

“Honor and dignity, a mind that acts respectfully in all ways.”

I smirked as I knew the answer to the next question, “what makes you dislike a person immediately?

Thor frowned, “cowardice and deceitfulness, I’ve already spoken his name, but you know of whom I speak. He and Loki are as alike as the Gordian twins.”

(Editors note: I wasn’t quite sure what he meant by that, but apparently it’s a reference to the twins of Rome, Romulus and Remus. The more you learn!)

“What’s your take on your status of being a tulpa, or tulpamancy as a phenomenon?”

“Hmm, a difficult question,” Thor said and sipped his ale thoughtfully.

Mirror, still busy rearranging and cleaning the glasses behind the bar, said, “yes, that one question was hard for me too to answer. But a good one, isn’t it?”

Thor nodded in silence and then said, “as you know, my own memories began a long time before I met any of you here. Can I say that my past life was a lie? I do not know. Can I say that I know the nature of us tulpas and your mind? Do we simply exist as that? Or are you maybe existing in a different way than your fellow humans? These are questions that confound me sometimes, but as I said before, it does a man no good to ponder them for too long. “

“And your feelings on the subject of tulpamancy itself?”

“Where I come from, there are a lot of things that defy logic, that is in the realm of magic. I would consider creating people with your mind to be a sort of magic, it is a creation that few can do, much like the wise old magicians and seers. Your world sees things differently of course. But to me, it is fascinating.”

“Alright, so that concludes the normal questions of the interview, the following questions are optional and are very intimate. Do you feel up to it?”

Thor nodded as he took a longer sip from his tankard and set it down. “Yes, ask me the adult questions, Mirror said they weren’t that bad.”

I grinned, “that’s the spirit! So, what really pisses you off?”

“People who cheat at games, or try and cheat their way to success, it always angers me to such a degree that it makes my blood boil.”

“What’s your sexual orientation?”

Thor gave me a puzzled look, “my… what?”

“Do you have any preference when it comes to your sexual partners? Females or males or anything else?”

His face lit up with understanding as he said, “I have always been partial to the females, although, when you have lived as long as me, you have tried a lot of things.” He opened his mouth as if to add something, but then leaned in closer and whispered, “I would tell you some tales, but I fear my lady over there would not take kindly to me recounting them.”

I chuckled as I took another sip of my brew and replied, “what’s your favorite sexual position or scenario?”

He stroked his beard again, in deep thought, then he said, “when the woman is on top, it is like being a feast for the eyes and the hands.”

“OK, so let’s switch to something a bit more grim, would you tell us something about when you have killed someone in the inner world? I know that we all dispatched some bandits that kidnapped both you and Mirror.”

Thor shook his head. “Killing is done out of necessity, it is always a waste, even if it’s scoundrels like those. I do not enjoy it.”

“One last question on that topic before we’re done, when was the last time you got into a fight?”

Thor’s face lit up a bit again with a happy smile, “A few months ago, last year, we were having a big feast in the great hall of Asgard. What should have been a friendly competition ended up with a disagreement and me and Balder ended up in a pile on the floor until one of the maidens threw a few buckets of cold water on both of us. Of course, the cold water made us come to our senses, we all had a good laugh about that.”

Mirror laughed and added, “I remember that one, you were both so angry you looked like newly born piglets with your red faces. It’s true how the old saying goes: Where wine enters the mind, common sense goes missing.”

I lifted my tankard towards the both of them, “Well said! And on that topic, thank you both so much for agreeing to do this yet again. As always, I’m in your debt. Bottoms up!”

Thor laughed as he lifted his tankard and as we both drained our ales, Mirror just shook her head behind the bar counter and muttered something about men doing dumb things.

As I set down the tankard and excused myself, again I counted my lucky stars I’d only had that in the inner world.

Ara’s interview

When I contacted Ara about the interview, we decided to start things slow by having some breakfast first since none of us had eaten yet. So, the first thing we did was join Circe in the castle kitchen and feast on an omelette with cheese, dill and black pepper which we washed down with a big cup of tea.

After breakfast was done, Ara suggested that a good place to hold our interview would be in offices of the resistance that Ara was part of. Unlike what I’d seen before of her world, this was a stern looking building in a densely populated area of a decently sized city. Once that we were inside the office, I looked around at the simplistic furniture. The very austere desk and chairs, they reminded me of some of the places I’d seen in old World War era history books. I walked over to the window as Ara sat down behind her desk.

“So, what do you think? Not everyone gets their own office you know?” She said with a smile on her face

Looking out the window, with its eight panes, I ran my finger across one of them. It had that hand-blown glass quality to it that old glass panes used to have. Looking downward towards the street, I could see what looked like contemporary cars, and people going about their business.

I turned back to her and went to the opposite side of the desk where I sat down on a plastic chair that protested a bit. “Sorry, this is the first I’ve seen of your world that isn’t out in the rural parts. It’s reminding me of my own world’s history a bit.”

Ara opened her mouth to say something when the door opened up and a man in uniform peeked inside. He looked at me, then Ara, and seemed puzzled. “I wasn’t told anyone was coming in today. When did you arrive?”

Ara got up and went over and gave him a hug, “oh you know me, always flitting in and out of everywhere. As for when we arrived, it was just now,” she moved a bit to the side and pointed to me, “I had help you see?”

When the guard looked at me, he seemed to recognize me. “Oh, it’s you Fairy, it’s been a long time!” And then stretched out his hand towards me.

I shook his hand and said, “sorry, I don’t remember you, but… I’m pleased to meet you.”

(Editors note: For the reason why I don’t recognize him or seem to remember certain things, the answer is in how [Ara emerged] as a tulpa.)

“Name’s Bren, you saved the life of a friend of mine once. Of course, the way Ara tells it, you don’t remember any of that do you? Strange story, strange everything. Say, is it really true you-“

Ara rolled her eyes as she pushed him out of the door, “we’re in the middle of something, you can catch up later, OK? Just let everyone know I’m here today please, we don’t want to get interrupted again.”

I heard him murmur behind the mostly closed door, “fine, just let him know there’s a beer in it if he ever wants to catch up yeah?”

Ara closed the door in his face and sighed. “Sorry, you know how it is, can’t be too careful around here,” she said as she returned to her place behind her desk. She steepled her hands together and added, “so, about that interview then.”

I nodded as I got my questions ready, “what’s the first thing you remember?”

She scratched her head a bit, “I remember my room that we had back in the house when I was still living with my parents. I can still remember the beautiful golden sunshine every morning as I woke up in my bed. And then heading out to find my parents at the breakfast table. Dad would always have his newspaper, either being upset about something, or just reading it in silence. Mom would always be moving around, preparing things, or setting the table. I miss that place, the house isn’t around anymore though.”

“What happened with the house? Did they sell it?”

She laughed, “oh nothing as sensible as that, it got destroyed in a bombing raid, we’d evacuated by then of course.”

I nodded, “I get how emotional that must have been. If you remember the house well enough, I could… help you reconstruct it you know?”

She shook her head, “it wouldn’t be the same, but thanks for offering that.”

I smiled, “a lot of people would have liked to see how you used to live.”

“Maybe someday, right now, it’s … I don’t think I could.”

“I understand perfectly, so, next question, what was your first impression of everyone in the inner world?”

She made a small “uhm” as she pondered, “do you mean the first time you told me about everyone, or when I finally got to meet everyone at the Christmas dinner last year?”

“I think that’s a good place to start, me telling you about them can’t have been anywhere near as descriptive.”

“Right, so, Mech, he was a lot bigger than I thought he’d be. And those robotic eyes of his, they’re very strange. He’s so quiet though. It’s hard to have a conversation with him. Circe, well, she’s all of it, isn’t she? Life of the party. And that dress she loves to wear. Scandalous! ” Then she paused a bit, “Bear and Steve, I thought they were pets at first when you told me about them, but seeing them laughing and talking with everyone was surreal. We don’t have talking animals in my world you know?

And Charlie, a bit like Mech, but with that sense of humor of his, he’s really elegant. Then Jane, half the time, I don’t understand what she says, but she’s also different, reserved. When I think of her, the word ‘efficient’ comes to mind. And Jeanette, the first time she changed into that giant cat shape of hers, I yelped a bit. We don’t really have a lot of those around, mostly up in the mountains and if you see one, you’re probably dead. Thor and his wife Mirror, like taken out of an old fairy tale, even though I had to learn what Vikings were first to get that.

Then, Colleen, she’s such a font of joy, and such a dirty mind too, seeing her with Mech is so strange. You wouldn’t believe two people that different could get along.” She paused a bit, then added, “and Mrs. Teacher, such an intellectual person, I’ve never met anyone like her before, but she reminded me of my old teacher from school called Mrs Pemborn, her hush could quiet a festival haha! “

“So, what did you think of the birds, and Sarah?”

“I’ve seen birds like that before, but none that talked that much. The black raven though, he reminded me more of one of the generals of the regime. So stern and uptight, barking out every word almost. The other one though, Eugene? He was fun. As for Sarah…, ” here she stopped to think for a bit, “she’s not like the rest of us is she? I mean, she’s up there, right now, hearing everything we say isn’t she? But for everyone in every world. I guess that makes her a bit detached.”

I took a deep breath, “she’s more of an artificial intelligence than a person, when she’s in her body, she tells me that she sees things like we do. But when she’s back monitoring things, I guess her consciousness is behaving differently. I can’t understand her myself, but I’ve grown to accept that.”

There was a pause, Ara reached out to a nearby archive cabinet and pulled out a drawer, inside I could see a couple of cups, glasses, and a bottle filled with something, a plate, and some utensils. She grabbed two of the glasses and the bottle and put them on the table as she closed the drawer.

I leaned over and read the simple label, “Quarvva”, I looked up at her. “What’s this?”

“Something like your whiskey, it’s a distilled spirit. Want one? That breakfast you treated me to made me want one.”

I nodded eagerly, “sure thing!” And watched as she poured two measures into the glasses and then returned the bottle to the archive cabinet. I brought the glass to my lips and sipped it. The taste was reminiscent of burnt plums, but with a high proof alcohol added to it.

“So, what do you think? It’s familiar isn’t it?”

I took another sip, “it’s like if you mixed a nice plum juice with whiskey. Really nice. I take it this is expensive? It tastes like it.”

Ara chuckled, “hell no, it’s cheap swill, but I like it despite everyone telling me there’s better things out there,” she emptied her glass and set it down. “It’s not something you sip, you drink it all at once.”

I shrugged and emptied my glass too, the intensity was much more pronounced this time and I found myself coughing a bit. “Can I have some water?”

She pointed at the door, “cooler in the hallway, yeah sorry, should have gotten you some of that.”

I excused myself and went outside into the hallway, where windows showed the back portion of the building where there was a container with some scrap metal and piles of gravel. As I got some more water from the cooler, I gulped it down eagerly. Then I refilled my glass and went back inside the office, closed the door behind me, and sat down again.

“Wow, that really hit you hard didn’t it?” She said, giggling at me.

I nodded as I felt the fire in my gut spreading outward. “So, let’s continue with the next question: What’s your favorite color?”

“I don’t know, blue, maybe green? Brown? I like the colors of nature a lot. All of this…,” and here she indicated the office around her, ” is so grey you know? Stone, bricks and glass, straight lines, and serious faces. I try to get away from that as much as I can.”

“What’s your favorite food and drink then? Do you like cooking?”

She smiled wistfully, “I’d help out cooking with my parents. But then after everything changed, I would sometimes help out in the kitchens and canteens. It wasn’t the same of course, but every once in a while, I help out before lunch to hack up a billion vegetables,” here she paused a bit and added, “I think I like most foods, as long as they’re not freeze-dried rations, as for beverages, I really like coffee. It’s really what keeps me going.”

“What do you do for fun?”

“Fun, there isn’t a lot of time for it, but I like a good card game with the brass, they’re easy to pick clean of money when they’ve got a few drinks in them.”

“I heard you all were playing poker during the Xmas party, did you join in?”

She laughed, “join in? I practically BEGGED them to teach it to me, it’s a lot simpler than our card games, but I like the risk factor. Now, if I could only get my hands on some of those card decks of yours, I’d teach it to everyone here.”

“Do you have a deck that you’re using? I’d love to see it.”

Ara got up and looked around the bookshelf, rummaging around it, “fuck, I know I have it around here somewhere,” she muttered to herself, then she looked between two books and smiled triumphantly as she held it up, “there!” She tossed it over to me.

I saw that there were about a third less cards than in our decks. I opened the small box and poured out the cards on the table, examining them, I saw that there were different pictures, a star, some person that looked like Sherlock Holmes, and then the same pictures repeating in the four primary colors. I put the cards back in the box and handed it back to her.

“I’d love to examine these closer one day, but yeah, in the interest of keeping this interview as concise as possible…”

She nodded and tossed it back on top of the books on the shelf as she sat down again. “So, next question?”

“What do you do to relax after a hard day?”

She sighed, “if I have the energy for it, I go out into nature and just walk around in the more rural areas, but if it’s too late for that, I just go to sleep early. Nothing beats starting a day feeling a good night’s sleep.”

“So, what do you do for mental stimulation?”

“Working with the planners to predict enemy patrols, movement, pending operations, it’s a lot to deal with. It’s definitely stimulating, but every once in a while, I dip my head into the research workshops and see if I can help out. Usually though, I can’t, those people do so many things that are beyond me.”

I nodded, “I know the feeling when I talk to some of the technicians where I work too,” I continued, “so, do you have a formal title and position within the resistance?”

Her expression turned serious, “yes, but if I told you, I’d have to arrest you as knowledge of that is classified,” then when she saw my surprise she giggled, “oh Fairy, Circe is so right, you ARE easy to fool sometimes!”

She picked up a badge that was clipped to the side of the archive drawer and handed it to me, it looked like a visitors badge, but more sturdy with a metallic golden frame around it. It had her photo and underneath a description that read, “Llemiara Garana – Operations Officer” Then underneath it were a few insignias that I assumed indicated her rank. I handed it back to her.

“Garana? That’s your last name?”

She nodded, “It was longer before, Garanadelolum, but I figured I’d shorten it. Besides, that family name has some ancestry which I’d prefer not to be associated with anyway.”

“Bad things?”

“Lots of heroes and soldiers going back very far in history, but now that we’re against the regime, I don’t think that I want to remind people around me that my family was part of the government that’s oppressing them you know?”

“What’s your greatest wish?” I said, wondering if I’d asked her that before.

Her face grew wistful, “for this stupid war to end once and for all.”

“I think I can guess what your greatest fear would be, but tell me anyway.”

She nodded, “yes, that someday they’ll wipe us all out.”

“Ok, let’s go back to a positive question: What’s your most vivid positive memory?”

She pondered for a bit, then said, “living in that house with my parents, I didn’t have a care in the world. I could have stayed like that forever and been perfectly blissful.”

“And your most negative memory?”

“The fear as we sat on the train station in the middle of the night when we were evacuated.

I can still remember the smell of oil from the train wheels and that sound the electricity makes when it sparks. You know, I fucking hate train stations because of that.”

I took a sip of my water, “so, what endears you to a person immediately?”

She tilted her head a bit, “I don’t really know, but there are people who I just like immediately when I see them.”

“What makes you avoid a person immediately?”

She grunted, “Damn Fairy, some of these questions are hard. Maybe people in authority who insist on discipline to an absurd degree? Can’t stand people like that.”

I nodded, typing it down, “Alright, since you’re kind of new to the idea of being a tulpa and everything that goes with it, maybe this question is a bit hard to answer for you. But anyway, what’s your take on your status of being a tulpa, or tulpamancy as a phenomenon?”

She smiled at me, “you forget, I’ve known about you and everything else for years now Fairy. I’ve had a lot of time to think about that. I guess, being a tulpa hasn’t ever really been special to me, because I’ve never really seen your world until recently. But it’s strange to see that outside of all of this world, is another world that has a different culture and attitudes. And to imagine that there are a lot more people like you who have created different entities like me makes me wonder where it all goes. Universes and people and everything, in different heads, in different countries in your very different world. It’s a lot to think about, ” and she giggled, “and that’s not even counting all the worlds you have in your head alone. Circe offered to take me on a tour one day, but I haven’t really had the time with everything that’s going on over here.”

“You know, I’ve been thinking of going on a safari of sorts myself, and visit all the worlds and talk to all the non-tulpas, we call those NPCs.”

“A safari?” Ara said with a look of confusion on her face.

“Like… a walkabout? You know, like Thor and Mirror did last Xmas?”

“Ah, yes, like that, it sounds like fun. If you do decide to go on a safari, please let me know. I’ll make the time for it.”

“OK, so, we’re at the end of the normal questions, there are some more adult-oriented questions here, but I know not everyone is up to answering them, what do you say?”

Ara lowered her gaze a bit and then looked back up at me again, “I guess that’s fine, but there are some things I’d rather not like to talk about. I hope that’s fine with you.”

“Of course, let’s start off with a simple one: What really pisses you off?”

“Arrogance, thinking you’re better than everyone else.”

“What’s your sexual orientation?”

“You mean, what I like to do in bed?” She said, giving me a coy smile.

“No, more like… do you have any preference for females or males or anything else?”

She scoffed, “you know, before I met you, I had no idea there was anything else besides men and women. But yes, I like men, mostly.”

“What’s your favorite sexual position/scenario?” I said, smiling back at her.

“Leaning over a chair and having a man behind me. There’s something about the creaking sound as he takes me that drives me wild.”

“OK, more serious question now, can you tell me about the first time you killed someone?”

Her smile faded, “you weren’t kidding about these being intimate questions I see. No, I don’t want to talk about that. Well, I’d talk about it in private with you, but not in public so to speak.”

I nodded, “last question then, when was the last time you got into a fight in the inner world?”

“What kind of fight do you mean? Like a skirmish, or operation? Or just like fighting hand to hand?”

“Any of it that you’d be willing to share with us,” I said, realizing that Ara, in her life, probably breathed fighting in all its forms.

She made an amused sound, “our martial arts instructor, he was teaching a class on hand-to-hand and wanted me to volunteer as his sparring partner. We got into a fight when he suddenly decided to demonstrate the art of the surprise attack. I threw him almost two meters across the room. He admitted that it was the best example yet!”

I grinned at her and chuckled, “oh to be a fly on the wall when that happened.”

“I didn’t win two tournaments for nothing you know? If it hadn’t been for my damn Achilles tendon giving me grief in the third, I would have snagged the triple victory trophy for sure,” she said as she pointed to the wall where I saw two placards hanging that indicated her past victories.

“Huh, you’re just full of surprises aren’t you?” I said, and then added, “also, those were all the questions I had really. Thank you so much for taking the time to do this.”

“Oh, it’s nothing, besides, I needed a goddamn break anyway and this was a great excuse to get out of survey duty for an hour,” she said with a smile.

And with that, we ended the interview.

With that, we’re done with the second set spanning three interviews, if you read this far, I hope you liked what you learned about everyone. Next three interviews will probably be with Bear, Steve and Charlie, so stay tuned! As always, if you have any questions or comments for any of us, we’d love to hear from you!

As always, your scribe

Wondrous Fairy