“You’re kidding, right?” Bert said to Rei; they were on their way to a pizza place before hitting a movie. The wind was blowing hard, but it was warming up on this pleasant night early in May.
“It definitely has benefits for us but I would like someone to test it who isn’t in the Talents program,” Rei told Bert. “It’s perfectly safe.” She was moving differently than usual, almost like she was strutting on a stage, he noticed. Like models did. It was a huge turn-on.
She only dressed like this when she hung out with him, he’d noticed; he’d seen her with Conrad and she dressed more elegantly than her normal school clothes. Maybe that’s what he’s into, Bert thought.
He suddenly wondered what she… well, she was telling him what she wanted to see. When they studied. “Are you serious this can work?”
Rei’s eyes darted around; people passed them on the street, paying no mind. “I believe so but it may only reflect our Talents,” Rei said softly.
Well, it’ll make Mom happy, Bert thought.
*****************
Bert was busy working on math with Rei; she was his salvation in that regard. He wore nice slacks and a white buttoned up shirt and fancy shoes and even a tie and felt kind of trapped in it. But he had to admit Rei looked pretty stylish in her suitdress though he thought it wasn’t the right shade of blue for her. Your clothing shouldn’t match your hair, in his opinion.
Not that much.
“Okay, and… hey, we’re done,” he said. In *half* the usual time. The hell?
“Okay, now we start English,” Rei said, smiling. She made a time note on a file in her tablet, then they switched material on the table.
“Bert, I’m home, I need…” Bert’s mother said, coming in with groceries. “Bert?” she stared, eyes wide.
“It’s an experiment,” he mumbled.
She raised a suspicious eyebrow and stared as he fidgeted.
“It is my idea,” Rei said firmly.
“Well it must be okay then,” Bert’s mother said, relaxing. Bert sighed deeply; his mother trusted Rei more than him, which annoyed him. Not that he wanted her to *suspect* Rei.
“Anyway, can you two help me get the groceries?” his mother asked.
“Sure,” Rei said, making a quick note on her tablet and then they went outside to help.
This had better be worth it, Bert thought as he snagged his sleeve on the door frame and nearly fell down.
***************
Neon Genesis Silmarillion (an EVA/Tolkien Legendarium fusion)
Book IV: A Watched Pot
Chapter 4: The Clothes Make the Man
****************
“You do a tie like this,” SuzuharaJiro said patiently. “You’d better learn to do it if you’re going to do whatever you’re doing.”
“It’s an experiment with… stuff… that’s kind of classified… but should bring my math grades up…” Touji said awkwardly. “Dammit, I wish they’d raise your security clearance, ‘cause I can’t lie worth shit and I don’t want to.”
“Unfortuntely, even though I was cleared of the embezzlement charges, the cloud stuck, which is how we had to go to Hokkaido,” Jiro said softly. “I think I only got this job because they want you. Now watch how it’s done.”
In his mind, he drifted back to his father showing him how to do a tie. His father had been a salaryman and used to wearing suits and he didn’t smile much. They didn’t *see* him much. Jiro had been born in the middle of a huge boom of prosperity from the fifties to the eighties, when everything had been possible and the shadows of the war were present but gradually fading. He’d grown up in a tiny house built over the rubble of homes that had been around when the Meiji Emperor was alive. It was tiny but it was theirs. His father had worked long hours and most days, their main contact was breakfast and just before bed.
But he had been proud of his father in ways he knew Touji wasn’t proud of him, even though he’d tried to spend more time with Touji than his father could.
Touji wasn’t much like him or his father, though. But seeing him in this outfit, for a moment, he could pretend they…
He forced the thoughts away. Touji wasn’t like him, but he was a good boy. “Well, if wearing a suit gets you a better grade, I’m all for it. They do say that the clothes make the man.”
“That is the idea; it seems crazy but Rei is pretty sure it works,” Touji said. “So I guess my formal clothes will get a workout.”
Now Jiro was kind of curious; he had a few ideas… Gretta would hopefully play along. Hmmm…
*****************
Kevin studied himself in the mirror, wondering if Rei was right, and if so, how the outfits everyone wore to church affected behavior there. He was wearing his suit; his mother insisted on everyone dressing up a lot for church, which seemed pointless to him; Jesus didn’t actually dress like this. Jesus was a poor travelling preacher with no money for fancy clothing.
He suddenly wondered if you could dress up as Jesus and do miracles now. But would you have to dress like the real one or the way he usually showed up in art?
And would God blast you to bits for it?
Better not to find out, curious as he was.
But still… did the outfits affect how he acted at church? He usually avoided being his normal self there to avoid pointless trouble, but now he wondered if putting this on could really change him.
Melinda walked by his room in her dress, looking more confident than usual; she loved dressing up and he wondered if it affected her. Could dressing like Kyoko or Dr. Scott help her language issues, he wondered. Or could you… it would be tricky to imitate specific pro basketball players.
This had many uses, potentially.
He watched his folks, trying to judge if the formal clothing changed them or if it was just Sunday habit. Or both.
But he couldn’t tell. They were always very serious on Sunday, especially his mother. He tried to drink in all this so he could observe them the rest of the week.
They got in their car and he sighed; back home, he could have had a driver’s license *a year ago*. He was seventeen now and could have a car… probably a beat up old clunker, but a *car*. That dream was unlikely to come true.
“Deal with it,” his father said as if he could read Kevin’s mind.
Melinda laughed softly. “I know, I could drive now too if I had a car.” She was sixteen now, older than her friends; she and Kevin were older than almost anyone in their classes. “But it’s okay, it’s easy to get around this town.”
“You wouldn’t have a car even if you could get a license,” his mother said sternly.
“You went tooling around like crazy in your first car, which you got the moment you turned sixteen,” Kevin said. “I even have money for it, dammit.” He sighed and stared out the window.
“Yes, and my parents were idiots to let me have it,” Kevin’s mother said. “I’d drive around drunk in that thing.” She sighed and slumped in her seat. “But I’m wiser now.”
Kevin decided to shut up before this turned into a fight which would leave everyone cranky through church.
He really *wanted* a car, though.
***************
Jiro was a firm believer in the scientific method. He and Gretta had gone down to the archery range, paid to use some bows and arrows, then fired off at a bunch of targets, wearing their normal ‘casual’ clothing, which is to say slacks and a nice shirt, instead of a full suit or suit-dress. They’d carefully recorded their mediocre scores.
Now they were both dressed in traditional Japanese archery outfits… which they’d had to make. But Gretta was a good sewer and Jiro had found patterns online and now they were ready.
Everyone stared but they began shooting. Jiro could feel something but wasn’t sure if it was just a placebo effect. But his shots were more accurate and tracking them over time, he was *20%* higher in score this time. It couldn’t represent improvement, not this fast.
We’ll repeat five more times, he thought, average over all of them. Hopefully improvement effects will not be too big.
On the way home, he prayed this would improve Touji’s grades twenty percent.
***************
Monday, Kevin and Touji and Lars were all in one of NERV’s basketball courts, for the soldiers to relax on time off and play sports for fun. But it was open to everyone and Rei and Dr. Akagi were monitoring them as they did free throws, wearing plug suits but with casual clothing on over it.
Touji was quite pleased to do the best of them.
Then they dressed up in uniforms with numbers; Touji and Kevin had picked out famous players and NERV had *gotten actual uniforms they wore*. Man, they’re loaded, Touji thought as he changed outfits.
Then they ran through it again and this time, Kevin smoked them both out, though Touji noticed they all got better. “Damn, who the hell’s outfit do you have on?”
“Reggie Miller, who had an eighty-nine percent success rate,” Kevin said proudly. “Even if he had to play for the Pacers.”
Touji said, “Damn, that is good.” But Kevin had outdone even that. Then again, Miller wasn’t a talent, Touji thought.
But it did boost him… maybe he shot like Miller would have as a talent.
They now changed out of the uniforms and squad two, consisting of Conrad, Kensuke, and Shinji, came out and took shots both in civvies and then in the uniforms, which were too big for anyone but Shinji, who was shooting up in height still. You could see improvement, but not hugely so.
“But is it because they don’t know the legends?” Rei asked thoughtfully. “Or maybe it can only magnify what you already have.”
“There’s got to be a lot of happy fans out there right now,” Kevin said softly. “I guess the real uniform would have more power than a replica.”
“We test that next,” Rei said and soon more shooting was in progress.
***************
Kevin felt strange wearing a suit to school, but when he started doing the math test, everything flowed better than usual to his surprise. He *felt* smarter, wondering how much he was just psyching himself out and how much was actually an effect of the clothing.
This could all be placebo effect, he thought. But of course, they’d have to not tell us to avoid it… But if I know it exists, they would compensate for it, right?
He made himself relax and continue the test.
****************
“We can be sure it’s not power in the items, since they wore the real uniforms the second time,” Rei said to her mother, going over the results of the previous day’s tests with her mother before another round of tests on Tuesday.
“Both groups drew more power for the ones considered authentic but in both cases, they drew some power,” Rei’s mother said. They were in her office, Rei by her side, looking at data on her laptop.
Rei was wearing glasses like her mother and a matching labcoat. It made her feel smarter, more scientific. It would have been superstition… but now superstition was true. It *worked*.
She’d been able to keep a pot from boiling over for *four hours* by staring at it. The rolling stone had gathered no moss. The elephant had fled the mouse in terror.
Thankfully, the world responded a lot less to normal people, but this could get messy. If only there was some way to make sure they all enforced a safe, predictable reality so everything wouldn’t start going haywire as it got worse. Though maybe with the tattoo technology, they could do something.
This now reminded her of the children’s book her mother had written. “How are the sales on your book about Marie Curie?”
“I don’t know how to judge, but the publisher would like me to do another,” Rei’s mother told her. “We should go check on whether it’s generated a realm in World Two.”
“Tonight,” Rei said. She was very curious now. Maybe they could do something with a TV campaign or movies or books or something. To further ensure people didn’t break the world.
*******************
The closest thing to a scientific laboratory in Valinor was Aule’s home, where many smiths and craftsmen constantly labored and improved their arts (though for a long time, improvement had been rather glacial). Now, though, it was busy testing the strange arts which apparently were being used on Arda.
Celebrimbor lit the forge with a few words; a very useful trick which had become widespread there. They’d learned that the fire and earth arts seemed to work well here and the others not so well. Or maybe they were just not suited to the natures of those dwelling here.
But the results were always harder than what Galadriel had indicated; perhaps it worked better under Arda’s conditions. But it did not draw on the Shadow, so they were willing to experiment with it.
The strange language of this lore intrigued Celebrimbor. It was like none of the tongues of Valinor and there were patterns to it, but they needed a full dictionary of it to really work with this.
But experiments would continue while they waited for that.
******************
Kevin studied his mother; she had grown more cheerful on coming home from work, getting out of her uniform, and putting on casual, though still adult clothing. He could sense people’s joy now, though he had to get close unless he had a borrowed Ring; he didn’t have his own yet.
Did her work uniform make her less happy? Or the casual outfit more happy? Or am I hallucinating things, Kevin wondered.
She was busy relaxing on the couch while his father made dinner; usually she cooked, so maybe that was it.
Experiments are *hard*, he thought. “You’re in a good mood,” he said, leaning on the couch; she was watching the news.
“Spontaneous combustion destroys school in Antwerp; authorities are baffled,” the news story began and Kevin grimaced. Maybe… no, pulling the Mary Cotter books would only make people wonder *why*. How do you even change ideas, he wondered.
“We have a meeting for our charity group; things have been going well, so it should go well,” his mother said. “And going dancing Friday, which is now one day closer.” She gave a happy sigh. “I shouldn’t enjoy it so much but I do.”
His parents went out every Friday now, usually with a big group of people, though Kevin had noticed no one from their church went with them and he didn’t know if the church would approve of it. But he wasn’t going to narc on his Mom, given she wasn’t doing anything *wrong* from his perspective.
“Cool. I’m going over to Hikari’s to study after dinner.”
“Have fun,” his mother said absently. “Remember, keep it in your pants.” She seemed lost in memory or maybe anticipation.
“I will,” he said. He wouldn’t but likely they’d just study tonight, especially since there would be a ton of people. Time to go dress up.
*****************
Rei stood on the deck of Lars’ ship with her mother, studying the island they’d tracked through the Sea of Souls. It constantly changed, images flickering in and out, matching the short book’s images. It wasn’t a full blown world, even in miniature, like the worlds of the old myths.
Rei stared, fascinated; you could almost see the pages turning.
“This is really strange,” Lars said. “It’s so choppy,” he said hesitantly.
“Maybe because it is new?” Rei’s mother said hesitantly; she was in full witch garb and Rei had imitated her, her own robes in blue. Lars wore his pirate outfit.
“I have never observed a place taking shape; I will return periodically,” Rei said. She wanted to see if it solidified or remained strange like this.
She suddenly wondered if you could get inside a video game.
****************
Finduilas was not quite sure why the shadows seemed a little darker today; her nerves jangled even though the forest seemed safe here. As safe as anything in this strange dream realm where the Talents honed their skills in dream bodies crafted by the game which ruled this world. She felt a little amazed she’d managed to hide her identity so long, but she’d learned a lot; they tended to let little things slip that she, with her perfect memory, could add up.
She’d first come here because she’d felt the strength of this realm from a distance. It was incredible, more powerful than almost any other she’d seen. And it was growing more so and more flexible. The beings within it were less stiff and mechanical… it was becoming more like a normal dream in some ways.