I attacked several more spiders after that.

I wonder how much void I need to grow bigger than the spiders...

[NOTICE: Presence detected.]

[Thank you.]

There's a stunned silence, and then Joule shouts into my brain.

[Did you just thank me?!]

Whoops.

[...No?]

[No, you did! You totally did! You thanked- oh shoot, it's getting closer.]

Glad for the change in subject, I crouch in the grass and wait.

It's not a spider.

An enormous foot crashes onto the ground, and Noah's face comes into view.

"Hey! How's it going?"

[It's you.]

My annoyance should be obvious, but he brushed it off quickly.

"Of course it's me! Who else would it be, Thaddeus?" Chuckling to himself, he added seriously, "But if you ever do run into Thaddeus, run. Just straight up run. Anyway, how's the void going?"

Ignoring the massive jinx he raised, I told him balefully, [Your assistant is really strange.]

He stands up and looks around, then leans back in. "What assistant?"

[The one you built into me when you changed me?]

I suddenly get a feeling as if my brain were being pushed to the side.

[Ah... hello, Noah. How are you?]

His expression becomes borderline murderous in an instant.

"You stole my project?"

[NO! I mean, no! He didn't steal me, I...]

Joule (for of course it's Joule talking) hesitates.

[...I left and hitched a ride on the Void you gave him.]

His face draws uncomfortably close. "Why'd you want to leave? I designed you to want to quantify! You had so much you could quantify!"

[Of course, I want to quantify! That's literally my sole purpose! But how am I suppose to quantify you?]

After a short moment, Noah leaned back. "I guess that's true. But you could have just asked."

I butt in. [What exactly is going on?]

Noah aimed a finger at me. "I designed the V.E.A.U. to quantify and improve any aspects of my abilities, but I guess that it was a pretty tall order. She never worked for me, so I kind of get that she'd want to operate with you."

I think for a moment. [Joule, if I die, what happens to you?]

The answer is quick. [I die with you.]

[So, instead of staying with Noah and being safe, you decided to work with an ant and risk it?]

[Pretty much.]

I find, to my surprise, that I don't dislike Joule nearly as much.

Noah sat down, cross-legged with his two weird legs. "Did you remember to reconfigure your matrix for insectoid use?"

I didn't understand a word of that.

[Please. Would you design me so badly that I - oh wait, no, I didn't.]

I get a feeling as though my stomach is moving inside me. It's not a great feeling.

[Reconfiguration complete. How did I forget to do that?]

Noah shrugs.

"Don't worry about it. You're not really supposed to exist in just one Void, so it makes sense that your processes were operating a little under average. You should be good to go now, though."

I cut in before they talk about any more things I don't understand. [There's something I've been wondering. Why did you go to all the trouble of changing me?]

Noah shrugged again. It's a motion he seems to make frequently.

"I just felt like it, that's all."

Joule whispered into my head. [Your forced modification is just barely legal according to transdimensional law, by the way. If he'd changed you with the intent to change history, you probably would have been hunted down and destroyed.]

[Or he really did just want to see what would happen. It's hard to tell.]

Well. That's an uncomfortable piece of information.

"Anyway, I've got to go. Mom's making spaghetti tonight, and I frickin' love spaghetti. See ya!"

I watch him walk away, paralyzed by a terrifying thought.

[He has a mother?]