I've Said A Lot Of Things--Before and After
Juliet's parents never knew about her power. She taught it to herself. But for a long time, she thought it was a fantastic present that she could use however she wanted. Here are some of her mistakes from before she rebooted the universe:
We're rich!
Harmless, right? A little girl makes her family rich. Well, except that said parents weren't in jobs that would sustain that money, so the universe warped to give them huge, unrealistic breaks which also happened to tear Juliet away from her childhood friend.
It's my house.
Speaking of friends, nothing will tear apart a friendship quite as quickly as magically evicting your friend from her house and claiming it for yourself. That's how Juliet lost her second best friend--and then...
We're best friends forever.
...Refused to let her go. Emily was tied to Juliet. She was broken, angry, sad--but she couldn't leave Juliet. She couldn't stop being friends with her.
Lady Luck's a friend.
Juliet heard this from her father, who'd turned his gambling habit into a profession, and repeated it to Emily. The true Lady Luck was unaffected, of course; but the universe still decided to grant Juliet's statement truth by creating a duplicate of the Lady who was her friend.
Abraham Lincoln was the first president.
This was the straw that broke the camel's back. For the next four years and several months, Juliet struggled to spot-fix the problems she'd created, before initiating her gambit with "I never said anything." She taught herself to use doubts, questions and imperatives to talk to people.
But something unintended happened when she played her last, desperate card. She affected herself as well. She had unwritten everything she'd ever said not only from the universe, but from her own psychology. She was a very old thirteen-year-old, but she then minimized the effect of every word she'd ever said. Does she remember? Of course. Does she care? A bit. Not much. It actually bothers her how much she doesn't care. She doesn't realize it was caused by her power. She thinks she's just sick and twisted. It doesn't help that she's started using her ability again, and is slipping back to the point where she'll use it purely to mess with people.
We're rich!
Harmless, right? A little girl makes her family rich. Well, except that said parents weren't in jobs that would sustain that money, so the universe warped to give them huge, unrealistic breaks which also happened to tear Juliet away from her childhood friend.
It's my house.
Speaking of friends, nothing will tear apart a friendship quite as quickly as magically evicting your friend from her house and claiming it for yourself. That's how Juliet lost her second best friend--and then...
We're best friends forever.
...Refused to let her go. Emily was tied to Juliet. She was broken, angry, sad--but she couldn't leave Juliet. She couldn't stop being friends with her.
Lady Luck's a friend.
Juliet heard this from her father, who'd turned his gambling habit into a profession, and repeated it to Emily. The true Lady Luck was unaffected, of course; but the universe still decided to grant Juliet's statement truth by creating a duplicate of the Lady who was her friend.
Abraham Lincoln was the first president.
This was the straw that broke the camel's back. For the next four years and several months, Juliet struggled to spot-fix the problems she'd created, before initiating her gambit with "I never said anything." She taught herself to use doubts, questions and imperatives to talk to people.
But something unintended happened when she played her last, desperate card. She affected herself as well. She had unwritten everything she'd ever said not only from the universe, but from her own psychology. She was a very old thirteen-year-old, but she then minimized the effect of every word she'd ever said. Does she remember? Of course. Does she care? A bit. Not much. It actually bothers her how much she doesn't care. She doesn't realize it was caused by her power. She thinks she's just sick and twisted. It doesn't help that she's started using her ability again, and is slipping back to the point where she'll use it purely to mess with people.