О, а чем я забыла похвастаться-то!
Подарком мне от Шурша, самого прекрасного, самого лучшего в мире Шурша.

Я когда-то писала, что у меня есть необъяснимо обожаемая книга, "Человек без лица" (The Demolished Man) Альфреда Бестера. И я всегда хотела по ней фиков. И Шурш, скрепя сердце и скрипя зубами, продралась через этот ретрофутуризм на фрейдистской тяге и написала мне фанфик мечты.

Названия у него нет, поэтому моим произволом он так и будет называться



Author: Schurschunchik_Sirenevij
Fandom: The Demolished Man, A. Bester
Rating: PG-13
Pairing(s): Lincoln Powell/Ben Reich, Mary Noyes/Barbara D'Courtney
Genre: POV
Disclaimer: A. Bester owns it all
Language: English
Warning(s): упоминаются сомнительные телепатические практики из канона (одно отступление: способности Барбары не обнаружены)

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Mary Noyes was making canapes and trying not to project bitterness. The guests would arrive soon, and she could not bear another condescending, sympathetic, incredulous, or patronizing telepathem - in fact, almost any TP related to her and the fact that Linc Powell chose a non-Esper instead of marrying Noyes at least to qualify for the presidential post.
All of this notwithstanding, Mary still helped with the preparations for the party - there was something domestic about it. Or indeed, she could not stop salting the wound.
She started slicing the vegetables for decorations and scoffed when her hair tried to get in the way. As if Linc chose Barbara, truly! If only all who could not hold their mind in check would see beyond their nose! But she did not tell it even to Powell, nor was she going to make it known to anyone else.
She found a small kitchen towel and dried her hands before tying the hair with an elastic ribbon, and took out three more plates to start arranging the fruit.
And to think that the man who could accumulate so much latent energy and survive, who was one of the most gifted and insightful espers - that he still could not understand his own heart!
Mary was already - almost - resigned about Linc and herself, but the whole affair was deeply unfair to Barbara. She was the target of many a telepathic whisper (which was even nastier since she could not hear and respond), clearly adored Powell with the fervor of girl who always wanted to play house - and received much adoration but little fervor from her chosen lover in return.

Even a newly born Esper 3 could see that Barbara’s light demeanor was becoming increasingly lighter and tighter, as Powell spent more and more of his time with his new ‘reformed’ friend. Mary did not have a chance to see before how the personality grew anew after the Demolition, but now she thought that it was quite similar to what Linc used on Barbara: giving her a child’s mind again and speeding up the growth. Of course, with her they did not need to weed out criminal intentions, and for Ben Reich, under his new name, the growth took much longer than a matter of days.
Mary shivered and nearly dropped the peeled apple on the floor: Demolition happened only through a sentence, while healing needed no sanction. Who knew how the League will decide to extend its use?.. Noyes carefully wrapped the thought in many layers, as if making a thread ball for a kitten to play with.
The League has changed a lot of Espers’ lives in these past five years, with the abolition of private practice, imposing a stricter code for the marriage plans for the newly trained.
Noyes was carving spiral patterns on the oranges so that they will be prettier and easier to open, and wondered how much Linc was aware that his persistent association with Barbara and Ben (Mary never got around calling him otherwise in her head) seemed more defiant by the year.
It was ironic that Powell got everyone to see the danger of Ben Reich’s power to change the world in his image - and how now he was supporting his endeavours in new management style, applied inventions, and, the pinnacle of all and almost an obsession - attempts to recreate Esper’s abilities through technology. She doubted that all of the League was thrilled at the idea but most must have treated it as impossible - and preferred to keep tabs at the research in case it could be achieved or used against Espers.

She heard the voices at the door, and hastily cleaned away the fruit seeds and the knife from the table, but these were not the guests. Even with all the thoughts bouncing in her head Mary barely believed what she saw: Linc was entering the house with Ben Reich in tow, right before the Esper party was about to start.
Even Barbara barely made an appearance at them and later retreated to her media library, and she was living in the house.
Mary’s incredulity - at Linc’s gesture, at his inability to know himself and stop toying with three people - must have been etched too clearly in her greeting, so that Powell deigned to offer a verbal explanation: they had a book or a journal to share, at this point she did not care and only offered a polite smile to the man who in the not distant past upturned their lives, stunned her with a paralyser and mockingly gave her a kiss “for Powell”.
Her shoulderblades strained in an attempt to squirm away from the past, but thankfully they paid her no mind, and again the plates of carefully decorated fruit and canapes were her only company.
After looking at them in silence, Mary shook her head, took off the ribbon, and with a determined and mischievous glint in her eye she began rummaging in the cupboards for an apparently random assortment of decorations.
She quickly added another element to the table of appetizers, and went up to find the woman whom she knew for five years and through most of her life. Barbara was in the garden, and looked up in surprise.

- Would you mind if I take one of your white tulips, Bar’? - Mary asked still with that glint in her eyes, but now the mischief spread its way to her smile as well.
- Of course not, Mary, but a rose would look lovelier on you, - Barbara seemed baffled but softly happy, not the strained bubble of lightness she usually was with Linc around.
- It would if I wore a dress to match. - she noted cheerfully, cutting a white tulip. - Come to the shops with me?

Both the bafflement and happiness increased.
- But I thought you wouldn’t miss these parties for the world! Even though it is always hard to believe that anything fun is going on when all of you are so silent. - As if afraid that Noyes will change her mind indeed, she quickly added. - I’ve seen just the other week a thing that’ll suit you most beautifully, let’s go to the Galleries.
Mary smiled and twirled the tulip between her fingers.
- Let’s go and see. I’ll just drop this off downstairs.

Powell was nowhere in sight, so Mary placed the tulip next to a twig of peppermint, white coconut powder and a taffeta-resembling napkin. If this stubborn man wanted to keep himself in the dark, it did not mean she should let herself and Barbara be kept there.