For Washuu ch. 9-11

9: Oddities
[spoil]9: Oddities

“Okay, run this by me just one more time.”

“Again?”

Mikumo and Shayne were walking the streets of Jurai not far from the house they had stayed at. They meandered here and there around this mini-mountain and along that wall, taking their sweet time before they would set out for-

“The capital.” Mikumo stated.

“Uh-huh. It’s big.” Shayne remembered.

“And it’s where we’re supposed to go today.”

“Well, why don’t we GO there, Mik? Ow!” Shayne’s arm stung with the boy’s staff-mark.

“I told you thrice already: No nicknames.”

The older teen grumbled. He had been using that abbreviation enough that it had driven Mikumo to annoyance.

“You’re really not remembering things too well this morning, are you, Shayne?”

“It’s too early,” He griped back. “Not noon yet. Besides, we haven’t ate yet, and-“

“The capital!” The younger boy cut in. “Where we’re going, due to Lady Seto’s summons.”

“Yeah, Seto. I know I’ve heard that gal’s name before.”

Mikumo sighed in exasperation as he walked. How his older companion could even hear that name and just shrug it off as ‘some political character he heard of somewhere’ consistently baffled him.

And they continued to walk.

“I was given a summons to come to the palace now that I’m awake. As much as I’d like to play hooky on the whole government of Jurai, I doubt it’d be that great of an idea, even for me.” Mikumo elaborated.

“Then I’m right back to where we were a minute ago!” Shayne cried. “What are me moseying around this suburban area for? I mean, Christ! Let’s just get to the royal romp-house already, right?”

The younger of the two suppressed a laugh as the human fumed from his rant.

“Well, here we go.” He said, and stopped.

“Unh? What’s it?” Shayne asked, back-tracking a couple steps. They stood by a stone shop in the side of cliff-ette they were walking along. He sniffed. “Food?” he inquired.

“Fruit shop.” came the reply, and Mikumo entered the low-draped building.

Shayne stood a moment, muttered an “O…kay.” and entered as well.

A moment later they both emerged, Shayne gibbering on about the strange, “new” kind of fruit he’d found, and Mikumo glaring at him for making a scene.

“Shayne, it’s nothing that hasn’t been sold here for the last fifteen millennia.”

“And just WHERE is here, boy?” he shot back.

“The capital of Jurai.” Mikumo responded automatically with a sigh.

“Exactly!” Shayne retorted. He pivoted on a heel and headed for the shade of the store’s exterior overhang. Mikumo rolled his eyes and followed, promising himself inside that Lady Seto would smack some culture into his companion.

They both sat down and began to eat.

“Hey.” Shayne poked Mikumo.

“What is it?”

“What’s with this area?” Shayne began. “I mean, I haven’t seen hardly any electronics all day and it’s really clean, too. I mean, back when I lived in Texas I couldn’t walk a whole block without nearly tripping over some dude’s random trash, and this city’s bigger than Huston! And your trees. Jesus, you’ve got a lot of trees.”

“It’s pleasant, isn’t it? That’s why I chose this section of the city to stay in for the time. Lots of Jurai foliage; if any section of the city has trash, this certainly isn’t it, and people around this neighborhood tend to refrain from excessive use of technology.” Mikumo’s face twisted in annoyance. “Very much unlike the GP’s transit towns. Ugh! All the overwhelmingly “in-your-face” advertisements, and people too busy to give you directions at all. That’s how I got lost.”

“Lost?” Shayne inquired through a mouthful of fruit. “What’s this “lost” story you’ve got?”

Fruit spewed as Mikumo lightly backhanded him. “Don’t talk with your mouth full!”

Shayne sat there, still, keeping himself from hitting the boy back.

“It’s really quite odd,” the boy continued, “that I don’t take well to technology. My father once said that mother was quite fond of it. Making gadgets and all that.” They resumed eating.

“Hang on, what’s so weird about that?” Shayne asked.

“I don’t know, really. Father said it was odd, and that’s that,” was all the reply Mikumo gave before returning his attention to his near-finished fruit.

Shayne grumbled, “Give me a break. This fruit’s weirder than that.”

“Why don’t YOU just “give me a break”, Shayne. It’s been quite a long time since all that happened, I’ll have you know.”

“Sure it has.”

“Twenty thousand years, give or take a hundred,” The boy recited.

Shayne’s lat bite of fruit stopped an inch away from his half-open mouth. It moved back away.

“Um, just wondering,” Shayne began, “Just, um, what exactly you’ve been doing for the past however-many thousand years?

Mikumo smiled like he’d won a trophy.

“Sleeping,” He beamed.

There was a thick pause as Shayne looked sidelong at the small boy next to him.

“Sleeping?”

“Yes”

“Sleeping.” Shayne monotoned.

“In a royal tree” explained the “younger” one.

Another pause passed before there was a small click in Andrew’s memory.

“Wait, you mean you actually entered one of the royal trees and were able to stay there unnoticed all that time?” Yet again Shayne exhibited inexplicable knowledge of Jurai.

“Yes, though I wasn’t unnoticed.” Mikumo confessed.

Shayne waved a hand at the boy. “Go away.”

“And why?” came the annoyed boy’s reply.

“Because I don’t hang out around liars,” the teen gruffly replied.

“Oh, so you don’t believe me?” Mikumo scoffed “Hah. Just like all the others!”

“And just how would you, anyways?” Shayne shot back. “Don’t you have to be some sort of high-class royal asshole to do that sort of stuff?”

Mikumo whacked Andrew in the head. “Watch your language. And yes, normally one would have to be a sort of high-class royal… bigot, to do that sort of thing. They’re not sure just how I managed to do so, but apparently I’m actually quite powerful.”

Shayne stood and attempted to look menacing. “You’re not powerful, you’re nuts!”

He returned to a squat before he almost got a staff to the knees.

“Watch it, I’m the one paying for the fruit, Sir Homeless.”

They sat in silence for another moment before Mikumo stood. Shayne followed in suit and they continued to walk

“So…where were we going, again?” Andrew asked.

Mikumo smacked his forehead. “To the palace, you idiot.” he seethed.

“The palace?”

“Yes, Shayne.”

“Because you were summoned.”

“Nooo, I just like dragging strangers with odd knowledge into royal setting and watching everybody’s reaction.” Mikumo drawled sardonically.

“Not that it would be a bad idea…” he added under his breath.[/spoil]

10: One Sleeps…
[spoil]10: One Sleeps…

“Just pick one already.” Washu drawled.

It was starting to become decidedly late, but if there was one place in the world that he could spend a century exploring, Elliot was sure it was Washu’s lab. Or maybe House on the Rock, but that’s something else all together.

“I’m not about to give you a grand tour of the place, you know, so just choose.” stated the redhead. “Especially with the amount of sleep you’ve gotten lately.” was added under her breath.

“I heard that, Lil’ Washu.” Said the boy. He walked ahead of the scientist by a few paces, toting a blanket as his bedroll.

“Well, live by it, then!” Washu concluded as she followed behind the boy. For the third hour in a row.

Elliot stopped and looked left. “What’s through that corridor?” He asked, pointing left where he looked.

Washu sighed. “Aqua tanks. Live species storage. Nothing interes- huh?” Her comment was cut short as the boy dashed off down the hall and into the vast room beyond. A squeal of joy sounded out and the scientist followed. She half-smiled, wondering.

“Washu! It’s the room! It’s the one in the AMV!” And another laughing, squealing noise. “Mass, mass, where’s the mass?” He rambled, looking.

Elliot rushed up to a square, dark piece of glass. Laying a hand on it, he looked to the red-haired scientist.

“This’s where they were, am I right?”

She nodded.

The boy looked back into the empty room of the Mass and sighed.

Stepping back about ten paces, he sat down and stared up at the glass. And the massively tall pillar it was imbedded into. And the overhead walkways. And the miles of glass tubes. And all the WEIRD aquatic life-forms therein.

“You act as if you lived here once long ago.” the scientist noted.

“Only in my dreams,” came the winsome reply. “Only when this was a dream.”

Finally, he made up his mind. Unrolling the blanket, he scooted onto it before stopping abruptly.

“Erm, Washu,”

“Hmm?”

“Could you do me a favor, Little Washu?”

The redhead nodded slightly.

“My laptop bag, it’s got my player in it…”

“Just a minute,” came the reply from halfway through a door. And then the door was gone, and the boy was left (one again) to gawk.

“…how does she DO that?”

Elliot shook his head as if a fly had landed on him, took a breath, and proceeded to ogle everything in sight.

Above and behind him and slanting down to his left stood a massive tube, at least fifteen feet in diameter, through which swam a rather familiar-looking sea serpent. Looking forward, Elliot saw the tubes of aquatic life behind him reflected in the surface of the Mass’s tank. He marveled at the greenish, rectangular pillar of marble that the tank was built into.

“Such a troublesome tank.” He chuckled.

As the boy’s gaze wandered some more, he wondered just how many specimens Washu had stored in the massive tanks around him. He shuddered at the imperceivable depth of the lab when he looked over the edge of the “floor” he sat on, and he traced imaginary patterns that the walkways overhead would have followed.

“Pretty impressive, isn’t it?”

“Gaah!” Elliot jumped a little, not having heard any phasing noise to betray the arrival of the redhead. “Washu, you startled me.”

The genius chuckled and handed the boy his bag.

“Anything new to tell me?” she retorted.

“Yeah,” the boy replied as he grabbed a small item from the front of the bag. “I didn’t remember this place having a third floor of walkways,” he pointed up and to his left about a hundred feet. “Where’s that one lead?”

“Ahh. More lab.” came the reply, and he nodded. “More and more and more lab. Five whole planets of lab!”

The boy was skeptical. “Oh, don’t tell me you actually have more lab than you want, Washu.”

She thought for a minute. “Hmm… Naah!”

Like old friends, they laughed.

“Hey!” Washu changed tone. “You ‘remembered’, or didn’t rather, there being three floors in my lab, and you ‘remembered’ the mass, and all sorts of things, right?”

The boy stopped messing with the device in hand and nodded, and Washu continued. “Well just where all is it that you’re ‘remembering’ this information from?”

Elliot looked sidelong at nothing sheepishly.

“Well, I only know what’s told in the videos…”

‘Hypothesis conformed.’ thought the scientist to herself.

“…and the author’s novels. And cannon doujin.” he finished.

‘Correction: hypothesis probably exceeded.’

“Why, Washu?”

“Just wantin’ to know how much you already knew.” she replied, masking her thoughts behind a grin. “Good night, Elliot, unless you want me to replace that old, broken-up MP3 player you’re struggling with, that is!”

Washu cackled, but the boy took it in stride. “I’ll keep this one, thanks.” Even though it had a broken display, it still played music and could be navigated through (slowly) using the buttons on the side.

“It’s old, but it’s home.”

The scientist softened a bit, recognizing the bond between a person and a long-used tool.

“Well, suit yourself.”

She took a seat on her ever-ready floating cushion and pulled up her holo-top as the boy curled up in the blanket he brought and put in his headphones.

They say the other side is paradise

I live my life to make it there

“It’s interesting, really,” Washu noted, “You’ve been transported from one world to another seemingly by chance, and I in all my years of academics and science work haven’t even been able to cause that to happen. And I’ve even wanted to on occasion.”

A muffled sound registered as coming from the boy, but it was far from being a competent answer.

I feel my soul being pulled away

But I have no purpose to stay

“Yes. Such is the nature of the scientist; to see and think and wish, but not always be able to fulfill those wishes.”

Another mumble, clearer this time.

“Hmm?”

“I said it sounds… y’sound like a musician. An artist.”

Again the redhead chuckled.

There was a minute of silence in the lab only broken by the slight and tinny sound of music bleeding through the back of the boy’s earbuds.

I’m not what I seem to be

There’s more to life than what you see in me

“I do wish I could tell if you know as much as you seem to. Just how much is it?”

Silence met the scientist’s words.

“Would it be helpful, or would give me reason to keep you locked away down here?”

Again Washu’s words were met with silence, and she looked down at the boy curled up on the floor.

‘Fast asleep?’ she thought, giving her a smile.

‘I’ll ask him about it over breakfast tomorrow.’

A minute later, a boy slept, alone, on the floor of the room he always wished he could stay in.

‘Sweet dreams, Elliot.’

|=

|+-

|=

“Sister, have you ever considered worlds alongside our own?”

“Parallels? What brought that to mind?”

“Oh, just something I’ve been considering ever since we realized that the Idol mecha will one day be in here.”

“Aah. I see.” Silence. “No. I had not considered it.”

“Tch. Just like you. Too wrapped up in your own little world to consider any other, am I right?”

“Sister, calm yourself.”

Another pause.

“Thank you. I was becoming unnecessarily agitated.”

“Hm.”

“Regardless, I have been thinking of such things because of an oddity in distance.”

“Oh? How so?”

“There is a point nearer to connection than it has been, and it has grown unusually close to connection. Extremely close. It becomes more and more so as variables change.”

A noise.

“Is this the point.”

“It is he.”

“Wait, what is that variable? There, that one?”

“I will find out.” A pause. “It is one of the Shuink.”

“Mifune?”

“No, his son.”

“Oh, now that’s different.” A pause.

“The point character just shifted again.”

“Yes. He is so stressed.”

“About what?”

“I do not mean stressed as in worried. I mean stressed as in bent. But… both words work.”

“No wonder it’s causing the bend toward this world.”

A long pause.

“I’m going to act upon this.”

“Oh, really.”

“Yes. I can not let this pass by unrequited.”

A sigh. “Sister, you seem so wise at times, but you are indeed rash.”

“It works. It has worked.”

“Maybe so, but I’ll have no part in this.”

D3 closed the record. He now understood why Tokimi had said that he wouldn’t want to get involved.

–

a/n: again, the music is from Matrix. The first two stanzas are from the song “I Can Fly Now”, and the last is from the song “Melissa”.[/spoil]

11: …And One Wakes
[spoil]11: …And One Wakes

.

.

‘dream’

‘I’m dreaming? naah I always die in my dreams get killed and fun’

‘so I’m me and he’s me, too? whatever just run’

‘dude, it’s Mik! I mean, Mikumo stupid stick’

‘yeah “running with stick”, or something’

‘wait, why am I up here floating, anyways?’

‘what the h- why is the tree pulling me into it? that’s just weird! THIS is all weird, what’s doing on, godda-“

SHAYNE

“What the-!”

He awoke, quickly shuttering his eyes.

‘oh, maaaannn That was such a WEIRD dream’ he thought to himself. ‘whatever c’mon, Shaynster what’s up’

Shayne opened his eyes fully and immediately pulled back, or rather, tried to. He didn’t seem to be able to distance himself from whatever was right in front of his face, even thought he felt himself backpedaling.

“Woah. Trippy.”

All the world in front of him looked to him like a massive TV screen picking up nothing but static.

“Heh. Snowflakes.”

‘I’m totally still dreaming, aren’t I?’

“Andrews.”

Shayne bolted straight upright, as if at attention.

“Shayne Andrews.” Said a deific voice behind the teenager. He swallowed a couple times and managed a hoarse reply.

“That’d be me.”

There was silence as the boy tried to figure out just what was going on. And where he was.

A flicker amongst all the visual noise in front of him caught his attention and his mind jumped to it, recognizing it from somewhere. It seemed to become clearer and take form despite the chaos around him. Still, he couldn’t quite make out what it was.

He shook his head, giving up on that, and waited for whatever would be said next. After a minute without any words, his head drooped and he addressed the faceless voice himself.

“Okay, Where am I?”

“We are inside of myself” came the soft reply.

‘wait a second, I know I’ve heard that before’ Shayne thought.

A hand touched his shoulder and the scene changed. Turning around, he saw that he now stood on the very surface of water, and as he raised his head he saw that scattered around were various platforms on a level with the water and many trees that radiated the purest of light. He ducked his head again, however, and turned halfway back when he saw who it was that had addressed him.

“Tsunami.”

“Yes.”

‘what, shame?’ the boy thought to himself. ‘w….why can’t I look at her?’

He tried to speak, to ask what had happened, but he couldn’t bring himself to say anything.

“You’re not here to be punished.” The silken voice told him. “You’re not in trouble.”

Another silent moment passed as Shayne tried to look at the goddess and respond, only to find himself shaking.

“You’re going to have to remember what happened, Shayne. Please, try. For my sake.”

The scene before him started to fade and fuzz out as he found his tongue.

“What? Christ, how am I supposed to figure that out???” he shouted as his view returned to static.

Silence. And waiting.

He waited and failed to act bored, too shaken to lie about his nervousness. And it’s not like he could pace to pass the time away. Heck, he hadn’t been able to tell if there was any sort of gravity ever since the view had returned to static. His feet rested on nothing, and he felt weightless; the view in front of him (and behind and all around) was a ‘snowstorm’, a flurry of static like one would see on a television that was off-channel. It seemed to him so close that he could reach out and touch it, but no matter how far he reached or tried to approach the view it remained infinitely far away from him.

And yet so strikingly close to see.

Shayne soon tired of trying to make sense of where he was or what he was seeing or what had happened. It always seemed to catch his eye here and there with something that looked familiar, some teensy-tiny image of something he would recognize, and it just as consistently changed before he could make heads or tails of what it was that had caught his attention.

‘choose one’ came the soothing thought of the goddess.

“Umm… ‘kay.” the boy thought aloud.

Feeling as if he could recline, Shayne somehow relaxed and stared at a pin-point of infinitely shifting color.

‘color? it looked black-and-white a minute ago’

His gaze strayed and began to wander until it suddenly locked on to a point that like many others had caught his eye. This time, however, he kept looking.

The point did not remain an eye-catch any longer than others had, but quickly again another something flashed up that seemed familiar.

“Hey, it’s Elliot.”

The image had grown. Now barely large enough to make out what it was that he was looking at, Shayne studied what it was that he was seeing.

‘uhhm… that’s a lot of whatever that I’m not familiar with’

He blinked, and the image shrank into the image-noise all around him.

“Ah, for Christ’s sake. Can’t I just see what it is?”

With a grunt, the boy locked his gaze onto another point of light, and this time it very quickly grew and became clear.

‘cool. married, single, old, young, dead… dude, this is starting to make sense!’

‘push’

“wha? Tsunami?”

There was no answer, so Shayne reached out and tried to touch an image as he focused on it.

‘what’s she mean?’

He felt an odd sort of contact and the image in front of him stabilized and froze where it was. Now the image remained with the person in it as they were.

“Push, she said, push.” The boy reminded himself.

‘heh that’s what she said’ his mind jested.

And with a ‘push’ of the hand, the person in view became younger.

“What the-“

“Do you now see?”

The boy nodded an affirmative and jerked his hand back.

“It is a record of the past, present, and future.” Declared the now-unhidden goddess.

Shayne nodded and looked around, amazed and yet decidedly grumpy about nothing in particular.

“God, this is too weird. Why can’t I just know what’s going on and get it all over with?” He growled. “Lemme try again.”

One last time his gaze came to rest on a point.

“Wait, wait, that’s me an’ Mik walking from his house!”

On its own will, his hand reached out and ‘pulled’ at the now-enlarging image. The timeline spun forward and sped through-

“Jesus Christ! When did…”

The palace. Mikumo. Shayne.

Seto.

The hall of trees.

.

Tsunami.[/spoil]

I’d also note that the lack of punctuation and capitalization in Shayne’s “thoughts” is intentional. It’s for effect, and will be used heavily in ch. 13.

Thanks for reading!

:washu: