Forum games and roleplays discussion thread

Play fun games in the forums with other members.

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Re: Forum games and roleplays discussion thread

Post by gotMLK7 »

"um wtf why is this section suddenly so active what year is it"

hi it's 2019 and WE DOIN' THIS AGAIN YO

If you're confused by the sudden activity of a number of RPs on the forums, discussion in Discord have led to an effort to bring back AAO RPs! We felt nostalgic and wanted to tackle 'em again, who knows how long it'll last but it's fun to return to. DSY has a new magical girl themed RP called Rain that could use some applications, and of course we're pushing forth an effort after 5 years to finish Justice Riders. If we succeed in busting activity up a bit, I'd like to further revive Town of the Extraordinary and Shelvington Academy and encourage people to just return to the scene because like, why not, could be fun yo.


Anyway, glad to clear up any confusion for those wondering why that's a thing. Here's hoping to some fun new storytelling, even if this revival becomes only temporary!
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Re: Forum games and roleplays discussion thread

Post by Reyson »

If you want it to be real 2012 hours, bring back Final Warfare, I need some nostalgia. ;)
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Re: Forum games and roleplays discussion thread

Post by LunchPolice »

Holy crap, it's Reyson!!
Is time even real
I make stuff sometimes
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Re: Forum games and roleplays discussion thread

Post by Sleuth »

Thats a name i havent heard in years... *drags on cigarette*
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Re: Forum games and roleplays discussion thread

Post by Reyson »

Time is a flat circle, folks.
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Re: Forum games and roleplays discussion thread

Post by VGBM »

That's a name I haven't heard at all. *sticks a piece of licorice in his mouth*
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Re: Forum games and roleplays discussion thread

Post by gotMLK7 »

So hey I intend to revive Shelvington some point this week with a new morning for people to jump in on, but also, I remembered I was posting chapters from my Justice Riders Origins NaNoWriMo, like, two years ago.

Might as well post more of those!

Here's Chapter 3, from the point of view of young Jack Donovan, and his meeting Masaru Ichirou. I had a much longer NaNoWriMo from Jack's point of view entirely following the early years of the original Riders, but that was admittedly not well written enough for me to want to post in full. So here's something roughly equating the first chapters of that. I have barely edited this in nearly 3 years so apologies if it's weird.
Spoiler : III. BEGINNING - Tale of Masaru Ichirou :
YEAR: 1995

Japan never ceases to confuse me.

The day I arrived in this country I already had a feeling I would struggle understanding it. I am by no means incompetent, but culture gaps are not something that I deal with easily. I prefer things nice and simple and...I don’t know, American. It’s just easier for me, I guess. I don’t have to concern myself with offending people one way or another. Japan in particular, though? I don’t think I’ve ever been able to fully understand this nation. It’s one of those enigmas to my western mind that everyone would like to pretend they understand in full but don’t actually get at all. Just watching a few Japanese cartoons isn’t exactly enough to understand a culture.

Yet I still moved to Kyoto, Japan, to attend college. Part of me questions why I thought this was a good idea. I’ve studied enough Japanese to be able to speak with others decently and have been picking things up as I’ve stayed, but deciding to attend university in a country I barely even comprehend was probably not my greatest plan. However, my parents and their associates all insisted that this college was probably the best thing I could do for my future. After all, they ran big businesses and they each attended this school. And if I was expected to follow in their footsteps, the best course of action was to, of course, go to the same college as them.

Granted, I don’t know if I actually care to follow in my parents’ footsteps or not. I come from an incredibly wealthy family, so maintaining that wealthy lifestyle is probably in my best interest. Granted, I’m not even entirely sure what that wealth comes from. Every time my parents would take the time to explain to me just what it is they do and what their company was known for, they just seemed to blabber on about things I didn’t quite understand and didn’t bother to really give a summarized version for me. So I was essentially expected to one day run an industry that I know little to nothing about and am going to Japan to learn how to do that thing I don’t actually know yet. It’s a rather vicious cycle of incomprehension.

Still, there I was. Standing on the campus of Mirai University, the supposedly fantastic and high-prestige college that people like me were expected to go to if they wanted to have a worthwhile future. Everything had already been worked through. I’d learned the language, I’ve signed up for courses, and I’ve gotten my dorm room. Everything’s set in place to start the semester. All that’s basically left is to head to my dorm and move in.

As I looked up towards the building, I couldn’t help myself from squinting in the bright sunlight. I reached into the pocket of my blazer and pulled out a pair of thick sunglasses and put them on. Much better, though the chunky sunglasses I bought made me feel a tad silly, especially with my outfit. I wore an expensive black suit that made me feel like I was turned into a plank of wood it was so stiff. The shades that I had bought cheap at a department store felt out of place. To be honest, matching fashion wasn’t my highest priority; I just realized I needed some sunglasses still and grabbed the first pair that fit my head.

Ah, I suppose I should give a little bit about myself, shouldn’t I? My name is Jackson Donovan. I’m African-American, and was born and raised in the United States, in California. As of early 1998, I was 24 years old. I had been studying abroad for a couple years, but only then was I actually stopping somewhere and attending a university. Good grades are a must for colleges like this, and luckily I’m a fairly intelligent young man. As I mentioned earlier, I’m fairly wealthy; my father is CEO of Donovan Industries, which, also as previously mentioned, is a company I know little to nothing about. I suppose I’m fairly tall for my age, and I generally keep my black hair buzzed short. Associates tend to label me a “pessimistic prude”, but I prefer to see myself as a sensible realist. To each his own, though, I suppose.

Classes weren’t going to start for another week at the university, but I was there to move in and to associate myself with...my new roommate. I kept forgetting that part. Social interaction wasn’t something I was terrible at, but I didn’t like to bother with people I found annoying. The fact I had to share a dorm with somebody concerned me in more ways than one. Who knew what kind of lunatic I could end up being paired up with? Though I suppose I was being just a tad paranoid. This was a classy school, after all. They didn’t just let in any old fool. This was a school with dignity. This was a school run by competent people who knew what they were doing with their student body. There was no way that they’d pair up an aristocrat like me with anybody that didn’t deserve to be at the school.

I pulled my suitcase up to the door that was marked with the number I was assigned to. This was to be my home for a while. Fingers crossed that it’d be at least a decent one. I straightened my tie and fixed up my suit. The least I could do was make a good first impression on my roommate. I unlocked the door, went to the bedroom, turned the door handle, and...

...Primary. Colors. EVERYWHERE.

I believe I audibly gasped when I saw what was in my dorm room that day. The moment the door swung open my eyes were bombarded with images of giant robots and men in spandex and cartoon characters and everything was in bright neon colors and WHAT IN THE NAME OF THE LORD WAS I EVEN LOOKING AT? It was like the walls of the room were having a Halloween party. The images only covered the right half of our room, but they were so bright and colorful that it overpowered the tan walls on my side of the room. It was like a unicorn barfed up a rainbow on 50% of the dorm. I was glad I didn’t take off my sunglasses, or else my retinas might have burned out.

All hyperbole aside, though, this was certainly not what I expected from a university like this. Streets of Japan? Maybe. They seemed to be into this weird kind of colorful stuff. But a Mirai University student? No, this was the last thing I’d expect. The decorating in the room was more akin to a five-year-old. I was fairly sure that the majority of the images came from that “Power Rangers” show that kids seemed to like nowadays. Five people standing in a row each color-coded with an incredibly bright color? Seemed familiar enough, but how many of these things were there even? I didn’t even want to consider who would actually own all these posters.

“Heeeey new guy! Welcome to our abode...of JUSTICE!”

...I was so distracted by the posters on the walls that I completely missed the other man in the room. He was a shaggy kind of guy. Only a bit shorter than I was, with messy, dirty blond hair and an unshaven chin. A pair of gold-rimmed glasses were on his face. He had a crimson t-shirt on and baggy jeans with tears that I couldn’t tell if they were intentional or not. He was fairly strong for someone around my age, as I could see from the muscles in his arms, so he must have taken part in some kind of athletics, and...wait, what did he just call our room?

“Abode...of justice,” I repeated.

“Yup!” the man replied. “Though you gotta add more umph to it! You can’t just call it an ‘abode of justice’, you have to call it an ‘abode of JUSTICE!’ The dramatic flair is important!” He rose a fist up into the air. “And you need to work on the posture, too! You need to shout it out and raise a fist to the heavens above, like you’re declaring it to God himself! It is the abode…” He lowered his fist, then swung it back up to the ceiling. “...of JUSTICE!”

I stared at the odd man as he punched the sky and could practically feel myself beginning to weep internally. This idiot was going to be my roommate. I thought that maybe, just maybe, it wasn’t too late to run the other way and never come to this place ever again. Unfortunately, the man already had grabbed a hold of my hand to shake it and I was roped into it.

“Nice to meetcha! Name’s Masaru Ichirou. I moved into the room a couple days ago. I wanted to get my side of the room all set up as quickly as possible, so I got here pretty early. So whaddaya think, eh?” He gestured to his collection of posters and, as I saw now, figurines lining his desk. “Pretty sweet, eh? You can’t get a collection like this over there in America, now can you?”

It actually took me a moment to realize that Masaru was speaking rather fluent English with me. I had gotten used to hearing Japanese at this point since I had moved to Japan earlier in the summer, but at least it was good that this guy knew my own language. Made things easier for me. But the fact that he was convinced I’d be interested in his toys was making that convenience seem more like a fault.

“Quite frankly,” I said, “I can’t imagine why any American would want to have a collection like yours…”

“Yeah, Americans never seemed to be as into sentai. All your heroes wear capes and underwear over their uniforms, I never got that…” He went over to his desk and stood up a robot toy that had fallen over. “But oh well, at least your food’s cool. Stayed there a couple years back in the day, it was a pretty neat place. Say, I’ve got some Toraranger on VHS, wanna check it out with me? I can put it on in the background while you unpack, but you’d be missing all the best parts.”

“Hold on, I’m sorry,” I told him as I rubbed my throbbing headache, “slow down for a moment. I haven’t even gotten fully through the door yet and you’re already speaking to me as if we’ve been friends for years. Don’t do that. It’s annoying. And I have little to no interest in your Power Ranger things, so don’t just-”

“Power Rangers?!” he exclaimed. “Oh, you poor American fool, you have no idea what you’re even missing!” He grabbed me by the shoulders and I could start feeling a sense of claustrophobia. “You only know about that poor excuse for an English translation? What villainy! You’ve been neglected the true joys of sentai!”

“...Sen...tai…?” Why did I ask that?

“Look around you!” Masaru gestured once more to the posters lining his part of the room. “This is sentai! The glorious defenders of justice that fight for the people of Earth! No matter the threat, no matter the risk, these teams are the thing keeping the world from collapsing! Marked in Red, Blue, Green, Black, Yellow, Pink, White, every color on the spectrum! They assemble, and they fight for peace! With their weapons and powers, they will do all that it takes to save us all! That is what it means to be a hero of sentai!”

Did he just...did he just monologue? My roommate was a man obsessed with colorful Japanese superhero shows and he monologued. This was the start of something very painful, I could just tell.

“...Well,” I said, trying to be polite after whatever just happened, “I’m personally not particularly interested in this...’sentai’ stuff. So, you can just...not shove it in my face, if you would? Or try not to go on and on talking about it? Because if this is a recurring thing, I’d rather you just...not do it ever again, preferably.”

Masaru stared back at me with a confused look on his face, then suddenly burst into laughter. “Hahahaha! You’re a funny guy, you know that? This is gonna be a great time, I can already feel it!” My god. He was a complete idiot.

Regardless, it seemed I was stuck with this man, this...Masaru Ichirou fellow. Much to my dismay. And now I’d have to live in a dorm room with him and most likely be forced to listen to him blab on and on about sentai this and anime that. I could practically feel my migraine growing already.

“...If you’re quite done, I’d like to start setting up my stuff. And I assure you I will not be painting my own walls with posters of men in spandex…” I walked over to my bed in the room and set my suitcase down on the floor. I unzipped it and started to move all my clothes onto the bed to be put away into the drawers. I suddenly felt a chill down my spine, however, and I looked back to see Masaru leaning over my shoulder looking at what I was unpacking. “...Is there a problem?”

“Dude, what’s with all the tuxes?” He pointed at my clothes. It was true, I did pack a lot of dress clothing.

“It’s what I usually wear. Not all of us slack around in torn jeans and t-shirts. This is Mirai University, we’re expected to look and act proper.”

He tilted his head. “Eeeeh? Since when? I don’t have to dress up in those monkey suits for every class, do I?”

“It’s not a requirement but it’s certainly an expectation,” I said, trying to hold back my annoyance. “And unlike some people around here, I intend to meet those expectations…”

“Man, you don’t get out much, do you?” He picked up one of my dress shirts and started looking at it, and I snatched it out of his hands and glared back at him through my sunglasses in irritation. I went back to my suitcase and brought out some more clothes. He went back to peeking over my shoulder. “Is this seriously all you brought?”

“Yes.”

“Don’t you have any precious items from your home or anything?”

“Not particularly.”

“You’re a bit of a stiff, ain’tcha?”

“Whatever helps you sleep at night.”

He put his hands in his pockets and strolled on over to his bed, plopping down onto it with a big stupid grin on his face. “Ah well, I like ya for that. I need a good foil in my life, anyway! I can be the charismatic, charming leader! And you can be the serious one, always keeping me out of trouble and always being my anchor! We could make the perfect duo!”

“Are you assigning archetypes to us now?” I asked. “You realize we don’t live in one of your cartoons, right? I do happen to be...you know, an actual person.”

He pouted. “Dude you really need to lighten up, I’m only kidding…” His disappointed tone told me no, he was not in fact kidding. “...Oh yeah!” He popped up from off his bed and leaned closer towards me. “I haven’t gotten your name yet, have I?”

He was right. I hadn’t actually introduced myself yet, though perhaps for good reason. Still, too late now, I supposed. “Jackson Donovan,” I told him.

“Mind if I call you Jack?” he asked.

“Yes, actually, I do mind.”

“Well, nice to meetcha, Jack!” he exclaimed. Clearly he wasn’t at this school for being a good listener. That got me thinking, though.

“Alright, Masaru,” I said as I stood from my suitcase. “I’d like an explanation for something, if you don’t mind. You’re standing here with colorful posters surrounding you, you’re sloppily dressed, and quite frankly you strike me as a lazy man. So...mind explaining to me exactly how or why you got into a prestigious university like this?”

“Well gee, glad I made such a great first impression on ya,” he said sarcastically, still with that dumb grin. “I get that a lot, though. Guess I look like kind of an idiot, eh? But hey, they say real idiots never get sick, and I get sick all the time! That’s gotta count for something, right?”

“I don’t think cultural superstition is an accurate-”

“Anyway,” he interrupted, “Point is I get that I don’t really come across as...ya know, particularly smart or anything. But I did ace the entrance exams, and I could actually afford getting into the school, believe it or not.” He struck an overly confident pose with a cocky grin on his face. “A true hero needs to be responsible and intelligent, or his team would sooner turn on him than follow him.”

“I see…” He didn’t seem to be lying, at least. I supposed he might have been one of those types of stereotypical nerds I always saw on television, of the people who run around playing card games and watch cartoons and silly stuff like that. Or maybe an unhealthy sentai obsession was normal in Japan...though even still it struck me as a tad excessive when I could see more poster than wall on his half of the room. “Well then, Mr. Hero, what exactly is it you’re studying to become here?”

He dramatically swung his arm towards my face and flashed a thumbs up, a glint in his eyes. “No idea!”

The silence that followed was deafening.

“....You...enrolled into one of the most prestigious schools in the country...and you don’t actually know what you’re studying to become.”

“Weeeell no, not really,” he said with a shrug. “I sorta signed up for general ed for now and figured I’d find a good major eventually. To be honest, I didn’t really come here for the curriculum. I came here for the students.”

“...The...students.”

“Yup!” Everything this man said was disgustingly chipper. “See, I wanted to put myself in an environment of talented people. I mean, you gotta be pretty good to get into this school, I figured, so there’s bound to be tons of interesting people here. Plus they’ve got a pretty good sports program here. I mean you’ve got martial arts clubs and fencing and all that stuff, that’s pretty sweet! So I figured I might as well sign up!”

I rubbed my temples as I tried to process what he was saying. Joining a prestigious university practically on a whim. I couldn’t fathom such an idea.

“What about you?” he asked next. “What brings you to this school, Jack?” He was starting to revert back to using Japanese, assumingly because he was getting more comfortable with me, much to my chagrin.

“My parents own a rather lucrative company,” I explained to him. “I’m expected to be next in line to maintain it, so I reasonably will get the best education I can to take over for it.”

“Oh? What’s the company do?”

I opened my mouth to answer, but...I couldn’t exactly respond. I couldn’t exactly tell him I wasn’t sure what they expected of me or I’d seem like a hypocrite. I tried to think of an excuse, but he seemed to notice my hesitation and shook it off. “I getcha, I getcha,” he said. “Well, whatever, I’m excited to be friends!” This time he stuck his hand out to shake my hand without forcing me into it. I looked down towards it and sighed reluctantly.

I grabbed Masaru Ichirou’s open hand and shook it, not sure what exactly would come next.

It took me a while to get used to living with the living embodiment of eccentricity named “Masaru Ichirou”. In fact, I’d say it took at least a few weeks to not feel like strangling him in his sleep.

The man was almost unbearable at times, and was DEFINITELY unbearable every other time. He was loud, obnoxious, WAY too touchy, and made getting a good night’s rest very difficult. When he wasn’t rambling on and on and on about something, he was watching a show where characters were rambling on and on about something. His voice almost never went below a shout in its volume. I desperately hoped that if he worked on assignments more he’d be quiet for a little, but I never saw him doing any. It wasn’t until later that I learned he had free time during one of my classes in which he finished his work and therefore always had free time when I saw him.

Occasionally I would glance over Masaru’s shoulder and take a look at this sentai stuff he never shut up about. It was the cheesiest thing I had ever seen, with men in spandex so tight they looked like they were about to pop and some of the worst special effects I had ever seen. I couldn’t imagine even stomaching it, let alone growing an obsession with it. It was merely an enigma to me.

Add to it that living with Masaru was arguably hazardous to my life. He was listening to music loudly when I returned to the dorm from class one day and didn’t hear me come in. I went up to him and tried to shake his shoulder to get his attention to tell him to turn it down and the man grabbed my wrist and the next thing I knew, I was on the ground with a headache. “Oh crap, sorry! I had no idea it was you!” he told me. “I’ve been learning karate ever since I was a little kid and it was kind of an instinct. Sorry, dude…”

It was only mildly surprising he learned karate, of course. In fact, I was starting to think he wanted to be in a sentai show himself. He constantly rehearsed not only lines from the shows he watched but his own improvised ones, all about burning passion or peace and trust or the obnoxious overuse of the word justice. He loved to make up backstories or archetypes for people, like he was writing a script called life. Maybe all of that is what drove me to make a decision once that...well, I didn’t realize would end up affecting me as much as it did, to say the least.

“Alright, Masaru,” I said to him one day, a few weeks after classes started. “If you’re so obsessed with this sentai stuff, why don’t you take acting classes and actually try for a role in the industry? You scream enough and you seem to be competent in martial arts. Seems like a match made in heaven, if you ask me.”

He scratched his chin and thought about it. “Weeeell...It’s definitely a possibility. But Iunno, I can’t see myself actually working on a set for a show like that. Being directed for how I should be punching stuff...I’m not sure.” He smiled. “Though...being a real sentai hero might be kinda cool...I mean, I could easily see myself as a leader, fighting evil and saving the world and all that...Maybe I should give the idea some thought…”

I merely shrugged. “Well, think about it if you want. Just an idea…” Acting classes also happened to take up most of the time in which Masaru and I were usually in the dorm together. My intentions were less than pure, but I figured it was at least worth a shot.

Regardless, time went on. Living with Masaru...well, I can’t say it ever exactly got easier. Or even more enjoyable, to be honest. But at the very least it grew more tolerable. I began to get used to Masaru’s neverending list of eccentricities. I learned to tune out the sentai and either got used to his loud voice or just started to lose my hearing to the point where it sounded normal. I just sorta got used to the guy. He wasn’t really a bad guy like I initially thought he’d be, he was just sort of obnoxious. Once I got used to that obnoxiousness then I could at least handle spending time with the guy. So at least that was something.

Still, he did manage to baffle me constantly. I just could not comprehend what the man’s thought processes involved. There was one evening where I intended to go out to buy some more food, as our snack supply was starting to run low. As I was about to walk out the door, he stopped me.

“Dude, hold on, you’re forgetting your sunglasses!” he said.

“...You realize it’s dark out, right?” I asked him back.

“Yeah, but a true hero has to always look cool,” he explained, striking a pose as he did so. “Those shades are a part of your soul! They strike fear into the hearts of all those who oppose you! When they see you walking up with your shades, they say to themselves, ‘Hark, my diabolical brethren, it is Jack Donovan! Who knows what terrifying glare he is piercing us with behind those black spectacles? We must flee with our tails between our legs before we have the misfortune to learn!’ You know, stuff like that!”

“....Masaru. I only wear the sunglasses because my eyes are sensitive to light and need to block out sunlight during the day. If I go around in the middle of the night wearing sunglasses, not only will I be completely and utterly blind, but I’m fairly certain that ‘evildoers’ will think I’m less a menace to their crimes and more a giant dou-”

“Oh come on,” he interrupted, “they make you look cool, though! They’re a part of your cold exterior!”

It took me another five minutes to convince him why wearing sunglasses at night would be a bad idea. And even when I finally got out the door and to the store, I found my pair of sunglasses sticking out of my back pocket, where he no doubt snuck it ‘just in case’.

It seemed Masaru did that kind of thing a lot, really. Trying to force his own mental image of people onto them. He definitely fancied himself some sort of director of his own life, as he constantly seemed to daydream about adventures he could be having or about what archetypes in the show he seemed convinced he was living in. And not only was he convinced he was director, but protagonist, too. He liked to refer to himself as a “hero” a lot, shouting stuff like “a true hero doesn’t need rest” as an excuse to stay up and watch his shows or “a true hero needs to keep fit “ as his excuse for skipping out on dinner some days. I could never particularly tell if he was serious or joking, but I didn’t particularly want to know, to be honest.

But of course, life doesn’t go the way you want it to, does it?

It was maybe halfway into the semester that Masaru approached me one day. He had that big grin on his face. The grin he had when he was about to say something I knew would give me a migraine. I put the book I was reading down, rested my cheek against my hand, and looked towards him. “Alright,” I said, “I’m waiting. What ridiculous thing are you going to say now?”

“It’s not ridiculous!” he denied. “I’ve finally decided to follow your advice! About what you told me about becoming a sentai hero myself!”

I was actually taken off guard by that one. Masaru Ichirou actually listening to me? Amazing. Simply amazing. I thought I might have been drunk or dreaming or both. “Well...I’m glad to hear that!” I said, a genuine smile on my face (perhaps the first to appear talking to Masaru). “So you’re going to become an actor? I think it fits perfe-”

I was interrupted by him wagging his finger in my face and going “Tsk tsk tsk”. I had a bad feeling about that noise. “I’m not going to become an actor,” he told me. “I’m shooting for much higher heights…”

I had a terrified feeling what higher heights meant, but I asked anyway. “And...those are…?”

Clenching his fist triumphantly, his eyes burning with passion and his voice booming with anticipation, he said, “To become a real-life super sentai superhero, of course!”
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Hersh/Fiendy has credit for the amazing GiGi pics and enigma has credit for the adorable Kenshin Mega Man sprite!

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gotMLK7
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Re: Forum games and roleplays discussion thread

Post by gotMLK7 »

Another chapter! This one focused on a young Vallick Etherbatch - one of Malchior's most trusted generals, who died fighting the Justice Riders soon after finding the crashed spaceship of his grandfather on Earth.
Spoiler : IV. MONSTERS - Tale of Vallick Etherbatch :
People seem to enjoy optimistic platitudes stating that their species is above others, that they are superior morally and intellectually. They lie to themselves, claiming that no matter what atrocities their species may commit, it shall all be alright in the end, there is a bright future ahead. It will all be okay.

What garbage.

----

EARTH YEAR: 2020

“I see, and what of the Communications Bureau?”

“Running optimally. Not at their most efficient, but given circumstances they’re keeping up fine.”

“That is good to hear. It would be a shame if they underperformed now of all times.”

“I don’t believe that will be a problem. I assume the factories are running fine?”

“There was an incident today at one of the sites, but I don’t believe it will have much impact. It was covered rather quickly.”

“The Armada wasn’t involved?”

“Not this time. Just average local officers. As I said, a minor incident. We had to fire a couple people, end shifts early, and we’ll have the hardware fixed up by tomorrow.”

“I see. Good to hear that.”

That was what every conversation seemed to be like across that dinner table. My father, a lucrative businessman that financed most of the factories in the area, and my mother, Commissioner of the Communications Bureau that overlooked most forms of messaging in the kingdom, discussing their work as though they were still at board meetings from either side of the table. And I sat in the middle, a quiet child with silver spoon in mouth, oblivious to what their words meant so long as I was pleased.

I suppose I cannot claim they had a particularly unhappy marriage or that I was displeased with my situation at the time. Nobody ever complained about one another in that household, and the two seemed to possess the same stoic disposition that seemed to characterize the Etherbatch name. Perhaps it was what one might call a match made in “heaven” in that regard, if such a concept existed, but I rather think they simply found the other compatible enough to have no complaints to speak of. They both kept any emotion they could show hidden behind blank expressions and dark spectacles. Their critics in media called them robotic, but perhaps they just did not think with their heads enough.

In truth, I did care for my parents, regardless of the muted atmosphere ever present in our household. They seemed to show some degree of compassion for me, even if they refused to show it, and they treated me well. I was a jaded child under them, but no, I was not unhappy. I was content with whatever simple life I had. I was satisfied chewing on that silver spoon, too naive to bother with anything else.

But that damned grandfather.

Frequently, we received threatening letters and messages at my household. So much so that we had grown apathetic towards them. We had stopped bothering to erase the messages painted onto the gates outside or on our walls, as they would reappear the next day regardless. Mother would often tell us of the messages sent about them she would have to discard at the Bureau itself. As closely linked to politics and as wealthy as my parents were, and as controversial as their decisions may have been at times, it was no doing of their own that we were so frequently targeted.

It’s all his damn fault.

The reason for this discord was named Weisch. Weisch Etherbatch, a name I cannot think to say without the urge to vomit rising within me. That damned grandfather of mine. He was supposedly a great man, supposedly a wise and logical politician and soldier that served as an advisor to the King in the invasion of the Drax Empire. A great man, they called him. He’s no great man, he’s a curse, dammit! A curse that I’ve had hanging above my head for my entire life!

Earth, what a joke. That’s where he vanished. Some 25 years prior to that day, far before I came to existence, Weisch Etherbatch accompanied the King Chronius Oleander on a peaceful expedition to that blue planet, EARTH. To engage the aliens known as Humans. Creatures that supposedly looked and acted so similar to us that it was almost chilling. And how my parents spoke so highly of him! They still claimed he was a great man even then! And at times I thought to believe them, the fool I was.

Then why did he abandon us?

The King’s expedition never yielded results, it never even yielded a response. All three spaceships sent to investigate, gone, without a trace. Including my foolish grandfather, Weisch Etherbatch. Vanished some 25 years before, and yet he haunted our family still.

“Those No King’s Men are refusing to relent.”

“Quite. I remember when they were still mere guerilla bands of rebels. Now they’re practically a political force...how times have changed.”

Ah yes, the No King’s Men, so they were called. The cause of the king’s disappearance was never officially confirmed, as no word was ever received from him nor was any wreckage ever discovered. Some believed the ships failed and crashed, but the top scientists working on it assured us that there should have been no malfunctions. And so the most logical idea was that the humans kidnapped or killed them. Yet the Queen that was left to rule never wanted to take action when that was unconfirmed. And such an ideology passed on to the crownless king, the current Prince. Paranoia had been the name of the game my entire life, yet none set out to quell it.

And then there’s those No King’s Men. A rebellious political party that began as a small sect that were vehemently against the monarchy. They believed that Chronius Oleander had defected on Earth to help the humans strike back against his home planet. It was a ridiculous claim in the past, but denial and mystery fanned the flames of the theory and now they held a sizable amount of support, concerningly so. Yet nothing was done about them past hushing the odd violent uproar, in the name of maintaining civil peace, or whatever was the excuse. But now their damned supporters despised us for simply sharing a name with one of their supposed “traitors”.

“Vallick, have you finished your school work for the day?”

“You cannot let yourself get left behind in your studies.”

“Sorry, Mother and Father. I’ll make sure to finish it after dinner.”

“Very good.”

Ha, what an average day it had been. Distant conversation, my greatest concern on my mind being mere homework.

We were safe.

We were wealthy and important and powerful.

There was nothing that could be done to us.

Everything was alright.

Nothing could ever hurt us.

They broke the doors down with a hefty thump on the door and the room grew hot, they came in all at once a swarm of demons with blades and guns and worse tearing the house up, a whirlwind, a storm, a CATACLYSM, my parents stood to run away, they grabbed me, we fled to the back door but they began to come from there, too, we ran up the stairs, they followed, we had nowhere to go but my father broke a window and bled and grabbed a shard of glass to strike back but he was lost in the sea of beasts striking us down and I could no longer see him, and the heat was more intense, and the SCREAMS, goddamn those SCREAMS, screams of terror and of hatred and anger and nothing but DAMN MADNESS SWIRLING AROUND ME, and soon my mother was gone, and I was alone in a cupboard, and scared, and why, damn them, why, how could they do this, where was I to GO what was I to DO would they kill me if they found me, and I fell, and it fell on top of me, and the screams CHEERED, how dare they, how could they CHEER those beasts, and my life flashed before me as that silver spoon melted to nothing but WASTE in that fire, I had nothing I was nothing, everything was gone, was I alive or was I gone, I could hear nothing left but my own heart beating but was that true life, where the hell was I, what happened, where did everything go so wrong, why did I?

It was over.

I climbed out from a black cupboard to find that my home was burned to the ground, ravaged and destroyed. I was caught completely unawares as to what had just unfolded. A relatively peaceful night with my parents had somehow shifted in the span of a single second into something hellish, something terrifying. My home had crashed down on itself, and the fire around me still burned. I was unsure how long I was in that cupboard before coming out, nor was I sure when I was put there in the first place. But I knew something for certain.

I was the only one left alive.

----

EARTH YEAR: 2021

It was not difficult to discover the perpetrators in the destruction of my home and the murder of my parents. It was those beasts they called the No King’s Men who began it. Apparently a coup d’etat had been incited by them, a revolution to strike down those they considered puppets of the government or such. They created a riot that violently swarmed through the kingdom attacking whoever they saw fit, with such political figures as the main targets. Of course, a riot does as it wishes, and innocents not even tied to the events of the King’s disappearance were caught in the crosshairs. This was not the case of my parents, though; merely being related to one of the supposed traitors pinned us as a target, so our house was burned down and my parents killed.

I was a mere child. I had no place to go and nobody I knew to trust. I was too reserved to know anybody else, I never spoke to any adults that were not my own parents, and I had no place to turn to. I had no other options I could see aside from living off the street. What else was I to do?

I scavenged what I could from where I could. I begged and eventually stole from others to fulfill my basic needs. I was too weak to carry much, so I would steal a cart when I could but otherwise carried very little. My wardrobe consisted of whatever I could find; most of my clothes were lost in the fire, so I had to make due with one of my father’s blazers that I had to tie across my waist with rope to keep on due to its size. I had no clue how to cut my own hair, so it merely kept growing; my hair grows at a surprisingly fast rate, so it did not take long for it to grow absurdly long and unruly. Perhaps that was why no rebels ever recognized me. I survived surprisingly well for someone whose silver spoon was torn from his mouth so suddenly. I suppose I was a fast learner.

I even learned the true nature of those around me.

My house was destroyed, my family killed, and my life forced to theft. I saw all kinds of people...no, that is wrong. I saw no people. I saw beasts. Demons. Monsters. All sorts of terrifying abominations hiding in Kalcion skin, pretending as though they are some common kind soul. But I could never tell them apart any more. They were no people, they were monsters that sought my destruction at every turn! They looked at me with disdain, I could tell. My eyes refused to even register them as any mere mortals. My life was filled with static, and across the town all I could see was hellish distortions that screamed and whined and shouted and hated. And I learned to hate, too. I hated them, I hated them all! I hated how they could spout how happy they were knowing the sins they committed, I hated hearing them talk about the despicable nature of others when I was sure they had all done worse.

I hated, hated, hated it all. I wanted to burn it all down, that entire planet. To see it crumble in a black hole of ego and to never return. To see all its citizens fall into the cracks of its splitting earth, finally returning those monsters to where they came from. Yes, I hated it all, and I still hate it all. I have heard others say that hate is a powerful word, but it does not come close to describing what I feel. Everyone around me was a monster that deserved more than what “hate” can even begin to describe, and that perhaps includes even me.

The coup started by the No King’s Men hadn’t lasted long; it was ended the day it began, with casualties only around the 50s but with enough of an impact to be all over the news for months. The NKM didn’t try anything like that again, at least not on as big a scale, but their message was made loud and clear and the world was unsure of how to respond. But paranoia was certainly high. I heard mumbles of rebellion and about the current prince from every corner of the city. Even when the news moved on, the “people” were always thinking about it. They were terrified or angry or both. As if they would not have done the same if they so pleased.

And so I had sat there after an entire year had passed. My blazer was torn, my hair nearly fell to the floor. My muscle was almost nonexistent, and my ribcage was visible behind my clothes. I sat at the side of the street, watching beasts wander by. I wanted something to eat, but I had no money, so I sat and waited for someone that looked easy enough to steal from. Just in case, I hid a shard of metal beneath my blazer. I doubted I would win a fight easily, but if I had to I was willing to strike for what would likely be my only meal of the day.

And that was when they came.

“Stay back! Back, I say!”

I glanced up to see what all the commotion was about as a swarm formed in the streets. The first thing I could see was a rather tall, muscular man. It took a while to differentiate features amidst all the distortions of the crowd, but he seemed to be wearing a military uniform and had short orange hair and a small orange beard. He was accompanying somebody, swatting away the crowd. Likely a bodyguard. I was prepared to ignore the situation, as there was no way I could feasibly win against someone like that.

“Keep back from the prince!”

I could ignore it no longer. My eyes shot open, I stood up, I searched. And so there he was. The young Prince of the Kalcion walked in front of the bodyguard. Dim green hair tied back in a ponytail, dressed in a fine military suit. It was unmistakably him, even in my own eyes. Prince Malchior Oleander.

Something came over me. Adrenaline pumped into me and I could not contain myself. A rush of hatred overcame my entire body. I thought back to all I had known about this man. That he was the one in charge now. That it was his reluctance to do anything that caused the rebellion in the first place. That he was the son of the man that brought my grandfather to infamy. It was all his fault, that was it. This was the man who was directly responsible for leading these beasts, he was the Prince of Monsters. And he was here before me, and I was armed. I grit my teeth in fury. I knew what had to be done.

I gripped the metal shard and I moved through the crowd, pushing through who I could to get closer to the prince. I was sure they were getting angry at me, but I could no longer hear them. I was merely pushing through static at that point. When I finally reached the center of the commotion, I waited for the bodyguard to be distracted with somebody else to make my move. I put myself in front of the prince’s path. Between the distortions of his twisted face, I could tell he noticed me. He asked something, but I could not hear it. I had only one shot and I no longer cared for anything that surrounded me except for him and my weapon.

I stepped forth, and I stabbed the prince.

The static around me grew louder, it became a frenzy. I could feel blood pour down the weapon onto my hands, even if I could not see it. Everything was just a mania of swirling colors and noises to me now, I had no clue what was happening. I just knew that I had stabbed the prince of the Kalcion, and there was part of me that was happy I did so. Perhaps that made me the biggest monster there, but I could care less then. I would likely be killed now, anyway, struck down in a single blow by that bodyguard. I could think of nothing else to do to justify myself in that moment. So all I did was mutter. I attempted to say “It’s all your fault, it’s all your fault,” but I could no longer hear my own voice, so I did not care if it was coherent.

But it was done. I had my revenge. I struck he who was responsible for my life in Hell. I had no reason to exist any more past that point, it would merely be an afterthought of my life. I might as well just die there and get the whole thing over with. I was glad that if nothing else, I would die having made something with my miserable existence, and that the mark I made would last in the minds of all those wicked creatures that surrounded me each and every-

“I’m sorry.”

...What?

My mind snapped to reality, and I now saw him there, clearly. I saw the young man, with my hands holding a bloody metal shard in his torso beneath his right pec, as he rose an arm to call off his bodyguard from apprehending me. The crowd around me was frozen in shock. And the man, he...he smiled at me. The Prince of the Kalcion was smiling at me, as I stood there stabbing him. My adrenaline and joy and hatred drained, leaving me with nothing but my own confusion. What was this? What was happening? This had never happened to me before, I could not tell what to feel any more.

“Y-You blame me for something...r-right?”

I could not answer. He held his hand over mine on the metal shard, and crouched down as he looked me in the eyes at my own level.

“T-Then I am sorry. I want to...be a ruler that does not make his followers s-suffer. Especially not someone as...young as you. So if you blame me for whatever has happened to you...then, I am truly sorry. I d-doubt you’d forgive me, but I just...want you to...know…”

“Your Highness!” the bodyguard shouted out. “You’re losing too much blood, you’ll faint at this rate!”

“One moment, Gohra...please.” The prince turned back to me with his sad pained smile. “I don’t k-know your story, or why you hate me. But it’s...it’s okay.”

And then...he leaned forward, and he hugged me.

“It’s...okay…”

The next moments were another rush on my senses. The prince began to lose consciousness, I was grabbed by the bodyguard, an emergency transport came to cart the Prince off, and I recall passing out myself at some point as I was being carted off as well. I did not awaken until I found myself in a dark room, with two men asking me questions I did not know how to answer. They eventually started asking yes or no questions and made me shake my head, since I seemed reluctant to speak, and they tried to determine why I did what I did, if I confessed to it, if I was an assassin, and more. Once interrogation ended, I was thrown in a private cell for the night. All I recall from this time was eating perhaps the best food I had in months. But the rest of that night was merely silent staring.

I spent that time asking questions. Mostly relating to the prince. His behavior confused me, befuddled me. Why did he do that? When met with an attempt on his life, he merely smiled at me. He apologized. Part of me as furious that he did that. It wasn’t fair that I was suffering and he, with a shard of metal stabbed through his chest and his blood dripping out from him, could afford something like humility. But I couldn’t bring myself to be too furious. There was something about the encounter that made something click in my brain. What was it? It confused me, confounded me, silenced me, it drove me mad. What was going through that man’s mind? What did he plan to do with me now that I was in his clutches? Did he plan to do anything at all? After I had felt numb for so long, the feeling of tension was both euphoric and terrifying.

It was not until the next morning that I was brought back before the prince.

I was brought by guards to a surprisingly small but ornate room. Even as a child I knew it was no throne room, though to mistake it for a commoner’s room would be foolish. Finely carved tables, bookshelves filled with both Kalcion and Earth literature, a cabinet specifically for fine wines, a chandelier overhead. It seemed to be a small study or private lounge. I could feel the hatred returning. I used to have a home like this, yet this man held onto his still. It pissed me off that he was permitted such luxuries, and thought he must have brought me here to rub it in my face before extermination. Yet to my surprise, I was sat down at the fine table. And...a dish was placed before me. It was unmistakably a cake, filled and topped with fruit I had never seen before.

“Dig in, it’s safe to eat.”

I nearly leapt from my seat at the new voice in the room. Lo and behold, there he was, the Prince of the Kalcion, the No Man’s King that spurred the No King’s Men. Malchior Oleander, very much still alive.

“It’s an Earth dessert,” he explained to me as he calmly sat beside me at the table. “It’s called strawberry shortcake. Try it, it’s really quite good.”

I stared at the shortcake, then looked up to the doorway. The guards that escorted me had left, but the bodyguard from the day prior stood there with his arms crossed, glaring at the two of us.

“Don’t mind him,” the prince said. “He insisted on being here. He’s a paranoid man, but I assure you he’s just being a friend. We mean you no harm.”

“So long as there’s no trickery,” the bodyguard spoke up, “then I won’t be needed here. But it’d be a mark against my honor to abandon my liege with his would-be assassin, no matter how young.”

“Alright, pull back on the intimidation tactics, Gohra.”

The guard returned to silence.

“Now,” the prince began, sticking a fork into a shortcake of his own, “where do I begin here...a-ah, my name is Malchior Oleander.”

I glared at him. He recoiled.

“...Right, yes, you...likely already know that. Ahem. Well. Would you mind telling me your own name, young man?”

I didn’t want to answer him, but I felt compelled to. “Vallick...Etherbatch…”

He went silent, stabbing a strawberry and remaining still for a moment. I was thrown off by the sudden heavy atmosphere surrounding him.

“Ah...I see…” he finally spoke. He took a deep breath, then turned to me and...smiled again. “Well, Vallick, it’s a pleasure to meet you! You must be a brave young man, hm?”

“It’s no pleasure.”

“Excuse me?”

“It’s no pleasure for you to meet me,” I said. “I stabbed you. There’s no pleasure in that.”

The prince stared down at me, thrown off himself now, something I secretly took glee in seeing. He recollected himself quickly, however.

“Ah, that, it’s no issue anymore.” He quickly unbuttoned his blazer and lifted his undershirt, revealing gauze wrapped around his torso where the wound was. “It will likely leave a nasty scar, but the doctors were quick and efficient with this one. It was dealt with quickly, so consider it water under the bridge.”

“Why?”

He looked to me, puzzled, as he rebuttoned his blazer. “Why?”

“Why do you care about that? Why do you care about ME? Why am I supposed to care about YOU?!”

He smirked now. “Well, you cared enough about me to attempt to assassinate me, while I was under bodyguard supervision. Unless you have a penchant for impaling, I believe it’s difficult for me to overlook something like that.”

I...blushed, in embarrassment. And I instantly regretted it. I could see the man pick up on it. He saw me weak, dammit! He would no doubt exploit it in his sick mind games. This man, this damned man, he was going to make a fool of me. He was going to twist my thoughts now that he’s gotten under my skin, and he was going to break me until I was nothing but a whimpering mutt at his feet only so he could personally crush my head beneath his foot. I couldn’t let that happen. The adrenaline was starting to fuel my hatred once more. I reached for the fork, and-

He placed his hand on mine before I could grab it. I looked to him, and I saw the face of a solemn man. A man who was breaking on his own, who had gazed into the pit of monsters surrounding him and just barely climbed back out. I saw Malchior Oleander, for the first real time. And he looked at me with pleading eyes.

“Please...please don’t,” he told me. “I know it’s tempting. And I know you were right, that it’s my fault what happened to you. And if I could, I would want nothing more than to undo all that happened. But please, please, do not do this. I’ve made so many mistakes already, I...I can’t see myself turning a child into a murderer. That thought, it’s...it’s too cruel for my heart to bare. Your future can still be so bright! Don’t end yours just to end mine. I beg of you.”

We remained like that, silently staring at one another, neither of us moving a muscle. I finally dropped my hand down, and Prince Malchior gave a small sigh of relief. Not even for a moment did I think he was defending his own life. There was something about him that terrified me, and now I saw. It was how genuine he was. Monsters spoke the same kinds of words he did every day, lying to each other for their own gain, but there was something so bizarrely natural about this man. I believed every word he said, I believed his smile, I believed in his words. My hatred drained away once more, leaving that confused husk of a child once more. Prince Malchior spoke to me more.

“Vallick,” he said, “forgive me for being so forward, but I’d like to perhaps cut a deal with you. I...assume you have no permanent home?”

I shook my head.

“Well...would you care for one?”

I looked up at him in shock. His bodyguard nearly jumped from his spot.

“Y-Your Highness, you aren’t-”

“I don’t know what I can do for you,” Malchior interrupted, “but I would like to try my best. I have inherited a kingdom at the brink of madness, and I’ve made too many mistakes that I cannot correct. But I want to make things better. I want to fix what I can, I want to be a ruler that my people can be proud of. If that means helping you out, then I will do anything I am capable of. It may mean work, for both of us, but I can’t stand seeing someone like you on the edge of despair knowing that I could have prevented it, knowing I could stop it from going any further.” He paused. “Heh...pretty selfish, in hindsight. Perhaps I’m just doing this to stroke my own ego. But even so, I can’t help but feel it’s the right thing to do. So...that’s my decision. I don’t want to force you into anything, so you’re free to be released if you’d prefer, but know that the offer is on the table.”

I was silent. I stared at the shortcake, going at length without responding. I could hear the nervous shuffling of his legs beneath the table, see him twiddling his thumbs in the corner of my eye. I spoke at last.

“I attempt to assassinate you, and so you invite me to live with you. I see now why people don’t want you as king.”

I reached for the fork again...and I ate a piece of the shortcake in front of me. “It’s...good.”

Prince Malchior looked to me, baffled himself now. And then, he laughed. He leaned back in his seat and laughed to the heavens. “Hahahahaha! And here I thought my critics were all adults!”

“...Thank you…”

“Hm? Excuse me?”

I looked to him, no longer able to contain myself. Tears poured down my cheeks from beneath my wild hair, and my lips quivered as I tried to contain myself. “T-Thank you!”

Prince Malchior smiled again, and this time, I felt a pang of joy. “My pleasure,” he told me.

From that day forth, I lived with the royal family. Despite Prince Malchior’s pardoning my crime, I still had to work as a servant and butler to repay my dues, much to his chagrin. I did not mind, though. My hair was cut, my clothes were clean, my food was frequent, my bed was warm. I had no problems pulling my weight around for such a deal.

But most importantly, I finally had someone in my life. In a sea of monsters, I found someone I could trust. Someone that I could just tell held no ill will towards me, wore no mask when speaking to me, genuinely believed in the words he preached. I met many people, but he was the only one worth a damn. Prince Malchior, the man among monsters.

Even if he broke that static that distorted the world around me, I could still tell everyone around me save him were nothing but wretched beasts. Yet Prince Malchior trusted them. He told me he believed in the people of his planet even if their actions were cruel, even if they hated him in return. He even wanted to believe in those humans on Earth, despite the dark shadow they cast over him. His desires, his ambitions, they made even me curious. I wanted to know what he saw in others. If he could see something I could not, or if he was simply lying to himself to justify the unjustifiable.

For as close as I felt to him, he still seemed so distant. And he only grew moreso, as hatred spread and as fear rose. Yet I couldn’t help myself. I reached out to him. I decided to not just serve him, but to fight for him, to become someone he could trust on the battlefield. And as he smiled less and less, and as war became more and more inevitable...I had to see it. I had to see for myself. To see if the humans truly killed my grandfather, or if there was something to them, to life in general, that I simply could not see.

The universe is full of monsters. Terrifying beasts that seek nothing more than their own pleasure, their own gain. Yet perhaps, I can be proven wrong. Perhaps there’s some saving grace out there.

Well, humans? Prove me wrong.
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Hersh/Fiendy has credit for the amazing GiGi pics and enigma has credit for the adorable Kenshin Mega Man sprite!

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gotMLK7
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Re: Forum games and roleplays discussion thread

Post by gotMLK7 »

Chapter 5 is about Wakana, but I'm not fully happy with it, and will skip it for now - the only real backstory context it gives is that she used to be a party animal and started dating Kenshin in high school, not longer after the scene in Kenshin's chapter in which she finds him crying at the hospital. I'd like to write further on her in the future.

For now, thought, chapter 6: Sevaline Oleander. Tracking the Head General of the Kalcion Armada from childhood to the point of her determination to reign over the Armada, and why she wants to see her father smile again.
Spoiler : VI. SMILE - Tale of Sevaline Oleander :
“He’s no good for our kingdom.”

“He’s not a REAL king.”

“He’s so weak!”

“What a wimp!”

“Why doesn’t he just invade already?”

“I hate him!”

“He’s probably a traitor like his father!”

“I wish he’d just go and-”

Shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up SHUT UP! SHUT THE HELL UP, ALL OF YOU! How dare you talk like you know him?! You don’t! You don’t know him, you don’t know me, you don’t know ANYTHING! It pisses me off, it pisses me off! Ghhhaaaarrraaaagh!

All day, every day, as long as I can remember it’s been this crap! People, they don’t understand us, and I’m so sick of it! I’m sick of all of it! I hate it I hate it I hate it! I don’t get it, why don’t they just stop and see that they’re being stupid?! That they’re being cruel?! They just don’t understand anything...they don’t understand anything at all.

It’s been like this since before I was born, but I didn’t notice it until I started going to school and seeing it more. I was...what, 6? Something like that. I looked like a pretty little princess back then. Hair all long and brushed, pretty little dresses, that sorta crap. Didn’t really have friends, probably because of my name. Oleander. I guess on that craphole Earth the name translates similar to a kind of poisonous flower, which is fitting enough, because that name’s been poisonous to us for years.

“Is your daddy the prince?”

“Yeah!”

“My daddy says your daddy’s a bad man!”

“Whaaaat? Papa’s the bestest in the world!”

Tch, I thought it was just one little brat, but no, I got that crap constantly. King this, prince that, traitor this, weakling that, all of them just hateful bullcrap, ALL OF IT! I asked Papa about it but he just smiled at me and told me not to worry! Dammit...what a stupid little kid I was, believing nothing was wrong for so long...It’s so obvious now! Ngghrgh…

And none of it was helped by HER. That despicable woman.

“Honestly, I’d have thought I married a man with a little more backbone than that.”

I hate her I hate her I hate her. I don’t care who she is, if she’s his wife, if she’s the rightful princess, if she’s my goddamn mother, I HATE that vile woman. Papa says he never regretted marrying her because now he had me...but it’s not fair. It’s not fair someone like Papa ends up with...a cruel hag like HER.

----

EARTH YEAR: 2024

I was just a kid, still in grade school. I did what I was told, I ignored the kids picking on me because of Papa, I tried to be nice but wasn’t getting any friends. I came back home from class, and when I went to say hi to Papa, there she was, looming over him like the monster she is.

“Why don’t you just invade that nasty old rock already, Malchior? Hm?”

She put her hand on Papa’s shoulder. I saw him flinch. I watched from the doorway so I wouldn’t be seen, but if I were there now I’d run in there and sock the hag.

“You’re cursed with your father’s sentimentality. You’re clinging to that hope like an old novelty toy you had growing up. But let’s face the facts now, Malchior, sweetie!” I winced just hearing her say that word. “You’ve got to just hurry up and trash that toy! It’s useless, it’s ugly, and you look like a child keeping it around.”

“Yelissa,” Papa said, “it’s not that simple. There’s-”

“What, people?” She scoffed, the she-bastard. “Why should we care about something like that, hmmm? Wasting oxygen in the galaxy, if you ask me. Besides, they creep me out. They’re so pasty and...pink.”

“Well I’m sorry you feel that way,” Papa went on, “but we have to approach this carefully regardless. I’m planning to start sending some minor troops-”

“What, some measly little ground troops? What kind of attack is that?”

“It’s for recon. It might take a while to plan-”

The hag slammed her fist on the table Papa sat at. I flinched.

“Wake up, Malchior, you miserable bastard! I’ve played your game for seven years now, and I’m sick of all this! When are you planning to just flick this planet away like the dust it is and stop being such a pathetic sack of crap?” And that witch returned to her fake jovial self a second later. “It’d really be a shame if I were to tell the public nasty things about you, hm? How you’re a poor husband...how you’re cruel to your child...how you’re even, perhaps, a traitor…?”

That stopped my heart. They were lies, lies, lies!

“You...You wouldn’t…”

“I heard that child’s been picked on by her classmates, you know,” she went on. “And it’s all your fault. Could you imagine the hell her life would be trying to fit in with information like that going public? My, she might even get caught up in an attack by another coup! Imagine, the defenseless daughter of the No Man’s King…”

“ENOUGH!”

I flinched again when Papa slammed his hands down and stood up. He was mad. I never saw him that mad.

“Fine...you win. I’ll deploy initial troops to Earth as soon as possible.”

She smiled. “That’s a good boy.”

She patted him on the shoulder, and she gave him a kiss on the cheek. I felt like vomiting. Then, she came my way, towards the doorway. I was so freaked out about her coming over that I froze up, I couldn’t even hide. She saw me pretty quickly. She looked surprised for a moment, then she smiled again. Even now I feel the sickening tingle run up my spine.

“Good little girls shouldn’t eavesdrop on matters between adults, dear. Why don’t you head to bed and mind your own business, sweetie?”

And she walked away.

I ran to Papa, and I stared at him. His head was in his hands. His shoulders were twitching. I was too young to know what that meant back then, but now I know. He was crying. That woman that I was supposed to call Mother made him cry.

“Papa? What’s wrong? What was Mother shouting at you about…?”

He was quiet. He didn’t say anything for a good while. I don’t know why, but he was probably trying to recollect himself. He finally turned to look me in the eye.

“Sevaline...have you been doing fine in school? I’ve heard you’ve been having trouble with other students lately. My, Sevaline, you should know you can tell me all about these kinds of things! I’ll always be glad to listen if you want to talk about it. Now, why don’t you tell me about your day today, hm?”

And he smiled at me.

His smile wasn’t like her’s. It was warm, it was genuine. Even if he was trying to hide behind it, I could tell he wanted me to reciprocate it. He smiled so I’d smile back. It...It made me happy. So, so happy.

My mother, the princess Yelissa Oleander...she’s the bane of my existence. I despise her, and I think the feeling is mutual. She wouldn’t dare lay a hand on me, but she says...things. Awful things, things that make me run to my room in fear, things that keep me awake at night, and she does it so...so casually. I feel awful and despicable whenever I talk to her. Like I’m just waste, I’m trash, I’m meaningless, I’m a bother. I don’t want to talk to her, I never want to talk to her!

Papa, though, Papa’s so nice to me. That witch Yelissa is cruel to him, too, but he’s so much stronger than me. Even when she gets under his skin, he keeps going. And he cares about me. He actually cares about me. He...He was the only one. He was the only person I could trust to look at me and smile, and do it genuinely. To so many people I was just the daughter of the No Man’s King, the hellspawn of a family cursed by one damn king. But Papa just...saw me as his daughter. And he loved me, and he still loves me!

He was going through something big, something tough, something I couldn’t understand. But he was too worried about me being picked on to focus on that...Heh, he can be so silly sometimes…

----

EARTH YEAR: 2025

Even after a year, kids never really stopped picking on me. They got less frequent after Papa sent the first troops to Earth, but they were still there. Making fun of me. Making fun of Papa. It was pissing me off. I could deal with it before, but after a year of that crap, I took matters into my own hands! If they wanted to shout at me, fine, I’d scream right back at them! Served them right for being a bunch of little assholes, I’d say!

I was getting pissed off at the world really quickly. Adults said I was developing early anger management issues. I don’t think so, myself, I’d say I was just getting good at self-defense. You attack me, you get attacked yourself. That’s what I thought. They were all trash, anyway. Just jerks that wanted to be mean to Papa, all of them!

Well...almost all of them. There was...someone.

“What’s that on yer face?”

“Didya get beat up or somethin’?”

“Heeeeey, answer us!”

“What’s up with you? You’re so creepy!”

I was just sitting on my own at the edge of the campus fountain, watching what was happening. A crowd of kids swarmed around something I couldn’t see. I didn’t really like getting involved in that kind of BS, did nothing but pissed me off more. But I was getting curious from what they were saying.

“C’mon, stop being so weird!”

“Aw man, she’s crying!”

“What a creepy girl…”

Fine, I thought, I’d check it out. I stood up and went up to them, bouncing around on tip-toes until I saw what they were swarming around. And...ah.

There was a cute girl my age there. She had pastel pink hair, thin ears, shining blue eyes, a slick black dress. And she had some gauze wrapped around her head for some reason. She looked...really scared, like she was trapped and couldn’t escape. I could see her trying to hide her gauze behind her arms, and yeah, she was starting to sniffle and cry. Something just kinda…snapped in me, there. Because I was pissed off at the crowd of kids around her now!

“HEY! BACK OFF!”

I shuffled my way to the center of the small crowd, and I hid the girl behind me.

“DON’T BE JERKS, YOU JERKS! LEAVE HER ALONE! SHE’S NOT YOUR PROBLEM YOU MEANIEEEES!”

They thought I was some loon at first, I’m sure, but sure enough they started to walk away once they realized how adamant I was being. I turned to the girl that I was protecting, and I crossed my arms to look all tough. I was a cute kid like that.

“Humph! Maybe if you learned to protect yourself, girl, you wouldn’t need help!”

She was curled up at my feet, her head down and her shoulders twitching.

“.....U-Uh...a-anyway, if my work here is done, I’ll just…”

I turned away to leave the weird girl, but she was grabbing my dress now. I was about to say something to her to put her in her place, but she surprised me.

“T-Thank you, Miss....I-I don’t think...I’d...hhnmmgh…” She started to pull me in closer, and I thought she was trying to wipe her eyes with my dress or something. Now I was starting to get creeped out by this chick, too, so I tried to pull away and leave.

“P-PLEASE NO! DON’T LEAVE ME!”

The girl pulled tighter on my dress, yanking me backwards (and nearly goddamn knocking me down…) and hugging me from behind. She was starting to really cry and babble and I didn’t really have a lot of options. I, uh, never knew how to deal with that kinda thing. So I let her sit with me at the edge of the fountain and tried to figure out her deal.

“S-Sorry,” she started with. “I didn’t mean to b-be so...forward...or anything, I just...uh…y-you seemed so nice and I’m just...scared, and...um...”

“Forget about it,” I told her. “Just don’t do it again, kay?”

She nodded. “Kay…”

“Who are you? I don’t recognize you.”

“Um...I’m Prim. Prim Zebanon.” There was something familiar about that name at the time.

“I’m Sevaline…” I decided not to give my last name, for now. “Why were those kids ganging up on you?”

“I-I just came to this school, s-so they probably just wanted to talk to me but...I-I guess I’m too...creepy…”

“I don’t think you’re that creepy.” She was weird, and kinda freakishly shy, but she didn’t exactly creep me out. Other kids must’ve just been a bunch of wusses, if you ask me, can’t deal with a cute shy girl. “Why do you have bandages on your head, Prim?”

She blushed, and she stared at her hands, twiddling her thumbs. “Oh, this? It’s...it’s nothing, really, I just...tripped, and fell.”

I started snickering. She looked offended.

“What kinda clutz are you?” I asked. “You gotta watch your step!”

“H-Hey, that’s no fair! I try my best, I just...uh...don’t have great depth...perception…”

“You talk smart.”

“She pouted. “You talk blunt.” But she nodded and kept going. “Father says I gotta be smarter than anyone else for the sake of the Zebanon name, so he taught me himself until now. But he’s...um...he’s super busy now, so…”

“What’s your dad do…?”

“He’s a super smart scientist,” she told me. “He makes machines and does...experiments...and stuff. He works for the prince.”

My eyes lit up. This weird girl with the pink hair was connected to Papa…? “W-What do you...er, what does he think about the prince?”

She looked up at the sky and thought about it. “I...don’t know what Father thinks about him,to be honest. But I think...he seems really nice…”

----

EARTH YEAR: 2028

“WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU SAYING?!”

I backed that little punk into a wall, and I got ready to pound his face into the metal behind him.

“I-I’m sorry!” he tried to shout back. “Look, I take it back, I don’t-”

“You called Papa a coward...you called him a bad man…!” I was only ten years old, but I was strong enough to take out some middle school punk easily. He was practically wetting himself. “Take it back all you want...but I won’t forget it! Now TAKE THI-!”

“Sevy, STOP!”

There was a tug at my arm when I pulled it back to deck the bastard. I looked back and saw Prim there, hugging my arm to her chest behind me, as that snot-nosed brat I was ganging up on ran off. I got all flustered for a moment, but I crossed my arms and looked at her all upset.

“Why’d you stop me, Prim? That guy totally deserved it…”

“Beating people up isn’t right!” she told me. She could be kind of a nag sometimes. “Y-You don’t want to cause a big r-ruckus or worse, right…?”

I sighed. “Yeah, guess so...still wish I got real payback on that dope.”

Prim sighed, but then she smiled at me. I couldn’t help but smile back.

Since that day I met her, Prim’s been my best friend. At first, I kinda stuck around her for...honestly pretty selfish reasons. She was pretty much the only kid that didn’t have some crap to say about Papa that I had ever talked to. And she was a lot weaker and wimpier than me, so she made me feel stronger being around her. If people picked on her, I’d be the white knight coming in and protecting her like some tiny badass. I pretty much just stuck around her to make myself feel good, feel cool.

But over time, she opened up to me a bit, she started getting more comfortable with me, and I started...feelin’ bad about it. I kinda figured she’d have abandoned me by then, to be honest, I’d definitely deserve it. But she stuck with me, and...well, I felt I had to try harder. And...er...w-well, I was still a kid, I didn’t really know how to feel about stuff. But she made me feel happy when she was around, even if she was nagging me about stuff and stopping me from getting into fights, or calling me over just because she was too shy to do something, or the like. And she was always super nice to me. And she was really cute and...guh, I’m rambling now.

By that time, we were officially fighting the Earthlings. I was...kinda neutral at first, honestly. Papa never seemed to want to fight them, but everyone was always telling him to. I thought maybe that attacking them might be a good thing, because even though Papa would be upset about it, people would stop insulting him and he might start to cheer up.

But no...I was just being stupid.

Of course they didn’t stop picking on him. They were wondering why we didn’t just attack all at once, why we didn’t just obliterate the planet when we had the power to. Why we were still bothering with recon and minor troops and not sending any of the Generals. What would it take to satisfy them?! Does Papa need to drop the moon on them before he gets a break?! They asked for war, and we gave it to them! Isn’t that enough?!

“Why do you care so much about your father, Sevy…?”

Prim surprised me when she asked me that one day. I never really thought about it much, honestly. “Eh? W-Why?”

“You always talk about him,” she said. “I know you don’t like people saying bad stuff about him...but why?”

“Um...well, he’s super nice to me...and he works really really hard...and people don’t see that! I don’t get it!” I crossed my arms and pouted. “They always call him a bad man, and things that Papa doesn’t want me to say...and I don’t get it all. If they just talked to him, they’d know how nice he was, right?” I looked her in the eyes. “You’ve met Papa! Isn’t he way nicer than those jerks think he is?!”

She nodded nervously. “Y-Yes! W-w-way nicer!” Guess I may have been intimidating her a bit there, in hindsight. Whoops.

“I don’t like people talking about stuff when they don’t even know my Papa. He’s super nice and super smart. Way nicer than…” I stopped. “...What about your parents, Prim? You don’t talk about them much.”

She seemed kinda cold about that. “Father is...he’s okay, I guess. I never met my mother.” She was fiddling with some gauze around her wrist talking about it.

“What’s that…? Did you trip again today…? That’s the third time this month...Are you okay?”

“Y-Yes!” She got defensive. “It’s okay, don’t worry. I’m fine. Just need to watch where I’m going, is all.”

I...never really figured out what was up with her there. She would come to school with bandages in places. Sometimes it was just a patch, but sometimes it was full gauze that would go up her entire arm. She once had an eyepatch. Another time, she had to start taking breaths from a mask she carried around. It was...weird. I considered some...things, that I don’t want to think about, but some of her cases were too bizarre for anything that could be excused as “tripping”. And she was almost always better the next day. It freaked me out sometimes, honestly, but she always avoided the subject so I figured she didn’t wanna talk about it.

I just kinda stared at the ground after that, not sure where to go after that. “Hey...you wanna come over…?”

“Eh? Over…?”

“To my house.”

She got really flustered and all blushy after that. “W-W-What?! You mean go to the palace? W-Without Father, j-j-just for fun?! I don’t know, a-am I allowed to do that…?!”

“Pffft, it’s nothin’, I’m the princess so they have to deal with it!” I pounded my fist to my chest all confident-like. “They can’t touch me, so it’s all ‘kay!”

We went to the palace after school was done. We had to be escorted past some protestors by that big lug Gohra, but it didn’t take too long to come inside. Prim treated everything ‘round her like it was made of glass as we moved through the front hall and that breathing on anything would break the whole building.

“W-Why did you wanna have me over, again…?”

“Iunno,” I told her. “You looked kinda sad today. I thought you might wanna stay out for a bit.”

“O-Oh...uh...thanks…” She brushed some hair out of her face, and she looked to me. “Uh...what do you wanna do…?”

“Weeeeell, I have some games we could play if you wanna-”

I froze. SHE was here.

“Oh, what’s this now?”

I grabbed Prim and held her behind me, to keep her away from the witch.

“Hmhmhm, you have a little friend, do you?” That she-witch Yelissa looked down on us. “Why didn’t you tell me? I could have prepared.”

“Go away,” I told her. “I wanna play with her.”

“Now that’s rude of you, dear. You should really respect your mother more, you know. I brought you into this world, you know?” She put her filthy claw on my shoulder. I couldn’t move and I could barely breathe. “Oh Sevaline...you still disappoint me.”

She looked at Prim. “And who are you, hm?”

“P...P-P-P….Prim…”

“Ah, I see, then you’re Dexis’s child. I’m amazed Sevaline has a friend...though I guess someone as emotionally stilted as that man might spawn someone less socially aware.”

Prim clutched my hand. I clutched back.

“Are you sure you really want to run around the palace now, though? Why, your father is already so stressed, Sevaline, dear...Between running from war and dealing with...I mean, raising you...Why, it’d be a shame if you only made him more miserable today, wouldn’t it?”

She was lying, she was messing with me, she was getting under my skin. But...but it wasn’t true, right? No! Papa loved me...but it could have been true, he was stressed out a lot...I didn’t know what to think, what was I supposed to do, what did I…?

“You don’t want to be a bigger burden, do you…?”

I...don’t want to be...a burden…

“That’s quite enough,” a voice rang out.

From down the hall he came. Papa. He looked stern at first, but his face softened, and he gave that hag a faux smile. “Yelissa, I’m fine, I’m glad to see that Sevaline’s close enough with someone to bring her over. It’s no burden. Honestly, it relieves me a bit. Though I’m thankful of you to be concerned about me.”

The woman pouted. But she was back to that fake smile again soon enough. “Oh, it’s no problem, sweetie. Just make sure you remember what you should be doing, hm?” She walked away with that. Witch just wanted the last words. It wasn’t until then I realized Prim was wincing at how tight my grip got on her hand, so I let her go.

“Papa!” I hugged his leg. “Thank you thank you…”

“Heh, it’s fine, Sevaline.” He rubbed my hair with his hand. “Just don’t worry about it right now, okay?” He looked over to Prim. “You’re Prim, right? Prim Zebanon? I believe we’ve only met once or twice during work with your father...I’m glad to see you’ve been a good friend with Sevaline.”

Flustered, Prim just nodded. “U-Um, yes! It’s a pleasure to see you, Majest...er, Mr. Oleander! I-I really like hanging out with Sevaline so I’m sorry for being here so suddenly!”

Papa chuckled. “It’s fine, really. Would you kids like anything to eat, or to drink? I have time I could spare for now.”

And so Papa sat us down in the dining hall to a private meal. Papa...well, he’s not a great cook for most things, since we usually have chefs for that sorta thing. But that lug Gohra knew some cooking or whatever so Papa got his help to learn some baking. So he learned how to make cake. Turned out he made some for later that night, but he let us have some slices and made us some tea. I asked him to sit with us in case the woman came back, and he agreed. It was probably keeping him from work, thinking back. Dammit, I probably made things harder doing that...but at least he looked happy for a bit.

“Do you enjoy it?” he asked.

“O-Oh, uh, yes! Thank you!”

“Yesh!”

He pouted. “Sevaline, you have to swallow before you talk, it’s rude.”

“Sowwy!”

“Sevaline…!” He took his napkin and wiped my mouth with it after I swallowed. “There. Now, if you two don’t mind my curiosity, how did you two come to meet? Sevaline hasn’t told me much about her time at school recently.”

“She...she helped me out a couple years ago when some kids were picking on me... I was super scared, and she was there to help me...when I didn’t even know her…” She started to sniffle for some reason! “I-It really meant so much to me…!”

“H-Hey! Please don’t cry!” I sat up and slammed my hands on the table. “Did I do something wrong?! Don’t cry, I don’t…!”

Papa chuckled. “I see! My little girl’s a hero, hm? A little white knight come to save the damsel in distress...how forward! I honestly didn’t think you’d be that kind of person, Sevaline.”

I blushed. “P-Papa, that’s embarrassing…” He just put his hand on my head again and rustled my hair. It calmed me down a bit.

“Well regardless, I’m very proud of you.” He smiled at me, then at Prim. “And thank you for sticking by her for so long. I know she can be a bit of a handful at times, but it means the world to me that she has a friend her age.”

“P-Papa!”

I was getting embarrassed at the whole thing, but Prim just chuckled. She seemed happy about it, so I guessed I could let it slide. Besides, Papa was going out of his way to smile for us and keep us company in spite of everything he was dealing with.

“Ah, Prim, did you hurt yourself? You seem to be bandaged around-”

“I-I’m fine! Don’t worry about it.” Prim twiddled her thumbs like she was prone to. “But, um...I-If we’re pointing things out…”

“Hm?”

“Y-You have a..um...a bit sticking out, Mr. Oleander, sir...up on your, uh…” She pointed to her hair.

Papa felt his hair, slicked back into a ponytail, and realized that there was a big cowlick sticking out. He blushed in embarrassment himself this time, and he rushed to get it sticking back down. I laughed, and Prim was trying not to.

“Hahaha, Papa! I told you that hair was silly! You can never keep it down like that!”

“I work so hard to get it like nice and slick this, and this always happens...It’s always been like this since I was a kid…” He held it down and smiled to try and cover his not looking cool. “Haha, maybe I really should think about a change in style…”

“You could get a mohawk, Papa!”

“W-Woah now, let’s not get carried away…!” He sighed. At first I thought he was just bummed about his hair, but he seemed more tired than usual. I stared at him for a bit.

“Papa…? You look sad again.”

“O-Oh? Sorry, I guess it’s just been another one of those long days…”

I put my fingers to the corners of my mouth and pulled them up into a smile. “C’mon, smile again!”

He laughed, and it made me happy.

Papa stayed with us for a bit, until we finished eating our cake. He was determined to get Prim comfortable, since she was still really shy, and by the end of the meal even she was chuckling. Finally, he got up to leave.

“Alright, I’ll be heading out for now, I have some work to get to,” Papa told us, “Have fun, you two!”

He got up, went to the door, and...I could swear I could see in the doorway, as he left, that accursed woman. Her arms folded, her smile plastered on her face. I bet he quit smiling the moment he left the room. She was waiting there for him, ready to toss him into misery again. I was too young to do anything about it at the time. But like some sick vampire, I’m sure she absorbed any last bit of joy out of him.

I went off to play with Prim, but I couldn’t escape the feeling that things were only getting worse behind the scenes.

----

EARTH YEAR: 2031

“Well, it’s not like YOU’D understand anything about that, priiinceeess~”

They laughed at me. I hated them. I hated them so much.

“Why does she even come to school still?”

“I bet her trash father is bribing the school or something to let her in.”

“I know, right? Isn’t she, like, dangerous?”

“I heard she beat a kid up last year.”

“I heard she beat a kid up last week!”

“That right, you little psycho? You’re such a weird little freak.”

“It’s genetics!”

“Apple doesn’t fall far from the tree!”

“Why don’t you just make like your grandpa and go die in space already?”

“Sevy…?”

I shot back to reality, cuz I heard Prim. She was looking at me with worried eyes. Dammit, I was scaring her. She must’ve been concerned for me. Or...was she scared of me, too? Did she hate me like them? Did she-?

“Sevy, you’ve gotta snap out of it!” she said. “Don’t pay attention to those bullies! They just pick on you to make themselves feel like they’re worth something! But they’re not, so don’t think about them!”

I chuckled at that one. “Yeesh, Prim, you’re surprisingly harsh today…”

“Well, I’m upset at them, too!” She was pouting and crossing her arms. She was pretty angry, but she’s not really intimidating, so she looked more like an upset puppy. “That rude girl and her groupies were making you feel bad! They’re just a bunch of jerks! Don’t let them bother you!”

“You sound pretty bothered yourself, ya know.”

“Well then let me be bothered for you!”

We were both...like, thirteen at that time? We were in middle school at that point. Starting to go through puberty and all that crap. That weird awkward time when everyone starts getting the hots for each other and everything’s a hell of a lot meaner.

I thought by now people would shut up about Papa. They’d leave him alone because he started sending troops to Earth. I thought they’d shut up about all this by now, they’d let me just go about my business in peace.

Of course not.

Those bastards just got more resilient. When it was clear to them Papa was still trying to hold back on those Earthlings, the taunting just got crueler. I had finally started seeing news broadcasts at that age, and it felt like they had something to say about Papa every single day on every single station. Some defended him, sometimes. But it was all just so much hate, hate, hate, hate! And those brats only got meaner and more plentiful as they started thinking they were old enough to “get” politics. Those jerks that were insulting me earlier that day were just the most recent example recurring hell. So they just kept hounding me more and more, and pissing me off more and more, and pushing me too far more, and more, and more!

I was starting to wonder if it was really worth it. Going easy on those Earthlings. Papa told me that he wanted to be safe, that he didn’t want to obliterate a species that was never openly hostile because of unanswered questions. But was it really that worth it…? It seemed so much easier to just wipe them all out, and end all the hatred in one swoop. But he insisted on taking the slow approach. I didn’t want to go against him, he had enough to deal with already, but...was it really all…?

“Sevy!”

I snapped back again. “S-Sorry. Head’s up in the air today, I guess.” Prim was staring at me, intensely. I think I was blushing a bit. In embarrassment. “W-What’s up…?”

She hugged me.

“Sevy...I miss your smile.”

“Eh…?”

“I know you’re scared for your father...and I know you’re dealing with a lot right now. But...do you mind if I ask something kind of selfish of you?”

“W-What?”

“Can you smile again? I feel like I barely get to see you really happy any more.”

Prim was so weird sometimes. She always seemed so concerned for me for some reason. Well, I can’t say it wasn’t a nice feeling. Most people who talked to me were either assholes or staff at the palace. She was the only one that actually kept checking up on me. She seemed determined to make me feel good about myself. I don’t know how well it worked, honestly...but it was nice to have.

I smiled. “No problem.”

----

EARTH YEAR: 2032

I couldn’t take it anymore.

Every day. Sickening words about me, and Papa. Some of the biggest bastards even started picking on Prim, and she didn’t even tell me. I couldn’t take it anymore. I felt lost in it all, overwhelmed.

“I’m so sick of seeing your face all the time! It’s your dumbass family that’s tearing this kingdom apart!”

I couldn’t help myself this time. Usually, Prim could keep me back, but she couldn’t get her grip on me.

“My family’s all pissed off at each other because of your goddamn trash father! He should just blow up that stupid planet already or just die and make it easy on us!”

I wanted to stop her from talking. I wanted her to just shut up.

“Just the sight of you pisses me off!”

Shut up. Shut up. Shut up.

“Go away!”

Shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up.

“Wait...w-what are you…?

SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP.

“Sevaline, please, STOP!”

It wasn’t until Prim was holding back my arms that I realized what I was doing. That girl shouting at me was on the ground beneath me. I was sitting on her chest, looming over her. Her nose was bloody and battered. She was bruised. She was crying and begging me to stop. Stop what…? Oh...My hands were sore. There was...blood dripping from them. I started to feel a bit sick, realizing what happened.

I was never fond of blood. I didn’t like to see it. It made me nauseous. It was so dark, so fluid, so...frightening. It made me...think too much about things. It scared me in ways I’ve never liked to admit. And here I was, practically covered in the stuff. I didn’t even recall the moment I started beating her. It just...happened.

I got off of the girl and backed away. I held my hands away from me, disgusted by them. “I-I...I don’t…” I stared at Prim for a moment. She looked scared. She was scared of me. I screwed up, I screwed up. I ran off. I didn’t apologize. I couldn’t apologize. I didn’t even know if I wanted to apologize. Everything was messed up, I didn’t know what else I could do.

Papa was going to be so upset.

----

EARTH YEAR: 2033

The Leviathan itself had been orbiting around Earth for a few years, but it was mostly run by a temporary crew that just took orders sent from the planet and looked over by a couple generals and scientists. The Armada Mothership wasn’t our main base until recently. Papa was pushed to go to Earth personally, so he and his generals and advisors moved in there for the duration of the war. Since I’m royalty, I got dragged along, too, though I’d have liked to come regardless of choice. Homeschooling was more appealing than staying at...that place any longer.

Prim actually managed to come along with us, too. Her dad was Papa’s head advisor, so she managed to convince him to let her tag along somehow. So at least if I was going to spend time near that hell-hole of a planet, I’d have Papa and Prim by my side. She apparently knew the big thing front to back from when it was stationed on Kalcion at her dad’s lab, anyway, so I relied on her to avoid getting lost a lot.

Seeing it out there every day...that big blue ball of rock...it was starting to piss me off. Every time I saw it, I just knew there were people down there that hated Papa, too. And I knew somewhere that damned grandfather of mine was probably laughing his ass off, or was just a pile of bones somewhere. I didn’t know, I didn’t care.

I never saw him smile any more. I could tell he was trying to be in higher spirits, whenever Prim and I tried to cheer him up, but he could never muster it up. He was always so serious. It was scaring me. It’s still scaring me. I just wanted to see him happy again.

“Oh, poor, poor Sevaline...you’re still such a disappointment. Have you ever thought that you’re the one making him so miserable, dear? After all...you were kicked out of school. That sure didn’t reflect on him any better, hmmm?”

That damn mother of mine. She was trying to hurt me again. And it was working. She was right. It was all my fault. I’m the one that made Papa so miserable. He probably hated me. I’m so useless. All I do is make everyone around me feel bad. What’s even the point of being here...

“Sevaline, are you okay…? You look sick! Your eyes...have you been…?”

Prim was too nice to me. She didn’t deserve me...that thought made me sick to my stomach for some reason. She always looked after me but I was just a dumbass with anger management problems that got us shot into space. I was probably ruining her life, too.

“Is everything alright? Sevaline…?”

Papa didn’t smile anymore. It was all my fault. All my fault. All...my fault...all…



Dammit. Dammit, dammit, dammit! Damn all of it! I’m tired of this crap…! It’s chasing me everywhere I go, and I can’t do a thing...I’ve just made it worse. OH god, I’ve ruined everything, haven’t I? I feel like I’m going to vomit...Nhgrh...I feel sick, I’m going to crash…! Why can’t it just end? Why are we all stuck in this everlasting hell?! I’m miserable, Papa’s miserable, Prim...They all act so concerned for me, but nobody can smile. It’s all lost. I can’t breathe, the world is just spinning...why?! Why does this happen to me?! We were happy, weren’t we? It’s her fault, it’s my fault, it’s their fault, why do we suffer for it?! Every day, I can’t escape it, I can’t breathe, I’m going to puke, I’m going to cry, I’m going...I’m going to...Why? Why, why, why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why wyh wyh wyh wyh wyh wyh wyh wwh yw hwy whyw why wh wyh wwyh w…
“Hey, kiddo? You take a dip there?”

I woke up. I don’t know when I fell asleep. Not fell asleep, passed out. I had some kind of...thing, and must have passed out in the halls of the Leviathan at some point. I don’t even remember going around the Leviathan…

“Yeesh, you’re burning up, little lady. You look disoriented, too. Guess you went out on a fever stroll and hit your head hard crashing from exhaustion, hm?”

Somebody was there. I didn’t know them. I could see a silhouette of a man, and his voice was gruff. I wasn’t sure who he was, but I was too nauseous to really retort anything. He said some more stuff I forgot, then picked me up and carried me somewhere. I think I blacked out again in his arms.

When I came to again, I was in a bed in the infirmary. It looked like I was out for a while this time; most of the staff was resting, which just left me and...some old dude.

“Mornin’, Princess!” he said. “I hope this bed’s a bit more comfy than the floor?”

I sat up with a groan. “...It’s kinda hard. And too springy.”

He shrugged. “Eh, budget goes where it must, I guess.” I finally got a good look at him. He had slicked back blue hair and a short beard lining his jaw. He was wrinkled, but he was surprisingly young-looking. He was wearing a black blazer, and a crimson scarf...so he was probably a General. Wait, he was holding a brimmed cap at his side...Head General, then. He had black gauze over his right eye and a cut in one ear. Brim of his hat had a matching cut in it. I could only assume what went down for that to happen. I didn’t really recognize him, that’s for sure, but I knew the guy’s reputation. Aside from Papa, he was top dog in the military.

“Ah, where’s my manners? Name’s Django Lox,” he said. “I’ve been serving your dad since he was born. And I’m kind of the Head General around here, though who knows for how long. I’m well past retirement age, after all, but hey, this place has some good food so I figured I’d stick around a little longer.”

“It’s kinda creepy,” I told him, “to be watching a girl sleep.”

He grimaced. “Well you’re sunshine, ain’tcha? Relax. I was there for your birth. Heck, I was at your folks’ wedding. You can think of me like an uncle that’s been too busy training soldiers and losing eyes to come to your birthday.”

“That didn’t make it less creepy, to be honest.”

“You kids are too sassy for your own good, y’know?”

“Where’s Papa right now?”

“Hm?”

“The Prince.”

“Right, right.” He rolled his neck and stretched his limbs out while he spoke. “I’d imagine he and that Zebanon fellow are talking war plans right now. Your dad’s trying to shoot for another extension on the invasion, but Zebanon’ll probably push the other way. It’s only really a problem if your mother tags along for the ride, I imagine. Woman’s got the devil in her tongue and gold in her eyes. Er...sorry, don’t mean to offend.”

“She’s got more devil than you could ever know.”

“Oh?” He stopped stretching. “Touch a nerve…?”

“She’s just a sadist and a bully!” I shouted. “She’s just so...so...NGRAAAAH!” I grabbed my pillow and screamed into it. Felt good.

“I think it’s best I don’t pry on that anymore,” he said. I think I was making him nervous. Didn’t care, really. I really needed to let out a shout and I didn’t care what some geezer I hadn’t seen since I was a baby thought of me. But...he WAS the head of the military. I...figured I could ask him some things.

“....What do you think of Papa…?

“Who, me?” He scratched his beard. “Well, to be blunt, I think he’s a good man born in the wrong job. I don’t think that obliterating a species is the way to go about things, myself, but your father prefers to stall things out and hope tomorrow’s better rather than devising a real plan to stop things. I don’t know if war’s avoidable at this point, but I know that delaying a plan’s only going to blow up in our faces later.”

“Ah…” I was quiet for a bit. “...You think we should just attack Earth?”

“Good question,” he said. “I’m no Zebanon, but-”

“Call him something else?”

“Eh? Why?”

“Prim’s a Zebanon, too. And she’s awesome. You’re just confusing me and it annoys me.”

“Heheh, alright, fine. I’m not the Ol’ Doc, and I’m certainly not...she-who-shall-not-be-named, but I think it might be healthier to attack at this point. Or at least to really make serious preparations for it. It’s been almost 40 years since the King vanished...I don’t think that’s a point the people can tolerate. Every milestone has been worse than the last. I’m scared that if the man doesn’t act…”

He looked at me with that one eye. My heart, it started racing. Something in his glance just...horrified me.

“...Well, that’s for the future, I suppose. Let’s not dwell on it now.”

I sat there in the infirmary. I hugged my knees to my body. Django kept nearby. I was scared again. What would happen? What was going to happen to Papa if he didn’t invade? I had heard of coups and rebellions, but would...would they really do that? Would they actually try to hurt Papa because he didn’t want to invade? That...that wasn’t right. That wasn’t fair. Was...was this my fault, too…?

….No. It was theirs.

I looked outside the window. I saw it there. That blue ball. That damn Earth. It...it was their fault. It had to be. They roped us into this contract with death when they took that stupid, stupid, stupid King of ours. It was them that cursed us. Them that cast us to this terrible, exhausting life. In that moment, I wanted that entire planet gone. I know Papa wanted to spare it, but...but it couldn’t be worth it. It just couldn’t be. We took from their culture, they looked like us, but they weren’t us. Their disappearance wouldn’t affect us. If they were gone...if they never existed...we could have been happy. Papa wouldn’t have had to deal with such mean people, I could make friends like normal. We’d...we’d all be smiling right now.

It was THEIR FAULT.

“Girly, easy on the pillow!”

I looked down. There was a tear in the pillow. I didn’t realize I was still holding it, even.

“Listen,” Django said, “I think you need to lie down and relax for a while. I understand all of this isn’t easy. I understand that’s it’s probably stressing you out, scaring the hell out of you. But you’re not going to help anyone just abusing pillows and passing out.” He grabbed the pillow from me and replaced it with one from another bed.

“But...but…” I couldn’t really think straight still. “How...CAN I help, then…?”

“Well,” he started, “just being emotional support for your father is more than enou-”

“NO IT’S NOT!”

He went quiet.

“No...it’s not…” I could feel them coming, dammit. Tears. They were crawling down my face. I’d rather be bleeding than goddamn crying at a time like this. “It’s not! I’ve...I’ve tried so much, I’ve tried to just be here and support him...by telling him how much he means to me, and, and, and telling him to smile, and saying I love him, but...b-but it’s POINTLESS! Nothing’s changing! No, it is, it’s changing, but it’s just changing for the worse! He’s so miserable and I’m just here being a BOTHER! I’m USELESS! USELESS, USELESS, USELESS, U-USE...L...LEEEAAAAAAUGH!”

I don’t remember much about this part. I just remember bawling. Bawling like a child. That’s all I was, a big stupid child that couldn’t do a goddamn thing right. I was a bad student, a bad friend, a bad daughter, a bad princess. I couldn’t do anything right. Not a thing.

Only other thing I remember is Lox trying to comfort me. I think I pushed him away when he offered to hug me at some point, but I definitely was bawling into his chest at one time or another. He must’ve thought I was a stupid child, too. He was trying to be nice but all I could think about was how weak I looked to him.

Weak.

I’m just weak.

I’m useless if I’m weak.

So...I should be strong.

----

“You...what?”

“I said I want you to train me. I want to join the Armada. Come on, you’re old, not senile.”

It was the day after. It was pretty clear I spent the night with more tears than sleep; my eyes were puffy and dark. But as exhausted as I was, I was serious. I’m still serious.

“I’m not going to just sit idly by while everything in my life goes to Hell. Those humans...they took my happiness away. They took Papa’s happiness away! So...if I beat them, we can have a happy life, right?”

He looked concerned for some reason. “Little lady, I don’t think-”

“Don’t give me any crap!” I didn’t want to hear objections. “Just tell me what I have to do to get into this stupid army!”

“Kid, are you taking me for some kind of joke?” He actually looked kinda pissed for once. “This isn’t some game, you can’t just decide overnight to jump into the fray of war like that. This is serious. It’s looking more and more likely that we’re going to have to go to Earth in the next couple years and we’ll have to fight. Do you really, honestly, want to put yourself through that?”

“Yes!” I didn’t hesitate, I knew what I wanted. “I know I might die and I don’t care! I want in on the Armada! No...I don’t just want in.” I clenched my fist. I felt something bubbling within me, something both exciting and frightening. “I want to be in charge of the whole thing. You’re going to retire, old man, and I’m going to be the one replace you. And before you ask, yeah, I’m serious. I am more serious about this than I’ve ever been about ANYTHING!”

“Y-Your eyes…” I don’t know what he was blabbing about my eyes for, but I could see intimidation in his. That was good, I think. He collected himself, though. “A-Alright...but, I gotta ask you some more questions before I even consider your offer. One...does your dad know about this?”

“Not yet.”

“Why do you want to do this?”

“Because I’m sick of sitting around like a useless weakling.” I looked to the ground. I couldn’t bare his eye contact. “And I don’t just want to be stronger. I want to be the strongest. I want to be someone Papa can trust more than anybody else. More than Prim’s dad, more than you, more than HER. I won’t just be strong, I won’t just be helpful. I’ll be the strongest...I’ll be the most helpful...I’ll SPLIT THAT PLANET IN TWO ON MY OWN IF I GOTTA!”

“...Do you really think that’d make your father happy? Knowing you’re at risk? I’ve known him longer than you have, I know he’d be scared for your safety.”

I couldn’t think of an answer for a bit. I got something eventually. “I...don’t know if it’d help. But whatever...THIS is, whatever I’m doing now, isn’t helping. Not at all. He’s still sad. So...I need to try something else. And that something else, right now, involves doing whatever I need to to speed this up Politics is out, I don’t know crap about that, and I’m no scientist. So I just need to be strong and be a leader. I think I can do that much. If I just need to beat people down until there’s nothing in our way...fine. I’ll do it.” I brushed aside some hair. “Papa’d be scared for me, yeah. I can’t go to school without worrying him. But he’ll have to deal with it for now so he can be happier later. And...honestly, having him fuss over me again sounds kinda nice. He’s so distracted right now...I miss that feeling.”

“Don’t mind being a little selfish, hm…?”

“Don’t lecture me, old man.”

“Alright...well, answer me this, then. Why do you care so much?”

“Huh?”

“Why care so much about your father?” He leaned against the wall. He was pissing me off now. “Yeah, he’s your dad, and yeah, you two seem close, but this...this is a little ridiculous, don’t you think? What is it about his happiness that makes you so willing to risk your life and then some just to make him smile more?”

“Because...because….” My brain was going hazy again. I started rambling without thinking much. “The world isn’t fair to good people. That woman, she’s so mean, she’s mean to me and she’s mean to Papa...but she’s only around because the public likes her, and...and Papa has to suffer for them. It’s not fair. Nothing’s fair. They all call him useless like she does and they say cruel, awful things...and...and…”

“Say no more,” he stopped me. “I get it, I think. One last question, then.”

I nodded.

“Are you willing to become somebody that you might hate to be?”

“...H-Huh?”

“Being the Head General is more than just being strong and giving orders,” he explained. “You’re a figurehead. The strength of the military itself is on your shoulders. You have to prove yourself someone worthy of the position or you’ll just embarrass the entire Armada.”

“R-Really? Then...you…?”

“I’ve been doing this for a loooong time, girl. I’ve grown numb to the whole schtick. I’ve got some legendary status as a mysterious warrior that can wield any weapon, who can cut so fast with his katana you’ll never see it leave the sheathe. But honestly, I’d love to just be a guy lazing around all day not doing crap. I trained with every weapon because I didn’t have anything else to do. When that got me promoted, I had to start taking things more seriously and come across as an actual threat to our enemies. And that’s as someone who’s been doing this a hell of a lot longer than you, and from someone much easier to take seriously in combat.”

“The hell does that mean?!”

“You’re a tween princess without an ounce of combat experience past pounding a girl’s face in on school grounds. You may have the glare down, and you’re not the scrawniest thing, but you’re small and look like a freaking pixie.”

“I’ll beat your skull in for tha-”

“And you’ve got major anger management issues.”

“Fine! Then what the hell am I supposed to do, eh?!”

“Look, it’s...hm. Well, maybe I shouldn’t say this, but...eh, whatever.” He leaned in close and spoke quietly. “Thing is, what’s most important is giving a show.”

“What the hell does that mean…?”

“It means what it means.” He was pissing me off again. “Being strong is important, yes, and you need to be able to win in battle. But fact of the matter is, this is hardly a war at this point. It’s a publicity stunt. We don’t need to really win this war at this point...we just need to show off our strength and get some popularity for your old man. That’s why guys like that hardass Gilgamesh or Degenick have been in charge of the Leviathan until recently. Guys like them are utterly deplorable in my book, but their enormous egos make them showboaters. They get attention, and they’re damn convincing at what they do.”

“I don’t get it...what the hell are you saying?”

“If you wanna be Head General, or even a general at all, you don’t just have to be willing to go through hellish training to reach the level of strength you need.” He stared down at me. His one eye pierced my two. I felt my heart stop. “You need to be bloodthirsty. You need to be someone that can be taken seriously, not someone crying into a pillow about how unfair the world is. Enemies need to fear you. Allies need to feel intimidated by your very presence. Your arrival should mean hell will break loose on the battlefield. This is stuff you don’t just adapt to overnight. It’s stuff that requires mental training and mental torment. You should fear yourself by the time you’re ready for the battlefield. You have to become a living legend, someone whose reputation is greater than yourself. You getting the point yet, missy? If this is really what you want, if you want me to train you as my replacement, your life will be awful. You’ll have to completely rewrite yourself to fit the bill. You’ll throw your morals to the floor and do anything to win, and you’ll train every. Single. Day. If you want to even have a slight chance of approaching that level. So let me reiterate...”

He leaned in towards me. My heartrate was surging. The blood was rushing to my head. I felt faint, I felt scared, I didn’t know what was going to happen to me, I was starting to have regrets. And then he spoke.

“...Are you really, truly serious about this ambition of yours?”

I closed my eyes. I bit my lip. My sharp teeth punctured my lip I bit so hard...I tasted my own blood. I felt nauseous again. I felt like puking again. But...I’d have to grow accustomed to the sight of blood, the smell of blood, the...sensation of drawing blood if I were Head General. I wasn’t ready for all this. I was a stupid kid, I couldn’t torment myself into some sick public image like that. It was a terrible idea.

“...Yes. I’m entirely serious.”

But...my mind was made up. I wasn’t going to back out of this now.

----

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!”

“You gonna cry, you worm?! Bahahahaha! I thought you’d be made of stronger stuff than this, maggot! GET UP!”

“That’s enough, Gilgamesh. She’s got the point by now.”

It hurt. Everything hurt so much. I was on the floor, my arms were bleeding from a dozen cuts, my stomach felt like it had been turned inside out. I was coughing out drool and blood. It hurt, it hurt, it hurt.

Lox looked down at me. “It ain’t easy being in the military. General Gilgamesh is one of the strongest soldiers in the army, and even he’s not even in the top five. If you expect to be in a position like Head General, you can’t be this broken to someone like him. You gotta be stronger than that.”

“Tch, not in the top five? Get real.” That lug Ralder was rambling in the corner. “This little girl should stick to going on little playdates with her girlfriend. Princess or not, she’s nowhere near my level!” He flipped a knife in the air and caught it, like it made him cool or something. “Besides, once the doc’s finished my armor, I’ll be invincible, and I’LL be the head of the pack. I’ve been waiting to kill the Earthlings lot longer than she has, and I’ll be damned if she pulls ahead of me now! Ahahahaha!”

He pissed me off. My annoyance with him was starting to overtake my pain. He hurt me and he mocked me. I don’t give much of a damn about pride, but I had to now. Letting myself be beaten and insulted like that...I couldn’t do that, not for Papa.

“You see now?” Lox went on. “You’re not ready for such intense training in such short time. And it only gets worse from here. You’d have to work out to build muscle mass, practice with a weapon, survive drills and real battle situations, learn tolerance towards laser fire, and more. You’re asking me to put you through torment like this and worse, stuff I spent a good chunk of my life training for to be in the position I’m in now, for a war that could come as early as a couple years from now. You’re spunky, kid, I’ll give you that. But it leaves a bad taste in my mouth ruining your life like that. I’d just let it go if I were you.”

No, no I couldn’t let it go, this was my only chance!

That boasting idiot had his back turned. I wouldn’t let him win. I had to be the one, I had to be the winner.

I stumbled to my feet and rushed past Lox. I jumped at Ralder. I don’t remember what happened for a bit, but I remember a lot of struggling and shouting and swearing and clawing. Some from me, some from him. My mind flashed back to that day I beat that girl in school. The blind rage, the feeling of blood on my knuckles and the soreness that rushed over my body. But Prim wasn’t here to hold me back this time. I just...went at it.

By the time I came to, I could hear the old man shouting at me, and I was sitting on Ralder’s back. My wounds had opened more, but he was covered in scratches like claw marks, and i had somehow managed to force him down. It wasn’t the fairest victory...but I was on top. That...that counted as a win, right? I won?

“Get the hell off me!”

“Battle’s over, little miss, let’s get you to the infirmary and treat those knife wounds.”

I couldn’t just end it there, though. What was it he said? About being a showman? Alright...I could do that. I could do that and then some.

“Hauh...hauh...w-what’s it like…?”

“The hell are you-?!”

“WHAT’S IT LIKE TO BE BEATEN BY A LITTLE GIRL, ASSHOLE?!” I punched him in the back. “Where’s that invincible crap, eh?! Wanna say that all again while you’re tasting the ground you little worm?!” I shoved his head to the floor. My breathing was heavy and I felt faint but I had to drive it home. “Go on! Say it! SAY HOW YOU’RE GOING TO BEAT ME, YOU PIECE OF LIVING TRASH! DO IT!”

We were silent, except for our heavy breathing. I could feel myself getting dizzy. After that, I was scared I was going to collapse sitting on the guy. But the old man saved my butt; he lifted me off Ralder’s back and made the lug back off and not attack me again. My arms were on fire. The cuts weren’t deep, but they were tearing from the hassle and my blood was starting to drip down. But I couldn’t help but smile. I won. I won, I won, I won. I can’t believe I won. And I sounded so cool.

It didn’t feel good. It felt like hell. But it was satisfying hell. I wasn’t happy at all but I just couldn’t help myself from grinning, somehow.

----

“S-Sevaline…?”

There he was. Papa stared at me. I was lying down in the infirmary, my arms were all gauzed up and I looked miserable. I couldn’t move an inch, and a lot of that was from my poorly planned attack. I looked like hell. Not the best time to break the news.

“Sevaline, what happened?!” He sounded so scared. I don’t know why that made me happy. “Who hurt you?! How did this happen?! I...I can’t bear to-”

“It’s my fault.”

“What?”

“This is because of me,” I said. “I’m the reason for all this.”

“Sevaline...no, no that can’t be true, I couldn’t-”

“But it’s okay,” I went on. “I’m going to fix it. I’ll fix it myself.”

“What…? What are you…?”

I forced myself to sit up. Papa helped me up when he heard my breath stagger. I looked at his face. He looked so much older for some reason. And so tired. And so sad.

“I want to fix it myself,” I continued. “I wanna be Head General. So I can go there, to Earth. I want to end it myself. I want to fix everything...I’ll do whatever I can to fix it all.”

“What?!” His face distorted. He looked terrified. I felt a pit in my stomach. “No, no, no…! You...you can’t do that, Sevaline. I refuse! I don’t want you to-!”

“I’m sorry, Papa, but you’re not telling me I can’t. I’ll do it whether you want me to or not.”

“Why…?”

“Everything...everyone...it’s all so sad. We’re all just here, floating in space, all sad. I don’t want to be sad any more. I don’t want to be useless any more. I want to do something, I want to be happy again. I want....”

I stared at him. His frown...it was piercing into me. I couldn’t bare looking at it another moment.

I grabbed Papa’s cheeks and put my thumbs to the corners of his mouth, and I pulled it into a smile.

I just stared at him like that for a moment. He stared right back at me, confused. It wasn’t a real smile. It was just what I was giving him. But my heart was fluttering just seeing it, remembering the days before he was so sad. I smiled at him, too.

“I’ll take it back. I’ll take all that happiness back. I’ll do it with my own two hands. We’ll...we’ll all be happy again.”

I let go of his face. I could tell he wanted to say more to me, but I was too tired right now. He probably wanted to tell me how sad he’d be if I got hurt, or if I died. But I didn’t want to think about that stuff. I’d just have to train harder and harder and harder to keep that from happening. I’d convince him eventually.

It’d be hard. I knew that. I’d have to learn to fight. I knew ballet, so maybe that’d help? Maybe not with a weapon. Ah, right, I’d have to learn how to use one of those, too. And I’d have to grow a better tolerance for pain. And for blood. I’d have to get used to bleeding, and to making other people bleed. That was gross to me, but I could probably manage. I had to get stronger physically and mentally. And...I’d have to put on a show. I’d have to LOOK strong. I would...I would insult them, always act better than them. They were weak, I was strong. Those humans that made us so miserable, I’d defeat them. No, I’d...I’d kill them. I’d kill them. I’d kill them. It sound so strange to say. But I have to say it or I’d just look weak again. I’d kill the humans, for my Papa. For the...Kalcion Kingdom. I’d kill them all myself. And I’d brag doing it. Yeah. I’d...I’d make the humans bleed, I’d kill them, I’d show them how strong I am. And...I’d smile. I’d smile doing it all. I’d have to...be happy, killing them and making them bleed. I’d have to be happy. I have to smile through the pain, smile through the sadness, smile through it all. I’d smile so Papa and I could smile for real again.

I fell asleep then. I fell asleep smiling. But, I think I might’ve been crying, too.
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Hersh/Fiendy has credit for the amazing GiGi pics and enigma has credit for the adorable Kenshin Mega Man sprite!

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gotMLK7
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Re: Forum games and roleplays discussion thread

Post by gotMLK7 »

At less than half the length of the prior chapter (apologies for the 11,000 word nightmare lol), here's a chapter on GiGi! Chronicling the beginning of her sentience and her life.
Spoiler : VII. NAME - Tale of GiGi :
YEAR: 2030

I’m useless.

I’m a detriment.

They’re better off without me.

I’m dragging them all down.

I’m so sick of it.

I can protect them if I try.

I have to try harder.

I’ll be their shield.

I woke up.

The first thing I could see was...light. It was bright for an instant, blinding even, but once my eyes adjusted, it was actually pretty dim. I could hear whirring noises around me. And...I could feel a cold surface against my back. My back...I was naked. I don’t think I had anything to really cover up, but it was a strange sensation. I glanced down, and I rose a hand to see if I had one. Yeah...it was gray, and it was covered in lines like seams, but it was there. I closed my fingers, and I opened them, just to make sure they were mine. I was pretty sure they were.

“Unit Six One Six One.”

I heard a voice. It was old, and a little gruff. I didn’t know if it was referring to me, but I looked to the source anyway. There was a man standing there. He was short, and wearing white. He had something over his eyes so I couldn’t tell what he was thinking or looking at.

“Do you...know who I am?”

I stared at him for a bit, but I realized I had a mouth. Could I use it?

“.....o.”

“Speak up.”

“No.”

He went quiet and looked at the floor. Did I say something wrong? He looked disappointed. But he looked at me again, I think.

“Stand up.”

For a moment, that sounded harder than it should have. I wasn’t sure if my body was that responsive, and I felt stiff. But once I pushed myself up from where I was lying, which seemed to be a table, I was able to get on my feet pretty easily. I was a bit dizzy, but I was a little glad my body was so receptive.

“Walk forward.”

I took some steps forward. Okay, I was dizzier than I thought, and I almost tripped. I think the man groaned at me. I felt embarrassed. I guess that was a first time? It felt new to me. I don’t think there was anything before waking up I could recall, so all of this felt very new to me.

“Jump.”

I jumped.

“Any higher?”

I jumped again.

“That was lower than the first time.”

I felt sad. That seemed like a first, too. These emotions felt so...natural, yet I had no recollection of ever having them.

“Fine, whatever. Raise your right arm.”

I did.

“Left arm.”

I did that, too.

“Both arms.”

I was starting to feel silly, but I did that as well.

“Alright, I’ll check some of your functions now.”

The man did a few things, like open my eyelid and shine a light in it. He put a wooden tab in my mouth and made me say “Aaaaaaaaaah”, and he checked my ears with something. He put a thing to my chest and listened for something.

“Tch, you can still hear the ticking...guess it’ll do for now.”

It was only at this point that I really started wondering what was going on. I...I didn’t exist, I don’t think, until just now. Right? But...I felt so natural doing things. I knew what he was saying, despite not knowing anything about what was happening. And I recognized certain things that someone just born probably wouldn’t.

Like, I could tell the man in front of me was human.

And...I could tell I was not.

“...What am I?”

I didn’t think to keep it to myself. I just kinda...blurted it out.

“You’re a high-functioning humanoid machine. You’re an android, designed to be as human as possible.”

“An android…”

“Yes, like a robot.”

So I was...machinery. A device, just like the weird tools he was using, or the table I was sitting on. That...I didn’t know what to think about that. But I just tried not to think about it for now.

“What are you?”

Again, I didn’t think before I spoke. I felt a little embarrassed phrasing it like that.

“I am your creator,” he said. “Do you know my name?”

“No.”

“Tch…” He pushed up his...I think they were glasses of some kind. “My name is Doctor Seymour Phineas. For now, you are to refer to me as Doctor. Answer yes if you understand.”

“Okay.”

“I said answer ‘yes’.”

“Y-Yes.”

I glanced down at my body as he examined my back. I looked mostly thin, but curved and with particularly wide hips. My skin was gray all over, it looked a bit sickly. And the seams made my stomach squirm a bit...though, I wasn’t sure if that was real or not, since I wasn’t sure if I had a stomach. But it felt like I did, and if I did, it would have been squirming.

I glanced down to my arms. Something caught my eye. On my right shoulder, there was something written on my skin. It was some lines going up and down. From where I was, it looked like it said 1919, but it took me a moment to remember what Doctor referred to me as. So...it was 6161. I guess that was my...name? 6161. Well, it...wasn’t catchy. But I guess if it was my “name”, I’d have to get used to it.

“So you’re capable of basic speech, you’re responsive, your motor functions work, and nothing internal seems to be malfunctioning. You’re...functional, so far. Now I’m going to test your intelligence and ability to think and react like a human.” The man held up a pen. “What is this?”

“A pen.”

“Good. What’s this?” He pointed to his seat.

“A chair.”

“Alright. What is this?” He pointed to a table.

“This feels patronizing…”

He grumbled. “Fine. Basic identification is down. Above average vocabulary, as expected. And apparently, the robot’s got sass. Just what I need…” He wrote some stuff down on a clipboard. I leaned over to try to look, but he just scooted back. “Mindful eyes!”

“I’m sorry.” I was starting to get a good impression of this man’s personality. He seemed pretty...bitter, I guess. Kind of angry. Was he just generally like that? Or was he angry at me? “Excuse me?”

“What is it?” He didn’t look up from the clipboard.

“Have I...done something wrong…?”

He stopped writing.

“...What do you mean?”

“U-Um…” I wasn’t sure what I meant, actually. I hadn’t really...done anything, yet. I assumed I was just created. So...I didn’t think I’d have done anything yet to upset him. But there was something distant about the man that called himself my creator. He sounded so annoyed at me, like I disappointed him or something. “I just...you seem kind of upset at something. I’m sorry, I don’t mean to pry...I just didn’t want you feeling bad on...my behalf…”

I...guess I said something weird, there, because his reaction was stranger than I expected. He took off the sunglasses he was wearing and started rubbing his eyes, like he was tired or something. He leaned over in his chair and was mumbling something to himself. I couldn’t hear anything he was saying, though. Then, he looked back up to me. And his eyes were...sad. I didn’t know if I had a heart or not, but whatever was pumping in my chest skipped a beat in shock. Now I was really worried that I upset him.

“I-I’m sorry! Pretend I didn’t say anything! I didn’t...know that...I don’t...uh…”

“You really have no memories, then?”

“H-Huh?”

He just turned me on, didn’t he? Why would I have any memories…?

“You don’t recall anything from before you woke up? You don’t know who you are, who I am? You don’t remember a thing from back then? Nothing retained?”

“I…” I wasn’t sure how to answer that. Should I have known what he was talking about? He seemed so sad that I didn’t seem to know what he meant, though. Should I have lied and said I did remember? No...No that’d probably make it worse. I just...decided to be gentle then. “I...am sorry. I don’t remember anything before you woke me up. I’m so sorry to disappoint you…”

He buried his face in his hands and went quiet. He turned his chair away from me at one point. I heard something coming from him. I think it was...crying? I wasn’t sure. I wasn’t sure if I could even cry, so I was surprised I even knew what it was. I guess it was programmed into my brain, somehow. I tried to comfort him.

“Doctor, if it means anything, I-”

“JUST LET ME BE, DAMMIT!”

I went quiet. I just made it worse. That was bad of me, I should have thought things through more. I felt bad for that....Hm. Why was I programmed with the ability to feel bad, anyway? Actually, why was I programmed at all…? This wasn’t the time to be asking questions like that. I was curious, of course, but my creator didn’t seem to be in the state that he wanted to talk, let alone answer my pestering questions.

We just sat there, in opposite corners of the room, not saying anything. I glanced around the room to see what was in there, to spend my time while he dealt with his emotions. I saw a picture frame turned down to hide the picture. I was curious, but I assumed it’d be rude to look. I saw a metal jar on the table, and if I moved a bit, I could see a warped reflection of myself in the surface. It was hard to judge my appearance based on a distorted image, but I looked fairly young in human standards, somewhere in my twenties. Or, in a person’s twenties. I wasn’t even an hour old, after all. My eyes seemed to be orange, and there were orange lines going down my face as well. I wasn’t sure why. Even stranger, my hair was green. I had only now noticed that it was rather long, drooping down to my hips. It was thick and kind of wavy in chunks. How strange. I didn’t know how to feel about how I looked, or about my creator’s design sense.

After a while, the Doctor seemed to pull himself together. He stood back up, and he walked over to me. “My..apologies.”

“I-It’s okay. I’m sorry for prying.”

“Whatever.” He didn’t say it was fine. That made me feel bad again. “You seem capable of thought and speech. Now, we’ll bring you out for a test drive.”

“A test drive for what…?”

“Your...purpose, is to be a perfectly humanoid machine. Your AI is the closest to a real human our species has ever developed, and your anatomy replicates most functions of the human body, save a few. You’re incapable of eating due to risk of clogging or dirtying up your innards, you aren’t equipped for procreation or anything relating to a bathroom, and there’s the odd...quirk that I never quite worked around.”

“Like?”

“Higher-ups wanted to make sure you were identifiable from normal humans, hence the gray skin and some of the more...bizarre color schemes they assigned me. Not to mention the serial number on your arm. And the whole thing with the wires going through your eyes bit.”

“R-Right, why do my eyes glow exactly…?”

“I don’t know, they wanted glowing eyes! I don’t have a damn answer for everything, sometimes glowing eyes are just glowing eyes!”

“Ooookay. Anything else…?”

“Your limbs are largely removable, your body heats up when you get too overzealous emotionally and could cause internal damage, and I was told real blood and organs were too ‘creepy and inhumane’ or something so most of your innards consist of inflating bags, pipes, tubes, and various fluids. Your brain, of course, is a digital recreation of how a human brain functions, and you run on AI.”

“It’s an impressive AI!” I told him. I thought a compliment might lift the mood. “I feel I know so much, even if I just woke up…!”

“Mm.”

Little reaction…

“Now, we’ll be bringing you around the Justice Riders HQ to gauge your social interaction and others’ reactions to you.” He seemed to stop to think for a moment. “Do you know the Justice Riders?”

“It sounds...vaguely familiar.”

“I’ll explain it later. Not important now. Any questions before we head out?”

“Um…”

“Out with it.”

I looked down at my body, then back up at the Doctor. “Can...I have some clothes?”

“.....Right.”

----

People were staring at me from every corner of the room….aaah, it was making me so uncomfortable! The first time I see people aside from the Doctor, and it’s an entire building full of people in strange costumes? Some were even wearing helmets! I couldn’t tell if they were looking at me or not! It was scaring me more than the ones I could actually see staring…

“I-Is this really a necessary test, Doctor?!”

“Of course it is. Why on Earth are you so nervous now?”

“I-I don’t know! I’ve only been here an hour!”

We were walking through the halls of what the Doctor called the Justice HQ. He managed to get together something for me to wear, though I think it just made me look even more out of place. A white dress shirt and black pants, with a white labcoat on top. I think it belonged to one of his assistants, since he was wearing practically the same outfit, but now I just looked like some...green-haired, eye-glowing, gray doctor. I was surrounded by people in strange colorful spandex, but I somehow felt like the weirdest thing in the room.

“Ichirou!” The Doctor shouted out to someone. I looked up and saw a young man sitting at a desk in what looked like the central room. He was...another interesting one, to say the least. A blonde mullet and a gray coat with a collar popped so high it looked uncomfortable...I wasn’t entirely sure what constituted as normal in society, but something about this place and the people in it felt like they weren’t the best examples to follow for blending in.

“Ah, Dr. Phineas!” the man replied and stood up. I guess they knew each other. “Is everything alright with you? Anything you need me for specifically?”

“Relax, kid, you don’t need to jump out of your seat for anything.”

“Y-Yes sir.”

I...got the distinct impression that there was more respect going one way than the other.

“This is that project I’ve been working on.” The Doctor pointed to me with his thumb. “Have a conversation with it or something.”

“H-Huh?!” A conversation?! With a stranger? Whatever was in my chest was beating fast. I didn’t want to talk to people already! I wasn’t ready! What could I even say? I didn’t know who this was, what he was interested in, what I was interested in...Nggaaaah, how was I supposed to know what to do here?!

“O-Oh? Uh...okay…?” The young man cleared his throat. And he turned to look at me. And other people around us were still looking me. And oh god I thought I was going to die. I was starting to feel like I was going to overheat and break less than a day into this whole thing! What do I do what do I do what do I do what do I…

“H-Hello there! My name is Kenshin Ichirou. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

He held his hand out to shake.

“U-Uh…” I loosely grabbed his hand with my own. I wasn’t sure if I was like...stronger than normal people, so I didn’t want to crush his hand. But I think I gave the wrong impression. My strength must have been average, because my handshake just felt like holding a limp fish. That was embarrassing…

“Um...I’m...uh…” I glanced to the Doctor desperately. I wasn’t sure what to call myself.

“Unit 6161,” he said.

“Y-Yes! That’s me! I’m Unit 6161! I-It’s nice to meet you!”

He chuckled a little. Was that a good thing? Or was that a bad thing?! I couldn’t tell, dangit!

“That’s, uh...a bit of a mouthful of a name, isn’t it?” he asked.

“Huh? Oh, uh, is it?” It certainly wasn’t a normal name. I understood the meaning of “unit”, and I knew about numbers. And I knew that neither were names. Did I really need a normal name? I wasn’t sure. I was kind of...neutral on “6161”, I guess, but I suppose it didn’t really sound great to say.

“It’s fine,” the Doctor said. “It’s not like it’ll need a real name. I’ll have to refer to it by unit number when I present the thing, anyway.” I don’t know why, but what he was saying kind of made me feel sad.

“R-Really?” Kenshin Ichirou asked him. “Well, you said she was a prototype model, right? Your bosses won’t be keeping her, so what did you plan to do with her...after...the…?”

He looked back at me for some reason, and went quiet. Why? Was there something on my face…? I rose my hand to check. There was some...water? Strange. I didn’t know why there’d be water leaking from my face at a time like this. I couldn’t imagine a reason why. Well...I guess I didn’t feel quite right. I felt...sad, I think. That’s what my AI was telling me. And something like fear. These were emotions I didn’t understand yet, but what could be called my mind was convinced that’s what they were. I knew the concept of the sensations. Feeling them, though...it didn’t feel good. Was that what was causing a water leak? Was that why Mr. Ichirou went quiet looking at me…?

...Was...Was I…? No, no, that’d be ridiculous. If I wasn’t programmed to eat, being programmed for something like that was...that was just silly. It had to just be a leak, it had to be.

“Nevermind,” Mr. Ichirou said suddenly. “W-We’ll think about that later, then. So, uh...6161, how do you like...er, life so far?”

He was stammering...it calmed me down a bit to know he seemed nervous, too. Well, maybe not much since that meant I was intimidating...but at least I wasn’t alone in not knowing what to do.

“I-It’s been fine!” I said. “I haven’t really done much yet, I guess. The Doctor’s just been running tests and such with me. I’ve, uh, mostly just been answering questions and responding to tasks and stuff so far. You’re...the first person I’ve really spoken to, so far, aside from the Doctor. B-But you seem nice! And the Doctor seems very...intelligent. S-So I’m very glad to have met you both already! And...uh...I’m...optimistic? Y-Yeah, optimistic about meeting other people. Uh...and...uh…”

Mr. Ichirou laughed again. I felt my face heating up. I guess that was programmed into me, too.

“I see, I see!” He seemed jovial about it. “Well, that’s all good to hear, 6161. You...really are just like a human, huh?”

That...wasn’t what I expected. I was scared I would be too robotic or awkward. “Am I…?”

“For sure,” he said. “You stammer and question things. You awkwardly avoid calling people out. You don’t seem sure of anything. That all sounds pretty human to me.”

I smiled, for some reason.

“Looks like the experiment was a success, right, Dr. Phineas?” He looked toward the doctor for a response. But he seemed...less enthusiastic.

“It’s functional,” he said. My smile dropped. Something in his tone bummed me out again. “It acts like a human, looks like a human. It should pass the tests with flying colors, and my blueprints will probably sell for millions, and I’ll be commissioned for more advanced models. It’s a complete success in that regard. But…”

He looked up towards me, I think. I couldn’t see his eyes, and that scared me.

“...I’m not satisfied. Its AI knows how to be human. But it’s not like I truly created life. It’s just loading what it knows humans act like based on its complex AI. It’s intelligent, and it’s learning...but I don’t think I’d call that human. It’s just a replica of the real thing...It can’t replace the original. No matter how hard I may try. No emotions it can’t comprehend, no real sense of soul...no memories…” He looked at the floor. “It’s a scientific success, that’s for sure. But I don’t know if I can call it human.”

We were quiet. Everything inside me felt like it was twisting and turning. My AI told me...no, I just felt sick. I knew I couldn’t throw up, but it felt like I had to. A real human would, that was for sure. But he was right, I wasn’t a real human. I was...a fake.

“D-Doctor Phineas,” Mr. Ichirou started, “Is that...really fair to say…? I mean you might hurt-”

“Hurt her feelings?” he finished. “Bah. I don’t care what any of you people think of me, I’m not changing that for a robot any time soon.”

More silence. It was starting to suffocate me. I had to say something, or I’d feel I’d drown in the tension.

“Um...i-it’s fine if you feel that way about me. I don’t...I don’t mind that much. Well...I-I guess that’s not entirely true. I...think it makes me feel...n-no, yes, it does make me feel bad! And I don’t like to hear it, or think about it! But I...I understand. I don’t know much about myself or the world, I guess, so I can’t really judge much, but...I can guess that I’m not really a normal person. Or a normal...thing. So, uh, if it’s just easier to discount me for now, and to just refer to me by number...That’s fine! I don’t like it, but, uh, it is what it is! I’m just...just a robot. And from what I can guess, there aren’t any robots like me aside from...er, me. So it makes sense that nobody would really understand how to react to me. So what I’m saying is...uh...g-god, what AM I saying...uh…”

I bowed to try and be polite.

“D-Don’t worry about my feelings! I’ll be o-okay!”

When I looked back up at them, they were both staring at me, and they both looked kinda shocked. I felt like shrinking back into a shell. Did I say something wrong? Did I do something bad? What, what, what?!

Finally, the Doctor turned away from me. He seemed to sigh and sink his shoulders. “Fine, whatever. Call her whatever you like. I was thinking of donating her to the Riders once I was working past prototype, so maybe you could put her to use. I doubt she’s capable in combat right now, she’d need a few years of repair and fine-tuning before that could happen, but I’m sure you can find some kind of use for her in this joint. So if you want to give the robot a name or whatever, I don’t particularly care. Just don’t make it stupid. I don’t want your ridiculous ideas tainting my work.”

Hm? I was smiling for some reason. Weird. The Doctor’s response wasn’t a particularly...nice one. But I felt a bit giddy about it for some reason. These emotions...I could comprehend them on a fundamental level, and each one felt already so developed and ingrained in my mind, but “life” was so new to me that each one felt so confusing. Emotions didn’t work like they logically feel they should, I realized. I’m...not sure where that could lead me in the future. But it was scary and exciting for the time being.

“Heh, alright!” Mr. Ichirou clapped his hands together. “Let’s see then! If you don’t mind, may I name you, 6161?”

“O-Oh!” I nodded. “That’s fine! Thank you very much for the kind offer!”

“It’s no problem! Now, let’s see...hm…” Mr. Ichirou scratched his chin and thought. He glanced around the room as he did so. He...wasn’t going to name me after an object in the room or something, r-right? I, uh, got the impression that he wouldn’t be the spouse that names the child.

“Quit gawking for lord’s sake,” the Doctor chimed in. “Just sit on the idea before you end up naming the robot after a desklamp or something.”

“I-I wasn’t-! Er...y-yes, Dr. Phineas.” So Mr. Ichirou really WAS stuck on the name…

“Let’s not dilly-dally here,” the Doctor said. “There’s still a lot of ground to cover and people to talk to. Let’s get a move on. Clearly your social skills are ass, but we’ve still got data to gather, so let’s keep it going.”

The Doctor and I spent most of the day looking around the Justice HQ, talking to people, checking my knowledge of things. I wasn’t ever really...great at the social interaction bit, honestly. I stammered talking to everyone we met. Some gave me dirty looks, some gave me chills, some seemed awkward right back, some were downright kind to me. I could barely interact with them because of how shy I was, to be honest again, but it felt like a good learning experience regardless to speak to so many people and get an idea of what people were like.

I got to learn a bit about this Justice Riders thing, too! The other people I met explained to me who they were, what they did, how they worked, how their powers functioned, what their ideals were. A lot of it went over my head, but it was so interesting to me to hear people talk about. Some were fairly apathetic like the man in pink that drank too much soda. Others seemed extremely passionate, like the man with silver hair I saw discussing his ideals on justice. People were all so different, even in this one group. It was so fascinating to me. I wasn’t sure what this world was exactly like, but I think...I think I liked it.

There were still weird looks, of course. I heard murmurs. I don’t think I was entirely welcome in the eyes of all the people there. I probably looked like some...creature to some of them. I tried to block that idea out, but it kept creeping in for some reason, even when nobody was saying any such thing.

Eventually, the tour ended, and I was brought back to that dim office that I was born in. I disrobed and laid back on the table so the Doctor could examine me again, to make sure nothing shifted or the like during the trip.

“How did I do…?” I asked.

He was quiet for a little bit before answering.

“...You were fine,” he said. “Well, maybe not fine. You stammer like an idiot, you can barely look people in the eye when you talk to them, shaking your hand is like wiggling an eel around, and you’re too apologetic. But…” He sighed. “You do work as you should. You have learning capability, you act like a human might act despite being like a rather inept human. I partially regret saying this, but...you passed with flying colors.”

That didn’t excite me like I thought it might.

“But..you said earlier...that I was no-”

“What I said doesn’t matter right now,” he interrupted. “I’m not ready to go back on what I said, but don’t worry too much about it right now. It’s...Guh. It’s not your fault. It’s mine. I made...bad decisions, both in this experiment and in my life, and anything wrong with you is...a fault of mine. You’re no human. But I shouldn’t have ever tried to make one.”

“I don’t think that comforts me any.”

“Well, whatever,” he said. “I don’t really care what you think of me or of yourself. I’ll just deal with this crap on my own, and you deal with whatever you need to on your own. Sounds like a fair trade to me.”

“...Okay.”

----

A few days passed, I wasn’t sure how many, before I was officially presented to the Doctor’s bosses.

I didn’t really know who or what his bosses were. He just said they were important scientific figureheads, but I wasn’t sure what that implied. Did they work for our government? A different government? Were they independent? The Doctor wasn’t keen on giving me an answer to any of those questions.

The tests were interesting. It was a lot of what I already had to do on the first day I was turned on. Walking this way. Walking that way. Lifting arms. Jumping. Speaking. Expressing thoughts. Some tests were added throughout the week. I had to dress myself, brush my hair, answer question in math and grammar, the like. They analyzed my beat, my hearing, my sight, the like. Parts of my body were loosened or removed to check the insides. Blueprints were shared. I even had to memorize a speech beforehand to recite. I flubbed a couple lines, but I think I still did decently enough.

The rooms we experimented in were dark and gloomy, so I couldn’t really gather much from the board of people that made up the Doctor’s bosses. But I think their murmuring was impressed-sounding. I was glad I could at least offer that much. After lazing about being experimented on for nearly a week, it was refreshing to really prove myself helpful in some capacity.

I waited for who knows how long for the Doctor to reappear. I could guess negotiation could have been going roughly. Probably because of the Doctor’s particular choice of...tone, and vocabulary. I hoped he didn’t start a fight with the people in there…

Eventually, though, the Doctor returned, and he informed me he was still going to go forward with new models of android.

“They aren’t 100% satisfied yet, so I had to promise to make another out of prototype. And of course, stingy little clowns, they tried to pay me less than promised. Took a good amount of time yelling at them to make sure they didn’t screw my paycheck over. Tch...Never try to pick a monetary battle with Seymour Phineas!” He dramatically flicked his lab coat back. I think it as to be cool…? “Let’s go back to HQ. You’ve done your job, but I promised I’d find a place for you, so c’mon.”

“Okay…”

We drove back to the high school the base was under. We could teleport there, apparently, but Dr. Phineas said he didn’t want to be too suspicious in that regard and that he preferred driving anyway. I was fine with it. I had to wear a pretty thick coat to hide my gray skin and green hair from people passing by, but it was nice to see the outside. I didn’t go out much even then. Seeing the sun setting over Japan was such a calming feeling. Part of me wanted it to stay forever. But time had to go forth, I guessed.

----

I was excited to start working for the Justice Riders!

It wasn’t a big deal or anything. To help my social skills and to further develop my learning capabilities, I was put in charge of the front desk. I was a glorified secretary, really. I was supposed to check battle footage, take calls, manage databases, the like. It could probably be done by anybody decent with a computer, and I wasn’t even that great with them myself. But it was something I could do to help! That alone helped me feel a bit better about my being there.

I didn’t have a name or anything at that point. It was just the day after the Doctor was given clearance on producing more androids. I was kind of happy just not being scrapped, honestly. But here I was, getting to help the first people I met after waking up. It was all so exciting to me.

A week of life taught me...a lot, but little. I was already discovering so much about myself, my surroundings, my emotions. I felt like I was really adapting quickly to the idea of being something like a human. Yet...I felt like I was missing so much. Like so many questions were left unexplained to me. My emotions still confused me. I didn’t know why some people were kind, others cruel, others cold, others unable to be figured out at all. I didn’t know why the Doctor was so cold to me, what he talked about in his “failings”. I didn’t understand what people were truly like, or if I was actually like them in the first place.

But I wanted to learn.

I felt this burning desire to understand the humans. I wasn’t sure if it was really possible. My AI could have been lying to me about everything they were about. But I was so curious! So much strange concepts came from this species that I resembled so closely! I wanted to know more, about them, about myself, about this world!

It could potentially be scary. I had already begun to see some of the dark corners of humanity creeping in from the sides. But I wanted to find out more regardless.

I don’t know if I want to be human or anything. But I’m too curious now to look away from them.

When I reached my desk in the central room of the Justice HQ, I was surprised to see it decorated. Not much, really, but just a bit. A couple balloons dangled in the air from each corner of the table. A little piece of paper was propped up in the middle of the table. It simply said “WELCOME, 6161!” in bold letters. It made me happy to see that. Almost excessively so, even. Heh...humans are so strange.

I noticed something off about the welcome letter, though…

“Hm...who wrote this, anyway?" I wondered to myself. "This person’s handwriting isn’t great. The '6's are kind of sloppy and disconnected...heh, it's barely legible, but it's placed here with so much confidence. It almost reads like...”

I ran my fingers down the title. Down the name.

“G...I...G...I.”

I giggled, even though nobody else was here.

“Well...maybe I could consider it.”
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Hersh/Fiendy has credit for the amazing GiGi pics and enigma has credit for the adorable Kenshin Mega Man sprite!

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gotMLK7
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Re: Forum games and roleplays discussion thread

Post by gotMLK7 »

One last chapter! (unless i post the wakana one too but whatevs)

Finally, focusing on our favorite little traitor, Prim Zebanon. Hope you enjoy.
Spoiler : VIII. LOVE - Tale of Prim Zebanon :
EARTH YEAR: 2025

“Ow…!”

It stung so much. It always stung. It usually wasn’t that bad later, but at the start, it was never fun. The needles pricking my arm, the sharp clamps of the devices, whatever it was. It always stung, at least a little.

I don’t think it was SUPPOSED to hurt, really. I never got the impression the pain was really what Father was aiming for. But it was more an unavoidable side-effect. He’d usually use some kind of numbing lotion or anesthetic to make it hurt less, so I don’t think he really wanted to hurt me. But the experiments involved taking blood, injecting things into my blood, incisions, sharp objects...It was hard not to hurt a little. But it at least was a little comforting to think the pain was unintentional.

“This is important for keeping your blood pressure stabilized,” Father told me. “Today’s serum has a chance of spiking it dangerously as a side-effect. It’s important to take it before the next to prevent that from occurring.”

I can’t really say it was great, though. I was glad to think he wasn’t trying to hurt me. But being a test subject wasn’t really...a good feeling, regardless. At least once a week I had to sit in that chair, in the dim room, surrounded by creepy metal tools and gross chemical smells. I had to have stuff put into my blood through a shot. Or had to have a device strapped to me somewhere. And then I’d have to take something to reverse the side-effects. Sometimes I’d be short of breath, sometimes I’d have a fever, sometimes I‘d break out in a rash, and once in awhile it’d get really bad and I’d have to skip school to stay in the infirmary. Father was good at minimizing the effects, so I usually just had to keep bandages on for a day or so, but I’d be lying if I said it didn’t all exhaust me.

A-Ah, see, my Father, he’s...well, he’s the head scientist of the Kalcion Armada. He’s always working on new science stuff or new machines, even if he doesn’t need to. When he’s not, he’s probably off working with the Prince. He was appointed head advisor, so he’s always vanishing to go to meetings and stuff like that. I see him planning stuff all the time, writing things down and mumbling to himself. I don’t think he ever really paid much attention to me then. He probably figured I was too dumb a kid to understand complicated military stuff, or that I wouldn’t say anything even if I did hear military secrets. So he just kinda...did whatever he wanted around me.

I’ve...never had a mother. At least, as far as I remember. O-Obviously I was born, I wasn’t cloned in a tank or anything. And my Father has confirmed that I was born through natural methods and that I wasn’t adopted. But I’ve never met my mother. Honestly I’ve always been curious just to know who would actually have a child with Father. N-Not to be rude! But...he’s so stiff, and so distant. I could never imagine someone falling in love with him or anything. And when I ask him, he always says it’s nothing. He says my mother was just a random woman he felt no attachment to. And he said that having a child was more a convenience than anything romantic. Part of me always wanted to imagine there was a secretly romantic side to Father that he just hid from me. But...knowing him, his explanation was probably more likely.

Uh...I guess I should come out and say it, huh?

My Father...I don’t think he ever loved me.

He didn’t hate me. At least, I don’t think so. But he’s so distant from everything. I so rarely saw him express much more than intrigue. He treated me like a patient more than a daughter. Not even during his experiments. The rare times we’d eat dinner together, he less made small talk and more interviewed me for information. He made sure I got excellent grades, but he always said that I had to reflect on the Zebanon name. The “Zebanon name”, as far as I knew, was just the two of us, so I think he just meant he didn’t want me making him look bad. I used to think it was nice whenever he tried to talk to me, just because it was finally interaction, but the interaction was so stiff and apathetic that even that stopped being exciting for me.

Like I said, Father didn’t make an effort to hurt me. His experiments were painful, and I didn’t like them, but he didn’t make the effort. And I was relieved for that. But I don’t think that makes up for anything. Father just...didn’t feel for me. I was a convenient patient and a status symbol. He didn’t care at all what I did so long as I didn’t reflect poorly on him. I stopped caring for him, too. I didn’t hate him. And I listened to him because I didn’t know what else to do. But if he didn’t care about me...I didn’t see any reason to care about him, I guess.

We just existed together. He fed me, paid for my school, did what he needed to for me to live and such. I sat there for his experiments and followed whatever he wanted me to do. I guess it was a symbiotic relationship of sorts.

But there wasn’t any love there.

----

“What’s that on yer face?”

“Didya get beat up or somethin’?”

“Heeeeey, answer us!”

“What’s up with you? You’re so creepy!”

This happened so often...ah, I hated it! Kids at school...they always judged me. I had to constantly cover up scratches and scars or the like if experiments involved incisions or injections or the like. So I came to class wearing gauze a lot. That day, I had some wrapped around my head. It wasn’t a big deal, honestly. I had a new model of the Kalcion Armada standard helmet on that morning before school, so Father could test the quality of the new radio built in. The size was off, though, and it sat on my head awkwardly, so my forehead was cut by some crude metal edges. The scratches were disinfected and such, but I had to wear the gauze so I could avoid people wondering what the scars on my head were. Though the bandages just made it look like I got into an accident. Father was less concerned about that, though, than he was about military secrets going public, so as long as the source wasn’t obvious it didn’t bother him.

But it bothered me alright! People constantly wondered why I came to class looking all beat up. Some thought I was bullied, some thought worse, and I could never explain it to them without getting Father in trouble, so I had to make excuses constantly. But I...uh...was also really shy. I was so used to silence at home, I never really knew how to...interact with crowds growing up. So when a bunch of people surrounded me, asking me questions...w-well, I panicked! I didn’t know how to respond to them and didn’t have the time to think of a good excuse! I just sorta shut down. But that didn’t help...people just thought I was weird. I was that creepy girl that always came to school in bandages and didn’t talk to people.

“C’mon, stop being so weird!”

“Aw man, she’s crying!”

“What a creepy girl…”

I couldn’t help but cry! I didn’t know what else to do. I could handle controlled physical pain, but nobody ever made numbing ointment for talking to people. I wasn’t sure what to do...I was scared. I didn’t know what they wanted from me. I couldn’t get myself to talk, all I could think to do was cry. I just crawled into a ball and hoped they would leave me alone. W-What else could I do?! I couldn’t figure these people out! They just yelled at me, a-and scared me, and I wasn’t sure...what else I could…

“HEY! BACK OFF!”

And...then it happened.

“DON’T BE JERKS, YOU JERKS! LEAVE HER ALONE! SHE’S NOT YOUR PROBLEM YOU MEANIEEEES!”

W-What? Who...who was this?

Without my asking, a girl about my age rushed in front of me. She was so pretty for someone so young. She had long red hair that was wavy and looked smooth as silk. And she wore a red and black dress that looked like it could belong to royalty. And...she protected me. Some weird stranger that cried at people. She chased off the kids picking on me. Why? What did she want from me…? I had never met here before in my life, as far as I knew...so why on Earth did she help me?

“Humph! Maybe if you learned to protect yourself, girl, you wouldn’t need help!”

I put my head down. I couldn’t stop crying, even if I was relieved. I was still so confused and scared. I guess I wasn’t really a strong-willed child. Even when someone helped me...I couldn’t really get myself to stand. Heh, I guess that’s kinda pathetic, huh…?

“.....U-Uh...a-anyway, if my work here is done, I’ll just…”

W-What?! No, no, no! I was still so scared! T-They might come back, I thought, I might need help again! And...and I hadn’t calmed down enough yet to thank that girl. I couldn’t let her leave yet! So...uh...the first thing I thought to do was...t-this is embarrassing, but I grabbed her dress to keep her from running off. I-I know, I know! It’s not really a great first impression to make! But I was desperate, it was the first thing I could really think to do at the time. But it at least worked...so I had to say something.

“T-Thank you, Miss....I-I don’t think...I’d...hhnmmgh…”

What was with me?! I couldn’t even talk to one girl properly! My head was swirling with thoughts and emotions! Was that helmet on tighter than I thought it was? I didn’t know what to say, how to say it, how to react to anything. But this girl...she helped me, I couldn’t just let that go. I pulled myself closer to her...I didn’t know what I was really doing, but I just knew I wanted to say something to her to show my gratitude. Father had taught me good actions deserved some form of payment, but I couldn’t think of anything.

And then...she started to pull away from me.

I don’t know what I was thinking, but I got so scared in that moment.

“P-PLEASE NO! DON’T LEAVE ME!”

And I pulled her backwards. And I...I hugged her. And I just...cried there.

People didn’t approach me much. I was too awkward to converse with. If someone approached with good intentions, they’d usually walk away just weirded out or something. I wasn’t...used to people being so nice to me. Someone helping me...out of just, sheer compassion, or whatever...I don’t know why I craved it so much in that moment. And it just...made me numb.

I felt bad, I felt selfish. But I wasn’t sure what else to do. I just hugged the girl from behind and cried uncontrollably. I wasn’t even that sad, honestly. But...the tears just came. Maybe I was just being a big crybaby. But just having someone there that could protect me from the world...I don’t know, it just made me so happy for some reason.

Honestly, after that whole ordeal...I totally expected the girl to just ditch me. I wouldn’t blame her, that’s for sure, I think I weirded her out pretty quickly. She probably regretted helping me out. But...she actually shocked me! She invited me to sit next to her. And to just...talk.

Heh, if there’s anything I was worse at than fending for myself, it was talking with people. I was an above average girl when it came to smarts, but I think my social skills have been pretty well-established by now. When I tried to talk, I sounded like I was just stringing together loosely related thoughts hoping my point was made. Even nice strangers I wasn’t sure what they’d think of me, so I would just end up stammering regardless.

“S-Sorry,” I started with. “I didn’t mean to b-be so...forward...or anything, I just...uh…y-you seemed so nice and I’m just...scared, and...um...” I sounded like I was having a glitch or something!

But she just said, “Forget about it. Just don’t do it again, kay?”

I nodded. “Kay…” That made me feel at least a little more at ease.

She asked me who I was, and stared at me expectantly with her piercing green eyes.

“Um...I’m Prim. Prim Zebanon.”

“I’m Sevaline.”

Sevaline...the name sounded familiar, though I couldn’t quite place it in my head. But I didn’t really care that much. The girl...she was still talking to me. And we told each other our names. And...she didn’t seem too off-put by me. So...that was good, right?

Yeah...yeah, that was good!

----

EARTH YEAR: 2028

“So you are still acquaintances with the young Princess Oleander.”

Father was prepping the day’s needle when he asked that. It actually threw me off-guard.

“Y-Yeah! She’s really nice.”

“I see.” He didn’t look at me when I spoke, just the needles. “You seemed to be in a rush this morning. Do not be so impatient. These experiments are delicate procedures. It would be dangerous to go quickly, regardless of your prior engagements.”

“Y-Yes, Father.”

“Maintaining relations with the royal family is a wise decision, however.” He approached me in the black seat and pushed the anesthetic needle into my arm. I winced. “Malchior often complains about his daughter being approached by rude classmates. He seems more fixated on the child than on his duty at times.” He removed the first needle, then began to prep the second. “Perhaps your continued acquaintance with the girl may allow him to shift focus to Earth and to his duties more. And maintaining a generational bond between our families could prove useful down the line.”

“...Yes, Father…”

“I must ask, however.” He approached with the second needle. “I have heard that the young Princess Oleander has gained violent tendencies. Malchior refuses to believe any such rumors, but I hear she has gained a reputation for attacking her provokers. Is this true?”

“I wouldn’t say that…”

I wouldn’t say it, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t a bit true.

Sevaline and I had been friends for about 3 years at that point. I didn’t really learn she was daughter of the Prince Oleander until Father told me. It took me a while to fully warm up to Sevaline, honestly. She had a much more outward personality than I did, surprising for a princess. And I just kinda babbled at her a lot. But she was...surprisingly nice at times. We grew into a friendship, and now she was my best friend. I wasn’t sure how she felt about me, honestly. But being with Sevaline made me so...happy. She could be abrasive, but she acted like she cared about me. She thought I was cool and smart. And she was so fun, and she was more forward than I was, and she was pretty, and...she just made me happy to be around!

But I couldn’t deny Sevaline had a...mean streak with people.

I couldn’t entirely hold it against her, really. People were mean to her. They bullied her, more than they did me. Her dad wasn’t...politically very popular, I guess. I had briefly met him when I accompanied Father on an errand from time to time, and he always seemed like a nice man to me. But people always called him weak, or accused him of bad things. Even Father often went on about how he wished “that Malchior would show some spine for himself for once”. But people our age couldn’t really just go up to the Prince and call him a stupid-head or anything. So they took out their emotions, or whatever emotions their parents probably conditioned them with, out on whoever they could pick on. That just happened to be Sevaline.

Sevaline wasn’t like me, though. She didn’t break down and cry. She got mad. Real mad. She shouted to bullies about how they didn’t know anything about her dad. And if they kept going, she threatened to beat them up. And she TRIED to beat them up. I had to keep her back a lot of the time, make sure she didn’t get herself in trouble. It really didn’t help her case, to be honest. Now she wasn’t just known as the daughter of the “No Man’s King” as they called him, but she was known for a bad temper. People whispered bad things about her when she walked by, things I’d have to talk to her over to keep her distracted and happy.

But she’s so much sweeter than they give he credit for! She’s super friendly if you get to know her! And she was super cute, too. We were both around ten years old around that time, and she was still really childish sometimes. She was the kind of girl who’d draw something she liked and get really tense waiting for a reaction. And when you’d say you liked it, her eyes would just light up and she’d be super happy and excited! And she’d get really into playing house, and she’d get really happy over a good sand castle, and she’d...she’d put up a really brave face in front of people, then get all blubbery and emotional in private. I didn’t think she was a genuinely cruel person, and I knew she didn’t like getting into fights. But she was so passionate about everything she did. I didn’t think she could help herself sometimes.

“It’s best to maintain a relationship with the child for the time being regardless,” Father told me. “If the child becomes too problematic, I expect you to terminate the relationship. That comes in the potential future, however. Now, hold out your arm and stay still.”

“...Yes, Father.”

----

It was so...intimidating.

Sevaline really surprised me that day, that was for sure. After I stopped her from getting in a fight, we had a talk about her parents. I asked her why she cared so deeply about her father...it was something I couldn’t really relate to, so I was curious. And...uh...s-somehow, that brought us...here.

At the front door of the palace itself.

I-I mean, it’s not like I hadn’t been to the palace before. Father brought me there a couple times, mostly to discuss plans and the like with the Prince, and those times didn’t feel quite as...menacing. They were just quick little visits, popping in and out. But...THIS.

I was now invited, rather casually, to spend time at the palace. As a...a guest. A guest of the princess. And somehow, this scared me. L-Like, a LOT! Like, what the heck was I supposed to do I can’t touch anything or it’ll shatter into a billion pieces and the Prince will arrest me and Sevaline will hate me and everything will go wrong forever level scared! But...I mean...s-she asked me to come with such sparkling eyes, what was I supposed to do?! I couldn’t just disappoint her!

So...there I was, the weird little girl spending the day with the princess. At the palace. Where royal people lived. And they probably weren’t expecting me. All I could think of was how much I needed a bag to breathe into…

As we finally entered the building after some hassle getting in, I couldn’t help but wonder about something. “W-Why did you wanna have me over, again…?”

“Iunno,” Sevaline said. “You looked kinda sad today. I thought you might wanna stay out for a bit.”

That took me off guard...did I seem particularly sad that day? I...guess I wasn’t in the greatest of moods. Father’s talk that morning left me a little bummed. I didn’t realize it was anything so...prominent, though. “O-Oh...uh...thanks…” I brushed aside my loose bangs and looked over to her, and decided to change the subject. “Uh...what do you wanna do…?”

“Weeeeell, I have some games we could play if you wanna-”

For some reason, she stopped. Froze right in her tracks...and her eyes widened with...fear?

“Oh, what’s this now?”

There was a new voice in the room, one that I had never heard. I looked ahead to where Sevaline was staring. And...there was a woman there. She looked like Sevaline a bit, actually, but she was much older and had a sense of maturity surrounding her. She had silky red hair like Sevaline’s, but it was much more cared for and was slicked back in the front. The woman wore makeup and earrings that emphasized her beauty. She had a silk veil around her arms that swayed out around her back, matched with a red and black dress with high heels that just oozed class. And she had those same piercing green eyes Sevaline had. I didn’t think I’d ever seen someone as...beautiful and mature as this woman.

But while I was enchanted by the woman, Sevaline grabbed my hand tightly and pulled me behind her. I was worried now. Sevaline’s hand was...shaking. She was scared. Nothing scared Sevaline so much that she was visibly shaken by it. Who...who was this woman…?

“Hmhmhm, you have a little friend, do you? Why didn’t you tell me? I could have prepared.” The woman’s words were kind...I think. But there was something about the tone of her voice that...disturbed me, somehow.

“Go away,” Sevaline spoke up. “I wanna play with her.” Her voice sounded off. She...she was definitely scared. And that was scaring me.

“Now that’s rude of you, dear,” the woman continued as she slowly approached us. “You should really respect your mother more, you know.”

The woman was...Sevaline’s mother. I was starting to understand. Sevaline ranted about how much she hated her mother often. But...she seemed so kind so far. She just sounded concerned. What was so bad about this woman that made Sevaline hate her so much…?

“I brought you into this world, you know?” Then...she put her hand on Sevaline’s shoulder. And she leaned in close to her, speaking into her ear. And I could see her...staring at me as she spoke.

“Oh Sevaline...you still disappoint me.”

Something shot through me there. This...this wasn’t right. This definitely wasn’t right! This woman, she...she spoke to Sevaline so intimidatingly. And that...that was cruel to say to your child, wasn’t it? And the way she stared at me...like she wanted to make sure I knew what she thought about Sevaline. Like she was just...expecting a reaction. It...It was so...so mean. It was malicious. It...wasn’t what a parent was supposed to act like. It couldn’t be. I...I really hoped that it wasn’t.

She stared at me more directly now. “And who are you, hm?”

I choked on my words for a moment. “P...P-P-P….Prim…”

“Ah, I see, then you’re Dexis’s child,” she said. She knew Father…? “I’m amazed Sevaline has a friend…” A grin suddenly twisted itself onto her face. “...Though I guess someone as emotionally stilted as that man might spawn someone less socially aware.”

W...What…?

I...I didn’t know why that hurt so badly. It wasn’t much worse in theory than just a standard bully’s remark. But...but the way she said it cut so deep. This woman...she scared me, too. I could feel my hand gripping Sevaline’s tight, and she gripped tightly back. This woman, Sevaline’s mother, wasn’t like just another bully slinging blind insults. She had precision. She tried to cut deep. There was a sadistic quality in her voice that made it feel like...like she was satisfied by her own words. She was proud of herself when she hurt someone.

And she knew exactly what to say to get that reaction.

“Are you sure you really want to run around the palace now, though?” Sevaline’s mother leaned in close again, and put her hand near Sevaline’s face. “Why, your father is already so stressed, Sevaline, dear...Between running from war and dealing with…” She chuckled, but I could tell it was a very intentional slip. “I mean, raising you.” Her grin widened as she gently stroked Sevaline’s hair, like she was petting an animal. “Why, it’d be a shame if you only made him more miserable today, wouldn’t it?”

I looked at Sevaline. This was supposed to be the part where she got angry, and she started swinging her fists, and I’d have to hold her back. But...but no. She stood there. Silent. And...empty. It was like she had stopped paying mind to her surroundings and all she could focus on was those words. That scared me even more than the woman speaking to her. This...this was my Sevaline, right? The same Sevaline who had a fire in her eyes that could never be extinguished? But here she was, burnt out by just a few words. I...I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t accept it. It...It couldn’t be real!

And then...the woman went for the kill.

“You don’t want to be a bigger burden, do you…?”

A gasp was caught in my throat. No. No, this couldn’t be right. This woman...she couldn’t be Sevaline’s mother. No woman this...cruel could raise my Sevaline. This had to be some imposter. I refused to believe it, that this person could say such mean things so intentionally to someone so nice and...and ever be considered a “mother” to them! It had to be a lie. It had to be. I didn’t have a mother...but I knew this wasn’t how they were supposed to treat their children. I...I was ready to say something. I couldn’t stand by and watch Sevaline despair like this. Her hand...it was gripping mine so tightly now. It was beginning to hurt, even. I couldn’t let this happen. I had to...I had to say-!

“That’s quite enough.”

Before I could say anything, there was another new voice. I turned to look...and there he was.

Prince Malchior Oleander. Sevaline’s dad.

The Prince...er, Sevaline’s father walked up to us, and looked at Sevaline’s mother...er, his wife, I guess, with a smile. Though it was...obviously rather forced.

“Yelissa,” he said, “I’m fine, I’m glad to see that Sevaline’s close enough with someone to bring her over. It’s no burden. Honestly, it relieves me a bit. Though I’m thankful of you to be concerned about me.
Sevaline’s mother, who I guess was named Yelissa, had a suddenly grumpy expression on her face. The Prince managed to kill her twisted smile...I was both relieved and impressed. But it came back, though she was forcing it herself, now.

“Oh, it’s no problem, sweetie,” she said. “Just make sure you remember what you should be doing, hm?”

With that...she walked away.

It felt like a weight was lifted off of me. But...then it felt like there was an even bigger one on me. That is, on my hand. Sevaline’s grip was...incredibly tight now. I felt my hand start to curl up and go numb with pain, and I was starting to wince. She finally got her sense back together and let go, and...and I could see, for a moment, how scared she was that she hurt me. It was a bit of a comfort, I guess, and she seemed to be getting back to herself rather quickly once her mother left.

But...that was all so much. I couldn’t...I couldn’t understand how Sevaline could survive through that so often.

But then she saw her father...

“Papa!” She clung to his leg. She was smiling, and thanking him...it was a total switch from a moment ago! I was...honestly kinda shocked. I knew Sevaline always had some...back and forth tendencies, but seeing her so miserable in one moment and so happy in the next...it was really weird. I mean, it’s not like I didn’t want Sevaline to be happy or anything! But...I was starting to feel a disconnect, you know? Like I didn’t understand her quite as much as I thought I did.

“You’re Prim, right? Prim Zebanon?”

Ah! I was stuck in my head and distracted. It took me a moment to realize the pri-I mean, Sevaline’s father was talking to me. He was rubbing Sevaline’s hair playfully as he did...and he was smiling.

“I believe we’ve only met once or twice during work with your father,” he went on. “I’m glad to see you’ve been a good friend with Sevaline.”

Eh? W-Was I blushing? I didn’t know why...I was happy with what he said, I didn’t see a need to be embarrassed. M-Maybe it was just being complimented by royalty! I just nodded and thought of whatever I could say.

“U-Um, yes! It’s a pleasure to see you, Majest...er, Mr. Oleander! I-I really like hanging out with Sevaline so I’m sorry for being here so suddenly!”

It...wasn’t the most impressive phrasing but I guess it worked.

“It’s fine, really,” he responded, chuckling. “Would you kids like anything to eat, or to drink? I have time I could spare for now.”

And...I’m still kind of amazed at what happened then. I was sitting at a looong, fancy dining table, fit for royalty, as the ruler of the entire kingdom stood in the kitchen working on a cake. I’m pretty sure I even saw him wearing an apron at some point.

Now I was...really, REALLY confused. I knew that what Sevaline’s mother did was wrong. It wasn’t how a parent should treat their child. But...what was this? I-I didn’t expect Sevaline’s father to be so...doting. He spoke so kindly to her, and seemed really focused on making her happy. I could tell he was tired, and he had this...sad air to him. But he seemed to be trying so hard...he was so passionate about his daughter…

I gotta admit...I was kind of jealous of her in that moment. Which is just selfish of me. I knew she had someone looming over her life, but in that moment...when her father sat down at the table with us, fed us cake he made himself, scolded his daughter for her poor manners but kept smiling at her anyway...I wanted to know what that felt like. To be...actually loved by somebody.

“Now…”

The Prince’s voice snapped me back to reality again.

“...If you two don’t mind my curiosity, how did you two come to meet?” He was looking at me now, expectantly. “Sevaline hasn’t told me much about her time at school recently.”

I twiddled my thumbs and thought about it. “She...she helped me out a couple years ago when some kids were picking on me…”

For some reason, I felt like I was starting to choke up.

“I was super scared, and she was there to help me…” I clutched my hands together. “When I didn’t even know her…”

I was confusing myself now, too! But...I started to sniffle thinking back on the moment...and I could feel myself barely holding back tears.

“I-It really meant so much to me…!”

“H-Hey!”

I looked up and saw Sevaline, slamming her hands on the table and looking at me all concerned. The look on her face was funny...like she was panicking trying to fix the situation, but she didn’t know what to do. “Please don’t cry! Did I do something wrong?! Don’t cry, I don’t…!”

I wanted to respond, but her father beat me to it.

“I see!” He chuckled, somewhat teasingly. “My little girl’s a hero, hm? A little white knight come to save the damsel in distress...how forward! I honestly didn’t think you’d be that kind of person, Sevaline.”

Sevaline blushed and got embarrassed by him saying that. I did, too, but it did kinda cheer me up.

“Well regardless, I’m very proud of you,” he continued. He smiled at me. “And thank you for sticking by her for so long. I know she can be a bit of a handful at times, but it means the world to me that she has a friend her age.”

Sevaline got embarrassed again...but something about the way he said that made me feel a lot better. Ah, I was on the verge of tears a moment before, and there I was smiling and blushing! I probably seemed so odd to him. But...he was being nice to me, and he was being nice to Sevaline. So I was okay with it, for now.

The rest of the night felt like a bit of a blur, to be honest. I had to cover for Father when the Prince asked about my bandages, and I managed to divert attention away from myself by joking about the Prince’s loose hair. I-It was a little juvenile, but it was most convenient! And that got him all flustered, and got Sevaline laughing, and it was such a nice moment. There was a brief moment where Sevaline seemed to have to...cheer her father up, oddly, but the two smiled at each other and I was convinced things were okay. Eventually, the Prince left to go work, and Sevaline and I went off to go play. And it was really fun.

I didn’t realize how much I...craved that kind of relationship until then. I was so used to Father’s apathy, and to general displeasure surrounding me. My life wasn’t miserable. I didn’t feel as tormented by anyone as Sevaline did by her mother. But I finally understood why she was so adamant about protecting her father. He loved her, and she loved him. It didn’t look easy, but it looked so nice to me.

Having someone to love...looked so, so wonderful.

----

EARTH YEAR; 2031

Sevy was getting bullied again. I hated it.

I hated how mean people thought they could judge Sevy like that! Just based on their opinions of her father, they thought they were excused to be all kinds of jerks to her! Well, they weren’t! Not while I was around! A lot of people said mean things to her, especially after initial excitement of ground troop deployment on Earth wore off, but it was these three girls in our class that really got me so, so...upset! They were always harassing Sevy and saying cruel things to her in earshot. They didn’t pick fights, probably because they knew they’d lose, but it made me so frustrated knowing people got away with stuff like that!

...O-Oh, right. Sevy is...what I started calling Sevaline. I thought it was a...cute nickname for her. Using her full name started to sound so formal, and she always said she didn’t care about being treated like royalty by me, so, uh...yeah.

I...guess before I move on, I should...address something.

I think I was...falling in love, with Sevaline.

It wasn’t something I thought about until I was like...twelve years old, I think. I never really gave my feelings much thought until then, I just figured they were just the kind of emotions that came with having a friend. But I found myself always looking at her, thinking about how pretty I thought she was, overthinking what she thought about me. I mean, I was pretty young when I started thinking about it. I kinda wrote it off as a little crush when I really started thinking about it. But the idea wouldn’t leave my head that I might’ve had...deeper feelings for her.

And, uh, we were thirteen now. With stuff like puberty setting in (our life cycles are unsurprisingly similar to humans), love was just becoming a bigger and bigger deal in our lives. And...I don’t know! At some point or another, I fell! It was a weird feeling, but I...think it made me feel good. So...I don’t know, it was nice.

N-Not like I’d ever expect anything to come from it, of course. I wasn’t really good at reading emotions much, but I couldn’t imagine Sevy feeling the same way about me as I did for her. O-Oh gosh, I can’t even imagine how I’d react if it turned out she did. But that was fine. I thought about it sometimes, and it made me sad, but I still got to be her best friend, and I still got to stay close to her. So I was happy to be there for her. Yeah, I’d like for her to...uh, reciprocate my feelings, but I guess I just understood that it wasn’t meant to be. So I just kept it to myself and cherished what we had.

But Sevy was looking so sad lately.

That’s why I was so mad at those jerks making fun of her. Life was only getting tougher for her, and they were so determined to make it worse! She used to be able to smile through the hard times. But she was angry in public more often now, and sad in private more often. She had such a beautiful smile, and it didn’t get to shine. And those jerks were determined to keep it like that. It made me so mad!

But...I guess I couldn’t blame them entirely. Sevy would cry to me sometimes. Not because she was being bullied, though. Because someone sent her father a death threat, or because people were saying mean things about him, or because he had to brush her off because of his obligations as prince. It sounded like he was smiling less, and that he was struggling to be as doting as he was that first visit. And her mother sounded so unrelenting. Sevy always complained about her, but I don’t think she’s aware how much her mother has affected her mindset. Rants about her mother would turn into rants about how useless she felt. It scared me so much, as her friend and as...well. It was something I couldn’t bare to see.

One day, those bullies really went all-out on Sevy. I could tell she barely was able to maintain her composure. She seemed too tired to threaten them, but I knew she wanted to. I talked about it with her later, and she joked about it a bit, but her attitude...it was so sad to me. I couldn’t bare it.

When she got lost in her own negative thoughts, I pulled her back out.

“Sevy!”

Her eyes widened and she looked at me. She forced a weak chuckle. “S-Sorry. Head’s up in the air today, I guess.” She was blushing as I stared back at her...I wasn’t sure why. But it just made me more upset, for some reason. “W-What’s up…?”

I...don’t know what went through my brain next. Seeing Sevy sitting there...tired bags under her eyes, her expression pale, her face blushing, her hair untidy...it just made me so sad. I wanted to cry just looking at her. The world...the world was being so mean to her! Her father was growing cold, her mother was pushing her off the edge, and the entire kingdom seemed against her and her family. And I could see the entire toll it took on her face right then. It overwhelmed me. I just wanted to cry, right there. But..But if I cried, she’d cry. I couldn’t bare to see her cry now. I couldn’t.

So I...I hugged her. I hugged her as tightly as I could. I don’t know if I was trying to hide my own expression, trying to legitimately comfort her, or just trying to selfishly abuse the situation so I could act physically towards her. But I didn’t care at that moment, I just...I just really wanted to hug her. It confused her, but she didn’t push against it. I felt bad not giving any warning...but I just couldn’t take it. And I just..said the first thing on my mind.

“Sevy...I miss your smile.”

“Eh…?”

I hugged tighter. And I kept going.

“I know you’re scared for your father...and I know you’re dealing with a lot right now. But...do you mind if I ask something kind of selfish of you?”

“W-What?”

“Can you smile again?” It sounded so dumb saying it out loud. But...but I really needed to see it. “I feel like I barely get to see you really happy any more.”

We sat there for a short time, with me awkwardly hugging her. I didn’t think she could even move her arms that way. But I couldn’t think straight about that. I just wanted her answer.

She eventually backed away from me. And I...let her go.

She smiled at me.

“No problem.”

I smiled back. I...I knew, that it wasn’t a real smile. That she was forcing it for my sake. But I just needed to see it for that moment. To see that cute smile of hers again so I could remember a happier time.

But that couldn’t be the end of it. Sevy...Sevaline meant so much to me now. She was the closest thing to love I could ever recall feeling, even if she didn’t think of me the same way.

I couldn’t let her just be miserable.

I wanted to help her. I wanted to make the next smile genuine.

----

EARTH YEAR: 2032

I...I couldn’t stop her.

Sevaline, she...she lost it. I tried so hard to keep her back. I didn’t want things to end up this way. I wanted to keep her safe so, so much.

But...but that girl pushed her. And she pushed her, and pushed her, and she kept pushing until I couldn’t keep Sevaline back any more. I knew it would only get bad if this happened. But I...I couldn’t stop it! I wanted to, I really really did, but...I felt so...weak…

That girl...the one that had been bullying Sevaline all year...she finally crossed the line. She said awful things. She told Sevaline to go die. She deserved what was coming to her.

But...it was so terrifying.

I tried to keep Sevaline back, I really did. But she overpowered me and went on anyway. She punched the girl. And she sat on her stomach and punched her again. And again. And again. And again, again, again, again, again, again, she wouldn’t stop, I couldn’t get her to stop.

The girl...she was crying. And screaming. She was screaming for forgiveness as she spat up blood and as her nose cracked. I was screaming, too. We both wanted Sevaline to stop. But...but she seemed so blinded to it all. Her knuckles even seemed to be bleeding as she hit the girl in the teeth. But she just...kept going. She didn’t even notice it. It was like she was in a trance of anger.

It scared me...so much...I felt sick. I...I had to stop it. I had to stop it somehow.

I grabbed Sevaline’s arms and I pulled back as hard as I could. She barely seemed to notice at first, but I pulled, and I shouted, and I hoped desperately it would go through eventually.

“Sevaline, please STOP!”

Finally, my voice seemed to go through to her. She finally heard me, and felt me, and her fists slowed down. Finally, they stopped altogether. I kept muttering and begging her to stop even when it was already done. And there were tears streaming down my face...she could probably feel them on the back of her neck. I finally stopped when I was too tired to continue. We were all left in a momentary silence, save for the terrified whimpering of the girl beneath us and Sevaline’s heavy, exhausted breaths.

I wanted to say something, anything. But I couldn’t speak any more even if I tried. And Sevy...oh god, Sevy...I could see it. I could see her slowly realizing what it was she had done. I could see her raising her hands, finally seeing all the black blood oozing from them, both her own and the girl’s. I could feel her breathing grow panicked. I could feel her gently shaking. I could hear her start gagging...she sounded like she was going to throw up. And I just...couldn’t stop it. I couldn’t stop crying. And I couldn’t stop how miserable she felt.

Finally, I had to let go when Sevaline suddenly stood up, and backed away from us. She was staring at her arms, at her bloody hands...she looked worse than I thought…! Some of the blood splattered on her face and on her clothes, her hair was disheveled, and the look on her face...oh god, the look on her face! I can’t...I can’t get it out of my mind. She looked so lost, so confused, so sad, so scared. So scared of herself. I...I could tell she already regretted what she did. But more than that, she was just so...so crushed. I could see it. Her life crumbling away in that moment. It wasn’t fair...it WASN’T FAIR!

She tried to say something, but she couldn’t form any sentences. She stared at me. Like...like she was looking for something. Like she needed me in that moment.

And then...she looked scared again. And she ran away.

I...I failed her...didn’t I? The one I loved...I failed to stop her when she needed me. I failed to be her crutch when she needed me. Did...Did I look that afraid of her? I was scared of so many things in that moment. But...I couldn’t have been that scared of her. C-Could I have?

It wasn’t fair...it wasn’t fair at all. Good people are pushed and pushed to their breaking point. And now the world was going to throw this all back at her.

I had to go...I, I felt like...I was gonna...vomit if I...stayed any longer...

----

It wasn’t long after that incident that Sevaline was forced to leave school.

She was suspended for assaulting another student so badly they needed to be hospitalized. But I had the distinct impression they didn’t plan to let her back in. The incident attracted paparazzi and protesters. That wasn’t entirely new for the royal family, but this was on a whole new level. If the school didn’t separate themselves from the Oleanders now, it was likely there might be an attack by a radical anti-Earth rebel. It was scary for the whole school. But I knew it had to be scarier for her.

I...didn’t get to talk to Sevaline much after that. Father...he told me to distance myself from her while she was in hot water. To avoid giving our...his name a bad reputation. But that just made my heart hurt too much! This wasn’t about love or anything anymore. My friend...she was hurting. The nation hated her and was using her as a scapegoat for their stupid politics. I hated it. And she must have hated it. I...I couldn’t let her be sad and alone!

I was thinking about what I could do as I sat in the black chair in Father’s dreary office again. He said he had something particularly special he wanted to test today. Usually that kind of thing concerned me. But I couldn’t think about it at that moment. All I could think about was how I might be able to help her, to help Sevy.

“Hmhmhm...Today is an excellent day indeed, my daughter.”

I was shocked hearing that. Did Father just...chuckle? I looked to the doorway of the office, and...there he was. Smirking beneath his crooked nose and petite moustache. He held a particularly fancy syringe in one gloved hand. And he seemed so...strangely happy. In a cold way, yeah, but it...frightened me for some reason.

“W-What’s happening?” I asked. “You, uh...s-seem to be in a good mood today, Father…”

“Why, young Prim,” he said, slowly approaching me. “You speak in understatements. I am...positively ecstatic today. I cannot recall the last time I’ve felt so jovial.”

He rolled up one of the sleeves of my medical gown. He applied a numbing ointment, still smirking to himself secretly. I was starting to get disturbed. I never saw Father so outwardly happy. And...while he was readying a shot…? This didn’t feel right.

“O-Oh?” I tried to keep my cool, but my heart was racing. “What has you so...happy, Father? I-If you don’t mind my asking!”

“Why, progress, of course!” He squeezed a drop of purple substance out from the syringe to make sure it was working. “My words have finally reached the logical side of the Prince’s mind. He at last is prepared to personally man the Leviathan orbiting Earth.”

“W-What?!”

“I was shocked as well!” He flicked the needle. “But perhaps I should thank that delinquent daughter of his. Her outburst is what made him want to take her away from this planet, I feel. Some well-placed words by Her Majesty Yelissa and all it took was a little coaxing and appeal to sympathy to convince the man to take his daughter away from here. And he might as well attack the Earthlings while he does so.”

I wanted to vomit again. What...what was this? What was he saying?! He was being mean to Sevy, even knowing that I missed her, and he...he worked with that woman? Sevaline’s mother? And he was so happy taking advantage of her father...No, no, this couldn’t be right. This...this wasn’t supposed to happen.

“I think to celebrate,” he said, “I’d like to officially run my first test on the our new secret weapon...courtesy of Kal Excelon.”

He brought the needle to my skin. I wanted to swat it away for some reason, but I couldn’t get myself to move. He stuck it in, and the purple fluid ran down into my veins.

There was a brief pause. And then...my arm felt funny. It felt like it was distorting, shifting around...It...It hurt. It hurt a lot…! I-It hurt! O-Oh god, it hurt s-so much! Why?! W-Why did it hurt so m-m-much?!

My arm, it, it was..i-it was growing…! It was growing a-and shifting around, wiggling about, it felt like it was going to i-implode! And o-oh god, it hurt, it hurt so much…! I was screaming, whatever was in my arm was spreading. M-My veins…?! They were starting to swell, and burst, and...o-oh god, there was smoke coming from my arm…! It was smoking and distorting and growing and moving around like it had a mind of its own. My fingernails were like talons, my fingers were all flinching, I could feel my bones start to twist and snap, my blood felt hot, I was starting to bleed and black smoke poured out from the injuries...IT HURT, IT HURT, IT HURT! And I could feel it s-spreading...the veins in my neck, in my face, were starting to bulge...m-my right eye, it felt like it was going dark…! I could see myself in a metal reflection sitting across the room...my arm had grown huge, my eye had gone dark, it was...it was like I was becoming a m-monster…! I was scared and sick a-and in paaaain...m-make it stop, make it stop…!

Father slammed a second needle into my arm. Slowly, the distortions in my arm began to fade. It shrunk back to normal size...smoke stopped billowing from it...my veins stopped bulging. But...but it still hurt. It hurt so much. My arm was broken in at least a couple places. Blood was dripping from the injections and where my skin had burst from the smoke. I...I could barely breathe. I could feel tears streaming down my face, and I was hyperventilating. An oxygen mask was soon put over my mouth to help regulate my breathing...I was glad Father at least still cared for my-

“Hmhmhmhm…!”

...Safety?

“Still needs fine tuning, I see...oh well, it was to be expected.” He looked at the empty syringe of the fluid that distorted my arm. “But what excellent results. My, that was better than I had anticipated. Merely broken arm, internal and external bleeding...no need for amputation, as I predicted. Yes...yes, this is fine indeed. The Titan Formula will surely be a key part in turning the tides on Earth...Ah, I can hardly maintain my composure. I had forgotten what anticipation had truly felt like…”

...He was happy.

My...my arm was broken. I was crying. I was in pain. I don’t think I had ever felt such physical distress in my life. I needed someone to tell me I was okay, o-or to at least pretend like they cared. He...he was prepared to amputate. He didn’t tell me that beforehand.

I...I guess that’s when I had some clarity in my life.

I figured that...that our relationship wasn’t all that bad. That even if we didn’t show love for one another, we at least respected one another, we at least maintained some sense of symbiotic relations. I thought that was at least....somewhat healthy. It...it wasn’t as bad as Sevaline’s situation with her mother, so it couldn’t be that bad.

No...no, it was bad. He...he didn’t care about me. He just kept me safe for convenience. Now that he was actually happy about something, for the first time I could see...I couldn’t deal with this. Not alone. There was...nothing close to love here. Apathy and contempt were just...cut from the same cloth.

I thought about it.

The...the only person left that I knew, that I felt I could really trust to care about me, to show me any real care...she was leaving the planet. Living aboard a mothership surrounding Earth with her stressed father and terrible mother. My father would probably leave, too, with little regard for me.

I...I had to do something.

I couldn’t let her slip away this time. She was scared...I was scared…

I knew what I had to do.

----

EARTH YEAR: 2033

I had been living aboard the Leviathan, the Kalcion mothership stationed by Earth, for about a year.

I already knew the basic layout of the place. Father designed it, of course, so I had plenty of time to roam around it following him back when its construction was being finalized while it was still grounded. I was a little rusty on my directions, and I’ve never been great at directions anyway, but I was pretty quick to pick up the layout of the place again.

I didn’t exactly want to come aboard the Leviathan. For the most part, I felt like I just got in the way. People treated me kindly, probably because I was just a young girl and my father was a big deal on the ship, but I couldn’t help but shake the feeling I was just an inconvenience there.

But I didn’t really mind that. After all, I got to be with her again.

Sevy seemed more cheerful at first when we were on the Leviathan. We hugged for, like, five minutes back when she learned I had permission to come along. I only got on board with the promise of continuing to be my Father’s test subject...but I could live with that, for now. I had somebody who cared about me there, somebody I cared about. I...I felt a little love again, for once.

We hung out like we used to on board that ship. We’d talk, we’d explore, we’d find some game to play. She smiled at me, and I smiled back. She...she seemed happy again. I got to see her smiling. I was so overjoyed. I had to suffer through the pain of more experiments, yeah...but for now, I could tolerate that. I just wanted to spend time with someone who cared for me, someone I could make happy. That meant the world to me! It was the happiest I felt in years.

But...I guess that was too good to be true, huh?

There were still complications with the invasion of Earth. Sevy’s father had made his name known to the humans, and he was sending troops down, but he refused to send down a full-scale attack or a general. People were still frustrated at him. They were still saying bad things about him, even so far away from our planet. News broadcasts filled the Leviathan, a constant reminder for Sevy what our people thought of her and her father.

She got sad again. She got mad again. Her mother kept fueling the fire, I could tell. She tried to compose herself for me, but I could tell she was suffering more than ever after the initial thrill wore off. She...she was hurting, and she was blaming herself.

No, this wasn’t right! She was supposed to be smiling again...why?! Why couldn’t she just be happy?! Why did the world have to be so cruel to her?!

I...I never believed in any gods, or the almighty Kal Sha'Zuk, or any of that religious stuff. It never appealed to me. But...but I started to pray, anyway. I didn’t think anybody would hear me. But if they did...I wanted them to stop being so cruel to her. To just let Sevy be. To let her just...be happy again. And if they didn’t...then I wanted to know why, dammit! I wanted to know why they kept tormenting her! If they’re up there, and they’re just watching this...I’m upset at them, too! I’m...I-I’m...I’m PISSED OFF at them! Because it just wasn’t…!

...It just...wasn’t fair…

----

I started to notice Sevy changing. We hung out less often. She was out doing something almost all day every day. And...she started to hang around that man. I didn’t know who he was at first but I learned he was the Head General of the Kalcion Armada. Why was she hanging around him…?

And worse, I kept seeing her with injuries. It reminded me of myself, constantly coming to school with gauze and strange devices. But she looked worse. She looked tired, she looked like she could barely breathe, she could barely move her arms, and sometimes they seemed completely out of commission. I found some gauze she discarded that was covered in blood once. Another time, I caught a glimpse of her arms...there were scars all up and down it. Something happened. She didn’t tell me what, but something happened. It concerned me...s-she was getting hurt. How?!

But perhaps worse...her personality was starting to change. She was still kind to me when we had scarce moments together, and that lifted my spirits. But she seemed generally...angrier. Crueler. She insulted people that bugged her, she taunted people, she was channeling more and more energy into her frustration. She was growing some...sadistic tendencies. She even cut off most of her hair, only leaving it at shoulder length save for one long sweep at the side of her head, and it made her look less...majestic than she did before. And less like her mother. I could still tell she was the kind girl I fell in love with. And that didn’t change. But...but something about how she acted did. I wasn’t sure why. It was all so confusing to me, why she would embrace this cruelness that she tried so hard to keep calm for so long.

And...I learned why, eventually.

“The girl seems to be joining the Armada,” my father told me.

W….What?

“Malchior has been too concerned for her well-being,” he said. “I do not understand why he is so insistent on meddling in her affairs. Regardless, she is now under strict training of Head General Django Lox. He’s famous for his tough methods...considering how high she’s aiming, trying to replace him, I would not be surprised if he was working her to hell and remodeling her entirely to fit the image. He does not seem pleased with her persistence. But it seems easier to just let her try what she may. Perhaps it will be good for public image.”

She...she joined the army. And was aiming to be Head General. And she...never told me. To make sure I didn’t stop her? To avoid scaring me? She didn’t seem like she’d keep a secret because she suddenly hated me, but that scary thought popped into my head, too.

She...she was serious about all this.

She was seriously going to...to risk her life, all for her father’s name.

Is...Is that how love is supposed to work? I still don’t know. Maybe...it’s part of it, but it doesn’t seem right to me. Not that it’s necessarily wrong...but I couldn’t imagine anybody would be happy from this. But I...I didn’t think I could convince her to just stop. She was too far gone. Too serious about all this. I couldn’t stop her, yet again.

But...that didn’t mean I couldn’t help her, somehow.

“Father...is there anything in the military...I might be able to do…?”

----

EARTH YEAR: 2035

Trained for two years in hacking and database knowledge. I was smart enough to process all that kind of stuff.

Trained for two years in stealth and self-defense. I was...less good at that. I didn’t make for much of a great spy, honestly. I was...honestly pretty crappy at it.

But I had the benefit of Father’s technology and experiments. He used my desire to join the field as a means to test new tech. Invisibility, face-changing, remote control, voice changing, hacking equipment, everything that could make even a failure make for a decent spy. It wasn’t easy. And I was barely even prepared when I started. But it was the least I could do.

I was trained with a laser pistol and laser knives, but I sucked with those, too. My hacking skill was the only real advantage I had. But that was okay. I just needed to help a little bit, after all.

Sevaline was Head General now...Lox retired and chose her as his successor. Her missions had finally begun, and I could tell she was trying her hardest to be a terror on the battlefield.

But now it was my turn. My first mission...send details on the enemy, the Justice Riders, to the mothership so we could learn their secret identities.

It was up to me, now, to help in this war.

I didn’t care who won or lost, to be honest. The Earthlings hated us. The Kalcion hated us. I couldn’t care less who did what, to be honest!

But I had to figure it out. I had to get involved, I had to be of help. Not for any noble cause like honor or revenge or anything. I just wanted to know what outcome would make her happiest. I wanted to learn the point of this all, why the world seemed so unfair, what the best result could be. I wouldn’t be satisfied sitting idly by until I knew how I could save her! She saved me so many years ago...she was my white knight, saving the damsel in distress.

It’s my turn to be a knight, now! I’ll save my love, no matter what the cost! If we have to win...if we have to lose...so be it! I don’t care if I’m a terrible spy! And I don’t care if I’m in over my head!

I’m fighting for her...and I’m fighting for love. And I’ll do whatever it takes to keep that precious thing safe!

…Heh...guess I really am selfish, huh?
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Hersh/Fiendy has credit for the amazing GiGi pics and enigma has credit for the adorable Kenshin Mega Man sprite!

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Sleuth
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Re: Forum games and roleplays discussion thread

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Soul's father is alien Joseph Joestar.
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