FULL CHAPTER TITLE: A Happy Evening and a Decisive Night
Hi, hi, hello, and hi! How's life?
No answer?
Oh, well.
So I think you all should know-Momoko-chan is telling them the whole truth, names and all. But since they don't know who KT is-at least that's how they're taking it-they think she's telling them in story form.
Also, the whole 'Humor' thing was supposed to be 'Hurt/Comfort' so...yeah...I'm gonna have some humor with Teto's meatloaf.
REVIEW RECOG!
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MoonStar1312: Meep. I was thinking it was just a real big flashback with people interjecting at points. But I digress. This may also be a huge "look-at-how-I-have-tortured-my-characters" info dump. Beware! ^.^'
...
I think I may be updating more frequently, after all. If anyone's wondering, "Hey, what's with the lack of reviews all of a sudden?" then that's why.
So, who wants to disclaim me today?
Yuri: OOH! OOH! ME ME PICK MEEEEEEEEEEE!
Uhm...Yuri, do you want to?
Yuri: YESH AH DO!
HERE! Just don't hurt me! XD
Yuri: 'Me, Teto, and pretty much everyone else you already heard of aren't Rose-sama's. She may or may not own our voicebanks, though. KT, Mary/Momoko-chan, Darly, and the rest are her brain...' what's a brainchild?
It's if you've thought of something, like E=mc2 is Einstein's brainchild.
Yuri: Oooohhh...well that's what everyone else is. But for Rose-sama.
ON VITH TEH STOREH!
Last time on Shut Down...
"YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO CALL ME THAT AFTER WHAT YOU DID, MICHAEL!" The woman screamed.
Mary looked at them questioningly. Mrs. Canfring just glared at her husband while answering the unasked question.
"Your father did something despicable to this family. Something very, very despicable. I, however, am not able to tell you apparently-" here her father shrank in embarrassment "-and we can no longer live with this man. Much as I'd love to be in denial, what he did is absolutely humanly unforgivable. So, good bye, good luck, and GOOD MOTHERPUFFING RIDDANCE!" Her voice had gotten louder throughout until she was full-blown screeching. She ushered Mary into her car and drove away, leaving Michael Canfring in his underwear in front of the family house. Mary thought she saw him cry out in anguish as they turned the corner.
Now, back to the present...
"Oh, wow, Momoko-chan...how..?" Momo trailed off.
I started sniffling, because it still hurt to think about when the world turned on its head.
"All we need now is for it to start with 'Once Upon A Time'...OW!" shouted Ted. His sister had slapped him upside the head for that comment.
"No, no, it's fine. Really!" I tried convincing them. It didn't work.
"Can I just say, KT fail?" Defoko asked rhetorically. Yuri didn't say anything, as she was too busy sobbing. Momoko brought her in for a hug to comfort her, and everyone heard the voice Momoko used when she was Komomo.
Well, I guess the cat's out of the bag, so to speak...
"EEEHHHH?" shouted Teto.
"Yeah, when she wants to, Komomo-chan can make others hear her." I admitted sheepishly.
After a second, Komomo added, With the day we've had, you can see how things are all over the place in our head, right? Everyone nodded. Teto then asked, "You two wanna have the guest bed?"
I nodded as Komomo did the mental equivalent.
"Well, follow me! If we wanna go to Miku's birthday party tomorrow, we'll want to be fully rested! That and you'll need a change of clothes Momoko-chan." Thus, we began living with the Kasanes.
TIME SKIP-0530
I skipped over to the dining table for dinner. I've heard that Teto can cook well, so I came over expecting food. What I didn't expect was it to be moving!
Komomo and I voiced our concern at the same time-"EEEEHHHHH?"
Teto looked up from the moving meatloaf with a grin. "Hi guys! Want some?" she asked, holding out a forkful.
I examined it: meat, sauce, and I really hope that's ketchup everywhere, but I doubt it. And is that...a TARANTULA?
"No offense, Teto-chan,"
But we think Momoko should handle this one.
Disappointed, Teto put it back. "Fine."
"It's just that, well...tarantulas and meatloaf?" I asked.
"I heard about this new delicacy-spiders in everything kinda sums it up." Teto admitted sheepishly.
Well, I'ma thinking you need to be taught by the master, Momoko-chan!
"If you say so..." trailed off Teto.
I pulled out a drawer. "Now, where doth thou keepeth the delectables?"
"Eh?"
I corrected my Olde English spazz, "Where's the food?"
"OOOHHHH, that would be in the fridge." Teto answered.
Opening the fridge, I mentioned off-handedly, "Yeah, I tend to occasionally slip into Olde English. When I talk, anyway." Ignoring Teto's 'WTFeezy' face, I took out the ingredients I was looking for.
"IT'S LASAGNA TIME!"
TIME-0625
"Dinner's ready! Come and get it!" I called down the hall.
Yuri was the first to react. "EEEHHHH?! I WANT FOOD!" she yelled happily before sprinting past.
Momo poked her head out of her room. "Who cooked it?"
"I did." I answered. Her face lit up, and she followed hot on Yuri's heels.
I heard beeping and shouts coming from Ted's room, and when I peeked inside, he was walloping Defoko in a race video game. "Did you hear me? Dinner's ready!" I repeated for them.
Ted sniffed the air, then shouted in delight. "It's actually cooked this time!" He then proceeded to bowl me over as he raced out the door. As I picked myself up off the ground, de-flattening my face in the process-man, that kid runs fast!-I saw Defoko rubbing her eyes tiredly. I was about to ask if she was tired, but Komomo beat me to the punch.
You sleepy, Defoko?
In answer, she said, "Meep." and toppled over onto her side. Thankfully, Ted had left his beanbag he had been in where it was, otherwise that would have hurt like the dickens!
"Hmm, long day?" I asked her.
"Yup."
Want some lasagna to go with that exhaustion?
"Only if I don't have to go fast or far."
"Well, then," I told her, "TO THE KITCHEN!" We made it there as the lasagna was being served up. "Hey, Teto, Defoko wants some!" I declared.
"Then it's a very good thing I-"
AHEM!
"-I mean, you, made a lot!" Teto declared.
Everyone got a good laugh from that. Yuri then proceeded to shout, "OM NOM NOM NOM!" at the top of her lungs, and hilarity ensues.
Let's just say it was A Bad Night For Tomatoes. Tomato sauce, to be precise.
MEANWHILE-ELSEWHERE IN THE MULTIVERSE
BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BE-
The seemingly unconscious child slapped the snooze button on their alarm clock, right before the song of the hour began on WUTA. It sounded as though IA's "A Tale of Six Trillion Years and a Night" was coming up.
The youth glared at the flashing lights, reading 3:27 AM. Blaaarghiness. Every time they would wake up this early, they could never get back to sleep in time for school. Grrr.
However, tonight was different. For example, the alarm would always go off at 6, and not a minute sooner. And the...well, I suppose I can't really call them a child, since they happen to be 15. But inside, that was exactly what they were-a scared, insecure, depressed otaku who had made horrible decisions in their past. Just about the only good thing the teen had kept from their childhood was their unwavering belief in the Triune God. This was being questioned at this very moment, however. The insomniacing teenager glanced in the direction of the medicine cabinets, then shook their head in disbelief at the thoughts they were having.
A siren's wail pierced the night.
The teenager peered out of the window to see a silhouette-their silhouette!?-run up the stairs of an old, abandoned nuclear reactor. That's when they realized-they were still asleep! But instead of dreaming, some sick, twisted idea had come into their head, making them relive one of the worst moments of their life! But instead of the world dissolving, the way it always did after that was figured out, it became even more vivid!?
Suddenly they stood by themselves, purposefully striding up the old rotting stairs, around and around, until they reached the top of the reactor's core, a gentle breeze blowing the Christmas snow all around them. Their long, blonde hair seemingly floated around their head, both the real them and the one of the dream, making shimmering halos, like an angel's. Except angels didn't intend to throw themselves into a nuclear reactor for Christmas.
A ticking clock, TV shows, and invisible people's laughter are...
For some reason, the English version of Meltdown filtered through the dreamlike reality, emanating from everything, that only the dreamer could hear.
Filling up all around me, and echoing inside my mind...
The teenager stared at themself. Am I really this baka, that I would let my friend's favorite song call me to do this?
Always surrounding me, and now are hounding me...
Answering their own question, Of course I am. I did that, didn't I?
Allegro Agitate...
The teen came to the realization that this had to end. Now.
The ringing sound in my ears just won't stop...
But what should they do? It's pretty much a given that whatever is changed here won't change reality.
Allegro Agitate...
GAH! It was just so frustrating!
The ringing sound in my ears just will not stop!
Wait a minute! That...that song!
The teen-both real and dream-crumpled to the ground, sobbing. Their life was in shambles, their friend's life was perfect! So they had let jealousy rule them. And now it was too late! Now it was too late to salvage what was left of their friendship! Now it was too late to apologize! The first time the teenaged person had lived through this, the next thing they had regretted was that now it was too late to rescue themselves. This time, they realized-
Now it was too late to even show her a sympathetic look, tell her in a face that they were so, so, so, sorry!
Or...was it?
Sniffling, the teenagers of past and present stood up, new resolve flooding them. The first time, it was to find the right moment to explain everything to her. Now, it was this:
I always was good at science.
The two walked back to where the stairs began, when, suddenly, they got that feeling of, "NONONONONONO! I CAN'T BE ABOUT TO SNEEZE!" But alas, they were.
I had a dream where everyone had disappeared
And in the dead of night all the quiet gripped me harder, harder
Closing in on my panicking neck
Till I could hardly breathe for the solitude...
Somehow, the dream self of the teenager had disappeared, leaving only the dreamer themself to grope hopelessly at their face and neck, trying to stop the inevitable diaphragm contraction, the sneeze that would be the death of the-he-hehhh!
AAAAAH-CHOOOOOO!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!
The teen's feet slipped out from underneath them, sending them careening to the ground 30 stories below.
Their last thought was, 30 times 10 for an average office building floor height, that would be three hundr-
Their eyes shot open.
There was a pause as they remembered the recurring nightmare they had had for weeks, but had been worse since it had happened. And then-
They knew what they had to do.
The teenager rushed out of their room to the alley where Mary Jane Canfring was last seen.
Three words for ya.
Six.
Trillion.
Years.
I got this epic subplot going just listening to it! XDDD
Any guesses on who Mystery-Person is?
Mystery-Person: Can I give them a hint?
NO!
Mystery-Person: Yeesh, you're mean...
Really? After you, you're gonna pull that bit?
Anywhoosle, I'm going to be auditioning for the school play tomorrow! Yaaay! And I got Bluetooth headphones! YAAAY! So life is good! ^.^
BAI! I'M TIRED! AND SLEEPY! AND ALL THAT OTHER JAZZ!
FOOD EATER VERDICTA IS OUT! PEACE!