Statkus was in a great mood. It'd been forever since he played that much Starcraft, and even though he spent most of the time in the PC Bang getting stomped, it was exhilirating. Oh yes, the Koreans really handed his butt to him on a platter, and even when he started playing with Toby, he didn't exactly do well. His old experience came back to him, however, and even despite the non-english controls, he did manage to beat newcomer Toby. Then again, that game was a free for all match between the three of them, and Cheonha finished him off. Statkus still felt it was worth it in the end.
And in the end Statkus stretched out in the comfy, fancy chair of the PC Bang, feeling pretty satisfied. The night was pretty much over - not in Korea, but in England, where apparently the coffeeshop Toby played from was closing. John lost a few more games to Cheonha afterwards, including one where he very nearly stopped her, before quitting for the night.
And night it almost was. Statkus had earlier suspected that Aldaris would beam them up before they even got to the PC Bang in the first place. Then again, the meal didn't take very long. Cheonha seemed strangely nervous about John, and when they ate at the street stall, she scooted her stool away from him. Statkus wondered if he smelled funny. This nervousness seemed to disappear when they finally settled down to play Starcraft, but even then Statkus suspected that she was weirded out by him. And that Aldaris would come take them away. But so far the Protoss hadn't so much as said a word.
Maybe he can't find me because I never gave him an important object. Statkus scratched his chin and started thinking about time differences. Well, Tanya's out of town, and I don't have work, so, today's as good a day as any to be stuck in Korea.
Statkus glanced over at Cheonha's screen. She was shutting down Starcraft and checking her email. And there came that awkwardness again. Now that they weren't distracted by Starcraft, Cheonha got very quiet, and her body tensed. John looked away before she noticed his gaze.
It's so weird. We've known each other for months now, but we don't really know each other. I don't even know what to talk about...
John looked out the window. It was a bright enough afternoon, but dark edges began creeping up on the sky, making promises of night. Where exactly was he going to go? He didn't have any money, and he couldn't imagine Cheonha letting him stay at her place overnight. That other girl from before would probably come back at some point, if she and Cheonha were good friends.
John.
Statkus' eyes widened, and after a moment he remembered to get the look off his face and pretend he was looking on something online.
Oh good, you're there. Statkus thought back at the alien in his head. What took you so long?
...The recall unit is ready. Proceed to a place where you cannot be noticed.
Statkus suddenly remembered his item. He patted his pockets, and the paper was still there, though certainly crumbled from being in his pocket for several hours. Uh, okay. I'll get moving. Let me tell Cheonha. Oh hey, I have that special item you said I'm supposed to give you.
A few seconds passed without response. Not in words, anyway, just a slow kind of dread. Very well.
Statkus tapped her on the shoulder, she winced, pulling her shoulder back. Instantly her expression went blank, and she blinked for a moment - clearly Aldaris had something to say to her. Cheonha nodded, and the two left the PC Bang. As the cold air hit Statkus' face, he realized that this wasn't going to work - between the heavy traffic, tall buildings chock full of apartments, and numerous street stalls, there wasn't any obvious place nearby where they could teleport out.
Cheonha, however, seemed to know where they were going. It took John almost the entire way before he realized that they were headed back to Cheonha's apartment. In absolute silence they made their way back to the apartment, and Cheonha let them in. She nervously shuffled around and closed all the curtains, while Statkus stood there, stiff and uncomfortable. Without the usual "prepare yourself" from Aldaris, blue tentacles of light wrapped around Statkus. And then, far less gently, Cheonha jumped at him and added her own grasping arms as well. The very instant the apartment faded away, Cheonha shoved him aside.
"Uh..." Statkus stammered, barely recovering from his stumble without a fall. "You didn't have to come, you know..."
Either she didn't know all the words, or she ignored them. They'd teleported to the observatory again, and Cheonha immediately searched her surroundings. Aldaris wasn't there, so she headed for the door. There wasn't a knob on the door, but some sort of circle-shaped item. As much as Cheonha poked at it, it didn't do anything - not until it opened, and Aldaris appeared on the other side.
Much to Statkus' shock, the dark glare on the Protoss' face lasted only a moment. Aldaris rolled his eyes and turned away.
"Both of you. This way."
Statkus took a second to focus before following. He always tried to hide his thoughts from Aldaris, and though he never knew if it worked or not, it made him feel better. So as he followed the Aiuran and the Korean to the bridge, he tried his hardest to have "quiet" thoughts. Which is why he didn't notice right away the cloud of gloom enveloping his host. Once they reached the bridge, Aldaris immediately sat down at the controls, without saying "sit down over there" or "do not touch anything." Statkus didn't notice this either, but walked right up to Aldaris, his paper in hand.
"Here's my item." Statkus held it up. "And I'd prefer if you didn't open it up and look at it. It still works if you don't know what it is, right?"
Aldaris stared blankly at Statkus any his paper as though they'd both come from nowhere. With a sudden blink of realization, Aldaris returned to the real world.
"...Yes, I need not know." Aldaris, without giving one hint to his momentary lapse, took the paper and cast it indifferently into a drawer. He then turned completely to the controls. "Prepare yourself."
Aldaris had said it often; Cheonha knew what that meant. She shoved Statkus aside and faced the alien.
"Aldarisu, sansangneem...uri ommani?"
One more the Protoss seemed to recall something, and his face took a sour note. The two of them entered into what Statkus could only guess was a psychic conversation. He blinked. Had he been missing something this whole time? What did Cheonha want from Aldaris? Was that what was making Aldaris so upset? Statkus suddenly felt very stupid. Here he was having fun playing some silly game when there was a lot more at stake. If a powerful alien was upset about something, then who knows what he would do?
I have no interest in harming your planet.
Statkus froze.
Might I also mention that your efforts to shield your mind are more amusing than effective.
Statkus dared to look up, but Cheonha still seemed to have Aldaris' attention. What little of it there was. Aldaris' stiff posture, his heavy, almost sleepy stare, and the drooping of his shoulders didn't seem to match the desperation of whatever Cheonha was talking about. After a minute, Aldaris simply touched a few buttons on his controls, and Cheonha disappeared into the blue. Aldaris reached up and rubbed his head, the same weight still clearly on his mind.
"Uh, is something wrong?" Statkus asked. "Are you close to finding a way home?"
Aldaris turned the red of his eyes toward the human, then stretched out and pushed another few buttons. More blue. Then Statkus' familiar apartment surrounded him. He glanced out the window. It had been near sunset in Korea, but here it was fully black out the window. The LED of his clock read 3:24. Statkus yawned, sitting gently on his bed. As much as he wanted to sleep, he wanted more to record what was going on. He had Cheonha's email address, too.
-t-
"Life...why oh life, why?" I muttered for the forty bajillionth time.
Me and life have a lot of arguing to do. Oh man, I've been up the whole night trying to pack my life away. Granted, a lot of it is still in plastic tubs from the fire, but I'm just so frustrated with everything that I could scream. I had applied for a bank job, but I just got an email saying that I didn't get it. That job not only would have taken care of my rent at a new place, but also I could have gotten a cute little pink scooter to go back and forth between work. I still have my shelving job, but is that really going to be enough? I've already been rejected for one place to stay. Yep, in less than a day, too. Which is why I've been up since five in the morning (it's eight something now), too stressed out to do anything besides move on with life.
As I've always done for the past several months, I turned to Infected Mushroom for help. As much as blasting Send me an Angel isn't going to give me a job or a place to live, it does make me feel better.
"Oh Duvdev, oh Erez." I sighed as I typed into my computer. "Make it all better for me."
There's something nice about singing loudly along with the hebrew lyrics of song that started to make be feel a little better. I made a mental note to play their remix of Atid Matok next. That's when I remembered that I don't have the cash to get internet set up at my new place. Oh my Mushroom...what will I do without you?
"Bethany, if you will consent to silence that noise for a moment, it would be much appreciated."
Aw. I hit pause on the computer screen. "Yeah, what's up?"
"I have decided to retrieve Cheonha's mother."
My eyes shot up. "Whaaat? What brought this about?"
"I have considered the matter. Though it bears a certain risk, I wish to aid her in this matter."
I grinned, despite Aldaris not being able to see it. "See there? You're a nice person. I told you so."
"Not nearly so nice as you believe."
"All evidence indicates otherwise." I chuckled. "Okay, so when are we doing things?"
"It is night in Korea now. When the sun rises, I wish to go. Unless you can see any further reason for delay."
I thought for a second. I have the day off, so that's plenty of time for me to do Korean stuff. Given all the time zone shenanigans, I'll probably miss out on a lot of sleep tomorrow night, but whatever. I'm not going to get kicked out in the next two days, so it'll be alright.
"Is something troubling you?"
Ugh, like I want to complain about my personal life to the unsympathetic alien in the sky. "I just have to move, for stupid reasons. Anyway, we need to think this out. And you remember that money that accidentally teleported to your ship when you first got here? I want to go with Cheonha to buy things in Seoul for the North Koreans. They'd get in a huge trouble, more than likely, if they were caught with something that had english words on the label. I also want to get into contact with Toby and bring him along."
"Bethany, do I assume correctly that you have been considering this matter since you first heard of it, despite my initial negative answer?"
"Maaabye!"
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Author's Notes:
- I really do have an excuse for late updates now. I don't have internet right now, so I have to travel to places with wifi to update. I also really do need to get on to profitable writing.
- I have seen most of LotV, but had to go to written summaries soon after. It's terrible. Maybe the gameplay makes up for the crappy story, but holy hell, the suck is strong with the plot.
- Oh, and fun time zone shenanigans! This is the first time I've really tried to make the time zones line up, and all but Toby's should be accurate in the past couple chapters. Without internet, it's kinda hard to look up the correct times. But if you think of Cheonha and John playing for a long time, then it should seem relatively reasonable. Should.