So, on my to do list:
1) Yell at the Paksis, see if I can get some answers.
2) Figure out more about Dita's background. Attempt to break her crush on me.
3) Break Zan's crush on me, preferably without hurting her too much.
4) See if Meia is alright. Hope and pray she doesn't add to the confusing pile of crushes.
5) See if I can get a ride back home from the Paksis.
I look up from the document I'm typing on my laptop. It needs rearranging. After a bit more thought, I add a few more items.
6) Figure out how Mejare and Tarak deal with sex.
7) Find out Jura and Barnette's relationship, get Jura off my back
8) Find a way to get the rest of the crew to stop avoiding me.
9) Get my arm fixed up.
I sit back against the bulkhead and stare at the grey ceiling. I slept until about noon after the party, and then found that a lot of the ship was giving me a colder shoulder than normal. It's because I made the team mascot cry. Of course, actually saying that out loud wasn't a good idea, which is why the cuffs are back an and the laser grid is activated.
This laser grid is the only thing keeping me from going down to engineering, to go interrogate the Paksis. It's an inter-dimensional hopper, which means it could have reached out to my dimension and plucked me up. Why it thought I was a good candidate, I have no clue. If it's not the Paksis, maybe it has a way of telling me who did, or a way to track them down.
It would be nice to get back to my shows.
Well, I can't think of any other tasks for the moment, so I save the doc and close the lid of my laptop. Since I can't deal with number one or two, I'll think about number three on the list. I don't really have experience breaking a girl's heart. I've only done it once, and that wasn't on purpose. That also ended in tears and violence, so I'm not planning on going that route. I could just be up front about it.
Hell, I could just be up front about all of the things. Just say "I'm not interested" and move on, and ask the embarrassing questions without shame. It's like I ever had much shame to begin with. It will make me the first anime harem protagonist to actually resolve things near the start of the season.
Oh god. I just thought I was a harem protagonist. Maybe I do need a therapist. Maybe I should be glad I can't watch so much anime while I'm stuck here.
I open my laptop back up and open up one of my random coding projects. It relies on the internet, specifically twitter, to work. I asked, there isn't twitter anymore. Or Facebook. Or reddit, 4chan, or even google. I don't know how google went under, but I bet it was spectacular. Really, they barely have anything that can be described as an internet anymore. Tarak has a military network that is basically a planetwide IRC server and that's it. Mejare has a TV system that allows for two-way communication, but no internet.
No wonder the spread of music is so slow and kind of outdated around here. They've regressed to the ninety's. Aside from Bluetooth, though that might have been around back then. I'm not sure. I still can't get over that karaoke machine though.
My code sits there, doing nothing. Even if I compile it, I won't get any signal, so it's useless. I close it out and bring out another of my projects, then another. I don't feel like working on my code to be honest, but what else can I do? I used to mock my dad when he told me I'd be useless if the internet ever went out, but it seems he was right.
The bars fizzle out, and I quickly close my laptop, instantly on my guard. Outside of my door is... not BC.
Meia stands there, arms crossed. She's glaring at me, which I guess shouldn't come as a surprise. What does come as a surprise is the faint red tinge on her cheeks.
After a few seconds of staring at each other, I break the silence. "Something you need, leader?" I use the term everyone else seems to be using.
"We're going to go over the formations while we're drifting through open space. I called a meeting and I'm here to escort you." She says. almost biting the words out.
You know, I never pegged Meia as a tsundere, but I suppose there's a chance. Or maybe she's just a bitch. Or maybe she has legitimate reasons to dislike me, and the strange ideas Magno put in my head are just plain wrong.
I set the laptop down, plug it into my external battery and get up off my bed. The external battery is running down, and once that's out I'll need to figure out a way to jury rig a power outlet from the Nirvana. "Alright."
Without a word, the cuffs pop off. I stand in surprise for a second, then pick them up and put them in my pocket. I no longer wear Hibiki's hand me downs, but my own clothes. They don't really fit that well, given I'm a lot shorter than I was back home.
My physique is something of a mystery to me. It seems like Hibiki and I joined bodies, as disgusting as that sounds. I'm a lot shorter, as I just mentioned, and I have the musculature he had. However, I still have my vocal cords and vocal range, and my face looks the same as I'm used to. My hair is now black instead of dirty blond, and strangest is the fact that one of my eyes changed from blue to brown, but not both. Hilariously, I don't have access to mirrors that often. The girls seem to have them, but they're personal items. It took me an embarrassingly long time to figure out how I had changed.
Still, with a belt and liberal rolling of the cuffs, I can wear the clothes I had brought with me.
When I bring my mind back to the present, we're on our way to the meeting room. Meia keeps glancing back at me and quickly looking away.
"Something on your mind?" I ask mildly.
"No."
I shrug and let it go. She continues a minute later though.
"I am curious to how you found the words to 'It's a wonderful world.' I though it was just a lyricless song."
"Ah. I just heard it before. I don't know all the lyrics, just a few lines." I blow it off.
"Yes, but how did you hear Mejare music?"
"It's... right, we haven't learned much yet. It's also on Tarak, just not the prominently."
"With lyrics?"
"Yeah." Hey, if it's popular in Mejare, that means lots of girls could know it, and that means it might not have been Meia humming to me two nights ago. I could ask her... I will ask her, since I decided I'm not an anime protagonist. "Hey, was it you who was humming that tune to me after we got off of that desert planet? I was mostly asleep."
She turns her head away, but I can see the blush on the tips of her ears. Well, that's that mystery solved.
"I- I saw how bad you were coming out of your pod, so I thought I'd attempt to cheer you up."
I leave my face blank, resisting the urge to apply a mischievous grin. "Aw, how nice. I thought you hated me."
She glares at me, but the fact her face is as red as Dita's hair kind of ruins the effect. "I do hate you, but I need all of my fighters in top condition."
"Got it." I smirk just long enough for her to scowl at me before letting my face go blank again.
We reach the meeting room, and Meia's cooled down enough that her face is no longer glowing. Arrayed around the room are the five or so squad leaders.
We walk in and she takes stock of her surroundings. "Where's Dita?"
Jura shrugs. "I don't know. Why don't you ask mister heart breaker over there." She points at me.
I turn to the blond woman. "I have a broken arm. I accidentally yelled at Dita when she grabbed it. It wasn't on purpose."
"You have a broken arm-" Meia starts, but Jura just plows on regardless.
"You also ignore her when we're working on our Dreads, and when we're eating, and pretty much any time you can." Jura continues.
"I'm trying not to encourage her." I respond.
"Hello, Duelo? Hibiki says he has a broken arm." Gascogne says lazily into her radio.
"Still, you need to be more attentive to your lover!" She says, with an air as if she knows what she's talking about.
"About that, I don't actually like Dita that way. She just seems to have decided that on here own. Anyone know why that is?"
"He seems to be okay, but he is cradling his right arm a bit, so maybe." Gascogne continues to talk into the radio, blatantly ignoring the rapidly forming argument.
Jura stands up and starts walking over to me with angry steps. "You're playing with her heart? I'm going to-"
Whatever she was going to do, Barnette placed her hand on Jura's arm, stopping the blond.
"I don't know how you do it on Mejare." I say in a flat tone. "But where I come from, we look for mutual admiration in a relationship, not one sided crushes. Also, marriages can't be performed without one of the parties present, and since I haven't attended my own wedding yet, I'm pretty sure that doesn't count as playing with her heart."
"I'll send him down once the meeting's over." Gascogne says, metal stick dancing around her mouth.
Jura opens her mouth to say something, but Dita chooses that moment to enter. Everyone tracks her progress with their eyes in total silence. Once she sits down, Meia coughs and gets the meeting started.
"Alright, now that everyone's here, let's discuss formation. First of all, we need to discuss our formation when Dita combines-"
"It's all right... It's all right." Dita says. "I won't be combining anymore."
Suddenly, I recall something similar happening in the show. Only, wasn't it over a pillow before? Glad to see fate's still forcing things along nicely.
Jura breaks the stunned silence. "I get it. You've gotten tired of the alien, haven't you?" She wags her finger back and forth knowingly.
Dita shakes her head. "Mister Alien can't be happy with me. So, from now on you can combine with him, Jura."
I receive several glares. Hey, it's not my fault she's delusional.
Meia speaks up. "Dita, I can't acknowledge comments that mix public and private matters. This isn't a game!"
It is a RomCom though.
"I'm sorry." Dita somehow manages to fold in on herself even more.
The rest of the meeting goes swiftly despite, or perhaps because, the dark cloud hanging over the group.
Sure enough when the meeting let out, the pilots go to comfort Dita, and Meia and Gascogne strongarm me into heading to the medical wing.
At least Jura isn't still yelling at me.
A few hours later, I'm all ready to go (In the future, we can set bones in hours!) I climb into a simulator pod. As we go through the checklist, I notice Dita's not paying much attention. Meia has to keep forcing her to pay attention.
Meia has allowed more new tactics after her experience yesterday, and when she asked for help it surprised everyone. The reason we're in the simulators now is because the new tactics are so out there that we can't test them in the field without great risk.
Jura's face pops into view. It seems she's forgiven me, at least for the moment. "I'm all ready! I'm always ready to welcome you." She says with a wink.
"Jura... This is the simulators. We can't combine. Besides, what would Barnette say?"
"Barnette?"
Meia cuts us off before we can get any deeper into conversation. "We're testing the first new tactic designed for use with the Vandreads. Go to formation Delta-"
For the next half and hour, we attempt several patterns just to see if any of them are viable, but it's pretty clear the Dita's really not got her head in the game. Meia tells Dita to go to her bunk and get some proper rest, and the tactics sessions ends there. Most of the other's left quickly, but I'm in no hurry to get back to my cell, so I linger in the simulator, adjusting some of the controls and settings. I had thought everyone had left, so when the hatch opened behind me, it gave me a violent start.
At least I didn't punch anything this time.
"What are you doing?" Meia asks.
"Just... fiddling with the settings. I wanted to know if I could adjust how realistic some things are."
"Are you sure? It looks like you're delaying heading back to your cell to me." Despite her words, she shows no signs of dragging me out. Instead, she props herself up in the door of the hatch so that I can neither leave nor close the hatch to start the simulation.
"Heh. That too. It's not that great in there, and I can't fix it until I know how this ship's electrical systems work."
"Electrical systems?"
"My laptop's battery isn't going to last much longer, and my phone's all but dead." I laugh without any humor. "I don't do well when bored."
Silence descends as I adjust a few more levers.
"What... are laptops?" Meia ask cautiously.
"Er, portable computers. Don't you guys have those...?" I think. "Well, I guess I haven't seen any around."
Meia again goes quiet. I adjust the last few dials. After a few moments of inactivity, I twist around to see that Meia is looking at me speculatively. "What?" I ask.
"I've been talking with some of the others. From what I can gather, you're not a typical Tarak male."
My stomach drops out. It's okay, I have a plan. Plan's are good. I can stay in control of the situation with plans. "I was raised away from any of the main cities in Tarak, so I don't really know how most people are." So far from the city centers, it's an entirely different planet.
"Yes, but Parfet and the bridge crew say that Bart and Duelo act nothing like you. Even they find your behavior odd. You don't buy into Tarak's propaganda, and you have a different reaction to us females than would be expected."
"Dita also had a 'different reaction.' Shouldn't you be interrogating her?"
"I'm not interrogating you, I'm merely making observations."
I pause. She has a good point. "Okay, go make observations at her then."
"Do you know why Dita is the way she is?" Meia asks.
"Nope." Something something home got shut down if I remember correctly.
"Dita has had a very hard life up to this point." Meia says softly, probably the softest I've heard in in person. "Her Ohma abandoned her Fama before she was born, and her Fama abandoned her soon after she was born. It happens a lot when the partners aren't legal bound in some way." Meia grimaces slightly. "She was then taken in by her community, but she was never really at home. Nobody claimed her for their own to raise her, so she spent her time wandering all over her ward. At least, until it was shut down. When that area of Mejare was cut off from the power grid, she wasn't given many options for survival. I don't think she chose to be a pirate because of the lifestyle, more a choice made from necessity."
I continue to look at Meia steadily. "Okay. And?"
"And because of how her childhood turned out, she doesn't form deep attachments to others. Or, that's what everyone thought until you showed up."
"Turns out she was just repressing something about her parents?" I take a guess.
"Something like that." Meia confirms. "Which is why she was following you around like a puppy up until recently."
"Look, it was an accide-"
"I heard you earlier, but I also heard Jura. You ignore her, even more than you ignore the other pilots."
How do I explain this one? 'Oh, I thought she had a crush on me and was trying to disillusion her?' That sounds terrible, even if it is true. "Wait, I ignore the other pilots? I talk to them when they ask me questions."
"You do, but you never initialize conversation. You constantly mispronounce Janna's name, and I doubt you even know the rest of the pilots' names."
"...She's not Jeana?" I tilt my head. It would explain the frustration on her face at the meeting.
"Exactly. So you have something against Dita, enough that it showed up before you knew her at all."
Uh oh. This is starting to go in a dangerous direction. "The first time we met, I didn't even understand her." I put some heat into my voice. "She just comes up out of nowhere, shouting at me and making strange hand gestures. It's no wonder I'm weirded out by her."
Meia shifts to stand over my seat. I can't exactly rise up to meet her given how the simulator pod is laid out. "I don't buy it. You have something off about you, and I've gone over the combat data from the past more than once. You aren't what you seem."
"How can I not be what I seem?"
"You present yourself differently depending on who you're talking to. It's subtle, but it's there. You refuse to actively engage any of the crew of the ship unless they approach you first. You don't seem to mind combat, despite not being trained to fight and the fact that our enemy is currently unknown. I can go on."
"I didn't realize you were a therapist. Tell me, how do I deal with the fact I like to hurt people?" I add a jovial component to my voice, smirking.
"The captain has showed me tapes of her and BC's conversations with you as well."
"...Well." I drop the smirk. "That changes things."
"They may not have figured it out, though I generally consider them more savvy then that, but I think I have. I've spent more time talking to you, after all."
I cross my arms. This seat is a bucket seat: too deep for me to spring out of. She has me trapped in here for the moment.
"Are we just a story to you? People with defined roles, lines and relationships? Are we just some drama that Famas watch in their downtime?"
I sigh. "No." Technically. I sure do love my technicalities, don't I?
"Enlighten me then."
"Why should I?"
"I could have all your stuff confiscated, have you stuffed in your cell, and left there until we get back to Mejare."
"If we make it." I respond neutrally.
She stares hard at me for a few more seconds. "When I was knocked out, I was put into a blue void, where something claiming to be the Paksis was talking to me." She says without much in the way of a tone. "It told me that you were an outsider, someone from a different universe. It told me that you are the greatest threat to the success of our trip home. Whatever it is, it's afraid of you."
"...I think it's about time I went and read that stupid sphere the riot act." I mutter.
"So, would you like to give me a reason to not shove out out of the airlock?"
"How much did it actually tell y-"
"Yes. Or. No."
I consider my options. "Yes."
"Yes what?"
"I'll tell you... some things."
"Not good enough."
I growl in the back of my throat. "Throw me out the airlock then."
"I'll do you one better." She forms a fist with her right hand, and I realize she has that ring laser on. "You have until the count of three to tell me who you are."
I stare into her eyes. She's clearly deadly serious.
"One."
I wasn't planning on this. At least I'm keeping my head. For the moment.
"Two."
"Fine." I throw up my hands. "Whatever. Don't blame me if none of it makes sense."
She doesn't lower her hand, the ring still pointed at my head. "Start from who you are."
"Hibi-"
Her arm twitches, and a laser penetrates the main screen of the simulator. I can smell the burnt silicon and burnt hair. "Not good enough."
"...John. I go by the name of John." I mumble. At least, sometimes. On the internet.
"Okay, John. Why does the Paksis consider you a threat?"
"You saw the recordings, right? I'm not Hibiki. I can't act like Hibiki."
"How do you know what this other Hibiki is supposed to act like? And how does that even affect our chances of getting back home?"
"You know that the Vandreads are really powerful. If the Paksis is so afraid of me that it can't operate, we will lose to the stronger opponents we'll face."
"Again: How do you know the future?"
I finally lose my temper. "Because you're a fucking anime! Yes, you're just a stupid show just like you suspected." I point to her. "You're all following a script, and I'm just trying not to screw with it too much. Are you happy?" No, cram the temper down.
Meia blinks a few times, processing this new information. "Why didn't you tell us?"
"Oh sure. I'm from another dimension, I know all of you, and i know the future. How long before I get thrown into a cell and abandoned like you just threatened me?" I glare daggers at her. "And besides, actually telling people tends to screw everything up. Soon I'll have absolutely no idea of what's happening because the story's so far of the rails that I can't predict what's going to happen!"
I can feel the synthetic material of the seat tearing under my hands as I grip it tightly.
Meia remains silently as I catch my breath from yelling. "You weren't planning on telling us at all then."
"No!"
She continues to stare at me. I stare back.
"Do you have proof?"
"Your Ohma developed some chemical compound that destroyed where you live. The blast killed your Fama, who you weren't on good terms with. Since they're both dead, you have guilty from that time, but the Paksis should have just finished helping you come to terms with that." I spit out quickly. "That's where the music box come into play, and why I know 'It's a wonderful world.'"
Meia is visibly taken aback by this, dropping her right arm to her side and eyeing me more warily than before. "How do you-"
"I just told you, idiot. You're a cartoon."
She suddenly grabs my arm, and I jerk trying to get her to let go, but she's got some serious muscles on her. She actually hauls me out of the pod before I can get my feet back under me. She starts to drag me away, but I twist and break free before she can take me more than a few steps.
"Come with me." She commands.
"I refuse."
"Come with me, or I'll tell the whole ship what you just told me."
"They won't believe you." I close my eyes and start thinking of some calming music to override my anger.
She tries to grab my arm again, but I dodge her this time.
"Try that again and you'll get hurt." I narrow my eyes and sink backwards slightly.
"What? You think you can fight me?"
"I don't remember you having any hand to hand skills." I growl. "I know one form of martial art, and my body has never quite been as powerful as it has been since I came here."
Meia weighs her options before raising her arm, pointing the laser at me. "John, back down."
"Why should I?"
She blinks incredulously. "Because I-"
I don't give her a chance to finish, sweeping in before she can switch from 'talk' to 'react' and grabbing her wrist with my left hand. I place my right hand on her right shoulder and bring my knee up to her elbow.
The crack and subsequent scream are both my recurring nightmare and my favorite dream combined.
I follow it up with an elbow to her face, unfortunately with my right arm that's still technically healing. I'm unable to follow up due to the pain, and stagger away backwards.
Meia falls to the floor, clutching her right arm in her left as she writhes on the floor.
I take two breathes and come back in, giving her a swift kick in the stomach to knock the wind out of her and hopefully shut her up.
She gags and throws up from the pain.
I peel open her hand and take the laser. I need to get out of here as fast as possible. Once Meia tells the other what I've done-
Well, I'm as good as dead.
I fit the ring on my hand and hold it out in front of me, prepared for anyone to come and stop me.
Why didn't you kill her? My thoughts crowd my head. You should've killed her. If she's alive, she can tell your secret. You can vent her out the airlock, say it was an accident.
Because I'm not indulging myself just to get myself killed.
Funny. Why does my spine feel all icy?
Okay, looks like I'll be making a detour towards the Paksis. I don't think a laser can do it much harm, but I can certainly try.
The hallways are suspiciously empty for this time of day. Several times, I see someone duck out of sight down a hallway only to be completely gone before I get to the corner they disappeared behind.
Someone figured out something was up, and told everyone to steer clear of me. That suits me fine, the Paksis can't move.
Once I get closer to the core, I start noticing that there are people following me. Security, if the brief glimpses I get are to be believed.
It's only once I get into the room where the core is housed that I realize I'm surrounded. Too bad, I reached my objective. I climb on one of the crystal growths, turn to the sphere which is currently in the process of turning red, and leap into it.
The blue and red void envelopes me, and the Paksis shake it's invisible head at me, or at least that's the impression I get from it. Then everything goes white.
"Here already?" Comes an unfamiliar voice. "Damn. I was thinking you'd last at least until Christmas before snapping."
I look up. Before me is a very plain man. Gray hair, gray eyes, gray skin, gray suit-jacket and suit. It's not anyone I recognize. "Who are you?" I point the laser at him.
He just chuckles. "My name is not important, but you can call me The Fixer."
This story us both going better and a lot worse than I thought. Better in that writing it is easier since I know myself well. Worse because I know myself well enough that I know had badly I handle difficult situations.