Falias, Finias Chapter Six
Suggested Theme:
Main Theme- Cry Little Sister by Gerard McMann
Kazdan Kalinkas wakes up at 8:34 AM on Sunday, June 28th. He tosses back his covers and climbs down the ladder to reach his desk were his Scanner is off. He quickly turns it on and sees that he has a notification from Chaotic.
"I have a Drome match scheduled with…PeytonicMaster." He feels an itch on his mind, not for the player's username but for the rules on matches.
I know you can forfeit a match in the online card game by simply clicking "No" when someone challenges you, but I don't know what to do in Chaotic. I'm going to have to ask the bot the rules for matches in Chaotic because I distinctly remember not having a choice to refuse my first match. He feels bitterness well up in his throat when he thinks about his disastrous first match with Klayotic.
He goes over to his closet and slides open the mirror-door to the right.
When his dad immigrated to America from Ireland, he had only the clothes in his trunk and ten dollars in his pocket.
The ones from the trunk are the only clothes of his dad to fit him; his dad went from a skinny teenager to a muscle-bound warrior by the time Kazdan was born.
Post-punk asexual is what dad called his teenage style; he could afford to dress in studded leather jackets, more-belts-and-buttons-than-necessary-pants, and winkle pickers because he only had himself to support and his clients thought he was artistic chic.
Most of his dad's clothes are black, minus the clothes in the tail end of his youth, and could easily cause him to die from a heatstroke if he was going into a desert.
But he's not planning to go into Mipedian territory anytime soon.
I could style my hair, but that would mean borrowing mom's uber-expensive hair spray. The last time I did that was when Tom and I wanted to make our hair like Sora's from Kingdom Hearts. We used the entire bottle, and my mom yelled at me for that. But I was ten, how was I supposed to know that her hairspray cost as much as groceries?
He smiles at the old memory and gets dressed for Chaotic.
When Kazdan ports into the PortCourt, he theorized that either everyone will stare at him or they will straight up ignore him. He is expecting the latter.
And the latter mostly happens. Though he does get checked out by a red-eyed, brunette with a ponytail as he walks by her table.
It takes all of his willpower not to blush because he doesn't want to ruin the dark mystique that his outfit gives off.
He is dressed in one of his dad's more functional, Goth outfits. He has on a leather jacket with short, silver spikes on the cuffs and flared-out collar over his sleeveless black shirt. His shirt is tucked into his high-waist, black jeans, while the bottoms of the jeans are tucked into his winkle pickers.
His winkle pickers are short boots with long, pointed toes that has three silver buckles lashing against the leather.
His neck choker has a Celtic cross swaying like a clock's pendulum.
His fiery hair is slicked back and half his face is hidden under black sunglasses.
He walks with self-assured confidence that keeps the brunette's lascivious gaze.
He takes a seat upstairs, far away from the ogling brunette, and raises a hand to get an attention of a bot.
"Are you going through one of those human midlife crises?" His eyes nearly bug out when he hears that familiar dry drawl.
"It's you again!" He exclaims and the bot huffs like he's rolling his eyes.
"Yes, I do have other duties than attending to the acute breakdowns of newbies." Like what? Getting drink orders? He cannot imagine this prim bot carrying a tray of Shimmark Shakes to a table of hooting players.
"Like answering questions of newbies. I have a few." I'm here for answers, not to be an ass to the bot.
"Go ahead."
"I have a scheduled Drome match today. And I was wondering what would happen if I didn't show up for the match?" The bot stares at him, or as much as he can tell, like he was an idiot.
"You would lose the match." He rolls his eyes from beneath his sunglasses.
"Would I get kicked out of Chaotic if I didn't show up for the scheduled matches?"
"No, you won't be banned for doing that. Some players actually haven't done a Drome match after their first match because they prefer exploration of Perim over the game. However, if you win seven Drome matches in a row in the same Drome, then you get challenged by the CodeMaster of that Drome." The bot sounds almost excitable at the end. I guess beating a CodeMaster is some kind of great honor?
"What happens if I beat a CodeMaster?"
"Then, the CodeMaster will give you a scan from their Scanner that certainly no player has." His brown eyes light up at the prospect of an Ultra Rare Location that he, and the CodeMaster, has access to. And he won't have to spend hundreds of dollars on packs to get Ultra Rare cards.
"And I take it if I lose, then I have to go through the process again?" The bot nods, and he can hear the mechanical whirr of that nod.
"You mentioned that I won't get banned for not playing any matches. How does a player get banned from Chaotic?"
"If you are found cheating during a Drome match, the CodeMaster can ban you. If you destroy Locations in Perim, then you will be banned. Those are the most common ways a player can be banned." I remember him saying I could die in Perim, but I won't die on Earth. Which means a player can kill another player. He feels a cold lump form in his throat.
"What….What happens if a player kills another player?" The bot pauses as though going through a thousand scenarios for the proper answer.
"That depends. If the victim had friends, then the friends can file a report to the CodeMasters and the CodeMasters will investigate and most likely ban the murderer." If the victim had friends echoes across his mind like a scream in the Crypt of Eternal Echoes.
"I would suggest that you make at least one friend while you're here." Yeah, if I can hold onto them. Tom flashes through his mind.
"I will take that under advisement."
"If you're going into the UnderWorld in that, you'll be another player that died from the elements." He snorts and shakes his head at the bot.
"No, I'm going to Kiru City." He waits for the bot to quip about how he'll die.
"Wise choice. Kiru City has a bit of a cold front going through the Location, so you won't die from the summer heat." I think I just got another compliment from him. I have a feeling that he doesn't give those lightly. He smothers down a cocky grin, not wanting to insult the bot.
"I didn't know you could get weather updates on Perim here."
"Most players don't bother asking us anything aside from drinks or food." He hears bitterness in the dry, robotic voice. I have a feeling that this bot can rival HAL in the sophistication of his AI programming.
"They're missing out." On so much sarcasm. He could've added, but chose not to.
"Quite. You best enjoy your day-off while you still can; I doubt Chaor will give you another anytime soon." Kazdan nods, knowing full well that Chaor isn't the kind of Creature to be generous with breaks.
Unless he's breaking necks. And as long as I keep my head down, I should be fine. He grimaces, not quite believing he'll ever be truly fine in Perim.
"Yeah, I'm heading off. Thanks for taking the time to help me again." He almost reaches out with his hand for a cordial handshake, but remembers that this bot has better things to do than shake some human's hand.
"It was my pleasure." The bot then turns away, and Kazdan wonders if bots can blush.
Kazdan leaves and heads to the Transport Disc to port himself to Kiru City.
Kiru City looks nothing like UnderWorld City; the OverWorld is the Day, while the UnderWorld is the Night.
And Day it is. He thinks as his sun glasses protects him from the sun that shines on the city like a beacon of hope.
He rolls his eyes from beneath his shades.
From the card, Kiru City is surrounded by an ancient wall with many battlements armed with sentinels. Inside, there are dozens upon dozens of white and brown stone houses, shops, and even some towers. However, Maxxor's Palace juts out in the middle of the city like Pride Rock.
Looking around here, the actual Location is far bigger than the card led me to believe. And there are far more Grecian columns and Italian Renaissance domes than I thought there were going to be. He also notes that the streets lack polluted puddles and mutant rats scurrying about.
The streets are clean minus some dust, so either Maxxor has a "no litter" law or he has a squadron of janitors under his employ. Probably the latter. However, this place might be more cluttered than the UnderWorld since all of the buildings are tightly packed against each other. Then again, I doubt the founder believed his city would grow this big. Most of Earth's great cities grew far beyond what the city planners had in mind originally.
He looks up at the palace and marvels at the illusion of closeness that it casts.
That's like a two-hour-trek and I'm not even including how many godforsaken stairs I would need to climb up to reach the top. I doubt they'll ever let a human near that holy place. He looks around and sees some humans milling about in the stream of Creatures walking through the open plaza.
I guess those aren't newbies if they aren't scanning every Creature in the area. Or they could be like me and just want to sightsee, and maybe catch a scan later. He watches as some of his fellow humans chat like they were all good friends.
Maybe I should go over and introduce myself, make a friend like the bot said. He catches the eye of a green-eyed blonde; she raises an eyebrow at his look and a guy with an afro whispers something in her ear. They both laugh under their breaths.
He frowns and walks away from them.
Maybe I'll bump into someone like in the UnderWorld. Someone who won't hurt my fragile ego. He burns with indignation at his own sensitivity.
I've always hated when people laughed at me. Elementary was for my talk about the Otherworld. Middle school was for puberty, but everyone suffered from that. High school…I don't know what. He is not looking forward to PE because knowing his luck, he'll get the bullies in that class.
I want to believe if I keep my mouth shut, then I won't get picked on, but who knows? I thought keeping my head down would keep me safe in the UnderWorld. And then I wind up being a nanny for Chaor's love child and watched a Creature be nearly beheaded. His stomach squelches as he thinks about the head hanging on by a stringy gristle.
Ugh, I'm really glad I didn't eat anything at the PortCourt. And where the Hell am I? He finally takes notice of his surroundings and finds himself in a "sketchy" part of the city.
I see a few broken windows and some houses boarded up. So is this a bad neighborhood? Compared to the UnderWorld at night, this neighborhood looks less scary. Still he looks over his shoulder every now again and keeps away from alleyways.
Eventually, he chooses to stop at a small building with the only sign he sees for miles.
The sign is hanging from a pole much like Inferno Inn's, but the Creature pictograms look freshly painted in OverWorld blue. There's a symbol that looks like a pinecone if it were made of blue velvet petals underneath the words.
Is it some kind of OverWorld flower? Maybe this place is an OverWorld version of a flower shop? He looks at the darkened windows and the tattered blue tarp acting as a door, and finds himself doubting that.
I am in a sketchy part of town, so maybe this is a bar or a drug den? Probably a bar since I don't see someone as stalwart as Maxxor allowing drugs. And do drugs exist in Perim? He steps through the tarp.
Inside, is a bar with two Creatures and a small stage with a guitar leaning against the wall.
Wait, I think the bottom half is a Mugician's Lyre! I guess Mugician's Lyres are customizable. He looks at the Creatures at the candlelit bar. Both the Creatures are green-skinned, but one has asparagus-green skin and is polishing empty glasses, while the other has lighter-colored skin and has purple-streaked, black hair. His face is buried into his arms like he's sleeping.
"You better be here to buy a drink." The bartender glares at him with dark yellow eyes. Kazdan shakes his head.
"Either play us a tune or get out." The bartender brusquely delivers his ultimatum like he expects the human to cause trouble the longer he's there.
Kazdan grits his teeth.
Why am I always looked down upon when I've done nothing wrong!? His mind flashes back to the blonde laughing at him, to the put-upon look of the Ogress, to being beaten up and left in a dumpster earlier this summer.
Anger licks at his mind like fire from a bonfire and has him stalking up onto the stage.
He pulls out his Scanner and searches for the one song to channel all of his anger in.
The drums and synth erupt from his Scanner like the herald of the Apocalypse.
"Last fire will rise.
Behind those eyes.
Black House will rock.
Blind boys don't lie!"
Lost Boys is his mom's favorite movie and she played it a lot when he was a kid; he watched it enough time to know this infamous song forwards and backwards. He always found singing the song almost therapeutic since it requires him to suffuse anger and to pretty much scream his lungs out. Unfortunately, he doesn't get to sing this song as often because of that.
"Immortal fear.
That voice so clear.
Through broken walls.
That scream I hear!"
But it does make the Creatures look at him, and he has to stop himself from gaping when the Creature with purple highlights looks a lot like Maxxor. If Maxxor was going through a punk phase.
"Cry little sister!
(Thou Shall Not Fall)
Come, come to your brother!
(Thou Shall Not Fly)
Un-chain me sister!
(Thou Shall Not See.)
Love is with your brother!
(Thou Shall Not Fade)"
Maxxor's probable bastard is grinning like a madman. Which causes Kazdan to grin too.
"Blue masquerade.
Strangers will come.
When will they learn
This loneliness!
Temptation lead.
Beats like a drum.
Deep in your veins.
I will not
Loves little sister!
(Thou Shall Not Fall)
Come, come to your brother!
(Thou Shall Not Fly)
Un-chain me sister!
(Thou Shall Not See)
Love is with your brother!
(Thou Shall Not Fade)"
The organ music takes over for a minute, but it feels like an eternity of menace. Kazdan moves his fingers in the air, pretending that he's playing the organ.
"My Shangri-La.
I can't forget.
Why you were mine.
I need you now!"
"Cry little sister
(Thou Shall Not Fall)
Cry, come to your brother!
(Thou Shall Not Fly [heay-yeah])
Un-chain me sister!
(Thou Shall Not Sleep)
Love is with your brother!
(Thou Shall Not Fear)
Cry little sister!
(Thou Shall Not Fall)
Come, come to your brother!
(Thou Shall Not Fly)
Un-chain me sister.
(Thou Shall Not Feel)
Love is with your brother.
(Thou Shall Not Fear)
Cry little sister!
(Thou Shall Not Fall)
(Thou Shall Not Fly)
(Thou Shall Not Hear)
(Thou Shall Not Fail)"
Kazdan ends it with the cheesiest fist pump he has ever done, but he's too caught up in his adrenaline at proving these to Creatures that he can be something other than annoying.
And then he gets yanked off the stage by Maxxor's bastard son.
"You have to tell me about human music! Does it all sound like that? And I recognize the drum, but it sounded distorted and what was that screech in the middle!" Those are the only questions that Kazdan can catch since the Creature is speaking at a million miles a minute.
"There's all kinds of human music." Kazdan manages to offer the nameless Creature, trying to squirm out of the Creature's grasp.
"Oh, sorry," The Creature lets him go. "I don't even know your name…"
"I'm Kazdan Kalinkas." Pretty certain going with KidChaor would result in a beating around these parts.
"I'm Accato, Maxxor's cousin." Accato stresses cousin like he knows that Kazdan thought he was Maxxor's kid. I guess he gets that a lot, but he certainly doesn't hold a grudge over it.
"Nice to meet you, Accato." And he means it.
"You look thirsty; do you want a drink?" I've had wine before, but that was in the UnderWorld and I don't think they gave a shit about my age there. Maybe the OverWorld's the exact opposite and Accato will get me clean water. Kazdan nods, and then gets dragged to the bar.
"We'll take two Blue Junipers!" Accato flashes a two silver coins with the OverWorld symbol on them.
"Coming right up." The bartender sets to work on making the drinks. Kazdan wants to watch to see if the bartender will do something special like turn fire into liquid, but Accato takes his eyes and ears.
"So are your Scanners like Mugic and you can record your songs on them?" Kazdan mulls over how to explain ITunes to a Creature.
"First, the song I was singing earlier belonged to another human known as Gerard McMann and the people who helped wrote and produced it. I got that song from a store that sells recorded music and add it to my Scanner's music library." He pulls out his Scanner and toggles to his music library, and then hand his Scanner to Accato.
"Uh…..I don't see anything except darkness." Oh, I guess Creatures can't access my Scanner! I don't know if the bot explained that to me when we first met. Kazdan then takes his Scanner back and sees his music library. This time he flips it over for Accato to see the screen while the Scanner is still in Kazdan's hands.
"Oh, now I can see it! There's so many pictures of music in there!" Kazdan swears that a cartoon dog smelling a steak has less slobber than Accato.
"The pictures are album covers. Album covers are art for the music. Albums are compilations of songs by a musician or a band. A musician or a band are the ones who sing the songs." Kazdan explains succinctly, almost acting as a depressant to Accato's boundless energy.
"Are you a musician?" Accato at first was going to say Mugician, but was able to catch himself.
"No, I'm just—" Their drinks arrive with a clink on the dark bar wood. The Blue Junipers are in small glasses shaped like a gnarled branch with the sign's symbol in the drink.
I guess the bar is named for the drink they serve. He picks up his glass and takes his first experimental sip. He nearly gags at how sugary the drink is and the aftertaste of bitterness that hits him.
The bartender returns to polishing his glasses, not caring about the opinion of his patrons so long as he gets paid.
"I'm just a fan of certain musicians. I like singing." And that's all I'm good at when it comes to making music. It's not like I wouldn't mind learning an instrument; it's just I don't have the patience for it.
"I like singing too and playing my customized lyre! It sounds almost like the lyre in your song, except it's not as…electric." Probably because your lyre is more an acoustic guitar than an electric one.
"Well, the lyre is called a guitar…" And Kazdan spends the rest of his day off regaling Accato on his limited musical knowledge. When night comes, Accato had to hurry home to his folks, while Kazdan promises he'll meet up with again next week. It is only when he has ported his code home that he realized something:
I forgot to scan him!
Author's Comments- Here is the link.
Here is what inspired Kazdan's outfit, except I tried to make it the male equivalent and a little more functional: a href=" . "Link/a
The brunette with the ponytail that was checking out Kaz was Krystella because I think Krystella would find Kazdan handsome in his get-up. It probably helps that he's confident and I think Krystella likes confidence. As much as vileness.
The blonde talking to the guy with an afro is actually Sarah. You see that's a nod to her first appearance in the show, which was in "Welcome to Chaotic Part I," where she was talking to a guy with an afro. Also, readers might construe Sarah as being needlessly mean; she's actually more grounded to me. You see my dad and I like to watch people in malls when my mom and sister are on a shopping spree, and we tend to make fun of people and crack jokes about them because we can only look at our phones for so long.
About currency, I use very simple currency in this case because I don't recall Creatures ever showing off their own form of currency unless it's bartering or Mugic. And considering how the four Tribes speak perfect English, I'd figure they have the same currency in the sense that they use copper, silver, and gold. The difference between their currencies is the iconography. I feel like Chaor would plaster his face on all UnderWorld currency, while Maxxor would just continue with the tradition of using the OverWorld Tribe because he isn't as "showy" as Chaor. I actually have some ideas for Mipedian currency that I hope to show off in another chapter or story.
This is the second appearance that Accato has ever made in my stories along with the bar he frequents. I am going to do more with his character down the line because he's just so fun to write and I kind of wished I wrote more for him in this, but this is going to be a very, very, very long story for me to write, so there is time for him.
About Kazdan's clothing in this chapter, I'm going to be fairly honest and state that I have always found Kaz in the show far more interesting to look at than Tom. Tom's handsome and he has such baby blue eyes, but he just doesn't pop as visually as Kaz does. Granted, the attraction mostly comes from Kaz's hair and eye color and his face, but his clothes and hairstyle almost negates that attraction. I'm not into gravity-defying hair for the most part and all I could think about when I saw his hair was how many hours it must've taken him to get it perfectly gravity-defying. His mom pulls the look better off, but then again I love how deep red her hair is and how it seems more like a flame than Kaz's.
And then there's Kaz's clothes…..yeah, I've been into baggy clothes on guys, but I get why he was design with those clothes. I'm guessing that the creators of the show wanted a shorthand for the audience that Kaz was a "nerd" and instead of using the typical poindexter clothing, they gave him more stylized clothes with colors that do go with his hair and eyes, but made them baggy and functional. I guess Kaz likes his clothes to be functional; his clothes can get dirty or torn, and he wouldn't care because they are cheap and he probably got them in bulk. I was also never really into Kaz's pocketed vest, but it would be useful for storing things.
Now, with this AU story, I have decided to give Kazdan a far different look that appeals to ME more. I have a thing for gothic fashion style and I feel like Kazdan could pull off the look, particularly since I have his hair down in this story. However, he's not going to be so fashionable except on his days off and possibly at school whenever I get to that point.
Considering how we know very little of our quartet's parents in the show, minus that one appearance of Mrs. Kalinkas, I endeavor to explore at least Kazdan's parents. Because there's really nothing on most of them except Mrs. Kalinkas, but we don't even her first name, what kind of job she has, whether her husband is dead or she's divorced, or any defining personality traits except she's worried about her son's sanity in "Earth to Kaz" episode like any loving parent would. And we know nothing about Kaz's dad. So I'm going to take the opportunity to write about them gradually.
Next chapter, we're getting back to Kazdan's babysitting gig and more UnderWorld exploration. And, perhaps, a glimpse of Chaor. Hopefully, I'll update monthly instead of every couple of months, but I'm in college so I can't exactly promise that. Especially when most of these chapters tend to be about ten pages or longer.
PS: Thank you, Elememtal1000, for catching my flub about how many matches are needed to win!