FOREWORD
It seems that there will have to be an Installment 3 to all of this. 0_0
Installment 2
The young man's eyes laid dubiously upon the little yellow slip of paper. "So what is
this?" he asked with smooth disconcern, rapping the frame of his glasses with the crooked hand
propping up his head.
"A prescription for some stronger medication, Dib. I have the feeling that these," The
somber man shook a toffee colored bottle by the child safety cap. "are not working for you."
An oozing, insincere smile bled out from Dib's lips, spreading thinly and erratically over
his pale face. "And what makes you say that, doctor?"
The psychologist set his heavy, unemotional stare upon Dib like a physical weight, thin,
black eyes narrowed with calculation. He set the bottle back upon the table with an emphasis
that was slow and chilling. Dib's hand dropped involuntarily back into his lap. The rivulets of
his razor smile drained back into his throat and all the cunning and aggression of the gesture was
drunken up by his soft brown eyes. He met the doctor's gaze like glass, heartless and reflective
of the doctor's own heartlessness. Dib waited.
"Dib," said the doctor with a metallic resonance, "I'm not here to put up with your
games."
There was an audible pause suspended in the air. An abrupt and inappropriate squawk
escaped from the young man's lungs. His long and black draped frame shook with a soft and
breathy mirth. Dib allowed his spine to swing back over the diminutive chair, fist pressed
against his gleeful grin. "Oh!" he choked, "Oh, fuckin' God!" His voice was hoarse with
laughter. He stood up from the flimsy chair, looming tall and straight before the old doctor, and
bending down to him, hands clapped over his thighs, exclaimed, "You are! This is exactly what
you're here for, what I'm here for, for you to put up with my games!" He chuckled. "That's
what my rich dad pays you for!"
"Your rich dad pays us to keep you out of an asylum, Dib." The doctor eased back into
his chair, steepling his fingers. "It's a pretty simple process to send you back, Dib."
"Well," he replied softly, "I suppose that's a threat?"
"A promise Dib, consider it a promise from me to you."
"Aww. Thanks! That's so sweet of you!" His was abruptly casual, slicked down with
sarcasm, he leaned in and pressed his palms flat upon the desktop with a wry smirk.
"Dib," the doctor demanded hollowly.
"Doctor Akai."
"Don't think I'm shitting around here, Dib."
"Oh?" He blinked twice. "You're not? Well then," He propped his chin upon the edge
of the desk and peered up at the man intently. "okay."
Akai moved slowly, fingertips falling away from each other and slipping into still
gestures in the air. "Dib," he said calmly, "there's something I'd like to show you." As though
he would move with stealth, he tweaked drawer of his desk adrift and reached into it for
something, cupping it under his palm. He caught Dib's shift to look but raised a dry and halting
finger, extending the thing behind his back. "Wait."
Dib slumped with a mounting reluctance, but was suddenly taken by the twitch
demanding he be on his feet. He unhinged himself tensely from the furniture, but before he
could creep away, the tiny red vial was presented before Dib's eyes.
"Do you remember this, Dib?"
"OHHHHGODFUCKINSHIIIIIIIIT!!!"
"I take it from your reaction that you're experiencing some discomfort," she said
medicinally, jotting notations on the clipboard from behind mirrored glass, "Your extremities,
your fingers, toes, can you feel them?"
"Oh-God... OhGEEZ-OHFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCK-" The exclamation ended in
the lapping strangle of Dib's spine thrashing at his lower brain.
"People! Where's the brace?"
Red pooled and gelled around the corners of his vision, a cherry sheen under the round
white lights. It was like one red bubble, a squeezed balloon of the verge of popping, its surface
spinning with anxious tension. Dib's eyes filmed and swelled, lids taped back by the lashes, his
arms lashed to deny his compulsion to rip them out. The red seeped into his skull like a stain,
breathing its particles slowly into his fibers, permeating like an odor what part of him that he had
considered his mind. It plucked quickly from the garden alcoves whatever is found unattractive,
the weeds rooted impossibly between the cracks in the sidewalk, the grass in corners too obscure
and too inconvenient to step on.
"It's likely you'll be experiencing some memory loss at this point." There was the lapse
in which she took her notes. "It's nothing to worry about, really. It's not likely you'll lose any
thing of purpose which you can't be filled in on later."
Moisture condensated in the casing of his skull. It congregated pacedly into the larger
droplets, clinging in the shape of mushrooms caps, settling the red sediment within their valleys.
He swallowed his breath, bating under a gray cap misted with the jewels of vision. He held their
audience, they watching him expectantly, he waiting, expectant himself, a silent, querulous
exchange, looks cast about from eye to eye in a sea of so many, glancing uncertainly among
themselves. But they, gathered as they were like a sea had scant halting ripples before the
budding of unity. And with the clash of a red-wrought wave, minds decided, they descended
upon him.
"Yes. I remember."
"Fools! I am ZIM! ZIM of the Irken Elite! Mighty Invader of-"
"Just shut up ZIM," Dib muttered, "No one cares. They know who you are. They know
who I am, and we're here just for that reason." He sat at one corner of a dark, domed room,
laced densely with the sinew of thick purple conduits. It was one of the more neglected cells,
exposing so much of its mechanism, but the would-be Invader and the alien who pursued him did
not fall high on the agenda of Irken concerns. The wiring strung high into the shadows like
tethers sinking into water. Something amidst the web hummed concisely as it skittered into a
position amidst the metal ducts where it could watch them more closely. Dib's head lay on his
knees, staring blankly ahead of him.
There was a trembling gloss in the alien's red eyes, antennae shivering against his head.
He leapt across the confinement, seizing the human by the throat. "You're no friend of mine,
Dib!" the aliens snarled, "No friend of mine!" His mouthed contorted with repulsion, his finger
points digging into the taut flesh of the human neck.
The boy's teeth grated with disgust, pressing a bladed stare through the smooth red orbs
of the creature gripped panickedly at his throat. He drew a harsh, bating breath an hissed to him
quietly, "You're no friend of mine either ZIM. But, it seems like we're just stuck together." He
planted a foot in ZIM's organs, wrenching the fingers from his neck. "This was your stupid idea,
ZIM. 'I moved the Earth!' Yeah, you moved it straight into your own planet's orbit! No
wonder they love you here, ZIM! Here you are dragging the wildlife home with you!"
The alien's eyes thinned to bright stained shards. His arms trembled with rage, twisting
his shoulders into a motion like laughter. "You waste of human surplus!" he rasped, lips hooked
down into a sneer, "You, tainted, backward animal of your meek and pathetic planet, think you
can understand the workings of a mighty and profound society like that of Irk? You don't even
comprehend-"
"Daddy."
"Eh?" ZIM's tirade unraveled, winding into dumb shock. "Who-? I- What's this?"
"Daddeee," the tiny Irken trilled, calling through the invisible barrier sheeted over the
narrow white haze of the exit. She peered inside with the pronounced glare of an immature
concentration, the young alien's wide pink eyes lit with purpose and frustration. She chewed her
lip and hopped twice, flapping her arms and pouting into the cage imperatively.
Dib stuttered, flailing for words. The concentration of his incredulity was torn between
his fellow in confinement and the little alien girl. He choked out, "ZIM? This is you kid?"
"Er-" The alien stalked around the cage with the fervor of helpless confusion. "No.
No!" He held out his palms as though to push the concept away, squinting in distress. "This
Irken infant is no child of ZIM!" Suddenly struck by a thought, the alien frowned. "Hey... it
doesn't even work like that! I know not of what you speak-"
"Daaaddeee!" The child had come to the end of the short span that was her patience.
Small hands curled in fists, she swept simply through the barrier without the touch of resistance.
She took a moment to stare disapprovingly at both, the Irken Invader and the human boy
crouched against the floor in equal states of alarm, then snatched Dib's wrist in both hands.
"Daddy, c'mon!"
POSTSCRIPT
Hi. Still reading? Confused? That third part will be out sometime. *twitches*
Waffles
It seems that there will have to be an Installment 3 to all of this. 0_0
Installment 2
The young man's eyes laid dubiously upon the little yellow slip of paper. "So what is
this?" he asked with smooth disconcern, rapping the frame of his glasses with the crooked hand
propping up his head.
"A prescription for some stronger medication, Dib. I have the feeling that these," The
somber man shook a toffee colored bottle by the child safety cap. "are not working for you."
An oozing, insincere smile bled out from Dib's lips, spreading thinly and erratically over
his pale face. "And what makes you say that, doctor?"
The psychologist set his heavy, unemotional stare upon Dib like a physical weight, thin,
black eyes narrowed with calculation. He set the bottle back upon the table with an emphasis
that was slow and chilling. Dib's hand dropped involuntarily back into his lap. The rivulets of
his razor smile drained back into his throat and all the cunning and aggression of the gesture was
drunken up by his soft brown eyes. He met the doctor's gaze like glass, heartless and reflective
of the doctor's own heartlessness. Dib waited.
"Dib," said the doctor with a metallic resonance, "I'm not here to put up with your
games."
There was an audible pause suspended in the air. An abrupt and inappropriate squawk
escaped from the young man's lungs. His long and black draped frame shook with a soft and
breathy mirth. Dib allowed his spine to swing back over the diminutive chair, fist pressed
against his gleeful grin. "Oh!" he choked, "Oh, fuckin' God!" His voice was hoarse with
laughter. He stood up from the flimsy chair, looming tall and straight before the old doctor, and
bending down to him, hands clapped over his thighs, exclaimed, "You are! This is exactly what
you're here for, what I'm here for, for you to put up with my games!" He chuckled. "That's
what my rich dad pays you for!"
"Your rich dad pays us to keep you out of an asylum, Dib." The doctor eased back into
his chair, steepling his fingers. "It's a pretty simple process to send you back, Dib."
"Well," he replied softly, "I suppose that's a threat?"
"A promise Dib, consider it a promise from me to you."
"Aww. Thanks! That's so sweet of you!" His was abruptly casual, slicked down with
sarcasm, he leaned in and pressed his palms flat upon the desktop with a wry smirk.
"Dib," the doctor demanded hollowly.
"Doctor Akai."
"Don't think I'm shitting around here, Dib."
"Oh?" He blinked twice. "You're not? Well then," He propped his chin upon the edge
of the desk and peered up at the man intently. "okay."
Akai moved slowly, fingertips falling away from each other and slipping into still
gestures in the air. "Dib," he said calmly, "there's something I'd like to show you." As though
he would move with stealth, he tweaked drawer of his desk adrift and reached into it for
something, cupping it under his palm. He caught Dib's shift to look but raised a dry and halting
finger, extending the thing behind his back. "Wait."
Dib slumped with a mounting reluctance, but was suddenly taken by the twitch
demanding he be on his feet. He unhinged himself tensely from the furniture, but before he
could creep away, the tiny red vial was presented before Dib's eyes.
"Do you remember this, Dib?"
"OHHHHGODFUCKINSHIIIIIIIIT!!!"
"I take it from your reaction that you're experiencing some discomfort," she said
medicinally, jotting notations on the clipboard from behind mirrored glass, "Your extremities,
your fingers, toes, can you feel them?"
"Oh-God... OhGEEZ-OHFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCK-" The exclamation ended in
the lapping strangle of Dib's spine thrashing at his lower brain.
"People! Where's the brace?"
Red pooled and gelled around the corners of his vision, a cherry sheen under the round
white lights. It was like one red bubble, a squeezed balloon of the verge of popping, its surface
spinning with anxious tension. Dib's eyes filmed and swelled, lids taped back by the lashes, his
arms lashed to deny his compulsion to rip them out. The red seeped into his skull like a stain,
breathing its particles slowly into his fibers, permeating like an odor what part of him that he had
considered his mind. It plucked quickly from the garden alcoves whatever is found unattractive,
the weeds rooted impossibly between the cracks in the sidewalk, the grass in corners too obscure
and too inconvenient to step on.
"It's likely you'll be experiencing some memory loss at this point." There was the lapse
in which she took her notes. "It's nothing to worry about, really. It's not likely you'll lose any
thing of purpose which you can't be filled in on later."
Moisture condensated in the casing of his skull. It congregated pacedly into the larger
droplets, clinging in the shape of mushrooms caps, settling the red sediment within their valleys.
He swallowed his breath, bating under a gray cap misted with the jewels of vision. He held their
audience, they watching him expectantly, he waiting, expectant himself, a silent, querulous
exchange, looks cast about from eye to eye in a sea of so many, glancing uncertainly among
themselves. But they, gathered as they were like a sea had scant halting ripples before the
budding of unity. And with the clash of a red-wrought wave, minds decided, they descended
upon him.
"Yes. I remember."
"Fools! I am ZIM! ZIM of the Irken Elite! Mighty Invader of-"
"Just shut up ZIM," Dib muttered, "No one cares. They know who you are. They know
who I am, and we're here just for that reason." He sat at one corner of a dark, domed room,
laced densely with the sinew of thick purple conduits. It was one of the more neglected cells,
exposing so much of its mechanism, but the would-be Invader and the alien who pursued him did
not fall high on the agenda of Irken concerns. The wiring strung high into the shadows like
tethers sinking into water. Something amidst the web hummed concisely as it skittered into a
position amidst the metal ducts where it could watch them more closely. Dib's head lay on his
knees, staring blankly ahead of him.
There was a trembling gloss in the alien's red eyes, antennae shivering against his head.
He leapt across the confinement, seizing the human by the throat. "You're no friend of mine,
Dib!" the aliens snarled, "No friend of mine!" His mouthed contorted with repulsion, his finger
points digging into the taut flesh of the human neck.
The boy's teeth grated with disgust, pressing a bladed stare through the smooth red orbs
of the creature gripped panickedly at his throat. He drew a harsh, bating breath an hissed to him
quietly, "You're no friend of mine either ZIM. But, it seems like we're just stuck together." He
planted a foot in ZIM's organs, wrenching the fingers from his neck. "This was your stupid idea,
ZIM. 'I moved the Earth!' Yeah, you moved it straight into your own planet's orbit! No
wonder they love you here, ZIM! Here you are dragging the wildlife home with you!"
The alien's eyes thinned to bright stained shards. His arms trembled with rage, twisting
his shoulders into a motion like laughter. "You waste of human surplus!" he rasped, lips hooked
down into a sneer, "You, tainted, backward animal of your meek and pathetic planet, think you
can understand the workings of a mighty and profound society like that of Irk? You don't even
comprehend-"
"Daddy."
"Eh?" ZIM's tirade unraveled, winding into dumb shock. "Who-? I- What's this?"
"Daddeee," the tiny Irken trilled, calling through the invisible barrier sheeted over the
narrow white haze of the exit. She peered inside with the pronounced glare of an immature
concentration, the young alien's wide pink eyes lit with purpose and frustration. She chewed her
lip and hopped twice, flapping her arms and pouting into the cage imperatively.
Dib stuttered, flailing for words. The concentration of his incredulity was torn between
his fellow in confinement and the little alien girl. He choked out, "ZIM? This is you kid?"
"Er-" The alien stalked around the cage with the fervor of helpless confusion. "No.
No!" He held out his palms as though to push the concept away, squinting in distress. "This
Irken infant is no child of ZIM!" Suddenly struck by a thought, the alien frowned. "Hey... it
doesn't even work like that! I know not of what you speak-"
"Daaaddeee!" The child had come to the end of the short span that was her patience.
Small hands curled in fists, she swept simply through the barrier without the touch of resistance.
She took a moment to stare disapprovingly at both, the Irken Invader and the human boy
crouched against the floor in equal states of alarm, then snatched Dib's wrist in both hands.
"Daddy, c'mon!"
POSTSCRIPT
Hi. Still reading? Confused? That third part will be out sometime. *twitches*
Waffles