Schism – A quaint adventure in Shounen Ai with the occasional flock of strangeness by ShiniJekka
Crazed Author's Disclaimer – I own no characters, human or digimon, that you find here. I don't own this chair. I think once I owned a stuffed dog. His name was Juno and he loved me.
Crazed Author's Rant – Um, here's the next one. This was supposed to start with a Ken-flashback, but it's been moved to a later chapter as a dream sequence. Now it starts with the short spice of Kaiser, and then to Daisuke's POV, which means grammar and vocab take a dive. Surprisingly, it ends in Ken, who I was NOT expecting to speak up in this chapter. I guess he just has to have a say in everything… Sorry for the wait, but the peeps who read my other fic have an even longer one ^.^;;. Thanks for the support, all 8 of you.. Thanks for peeking in, let's get started. One last note: Sometimes Daisuke will think of the older kids with 'san', sometimes not. Don't let it bug you too much, he's not very consistent sometimes.
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Chapter 5 – What My Damage Could Have Been
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He knows that I hate him.
I can tell by the furtive, wary glances he casts my way every so often, or the slowing of his pace, sometimes lingering in one spot on the shifting desert sands as though considering his options. That never lasts very long, as his options are few in number and most consist of wandering in the wasteland. I have taken his precious digivice, after all. Intriguingly, the ebony mechanism no longer fits in my hand as it once did. Perhaps it has adjusted itself to Ken, though were that the case I would surmise a return to its natural hue… instead, it is as shadowy and void as it has been the moment it was submerged in that ocean of roiling ills. Once we two arrive at the pitiful remains of what was my glorious base, I'll give it a bit of looking in to.
Ken seems to be waiting for me to do something other than walk… no doubt terrorize him or enslave everything within a three mile radius. All of the bad blood existing between us beside, his edginess is most likely due to the self-assured smirk I've worn since finding him. He believes me to be exulting in some secret plan, or laughing at an inner joke.
Which is exactly so.
He cannot possibly comprehend the gravity of what I've done: the thought and effort, the so many details that went into this grand scheme, though to him I imagine it must be confusing. He is walking with the Kaiser he once was, and both of us flesh. Yet were we not of two existances, this whole time? He is Ken, and of us two he is the child, sensitive and driven by emotion, unable to cope with the harshness of reality. It is right that he be bewildered and dazed. I will lead him through the desert, and being the lamb he is he will blandly follow. Perhaps in a bit I will stroke at his cheek, confuse him with pretty words, and whisper reassurances. If not that, something spicier – I haven't yet decided, and really, some things are better decided with a slice of spontaneity. Is this narcissism or masochism? I will simply refer to it as victory.
I believe he is now thinking of the other Chosen Children, wishing a speedy rescue or perhaps mentally begging their assistance as though I was terrorizing him.
I suppose I am, simply by existing.
It is that absurd failure to accept outcomes that makes him Ken, the weaker of us two. I do, of course, hate him, just as he must hate me.
His hatred is inconsequential.
I am the Kaiser borne anew, and the games are just beginning.
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I can't tell what upsets me more; what just happened in my bedroom with Ken, that Ken just up and vanished, poof!, into the very air of my house (or I should say poof!, into my computer, cos I know that's where he went), or that it took me fifteen whole minutes to realized that the poof!ing had happened. Fifteen. That's fifteen sets of the ONE minute it should have taken. Five sets of three minutes… hell, three sets of five! Two sets of.. … Okay, forget this.
The point is, what the hell kind of a loving, hunky, caring boyfriend am I if I don't realize that my traumatized and troubled love-of-my-life (not very long life but you gotta admit highly experienced) has just jumped through my computer. I shoulda been watching him or hugging him or gee, I dunno, asking him why he was just someone else. Not that Ken would know for sure but maybe he would know, but I doubt it cos he looked just as surprised and confused as I bet I did. Maybe that's because I hit his head against the wall too hard. But it did the trick, right? It made Kai-… it made that other one leave and Ken come back. So head wounds = good!
Ken leaving = bad. Especially if he's in that kind of state. Maybe only me and Wormmon know how bad he can get when guilt creeps up his back, and he's gotta be guilting right now. I could see it start to shade in at the edges of his eyes, right before I left the room to call the others to come over right the hell away.
And it's only because they actually listened and came over right the hell away that I'm not in the Digital World this instant tearing the place apart looking for him.
Taichi-san and Yamato showed up first, marching right in the house (guess Jun didn't lock it behind her – man, would she be in trouble!) and bodily preventing me from 'digiport open'ing. Even when I explained (er.. yelled.. screamed.. beat them around the head and shoulders…) the situation they just sat me down on a chair (they're HUGE! Stupid highschool kids with their.. um.. tallness) and told me to calm down, the others were on their way, we had to discuss a plan.
I hate plans.
No, scratch that. I love plans when the plan is "Just run in, get it over with, and enjoy life afterward." Isn't that a good plan? I made it myself.
The plans I hate are the ones that take forever to make and always include lots of "Unless THIS happens" or "And as backup we might do THIS" and waiting, I especially hate the waiting. I said as much, but Yamato and Taichi-san just exchanged a look and then Yamato said I was rambling and making no sense. Or, less sense than usual.
I yelled at them because what didn't make sense was not going after my Ken, as in MY Ken who needed ME and not a plan, and then Taichi-san threw a cup of water into my face.
So, shivering, soaked, and stuck on a chair with my two huge upperclassmen on either side, I waited for the others to show up so we could talk and make plans. Which brings us to the now, in my bedroom (the baseball bat is still on the floor, and I think there are new cracks on the wall – Ken cracks), surrounded by Chosen Children and assorted Digimon. Chibimon creeps out of the nest of clothes that was on my bed and is swallowed up by a mass of fur and feathers that is Upamon and Poromon. The three of them bounce and chat, and I'm mad at myself again for not even thinking to check on Chibimon while I was not noticing that Ken had left. What the hell had I been doing?
Tailmon is standing against the closet door, paws folded over her chest, tail whipping around the mess of my room. I think the tuft of purple fur at the end of it is actually dusting the corner – sweet. Now I won't have to. She meets my gaze with sharp feline blue, and I can't tell if it's annoyance or pity or something I like even less in there, but then Hikari touches one of her ears and she softens toward me. Takeru seats himself next to them, shifting aside a box of trading cards to settle on the floor, with Patamon perched, as usual, in that stupid, stupid hat. Miyako shoves a pile of books and manga off of my chair and claims it as hers, with Iori kneeling on the floor near the bed. His eyes flicker over the new cracks in the wall – I see them do it – but he doesn't say anything about them. Upamon, Poromon, and Chibimon have now bounced onto the bed, and it's getting really really cramped because Koushiro-san just walked in, too. The whole place reeks of the disaster supper had become, but no one but me's noticed yet. I think.
"Jyou's at his math camp," he says shortly, setting that crazy laptop down on his lap as he sits on the bed next to me (Taichi-san and Yamato are both at the door now, standing like wild-haired guards). "And Sora emailed me to say she's stuck with her mother at an ikebana seminar. This is everyone."
Except it isn't. We're missing the most important person. No… people.
"Wormmon," I blurt, sitting up straighter. "We should have Wormmon here. And he should know what's going on with Ken, I bet he could help too, or at least help us find him."
"Oh, sure," Miyako replies, drumming her fingers the knee of her khaki-panted leg. "Let's call up his house and tell his parents we're coming over to get something from Ken's room, but don't look in, cos Ken's not there at the moment, and we can't say why, and pay no attention to the giant worm we're removing from your house please. Yeah, that'll go over well."
"Then we don't tell them," I grumble. "We just go get Wormmon."
Yamato coughed harshly and it sounded a lot like "Breaking and entering".
"The closest thing we have to a ninja is Iori," Takeru says, stretching an arm over his head.
"Absolutely not," the young kendoist says flatly.
"I wasn't saying we were gonna send you."
"It's no anyway."
"Guys, guys, guys," Taichi interrupts. "Wormmon'll have to wait. He'll be fine, he's had to do much harder stuff before, I'm sure."
"Like eating boot 24/7," Tailmon mutters quietly. I throw a glare at her but before I can say anything, it's Hikari who speaks up.
"We're past that," she says softly. Just that. Tailmon goes silent, and stays that way for a while.
"From what Taichi told me on the phone," Koushiro says awkwardly, "we're here to discuss the fact that, for a moment at least, Ken appeared to be the Digital Kaiser, and made a move on you." He lifts his eyebrows at me skeptically. "And then when you bashed him against a wall he was Ken again, with no apparent recollection of the events in the immediate past."
I study the pattern of Miyako's shirt, not quite wanting to look at anyone quite yet. That stuff had only happened less than an hour ago. About 28 minutes, actually. Fifteen of which had been wasted by not noticing Ken had left.
"That's what Daisuke told me," Taichi said, and somehow from his voice I knew he was looking at me. "He was a little spastic on the phone, but that much I understood."
"Daisuke?" Koushiro nudged, interposing his short, manicured fingers into my line of sight, and then resting his hand on my shoulder. "Does that sound right?"
"Of course not," I mutter, and note that Koushiro keeps all of his fingernails at the same length and rounded. He must have just clipped them. "It's what happened, but it sounds anything but right."
"That's not what he m-.." Miyako starts, cut off by Yamato's curt "Whatever."
Koushiro's hand against my shirt doesn't look right. The fingers need to be slimmer, longer, paler. Ken's hand against my shirt. Kaiser's hands grabbing the fabric as his sneer looms over my face. Ken blinking in a daze. Ken slipping into the computer while I was in the other room being stupid. Ken wandering around the Digital World as we speak, doing god-knows-what or in trouble or hating himself or…
"Daisuke!" Taichi barks, yanking me out of the nightmare. "I will get more water."
"I think he needs a minute," Iori says quietly.
Chibimon presses himself against the back of my head, a comforting warmth. I can feel his heartbeat.
His heartbeat.
I sit up from the slouch I ended up in, brushing Koushiro's hand off and readjusting my goggles.
"We don't need Wormmon," I tell them, cracking my knuckles. "I can find him when we get there. Let's just finish up here so we can get there at all."
I take a mental image of their surprised and, just maybe, admiring faces, at my sudden comeback. I don't have the time now but I'll revel in it later. I mean, I'm not the leader for nothing, right?
"You're sure?" Patamon squeaks. Takeru's eyes roll up as he tries to look at his partner. I wonder how often that happens and if Takeru gets headaches from it.
"I can find him," I repeat firmly. "And I can tell if it's Ken or not, too. That's how I could tell, his heartbeat was off synch with mine." Well, yes, that and the strange seductiveness. No need to voice that, though.
"That'll help you, but how can we tell?" Iori muses. Upamon bounces away from Chibimon (I guess they decided not to roughhouse while Chibimon was pressed against my head) and lands in the boy's lap.
"Yeah," Upamon agrees. "Only your heart is in synch with his. That doesn't help us."
Iori makes a funny exasperated face and tugs gently on one of his digimon's long, white ears.
"That's basically what I just said."
"I'm agreeing!"
"Question!" Miyako chirps, hand shooting into the air.
"Er… go ahead, Miyako-chan," Koushiro says with a blink. (From the corner of my eye I can see Hikari and Takeru exchange a glance, and they both mouth 'chan?'. I think it's cute. I think everyone should be in love.)
Miyako sits up and blinks, wrinkling her nose in disgust.
"What the hell smells so bad?"
"Dinner," I reply sourly, just as Chibimon's stomach rumbles like an oncoming earthquake from directly behind me. I'm pretty sure it shakes the whole bed.
"I'll make something," Yamato sighs, stepping out of the room. His footsteps sound toward the kitchen. Taichi smiles after him, folding his arms over his chest and leaning against my doorframe. He looks a lot more relaxed, I guess cos he figures I'm not going anywhere alone now.
"What'd you cook?" Koushiro asks, sniffing at the air and probably analyzing the charcoal-ish scent.
"It was gonna be soba noodles," I mutter. "I got sidetracked."
Tailmon clears her throat imperiously, and her tail has started to flick around like the neighbor's cat's tail does when it decides it doesn't like you.
"Can we get back to the discussion?" she suggests in her strangely adult voice. "We were contemplating how to tell Ken from Kaiser." She looks straight at Hikari, like the teacher sometimes looks at that Nanasawa girl who sits in the first row when she's the only one who ever knows the answers. I'd probably hate Nanasawa for that if I hadn't fallen in love with a genius. Now I just be happy that someone knows the answers and that means I won't get called on.
Hikari nods once, and pulls the camera she always carries off, sliding her head through the loop and scooting across my messy floor to hand it to Koushiro. He looks at it curiously, then seems to understand as Hikari pulls a cord out from her pocket and hands it to him.
"USB plug. Not a problem," he says, opening the laptop and inserting the cord somewhere along the side, and hooking the camera up.
"You can develop film?" Poromon squeaks in surprise, flapping his little wings and clicking his beak. Miyako just groans and rests her forehead in her hands.
"I should have guessed," she says, giggling.
"Huh?" That's me saying that. As usual.
"Digital Destined, Digital Monsters, Digital World," Taichi recites, a grin working at the edges of his mouth.
"Digital camera," Hikari finishes for him, and they share a look like that joke had been going on for a long time. Jun and I don't have jokes like that. I wonder if she even has a good sense of humor.
"Which files?" Koushiro asks, typing.
"They should be called 'Soccer' and 'Park'," she answers. I lean back to peer at the screen of the laptop. It's pretty neat, for being so small and thin. I bet in a million years I could convince my parents to get me one.
He doubleclicks a couple of times and two pictures open up in separate windows. I recognize them immediately.
One is Ken, a few months back when Tamachi and Odaiba had the soccer game. It was slightly before I realized Kaiser was Ken and vice-versa. In the picture he was standing up straight, his uniform slightly mussed with grass stains. It must have been mid-game or something. Actually, now that I think that, I can almost place it. We were just starting the second half, and there was The Rocket, standing up rigidly and surveying the field, his eyes darting over the bright green sod like a general at a battlefield. I remember thinking I'd love to be playing for his team, even more than I'd love to beat his team.
The second photo was probably from two weeks ago, because that's the only time I remember when we all met at the park and Ken had worn the green shirt. He doesn't wear that shirt very often. He's holding Wormmon in the picture, and both are smiling at the camera, both looking shy. I want that picture.
"Are you finished?" Koushiro asks dryly. I realize I'd been hovering over his shoulder, practically, and scoot back to my spot.
"So what is it?" Takeru asks, puzzled. The laptop gets spun around so that the screen is facing the room.
"Hikari-chan noticed this a few days ago while she was going through her files," Tailmon explains, striding over to the laptop. "Both are of Ken, obviously, but think of them as 'before' and 'after'."
"That's a great close-up," Patamon notes. "We were all the way in the stands, right?"
"I've got great zoom," Hikari giggles.
Tailmon clears her throat, reminding me of my teacher again. Yikes.
"What she noticed is here," a claw tapped gently against the screen, and I leaned forward in a rush to see what she was tapping at, "and here." Tap.
Taichi walked over from his place at the door to look closer, so I guess Hikari never went over this with him.
"What are we looking for?" he asks.
"Compare for a minute," Tailmon says.
I peer. I stare. I wonder if Hikari has any pictures of Ken and me together. I try to compare. Before and after. Aren't those candies? Now, that's Now and Later. He's playing soccer in one, he's with us in the second. Both are on grass. Um… soccer uniform versus a green shirt. Cold scowl versus shy little smile. He has Wormmon in one but that's no help cos Wormmon's at his home.
"His eyes!" Patamon suddenly squeals.
"Precisely!" Tailmon congratulates, and suddenly everyone in the room is rushing over to the screen to look. Bunches of heads collide. Mine included. Chibimon laughs at me, but only until Yamato's voice floats in from the kitchen.
"Noodles are up."
"In a minute!" no less than five children and three digimon shout back.
"I see it now too!" Miyako says, right in my ear.
"Show me, show me!" Poromon demands, bouncing up and down.
"I don't see it yet, Iori," Upamon whispers loudly.
The boy gets up from his kneel and taps at the screen the way Tailmon did. We all back off to let him explain. He's good at explaining things, see, and it seems to help him stop thinking he's the 'useless young one'. So we all agreed that when Iori starts to explain things we shut up and let him. Which is good cos usually he's right.
"The difference is in the eyes, like Patamon said," Iori says, pointing first at the soccer-Ken's eyes and then happy-Ken. "If you look closely, there's a color difference, and the size seems to be different as well."
"Freaky," Miyako mutters, but she's nodding.
"I thought it might be a coincidence," Hikari adds, "so I pulled up all the old newspaper articles I could that were about Ken back when he was the Digimon Kaiser. They all look the same; fake smile, tiny irises, and pupils so tiny it looked like there was a spotlight in his face."
"We couldn't say the color change was an indication for sure, because the newspaper photos were in grayscale," Tailmon cuts in. "But you can definitely notice a constant trend in the dilation of his pupils."
"And his eyes don't seem to reflect any light, in the old photo," Taichi says quietly. "They do, now."
"So that's how we'll know," Takeru says cheerfully. "I wonder if Kaiser knew his eyes were funky-looking. Maybe that explains the purple glasses."
"Daisuke," Chibimon whispers, nudging me gently. "I'm really, really hungry."
I am, too. And I'm feeling a whole heap of other things worse than hungry, but at least hungry can be fixed by noodles. Yamato was nice enough to make them and all, so I shove aside the strange jealousy I feel by everyone oogling over my Ken, scoop up my blue partner, and walk into the kitchen. Taichi-san glances up as I go, but I pretty much ignore him.
Yamato-san slides a bowl of noodles (better looking than mine, I think with a sigh) my way without a word, and sets a pair of chopsticks down right after. A smaller bowl goes to Chibimon, who doesn't need utensils cos he pretty much just plants his face into the bowl and eats everything around him.
I eat in the sullen silence of my disappointment in myself. Why hadn't I noticed the eyes? Why did Hikari see things that I didn't, even though I spend more time with him, I'm the one dating him, I'm the one who's going crazy with the need to find him.
"It might be better for him to have this time alone, you know," Yamato says suddenly, his low rumble of a voice cutting over the sound of water and dishsoap filling a pan coated in burnt noodle. That's gonna be a real bitch to clean. Mom's gonna have a fit. Jun should have ordered pizza. I should have ordered pizza. And Yamato's still talking even though I didn't even look at him.
"Sometimes after you run into a part of yourself you don't particularly like, you need to go off on your own so that you can figure out what you want to do with it. This time to himself might be the best thing for Ken."
I didn't think so, but I didn't want to argue with him. He was awfully close to the sink and I'd had enough water thrown in my face for the day.
There was one good point to the whole day, though, and it's keeping me from gnawing my own arm off in worry.
Nobody, not one of the digidestined, had said anything even vaguely like an "I knew it". They were as surprised as me, as surprised as Ken. No one had scoffed and nodded, they all just showed up right away (well, except for Sora and Jyou who couldn't, and Mimi who's still in America, so obviously not her, but everyone who could at least) and set to figuring out the problem. They all came to help us. To help me, to help Ken.
I can't wait to tell him.
We just have to find him, first.
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I don't know why it takes so long to regain my full capacities again. It seems like I've been wandering with senses wrapped in gauze, only vaguely seeing the world through a thick gray film.
Dimly I knew exactly who it was I was walking with, but it wasn't until now that I think the implications actually struck me.
We walk through the echoing corridors of what was once my base in the Digital World. I suppose now it would be more fitting to call it his. He takes confident, assured steps. He knows the way better than I do, despite the fact that I once wore that outfit, I once ruled these halls, and I once built this roving fortress.
I guess I can only be thankful that, even though a Kaiser has come again, this time the atrocity is not I.
And yet it is.
I admit I haven't figured it out yet.
We emerge from the walkway into hollowed-out chamber that was the video room. Most of the screens are black, shattered, or missing completely; some of the damage is recent. I wish it had been all been eradicated: another oversight I'll be sighing over for a time.
"You seem to be alert, finally," my own voice notes, perhaps a bit more nasal, a bit more bitter. That was the voice for the dictator.
"Why have you brought me here?" I ask softly, and he turns.
Up until now I had been presented only with view of his back, and a brief moment when the sun was too bright behind him to truly see. Now we stand, face to face, he and I. It's a bit of a shocking Geminid moment. He wears the blue and purple and black with the casual ease of one well accustomed to its snug enclosure – the hair is in perfect spiked disarray. His glasses reflect the nominal light, but I'd prefer to not see his eyes. I don't want to see.
"Not 'why are you here?' but 'why have you brought me?'" He sighed theatrically, crossing his arms. "Ichijouji, I'm crushed."
I would be lying if I said I had absolutely no warning of this – I should have realized by the dreams, by the tone of the voice I briefly heard that time in the kitchen. Wormmon probably saw it, but I never listen to him as much as I should. Another thing to apologize for a lifetime for.
"Where is Wormmon?"
Kaiser snorts in derision, turning away from me dismissively yet answering all the same.
"The insect remains at your residence, no doubt sniveling with his worry and love and other forms of emotional putrescence." His fingers tap rapid staccato over a keyboard covered with thick dust. "I had left him behind when I left for Motomiya's house, knowing he would undoubtedly notice things were amiss before your beloved 'Dai-kun' did."
If I weren't so angry I would blush.
"Why did you do that to Daisuke?"
The typing pauses and he glances over his shoulder with a strange sort of smile I can't quite place. "Do you have idea how close we were to victory?" he whispers.
For one split moment I can almost see myself in him.
It terrifies me.
"Yes," I admit. "But Chimaeramon was an irreparable error. The moment the idea was conceived, the figure of the Digital Kaiser was doomed."
"Doomed," he repeats with a short laugh. "Your idea of doom is less permanent than the norm, isn't it? I'm right here, after all."
"So it was for revenge," I deduct, watching him carefully. "A way to punish Daisuke for the fact that we failed, back then."
"Perhaps," Kaiser says playfully. "There is a definite possibility that that may have been my motivation."
"And if it wasn't? What was, then?"
"You don't remember me very well if you expect I'll give you straight answers," he chuckles. "No matter. I remember well enough for the both of us, even to compensate for your damaged cognizance."
Damaged?
"What do you mean?" I ask slowly, frowning.
"I also never repeat myself," Kaiser says curtly, hitting a few switches. Several of the monitors suddenly leap into static life, white noise and snow the only thing received. The erratic, jumping lightsource throws ghosts of shadows all over the chamber. The slight strobe effect also makes the scene seem in slight slow motion. Kaiser didn't deign to notice; he simply murmured something about satellite positioning and began typing again.
Obviously that topic was closed for the moment. I picked another from the plethora of things nagging at my mind.
"Why did you send me those dreams?"
He stops for a full two seconds. The sudden lack of typing is like the ominous silence of a building thunderstorm: thick and oppressive. Only two seconds, but it's enough to remind me exactly who I'm contending with.
The Digital Kaiser is not a person to be taken lightly or trifled with. Of anyone alive, I ought to have known that.
"That's for me to know," he answers, and the clack-clack of his keystrokes resumes. I can read him well enough to understand what just happened – he didn't know what I was talking about. He didn't send me any dreams at all. And I also understand that to mention it again would produce repercussions I most definitely did not want.
"Ichijouji."
He pulls my attention to the moniters, which have ceased their static dance and now center on one lone spot in the Digital World, a lush glen with a solitary television stranded in the middle. It was an entrance point we used often, and now as we watched, Chosen Children began appearing in bursts of rainbow light and shifting data.
"They come," Kaiser says quietly.
I chance a few steps closer to better see which of the Digidestined have come through; the actual number of them surprises me. Even the older children, some of them, are present. Daisuke must have raised an unholy ruckus. He's quite good at that.
I'm close to him now, beside him as we stand before the looming, dilapidated wall of screens. I don't dare speak, knowing what speed that arm would snap out with. I, instead, watch the play of light over his glasses, wondering silently what this would all lead to.
And as an unreadable smile slides over his face, I contemplate what it will take this time to dismantle the monster.
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Omakase Flavor – Grape!
Welcome to the after the chapter chaos; today, my muse and I will be discussing how world leaders often fail to take responsibility for the decisions they make concerning poverty. Also at the panel is Stingmon.
Stingmon: ::raises a hand:: Question!!
ADKen: ::trying in vain to fit in the grammar-school sized desks:: I remember these as being larger….
Yes Sting-kun?
Stingmon: ^^;; Why do some of your chapters seem to have two different titles?
ADKen: Because she has no idea what she's doing at any given time and just makes them up.
Hmph! I'll have you knoooow I plan that stuff out. It's true! This chapter, for instance, while you're selecting it on FF.Net's page seems to be called "The Snake Behind Me Hisses", but as you can see above, when you get IN the file it's called "What My Damage Could Have Been." It is actually all one line, a lyric to be precise, that I loved but felt was too long, and each half sounded good on their own. This happened once before with "Push the Envelope/Drawn Outside the Lines of Reason", although that line was originally "Drawn Outside the Lines of Reason/Push the Envelope/Watch it Bend." But "Watch it Bend" on it's own is kind of… meh. So instead I flipped the first two lines and scrapped the third. Each of these examples is an excerpt from Tool songs, which is also where the title "Schism" attacked me. See, it all works out in the end.
Stingmon: Aaah, I see! Are we going to rescue Ken-chan now?
ADKen: ::blushing:: I'm a bit old for 'chan'…
You're never too old for 'chan', Ken cutie.
ADKen: ::sinks into his trenchcoat..::
Stingmon: He's still shy.
ADKen: ::mutter…..::