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PROLOGUE
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Lord Cynic: "It's Christmas… soon…"
Mini Mia: "Yay, Christmas! That means presents!"
Mini Jenna: "Yeah, presents!"
Mini Sheba: "Stuff the Christmas spirit, bring on the expensive gifts!"
The guys: "Oh good grief…"
The girls: (glaring) "What was that?"
The guys: (sweatdropping and cowering) "Nothing."
Lord Cynic: "I don't own Golden Sun. I own my Golden Sun and Golden Sun: The Lost Age cartridges though… my precious… my precious…"
Chapter 10: Revelations and Ruckus
"What the?" one of the Vale officers uttered. "Who are they - ?"
"C'mon, ladies! Let's hurry or someone will take our spot at the duck pond!"
Garet and Jenna sweatdropped swimming pools as old women stampede towards them and the officers. They only just managed to avoid the stampede (unlike the officers) by pyroclasming into the sky and falling somewhat gracefully into town.
"Let's do that agai - oww!" Garet whined after Jenna whacked him on the back of the head. "What was that for?"
"You burned my favourite toy bunny as a child, didn't you?" Jenna demanded shrilly, making Garet wince as he rubbed his sore head. He wondered if Jenna was trying to deliberately cause another argument, but she was giving him a death glare so he had to respond swiftly.
"What are you talking about? I did not even know you had a toy bunny. That is a soft side to you I have never seen before," he added pensively. "Maybe you're not as mean and ill-tempered as I though - ACK!"
"Why you!" Jenna shrieked, starting to pelt Garet with fireballs again. He ducked his head and ran for the hills as Jenna gave chase again.
"Flint! Granite! Do you accept my challenge?" 'Super' Sap ordered amongst all the weird faces and sweatdrops. "I demand that we have a duel this instant!"
"I… I don't think you know what you're saying," Granite said nervously. The crowd parted on either side of him, Sap and Flint, and his face froze when Sap stalked towards him, cracking his minute knuckles.
"Are you saying you're afraid?" Sap asked snidely. Granite frowned malevolently.
"I don't have time for you, you hallucinating psycho!" Granite shouted angrily. "In case you haven't noticed, we're trying to do something important here!"
"Huff… puff… sorry guys," Hail gasped as the remaining Djinni arrived at the scene. "We tried to hold him, we truly did."
"I'd wonder about that," Flint said sceptically as he watched the others. Quartz and Ground were locked in a fierce game of 'Paper, Scissors, Rock,' and Spritz and Mist were bickering non-stop over a very important issue 'The O.C.'
"But Seth and Summer look so cute together!" Mist protested. "How can you deny that?"
"When Summer can't even call him by his first name?" Spritz retorted. "It's always "Cohen" this and "Cohen" that. At least Anna had the decency to call him "Seth". Besides, Anna and Seth had more in common than Seth and Summer."
"Yes, that's true" Mist said, with a slight smirk on her face. "However, who stays for the first series and who takes off before then?"
"Excuse me!!!" shouted Super Sap, irritated at the squabbling Mercury Adepts who were distracting everyone from him. "I'm challenging those fools to a battle to the death!"
Super Sap spun around to face his nemeses again, only to find that they, and everyone else, had continued on their way to the Elder's Sanctum. They were mere specks in the distance before Sap noticed their departure.
"Rats!" Sap yelled in frustration. "They ditched me again!"
"Paper!"
"Rock!"
"Haha, I win! That's 39 out of 42, beat that!"
Mia entered the busy bazaar, determined to discover Dora from amongst all the bustling people scurrying to grab the latest cheap purchases. Although she was shorter than most of the people around her, she had keen eyes that could pick out anyone she needed from a crowd. Call it woman's intuition, or instincts, or whatever. I still call it freaky.
"Mrs Dora!" she called from within a mass of scurrying shoppers. "Mrs Dora!"
"Who's there?" a womanly voice called from the east. "Is that you, Mia?"
"Yeah, it's me!" Mia yelled, causing people passing to wince slightly. She waded her way through the crowd to the middle-aged blonde woman standing over a stand full of dresses. "Is this the right time, do you think?"
Dora's eyes shone with the pleasure of a little kid in a candy store, and as she turned her head from the dresses to Mia, the Mercury Adept's face froze nervously. Obviously, Dora couldn't hide the glee that her daughter-in-law-to-be was asking her for help for her marriage.
"Anytime is the perfect time, for you," she said, her eyes now almost shining with tears or pride. "Now, what would you like me to do?"
Even though Mia had requested Dora's assistance, she hadn't taken into account what it was she needed help with. She knew the date for the wedding, she had a guest list already thought out in her mind, she had her Isaac, of cours – that's it!
"I was wondering," Mia began tentatively, twiddling her thumbs timidly, "if I could ask you a few questions about Isaac."
"Oh?" Dora was genuinely surprised, as she thought Mia already knew enough about Isaac to not need to ask anything. "Let's take a walk then, maybe. Get out of this busy place before we get trampled."
Mia nodded and they carefully worked their way out of the bazaar and onto the normal dirt path running through Vale.
Picard and Felix stared each other down at the entrance to the plaza. Picard's piercing stare tried to penetrate the steely expression on Felix's face, while Felix was concentrating on the unusual scar on Picard's forehead. Both were circling each other, each not daring to pull their gaze from the other, so when mischievous kids gave them wedgies, they didn't even blink, leaving the little punks to believe they didn't feel it and walk away disappointed.
Eventually, Felix dropped his fixed stare and loosened up slightly, allowing himself a small smile.
"Nice tattoo you've got there," he said almost casually. "When did you get it done?"
"Huh?" Picard became perplexed, but quickly remembered that he was supposed to be Piers. "Oh, yes, I just got that done recently."
"You must've," Felix said; doubt dangerously filling most of his expression. "Last time I checked your forehead was bare. That was at least 7 hours ago."
Picard was stuck now. He fretted mentally about what he should do. Should he play along and continue with his story? Should he change the subject? Should he tr –
"What do you do here anyway?" Felix asked, interrupting Pier's train of thought. "Do you get a job here while your boat's being repaired or something?"
"Oh, uh," Piers stammered, "I find tidbits of work here and there. Small jobs, you know, enough to pay repair bills."
"I see," Felix said slowly. He cringed suddenly. "Do you feel a large tug on your underwear?"
"Wha - AWWWWWGGGHHHHHH!"
"Is it true that Isaac is a heavy sleeper?" Mia asked as she and Dora continued walking along the dirt path.
"After babysitting him," Dora said, a glint in her eyes making Mia blush, "I would have thought you already knew the answer to that."
"I… I guess so," Mia said, her face flushed. "I'm afraid to ask this, but does he still -"
"Oh, no, of course not," Dora answered before Mia could embarrass herself further by finishing her question. "I'm glad to say he grew out of that phase when he was 8."
"Oh, but that wasn't what I was going to ask," Mia asked, her face burning red from Dora's answer. Dora stared at her, and then make an embarrassed anime-like face.
"Oh, I'm sorry," she said, rubbing the back of her head. "What was the question?"
"Does he still have those kinds of alter-ego dreams, I was saying," Mia corrected.
"Oh, uh, no, I don't think so," Dora answered, slightly confused. "Come to think of it, they stopped right after you and him got together. Didn't you notice?"
"Well, no," Mia responded, also getting slightly confused. "Why, should I have?"
"Well," Dora said, the glint vanishing from her eyes and being replaced with shades of disappointment, "I was hoping you two would be sleeping together from now on."
"We'd be what?!" Mia exclaimed. Several people gave her stares as they walked by, and the temperature of her face rose 20 degrees as she and Dora kept walking. The fact that her face could become any hotter was a miracle, since it was already a scorching day.
"I guess not," Dora concluded, helping her daughter-in-law-to-be to avoid further humiliation.
"Uhm," Mia stuttered, completely perplexed, "just one more thing: how big is his laundry basket?"
"Hmm." Dora seemed to be contemplating the best way to answer this. Finally, she settled by saying, "From all the laundry I've done, I've never seen him wear anything but his tunic and pants. Maybe he wears jeans and leather jackets, but I've never seen them."
"Oh." Mia was genuinely surprised by this description of her fiancé's clothing attire. "I never kne -"
Mia stopped in mid-sentence when she spotted Jenna pelting after Garet in the distance. She never quite understood how Garet could maintain his distance from the fiery brunette (no pun intended), but an idea suddenly popped into her head.
"Thank you very much, Mrs – er, I mean, Dora," she corrected herself. "I've got to go something now."
"All right, dear," Dora said. "Just remember, when you and Isaac… get intimate, remember to remind him to wear protectio -"
"Okay thank you," Mia said quickly before Dora could finish, and she raced off quickly.
Isaac wondered whether repenting his sins was a good idea. Sure, a free-travelling confession cabinet (as the slogan claimed) seemed like a great convenience at the time. However, now he had to ponder whether a shrine for regretting one's wrongs was appropriate for a town like Vale. Moreover, he added mentally, just how the heck did they know he needed one in the first place? It did not make much sense…
"We must delve deeper into your subconscious," the voice behind the glass said, bringing Isaac back into reality. "Into your innermost thoughts and feelings, your fears, your ambitions… what is your biggest fear at the moment?"
"My biggest fear? I'm not so sure," Isaac said slowly, swallowing nervously.
"Come now, are you here to confess or not?" the voice said scoldingly. "Are you being unfaithful to someone? Have you committed a wrong? Have you criticised your mother's cooking?"
"You know," Isaac said suspiciously, "you're sounding less and less benevolent. I would have thought you'd be kinder than this."
The voice behind the glass collected itself, remembering its duty. It cleared its throat then restarted.
"My boy, I only wish for you to be honest. I cannot hope to cleanse you if you cannot be honest with me."
"Oh," Isaac said slowly. "Okay then."
"So," the voice said, "Do you have a fear?"
"Well," Isaac said, counting off his fingers, "Jenna's temper, Garet's appetite, Mia's wrath, Mum's vacuum cleaner, Mia's wrath..." Isaac started counting off the fingers of his other hand, "Felix's houseplant that seems to grow teeth every day, Piers' hair, Sheba and Ivan's schemes, Kay's karate skills… and Mia's hidden wrath," he finished, shuddering slightly.
"This 'Mia'," the voice said somewhat cheekily. "She certainly sounds like she's a big part of your life and subconscious."
"She's a very special girl," Isaac said dreamily, colour rising to his cheeks. "She's everything I could ever want in a partner: beautiful, funny, ravishing, intelligent, gorgeous, a good cook, stunning..."
"Okay, we - er, I get the idea," the voice behind the glass interrupted dubiously. "She certainly sounds like the world to you. So, why do you worry about the approaching wedding in that case?"
"I don't want to get married yet."
Those nine words rang through the confession cabinet like an eerie presence. Both Isaac and the voice behind the glass had been silenced by the words of the panic stricken Venus Adept.
"Whatever do you mean?" the voice asked in concern.
"Exactly what I just said!" Isaac yelled, frustrated, "I don't want to get married to Mia!"
Lord Cynic: "Ooooooh, you're in trouble now, Isaac."
Mini Isaac: "What? You wrote that, not me! I wouldn't dare do something like that!"
Lord Cynic: "No, that's not it. You haven't got a Christmas gift for Mia yet, have you?"
Mini Isaac: "W-What?! How do you know?"
Lord Cynic: "I checked the tree. You're in big trouble, little man…"
Mini Isaac: "Eep."
Lord Cynic: "Sorry these keep taking long. I have writer's blocks to cover a whole neighbourhood. However, piece-by-piece (and with a metal spoon) I'm starting to chip away. I plan to write a Pokemon Christmas fanfics, so if nothing gets updated, there'll be a new story in my portfolio. The reason for the lack of updates, you might demand? Well, besides the writer's block (it's not laziness!), I've been reading Megaman fanfics. Yeah, you read that right. Megaman NT Warriors premiered on Cartoon Network last week and I've started to watch it. Besides being enjoyable to watch, it started to give me more ideas. So, yeah, for the past three or four days I've been reading fanfics based on NT Warriors.
Oh, and one last thing. Might sound a bit forward, but if it's possible I'd like some opinions on the way I write my fanfics. Is the story too bland, are there not enough descriptions, do I focus on certain characters too much when I should be focussing on others? Do I not write enough chapters or too many and fall off the intention of the story? Story elements and stuff like that, y'know? Only if you feel you want to. I just started feeling I need some second opinions from other readers. Okay, I'm done."
Reader's Spotlight
Black Demon567
Ack… sorry… I guess I gotta do it sooner. In at least 5 days, I swear! I want to update in 5 days, I need to update in 5 days, oh why don't you let me update in 5 days?!… yeah, sorry, Simpsons episode-influenced.
Link015
I'd say that Vale thought they didn't need police. They had the Elders to protect the town, so they didn't need law enforcement. No idea why they need police though… it's like they're paranoid or something…
Anime-Master7
In the taunting words of The Rock, "Just bring it!" Nah, just kidding. Like I said before, 5 days is the maximum I'm giving myself to update. If I'm not done in 5 days… well, I'm open to any sort of fanfictional assault by reviewers and readers… yeah, I'm serious.
