Chapter 31: Searching for Purpose
"There are four major stations in the metro." Felin explained as we stood around the information centre. "Yellow Overpass, Green Clean, Pink Paw, and Bluefin Tunnel, which, isn't really a station, but ya get it, nyeah?"
"Think so." Hat nodded in agreement. I didn't.
"I reckon the best place you could start is Yellow Overpass. It's the most 'open' for lack of a better term." He pointed towards a station that was, you guessed it, glowing bright brown. Just kidding it was yellow.
"Thanks so much for the help, Felin." Hat said to him.
"Relish it, kitten. It's the only thing you're gonna get for free down here." He told her. "Now if you've got it, I've got work to do." He then casually strolled off.
"Hat." I whispered to her after stepping away from the information desk, and when I was sure no other cats were listening in. "We can't let that woman...cat have the Time Pieces."
"Of course." Hat whispered back in her serious mode. "But you got the same bad feeling I did around here, right?"
"Unfortunately."
"We can't do anything risky right now." Her of all people saying that meant it was true. "We'll just have to bide our time for a bit until we can get them back then teleport back to the ship. For now we're..." She sighed. "Just gonna have to do what she says. Y'know, you're right, how do we keep getting employed by all these people?"
"I'd use the term 'enslaved'." I argued.
"I much prefer our partnership." She nodded.
"A partnership where I'm the Cadet and you're the Captain?" I pointed out jokingly.
"Did you actually feel bad about that?" She asked, which surprised me.
"Well...not really." I admitted. "Cadet, Vice-Captain, Tie, I'm happy with whatever you call me."
"Okay...but just in case." She put a hand on my shoulder and raised her other one. "I hereby name you honorary Vice-Captain!"
"...Thanks?" Didn't know how to respond in all honesty.
"Welp!" She instantly shifted back to happy. "Seeing as we've got no choice in this matter, let's have some fun exploring a bit!" She then hurried off ahead.
I looked on at her in thought. 'She seems a little bit more thoughtful. Maybe what happened with the Arctic Cruise got to her a bit more then I thought? I hope it isn't weighing her down at all...' I kept that in mind as I followed after her.
Yellow Overpass was, as Felin said, quite open. Trains ran past on what appeared to be holographic floors as we platformed our way through...which brought up the question how was any normal person/cat supposed to navigate this place? Or where we just taking the scenic route? I mean, there were other cats around, but most of them where on their phones writing reviews. It was quite sad.
"Tie! Tie! Tietietietietie!" Hat suddenly called out gleefully.
"Find something?" I guessed.
"Look at this!" She suddenly peeled something off of the wall and showed it to me.
"A sticker?" It sure was. A sticker of the Conductor of all people, screaming 'Myurder'. Charming.
"It's so cool!" Hat marvelled at it, before she slapped it onto her baseball bat and continued to marvel at it. "Accessories!"
"Hat, whilst more accessories are nice, don't you think these things actually...y'know, belong to somebody?" I questioned.
"Well, why would a sticker of the Conductor be down here?"
"Maybe...they watch his movies?"
"Maybe they want to eat him?"
"Also morbidly plausible."
"Oh come on, Tie! Thoughts like that haven't stopped us before, right?" Hat laughed it off.
'No, but that mindset is what I always worry about...what caused me to speak out, and be shunned.' Wow, that got depressing fast.
"Let's see if there are any more stickers around." Hat ran off quickly.
"Okay..." I submitted as I followed after her.
"You're going off again, aren't you?"
Voice turned to see Moustache staring at him, her arms folded, tapping her foot like a parent catching their child in the act.
"Yes." They admitted, the green crack in space and time already evident behind them.
"I get why you don't want me coming with you...actually, still don't get it, but I'd rather not be disintegrated along with another version of me." She shook her head. "Still! It's kind of annoying whenever you hop off whenever you feel like it!"
"Sorry, sorry...I just want to at least try and exhaust every possibility." Voice said. "Use every thing I have available to me...even if it means I need to go away for a while."
"Pffft. Whatever. What, you think I miss you when you go?" Moustache laughed it off. "Did you forget how long I've been on my own? I can handle myself perfectly fine, y'know! And I know YOU'RE not gonna die."
Voice could never admit it, but those words made them feel guilty.
"I'll be back as soon as I can." They told her, to try and comfort the both of them.
"You're not my babysitter." Moustache scoffed. "I'll be fine, sheesh!"
Voice adjusted the weapon on their shoulder, still pausing a moment before they jumped through the crack and flew through dimensions.
After a moment, they came out into a wooden room. Bright sunlight was filtering through the windowpane. Various mechanical devices and countless diagrams were scattered across the tables and held up on the walls.
Voice surveyed the room. This was Crowbar's, or rather, Arthur's dimension. Except not on that planet. No. Thi\s was somewhere much father away. Somewhere which made a small speck of familiarity flicker in them.
They glanced over at a door. Thankfully it was ajar, so that they could slip in without making too much noise, and see the figure standing there.
Completely absorbed in his work, facing away from them. An old man with a lab coat thrown over his shoulders. They knew a third eye was on their forehead.
'Tim...' Voice's grip tightened on their tuning fork. There he was. Someone who was ripped out of existence from where they originated, standing there, doing his work. He achieved space travel, he was renowned, he was so, so important...!
To some. But in the eye of this universe, he was nothing. A background character that needed no introduction, no focus. His history, his achievements, could all be swept under the rug as far as the scope of this dimension was concerned. Voice had come to understand that this was...painfully common. If he didn't exist, he was never mentioned. It was truly a cosmic cruelness.
'It's not fair...to you...' Voice took the most careful steps towards him so as not to alert him. 'I understand it. Your brilliance. More then you could know. And yet...you are forgotten. Again, and again, and again. You. Don't you think that's awful? Even here, where you DO exist...you are still...so little.'
They were so close...they could reach out and TOUCH him!
'You are unloved by the stars you want to grasp here. So...you should come with me.' Voice's thoughts swirled. 'I'll take you back. You'll have a place again. I swear, I'll make sure you are noticed. Appreciated.'
They reached a bandaged hand out towards their coat. 'I want you...I want them all...to tell me...that I...!'
Suddenly, pain wracked their body, and it took all of their willpower not to stumble and alert him to their presence as they clutched their chest in pain, until it faded away.
'...Of course...that's not right.'
They silently left the room, leaving him none the wiser.
'It's wrong...it's wrong...it's wrong...' They told themselves over and over again in their head. 'I know that's not the answer...but...but...!'
They fell to their knees. 'What can I do!? What will be enough!? Why...why am I here...?'
They clenched their fists in frustration. 'I just don't know...'
After a moment, they stood up. The gap they had used to arrive was almost closed, but enough for them to walk back in and begin flying back.
They landed back in their cave, more like their home, and Moustache perked up.
"Took you long enough." She scoffed.
"Were you waiting?"
"Ain't got much choice, do I?"
"...Suppose not..." They looked down in shame.
"Oi, what's wrong with you?"
"What?" They questioned.
"You're upset about something." She pointed.
"How can you tell?" Voice adjusted their hood.
"...Dunno." She shrugged. "Just can. So come on! Tell me!"
Voice stood there awkwardly for a moment, but they quickly relented and took a seat next to her.
"...I'm...afraid." Voice admitted. "Afraid that...I'm not doing enough. Or that I'm doing something wrong. I just want to know, that I'm doing something that will be remembered. That I don't fade away..."
"Wow. Thanks a bunch, Voice, making me feel all sad like that." Moustache huffed in annoyance. "Look, if it helps, I could NEVER forget you. You're FAR too weird."
"Mm." Voice responded that didn't convey much enthusiasm.
"Hey, I mean that!" She stood up and in front of them, pointing at them. "Seriously, you can't be forgotten even if people wanted. You've done plenty already! All the Mafia are scared of you, Snatcher's minions run at the sight of you, and everybody on the Cruise couldn't stop looking at you!"
"Is this supposed to be cheering me up?" Voice questioned a bit too innocently.
"I'm not done! You're doing plenty already!" She then spun on her heels t to face away from them and folded her arms. "All you need to do is keep staying by my side! You help out plenty enough like that! And if anybody DOES forget you, I'll MAKE them remember! Because we're a team!"
Voice perked up at that. "Did you just-?"
"So stop being so sad!" She turned back to face them with a mad look. "You're plenty good! That's all you need to know!"
They chuckled a bit. "Thanks, Moustache."
"Yeah, well, your moping was getting me down, that's all." She brushed it off despite the genuine smile she was giving. "And I'm hungry! Let's have those fancy frozen prawns we brought back from the Cruise!"
She hurried off to her new freezer to get things ready, as Voice thought for a second, then waved their tuning fork, causing it to resonate for a moment, but very weakly.
"It seems a dimension is coming close to its end." Voice mumbled to themselves, as they thought about a figure in a dark cloak.
"I wonder if you're proud of all you've done...when your end is so near." They whispered.
"You've got to be pecking me."
"It's ADORABLE!"
I groaned at Hat's outburst.
"I think it suits you." The Metro Cat snickered.
We had just bought some more new Flairs from a cat vendor we had found traversing through Yellow Overpass, and Hat had insisted we buy something, so I had bought a Flair for my Necro Necklace.
I did not expect it to turn into a black cat collar with a little ghostly white cat bell on it. It even had a name tag on it that said 'Tie'!
"I'll have you know this is degrading." I argued as the bell chimed.
"Noooo, Tie! It looks so cute on you!" Hat argued with a look in her eyes I didn't like. The look of someone looking at a baby animal.
"Hey, pal, you can swap out our Flairs with the one you had at any time. Nyakuza specialty." The cat shrugged. "Besides, no refunds."
"You have to wear it whilst we're here. Please!" She practically begged.
"Fine! Fine, just lay off the puppy-dog eyes." I cried.
"That's an expression!?" The cat seemed to shiver a bit. Good tidbit of info there.
Just from this one trek I had gotten a bit more of a grasp on everything, including the nunchuks I was being made to use. The Flytrap Badge turned it into a kunai and chain and using the KO Yo Badge transformed it into a wrecking ball rather then a hammer. Which was kind of cool I guess. The new Necro Necklace was practically the same, except for the embarrassing fact that I had to ring the little bell whenever I wanted to use it to run through a clusterpeck of trains.
"Tie! Tie! I see one!" Hat suddenly pointed towards a Time Piece across the path from us.
"Well, we've had worse obstacles collecting these." I figured as we jogged over and she picked it up.
Not a moment too soon however, two cats wearing masks, the tell tale sign of the gang, approached us. "Good job, kids. Now hand it over."
"How did you get here?" Was my question. Seriously, we needed to platform a bunch to get here, how the heck did they do it?
Hat pulled a face, but held it out nonetheless. The cat still had to pull it out of her grip before they ran off with it.
"It still feels bad..." Hat mumbled as she watched them go.
"You said it yourself. Need to keep in good graces." I said, leaving out the part where we would totally betray her due to all the other cats around us. Even though I was pretty sure they were all absorbed in their phones. "Come on, let's go back and check in with her."
"Hey!" We turned towards some kind of stall with a cat waving at us. "If you need to get back to the main plaza quick, you could use one of these!"
"A tram pass?" I questioned as I approached.
"One of four. These make navigating around here a breeze. Much easier too." The cat told us. "Just Ten Pons each."
"What do you think, Hat?" I asked her.
"Okay..." She sighed. She was in a huffy mood.
We bought two yellow passes, which caused an electronic gate to open for us, and we were quickly back to square one.
"That would've been a lot easier from the beginning." I muttered.
"Heard that." Felin approached us. "Consider yourselves lucky. Those things are like spare organs to some cats around here."
"Charming." I mumbled.
"But if you're gonna be working for us, they're essential." He nodded. "Speaking of which, the Empress wants to see you both, on account of your latest find."
We walked over to the jewellery store, where she stared us both down.
"You found a second one rather quick. It appears I made a good investment after all." She chucked more green tissues at us. "Keep up the work and things will continue perfectly fine." That was a very roundabout threat.
We walked out of the store where Felin waited for us. "Hey, y'know, why don't you two stop for lunch?"
"It's lunch?" I didn't realise the time had gone so much.
"Look like you could use something, nyeah? Had a frowny face on ya."
"This is my normal face." I assured him.
"I meant her." He pointed.
"I did!?" Hat cried. "Did she notice!?" That was some genuine fear from her.
"Relax. I just have a knack for it. Deal with a lot of cats wearing masks." He assured her. "Listen, can't exactly afford to treat ya, but I can show you how food goes around here, nyeah?"
"I don't think we have much choice." I said to Hat. Of course we could just go back for C.C.'s lunch, but up and disappearing could look bad.
"Guess so." Hat seemed to silently agree.
Felin led us to a little food truck with menus and signs that we had seen during our journey through Yellow Overpass. Either this was a chain, or there were tons of independent food stalls here.
"Order something here. It'll be nice to actually hear a review of the food rather then read it." He muttered, as he was already holding a sandwich in his tail.
We took a quick look at the menu before ordering.
"I'll have some Katsu Curry and Rice, please." Hat ordered.
"Really, Hat? Rice?" I said.
"How can you NOT like rice?" She pouted at me.
"It's just so boring and tasteless." I said before turning to the cat. "And I'll have some Tea and Soup Dumplings."
"Didn't take you for the tea type." Felin admitted.
"Believe it or not, I'm the weird kid who had pretend tea parties." So I could pretend I had friends.
We sat at the tables set up and waited for our orders. It actually was pretty speedy and soon I was eating dumplings and drinking tea whilst Hat devoured her curry and rice.
"This is actually really good." Plus, the tea came in an adorable cat shaped teacup. "Though it still feels like guilty pleasure food."
"Food truck grub in a nutshell." Felin nodded in agreement.
"Eeph phood eaph heph wiph ephryon!" Hat said with a full mouth.
"What?" Felin questioned.
"She said 'we should eat here with everyone'. Friends of ours." I translated. It would be nice to sit down and drink tea here with...friends...
"That a fact?" He muttered, before leaning back casually.
"Aren't you gonna ask us about them?" Hat sounded disappointed.
"Nah. Most cats around these parts don't like talking about their history." He shrugged. "A dirty city is a good place for a clean slate."
'I get trying to abandon your history.' I stabbed a dumpling and shovelled it in my mouth whole. 'I wonder if everything's going to be alright once all this is over. A lot has happened here...but that doesn't change anything there. What I bring back with me, who I come back as, will make the difference. And, despite it all...I still can't bring myself to believe in what I am.'
"Hey, you got a little time after lunch." Felin suddenly spoke. "Wanna do something fun?"
"Obviously!" Hat beamed.
"Depends on your definition." I said.
Once we had finished eating (I couldn't keep the teacup...) he led us to a lagre neon building which had a sing of a cat singing in a microphone above it, and the words 'Catraoke' on it.
"Karaoke?" I guess that was a pretty Japanese thing.
"Uhhhh, I don't like singing." Hat quickly argued. Yes, it was true. Yes, I can't understand it either.
"Relax! If you don't wanna sing, we can dance! C'mon!" He gestured for us to follow him.
We were lead into one of the brightly lit rooms as he punched in a song on a jukebox. "This is a real hit at the minute, and it's super easy to dance to. Jus follow my lead."
A cheerful pop beat started up as the three of us lined up in the middle of the room, and Felin began bouncing on his heels, making us follow him. The beat was slowly building up to something...
Then the song burst into life as Felin began...making cat ears and bouncing from side to side, making Hat follow his lead.
"I'm not dancing like that." I denied. "I have my dignity."
"Sourpuss." Felin sneered, still dancing.
"Come on, Tie!" Hat insisted, also still dancing. "If we can't sing, we gotta dance."
I sighed. No way was I going to be able to sing this. "Okay..."
So, I had to follow along with them, and that same dancing motion lasted for the entire song.
'Things here are...interesting.' I thought as we danced to Caramelldansen.
...So maybe this was just an excuse to make Hat and Tie dance Caramelldansen. Every fandom does it!
Also hi! I'm here with another chapter after a while! Sorry about that. Got some things to confess about that.
So I've actually been working on other stories I'm thinking of writing. Kind of juggling between Hollow Knight, Paper Mario and Kirby (Let me know which one's your favourtie) and have been doing some character designing for Hollow Knight, since, y'know, character design is one of that games strong points.
And, well...let's just say I'm a bit harsh on myself when designing. I've spent literal days trying to come up with something I'm happy with, but my stupid self just wasn't comfortable with anything. So I've been spending a while designing, scrapping and redesigning only to get more frustrated and saddened with myself...so I abandoned it for a bit and worked on this! But because of that, I feel like this chapter isn't as good as usual, and if so, I apologise for that.
Secondly, I've been playing a lot of Bug Fables on the Switch. All about bugs at the minute I am. Really enjoying it, if you like Paper Mario definitely get it, but it also took up a lot of my time so a part of me wanted to get this chapter out quickly after a long absence. Again, sorry if this makes the chapter seem subpar.
And for something completely unrelated; hello, ScalchopWarrior! Yeah, Nyakuza Metro is really great aesthetically. If you don't mind being spoiled, you can check out Hat's gangster design on most official art for that DLC. Glad to see you again and thank you for the support!
Also thank you to Konan720, Mr. Mega1423 and Max waspace for reviewing.
Again, I'm sorry if this review seemed 'off' in any way. I didn't want to throw off my (albeit loose) schedule despite getting absorbed in other things. Hope it's okay. I'll try and be better for the next chapter!
