Chapter 8: Show and Tell
A/N: Well, darn. Writer's block is great!
...said no one ever. Writing this chapter took quite a bit longer than it should've as a result. Sorry for the wait (but hey at least I gave a heads up this time, yeah?), and, to be frank, don't expect it to get any better. At least not any time soon. It takes time for me to think of cohesive ideas.
But enough about that. On with the story.
First place we went to was Dead Bird Studio, of course. One look and the receptionist was already calling both directors down.
Unsurprisingly, they showed up very quickly.
"Back so soon, darlings?" DJ Grooves greeted.
"Yep," I said.
The duo motioned for us to follow, and we began walking through the studio.
"Didja come to say 'ello or are ya here for somethin' else?" Conductor asked, "Eh... not that it matters."
"It's her birthday today," I said.
"Oh," Conductor said, "Well, I'm not sure what makes comin 'ere great for a birthday, but oh well. Happy birthday, lassie."
"Yes, we hope you have a wonderful day!" DJ Grooves exclaimed.
"Hey... what's that around yer neck?" Conductor asked.
The kid held up the gifted necklace.
"We made a new friend. She gave these to us as a gift," She said, "Because we saved her village."
"Heh... of course it was yer heroics," Conductor chuckled, "Not even surprised a bit. Ye saved the whole planet!"
"That truly looks amazing, darlings. If I may ask, who exactly gave you those?" DJ Grooves asked.
"You know the mountain range on this planet?" I asked.
"Oh, we know 'em," Conductor said, "They told stories when I was a lil' chirper about a paradise up in the clouds, carved out of rock. But all anyone found up there were relics."
"Guess nobody looked hard enough," I replied, "The person we met was the leader of the people who live there."
That surprised both of them.
"So... it's real?" DJ Grooves asked.
"Always has been," I replied.
"Could ya... er... could ya maybe take me there sometime?" Conductor asked.
"I want in, too, darling!" DJ Grooves fussed.
"Yeah, yeah," Conductor muttered.
I looked at the kid, who smirked and shrugged.
"I guess," I said, "They do like visitors, after all. But not today."
"Of course, darlings," DJ Grooves agreed, then knelt down in front of the kid. "We wouldn't wanna intrude on your big day, now would we?"
She smiled.
"Eh... on that note," Conductor said, "I have an idea."
He then began walking and motioned for us to follow. We did.
Eventually, we got to his office, and he rummaged around muttering various things about how he needed to organize the place and whatnot.
It really was a bit of a mess... something I could relate to.
Eventually...
"Ah! There ye have it!" He said proudly, as he held up what appeared to be a movie case.
He walked over to the kid and promptly gave it to her.
"There, that's me favourite movie. I hope ye enjoy as much as I did, lass," He said.
She looked down in curiosity at the gift.
"Thank you," She said, "Do you want it back after we watch it?"
"Wha? No, of course not!" He laughed, then put a arm... wing... on her shoulder, "It's a gift, lassie. Keep it."
"But if it's your favourite movie..." She muttered.
"Ah, it's nothin', lass," He said, "I've watched it too many times for it to be healthy anyway."
"... You're sure?" She asked.
"Positive," He replied.
She smiled sheepishly and pocketed it.
"Thanks..." She said.
"Oh!" DJ Grooves shouted suddenly, "I guess I should do the same!"
"What's that, DJ Peck Neck? Trynna one up me, eh?" Conductor taunted with a toothy grin.
However, for once he appeared to be joking.
"Yes, yes," DJ Grooves replied, "I always have to try to beat you in every little thing. It might as well be tradition at this point!"
They both chuckled.
"Follow me, darlings," He said, and we did.
Not too long of a walk later, and we were in his office instead. And I finally noticed something...
It was really clean. Everything was tidied away, there didn't seem to be any dust or junk lying around... really went to show the differences between these two.
He walked up to a bookshelf and proceeded to stare at it, flipper on his chin.
"Hmm... are you two into musicals? Or movies about dancing?" He asked.
I hated musicals badly... but I didn't wanna be rude, so...
"I, personally, am not a big fan of them," I answered.
He chuckled.
"Didn't think so, darling. You don't exactly seem like the 'musical' type, if you get what I mean," He said with a smirk.
I chuckled at the truth of it.
He turned around and looked at the kid.
"What about you, darling?" He asked, "It's your birthday gift, after all."
She cringed and shook her head.
"Huh... well that's surprising," He said, "With your energy I thought you'd be all over musical things."
"I like music," She said, "I just don't like singing. It makes me feel exposed."
I nodded slowly. Sounded about right.
"Aye. Ye'd never see me so much as let out a single note, even if I were drunk," Conductor agreed.
"Well, this isn't about you, now is it, darling?" DJ Grooves shot back with a smirk.
"Oh, peck off..." Conductor muttered.
We all chuckled.
DJ Grooves then went back to searching.
"Ah, there it is," He said, pulling out a case and handing it to the kid, "I've loved this movie since I was a child. I hope you love it too, darling."
She smiled.
"I'm sure we will," She responded, "Thank you."
"Of course, darling," He replied.
He then stood up.
"I imagine you two are very busy today, and we wouldn't want to take up too much of your time, so you can leave whenever you want to," He said.
"Hey, Grooves, I think yer forgettin' somethin'," Conductor chuckled.
The penguin seemed mildly annoyed.
"And what's that?" He asked.
"Bah, can't believe you've forgotten!" Conductor berated, "Seems like I 'ave to do everythin' here. Remember the 'thing' we had prepared?"
A look of realization hit DJ Grooves.
"Oh, that..." He said, "Well, there's no better time than the present."
They both turned to us.
"Are you busy, darlings?" He asked.
I looked at the kid, who smiled.
"Nope," I said.
They both grinned.
"Good," Conductor said, "Let's get a move on!"
Both directors ran off, leaving us to make a mad dash after them.
"They sure must be excited!" I shouted.
We ran for a very... very long time. How massive was this damn studio anyway?!
After what seemed like an endless stream of corridors, elevators, doors, and rooms, we stopped, and we both stopped to catch our breath.
"There it is!" Conductor shouted.
I looked up to get a view of the place. It was a very large and plain area with lots of cameras and other fancy recording equipment around.
The half of the room behind the cameras was normal, but the other half of the room was entirely bleach white. I saw various props and whatnot dotted about, and I had a feeling that this was very, very new, and modern.
"Now, you might not understand fully what you're seeing ahead of you, darlings," DJ Grooves begun, "To put it simply, this is the most modern and technologically advanced recording room in the history of the whole studio."
"I get it..." I muttered, "I don't know much about recording myself, but this reminds me of something I'd see back in my old world."
"I'm confused," The kid said, "What would recording a white background do for any good?"
"It's not just a white background, darling," DJ Grooves replied, "With new computer technology, we can turn that white background into anything we want... at least on a camera."
"So all the action without any of the danger," I said.
"Exactly!" The DJ beamed, "And it'll be way cheaper, too, although I doubt you two care about that. What it means is that you two won't ever be put in harm's way for the sake of a movie ever again."
"What if we need to record something else, though?" The kid asked, "Like, different rooms have different shapes and stuff..."
"Yer right, lassie," Conductor said, "But we have so many other places around we can still use for any scene we need, so there shouldn't be a problem. Hopefully."
She put a hand to her chin and released a 'hmm'.
Conductor then put a wing on her shoulder.
"Ey, anythin' beats puttin' our stars in danger," He said.
"Absolutely," DJ Grooves agreed, "We're not making that mistake ever again."
She continued to look thoughtful, then smiled and shrugged.
"Well, I guess we'll leave it to the experts, then!" She said.
"I take it this means that we're going to be going into action soon," I guessed.
"Yep!" Conductor said, "We need both 'o' ye here in... eh... few days to a week."
"No specific date?" I asked.
"I'll come let you know when we have the specifics down, darling," DJ Grooves answered, "But yes, expect to be coming into action right quickly."
I heard the kid clap her hands excitedly.
"This will be so much fun!" She squealed.
"Calm down, now," I said, "No need to be getting excited this early."
The two directors chuckled.
"We're pretty deep in the studio now, it'd take ye a good long time to get outta here on yer own, so if yer ready I'll take ye back to the lobby," Conductor said.
"I'll stay here and work," DJ Grooves said.
I nodded. No real reason to stay here anymore if they didn't have anything left to do.
So, we waved goodbye to Grooves, then Conductor led us out.
This time, I made sure to try and pay attention to the way we went, but the place was so ridiculously massive, it was like that large facility from a puzzle game I played once that I couldn't remember the name of. No way I'd be learning the layout of this labyrinth.
But after a while, we were back at the lobby, and after waving goodbye to Conductor, we left and returned to the ship.
The kid immediately ran out into the main hub. I followed her out, and watched her place the movie cases she got on top of the television.
I grabbed the one on the top and examined it. It was Conductor's movie, it was something western, but I wasn't looking for its theme.
At the back, near the bottom, I found a bunch of the information about the product. It required a DVD player, what a surprise.
"Do you even have a DVD player?" I asked.
"Well, obviously," She replied.
I put the case back down and watched as she fiddled around behind the television, pulling out-yep, that's a DVD player.
"Alright," I said, "We'll watch those movies later tonight, okay?"
She nodded.
"Let's go visit Subcon again," She said, "And I dunno, maybe you can start on your contract."
"Wha-? No," I replied, "Not today. Tomorrow, maybe. This is your day, kid. I won't have it wasted on my problems."
"But you know he won't be happy!" She said, tilting her head with a smirk.
"Good. Driving him insane is our goal anyway, isn't it?" I replied with a smirk, to which she laughed and nodded.
"Let's go, then!" She shouted, running off to her bedroom.
Not too much longer and we were down in the forest.
"Fantastic, here to drive me up the wall again, I suppose?"
I turned around to see him sat down at his tree, holding his book, not even looking at us.
I looked around, there was nobody else around. He must've heard us teleport.
"You could say that," I responded.
"How many times do I have to say it? if you aren't going to start your contracts, STAY, OUT," He hissed, "Me and my minions are very very busy thanks to the recent lava stunt, and I can't have you two getting in my way if you aren't providing anything useful."
"Huh," I muttered, "That actually kinda makes sense. I thought you were just trying to make it seem like you didn't like us."
"I don't like you. In fact, I still hate both of you," He grumbled, "If you two weren't so useful, I'd want nothing to do with you."
Both me and the kid laughed as a response.
He closed his book and got up.
"Do I have to kick you two out manually?" He threatened.
"Remember the last time you tried to get rid of us 'manually'?" I retorted.
Suddenly, he got up in my face.
"You have no idea, do you?" He said.
I merely shrugged.
I noticed he wasn't looking at me anymore, but he was looking at my neck.
"What... is that?" He asked.
"A necklace," I replied, "Never seen one before?"
"Shut it," He said with a dead seriousness I'd never heard before.
Before I could do anything, he'd taken it off of me and was examining it.
"I hope you plan on returning that," I hissed.
He didn't respond. He was completely transfixed by what he was holding.
"How did you get this?" He asked, strangely without emotion.
"It... was a gift," I replied.
"From who?"
"You know the mountains?" I asked.
"What about them?" He countered.
"There's a civilization up in the sky, carved out of the mountains themselves. We met their leader, and she gave those to us," I explained.
"What did she look like?" He asked.
Why did it matter...?
"Around my height, black hair, brown eyes, wore black and white robes..." I muttered, "Her name was-"
"Zena."
Oh.
He knew her.
Of course he did.
"You know eachother?" The kid asked.
He sighed.
"We did. I thought she'd been dead for a thousand years," He said, "Wonder how she ended up in the mountains."
"This place is a thousand years old?" I asked.
"Oh, yes, it was a thriving kingdom before-" He said, then coughed.
Understandable, it was a pretty harsh topic. And he clearly didn't know that we knew his story.
"If it's been so long, why don't you go and visit her?" The kid asked.
He laughed bitterly.
"Oh, kiddo, I think you've forgotten who you're talking to, here. I'd scare her to death, and that's not something she needs," He said, then quietly muttered, "She's already seen enough horror."
He then tossed the necklace back to me, which I quickly scrambled to grab.
"Well, it's nice to know that someone survived," He said with a huge grin, "I'll be honest, and I never thought I'd ever say this, but for once I'm glad you two came down."
"And I never thought you'd admit it!" I shouted.
"Don't push your luck," He said.
"Whatever," I chuckled.
The kid grabbed my hand and held a Time Piece to the sky. Looked like we were leaving.
"Just be happy we didn't ask you a billion questions," I suggested, "Seeya."
And we left before he could respond.
"Well, that was the very definition of 'fuel for thought', if I say so myself," I muttered.
"It seemed like she was pretty important to him," She pondered, "Wonder why we didn't see her in the storybook?"
"Good question. Unless she was, and we didn't notice," I said, "Like, if her hair colour was different, I'd guess she was that flower lady."
"Maybe she dyed her hair?"
"Would probably be hard to get hair dye up in the sky," I muttered, "I don't know."
"Could we ask her?" She asked.
I put a hand to my chin.
"Perhaps... but if what Snatcher said is true... that's going to reopen some old wounds," I reasoned.
"Yeah... yeah it would," She said depressingly, "I just want to know so badly."
A thought crossed my mind: 'Now you know how I feel.'
I quickly shook that thought away.
"We'll figure it out sometime, kid," I assured her, "For now, it's still your birthday."
She lit up.
"Right... right!" She shouted, "Mafia Town! Go!"
She ran to the kitchen.
What a day this had been so far.
A/N: Welp, some food for thought for ya. Not sure if I'll ever disclose who she was in the Kingdom of Subcon, but who knows, I might. Depends what you guys want, I guess. For now, it's up to you to theorize. Or ignore, if you don't even really care about her in the first place. Your call.
(Yes, I said she probably wouldn't appear in this chapter, while the end was based around her, but did she ever physically stop in to say hi? No.)
Next chapter should tie up the birthday arc. It'll be longer, and I'm planning some very fluffy moments. Because a good birthday arc needs fluff to be complete.
See you then.
