25-30% of the way there.
Will be done by 2020 or early-early mid 2021.
The minimum I've planned is 16-18 chapters.
Yayyyyy?
Uh, thanks for reading you guys and gals are cool.
Also, I typically try to get these to 2.5k words at a minimum,
Also, a conversation between two characters in the first part of this chapter is based on a real convo I had.
{} Around words is authors note, but don't worry there's only one.
Chapter 5: Lost in the woods
"You're my only landmark so I'm lost in the woods!" -Some movie you've probably forgotten by now.
Woods are everywhere unless you're in some sort of desert, mountain, or on the moon. I imagine you've seen a forest in your lifetime. The massive trees clogging it throughout with darkness, the noises you'll hear coming from them if you listen closely, the Alpine smell of it all.
But looking at a forest is one thing. Being inside is another. It's like being in a maze without knowing it. You wander for hours, days, possibly years until you either come out a different person, or let the darkness take you.
And by darkness I mean the killer bears of course.
But, what are the woods? Can you say for certain that you aren't in the woods right now? Can you prove that you're not in a never-ending maze that changes you as a person, can you…
Can you stay sane while in the woods? That is the question. The very over dramatic question that will probably not come up again.
And as Meta Knight's boots trodded on the dirt floor, he was wondering the exact same thing. Ribbon wasn't really talking at all. There wasn't much to talk about after all. Just trees. And more trees. And even more trees.
"…Hey, Meta Knight." Ribbon muttered.
Meta Knight heard this and was startled suddenly. "Hm, you need something?"
"So, are you and Kirby like… related or something?" Ribbon asked. "I mean, your faces look similar." Meta Knight did indeed lose his mask, but he hoped she didn't notice it.
But he of course didn't expect the question, and didn't really want to talk about his face. He started to tell her, "Well..." But then he realized there wasn't anything else to do while they were walking, so he answered, "Well, we are of the same… species you could say."
"What species is that?" Ribbon asked.
Meta Knight told her, "I don't know the name."
"Oh… so would you call him family?" Meta Knight thought about this for a second. Would he call Kirby family…
Family huh...
Meta did have a family...
"…!" A though struck in Meta Knight's mind.
Some time ago…
Meta woke up. The harsh wind of the desert blew across his young face as he went over to the window and closed it shut. It sprang back up immediately and he sighed. He exited his room and was ran into by someone. He fell down on the ground, as did the other certian someone.
He knew who it was almost immediately, his sister of course. "Hey, watch it!" Meta yelled.
His sister got back up before him and responded, "You were the one who ran out of your room."
"Oh shut it Garlude." Meta said getting back up as well.
Then t-
Meta Knight was suddenly snapped back to reality.
"Uh, are you going to answer my question?" Ribbon asked, unknowingly snapping him out of the flashback he was going through. "You've been staring at the sky blankly for like fifteen seconds."
"Oh yes, my family." Meta Knight cleared his throat. "Well I'd say the crew of the Halberd is the closest thing I have as a family at the moment."
"Eh, not really what I asked, but good enough."
"Yes, well what were you expecting?" Meta Knight questioned.
"No, it's just, well…" Ribbon cleared her throat. "I sort of expected you to not have one, or not know them, because that's what a lot of my friends tell me."
Meta asked, "Like who?"
Ribbon stopped to think, then responded, "Uh… y'know Addie..."
"Who?" Meta Knight asked yet again.
Ribbon told him, "Adeline, she doesn't know her family, neither does Kirby, I think."
Meta Knight responded, "Well, Kirby is a special case, he's not like anything else, so it makes sense for him to not have one."
"And uh, I don't really know mine I suppose," Ribbon cleared her throat again. "I mean, they exist but I don't know who they are."
"Oh, well that's very interesting information." Meta Knight replied. Ribbon let out a confused 'hmm?' sound. Meta Knight elaborated, "I mean, rather it's just I did not expect this conversation from you of all creatures."
Ribbon responded quickly, "Creatures? Just say fairies."
"I don't see the problems with saying creatures." Meta Knight replied bluntly.
Ribbon sounding rather offended, replied, "I mean, it's kind of degrading, so could you not?"
"Well, I'm sorry." Meta then coughed, "Sorry you're offended by what I said."
"I heard that!" Ribbon said, getting even more annoyed.
"Can you just talk about something else?"
"Not until you say you're sorry."
Meta Knight paused for a moment, then muttered, "Sorry." But really he was thinking, 'Sorry you're offended.'
"FINALLY!" Ribbon shouted. "As I was saying, uh…"
"We were talking about family yeah?" Meta Knigh asked.
Ribbon then remembered, "Oh yeah, uh did you tell me about your family?" Meta Knight shrugged, he had actually forgotten.
He pondered this for a moment, almost tripping over a rock, before replying, "Uh, you know crew of my ship, The Halberd, of course."
"But you guys don't look related." Ribbon replied putting her hand on the side of her face, the other holding on to Meta Knights back. "But, you are related right?"
"You don't have to be related to be family."
"But, isn't that the literal definition of family?" Ribbon asked.
"To be quote-on-quote 'family', at least to me, you just have to spend a lot of time around somebody else, and be aquatinted with them enough."
"So say hypothetically, there's a non-specific friend of mine, who's rather close to me, and she, I mean they, could technically be sort of a… sister?"
"Sister huh…" Meta Knight sighed for a moment, "Oh well…" He had a general idea who Ribbon was talking about, and replied, "Well you could see her," Meta Knight coughed, "I mean them, as a sister, of course."
"But what if I didn't know whether or not this hypothetical person felt a similar way?"
"You ask them, obviously." Meta Knight responded.
Ribbon then asked, "Okay, but what if I suck at asking stuff?"
Meta chuckled, "Well you clearly don't judging by today."
"Is that a compliment, or a… what's the opposite of a compliment?" Ribbon pondered.
Meta Knight actually pondered this, "An… un-compliment?"
Ribbon then realized, "No its like an… an insult! Was that a compliment or insult?"
"Oh yeah, that's what it's called, no, no it wasn't an insult, not compliment, it was an observation."
"Your face is an observation." Ribbon said, sort of smirking.
"What does that even mean?"
Ribbon giggled a bit, "Uh I dunno, it just sounded right."
"Okay, okay, what were we talking about again?" Meta and Ribbon had went back to what they were discussing before, which somehow kept trailing off. They were have quite a ball talking, but what they didn't know was that they were being watched.
Ha. Ha. Haa-h;*+$+$!$|€^™$($...×
[ TRANSITION ACTIVATE!]
Adeline looked at the watch in confusion. It had just said her name. She wasn't dreaming. Or was she? She pinched herself to no avail, then she looked at it again. It was a blue screen with multiple square buttons on it. The buttons had no 3d depth and were more or less tiny icons on the screen.
"What…" Adeline mumbled, putting on a confused expression. Apparently, the watch heard as it quickly responded.
"I see, you are confused, based on [Facial Expression and Voice Tone]." It said the last part more monotone than before. "Allow me to explain." The voice continued. "Please click the [IDENTIFICATION] Application at the top left of the screen."
Adeline tapped the square at the top left. The voice continued. "This is your ID, you will use this around the [Bio-264] colony whenever required." Bio-264… Adeline wasn't sure what the quite was, but it kept coming up.
"Okay…"
"It appears you do not have a pic-" The voice glitched out for a moment before continuing. "-thank you for taking the picture, swipe down to exit the application." Adeline swiped down on the screen and the previously blue screen with the icons appeared. The voice then stopped. Adeline waited a bit then tapped the top left icon again.
She hadn't noticed before but it had quite a bit of information, involving her presumably. It said:
Adeline_Null {null meaning missing information, so no that's not the last name}
ID: 'KYT0002'
AGE: (Missing_Error)
Current Height: ('3 2/4 inches.)
Position: N/A
"Wait a minute, that couldn't be right could it?" Adeline thought to herself, looking at the height section. Weren't inches the smaller ones? She wasn't exactly the greatest with math, but she was sure that was right. Well, she ignored this odd bit of information for now. She swiped up and returned to the previous screen.
She then looked around the area again. It was mostly the same as before except the Waddle Dee's from prior were gone, and a slight wind had picked up in the area. Then she felt a vibration on her arm. The Watch was vibrating and she looked down at it.
There was a green button on the screen, and a countdown above it. The countdown was at Seven and counting down quickly; 6 seconds now, and Adeline wasn't sure whether or not to press the button; 5 seconds left, and Adeline moved her finger over the button; now four seconds, and she hesitated slightly, what if it was some sort of self destruct? 3 seconds left, she made the decision to finally press the button and it disappeared from the screen.
Then a sound picked up,
"…"
It was static.
"…"
The static continued.
"…"
Then suddenly,
"Hello?"
Said a female voice. Adeline raised an eyebrow at this, and said nothing in response. She was one part scared, one part intrigued and was in silence as the voice sighed, "Of course, it simply must be an error, makes sense, yes, of course." The voice sounded rather snarky like somebody had gotten up on the wrong side of the bed.
The voice continued, "No, that's not probable, there was just activity on the device, it's impossible for it to be an error." Then a ticking noise picked up in the sounds.
Tick.
The voice continued, "I'll have to deal with this later, but if I deal with it now it will be far better-
Tick.
"-for everybody else, of course." Then there was a knocking noise, and another voice picked up in the background. Adeline teetered back and forth slightly, listening intently.
"Oh hey Katrina." The new voice said.
"Hello Norville." The voice who Adeline presumed to be this, 'Katrin-
Tick.
-a responded.
"So like, the shipment is in order, we just need your signature in order to-
Tick.
"- Confirm everything is authorized by the organization."
Adeline listened closely, as this 'Norville' went back and forth with Katrina about some sort of shipment being shipped to Bio-264. Why did that name keep coming up? Adeline kept very quiet during all of this, and continued to listen.
Katrina said, "So, after this, inform Alyssa to continue to keep a close watch on the two natives we examined." Adeline stopped herself from coughing as Katrina continued, "Due to unforeseen circumstances we had to make their location generally close to our base."
Tick.
"So basically tell her to keep both eyes open, as anything could be on the perimeter."
Then a chill swept through the area as Adeline felt a sudden presence behind her. Whatever it was, was big and it was directly behind her, perhaps watching her. She wanted to turn around, but felt like it she still needed to focus on the conversation.
The Norville fellow said, "Like, 10-4 and all that miss, I-"
Tick.
"-'ll do that right away."
Then something suddenly touched Adeline on her shoulder. The feeling was rather sudden, as she left out a not shrill, but very high and short scream.
Then Katrina said, fairly startled, "What the f-" Adeline quickly swiped down and it ended the audio communication. Adeline turned around to see the person who had tapped her. It was King Dedede, standing there in all his 'glory'.
"Oh hey, sorry for startling you, it's just you've been standing in the same place for a bit, and Bandanna Waddle Dee is too busy to deal with ya." Dedede yawned. He looked rather tired, perhaps have only gotten up recently. He had the sort of look that a middle aged stoner would have if he was also a penguin.
"Oh, it's nothing, I'm fine!" Adeline replied sheepishly, "Really, there's no problem."
"If you say so." Dedede grumbled. "Oh and by the way, Bandanna Dee is going on a Mission with the new members of the castles crew, so I need you to watch Popcorn."
"Who?" Adeline asked.
"The thing that fell from the sky, dummy." Dedede replied.
"Uh, sorry I can't." Adeline lied.
"Why?" Dedede asked her.
She laughed, then continued lying, "Because… I'm too busy thinking of a reason?"
"You can just say you don't want to, I mean we're friends, we went on that adventure that one time!"
Then Adeline suggested, "I mean, how about you let uh, 'Popcorn' go on the mission with Bandanna Waddle Dee?"
Dedede made a 'hmmmmm' sound, like a very confused trader, pondering whether or not the goods he's being traded are equal to the good they're trading. Or just a Minecraft villager. He finally said, "Eh, why not."
"Phew." Adeline thought to herself. She needed time to think about whatever just happened after all. She also needed time to think of a good transition-
Meta Knight was still walking, walking, walking through the woods. After the previous conversation, they hadn't spoke that much, still speaking occasionally. Mostly they had just been breathing, occasionally humming. Meta Knight had been getting tired of just walking, but didn't say anything quite yet.
After about three more minutes, Meta Knight said to Ribbon, "Fairy, I think we should stop here."
"Where's here?" Ribbon asked.
"Hilarious, now get off my back please." Ribbon nodded and let go, sliding off of Meta Knight's back and onto the ground, face up. Meta Knight looked around for a another rock or something but just saw more trees. He put his head-body-back-whatever it was against a tree.
"So what's the plan for tomorrow?" Ribbon asked.
Meta replied, "Uh, I suppose we keep walking."
"That's boring, we don't even know if we're headed the right direction."
"Well, we either end up in the desert or back in Dreamland, we have a fifty-fifty chance." Meta Knight told her.
Ribbon groaned, "Well, judging by our luck I'm sure it'll be the former." Meta Knight sort of laughed at this, but Ribbon quickly responded, "That's not really funny, I mean our luck has been horrible."
"No, no, I'm not laughing at you, I'm laughing at the thought of being stuck in the desert."
"What's so funny about that?" Ribbon asked.
"Well it's actually sort of related to uh." Meta Knight paused for a moment, "Well related to my family, my actual family."
"Wait, what?" Ribbon asked, lifting her head up. "You have an actual family?"
Meta Knight then suggested, "Well, I can tell you the story, if you want."
"But aren't you tired?" Ribbon asked.
"Yeah, I suppose I'll tell you in the morning." Meta told her, closing his eyes and drifting off to sleep.
From the distance, a robot watching them looked out from behind a tree. "This planet..." The person controlling it muttered. "Aye yai yai, computer shut off." The screen then went black and the robot they were using to watch shut off.
"Alright." The person sighed. "Time to get this stuff started, correct Preside-i-i-i-i-"
[ERROR]
Chapter 6: Mission's and Missed youngs
yeah Meta and Garlude are related in this Canon, it makes more sense in the next chapter which will be released soon.
Thanks for the decent amount of views folk, I'll catch you on the flip side. Or rather on the Unflipped side. This isn't Super Paper Mario...
(Nobody got that reference)
Kk, bye for now.
-Broomguy