A/N: Hoo boy, do I have a LOTALOTALOT to tell you guys... Have a seat, we'll be here a while. If you don't care about all this, feel free to skip to the chapter, I won't try to stop you. So let's cover some things right off the bat.
?:My god, your upload Schedule is terrible, isn't it?
!:That's one way of phrasing it, though I can think of a few others. Then main reason for that, is how much I'm handling right now. I'm also working on my other fanfiction: Impending Future, over in the Fire Emblem section of the archive, at the same time. As such, I go back and forth between this and that, and that was was uploaded last. I plan to upload another chapter to that one later tonight, or sometime tomorrow if I can. We'll see just how productive Mr. 24 can be.
?: Is this fiction just going to be exactly the same thing, just with Maxi inserted?
!: No actually. I plan to diverge the stories completely around the next chapter, or the one after it. It even diverges a bit in this chapter. Also, if you haven't noticed, or are reading this in the future, the fiction has a shiny new title, so let's see how this works out.
?: You are aware that the author is continuing the original story, yes? Doesn't that mean you should stop?
Truthfully, and painfully, yes. It does mean I should stop. However, no. I'm not going to, and Yes, I was aware of this. Let's sort out some reasons. I'm not stopping this, because I've had a lot of people tell me they really like this new fiction, and I owe it to them to continue. Also, that's the same reason that the original author has for continuing his version, so go figure. Also, Mr. DxD gave me permission to do this, and he said it was okay that I continue. The author in the T-section he refers to in his explanation chapter is me. (Also, that's really cool to me...) So, yeah, this will keep going. If you don't like it, or you want me to get back to Paradox[yes, that story is not dead], don't worry, I plan for my verion to be twenty shorter chapters, absolute tops, so there's no need to worry if you don't like this one, or like the other one better. Who knows? Maybe they'll wind up as the same story? ;)
?:You're stalling again.
!: Yes I am. Get on with the chapter! I'll see ya in the end slate. Here's:
The Puppet Master; chapter three: In which Maxi meets the Green Girl, and finds the Happiest of Masks.
Maxi paused, not knowing which to acknowledge first. What her name was, or the fact that she was really pretty? He decided to acknowledge the name first, not knowing how the second option would blow over. "Beg pardon..." he said stuttering for only a moment, "Your name is black?"
"Huh?! What do you mean?!" she seemed not to understand what her name meant. "I said my name was Noire!" she had sprung to her feet, temporarily ignoring her fever. Maxi didn't acknowledge that, but did acknowledge that he'd blipped on his attention span. Maxi knew several languages, ranging from German, to Irish, to Korean and Chinese, even to Arabic and Japanese, and finally French, English, and Spanish. With the degree he'd studied them too, they automatically translated to English in his head. Maxi shook his head, trying to phrase his next words carefully, his first line hadn't been the best. He waved a hand dismissively.
"My bad, translation errors, All you bases are belong to us, you know, that kinda thing." his tone was also extremely dismissive and, as such, Noire had no idea how to respond, and, as such, she didn't. Maxi giggled a bit to himself, noting how funny the situation was. In truth, Maxi was normally a sucker for a pretty girl but, now he had no problem talking to them. Between Neptune and Felicia, maybe he was getting better at this? They stood across each other, completely silent, until Noire coughed and dropped. He quickly rushed to her side. "Noire!" He managed to catch her before she hit the ground. He tried to think about what he could do here. He could call for Felicia's help, but he wasn't sure whether or not the teleportation module could move three people at once. He'd have to carry her back to the house as he'd done for Neptune before hand. "Eveything's okay, I'll take take care of you, I know someone who can help you real quick."
"Y-You... promise?" she asked, her eyes half closed, her face red. He nodded, a smile plastering across his face.
"By my honor, you have my word." he told her with a reassuring look. She almost smiled herself before her tsun-tsun engaged.
"D-Don't get the wrong idea!" she yelped, "I'm only putting my health in you're care for now! It's not like I want you to carry me or anything..." Maxi shook his head.
"Tsunderes." He said to himself, rolling his eyes. He then turned back to Noire. "Alright, I'll carry you there, okay?" he said this ignoring her previous remarked.
"I... um... I guess I wouldn't mind if you did, Max..."
Maxi got Noire into a bridal carry, and headed off towards his house. By this point, it wasn't far. He didn't even really feel impeded by carrying her. She was almost as light as Neptune was, and he'd run much farther distances, this didn't really bother him.
"Hey are you okay carrying me, Max? If you're getting tired I could walk...?"
"No, no, that's alright," he told her, "We don't want your fever getting worse, yeah?" Technically there was no logic behind this proposal. There was nothing that dictated she would get worse if she walked. Then again, Max didn't want her to overexert herself if she was sick.
"You're such an idiot." she retorted with a huff.
"That so? Well then, Lady Noire, you just got saved by an idiot. How's about that?" he shot back sarcastically.
She huffed in response, "Don't get too full of yourself, Max, after all, you're in the presence of a Go-deshj-...!" Noire quickly bit her tongue to cut herself off.
"Did you just bite your tongue? Awfully clumsy move for a goddess." he said with a sarcastic smirk.
"Oh... You heard that... um... just ignore what I said, that was... um... egotistical of me, sorry.." Noire's face reddened again but, Maxi ignored it. He simply laughed quietly to himself and nodded. Noire's mind wandered to other things, mainly when she was going to interrogate him. Suddenly, her eyelids began to droop. Interrogating him could wait, she was tired. She slowly dozed off in his arms, waiting to get there.
"Felicia? Would you kindly prepare another guest room? We're going to have more company when I get home." Felicia gave confirmation on the other end. After a while, he reached the doorstep. He slammed his face into the door and waited for someone to come answer it.
"Alright, Noire, here we... are?" Maxi looked down to Noire in his arms, a bit of a watery substance running down her cheek and onto his arm. He quietly chuckled at it, not at all disgusted by it. "What is it with girls deciding to take naps while I'm carrying them? Whatever. So that means Nep snores and Noire drools. How cute."
"Huh? What's cute?" The voice was airheaded in tone and playful at the same time. He looked up.
"Oh hey, Neptune." he said to the violet themed girl at the door. He had expected Felicia to answer it, but that worked too.
"Who's this chick?" she asked him, sporting a plain expression that didn't seem to go with her usual ditzy demeanor.
"Noire." The one word answer wasn't an optimal one but, as far as Maxi was concerned, he wasn't sure he cared much.
"Noire? Fancy name... bet she doesn't have any friends." she teased with a catty smile. Maxi frowned at her.
"Oh, be nice. She's some kind of sick, so I'm gonna take her inside... good thing I took care of that meeting already, I would've been hella late by now..." he looked one way down the hall, then the other. "Feliciaaaaa!" he called, "You got that room ready yet?" in response, the maid appeared just behind Neptune and bowed, beckoning Maxi to follow her. He did so. A few floors down, Felicia had prepared a room for Noire, and it seemed to match her style. Somehow Felicia always knew how to make people happy. She'd set up Neptune's room is a similarly perfect style with a light purple theme.
"Well, you don't have to worry about her now, darling, just leave her in your eternally cute soon to be lovers care! I'll make sure she's better in no time." Max turned around to look at her, Felicia following suit. Neither of them were sure how to respond to such a remark. They looked at Neptune, then at each other, then back at Neptune. Eventually Maxi spoke up.
"I don't understand how you can say such outlandish things with such a straight face. It makes it impossible for me to tell whether or not you're joking." It was true. Neptune could say the oddest of things without batting an eye, yet whenever she did so, she spoke with such conviction that he almost believed she wasn't joking. "All due respect, sweetheart," he said with a confident smile, "I think Felicia is a bit more equipped to handle such a task, but if you want to help, then that would be great too." his smile, combined with his comment, made Neptune blush just a little followed by a smile of her own this time it was a smile of sincerity. Felicia tapped his shoulder.
"Not to ruin your moment, sir, but we don't have any medipods. If you could go get me the things I need to make one, we'd have this done with significantly less consumption of time and energy." Maxi nodded.
"Then I'll get on that. Cover Felicia for anything else while I'm gone, honey?" he asked, addressing Neptune. She blushed, but gave him a goofy smile and a thumbs up, and with that, he was back out the door.
"I couldn't have just left her there... could I? Nah, then I'd never be able to live with myself... no way in hell I'll ever let anything bad happen to those two. Them and Felicia are really all I have..." He ran with his eyes closed, knowing the way well enough to do it blind. He talked to himself as he ran, keeping track of how much distance he'd covered when, all of a sudden, he sensed something ahead of him. "Shit! Watch out!" Maxi managed to make an extremely sharp curve in his run, narrowly avoiding someone in his way. However, he didn't execute the move flawlessly, and found himself tumbling across the ground. He picked himself up, dusting himself off as the person walked over to him.
"My apologies," the girl said, "I wasn't aware anyone would be running around quite to quickly as you were just now. Here, let me help you up." He took her hand, helping to pull himself up as he stood before her now. In front of him stood a mature looking girl, long, curled, light blond hair, long bangs neatly framing her face, and innocent looking blue eyes. She wore an emerald green dress adorned with gold markings. She had loose light green and white gloves on her hands, and along the top part of her skirt was a big peach/orange bow. Around her neck she wore a sort of white collar with green lining around the bottom, and a very thin white cloth connecting the dress and neck piece together. At the center was a gold circular piece, with a small blue gem in the center, and a tiny red ribbon with gold in the center. Maxi brushed himself off, ignoring her overly suggestive chest.
"I'll admit, I'm probably the only one who would be doing so. My apologies for disturbing your walk." he responded with the utmost respect. He had learned to respond in this manner to strangers in order to avoid most conflicts. It had been different with Noire and Neptune because he hadn't been thinking about it but, Maxi was half Italian. The general rule for Italians, was that you were polite to people you didn't like or just met but, if you were friends, or someone else gave the all clear, or even just started it first, some joking around and teasing was only customary.
"Well, that's okay," she responded, "Maybe you could pay me back with your name?" Maxi was slightly dodgy to such a simple repayment but, if that's all she wanted, then he wouldn't withhold such information.
"My name?" he clarified, "Maximillian Penumbra. Feel free to use a nickname. The full version is a bit of a mouthful, yes?" he offered.
"Maxi, then?" he nodded, "Hmhm, such a cute name for such a cute boy." she gave a smile that made him even more uncomfortable with this situation, if that was even possible.
"If you say so?" he half-asked, half-responded, "I suppose I've never checked, myself."
"Well, my name is Vert," green? "you have my full attention now, why don't we talk?" she asked walking closer to him, and reaching out to raise his head up to be level with hers, but he recoiled and kept his eyes on her.
"Yeah, no." he shot back, an extremely distrusting look on his face, "I hate to be rude but, I was running for a reason. I'd like to get back to that. This is a small city, I'm sure I'll see you again, we'll talk then." and with that, he dodged around her and took off again towards the medical shop.
Now that he'd acquired all he needed, he was heading back towards his house when he saw Vert, still sitting on a bench, right by the spot he'd first met her in. "Maxi!" she called to him. He had half a mind to keep running, but she'd obviously waited quite a while so the least he could do was acknowledge it.
"Don't tell me you waited for me all this time?" he asked.
"Yes I did and, I think we got off on the wrong foot, here." she replied. He recoiled slightly at such a remark. It was sort of true, he had taken a disliking to her as soon as he'd met her, but only due to the way she'd acted. He supposed that it was worth a try to get back on track but, he needed to deliver these things to Felicia to aid in Noire's recovery.
"I suppose we did," he shot back, "What did you have in mind?"
"I understand you're in a hurry. How about we exchange e-mails and talk later?
This only made Maxi more dodgy but, as t was before, if that was all she wanted, "With me, though? Why, though?"
"Well, I'd like to think of us as friends. Exchanging emails between friends is a normal occurrence, yes?"
"I suppose..." Maxi didn't have anything to counter that, "I don't suppose you have a pen and pencil, do you?"
"No but, we can use this device that I acquired from working at this cute little store that sells electronic devices." she said. Maxi decided not to question her wording. "I believe you people call it a U-phone?"
"You people...?"Maxi decided not to question her wording for a second time. That aside, a smartphone was a perfect place to store an email, even if Maxi was reluctant to give it to her, "alrighty then, here you go..." Max finally gave in, he needed to get back to the house and fix the situation, fast.
"There," Vert noted complacently, "Now we're email friends as well." she said contented smile and a light giggle.
"Looks like it, I guess." he responded, really wanting to hurry back, "Well then, Vert, as lovely as this is, I need to head out."
"Oh? What's the rush?" she asked with a look of disappointment at the sight of him beginning to walk away. After a momentary consideration, Maxi decided to tell the truth. It was the best reason for leaving.
"There's someone that's sick at my place, and I need to bring them this stuff before they get any worse." he said, his voice flat, his face dull.
"My my, how unfortunate." Vert replied, closing her eyes and sighing, "Then, I suppose you have needs to attend to. Feel free to email me whenever, Maxi." She walked over to him and gently kissed his cheek. Maxi ignored and and turned the other way and began to walk off. He didn't mean to come off as rude, he just really needed to get the supply kit to Felicia so she could heal Noire with it.
"Yeah yeah, I'll probably do that... I dunno, I'll get back to you on it." he replied dismissively. Vert turned and proceeded to walk away as well, wondering if this was the right person to help her.
(Line)
Maxi finally arrived back at the house, carrying the box of supplies. He burst into the room with the box in hand. Felicia turned to him with a finger at her lips. He stopped dead in the middle of the room, narrowly avoiding falling to the floor. He handed her the box, and she took it, then shook her head.
"We didn't even need this. She's not sick." Felicia told him. Maxi made a face.
"Fuck do you mean she's not sick?!" he blurted out as quietly as he could, "She had a crazy fever like, thirty minutes ago!" Felicia shook her head again.
"I ran a medical scan, she's just extremely tired." Felicia reported, "Sure, she could use a meal and a few glasses of hydration, but that will have to wait until the rest issue is rectified." Maxi fell over backwards, face-palming at the same time. Felicia quickly reached out and grabbed the box before he dropped to the floor with it.
"Why couldn't we have done this BEFORE I went out and grabbed all this stuff?" Felicia held up one hand.
"Well, there IS something ELSE concerning." Maxi picked his head up to look at her, "Noire was carrying this earlier. It struck me as particularly having a particularly negative demeanor, so I removed it from her inventory. When I did so, her condition rapidly began to recover. Maybe you should hang onto it, Sir?" Maxi stood up and looked at the thing in Felicia's grip. It was a mask, and it was perfectly sized to his face. He looked at the front of it to see if there were any designs. The mask seemed to be in similar design to the anonymous mask, simply lacking the facial hair designs, and having a slightly more open mouth. However, the mask seemed to have some concerning red designs leaking from the eyes and right corner of the mouth. He took it from Felicia and held it up to the light to examine it better. What were those designs? Paint? Whatever. Suddenly, words echoed through Maxi's head as he looked at it.
'Yes, yes! This is absolutely great! It's a dream come true, and I'm SO glad I followed my dream... Just... I love you... tell Mom too, tell her I- Wait... Wait! Wait! I'm happy! I'M HAPPY! SEE?! LOOK AT MY SMILE, HAH... PLEASE! I SAID I'M HAPPY! PLEASE DON'T-!' the words abruptly cut off in his head. Maxi stood completely still, staring into the mask's eyes until he suddenly dropped to the floor, shaking uncontrollably. That mask made him extremely unnerved. It bothered him more than he though it possible to be bothered. Normally, he could conceal any emotions he had, but that mask... it scared him. That mask was one that had seen too much, one that shouldn't be entrusted to anyone. Why was Noire, of all people, carrying such a thing? Felicia picked him up and held him close to her, trying to calm his shaking. After a while, it subsided, and Maxi could finally consider himself, semi- at-peace again. That mask was still unnerving as all buggery, and Gods only knew what it was hiding. All he knew about it, was that he had to keep it away from falling into the wrong hands. He set it aside, in another room, for safe keeping. Felicia took him by his shoulders and looked into his eyes.
"What was that all about?" she asked him. "Are you okay now? Please, tell me if anything ails you, Maxi..." Maxi managed a weak grin and raised a hand in assurance. Felicia sighed in relief and crushed him up against herself in an embrace. "Please don't do that again!" she half cried, "Please, Maxi... you're all I have... Don't scare me like that!" Maxi nodded, his breathing still very slightly ragged. Maxi could suddenly hear a voice in his head. He didn't know who it was.
'Don't worry, I'm still watching. I'm watching everyone... Don't worry, Maxi... I'll keep them safe." Somehow, he knew it was the mask. The voice just seemed to correlate to it somehow. Even though the mask itself unnerved the hell out of him, it's voice seemed soothing. 'Just call me Myous.' it told him, 'I'm always listening too, so just tell me if you need anything...' Myous' voice trailed off as it finished his sentence. Maxi didn't understand. Somehow, the mask had gone from unnecessarily unnerving, to super soothing in the course of a few minutes, only by the action of a few words. He sighed. 'Oh, and that Vert lady? You can trust her too. Stop being so rude to her, you might hurt her feelings. You want to keep her... Happy... right? I know you do. She needs your help, you know. She hasn't asked for it yet but, she's lost something that she can't get back. We're just going to have to help her.' Maxi slightly nodded to this, 'Good. I'll show you what we can do together later. For now, I think you're tired. Get some sleep why don'tcha?' Maxi sighed and smiled at Felicia.
"Thanks for lookin' out for me, Felicia. I don't know what I would do without you." He gave her a hug. "Now then, I think I'm gonna get to bed. I guess Neptune's already asleep?" Felicia nodded.
"After I told her about Noire, she hurried to bed to avoid such herself." Maxi chuckled lightly. "Alright then, good night, Maxi." Maxi turned and headed off to his room, a light blush on his face. That was the first time that Felicia had actually called him Maxi instead of sir. He quite liked the change, he felt like it made the two of them closer. He liked the idea of being closer to his friends, especially Felicia, Neptune, and Noire. Maybe he could even get closer to Vert one day, and then he could make even more friends? That sounded like a good plan, after all, Myous had said that Vert was trustworthy, so why not?
Maxi stretched and gave a loud yawn as he closed his door behind him and flopped into bed. 'Tomorrow, Maxi...' he thought to himself, 'tomorrow is another day.'
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH BOY! How many of you saw THAT one coming?! Oh you did see it coming? Aight den... Nonetheless, let's roll with some end-slate funfacts and trivia.
WHAT'S IN A NAME? - Myous
Kay first off, how does one pronounce Myous' name to begin with, you ask? It's pronounced My-Us. And why'd I choose that as his name? I'll be honest, this one was a bit of a snap decision. Myous, is a combination of the last few letters in anonymous. Named after the mask that he looks like(yes, Myous is a guy(wow! an HDN character that isn't a girl! (Psyche naw. that's totally an OC (if you want to call it that) right there) I'm just kidding about that by the way...) or maybe he doesn't have a gender? (Are we really going into the specifics of genders and sex and all that shit right now? (Wait hold on, how many f***ing layers of parenthesis is this?)) I dunno, I'll work it out *cues Jerk it Out by Caesars* Well, not what I meant, but aight then?) Myous is a magic mask that possesses the ability to absorb, copy, and retain energy from foes that he's either fighting or fought before. As such, he can create spiritual 'puppets' that follow either his command, or his wearer's. Myous is indeed a mask, and has very little means of moving on his own, and has power to drawn on from his own but, needs a wearer to function properly. Unlike what you might be thinking, Myous has absolutely no negative effects on the wearer at all, and has no intent on hurting people. The voice that emanates from him and gives the horror-like scene at the beginning is the echo of the person who was murdered by the serial killer who wore Myous first. Said person's souls possessed the mask, and gave it the power it has, turning it into Myous.
WHAT'S IN A NAME - The Puppet Master
Here's the new title of the book! And... Well... This one will explain itself after a while. Though, if you pieced together than Maxi is going to be Myous' new wearer, then maybe it'll start making sense? Also, think about the fact that he's already got Felicia, so what's stopping him from making other similar robotic/puppet units?
DESIGN CHOICES - RUDE BASTARD, MUCH?
Normally I would insert an excerpt, but this covers like... a LOT of the chapter. That aside, I received a lot of questions about why Maxi is rude, or extremely distrusting of Vert, yet is totally fine with an unnerving mask. The real reason is that the person that Maxi is based off of really did not like Vert at first, so that was a nod to him. If you're reading, buddy, you know who you are.
That's about all for this chapter. And as always, feel free to comment, ask questions, and leave suggestions in the comment section included. Thanks for reading. Let's do this outro.
So then, as always, I hope you all have a lovely evening, and, be it here or anywhere elsewhere, may we meet again upon another chapter. See ya!