Koko's Misadventures; Part 1:Prelude, Chapter 3
Ok, the saga's going to continue now. Sorry for the long wait everyone, a whole year wait. Wow, how the time flies. But I haven't given up, this story will continue, even through the thick and thin. I'm going to get right into Koko's decent into TEH darkness, so we can move this tale along. This chapter is mostly Koko dealing with the effects Zophis's brainwashing is dealing on her, and how it ultimately destroys her and drives her insane. I'm trying to establish her role and where she's going to be, but after a few more chaps and once we get past what you already know I'm going to slim down the chapter sizes and try to experiment more with the narrative, which will probably be more dialogue and what not. Oh, speaking of which I abandon the "text" style chat I did last 2 chapters, it was simply to confusing for me to write, so I'll just use pronouns. I'll try to keep it consistent, unless of course when I don't in which I won't. But Bluh bluh bluggy blug bluh I'm done rambling now. I rambling worse than rambo. Does Rambo go rambling if he could ramblize? Well Enjoy ^o^. Feel free to comment to tell me what you think, I encourage it. (Even if it's negative or a critism.)
Koko got up, the sun shined on her face as she rose slowly. She rubbed her eyes and looked out the window. It had been just like the previous morning, and everything morning before that. Except for her she felt it wasn't pulling her sheets off as she rose, she examined her body, her skin which was below her. She saw black symbols where above where her chest should be. The prongs on the symbols extended out in three different directions, directly south to her bosom and pointing directly over her necklines. She rubbed it.
It had only taken her a few seconds to recall, slowly but surely where those marks had come and what they represented, although their true meaning lie as an enigma. She recounted the previous night, her counters with the deranged clown, that psychopath. How he had saved her. How he had destroyed her. She was still fuzzy on the details of what the heck he was trying to offer her, but it didn't matter. She got up and showered, washing over the same mark she had fixed her eyes on, and eventually giving up and wetting her body as she scrubbed. After getting out and drying she brushed her hair over her eyes and looked at the mark, and then at her face. Her dark chocolate eyes stared back, almost as if staring into her soul to ask her something?
*What are you doing here? What are you doing in, a place like this, Koko?*
It wasn't just her reflection, she heard it almost as if it was a voice of some sort, a suggestion in her head. She ignored it and shook her head, sighed and finished drying. After she went closer to the mirror and put her hands on the glass, getting closer to her reflection. Was this always her? Was this always what she was going to see, what would be everything she would ever stand for? She couldn't phantom what that meant or what she was staring at. A part of her simply couldn't grasp the totality of what it was she was hoping to see in her mere reflection, but another part longed to see something, as if to set her in martyrdom if only to capture a small part of what lied beyond those eyes.
Those eyes.
"My eyes, what-?"
She looked at them closely, they seemed to be a little off. They were darker, no not even. A different shade even. She got in even closer to examine, and saw a pale lilac shade diluting her pupils.
"It, couldn't be."
She rubbed them ,but they remained the same shade. She touched them and pulled the skin beneath it down, to see them a bright purple lilac hue, staring right at her. She could hardly believe it, but after all she had been through it seemed to surreal to make any difference.
*Great, Koko. First you go crazy, and now you're seeing rainbows in your irises.*
She put her hand up to her to her head and covered her eyes staying in that post for nearly a minute. Looking up after, she was more than try she thought; she went back to her room and changed into her clothes. The same clothes she almost always wore.
Going downstairs, she saw her family, if she would call it that, asleep on the couch as when she came in the previous night. She went into her cupboards and found some pieces of stale bread. She grabbed the bread indiscriminately and started to munch as she went back to her room. She didn't have much to do other than her usual planning, but she figured it wouldn't do any good to stay home. She grabbed her stored college-work and lay on her bed, hands around the back of her head.
Busy, better keep her busy. Not much sense otherwise, less she-who-may-not-be-pleased wake up. Her cursed step-mother, she hated that being. And as someone who kept most of her resentments under wraps, she wouldn't have a problem admitting she hated her. All the years of abuse, all the parasitic lounging her step-mother had done. Ever since the very day they met, when her father and she had walked along those placid French streets, ever since she saw her and that child lying there. And yet her father took pity on them, and for a time she somewhat did as well. But the inevitable conflicts, the arguments, the late night beatings. She could barely contain her scorn when that woman talked. It angered her more how much effort she went to ruin what little chance of happiness she had in life, what chance her family had in making it out. All the money had spent on booze, cigarettes, and other needlessness.
There had once been a time that she tried to sympathize with her, back in more innocent times. She missed those times, when the least bit of nativity would escape her heart. She also missed Sherry. The two hadn't been as close as the years went by, but it couldn't be helped. Times were rough after all, for both of them. The only thing that truly disappointed her was that it reached the point where they were reluctant to communicate certain aspects in her eyes. They had understood each other and their struggles perfectly when they were younger, because there wasn't as much to understand. They were kids, striving the best they could. And now, what was between them?
"Sherry. Oh Sherry. Where art thou now my dear Sherry? Where are either of us really?"
She giggled, and then sighed, keeping her mellow optimism alive as she often did. It kept her sane. She sometimes worried that the bridge between them, the gaps in their dreams and circumstances, would create a divide between them. But the two had hardly ever discussed this. Koko figured it didn't matter. She finished munching the last of her stale bread and picked up her satchel with her work in it. She skipped out her door, down the stairs and trended towards the exit. Before she could open the door, she was stopped.
"Sister." Koko hesitated, and turned around, and saw the small figure near the stairs.
"It's Koko, Hannibal."
"You don't have any work today, right. You're going to the library?"
"Yep. Don't have much else to do sweetie."
Hannibal frowned, with Koko knowing how much of a tick that last 'compliment' was to her. Her dark black hair hung over her head and down past her shoulders, onto her dark grayish-black hoodie, which embedded a red 'Broken Heart' symbol on it that she has embedded into it. She raised her hand onto her hip.
"You have this house. Or the streets."
Koko smirked. "And?"
"And you have me. Why am I always left here?" Hannibal started to take a few steps closer. She pulled out her dagger, and slipped it between her pointer and middle finger, playing with it as she threw it up and down.
"You can leave and go anywhere you want. No one's stopping you."
"Well I don't have anywhere really to go either, sis." She was tapping her foot.
"Join the club. Or at very least, remember who took a beating from that witch all these years for you. Later." Koko said, about to finish up as she opened the door.
Hannibal felt stung. She wouldn't let it go unrequited. She caught her dagger between 2 fingers and talked on.
"What about Sherry?
I thought you two were friends. She's so rich isn't she? What does she spend her time doing anyway? How can she never make time fo-"
She was interrupted by a slight jolt in Koko's stance. She turned around and approached Hannibal, putting a finger on her forehead.
"Aren't you just such a sweet kid? You're really something, you know that?"
Hannibal grumbled. "I'm only six years younger than you." She responded.
"And yet, six years to many." Koko asserted. She walked out again.
Hannibal swiftly threw her dagger at the closed door stabbing it straight onto the swinging closed door, and grumbled.
She walked along the streets, silent as always. Getting up that early always had that effect, that ability to isolate and seek out that
strange, cold feeling inside of her. Was it.. loneliness? She couldn't say, but she could bear it because she really couldn't know what there
was to do about it. Looking around she saw empty roadways and a rising twilight sky slowly dawning out of the dusk. She thought
something was off, wondering if the sky seemed darker than usual that morning. She shrugged and ignored it, the cold must have been
getting to her she thought.
A few hours later she was in the library again, trying to focus on all the credentials and requirements
for her schooling. Courses, standards, college etiquette, and the like. However she could barely
even get through a sentence, let alone memorize entire codes of conduct. Her mind was elsewhere, and
she was still rather trauma stricken from the other day despite her efforts to reconcile what she had
experienced. She continued this way for a while, until she finally gave in and put her head down, and drifted off.
A dark surreal like realm surrounded her. Clouds and lights shifted about, flames and colors swirled about.
confused, she moved around to make sense of it. Not clear in the head, she felt just as dazed and confused.
She thought she heard voices.
"Koko... Koko.."
"Who's there?" She looked left and right.
"Kokoooooooo" She ran frantically trying to find the source.
"Helloooo Koko" The voice was soft and low pitched, like that of a child.
The mist finally lifted away from the voice, as if clouds descending away from the night to
reveal the starlight finally shining through ahead with their message, for those willing to look through
and hear it's message.
As Koko rubbed her eyes and tried to focus on the visage in front of her. As the mist faded a small apparition stood
before her. It has light brown hair that covered over her face and a light cloth that she wore, ragged as it was. She was about
less than half of Koko's height, her round head slowly facing up towards her to reveal the true physical nature of what Koko faced.
Right there in front of Koko in this strange world she stood in, was a mirror image of her own younger self staring back. She stood
softly approaching, looking frail and afraid desperate. Almost as if to tremble with regret and caution at the very notion of the two meeting.
Soft circles sagged around her eyes, and she clenched her arms rather devoid of endearment. She reached her arm out and pointed, ready to
finally speak.
"What.. are you doing here?"
Koko didn't understand the meaning of what was going on. She bent over "What?"
"What are you doing here? You shouldn't be in a place like this...
"You must not forget.. Don't forget who you are. Never forget where you come from Koko."
Koko tried to take it in, and took a step forward.
"Never forget your dreams, your past. Don't' forget what you aspired for, what you cared about
and what you loathed. Don't forget your happiness, your sadness, don't forget what was and what could be.
Because if you do *sniffle*... ALL WILL BE LOST. DONT FORGET KOKO!"
She was shivering, breaking down into tears trying to keep her composure, she fell on her knees, trying to plea with the girl
across from her. Shaking and spiraling, she could barely catch her breath.
"Don't you remember...?" She softly whispered.
The younger Koko fell backwards, as a dark form clenched around her. The form's
face faded into an appearance that Koko instantly recognized.
"Zophis!" Koko shouted
It was indeed Zophis.
"I've already got what I want. And you can't take it back. HEHEHEHEHEHEHE!"
"Heheheheh" The evil clown finally made his appearance known, and with a crackle, held the young girl tighter. A purple aura surrounded
him and cloaked her and Koko, as the girl put on a weak effort to break free. Zophis slowly dragged her back.
"Wait... I don't, understand! What do you know about my father?" Koko tried to run towards her younger counterpart, but dark tendrils grabbed her and pulled her back as the
mist started to recede the place.
"Don't forget... who.. you.. are!" The voice managed to get out, slowly fading into the mist.
Koko exhausted, slowly gave in as the tendrils entered into her and pulled her into a vortex. The mist and light obscured and darkness veiled
over, the stars fading out once again. Her sight went dark as everything around her blacked into oblivion.
"GAHHHHHHH huhuuhuh" she exclaimed, waking up and raising her head above her books, gasping for air.
"I must have dozed off." She looked at the mess of literary work scattered around her table. She looked at the clock, she still has another two
hours before closing time. She didn't think she could bare to stay that much longer.
She organized her books and put the ones that were hers into her pouch, and prepared to return the rest of them. As she got up, Jonathan walked
behind and grabbed her books. "I can take these back for you."
"Thanks, I guess." Koko said, pulling her bag's strap tigher up her arm. She relaxed them behind her arms and yawned.
"Ready to go early today, huh Koko?" Jon said, getting his cart. "That's not like you."
"Yeah, while I wasn't really feeling like staying here the rest of the day."
"Hmm.. hmp."
"Kinda tired and exhausted."
Jonathan began pushing his cart around while she relaxed leaning on the table "Exhausted? From what, walking."
"Ha ha." she remarked. He put some books back and she waited.
"Jonathan, can I ask you some stuff."
Finishing with putting the cart back, he put his elbows on table and stood across from here from the opposite side.
"So, whats up Koko?" He relaxed sightly in anticipation.
She sighed, bending her head back to face him, as if to tell one a rather secret in the way only a child would.
"Let me ask you. If you, had the choice of doing a bad thing to someone in order to do what you consider the right thing, or risking doing the wrong 'thing' by making a good decision, which would you choose?"
Jonathan simply rolled his neck complexed and apathetic at the question. "I, don't really understand. Can you give me an example?"
Koko hesitated before responding. "Well, no but.. say you could fix something with magic, but doing that might not exactly be the right thing or the best thing to do. Just stick with me here."
"Magic?" Jonathan chuckled at this sediment, "So this has to do with magic? What, is this like a question of going off to wonderland or something?"
"Jonathan, this is serious." She tried to straighten him towards a more sincere sense of respect for her issue. "If you could fix something easily but it might have consequences, would you do it?"
"Koko, I really don't know what you're trying to ask here. Is TinkerBell tempting you to fly off or something? Do you need help finding your shadow."
"I'm SERIOUS Jonathan, what would you do?"
"Lets hope you don't run into captain hook on your adventures, or have to help the 'lost boys'! Hahahaha!" He was rather hysterical much to her dismay. "JONATHAN!"
He snapped out of it slightly. "I'm sorry, I'm trying to comprehend it, but I can't make sense of your question. And if you won't give me any more straightforward examples, I don't know how I can help you."
Koko simply pouted and crossed her arms.
"But if it's of any consolation, yes your right. What's good isn't always what's right. And what seems right might not always be moral or just."
Koko had gained a tiny bit of hope with his slight attempt to give a damn about her issues. "Alright, so.. what would you have me do?"
"Hmm, I don't know Koko. I guess, fly off across the sky, set sail and HOPE AN ALLIGATOR DOESNT GET YOU! BWHAHAHAHA!"
At this point Koko enraged, stomped out. She obviously wasn't going to get any more reasonable help from him. *What was with his obsession with 'Peter Pan' anyway?* Of all the years she'd known him as a librarian, even with her shy demeanor she had attempted to be as kind as possible. So for him to treat her as such in her one time of need seemed absolutely insulting. Not wanting to take anymore verbal ridicule, she ran out still in hot steam.
She continued walking her typical route home, not really sure of her demand in sense of direction. She didn't want to go home, but it wasn't like there was another reasonable alternative. As she wandered she felt somewhat awkward.
*Was the sky always this dark?*
It was quite early and the sky seemed to be discoloring more than usual. Looking around, the buildings seemed to distort, streetways stretched and people and obstacles where absorbed into the warped pathways of a sort of mirage, an all consuming illusion.
*Oh god, not this again.*
She recognized the sort of surreal setting, it being the same one she had experienced in her dream. Was she dreaming she wondered? The idea discouraged her, not wanting to think she suddenly collapsed on the streets or somewhere. But there was reasonable doubt in her mind. Mist quickly clouded her vision until a section cleared around the same figure.
She saw her younger self again, only this time she was less optimistic than before. Her clothes were darker, ripped, and her hair had been messier than before. Chains and strings tightened around her arms and tendrils coated and held her waist now.
"Koko...remember..." Was all she said, with her weak voice barely reaching out to the older Koko, who found herself continually more disoriented. The voice echoed and repeated itself, but even the surreal images stretched back and repeated themselves like a hall of mirrors. Koko suddenly lost track of herself, seeing herself at all angles but not being able to tell which reflection was her own. All of them warped and tore in different ways, altering themselves each in appearance only slightly. Their expressions, their posture, and even the shades on their cloth and skin varied.
As Koko(s) walked across trying to find the source, the images continued to divide, each taking a life of their own. One happily waved at the others, another blindly strolled through like a Zombie. A 3rd collapsed on the floor and cried helplessly, and a 4th still became enraged and started choking that one. Another held her back, emotionless and deprived as she would. Dozens and dozens interacted in different ways. They all warped and moved about as if in some twisted fun house mirror within a sinister carnival of sorts.
A shadowy figure walked through, and the Koko(s) quickly watched to see it come in and reveal itself as Zophis. His figure was heightened beyond reality and stood taller than any of them, his lower half fading and going as he hovered above them. He put out both his hands, and appearing as a mad clown embracing their fear, he laughed in his cruel delirium.
Suddenly all the Koko's put their hands on their eyes to stop the shriek, as they cracked and shattered spontaneously. One Koko remained, and broke as well.
And yet despite all of this, Koko as a person watched this all unfold, not having a 'body' she could relate to but observing it all play out without her control. Her vision was suddenly blocked, and when she was able to see again she was in the midst of a playroom, with toys and books torn apart and the room messed up. She looked down from her hanging chains and saw she was wearing a similar dress that she had seen a young girl wearing earlier. Not only that, her height felt smaller, and it didn't take more than one look at her body to reason she was the splitting image of her younger self. With chains, strings, and vines encapsulating her to boot.
"Khahahahahehehehahaha!" An evil voice echoed and repeated from all throughout the room. Koko looked everywhere to find 'him.'
"Where are you? Show yourself, COME OUT!" She demanded.
"As you wish." Said the appearance of Zophis in his smaller size, wearing an incredibly harlequin feminine mask. It had purple swirls coming out of both eyes and finely tuned purple lips, a star and a heart on each cheek. The rest was white like porcelain.
"This mask doesn't exactly suit me. It's quite beautiful, but not for a king like me. Maybe fit for a queen maybe? A beautiful, dark queen? My queen in fact." He explained, taking off and holding up the mask to the light.
Koko stared at it fearfully and tried to shake off her binds, moving herself frantically. Put other than her now pendulum motion, she made no progress towards her freedom. "LET ME GO YOU TWISTED FREAK!"
"In time, my beauty. My lovely partner. You'll come to appreciate it."
He stuck one arm out, stopping her motion with ease. With both hands on the mask after he moved towards her, darkness encircling the room as all light was focused on her. Koko twitched and resisted, her force making no difference. At last the mask slowly descended on her lips and then the sides of it burst into liquid, covering over her ears and slowly spreading over the rest of her head. "Mmmmmmmmmmhhhhhhh!" She muttered, not a word escaping. *You can't.. HAVE.. ME!* She screamed mentally, as the hallucinations became more rapid, more violent, images and memories flowing through her head like blood through veins, she saw all of this while watching herself struggle, further destroying her sense of unity and self.
"Good night, my sweet dear." The apparition Zophis drew closer and gave the face a well planted kiss, then levitated back and slowly left the darkened room into.
As Koko's words cries slowly died down, the mark on her neck seared bright red and started to expand about her skin, branching points on it reaching onto her shoulders and her further along her breast. And as all this happened, Koko saw it all. It was the most contradicting sight to her, having lived through it all within this world and still observing it as she went through it, being both an actor and an auditor. She saw her body wrapped up in vines and tendrils, rapid and vivid the images faded and flashed with little tell-tale of where Koko truely was in all of it as it tossed around space and lights, her muffled figure stretched and changed, encased and expanded, her entire reality collapsing from any sort of sanity. She felt like she was losing her mind, when she heard a voice call out to her.
"Koko, Koko, KOKO!"
A voice shouted. Koko got up, slowly coming to her senses. Looking around, she saw she was in front of her house, it being night by now, the streets emptied out.
"Koko, Kooooooooko?" Hannibal said, waving her hands in front of Koko's still waking self. Koko rubbed her forehead as Hannibal poked her.
"Yeah.. what?" Koko commented, shrugging and pointing away Hannibal's appendages. She had finally awoken and come to her senses, although she still felt a massive ache in her head and stomach, feeling somewhat cold and weak.
"Are you alright? I mean, not that I care but, but you totally passed out on the street near our house."
"Huh?" Koko said, dusting herself off.
"Yeah, you were walking towards this way like a zombie or something. And then you just sort of, collapsed on the sidewalk right there."
Koko sighed and continued to clench her head, feeling the aches grow, she felt so sick, like her body was rotting and everything was lucid. She didn't even want to think about the images she had just seen in her... dream? Once she actually thought about it, she couldn't really recall what it was, or any of what happened. She just knew something terrible had just transpired, she just didn't know what. The last thing she even remembered was storming out of the library. Her head felt like it was on fire and her stomach like someone had beat it with a sledge hammer. Or cane.
She shook her head trying to shake off the slow mirages of everything, feeling like everything was slowing down still. She couldn't stand it, and squeezed her head as hard as she could.
"Woah, let me guess. You're wasted aren't you? Figures you shameful sis. And after Mom's particular 'habits', I seem to recall you promi-"
Her snark was cut off as Koko pushed her aside and went inside the house. She frenzied up the stairs and into the bathroom, staring at herself in the mirror. The same purple eyes staring back, perhaps seeming slightly darker, but she didn't have time to register or confirm it. Her stomach contracting, she felt unbelievably sick. Upon instinct she forced her head into the old sink and spewed out a chute of liquid. After gagging on the salty taste, she rubbed the residue off her mouth, and saw a black liquid staining her sweater.
Looking at it in horror, then into the sink, she saw a ration of the sticky black fluid filling the sink, slow to drain. Mixed in were swirls of red and brown, and then she wiped some of it up with 2 fingers. Upon closer examination she quickly realized what it was; blood.
"Oh god. Oh god oh god, Ohhhh my dear god." She backed up, and then chuted slightly more on her way out the door, trying to spit out all she could.
She ran to her room, and reached for her bed, the visage spinning and her world becoming increasingly more disillusioned. As things finally distorted and warped she knew it was coming on again as she was passing out. It was going to start all over again. "Nooo.. please noo, pleeeeeeease no. Oh god, someone help me." Black liquid tears drained down her eyes as she was losing consciousness on the floor next to her bed, similar dark fluid dripping from her mouth. She felt disgusted, engorging and wiggling in her agony, her stomach cramping and bloating, as if liquefying from the inside out. The pain overwhelming her senses, she finally blacked out and onto to the strange carnival of psychological terror again.
A young girl confused and lost got up from her bed. She tried to think about where she just was, but not so much as a thought could recall anything. Not about her torturous dreams nor about herself. She dragged herself up and slowly followed the path that she felt to go. Something almost commanding her towards it, something calling. Her calling perhaps? She found her way down the stairs and out the door, and walking for a few minutes through the twilight streets until she came to a park bench in front of some trees. Surrounded as an oasis within the town, the trees hosted shade that covered a relaxing young boy smiling on his bench as she approached him. Finally the newly minted girl stopped in front of him. Her purple eyes knowing no sympathy, her black-blooded heart allowing no recognition of what had once left it.
"Where... where am I?" The girl pondered, looking around as sun rays poured through down on her. She looked up not knowing what to think, or who it was thinking.
"You're in France, in your town." The boy answered.
"In France? A.. town? Why would I be in a place like that?" She said soft spoken. She was now more wiped from common sense than ever.
"Simply girl. To destroy it." He smirked upon replying.
"De...troy.. it? Yes, of course. That seems right." She said agreeing, accepting his words. Her memories slowly started to fade back. This was her town. This town she hated. This town she would destroy.
"And.. who am I?"
The boy finally got off the bench and picked up a book he had besides him, as he approached her. He knew the amnesia was just a result of his methods just working a little too harsh on her, but she'd recall everything shortly. Everything he needed her to anyway, and exactly how he wished her to.
"You're name? Is that what you wanted to know, girl."
"Yes, my name. What, is it. I.. hate this... what is this? What is my name?"
"You don't remember your name, dear girl?"
"I remember... argggg" The young women grabbed her head, spinning it and covering her confusion as a huge migraine washed over her, only adding to her lack of sense.
He handed her the book, and as it glowed in her grasp fragments finally started to come back to her with its light.
"Koko. My name is Koko." She smiled.
"That's correct."
/End Chapter 3
Koko: Oh nooooooo, I'm going crazy!
Me:Sorry Koko, I guess you are.
Koko:NOooo, I'm a horsie! I'm not a horsie god damns it, HORSSSIE!
Me: Uhh, what the heck are you talking about me.
Jonathan:Why do I sound so stupid in this chapter.
Me:Because shut up. Well actually because you're a minor character who I'll probably never characterize or care about.
Jonathan:What? NOOO, I'M NOT A HORSIE EITHER! Give me a cool back story where I'm actually a ninja-spaceman cow-girl from the planet Xhavos!
Me: Where the heck is Xhavos?
Jonathan: I don't know, make something up, you're the author.
Koko:TWINKLE TWINKLE LITTLE STAR, OH I WONDE-
Me: Dang it, where'd I put the frying pan.
Sherry: Here it is! *Get's hit with a tuba by Crazy Koko*
Me: *Facepalms* Koko, you don't to be crazy during my author intermissions.
Tuba: You know, you don't have to do these stupid self-insert intermissions anyway.
Me:SILENCE! *Blows up Tuba with eye lazors*
Jonathan: So you're giving me my own arc right? And my own spin-off, and love-story? And pet pony?
Me: No, you get a few lines next chapter and that's it. And I already own all the ponies, and you can't have them.
Koko: I SPENT ALL MY MONEY ON A TUBA IN A YAOI! *Hold up Smut*
Me: NonononoNOOOOO *Eye lazors Koko as pupils turn into 'Imafirenmahlazars faces'* This has gone on way to long. End chapter everyone.
Next chapter, the village goes byebye! Yes that's right folks, we're actually getting into cannonical events. What madness inspired this? Find out on the next.. chapter. Huh.