SPECTATOR
By MargaritaDaemonelix
Chapter 9
Three days. You haven't spoken to your brother in three days.
Three days ago, you and Chung were enjoying apple fries and watching the newest episode of the Time Trouble TV adaptation when RS and EM suddenly appeared online. Though you've been too angry to look at the conversations again, the general idea you've gotten is that Feita was bombed, about four days ago, by an Alteran bomber plane.
You immediately lost it. When your brother called you to his study, you had a huge argument with him. While you don't remember the specifics, you do remember calling him a few colourful things. He might have slapped you. You might have slapped him.
Chung bailed you out and hauled you back upstairs again before you could go fully ballistic on him.
You immediately locked yourself in your penthouse afterwards. You sealed off the main entrance, you closed the public bathroom on your story, you even closed the windows of your garden. Moby and Remy peck at your ears in annoyance, but for your safety and theirs, you cannot let them out.
Chung is the only person aside from yourself in your home these past three days. He went out and bought you a jumbo bag of frozen apple fries, as well as some mango sauce. He's been doing a good job of keeping people from trying to sweet-talk their way in.
Your brother keeps trying to unlock your doors, using his remote control over the Core in attempt to get in, but you've got your connection to the Core yourself and you lock them right back up. When he tried to send his personal assistants, Ignis and Leviathan, two brutes that are easily as tall as Chung's father, the two of you barricaded the door with a table.
Heck, he even told them to just break down your door. You avoided that one by threatening to shoot them with your laser pistols, then, when they didn't stop, yourself.
You'd like to think that, given the chance to, you could very much overpower or kill your brother. As much as Adam claims to be powerful, he hides behind a shield of men, of bribed men that carry out his every word. Without them in the way, your brother is a mere mortal, after all.
It's been three days since you stopped talking to your other companions, too. Proto and Apple have been made aware of the situation, and as expected, your hair turns greasy and you gain weight from you lack of motivation to exercise. You haven't logged back into the chat client since your wild conversation with RS and EM, which ended with you slamming your laptop shut and throwing your mouse against the wall.
As you sit in your workshop, fiddling with a few pieces of metal, Chung sits next to you, sketching your form in on his tablet. You have always been jealous of Chung's drawing skills, how he can bring life to simple strokes of a pencil or his stylus. You seem to be his favourite subject; for as long as you've known him, his sketchbooks have been filled with drawings of you in all sorts of circumstances-in formal wear, in a summer dress, in a swimsuit, in pajamas.
"Eve, you're going to have to talk to him eventually," he tells you softly as he fills in a shadow, then switches to the eraser tool to clean up some edges. "There's the soiree your brother is holding tonight. You have to attend."
"I know," you sigh, dropping your creation on the ground and giving it a nudge with your knuckle. The little wind-up toy walks forwards, two of its four legs at a time, before it slowly ends its march. You lean forwards to grab it. "It's just… I can't help them. Don't you feel guilty that they need us to be supportive more than ever, and yet we're sitting up in a fucking tower, being unproductive as fuck and acting like children?"
For a few moments, the only sound in your workshop is the whirring of your exhaust fan and the tapping of Chung's stylus against his tablet. You know you don't swear often, but you're tired and you're angry at so many things.
"You know, I've been thinking about what you said the other day, after the dinner," he says. "How we should just leave Altera."
"I know, we can't," you tell him miserably. "There's like no way we can leave."
"No, there is."
You look up in genuine surprise. Chung has stopped sketching, saving his work and pulling up a sketch of the Alteran plateau. He's clearly been working on it for some time; it's covered in notes and different colours tracing out paths.
"This is Altera." He makes a layer group invisible, leaving only the basic outline of the city. You feel like he must have traced some aerial photograph, but Chung is an impressive artist, and you wouldn't be surprised if he freehanded it.
"This is us." He opens the layer group and makes a single layer visible again. Instantly, two tiny figures pop up on the fiftieth floor of the Core, one in pink and one in blue. "Now, here are people we want to avoid-That is, pretty much everyone."
You wince as about a hundred more figures in dark blue appear, each labeled with their names.
"Now, here are all the ways we can get out of the Core." Another layer in green, this one showing multiple paths leading up and down the skyscraper, through staircases and doors and even down a chandelier. "And here are the ways we can leave Altera." Another layer in red, similarly labeled.
"Yeah, but pretty much all of the these collide in some way with people we know," you point out.
Chung flicks his pen at you. "Not all of them," he assures you, opening the next layer. "There is one way we can get out of Altera without bumping into anyone."
The final layer, a single, continuous line in white, pops up. Down fifteen flights of stairs. Through a service elevator. Then another bunch of stairs. A contingency plan, to go down the main elevator. Leaving by the west wing, through a service corridor then a fire exit. You'll have to deactivate it first, though.
The final step is to leave the plateau. Altera sits on a high elevations than the other parts of Elrios, save for maybe Feita's Mount El and Fahrmann's Peak in Sander. Legend has it that an earthquake caused the plateau to rise up above the rest of Elrios.
The path snakes down a dark part of the plateau, a descending trail that drops into Elder. "What's that?" You ask, tracing the twisting line with your finger.
"I did some snooping around with the satellites," he confesses. "There's a staircase going down that part of the plateau. We can take it down into the forests outside Elder."
He pauses for a moment. "There is, however, an issue," he says slowly. "A segment of the staircase at the bottom is pretty much broken. We'll have to jump down about a flight and a half of stairs to get down to Elder."
The thought lingers in the air as your workshop reverts back to its cacophonic silence. "The chances that we'll get caught or die in the process are ridiculously high," you can't help but point out.
"Yes, but what other choice do we have?" Says Chung, looking down into his tablet in his lap. "I know your brother's not trying to do harm, Eve, but the Morpheus Project is not nothing I can support."
He's right. You can't put up with your brother trying to "contain internal conflict" or whatever he calls it.
"I know he's not trying to do anything bad… But right now, we're the only ones who can do anything about it," you tell him. "Just… Give me some time to think about it, okay?"
"If that's what you want," says Chung.
God, it feels horrible to take his company for granted.
Altera Core, 2:20 pm.
Eve hasn't moved out of the workshop all day. You're starting to get a little worried.
You know she doesn't want to face her brother right now, not after the ugly words they threw at each other. You want nothing more than to just wrap your arms around her and tell her everything's going to be alright, but you concede to silence.
Diiiiing dong.
Both of you perk up at the sound of the doorbell, what has to be the thirtieth visitor today. "I'll get it," you assure her.
You push open the only door out of her workshop, into her study. There's only a tiny door out of the study, one that opens into the an old bookshelf. As a child, it was really hard to open that door, but now that you've grown somewhat, it becomes a lot easier to push aside.
You cross the living room, avoiding the various books and papers that Eve has tossed around and grabbing your Destroyer from its stand and running for the door. You find it helps to have your weapon on you when you answer the door, because you're not standing in your armor. At least with your Destroyer, you seem a little more menacing.
"I'm sorry, Lady Nasod will not be seeing anyone right now," you recite as you open the door.
"Oh… Uh, special delivery for Mr. Prince Seiker?"
You wince when the head of the delivery team says your legal name. You never liked it, and after your mother's death, you liked it even less. Your father always called you Chung, and you'll always be Chung to those around you, to those who know you well.
You didn't actually know what your nickname meant until Eve did a little research on it. Chung means blue in one of the three traditional Sanderian languages, which you suppose your father chose for the colour of your eyes.
"Where do I sign?" You ask the delivery guy as the others haul in your order. You had to put a large deposit on your custom order, but with your paycheck, it doesn't seem like a lot in retrospect.
The guy hands you a small tablet and a stylus, much like your own. After a moment of hesitation, you sign it as not Prince Seiker, but as Chung Seiker.
It doesn't feel right. You're no prince, after all.
As you hand the tablet back to the delivery guy, Eve wanders into the lobby, clutching her large bunny plushie to her chest. You can tell the delivery team is a little surprised at seeing the young Lady Nasod in a hoodie and shorts, but they keep their composure. "Thank you," says the lead guy, bowing. "Have a nice day, Sir, Ma'am."
"You too," you tell him stiffly. It kind of disturbs you that he's referring to the two of you as "Sir" and "Ma'am", but Cobo Delivery is very well known for their punctual workers and overall quality service.
"Chung," says Eve as you close the door and lock it, "what did you order that came in such a giant package?"
You smile. The delivery team had to wheel your package in, since you were scared that you'd accidentally damage it otherwise. "Remember the dress I designed for you, a while back?"
Eve gasps. "You didn't," she says, eyes wide as she begins to unwrap it. "Oh my El."
It's one of your best works, and that's why Eve loves it so much. Perhaps the inverse is also true, but you're still very proud of it. The white dress isn't very long-in fact, it's actually pretty short. There's a collar that splits into three before reaching her chest. A wide ribbon in pale blue is wrapped snugly around her thin waist and drifts into a bow behind her. The skirt flounces out in pleats.
"I just need to see if the special order I placed worked," you say, looking underneath the mannequin. True to her word, your old friend Lucy has put in a unique petticoat. While most dresses have an underlayer to add volume, Lucy's design doubles as a holster for weaponry. While your plan is mostly silent and violence-free, in the event that the two of you should encounter someone, you need to be ready to go."
"What is it?" Eve peers underneath the dress too. "Is that… One of Lucy's designs?"
"It is," you confirm. "You can put your pistols in there, Eve."
Understanding seems to dawn on her. "No," she says, starting to back away. "No, no, no! Chung, this is too dangerous! We're not leaving during the soiree!"
"It's our only chance," you argue, holding her shoulders. She rips away from you. "Eve, this is the only thing we can do to protect our friends."
"Then I'm going alone!" She turns back to you, eyes blazing with golden flames. "If this is the only way, then I'd rather let you stay safe in Altera than put you in risk's way. Only now I've realized that Altera is nowhere near safe for us."
"Eve, do you realize what you're saying?" You tell her, voice beginning to falter. "I'm supposed to be protecting you from harm, milady."
"..." Slowly, Eve's harsh glare begins to melt into liquid gold. "I'm so sorry, Chung," she says, wrapping her arms around you. "Maybe I'm not meant to be a leader, after all. What use am I even? To my brother? To the people?"
"Right now, you're the only hope of the people," you tell her, patting her back gently. "We're going to leave Altera. Because right now, news of the Morpheus Project hasn't gotten out. We can still stop it from destroying Elrios."
Eve nods, her face buried in your Kevlar vest. She exhales, just like her father told her to when she panicked as a child.
"We can do this. Elrios is safe."
Altera Core, 5:18 pm.
Eve doesn't have many shampoos in her own bathroom, because Apple always washes her hair for her. There's half a bottle of lavender shampoo, though, so while Eve sits in her hot tub with her knees drawn up to her chest, you try to wash her hair for her.
"On a scale of one to ten, how mad do you think Apple and Proto will be at me for not doing anything for the past three days?" She asks, her voice drowning in the roar of the bubbling water. "I mean, I pretty much just sat there for three days without moving."
"Do you want an honest answer or a Christmas answer?" You sigh, combing your fingers through Eve's scalp. Since she hasn't washed it since her lock-in, it's getting curly, like her late mother's hair. For this look, however, you have a hair accessory that will go nicely with straightened hair.
"An honest answer, please," she says, flicking bubbles out of her hair.
"Like, an eleven," you admit. "Honestly, I think they work you too hard."
She makes a squeaking noise when you pour some warm water over her head to clean out the suds. "You know, Apple has a crush on Proto," she says, shaking her head out. "And if she even knows, I don't think Proto even cares."
It strikes you as odd that Eve would know about these things, but then again, she's incredibly perceptive. "I think they knew each other from before," she continues. "And Apple has just been trying to get closer to her for a long time." A pause. "I hope she'll find her happy ending without us."
"Are you wrapped up?" You ask. "You can come out of the water now. I need to dry your hair."
Her towel is dripping wet, but she's still covered. As she sits in her fluffy white bathrobe, you gently lift it up and dry it off.
It takes a long time to comb it out, and an even longer time to straighten it. Eve tells you not to bother with heat protectant, but you give her hair a spritz before you bust out the creaky old hair iron, anyway. Her hair tends to curl the more she washes it, which gets really annoying when you try and straighten her bangs out. You end up having to cut them a little, to make them more even.
When Eve comes out of her closet wearing your design, your chest swells with pride. She looks like an angel in white. You had her username Battle Seraph in mind when you designed this dress and added Lucy's innovative holster petticoat to it.
Battle Seraph.
If anything, she is your masterpiece, your magnum opus.
"Shall we go, milady?" You ask, smiling as she grabs her clutch bag.
"Of course," she responds, taking your hand.
She is your lady. You are her knight.
Altera Core Banquet Hall, 6:03 pm
The soiree is a lot more chaotic than you'd expected.
There are more people than you're accustomed to, for one. Waiters float around the room with glasses of fine wines and spirits, bowing deeply as they move on to the next guest. There's five tables dedicated solely to the buffet, as well as a large area covered in seats for those eating. The string quartet plays gracefully as the dancing sweep across the room with their long gowns and sparkling jewelry.
As expected, your brother finds you almost immediately in the chaos. "Evangeline!" His smile is jovial, but you resist the urge to slap it off his face. "My, my, what are you wearing? This dress is lovely, but what about that black one I had ordered for you?"
You try not to glance at Chung, who seems to be having a silent standoff with Ignis and Leviathan. "A private designer worked hard on this dress for me," you explain. Not a lie, just not the whole truth. "I thought it would be a shame to not wear it at such a nice event."
"Yes, but the black dress would have matched your fiance's ensemble," says Adam, forcing out each word like he's in pain.
You shrug. "At least now you won't be able to lose me in this mess," you supply. "I'll probably be over at the macaron mountain. Tell your chefs that they did a good job."
Before he can say anything else, you grab Chung by the shoulder and drag him away. "Let's get something to eat," you mutter to him.
He doesn't respond.
The macarons today are puffy but not hollowed. You grab the pair of tongs that is hanging off the little hook next to the mountain and pick out a few-a blue macaron with white filling, a green one with dark chocolate, and a pink one with frilly feet that cracks when you apply too much pressure to its shell.
A waiter is instantly at your side. "Would you like me take that away, Lady Nasod?" She asks, a pair of tongs in her white gloved hand.
"That will be quite alright, thank you," you tell her. She seems a little disappointed, but bows her head and turns away. You turn back to the dessert stand, looking for something nice to eat. You pick up a few cream puffs and a delightful little tart before you turn over to the hors d'oeuvres and the rest of the buffet.
Chung, unlike you, prefers salty foods over sweet, and has a few little pastrami flowers on his plate already. You scoop up a bite of potato salad(you know the chefs always put apple chunks in it) and a small sushi roll with some exotic fish or other.
As the two of you sit down to enjoy your food, another waiter comes along with a tray of drinks. "May I interest either of you in a beverage?" He offers.
You and Chung share a look. "Do you have something fruity?" You ask.
"We have a delightful Merlot with just that, Lady," he says, handing you a glass. "Please, if you don't like it, I'll take it away."
As you accept the glass, you take in a deep breath. The light scent of rosebuds registers in your mind. You take a little sip; it's not incredibly dry, which is nice, and the slight fruity and floral taste is pleasant. "This will be alright, thank you," you tell him.
The waiter beams at you. "My pleasure, Lady. And you, good sir?"
Chung goes wide eyed. He's technically on duty, but this is a party. You smile at him to let him know that he can loosen up a little. "I'll have the Merlot too, I guess," he says.
"Thank you, Sir, Ma'am," says the waiter, handing Chung his glass. "If there's anything else we can help you with, please just call out to me or any of the other servers."
"That will not be necessary," you assure him. "Thank you for your service."
He bows deeply, leaving you and Chung at your table. "Cheers to a better life?" Says Chung as he raises his glass, giving you a half-hearted smile.
"Cheers to a better life," you agree, clinking your glass against his. As you sip your wine, you can see the reflection of Chung's gaze in the rim of your glass.
It's the last meal you'll have in Altera, the last night, the last dance. You've called this palace your home for twenty years, but now you've grown up. You're no longer the creative young daughter of the Nasods. You're a woman, and more importantly, you're your own person. While you may still be in Adam's shadow, this is your chance to shine above him.
As the night whittles away and the waiters arrive to sweep away your empty dishes, you begin to turn to the dance floor. "Eve, am I even allowed to dance with you?" Whispers Chung frantically as you partially drag him out, partially lean on him for support as your heels begin to hurt. While the shoes are comfortable, you've never been fond of heels, and they are no exception.
"I can issue a direct order if you want," you offer.
"... I think that's a little overkill," he admits, before sweeping into a low bow. "May I have this dance, milady?"
"Of course you may," you tell him, a smile blooming on your face. Chung's not a bad dancer, at least in comparison to your feeble dancing skills. The entire room seems to freeze as you silently thank Ishmael that if you're going to die tonight, at least you got to spend your last night with your best friend.
When the quartet changes to a faster piece, you can't help but playfully spin around in circles with Chung, even though your dress is not the type to be spinning around. Your heels are telling you to stop, but the adrenaline in your blood tells you to keep moving. Skirts billow around you as the other dancers fly into a fine fury, stepping with the sweet singing of the violin and the bitter hum of the deep cello.
As the two of you dance, you spot Adam out of the corner of your eye, coming towards you. It worries you that he has Add with him.
"Oh shit," you whisper. Chung doesn't understand at first, until you spin him around and he sees them for himself.
"Oh shit indeed," he mutters back as the two of you stop dancing.
"Evangeline." Your brother's voice is regretful, like he's been considering this for a while now. "I'd like to apologize for the words that transpired between us in our anger."
Very well. You can work with it. If you're going to leave Altera tonight, you might as well apologize to your brother. "I'd like to apologize too," you tell him, folding your hands in your lap like a proper young lady. "I acted irrationally, and improperly."
Adam smiles. "I hope our future conversations will be more civil and proper," he says. "For now, your fiance would like to dance with you."
You can't even look Add in the eye properly, but you smile at him all the same. "Of course," you coo, taking his hand as you turn sternly to Chung. "Seiker."
"Yes, milady," says Chung, taking his attention stance. You never refer to him as just Seiker, but for this purpose, the two of you have made an agreement to be formal.
"You are dismissed for the night," you tell him. "Ensure that my door is locked on your way up."
When he bows to you, your heart threatens to tear apart. "Of course, milady," he says, turning to your brother and Add. "Good evening to you too, sirs."
As Chung leaves, Add smiles at you. "How have you been these past three days, Evangeline dear?" He asks. You've always found his eyes creepy, or strange at the very least. While white hair is fairly common amongst Alterans, Add has purple eyes that always look like he's up to no good. You figure it probably has something to do with the aura of mystery that always surrounds him.
The entirety of the staff of the Core love him. You hate his guts.
"I have been well," you tell him as he rests a hand on your waist and you struggle to not squirm away. The music changes to a slower, more romantic number, but one of the violinists is horribly off tune, giving the whole piece the same kind of disfigured eeriness as the old alarm on your toaster oven.
"That sounds alright." Add glances at the quartet. "My, the musicians really outdid themselves this time around, didn't they?"
"Yes," you murmur, wondering if you can opt out of this dance. Chung is doubtlessly waiting for you up in your room, possibly having a heart attack for each tick of the clock while you're not there.
As a waiter with a tray of drinks passes by you, though, you're suddenly hit with inspiration. "Excuse me," you tell him, untangling your arms from his. "I need to use the ladies' room."
Add flashes a lazy smile at you. For a moment, you think you see the sclera of his eyes turn black, but when you blink, his eyes are still normal. "I can wait, Evangeline dearest," he says, stroking your face.
You want to fucking slap him.
It takes a while to get out of the room, if only because there are so many other people in your way, but eventually, you find your way out. "Lady Nasod!" A straggling waiter runs up to you. "Are you alright? Do you require any assistance?"
"I am alright," you respond. "If my brother or my fiance are looking for me, tell them that I am not feeling well, and that I have retired to my quarters."
Without any further explanation, you head into the open elevator. When the door finally closes and the elevator begins to rattle up, you take a moment to take a deep breath.
You admit that Add does have the looks of a high Alteran, but his eyes aren't anything you've ever seen in a normal Alteran. Maybe your eyes are just playing tricks on you. Perhaps Add is just a normal citizen of Altera that you never knew until you were fifteen.
You don't want to know him, though, and you certainly don't want to marry him.
So, for your own sake and for that of the people of Elrios, you must leave Altera.
When the elevator doors finally opens, Chung is already waiting with your door wide open. "Hurry," he says, grabbing your hand and pulling you inside. "How did you get out of the dance?"
"I told him I needed to take a piss," you mutter as you open your laptop, typing in the password for what could be the last time ever. "And then I hightailed it out here."
Before you left for the dance, you started transferring all the contents of your laptop onto your portable hard drive. After all, your brother can't have evidence of your plans and projects. The progress is painfully slow, even with the quality of your computer. You tuck your tablet, which is way more portable, into a pocket of your petticoat. "Ninety three percent," you mutter, grabbing your packed bag and heading for your balcony.
Moby and Remy instantly perk up when you walk into the garden and stand near the window. "Chung, where's your bag?" You ask as you hand yours over to Remy, who grips onto the strap like a clamp. Chung comes in and gives his bag to Moby; the peregrine falcon can hold up the weight of all of Chung's ammo.
"Moby, Remy," you tell them, looking each in the eye. "Do you remember where the peach tree is?"
At the sound of the words "peach tree", the two of them of them chirp in approval. The old peach tree is near the west wing of the Core, where you and Chung will be leaving. "Moby, Remy, I need you two to fly down to the peach tree and stay there until you hear Chung and I coming your way. Are we clear?"
You don't know if your birds understood it, but they've grown up listening to you speak Elrian, and they seem to have understood. "Okay." You turn around and reach for the latch on the window. You force it upwards with all your strength.
Slowly, the latch gives way and the window swings open into the night sky. "Go," you tell them.
They don't hesitate a heartbeat. Moby's white underbelly and Remy's silvery white plumage disappear into the darkness in the moment that you blink.
You rush back to the living room, where Chung is watching your computer. "Ninety seven percent," he says, clenching his fist in frustration. "We're not going to have enough time."
"Let's just hope this works first," you tell him. "And that we won't die on the way down."
Diiiiing dong.
"Evangeline, love?"
The two of you instantly freeze. The sound of your fiance's voice seems to snap the both of you back to reality. Slowly, you turn around to face Chung, who's still kneeling at your computer in his full armor.
"Oh, fuck," he whispers.
And to be honest, you think that sums up the situation pretty well.
A/N: I'm in a state of constant screaming guess who volunteered to go first for her English speech
anyways I realized that there are some time gaps that probably need some explanation?
Chapters 1 and 2 happen on the same day, I think I said it was Sunday. Chapter 3 and 6, told from Chung and Eve's perspectives respectively, take place approximately on Tuesday. Wednesday is when chapters 4 and 5 occur(so Ruben team and Velder team begin moving to Feita). Wednesday night, Feita is bombed. This chapter takes place the following Saturday.
I apologize if this has caused any inconveniences. The next few books will also have many chronological twists, and I'd like to apologize in advance for that.
also there will be more content on my tumblr going up tonight? I did a character design ref for Eve since she's human in this and I'm hoping to do more over the next few days. I'm actually terrible at drawing dudes so I'm prolly gonna draw all the girls first rip me
I'm margaritadaemonelix on tumblr if you didn't catch that so uh yeah
don't start cults kids
even if I am the potato goddess
~MargaritaDaemonelix
