Yah… this is later than expected. I sorry. And this isn't the chapter with the promotions… that will be the next Captain Shade chapter. Instead, this reveals a bit more of the personalities of the characters, there likes and dislikes, etc. Ok… so its filler.
I sort of hit a snag with what the new class names for the Heartless should be. I already know for Shade and Domovoi, but Vestara and Vergere have been giving me issues. Correction: Vestara has been giving me issues, and Vergere has been sitting in the back of my mind, taunting me over this.
Wait… that gave me an idea! Ok, so I now I just need Vestara. If by the time I write the next chapter I can't think of anything good, expect something cliché.
Well… on with the chapter!
Chapter 16: Home is Where Your Stuff Is
We left the Bridge, our minds still reeling from shock. Promotions! This was like a dream come true… well, except Heartless don't sleep, so the other type of dream! I was as happy as a bone that had just been found by a dog, as a school girl who had just been asked out by her crush, as a janitor who just saw a kid slip in his own pool of vomit, conveniently wiping most of it up.
That happiness abated slightly when I discovered the unfortunate fact that bulkheads on ships were solid metal and thus hurt like a bitch when you accidently rammed into one while distracted by thoughts of grandeur and kick-assness. That point was driven home with even more gusto when Domivoi walked straight into me after I hit the bulkhead, pinning me between him and the cold, very hard surface. My head especially suffered a severe impact with the bulkhead, as I began to see stars swirling around me in all sorts of prettyful colors, like a halo of odd shaped Trix. Domivoi fell backwards, and I just sort of collapsed.
My hearing also decided to take a vacation at that moment in time, so for about thirty seconds I couldn't see or hear. Unfortunately, my sense of touch was working at 110%, according to my pain receptors. So, when my hearing and sight came back from their all expense paid trip to Disney World, the first thing I saw was Vestara leaning over me, concern mixed with mirth in her eyes. The first thing I heard was Vergere laughing her freaking ass off.
"Ouch…" I said as a sat up, rubbing my head with my hand. Vestara snickered, then muttered something that sounded awfully like "Cure the idiot" and suddenly my headache was gone like so many leaves scattered in the wind. I jumped to my feet.
"Let us never, ever speak about the events of these past two minutes on the pain of a horrible death. Deal?" I said in a falsely cheerful voice that hid the embarrassment I was , who was chuckling, and Vergere, who was still cackling in the background, nodded. Domivoi, who had just gotten up a second ago, also nodded in agreement, a dazed look in his eyes.
The pitter patter of Heartless feet running across the deck of the ship sounded behind us. We turned and saw a Powerwild running full tilt down the hall at us. He somehow managed to skid to a halt before ramming into us. He stood there for a moment panting, then began to speak.
"I was sent by the Admiral to show you to your room. Please follow me!" he said, then ran off down the corridor. We had to sprint just to keep him in sight. Let me tell you, watching a Defender run is like seeing an Inuit in Jamaica. It just doesn't click in your mind till you actually see it. (An. I used Inuit instead of Eskimo as they hate the word Eskimo. Its like calling a German a Kraut or an Asian a Gook)
After about five minutes of wishing that Vestara had learned Haste and cursing out the abnormal speed of our guide, we arrived at our room. That's right. Room. Not rooms, but room. Looks like we're a "family" now.
"This is your room. It has all your basic amenities: bathroom, kitchen, chairs, two desks, two bunk beds, though Kingdom Hearts only knows why you need those pieced of surplus firewood, bed side tables, and that would basically be it. Oh, and an armoire for your various weapons." he said, panting. Yes, we Heartless do breath. I mean, we are all heart, and the heart needs to pump something through our shadowy blood stream. May as well be oxygen.
The Powerwild ran off, leaving us alone outside the room. After about a minute of awkward waiting and silence, I walked up to the high tech sliding door and palmed the activation plate on the left side of the door. It slid open with a hiss, not the hiss of a snake but the hiss of air slowly leaking from a balloon. If it had hissed with a snake, i would have freaked and smashed the thing open with my sword. I hate snakes with a burning passion.
We walked into the room and looked around. Within were contained the various items of furniture that the Powerwild had told us about. Everything was in the "Hotel Room" style, if you know what I mean. In fact, I'm pretty sure they just built a metal box the size and shape of a hotel room and magically transported the room here. Saves time, money, and clears up some space in the cities for us to build our huge sprawling apartment buildings. Basically, what we do is we take the remains of buildings, remove some of the outside rooms , and build bridges between these buildings that fit into the spaces where those rooms used to be. We then build buildings around those bridges, turning them into corridors of sorts, and repeat the process until every building nearby is part of our huge ass building. Our largest one stretches across an entire continent on one of the moons of the world of Planet Hollywood.
Domivoi immediately called dibs on one of the bottom bunks. Vestara and I, being the only ones to have the ability to suspend ourselves in the air above the surface that we define as the floor, got the top bunks. Vergere got the other bottom bunk. Considering that we Heartless don't need sleep, we got into some pretty fine arguments over who would sleep on which side of the room. It was finally decided that it would be me and Domivoi on the left side of the room and Vestara and Vergere on the right side.
About five minutes later, as we were lounging on our beds, a rap came at the door. By an unspoken consensus, I got up and answered it. Really, I was the only sane choice. Vestara would have blasted the knocker out of existence, Domivoi would have scared the guy, and Vergere would have caused the guy to die of shock. Shadow Heartless in officer country, the colloquial name for where we were roomed, were a rare breed.
I palmed the opening panel thingie and the door slid open, revealing a Butler Heartless. They were one of the rarer civilian breeds of Heartless, wearing an immaculate tuxedo and having the head and body of a walrus.
"Excuse me, sir, but I have your and your roommates luggage with me. You seem to have left it on the deck of the hangar." He said in a respectful tone with just a hint of a British accent. Even among the Heartless, British butlers are legendary.
"Oh… wow. I cannot believe that we forgot about our luggage. I feel like a total idiot right now." I said, smacking my forehead with my palm.
"That's quite all right, sir. Happens to everybody, leaving their luggage somewhere. Good thing the Gremlins didn't get to it, though. We've had an infestation of them lately." The butler said in an exasperated voice.
"Well… thanks! Here's something for your troubles!" I said in a cheerful voice as I handed the guy 2000 munny. I was cheerful as the money wasn't mine. That Powerwild had dropped his wallet and... well, there a lot of Powerwilds on this ship. And they all look exactly the same. I am not going to waste my time tracking down one guy among millions of identical twins. He wants it, he can get it himself.
"Why, thank you sir. Here is your luggage." He stepped aside to reveal our bags.
"Yo, Domivoi! Get out here! Our crap is back!" I called back into the room. There was a huge rumble as the massive Defender rolled off the bed. The stomping tread of an elephant accompanied his footsteps. I stepped out into the hallway as not to get in his way and be crushed like an ant underneath the feet of a giant.
The Butler scurried off, and me and Domivoi manhandled the bags into the room. I have no idea what the hell Vergere packed, but whatever it is it ways a ton or ten. I was afraid that if I dropped her luggage that the impact would leave a crater in the floor, and that is a repair that I do not want to have to pay for. Not on my salary. Hell no.
So, to avoid a repeat of the events that killed the dinosaurs, I very gently lowered bags to the floor. Vergere instantly leapt into the small pile of luggage that belonged to her, becoming a whirlwind of unpacking might the likes of which the universe had never seen before. Or at least the occupants of this room.
In the space of seconds, that once barren corner of the room had been transformed into a wonderland of books, knickknacks, and lit scented candle, raising the threat level of the entire room from cockroach to fire hazard. A heavy purple curtain was somehow hung from the bunk above her and stretched around her entire bed. Most of her books were philosophy based, though there were some shockers in there like a few books of poems by Shel Silverstein. It was like a pawn shop crossed with a fortune teller's stall.
"… holy shit." Vestara and I muttered at the same time. Our eyes were wide with shock and awe.
"Well… that explains why those freakin bags were so heavy." I said in a stunned voice. Vergere shot me a mirth filled smile, then jumped onto her bed and grabbed a book. I shook my head top clear it, then went about unpacking my own shit. That took about twenty minutes, including putting up the Blue Oyster Cult and the Fray posters and that Coldplay autograph I stole off of the corpse of a keyblade wielder. One of my pillows was now emblazoned with the album cover of Hotel California, the other one with the cover to Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd.
My comforter was a portmanteau of different videogame screen shots, ranging from Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy to Mario and Mega Man to Grim Fandango and Legend of Zelda. My sheets were unchanged, cotton with miniature Heartless emblems. In my suitcase, which rested on a small platform that extended beyond the edge of the bunk bed, I had my own collection of books. A few of them were on philosophy, with titles ranging from Plato's Republic to Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra, as well as Sun Tzu's The Art of War. However, most of the books were more recent novels like Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policeman's Union. I also had a complete collection of the albums of Coldplay, Queen, the Beatles, the Fray, the Black Mages, and practically every other good band out there.
Vestara's bunk also experienced some changes. One of her pillows was emblazoned with Lufie's pirate crossbones from One Piece, while the other had Totoro from Miyazaki's My Neighbor Totoro on it. I was completely flabbergasted. I never would have expected her to be a Studio Ghibli fan. Her comforter was a shot of the entire cast of Cowboy Bebop. Her sheets were emblazoned with the movie poster for Spirited Away. On the wall near her bed she had placed a Dragon Ball Z poster and a Bleach poster, while on the ceiling above her bed was a poster for Code Geass. Obviously she loved her anime.
Her bed had an outcropping like mine that contained her suitcase. Within her suitcase lay whole volumes of manga, from Card Captor Sakura to Bleach to yaoi and even some hentai. She also had, to my surprise, a copy of Ender's Game, one of the best books ever.
Finally, Domovoi's section of the room. His comforter consisted of a life size painting of a medieval knight dueling a ninja. One of his pillows was in the shape of a kite shield, while the other one was a buckler. His sheets were imprinted with the likeness of Aragorn from the Lord of the Rings. Above his bed were posters of other characters from the Lord of the Rings and famous knights from a variety of worlds. No surprises there.
His luggage, which was in a cabinet underneath his bed, contained a whole lot of fantasy books including the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit. Again, no surprise.
So, basically, after unpacing, we relaxed. I read a book, Vestara read manga, Vergere… well, she had a heavy curtain hung around her bed, so I couldn't tell what she was doing, but it smelled like more than candles were being burned over there. And Domivoi read some Forgotten Realms book.
After about an hour and a half of this, Domivoi pulled out from deep within his luggage… a portable dvd player! With Fight Club in it! WOO HOO!
He placed the dvd player on the desk that was in the right corner of the room, near the door, plugged it in to a wall jack to charge, and turned it on. We were halfway through watching it when there was yet another knock at the door. Muttering under my breath, I got up from my chair, put down the popcorn which had come out nowhere once the movie had started, and answered the door.
It was a rather nervous looking Soldier.
"The techies down on the medical deck are ready to Promote you." He said.
"ALREADY! Crap, and we were just getting to the good part of Fight Club. And Vestara has Princess Mononoke with her. Fuck." I said in a surprised whine. I mean, yah, the Promotion will turn us as awesome as all hell, but Japanese Anime is just too good. Oh well. We can always watch it later.
And that is it for this chapter. I have no idea when the next one will be up. I have so much crap that I have to do… it's ridiculous. Despite my sarcastic claims otherwise during class, I am not an avatar of a god or Jesus. And for the record, I am a huge Miyazaki fan and love anime. Well, please review. And if you have any ideas for a good class name for Vestara, for the love of all that it is magical and deadly tell me! Well, till next time, good bye.