A/N:
Well, I have to say, I'm surprised that I got two reviews on this thing...
Also, I've been told that Hillbillies DO have access to the Internet.
My apologies for doubting you, Hillbilies, I don't know what got into me...
As always, Jhonen owns Invader Zim, not me. I own Casey and have partial rights over Sasha, but that's it...
…
My eyes were shut tight, and...
I couldn't feel my legs.
…
Actually, I couldn't feel a lot of things, but I felt that I couldn't feel my legs the most.
…
Did that even make any sense?
…
What did it matter, I was dead, anyway...
…
Was I dead?
…
Was this what death felt like?
…
Was Sasha dead?
Where was she anyway?
If she was dead, then shouldn't we be together?
…
… Unless, of course, we'd been sent to different... Places...
…
That made me sigh sadly. (Was I sighing? Could you sigh if you were dead? Well, like physically, how do you know if your, like, spirit-sighing or something, anyway) That seemed logical, only... It left me to wonder which of us had been sent to which place... Hmm... Kind of an amusing thought to toy with, really... And kinda scary...
As I lay there with my eyes closed, musing over what the after life would be like, if I would see anyone I knew, how big it might be, if there was room for me, or if wherever I was had bagels and orange juice, I gradually regained the feeling in my limbs...
Except for in my legs...
My eye twitched.
Come on legs, give a girl a break! What, were legs, like, illegal in the after life or something? I mean, what kind of-
"Guh... Ugh... Ooooowww... Dang it!"
My body – or whatever it was my mind (or soul) was controlling at the moment – locked up.
Sasha?
"Jeez, that hurt..." There was a pause, then sudden gasp. "Holy mother of cheese! Cas!" She shrieked, using my nickname.
Myep... Definitely Sasha...
"Wait... What the FUDGE happened to us! To you! Oh my God! Casey! Wake up, dang it! CASEY!" Sasha snapped, and I felt someone shake my shoulders. "Oh, wait a minute, crud! I'm on your legs! Gimme a second!" There was a shifting sound, and miraculously, my legs regained their feeling. Yes! My leeeeeggggsssss! My LEGS!
… Shut up.
…Well, I might as well see what was going on since we were both either dead, or just flat-out crazy... I was voting for a mix of the two... Okay, the last one... Mostly.
With a groan and a sudden headache, I opened my eyes... And was greeted with a cartoonized sun, which I found odd, not because it was a cartoon sun, but because it was just night a few moments ago... Then again, death was weird... And, apparently, a cartoon.
Why can't I just wake up in the afterlife and find that reality finally makes sense? Come on! I thought, a little ticked off.
Oh, and no, it was not the creepy smiling sun that reminds you of psychopaths, but the kind with an outline... A vaguely familiar outline at that... I couldn't quite place it, though... Not at the moment... Curse my slow brain!
Staring at the sun was getting to my head, literally. It was making my headache seriously worse, so with another groan, I forced myself to sit up, and look in the direction of my friends voice...
My first thought: I've gone insane...
Second thought: Since when have you cared?
Third thought: Shut up.
I decided to ignore my brain-meats and focus on what I was seeing... And I really hoped what I saw was my friend, because otherwise, I was in trou~ble...
If it was Sasha, then she had changed. Not like she'd gotten an angelic glow or a new hair style or anything, – which it looked like she had... The hairstyle thing, not the angelic glow... – no. No, it was more like she had become a cartoon...
Literally!
She had gotten very, very, very very very, VERY short, and her eyes had gotten very, very, very big, now being framed by huge glasses that I found familiar somehow. Other than her glasses, the only other thing that had changed was her hair, which split in the center of her upper forehead into two... How to explain it...? Well, into two upside down dove's wings I guess... And instead of ending at her shoulders, her hair ended... Seemingly a little above her tailbone. The way she was... Drawn? Was slightly familiar... But I couldn't place the style... Oooh, but it was so familiar!
"What the H?" I asked aloud, being my usual deep and tear-jerkingly touching self. "Are we dead or something? Is this heaven? Am I insane?" If this was heaven... Heaven was kinda cheap looking... And if I was insane... Insanity was also cheap looking... I'd have to file a complaint... Wait, was there a place you could file a complaint for your insanity being too cheap?
"Sash, is that you?" I asked, shaking my head to rid it of my random thoughts.
My friend's eyes filled with relief. "Your alive!" She shouted, filled with joy. Her voice rang loudly, clearly, happily, and joyfully... Right in my ear.
I flinched. "Uh, ow?" I said, rubbing at my ear a little. I looked over at Sasha to see that she was giving me a weird look. Well, a weirder than normal look. "Uh, what?" I asked nervously.
Lots of "uh's" today... I'd have to wait for my brain to catch up before I could say something vaguely meaningful.
She blinked at me. "OMGYOULOOKLIKEGIR!" She screeched, making me fall backwards and hit the ground with an "oof!" in a very comedic manor.
I stared at the sky in shock for a moment, feeling a throbbing pain in my head that, after a minute, faded away. Weird, pain usually stayed with me longer... Huh.
"That would be because I'm wearing a Gir costume." I deadpanned, sitting back up. "And wherever we are looks like a cartoon... Apparently." I poked the ground a little bit, making sure it was real and not a hologram or something... Cool... The ground here was squishy... Squish... Squish... Squish...
Ahem, anyway...
"No, I mean you really do look like Gir!" Sasha continued, shouting. "Just look at yourself! Look!" She pointed at me. "That is SO cool!"
Apparently, me looking like, as she had said; 'Gir' was not 'freak-out-and-scream-in-fear' worthy in her book.
Blinking again, and ceasing my ground-poking, I looked down, only to gasp in shock. I was a cartoon too, just like Sasha!
I seemed to have gotten very short, just like Sasha, but my Gir outfit... It really did look like Gir's actual outfit! (Minus the black legs, of course, I was wearing jeans.) Bulgy zipper and all! As I looked down at myself, something suddenly clicked... And filled my heart with so much joy, that I was afraid that it might explode, and, being where I thought we were... That could very well happen.
"OMDWE'REININVADERZIM!" I shrieked, bringing my hands up to cover my mouth after recognizing the drawing style, and yes, I did say "D", it means 'Doctor'... Doctor Who fans should get this...
There was a moment of awed silence, in which Sasha stared at me with huge eyes. So huge, that I thought that they might pop. She blinked at me, then suddenly fell backwards, her arms flying out in front of her like noodle-y streamers.
"Sasha!" I yelped and jumped up, literally. I literally jumped up, landing on my feet – but I didn't have time to wonder at that – as I leaned over my friend, my hands clasped against my chest in worry. I was expecting to see a glazed expression on her face...
Well, it was glazed, just not with shock...
"We're in heaven!" She sighed loudly, and I face palmed... As true as that statement was starting to appear...
She sat up and looked at me suddenly. "How'd we get here anyway? I just remember our stuff gettin' sucked into the tent, then when I stuck my head in, it was all dark so I stuck out my hand then, POOF all this magical crazy-stuff happened... We die or something? Shouldn't we be like... With a tour guide, or do we just wing it like real life? I mean, look at where we are." She shot off, speaking a mile-a-minute... Like usual...
I blinked at her, before I actually looked around at our surroundings. We were in some sort of alleyway... The clay colored walls were stained with slimy grease and graffiti, and there was a dumpster a little ways away, also stained with grease and graffiti. How did we get here and where were we, indeed?
I pursed my lips, looking around until my eyes rested on a piece of graffiti. "Bad Wolf." It read.
I grinned... HUGELY.
Oh, no way, just no Bloody way... This was like Wonderland, Neverland, and The Wizard of Oz all wrapped up into one big happy bundle of insanity and madness.
I shook my head a little as an explanation that at least made a little sense came to me. That made it all make a little more sense...
Well, at least in my warped, 'Doctor Who' filled brain it did...
"...We seem to have gone through some sort of inter-dimensional portal... Or we have, possibly, died." I said slowly. I frowned a little. "Maybe when the soda spilled on that old lantern, either the lantern itself, the batteries, something whacked up in the soda, or a combination of all of those things created that purple and black portal-thing..." I turned around to look at my friend, feeling slightly proud of my quick deducing – and slightly Doctor Who themed – skills. "It then sent us here." I finished, placing my hands on my hips in my; 'Hear my mighty Doctor-like explanation and be awed by it!' pose.
Sasha blinked at me, chewing on a Hersey bar she'd pulled out of nowhere, chocolate speckling her chin. "Whuh?" She asked, crumbs falling out of her mouth and rolling down her chin.
Face, meet palm. Now that you have been acquainted, hopefully we can end these meetings...
Maybe...
Probably not, though... Probably not...
I sighed slightly. "The portal sent us here because it was magic." I said, wording 'magic' rather sarcastically. I peeked through my fingers at Sasha. "Hey... Where the heck did you get that!" I demanded, lowering my hand, just now processing that she had chocolate. "No fair! I want chocolate too!"
Yeah, I wasn't freaking out over the fact I was in Invader Zim with my BFF, I was freaking out over the fact that my BFF had chocolate and I didn't.
I was either really cool, or really dumb.
Sasha blinked at me, and pointed to the end of the ally – a dead end, mind you.
I looked over at where she had pointed, and spotted something that made my heart leap. It was... Our bags! Sasha's black and purple backpack and my own black and red one, not to mention the small duffel bag filled with snacks! How didn't I notice that before?
"There IS a God!" I yelled, and rushed to my backpack, religious faith in Karma restored.
Sasha followed me a lot more slowly. "Why do you say that?" She asked mildly, biting into her candy again, as she was used to my comments of... Weirdness.
I ignored her, starting to rifle through my own bag. I found what I was looking for after I had pushed some socks aside. "YES!" I cheered, holding the object up over my head proudly and as if it was some sort of holy object, which it was. "My SKETCHPAD! Thank-you, Jhonen!"
Sasha pointed at my sketchpad. "Why are you so happy about that?" She asked, biting into her chocolate yet again. Rubbing it in my face... Jerk.
I'd turned around, holding the sketchpad to my chest as I bit my lip in pure hyper-tensioned happiness. When she said that, though, I gave her a blank look. "Well, would you want to be stranded in a, presumably, alternate dimension and/or heaven and/or 'You Know Where' without anything you owned?" I deadpanned.
"Touche..." She paused. "Hey... Where are our notebooks?" She asked, sounding slightly panicked.
I blinked, trying to remember as I held off my own panic. "Uh... Oh! In the sleeping bags!" I said, snapping my fingers.
We both lunged for our respective bags and pulled out our notebooks. We both let out sighs of relief as I hugged mine and Sasha just jumped up and down a little to release her happiness. She paused suddenly, and looked down at it.
"Hey..." She said slowly, and looked up at me a glint in her eyes. "You don't think we could find... You know, our characters, here, do you?" She asked hopefully.
I rolled my eyes, trying not to let on how much that idea appealed to me. "If this really is the IZ Universe, do you honestly think they would be here? Jhonen didn't make them, we did... Not to mention the fact that our brains alone are not powerful enough to create our own dimensions that close to the original Invader Zim Universe... Jhonen Vasquez's, however, yes... His brain is magical."
Sasha stared at me, looking really shocked. "Uh... What? Me no speaky 'Casey'..." She said before grabbing her backpack and stuffing her notebook into it.
I sighed. "Nothing..." I muttered. "Just my own preconceptions slipping through the cracks... Just ignore my insane mutterings like you usually do." I began stuffing my notebook and sketchpad into my backpack as Sasha stood up, the backpack in one hand and her sleeping bag in the other.
"Mmph, Whu?" She mumbled around the candy bar that was now stuffed in her mouth.
"Yeah, like that..." I muttered. My gaze snapped back to my bag suddenly and widened in surprise. I quickly closed it. "Uh, hey, Sasha? Have you noticed how our backpacks are smaller than they were before... Yet they're still full of all our junk, with a little room to spare as well?" I asked nervously, looking over at my friend.
"...Yes, but I was trying to ignore that." She said quietly and, surprisingly, with a tone of fear. The candy bar had fallen out of her mouth. "D-Do you know why that is? It's not like, another portal or something, is it? Because I really like it so far here in Invader Zim Land, and that dimension hopping gave me a serious headache..." She said, grimacing.
I grinned at her as I turned in her general direction, swinging my backpack onto my back and over my shoulders. "Don't worry, Sash, it's just that... They're bigger on the inside." I said, using a British accent. (A/N: Hurray for Doctor Who references!)
My friend squinted at me in the I.Z. Style of 'Anime' squinted eyes, which was rather impressive since her eyes were so big now. "Is that from your crazy British show?" She asked in monotone.
"Molto Bene, Sasha! I didn't think you'd get it!"
Unable to face palm because of her full hands, Sasha just hung her head with a sigh, her hair falling over her shoulders and covering her face. She stayed like that for a minute, before she looked up at me.
"Hey, what do I look like?" She asked. "'Cause you look pretty cool."
I blinked. "Really? I do?" I asked excitedly. "What do I look like, huh?"
"Well... Your ears are kinda pointy, not really though, and your hair's still brown, but it's a little darker, and kinda looks like Gaz's" Sasha explained, squinting at me.
I blinked. "Kinda? What do you mean by 'Kinda'?"
"Eh, well, it's uh, well, you know the longish top tooth-bang thing she has? Well, you have that too, only its closer to your head and not that far away, and instead of that curly lower 'tooth', you just have one... Hair-clump. Your hair's gotten longer too, it's like, almost down to your tail bone, and it sort of flares out in one 'hair', then joins together... You have Jhonen's cameo glasses with the squiggly, bent up part in the middle, too, but I can see your eyes."
She paused a second before contunuing. "Oh! And your eyes are really green, too! Like, rainforest green, which is weird 'cause they were more blue before..."
Wow... Sasha was good at explaining things...
I grinned, able to picture what I looked like. I thought I probably looked pretty kick-butt, like the 'tough' girl or something... At least I hopefully looked like that... Otherwise I probably looked stupid...
Knowing my luck, that was true... Dang it!
"So?" My friend piped up, putting on her backpack and tucking her sleeping bag under her arm. "What do I look like?"
"Well, your shorter than me..." I grinned at the angry look she shot at me. "Uh, your hair's basically the same, only your bangs look like upside down dove's wings, and your hair is down to your tailbone as well with the same kind of 'bottom' hair, only it's a little more gentler than a 'flare'. Uh... Oh! You have total Dib glasses, too, dude! Lucky! And your eyes got seriously blue, like, electric!" I said happily. My friend looked like a 'loveable' cartoon character, how sweet. "They're really shocking!"
(A/N: Ahhahahahaha! Funny! … NOT!)
"Dib glasses! Really?" Sasha asked. "Sweeeeeet!"
I grinned at her obvious excitement before I pointed to the end of the alley, where I could see cars and pedestrians running around. "Shall we go see where we are?" I asked, tipping my head slightly.
That was really the only thing I could think to do at the moment, I hadn't gone into 'Writer Mode' yet; the mode where I took everything like it was a story I was reading or writing.
When I was in that mode, I was a calculating, clever, demonic little thing that could get work done and go places... When the Writer's Block monsters didn't bite my head off that is... But hopefully, there would be no Writer's Block monsters here... Alas, I digress...
Sasha glanced back at the street before looking at me, clearly apprehensive. "Is that really a good idea? I mean, we don't know where we are... And if we are in Invader Zim... Well, look at what we're wearing!" She gestured at her Gir t-shirt then at my Gir outfit. "We might just freak a few people out..."
I pursed my lips a little. "Well... True, but before we even worry about any of the main characters seeing us, we should probably find a place to live." I said, nodding to myself.
"Huh? Why?" Sasha asked, tipping her head in confusion.
"Isn't that usually one of the first things 'people' do when they're sucked through a portal and into Invader Zim?" I asked. My head was starting to clear, and the previous stories I had read were popping into my mind, filling it with options and ideas... Although I didn't know if any of them were necessarily good ideas...
Sasha shrugged. "I donno. I haven't gotten to read as much fan fiction on that, er... This subject as you have." She said with a shrug as I walked over to her.
Hearing this, I let out a loud groan and stomped my foot in frustration. "Does this mean that I have to be the captain of this crazy-ship?" I moaned. "Seriously?"
My friend nodded, grinning at me with her tongue sticking out of her mouth. "Aye-aye captain!" She shouted, saluting.
I sighed a little, but managed to muster a small smile. Sasha always could make me smile...
"Okay... Fine." I said. I stood a little straighter. "Let's go, then!" I ordered and started marching out of the alleyway, Sasha following with a grin on her face.
I could do this. This all was just like a story, all I had to do was imagine myself as a character in a story, and then see where the Universe took me. I could be the author. The author of this mad, crazy thing that had just happened to us...
Briiiiilliant...
What exactly had we gotten ourselves into, anyway?
When we left the shady alleyway, our eyes were immediately bombarded with evil, blinding sunlight, I squinted in annoyance and looked around as soon as my eyes refocused. We appeared to have been 'transported' – honestly, I didn't know another word to describe it – to the outskirts of a largish city.
At the moment, we were in a slightly busy store district, standing in between a pet store and a hardware store. Judging by the sun and the amount of cartoon people and cars scurrying/driving around, it was rather early in the morning. I squinted as the low-lying sun shone out from between some buildings and into my eyes.
"Which way should we go?" I mused aloud. "Towards the city... Or away...?" I used my free hand to push up my glasses a little, trying to focus on my surroundings, evaluate, see what I could do with all... This.
All this... Craziness...
"Away from the city has the advantage of distance and isolation, but being in the actual city gives us different advantages when it comes to hiding places... What do you think, Sasha?" I asked, thinking more-so of survival at the moment, not knowing how this world really worked.
Receiving no response after a minute, I turned around and stared at my friend and at what she was doing. "Dude." I stated rather bluntly.
Sasha was sitting with her legs crossed in front of the pet store's front window, staring at the weird and dirty fat puppies that looked at her out of the glass where they were on display. "Awwwwww... They're so cute!" She cooed as one of them smacked it's head into the window repeatedly.
It's a sad fact that that was one of the smart ones... The others were rolling around in their own filth.
Uhhhhggghhh...
Rolling my eyes, I leaned against the bricks the window was set in, and let out a bored sigh, deciding to wait it out and let Sasha have her moment.
After about a minute, she blinked, seeming to remember that reality existed, and stood up. She tied her sleeping bag's string onto a backpack strap. Finding that a good idea, I followed her example.
"Let's go deeper into the city!" She said as I finished attaching my sleeping bag to my backpack. I looked up to see her pointing in the direction of all of the skyscrapers. "If we're going to be staying here for a while, I wanna live by Zim and Dib!" She smiled at me.
Finding nothing wrong with that, and agreeing fully, I nodded. "Sure... Hey, give me a second before we get going, though." I said before I darted back into the alley, something occurring to me. I returned not a second later with the bag full of snacks.
Snacks were a necessity, after all.
Sasha grinned at me. "Onwards!" She cried when I had returned and we started marching down the sidewalk and, hopefully, towards the main characters of Invader Zim.
"Allons-y!" I agreed.
"QUIT IT!" Sasha shrieked at me, and I started laughing. Neither of us seemed to realize how evil it sounded though, and soon enough, Sasha was laughing too, and in the same way, earning us some weird looks...
That could be problematic...
Not that we cared.
...
I hope this has appeased you, for now! Allons-y, my friends, I'll update soon, because this chapter wasn't fery interesting... Mostly filler.