Talks

In jail Les Fortunes was having the time of his life designing stuff. He covered the floor and walls with new drawings, only to tear them apart later.

'No, wait, wait! I'll take a whole different approach! Sexy villains! The ones you want to come to life! Pretty women! Not like that backstabber, Horribelle!' With his tongue peeking through the corner of his mouth, he drew hastily. He had a private little cell because he apparently fell under some law about psychosocial criminals. He didn't really care to be labeled as a social deviant: he had his peace and quiet for once. Madness was the best productive force there was, he always thought, so being called slightly mad or getting a private cell because of that, well, that was just flattery. After all, no great artist was born sane. This also made him superior to Art, he believed, and to the bunch of other comic artists out there who still had more than half a brain.

'Or maybe I should draw evil pets. Or more robots, and then I'll smash my own characters forever!' But that felt a bit odd. He didn't really want to smash Nukus, despite all the harassing, he'd spent years developing the guy. Basically, Nukus was one of his oldest characters even, so destroying him was odd.

'Man, he guards the second dimension! He's the lord of 2-d visualizations! All I can do is put him of his socket a bit, get a new lord. But would I want that? Someone more terrifying than Nukus?! Someone who'll harass me even more?! It'll be that stupid, toxic, mutated monster all over again. Or that damn egg they made me hatch.' He sighed.

'Maybe I should just start over, in case they will bring some of my stuff alive again by kidnapping me or the drawings. I guess I could really begin with a clean slate. Yes, that's it!' He leapt up, jumping up and down. 'Why not design my own superheroes? Or why not join forces with the Beetleborgs?' He clapped actively, but quickly eased down. 'Then again, they want to eliminate my characters. I hate to admit it, but I care about them. I don't want to see them defeated. Defeating them would be like… yes, defeating me. I'm onto something here! Man, this cell space is making me far more creative than those five feet of privacy in the tomb! Okay, so I don't want the Borgs to win, but I also don't really want my characters to win since well, they had it coming and they're being obnoxious. Maybe I should make a truce. I, the artiste! I could call that talentless brother of mine and just, find a resolution for this. Or maybe I can draw up something new. I just don't know. There's no way of winning this.'

That night Les hardly slept, constantly coming up with new plans. He designed technology to defeat both the Borgs and crustaceans, he designed villains to concur Nukus, he made new outfits, but all of the solutions led to new problems. And each one of them would keep the battle going.

'Maybe that's what supercomics are like in general. You need this Lex Luthor-Clark stuff to keep it going. You don't want either defeated. Our characters have found their nemeses, but honestly, without me they'll lose. They don't have monsters, weapons, nothing.'

'Could you shut up?!' the guard called out. 'It's four o clock, night time!'

Two hours later Les crawled back behind the drawing board, but he hardly drew anything worth while. He ended up tearing every shred of paper, just in case it would fall into the wrong hands. That afternoon he was startled by an awfully familiar voice.

'Cartoonist! Are you emerged in your drawings again?!'

Was that Vilor?! Oh no, please, that couldn't be right, they were going to kidnap him again. Les grabbed his pencil and held it before him like a sword. 'Stay away, I'm not coming with you. You three have gotten out of hand and you need to resolve things your own! You made it perfectly clear you could do finish things yourself, buzz off!' He waved the pencil in defence.

'I sort of left the others,' Vilor said meekly. 'I really want to defeat those brats and fast!'

'Yeah, and so do Nukus and Horribelle.'

'Not that much. They've grown soft, slightly depressed on top of that. And I'm starting to suspect they're in love as well.'

'In love? Both of them, at the same time, where, what, which monsters? Oh god, or with the Borgs? Or is Horribelle still hung up over Mantix?!'

'No, uhm, in love with each other.'

'Oh.' He set down. 'Well, that's a relief then and, wait, what?!'

'It's not that obvious though. It's the small things, the touching and such. They hide it. They know it's weak for villains to feel that and that I'd hate them for it.'

'Did I miss something?'

'Well, you are always drawing pretty concentrated so some stuff might go by unnoticed then,' Vilor said. 'I think it started somewhere when she rebelled and he, -'

'He turned us into popsicles, don't get me started about that,' Les cried out. 'So unfair!'

'She was really sick afterwards, you remember that, right?'

'I was mostly in bed myself with a cold, or at least, bed. You made me sleep on the chair again, that tomb didn't even have beds. Prison really has better accommodation, you know. And that says something.'

'Yeah well, when you were mostly in your studio and not in the main tomb. I mean… Nukus felt pretty bad over the fact that Horribelle didn't wake up. Turns out that mantis women and ice are a bad combination.'

'So are humans and ice. But uh, please, continue. I'm surprised about this. I didn't design you three to care about others.'

'Coming to life also involves stuff you didn't design. Sleeping, for starters and other emotions. You live, you need energy. You think and feel things, you develop those abilities.'

'It's the same with actual humans, we have some sort of nature in us, but we become ourselves by experience. And since you are now more than just characters, it's no wonder you actually flesh out. But still, it's impressive. You were just papery shreds and ink and just with the wave of a sword, almost like a magic wand, poof, you become something else altogether.' He giggled madly. 'It's a cool process!'

'Exactly. Uh, now, where was I? Oh yeah, so, Horribelle didn't wake up and he did everything he could. I was send to get blankets. And when I came back I remember he held her, very close, to keep her warm, and it was really freaky. I was startled. It was so…'

'Intimate?'

'Sort of. Not like anything I'd ever seen.'

'Like your parents suddenly hitting on each other! Man, that traumatized me for life,' Les pulled his hairs, reminded of more nasty childhood memories.

'Maybe it's similar, I wouldn't know. We are monsters, we don't have friends or family, we have allies. But maybe that's too black and white; apparently we also fall in love and start relationships. I mean, Nukus tried to keep her warm, cradling, rubbing, it felt misplaced. How could he portray all those emotions? So I left the blankets there and just went. He was upset I was late. I was at ease, didn't think she'd die or anything, everything seemed okay, but he was completely afraid he'd damaged her for good. And now he keeps nurturing her. Last battle even, she falls down, he picks her up. She's strong, but he's afraid to lose her again.'

'This is actually really touching,' Les said, blowing his nose. 'I mean, I never realized! But they dó make an excellent couple. It's also why he chose her, I half expected back then he had the hots for her. She flirted with him too. But you know, with the battles in the way, and us, I never thought it would've become something. Horribelle's sensual, it's in her nature, but Nukus wasn't made like that. He started of as a guardian, overlord of the second dimension and so on.'

'And now he doesn't do guarding, he just awakens paper and guards other stuff, like her, for starters.'

'Irony,' said Les.

'Anyway, so that's also why I'm leaving - didn't tell them that, of course. I feel in the middle of something where I can't be, and now that you're not around. They push me. They wanted me out. I felt it. And I didn't mind. But I still want to defeat those brats, so, are you with me?'

'Uh, Vilor, might I remind you there's nothing I can do?!' He gestured frantically at the drawing table. 'You know who brings these doodles to life? Nukus!'

'There must be something you can do? Help me, cartoonist!'

'I'm not quite sure how. Plus, I don't think it'll be easy to destroy them. The only thing I can think of is that we negotiate with Art.'

'I can get you out of here, we'll drop by at his place, kidnap him.'

'Yeah, and then bring him where? Here, to prison?! It's not that easy. We're part of a severely downsized evil apartment at the moment. I think we need to do things differently. Have a nice, little heart to heart between family members about how to resolve this, before it gets out of hand.'

'I don't want a heart to heart, cartoonist!'

'The creators need to end this!'

'No, we do, the characters! It was our battle all the time!'

'But you basically gave up to begin with!'

'Even so, if you won't join me, then I'll go to Hillhurst now and fight them. I'm going tomorrow night and it'll be final. You can meet me there. And if you want, brief them about it. Make them know who's coming: Vilor, and he's out to get some!'

Vilor disappeared. Was he going to train for his battle or just randomly pop up at the haunted house? The latter seemed more like him.

'What do I do know?' Les stared at his drawings. 'Vilor destroyed. Sure, I'm not as attached to him as I am to Nukus, but it's still a loss. He's learned so much. He actually seemed not quite as dumb as he used to. I have to phone Art! Guards, guards!' He rattled the prison bars.