Total Drama Endless Epilogue, First Interlude
Author's note.
Hello everyone. Norbert's back.
I'd like to quickly address some quick notes on the structure of the finale before we get into things here. Because you're probably wondering what an interlude is in the context of this story.
As I mentioned all the way back in July in the announcement that set it all up, Endless's finale is going to be structured a little differently than the rest of the story. There's six main chapters to it, but occasionally when the story calls for it, they're will be shorter interludes between them, like the one you're about to read. They will not appear between every chapter. Only when they are called for.
One last thing to reiterate is that even though I don't respond to them directly like I do on Homespun, I do read and deeply appreciate every review I get on this story. Endless's finale is some of the most experimental I'm going to get with my writing here on the site. So more than ever I am looking for feedback. If some element or stylish choice is being particularly effective or ineffective, I'd be very grateful to here about it.
Now let's get into it.
…
...
"…How long until she's awake doc?"
"Could be within the next hour."
"Hang on, looks like she's stirring."
"Oh shit. It's time."
Voices bounced somewhere around the limits of her awareness as Princess Peach slowly came to. She felt very odd, her body was sluggish and her mind foggy. Everything had gone dark after Chris Mclean had finished counting to three. Now that she was coming to her senses again it felt like she was laying in a bed.
"Yeah, she coming to aight."
"Just be patient with her. I'm sure you remember how overstimulating it can be to leave the program. It takes some processing for the mind to shake off the memory suppressants."
"She gonna be out here screamin' again like she did episode three?"
"Yes well… that was exceptional circumstances. Hopefully she'll be a little better adjusted now that she's how to put it? … intentionally separated from the A.I.N."
There were three… maybe four people speaking quietly at the foot of her bed. She didn't recognize any of them. What had happened to Chris? Or Beatrice? Or Markus? Last she remembered they had all been there with her on the patio, then Chris had began acting strange and she saw herself….
Peach paused. Herself? When had she starting thinking of Paisley as herself? Or come to think of it… How did she know her name? Was it Chris that said it?
"Yo she getting' up or what?"
"Patience please. Mr. King."
"I've been patient for a god damn month homie. I want to meet my girl Paisley."
The voice got closer to her and she felt a hand brush her bangs away from her eyes. She groaned, feeling slightly dizzy and opened them.
She was in a small room like a hospital ward, clinical white and dimly lit. Yet even then the moment she took it in her head throbbed painfully. It was overstimulating. For some strange reason her eyes were acting like she hadn't opened them in months.
"Can you hear us Ms. Parker?" Asked one of the voices.
She opened her lips and tried to speak. It came out as a faint croak.
"Yo Parker…" The nearest voice said to her. She opened her tired eyes again.
There was a man sitting on her bed. An African-American, maybe thirty years old in a royal blue designer suit. His short hair and beard styled in a geometrical fade. There was a gold watch on his wrist and when he blinked, she saw he also had golden eyeshadow.
She squinted at the man, uncertainly. He was a stranger. His presence overwhelming like everything else at the moment. And yet… something was familiar. She tried her voiced again.
"Markus?" She whispered.
The stranger beamed at her, or at least she thought she did, like everyone else he was wearing a surgical mask, he shook his head.
"Jaxson."
Jaxson.
The name cut through her hypnogogic state. She knew this man. Though never before in person.
"Jaxson King?" She repeated faintly.
He laughed and pulled her up in hug.
Waves upon waves of awareness crashed into her. The last remnants of Peach came away and Paisley's mind was her own again. She became fully aware of herself, flopped forward in the arms of a rapper she didn't care for with the all the perfectly posed posture of a dead fish.
"I um…" She began. Words still seeming difficult. "You were um… Markus?"
"Yeah I was Markus!" Jaxson exclaims ecstatically. "Holy Shit! What a journey it was. Swear to god when I got Markus killed and he dying in Peach's arms…. I don't get emotional easy but I woke up from that 'bout near balling my eyes out. That shit was real Parker! But we like soul bonded in there and I thought for sure you weren't fittin' to make it after I got wasted but you did. You did!"
He said all of this quickly then shook her shoulders in excitement.
"You won that shit Peachy! You won it!"
"Mr King please. Do not overstimulate her." Begged one of the others in the room, seemingly both were doctors.
Jaxson threw up his hands in surrender.
"Aiight. We cool. I'm just excited for my girl here."
One of the Doctor's sighed and turned to Paisley. She held a digital clipboard in her arms.
"Welcome home Ms Parker. Do you remember who you are?"
"It's…coming back." Paisley admitted. "Still kind of foggy."
The doctor smiled softly. "That's natural. The memory suppressants are still draining out of your system. You shouldn't feel any more after effects after tonight."
"That's good."
She tried to move her hand. It was unresponsive. All four of her limbs were prickling painfully, it reminded her on when her foot would fall asleep.
She tried again to get up, managing it halfway through the motion before her weak muscles gave up and she fell back into bed. Several hands shot out at her instinctively to break a fall. The people in the room surrounded her as if she was something very valuably and very fragile.
The doctor with the clipboard gave her a lengthy and clinical explanation. Paisley caught something about. "…muscle and circulatory stimulates in the Lotus Pod preventing atrophy…" and "…similar methods used in physically rehabilitating astronauts…" She couldn't focus. Her brain seemed in to be in overdrive. Her memories being compartmentalized into those she lived as Peach and those that truly belonged to her.
"…Ms Parker?"
"Hmm?"
The Doctor was looking at her expectantly.
"Would you like someone to help you up?"
"I've got it."
It took a few minutes of coaxing before her dormant legs would hold her weight but they eventually fell into line. She wobbled a very toddler-esque shuffle across the room to the window and fumbled the curtains open.
A smoggy cityscape was the reward for her efforts. The warm yellow lights of night were indistinct glowing orbs in the haze. If she hadn't remembered they were in Vancouver she would have never been able to tell from the view.
"How long-" She began. Jaxson didn't wait for her to finish.
"We were in for 239 days." He said.
She stared at him. "What?"
"You were fully immersed into the ARCADIA simulation on December 17th 2056. It is currently 4:47 AM Pacific Standard Time, Tuesday, August 15th 2057." The Doctor informed her.
They had been in that simulation for eight months. The thought of it made her head spin again. She collected herself, took a breath, then grinned.
"I won though."
Jaxson laughed.
"You're a billionaire Peachy."
She laughed faintly. Maybe it was just the drugs wearing off, but it didn't seem real yet.
There was pounding at the door, and some commotion outside. The door opened and there was a girl her age dressed in the same style of hospital gown as Paisley was wearing. The girl's face, seemed familiar. Then she placed where she had last seemed them, reflected in the briefcase Chris Mclean had shown her.
While she was all still processing this, the girl she had come to know as Beatrice sprung forward and threw her arms around her and the two of them spun in embrace. Paisley found herself more willing to reciprocate, if only just.
"CONGRATULATIONS GIRL!" The girl practically squealed, showing a great more enthusiasm than her Endless counterpart.
"T-thanks." Paisley stammered. "Sorry about stealing the win last minute."
"No! God! Don't Be! You're fine! You beat me fair and square." The girl insisted, beaming at her. "Just promise you'll take me out to dinner or something sometime."
"Of course." Paisley said. Greatly relieved she wouldn't have to deal with any sole feelings. "You're Kayla?"
"Kayla Bellam, From Long Beach."
"Where's that?"
"California dummy."
"Oh… uh cool." Paisley said. She extended her hand, probably didn't make sense to introduce herself to a fellow teen like they were business execs but it was the first thing that popped into her mind.
"Paisley Parker, I'm from Fairview Alber- I mean Fairview Athabasca."
Kayla raised an eyebrow.
"Where's that?"
"Up north, like way north, like up close to where all the mines for the Vonnegut are."
The Californian looked impressed.
"No shit. I'm surprised they got people living up there, must be cold." Her eyes lit up. "Hey, nice that someone from the Former Canadian States won."
"Damn right." Paisley thought, a little more spitefully than she meant. Kayla seemed nice.
"You are seriously being a real good sport about this." Paisley said to her. Kayla waved a hand.
"It ain't worth crying about. I'm really happy for you Princess you came a long way."
"Thanks but… I mean you did too. Don't sell yourself short."
There was some more noise from outside and to Paisley's surprise, the young of a child. Both Kayla and Jaxson sighed.
"Looks like Yeong-Ja found us." The Rapper said grimly.
Before Paisley had the chance to ask a tiny figure had appeared in the doorway. She looked to be a little girl, East Asian decent with a rounded bowl haircut. She wore a blue hoodie and sweatpants with some pink rabbit mascot she didn't recognize on them. The girl pointed a tiny finger at her and Kayla and shouted dramatically.
"YOU!"
She ran forward to the bed then reached up and stole a pillow. She began furiously bashing the two girls with it.
"Ow! Hey!" Paisley yelped.
She tore the pillow from the girl's arms. The child lunged forward to attack bare fisted but was restrained by Jaxson.
"What's with the five-year-old and why is it attacking me?" Paisley asked, torn between being amused and annoyed by the absurdity of it all. The little girl squirmed violently in Jaxson's arms.
"I'm eight you dumbass waegukin!" She snapped. "It's you two fat cows fault my stupid fucking character rig broke and killed itself in a fire!"
It took Paisley a second to process the statement. The it clicked and her eyes grew wide.
"Rick!?"
"Don't associated me with that stupid broken American program!" Yeong-Ja said angrily. "I should have won! Not you!"
"Yeah? Well, your fault for dying." Paisley said.
Yeong-Ja blushed scarlet with outrage and began to cuss everyone present out viciously. Kayla and Jaxson chuckled. Paisley caught his eye and he gave her an inquisitive glance. She cleared her throat.
"Um thank you for…. Everything that happened in there." She said honestly. The man in front of her may have been a stranger, and a little overly friendly one. But Markus had been a true companion to Peach. That deserved acknowledging.
Jaxson predicably brushed off her praise just as Kayla had.
"I swear to god it was an honour Peachy. Glad you made it all the way, even if I couldn't be there myself."
"Yeah… um…never thought I'd have to say this to anyone but I'm sorry I got you killed."
Jaxson laughed.
"All good Peachy! All good. Just meant I got to spend a little quality time with this kid here."
Yeong-Ja struggled against Jaxson again.
"Put me down kkamdung-i!"
"Watch yourself!" Jaxson said disapprovingly. "What I tell you about using that word?"
"kkamdung-i! kkamdung-i!" Shouted the little girl.
He gave the other girls a tired look.
"I'm a real with ya'll I was really fittin' to see ya'll wake up."
"That's nice." Kayla said, her voice surprisingly tense. The suddenly hostility of it threw Paisley off. She remembered Markus had been distrustful of Beatrice, not the other way around.
Someone cleared their throat.
"I'm not interrupting anything am I?"
Paisley looked up and had what felt to her a mild heart attack.
President Wades was standing in her doorframe, in his trademark Buckaroo Banzai suit, and clutching a bouquet. He looked like a school boy ready to take her to prom.
It seemed to Paisley that only her and the little Korean girl weren't immediately stricken by reverence. Jaxson and the Doctors looked at Wade as if the messiah had appeared before them and Kayla squealed and surged forward. Shaking the president's hands ecstatically and erupting with a high pitched and hasty string of jubilations, almost none of which Paisley caught clearly, but the president seemed to receive just fine.
"…I didn't expect to find the both of you at once." He laughed. Apparently in response to something Kayla had said. He pointed almost sheepishly to the flowers. "I had more of these for you, I was going to bring them after. God, I feel stupid."
"Oh my god! Don't be!" Kayla insisted. "This is insane! This is so crazy! I can't believe you're here!"
"Of course I'm here!" Wade said. "I had to come congratulate my stars soon as they were up."
"You're too kind." Paisley said waveringly. The President locked eyes with her and beamed.
"Ah, Princess! We meet at last!" He said extending his arms. All these famous people were treating her like they were friends. Like she was one of them. "Well you're a billionaire now, you are about to become one of them." Whispered a terrifying little voice in her head.
"Miss Parker it's an honour to finally meet offline." The President said, handing her the bouquet.
"Uh yeah… Likewise." She lied. "Big fan." The man that had destroyed her country smiled warmly at her.
"Likewise." He said. "I got to say I'm impressed I don't exactly gamble unless my life depends out it… which it has before. But even I was professional poker player I would never, in a duodecillion years have thought someone playing as Princess Peach of all possible characters was going to win my game. I counted you out as an early boot for certain. You proved me wrong. As my friend Aech would say, you've got some serious adamantine cohones amigo."
Paisley opened her mouth and closed in without a sound. Just a few minutes ago, she had been caught in a year long daydream that she was the sovereign leader of a pleasant little fairy tale land. Now she was back in the real world, in her real head being interrogated by the read, honest to god sovereign leader of the free world, like they were high school friends gossiping at the lunch table.
It was all decidedly too much to take in.
Her savour came in the form of one of the doctors whispering something in Wade's eye. He nodded.
"Oh. Of course." He turned back to her. "I'm sure you must have a lot of questions, but I see you're still recovering. Don't worry about it. We'll have lots of time to get to know each other pretty soon here. That goes for all of us."
Paisley grimaced.
"Great…"
"You're serious?" Kayla asked Wade.
"Serious as shit Kayla. You dudes are like astronauts getting back from exploring a new planet. Only in this case that planet was Narnia, Camazotz, Tatooine and basically everywhere in between." He nodded in approval. "You've gone where no fans have gone before compadres, and me and the devs don't want to be spared any of the details."
"Hey now. What's the hold up? Me and Parker are ready to share ain't we Paisley?" Kayla said, throwing an arm around Paisley.
"Are we?" Paisley asked.
"Sure!" The girl turned to her President. "Go grab Chris and pull a chair up."
Wade frowned.
"Chris who?"
"Chris McLean of course." Kayla laughed.
Wade gave her a funny look. "Mr McLean won't be joining us tonight unfortunately."