Act One – Gaslight
Chapter One
The Wonder of a Fairytale
The end of the world began in a small town in northern Minnesota.
…
Now, that's very vague.
It's too vague, in fact. Why, it's so vague that one could attribute the reason to all sorts of different possibilities! It just leaves the imagination running rampant! Was it a disaster? Did something come out of the woodwork, or one of the ten thousand lakes? Did a beast crawl from under the ground, or perhaps fall from the stars? Did Lake Superior wash something out on its shoreline? Or, perhaps, was it a person? A corrupt being or chaos and melancholy that would knock over the first domino in a line of conquest and destruction? Or a discovery made that never should have been made? An accident with devastating consequences?
No, to any of those. Except perhaps the last one. If you squinted.
Too many things about the events that transpired here have been left to the imagination, even to those they happened to. The details are murky and hazy about the events leading up to the end, so the few distinctions made between truth and fiction are the most crucial aspect. So what must be said must be said clearly without that unpleasant vagueness.
If it can be helped. The times were always vague. No one knew what was going on.
So then. The best place to start is what could be considered the beginning. And the beginning of the end took place here. In a small town in northern Minnesota, known as Edwardsville.
The most important distinction to start is that it is a small town, remains a small town, and perhaps always will be a small town. It was just a tiny little village lying west of Duluth, east of the Mississippi, and just south of the Mesabi Range. Nothing much, really. A bit forgettable.
Well, actually, a lot forgettable.
Maybe that's a tad harsh. But it was a tiny suburban village in the midst of nothing of note. There were hundreds, perhaps thousands of tiny towns in the state of Minnesota more interesting than Edwardsville. Other towns had pretty views, and stunning sunsets, and perhaps a lake or two— or at the very least, well-paved roads. Edwardsville was not the sort of place to get those luxuries. At most it was a town one would find themselves driving through on their way to get to another place; anything intriguing or significant Edwardsville was located near, notably, was not in Edwardsville.
If you stood at the center of the pitiful attempt at a town square, and got a lengthy ladder, or perhaps just an incredibly bouncy trampoline and jumped for a while, at the top of that view you probably would be able to see the whole of the village, spread out. There, in the north, you could spot the elementary school, and then a few blocks east, the middle school, and then a few blocks east, and perhaps a block or two south, the high school. Now, on your ladder, or trampoline, before you fall back down to earth at least, look to the east and spot the sprawl of low density housing made for single families— look to the west and see the same thing! If you had your pair of binoculars at the ready, perhaps you could zoom in and just barely see the tiny playgrounds that have needed a significant overhaul, but have not.
Look down at the square below you, as you plummet back down, and before you get shot back up into the sky, take a gander at all of the little shops here that the residents of Edwardsville seldom visit. This one sells the best baked goods you would ever taste, and that one sells paintings cute enough to hang on your bedroom wall. Too bad they are too expensive to take a regular visit to. Over there is a restaurant selling halfway decent food, and just a bit yonder is the salon, and a bit yonder-er is the movie theatre! They spell it theatre, not theater, over in Edwardsville.
I don't know why. I do not know what to tell you.
The town square never sees too much activity, unfortunately. Families are just too busy, and usually find the little shops too tacky, too expensive, too uninteresting, or sometimes just bad. Not even for any reason, just… bad. But they try, and that's the very least one could ask for in Edwardsville. To try. That is the one thing that does set Edwardsville apart. It does try. Just not well.
For example, now that you have finished your fall from the sky, Icarus, as the trampoline sends you back up to melt your wings again, take a look to the south. Beyond the town hall, just south of the square, take a look at the southernmost bound of the town, and gaze upon the newest facility to be built here.
Ah yes, ECC, also known as Edwardsville Community College (est. 2001).
That is where the story will begin.
You and your trampoline are done now, we're confiscating it so you can stop falling to your death again. As for you, with the ladder, congratulations on being slightly more responsible!
Now, imagine a rather dull but pleasant morning, on a warmish day in mid to late spring. As they say, the flowers are blooming, the kids are playing, the bees are buzzing, the birds are singing, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera… You don't really hear any of that in any of ECC's facilities.
Because it's finals day.
Yay!
So no one pays attention to the blooming birds or singing bees or buzzing flowers, instead focusing on, well, not failing their courses, lest they have to spend a few hundred dollars to retake the course. And how awkward would that be? Not to mention expensive…
In the South Building of ECC, there was a young woman in her early twenties sitting alone at a large round table in the study lounge, a textbook open in front of her. She jotted a few things down onto a moderately sized notecard from a deck that her professor, Dr. G. Hazel, passed out to the class in their prior session. She could remember it clearly.
"Now remember, friends," he had told them, "I'll allow as many notes as you can possibly fit onto your notecard. No more, no less, alright?"
No more, no less, got it. She looked up from her notes and squinted, thinking.
…
…hm, no, that wouldn't do at all.
Twirling the pencil in her hand, she began to erase the one measly sentence she wrote on the card, scrubbing the eraser against it until all that was left was an itty bitty smudge of gray there.
She had to fit everything on the card, not just the first thing she thought would be useful! How would she pass the anthropology final like that?
The woman shook her head, clutching her temples and crossing her legs on the stool. No, no, there was no time to get all riled up like that, she decided. She just had to focus. The others in the study group would be here soon enough to help her, she just had to wait it out.
…or at least, the other members said they would be here by now to help, so what was the hold up?
…
…
A few chairs away, there was a noise of rubber against a linoleum floor. She flicked her glance over to see a fellow student pulling up a seat at the table. But not anybody she recognized.
Immediately, she stood up, now standing on the chair and raising her hand out to him. The man glanced over at her, chair removed from his hand as he stumbled back a few steps.
"Oh, hey, wait wait wait!" the woman said, kneeling down (still on the chair), and shaking her hands, "You can't sit here! My study group's coming soon and, uh, well, er, I'm reserving this whole table for 'em, yeah!"
There was a beat.
Then the man, tentatively, took a step back, squinting in simultaneously incredulousness and confusion. With both hands firmly on the strap of his backpack, he leaned forward and took a look from side to side. There were a fair bit of students here, but it was mostly a few select collections and a bunch of empty tables. No sign of any… groups.
He pointed that out, gesturing with his arms at the lack of anybody there. Alex sighed, squatting (still on the chair) for another second. They both just kind of stood there in silence, listening to muffled voices and the buzzing of fluorescent lights.
Then the man made for the chair again.
"Hey, I just—" she started, but then she stopped herself, instead unzipping her white jacket. And as he went to reach for it, she took it off and chucked it over to the chair before he could touch it.
"There! It's saved! Now shoo!"
…
He deadpanned to her, shrugging in annoyance, then spoke with eyes half-lidded. "Are you kidding?"
She ignored him, stepping off of the chair and over to her jacket, picking it up from its ball and draping it nicely over the chair. He scoffed, but she just turned to him with a stare.
"There's a whole room, man," she told him, "Just go somewhere else."
And then she turned away, leaving him to… do whatever. She didn't know, she wasn't paying any attention to him. No, what she did was, after fixing her jacket, pull her phone out of her shirt pocket, and start checking the group chat.
"C'mon friends, where are you?"
Now, it's probably important for me to tell you about her. The woman's name is Alex Gigas, a twenty-two year old who was Edwardsville born-and-raised. Pay close attention to her. Very, very close attention. She's important.
…well, not yet, anyways. But no one's important yet, so it's best to show some context.
In the silence of the room, she pulled up the app on her phone, scrolling over to a tab labeled simply as—
The Kitchen
…no, not a real kitchen. Just her group chat. Once again, I don't know why it's called that. Perhaps an inside joke? It's the sort of thing she'd do.
A few messages were displayed on her screen, each from earlier that morning, some from midnight, when she told everyone to be asleep for Dr. Hazel's final exam, but… no one listened. That was fair, she reckoned; Alex ought to have learned by now not to expect anybody in her study group to have a functional sleep schedule.
Still, it was 11 AM, sharp, now that she glanced back at the clock on the wall. Alex didn't forget to tell them, did she? She glanced back down at the tab in The Kitchen's forum she set up, in the "Anthropology" section of the "ECC" section of the "Studying" sec— OK she made too many sections. That was… too many. But still, it was manageable! Everyone ought to know where it was— after all, this wasn't the first time they used it…
The Kitchen - Studying - ECC - Anthropology 151
Alex Gigas - 5:00 PM: anthropology151 A friendly reminder to everyone in the Anthro Group, the final is tomorrow, 3:00 PM! Remember to get good rest, and that we meet at 11:00 AM sharp tomorrow in the South Study building to finalize notecards!
OK, so she didn't get anything wrong… did everyone else not see it? She could have sworn they did…
Gina in a Bottle - 5:01 PM: Got it!
Rainy Springtime (March) - 5:01 PM: Alright
THE DESTROYER OF WORLDS! (Vivian) - 5:01 PM: see u there!
*Star* (Artemis) - 5:02 PM: ok
Gina in a Bottle - 5:02 PM: Danny and Patty are busy right now, so I'll let them know, ok?
Alex Gigas - 5:03 PM: Perfectly fine, thank you for telling me!
Georgie - 5:05 PM: Kea and I'll be there!
Alex Gigas - 5:05 PM: Alright, perfect!
Alex Gigas - 5:07 PM: Jane, John, what about you?
Candy Land (Jane) - 5:10 PM: sorry for the delay, but yea, we're comin! john's off doin his notecards over there, so he'll respond in a minute lol.
Alex Gigas - 5:12 PM: Oh, that's what we're doing at the study session tomorrow!
Candy Land (Jane) - 5:14 PM: should i tell him to stop? :o
Alex Gigas - 5:15 PM: If he wants to!
Candy Land (Jane) - 5:20 PM: alright he's waiting until tomorrow :
Alex Gigas - 5:21 PM: Alright, cool beans, thank you!
All fairly normal. Well, she didn't actually scroll to look past that. She had seen sections of The Kitchen sort of… a mess, when she wasn't around, but that was fine, that was fine. Her friends could do whatever they wanted.
…
…
…
She tapped her foot underneath the table, glancing back at the book, then at the chat, then at the clock, before putting her phone facedown on the table and holding her head in her hands.
Did they ditch her?
Were they flaking out on her?
…
…
…
…What if they didn't like her?
.
She groaned inwardly at that thought, sending it a bit of side eye as she glanced upwards, as if to glare at it.
Oh, shut up! Alex told the thought, from the comfort of… her other thoughts.
…
But it just wouldn't leave her alone.
Why aren't they here? Why are they ignoring you?
Stop talking! You're so obnoxious—
Gina's not even here. Gina's not here! Where is Gina? Is she breaking up with you? Is she out doing something more fun than your study sessions? You're so lame…
Why are you like this?
Why are YOU like this?
And bit by bit, she clutched her temples just a bit harder…
They find you obnoxious, don't they?
I find you obnoxious…
Prove it. Don't they dislike you ? Where are they now, Alex?
Uh…
And harder…
Where are they?
Where are they?
Where are they?
Unti—
Before that thought could finish, the doors to the room opened, and a buzzing of chatter cut through the relative silence in the room with ease.
"Y'know, I told you the line was gonna take forever—"
"We're three minutes late, Gina, it's fine."
"It's not fine, Danny! You know how much Alex cares about being punctual!"
"Gina…"
"Patty, don't 'Gina' me—"
"Kids, kids, relax! You're all pretty!"
"...We're all adults here, Kea…"
"Oh please! Mavis is only seven and he's less argumentative than you lot."
"Your son's an only child; he has no one to argue with!"
And with that bickering, the type she had grown so accustomed to hearing nearly every other day for the past fourteen weeks, the thoughts fizzled away, and Alex swiveled her head to the entrance.
And there they were! The full Anthropology 151 Study Group, all ten of them, in all of their… well, not glory, not yet, anyways. Their… uh… regularness.
They had Tim Hortons, does that count as glory?
…does Minnisota even have those?
Now, let's take a step back, freezing the frame if you will, before we go any further. It's not like you know any of Alex's Study Group yet. You don't even know Alex herself all that well. So let's get you acquainted real quick!
The girl in the front, that one, wearing a long-sleeved black button-up on a day with a high in the low seventies, holding a carrier with four paper cups from Tim Hortons in it, is Gina, Gina Zehn. As you might have guessed from the pervasive glance into Alex's subconscious, they have the type of relationship where something like this happens.
Let's unfreeze…
Immediately, Alex jumped out of her chair upon seeing the group, and with an odd, unheard of speed, she tackled the girl in question with a hug.
"Oomph!" the girl in question cried in response, and she held the drinks high to avoid spilling them, "Alex— Alex the cups—!"
Alex didn't seem to notice, "You made it!" she said, but Gina didn't hug back. Actually she leaned away. Because of you know, the cups.
There came this… tense, short instant, where Alex did let go, and only then it seemed that she even saw the cups above her head… just as Gina stumbled backwards—
—and she was saved by Danny, right behind her. OK, let's freeze this again.
Behind Gina, now holding a second drink container on top of the one he already had, was not one, but two older siblings, Daniel and Patricia Zehn. Now, I don't know about you, but this is only our second (third? fourth, if you count Alex? do we count that student we'll never see again? is he a fifth?) introduction, and I'm already sick of it, so let's try and go through these fast, OK?
Danny and Patty are the older Zehn's, and unlike Gina, decided to take a gap year after high school before going anywhere else, hence why they ended up in the same Anthropology class despite the… year age difference? Three kids in just a few years? That's weird, I mean, D and P are twins, but still. Why did they do that? Because… OK I gotta stop asking questions on human behavior, it's gonna drive me nuts.
Danny is the one holding the second drink container, the one giggling, the one with that super intense jawline holy moly, and Patty is the very tall woman in pink with another drink container (the last one, thankfully).
Unfreezing…
"Alex!" Patty said, although there were definitely some hints of amusement in there that she couldn't hide, "Every time with you?"
She rubbed the back of her neck with a nervous smile, taking her eyes off of Gina for a second. "Well… no, but, uh, I just— wasn't sure if you were coming, that's all."
Gina shot a glare at Danny and Patty. Over to the side, a shorter person with darker skin and long curls passed a few dollars to a taller woman with hair dyed red. Oh, right, introductions. That's March and Vivian, respectively. And the girl with the space hoodie behind them, already sipping her latte without waiting for the rest of the group, who Vivian reluctantly passed those same dollars to? That's Artemis.
Her parents are space enthusiasts, so forgive the bizarre name. It's not her fault.
There were two people notably older than the rest, standing towards the back— a woman in blue, and a man in red. Kea and Georgie, respectively, both of them staring at the whole affair. They were the only married couple in the whole group, you see? And they came to ECC to finish their degrees, how cute!
Kea walked past the rest of the group and set her bag down at the table— Georgie following suit. The woman was shaking her head in amusement at the woman's antics, as she had a tendency to do. There was a bit of a chuckle as she slung her bag down.
"You all say you're in your twenties, but are you sure?" she asked, gesturing towards Alex's display. The girl didn't seem to notice. Or perhaps Alex did, but she just didn't acknowledge it, instead still focused on Gina. Gina, however, rolled her eyes at Kea, but electing to ignore her as the older woman riffled through her backpack.
And continued to do so for longer than necessary.
"Oh, come on…" she muttered, "did I forget my books again?"
As her husband sat down, Georgie pulled a textbook, similar to Alex's, out of his own bag. "It's right here, sweetie."
In perhaps an overreaction of thanks, she sighed, setting the pack on the floor with an expression of saccharine. "Oh, thank you Georgie! I don't know what I'd do without you…"
And then they kissed. They did this a lot, being no strangers to public displays of affection, and while this time it was nothing more than a peck, and yet towards the back, there was March groaning as they slung their messenger bag over a chair.
"You ask if we're kids, and then do the same thing A and G are doing over there. It's every time with you two…"
That was enough to snap Alex out of her stupor, letting go of Gina for a moment. "...A and G?"
It was at this point that their conversation got… really weird, with who was talking to who, as conversations do.
Over on her side, Gina was speaking, ignoring what the rest were discussing. "Oh, never mind them, that's just how March works. They aren't the romantic type, not really."
Alex cocked her head in confusion, a silly little grin plastered to her face regardless. She couldn't help it, she just thought… she thought that… well never mind what she thought, she was just glad they were all here. Especially Gina.
Alex adored Gina. Which made sense. They were girlfriends, after all, so I'm not exactly sure if this story would be quite as wholesome if she didn't.
It took a few moments for Alex to speak, and she took a glance over at the table. "Isn't March a romance novelist?"
Danny piped in from behind, plucking a cup out from Gina's drink carrier. "Add 'wannabe' to that and yeah, they are."
The other conversation, over at the table, was still happening until that comment was made.
So let's rewind a tad…
"I'm twenty-three," March stated, plucking a pencil out from behind their ear, setting it by their notecard, "that's not that much younger than you two."
"Well, kid," Georgie began, playfully. March still rolled their eyes at that moniker, "It's about seven-ish years or so, so it's a tad substantial, I'd say."
Kea piped up too, looking down as she flipped the pages of the textbook, "When we were twenty-three we had our own kid. I think you were just a teenager back then!"
March shrugged. "So?"
Before anybody could respond to that, there was Vivian, who leaned back in her chair, smirking.
"So you're saying we ought to call you old folks now?"
Georgie made an "o" shape with his mouth as Kea leaned forward, wagging her finger at her, face suddenly serious. But Vivian was only chuckling still, even so, with even March cracking a smile at it. Artemis was standing behind them, but at this, she widened her eyes and took a sip of her latte, walking away, deciding that she desired no part in that.
Yeah, Artemis doesn't talk much, because she'd rather not be murdered by a group member at some point. Good for her.
But, once again, before anything could come of that, there was Danny's comment on the other side of the room, causing March to slap their hands on the table, then point at him.
"HEY! I HEARD THAT!"
Danny ducked out, sipping his mocha, but after grabbing her own cup from Gina, Patty cupped her hand to her mouth like a megaphone and decided to engage in his stead. "Serves you right!"
"Oh, is it drama time then?" Vivian chimed in. March rolled their eyes at her, glaring.
"You're not helping!"
Everyone else in the room that wasn't part of the study group was subject to even more bickering from the group, more than necessary, that's for certain. A few straight-up left, and Alex watched that same boy from earlier walk right out of the room, taking the time to glare at each and every one of them. Alex sweatdropped a little.
Leaning on the wall, Gina scoffed at the group, before handing one of the drinks over to Alex, who glanced down at it as she held it in her hands. It was still warm.
Gina took a sip out of another cup, looking at the bickering of the study group, but talking to Alex. "White hot chocolate with chai tea, just how you like it."
Alex glanced back at Gina, smiling sweetly before taking a big gulp of it. When she finished, she giggled a tad. "You remembered my favorite!"
Gina shrugged in reply.
"'Course I did," she said, "You order the same drink literally every time you go in there."
"'Cause it's my favorite thing!"
"Aw…" Gina groaned, albeit amused, "I thought I was your favorite thing…"
"Oh, come off it now!"
They laughed just a bit more, but then there was a content… not silence, because it was still very loud in the study hall, but a pause, if you will. The type you only see between two people very pleased with the other's company, the sweet type of lull in a conversation that came not out of awkwardness, but out of calm.
Alex only spoke up in a bit, staring at the group. She must have miscounted, she could have sworn all ten of them were here, but…
"Hey, where are the Vogel twins?"
Realizing the carrier was now empty, Gina threw it in a nearby trash can and sipped her drink, "Still at Hortons. Jane decided that we needed donuts and that line already took forever, so… well, it'll take those two a while to get over here."
"Oh, oh good!" Alex said, gulping down the beverage, "I just uh, I thought they, er…"
Her girlfriend deadpanned. "You thought they weren't coming at all, didn't you?"
Immediately, Alex waved her free hand in denial, stammering a bit in the process, "Oh, uh, no, of course I thought they were, or, uh, weren't? No wait were was right, uh—"
"You're an awful liar, are you aware of that?"
She deflated. "Yeah…"
Gina let out a sigh, the disappointment palpable, and took one last sip of her coffee. There was a counter next to them that Gina set her cup on, and she proceeded to cup both of her hands to Alex's face, squishing her cheeks a little.
"Oh, uh, Gina—?"
The girl in question interrupted her. "What did I say about thinking we were gonna leave you?"
Despite the squished cheeks, Alex managed to form a response. "...not to?"
Gina nodded, keeping full eye-contact the whole time but not removing her hands. "We're not just gonna up and leave you, alright? You hear me?"
"Mmhmm…"
Gina let go of her face. Before, of course, leaning back in for a short hug.
Alex, still a bit flustered, really didn't know what to do except to blush. It wasn't the first time they would hug, and it was far from the last, but still, Alex was never certain of how to react when Gina started it. Tentatively, she reciprocated, and they remained like that for a few beats more.
And when Gina let go, she sighed again, and allowed a tiny smile to come across her face.
"OK?" Gina asked. When Alex nodded, she gave a nod back. "So, we were gonna study then, right?"
Alex was silent for a few seconds, and then remembered she was supposed to react. In a small panic, she cleared her throat and gathered her bearings. "Uh… shouldn't we wait for John and Ja—"
The doors burst open again, and two people in matching jackets barged in, the one on the right in blue holding a box of donuts above his head, while the other, in red, merely held her hands up and shouted.
"WHO'S READY FOR STUDYING, WOOOOOOOO!"
"...huh," Alex mused mindlessly, "Right on cue."
The study table each had mixed reactions. Danny and Patty merely waved hello as they were passing out the coffees, and while Georgie and Kea both stopped what they were doing to shush the two, Vivian was laughing like a maniac, and a confused Artemis merely raised her hand. March was the only one to properly respond, rubbing their temples in exhaustion despite having coffee right next to them.
"Are you two ever quiet?"
In retaliation, John tossed the box onto the table, laughing as it landed with a thud, startling the not-a-novelist. "Oh, we'll be quiet when we're dead!"
March shot a glare at the duo as Jane chuckled along with him, leaning back in a chair.
"Hope I don't make that soon…" they muttered.
Alex and Gina merely stared blankly at them all as yet another argument came up, with John and Jane causing a bit of a riot among the congregation. Alex in particular turned her head to see pretty much everyone else in the study hall packing their stuff up to leave at Jane's… announcement.
Gina spoke up first. "Well, I guess that answers that."
Alex nodded absentmindedly, not really knowing what to say. As John opened the box on the table, she found a few words in her brain's pockets. "That was… sweet of them!"
Gina deadpanned. "Y'know, it's not a crime to call them annoying."
"And it was sweet of your siblings to get us all these drinks, too!"
"Don't change the subject—"
"Oh, come on…" Alex sighed, and she handed Gina her coffee back, "Let's just go study, we're already, uh—"
She glanced at the clock on the wall, and paled a bit. "Fifteen minutes late?!"
Gina whistled. "Well, I told them to hurry up, but I guess this isn't too bad…"
Alex, however, was not paying attention to her. "Oh, we gotta get a move-on! I already planned everything out, I can't have this going awry! We have fourteen points of study to get through, one for each week—"
"Did you plan this whole session out?"
"—and accounting for various interruptions I want to leave fifteen minutes to get to the room, so we're already about forty-five minutes d— OK enough! Let's just get moving! C'mon!"
Before Gina could even respond, much less stammar anything out, Alex had already gone over to the table, down to the chair she was already sitting at, and immediately stood on top of the table, clapping for attention.
"OK!" she shouted out, immediately silencing any discussion between the groupmates. They knew better than to interrupt her. No one else was even in the room anymore, so Gina didn't even question the volume, instead finishing the rest of her drink as she watched the whole affair, "Turn your attention to chapter one please…"
…Gina sighed, throwing her empty cup into the nearest trash can. It would be a… lengthy few hours.
Thankfully, she didn't mind.
Doctor Gentian Hazel knew that most of his students were more interested in the bizarre case of his name more than any specific part of anthropology.
OK, now once again, that leaves more questions than answers, doesn't it? I've gotta stop doing that…
Not that he minded too much; he found the students enrolled in his course were a lovely bunch this semester. But Dr. Hazel was acutely aware that most of them took Anthropology 151 as a course requirement, and not because they had any real interest in the study. For the ones that did, he did as much as he could to cultivate that interest. After all he had done a lot for the field, he and his associate Dr. Kellers didn't have the "doctor" title for nothing. But standing here, looking over the final congregation assembled in his classroom, he knew only a handful actually learned much.
The others, while still wonderful, still inevitably came across the interaction that he usually had just a few classes in, about how "bizarre" it was, or so they said. For this group, it was a woman named Alex that first asked, the one that you all should know by now. It wasn't even a complicated story, really. Why did his students fixate on that so much?
Unlike all of my other rhetorical questions, I might have an answer for this one! It's because it's a weird as hell story, actually!
…well, not for Alex, she didn't find it weird at all. She asked because, well…
The interaction occurred in the first class, actually.
"Alright, friends," he had said, glancing down at his list of names, names of people he had never met prior to about four minutes beforehand, "Do we have a… Gigas, Alexandria?"
Unlike other students, who had merely replied with a simple "here," or perhaps a small "hello," the young woman instead raised her hand and said, "Present!"
He nodded, putting a little check next to her name. But as he marked it down on the list, she, unlike the rest, spoke again, "Although, you could just call me Alex, if you like. Most do, Dr. Hazel."
He glanced up at that. "Do you prefer it as Alex, though, or is that just what they call you?"
She put her hand down, shrugging a bit. "Oh, I don't mind either way, sir, both are fine!"
Gentian nodded, and as he went to leave a note on the page to remember to call her that, she, once more, spoke up again.
At this point, much of the class had looked up from their laptops, or their books, or in a few select cases, from two similar looking students in matching jackets towards the back, their doodles, to look at Alex, who kept on going. "What about you, Dr. Hazel? Do you prefer it as that, or do you not like formalities? I'm assuming not to call you Gentian?"
Gentian was taken aback by that. Not because it was a bizarre thing to say, no, not remotely so, but because in all his ten years as an educator, he did not think anybody had actually asked him that. And the pause resulting from the time he had to take to think about how to answer her question allowed enough time for another student, one in a black button-up in the seat next to Alex, to speak up as well.
"Why would you call him by some random flower's name?" she had asked, eyes half-lidded and mildly bored looking. Alex looked at her.
"That's his name."
"His name is Gentian?"
"Yeah," Alex said, then cocked her head, "Did you forget to look at the course listing?"
And then another one of the students joined in— one of the doodlers, the one in red. "What sort of stuff were your parents on when they chose that?"
"That's a bit rude of you, back there." Alex retorted, looking back. The girl in red shrugged.
"I mean, it's not a bad name, but hey. What's up with it?"
In the few seconds of that, Gentian got his bearings back. Usually it took a bit longer for this story to pop up, and usually he invoked it, but he supposed it would make a neat little icebreaker. "Actually, my parents named me Gregory. Gentian's what my wife calls me. She likes flowers."
"Oh, so it's like a pet name…" the woman in red said, nodding, "I got it, that's cool."
But Alex shook her head at her, before checking a paper by her empty notebook.
"No…" she said, tentatively "ECC lists him as Dr. Gentian Hazel in the course listing… so…"
A beat. Then, she glanced back up at him, a puzzled look on her face.
"Did you… did you change your name to what your wife called you?"
…
…most of the students looked at him now. Not judging him, but mostly out of curiosity. The two in the back with the matching jackets were the only ones who spoke, but that was just them saying "Cool…" to each other and high fiving.
Well then, that took shorter than expected to deduce.
"...I did do that, yes," he told them, at last, "First and last, actually. Mainly because she liked her own last name, and both of my own were dreadfully boring, in my opinion."
Now, this time, he continued speaking, as to not invite anything more from the students. But he wasn't unfriendly, he refused to be. Why would he be rude to what was an inquiry? He did his best to be open, to a tee. And so he just smiled at them, setting the clipboard down on his desk.
"Usually," he told them, "I get into that a few classes down, but I suppose that you all are just quicker on the uptake! Good work, friends! We'll get into a lot more of those investigative wonders in this class, down the line."
He stopped himself. He was about to get into the lecture immediately, but completely forgot that he was doing attendance.
Gentian picked the clipboard back up. Why on earth did he even set it down? "Now, we ought to finish this up, so we can get right into it, shouldn't we? Do we have a König, Georgie…"
Alex was probably the only person to actually ask him about it on the first day. Usually he mentioned it in their lecture about five weeks in, about naming conventions. He was a big fan of that one, usually.
The woman was… peculiar, among his students. She acted as if she studied there for anthropology specifically, only, she… didn't. She was just, as the kids said, "like that." And he was fond of that! She just… wanted to learn. And that was it.
What was she studying, anyways?
…
…that wasn't his business.
Surveying the quaint little room he had, only about half the students of this semester's class were currently in, just ten minutes before the final exam began that afternoon. This would usually be concerning, but Gentian wasn't worried. Besides the few that… dropped out (how disappointing), the only ones missing were the ones from, well—
And, guess what? It's the door opening for a third time this chapter to reveal the study group! Hooray!
"Alex, we're still early—"
He watched as the woman in question beelined to her usual chair, the second from the front, by the window on the left, answering as she slung her backpack over the side of the chair. "Gina, I'm never going to be late! What if he began early?!"
The other woman sat next to her, sighing. "Dr. Hazel doesn't do that, Alex, you're just catastrophizing."
"I am not!"
Gentian took this opportunity to chuckle a little, sitting down at his desk. "You are, Ms. Gigas. I don't start things early."
Alex glared at him, although it was easy to see that she wasn't actually mad. Alex didn't really do that. "Aren't you supposed to be impartial?"
"A fact is a fact, Ms. Gigas."
Alex groaned, half-heartedly, of course, and Gina rolled her eyes as she put down the notecards (now completely and utterly full, at their natural limit, holy moly), for both of them on the table. And as the rest of the group funneled in, Vivian snorted at the affair.
She sat down at a desk horizontal from the duo, next to March. "Wish I recorded that!"
Instead of anybody reacting, instead, no one reacted at all. Gina and Alex didn't even pay her any mind. March was the only one to truly give her anything, but they only leveled a stare. "...why?"
She glanced down at them, not understanding the question. "Alex got proven wrong. She's never wrong!"
They rolled their eyes, passing out the notecards to both Vivian and themself, and then—
"OH GEEZ—" they flinched, and Artemis just sort of sat there, shrugging, as if to ask what exactly she did to cause their reaction. March continued breathing heavily as Artemis got her notecard out, resting their head in their hands. Meanwhile, Vivian was giggling. But to be fair, she did that regularly.
March eventually got over themself, leaning back in their chair but still glancing over at a baffled Artemis. "Give someone a warning when you sneak up on us like that!"
She didn't respond.
And the rest of them were filling in as well, but of course, we've gone on and on about them, and I'm sure you're still asking, "Hey, we still don't know how the world ends yet, and this seems completely and utterly irrelevant. What does this have to do with the oncoming apocalypse?"
Oh, OK, and do you ask "Are we there yet?" on car trips too? Please, have patience. Oh, and that was rude of me, sorry. I love you :)
So then, where do you want to skip to? After the finals? No, we're not there yet. So let's do a montage to get there real quick—
…wait, wait that doesn't work in writing format.
OK! So, Gentian, take it away! …even though I know it doesn't exactly work like that.
"Friends," he started, "By a show of hands, how many of you feel prepared for this exam?"
Alex raised her hand almost immediately, as did Gina, as well as the happy couple of Georgie and Kea towards the back. A few of the other students that were not in the group did, and some didn't, but that's to be expected. And while the Vogel twins both raised their own, Artemis appeared uncertain as to what to do. March didn't, instead rubbing their temples, Vivian also didn't, but the other ones, including even Danny and Patty behind did, and she… er… was she prepared? She was mildly prepared. Kinda. Maybe a little? Uh…..
Her hand went up and down a few times, but before she could actually come to a consensus, Gentian moved on. Artemis gulped.
He nodded. "That's alright. As long as you've been paying attention in my class, you should pass. And even if you don't, it's only ten percent of the grade, meaning you could still make it."
Pulling out a stack of papers, the exam itself, he glanced over at the congregation. And on his features, there was resting a small hint of a smile on his lips. While he did try to stay professional with his classes, he was not a rigid man, and this group found its way into that crack. The lovely bunch before him had granted him an… entertaining semester, that's for certain.
He wouldn't be forgetting about them anytime soon.
He began passing them out, row by row, as he continued to speak. Alex was the first he gave a test to, and she gave him a thumbs up, a large and cheerful grin showing itself. Ah, she was a bright young mind if he ever met one. He knew that she would do great things in whatever field she had selected.
"It was an honor teaching you all," he told them, and handed some pages to the students behind them all, "and remember, you can always come see me in my office if you have any questions about anthropology."
And then, the last few were passed out, and he went back up to the front.
"You'll have an hour to complete the test, but you can leave at any time once you're finished."
Finally, he sat down. "Scores will be posted next week…"
OK he talks too much, is he almost done?
"Begin."
Alright, cool! NOW WE CAN MONTAGE–
No, no, that still doesn't work with the medium. Let's just go ahead.
The Kitchen - Studying - ECC - Anthropology 151
Gina in a Bottle - 8:50 PM: Hey, Alex.
*Star* (Artemis) - 8:52 PM: …
*Star* (Artemis) - 8:53 PM: …
*Star* (Artemis) - 8:55 PM: …
Candy Land (Jane) - 8:56 PM: arty stop that
Monopoly (John) - 8:57 PM: Yea i get pinged every time you do that
Georgie - 8:57 PM: You can turn off notifications, John.
Monopoly (John) - 8:58 PM: Mr konig why are you here dont you have kids
Kea - 9:00 PM: We were just dropping by here to tell you that Dr. Hazel posted the final grades on the college's website. We thought you'd be interested.
Gina in a Bottle - 9:01 PM: Oh that's actually what I was doing too, lol. I thought Alex might want to know.
Gina in a Bottle - 9:01 PM: Where is Alex, anyways?
*Star* (Artemis) - 9:02 PM: she always responds to messages so quickly
Candy Land (Jane) - 9:02 PM: gina maybe its because you didnt ping her
Gina in a Bottle - 9:03 PM: Oh shoot, right!
Gina in a Bottle - 9:03 PM: Alex Gigas, the scores are up!
*Star* (Artemis) - 9:04 PM: …
Monopoly (John) - 9:04 PM: Oh shes doing it again mr konig how do i turn notifs off
*Star* (Artemis) - 9:05 PM: …
Monopoly (John) - 9:05 PM: MR KONIG HELP PLS
Candy Land (Jane) - 9:05 PM: your comments are more annoying that arty shes not even that annoying
*Star* (Artemis) - 9:06 PM: i'm just trying to be funny ;-;
Gina in a Bottle - 9:07 PM: Huh, that's odd, she usually responds by now…
Pancake Panic (Patty) - 9:08 PM: Yo, wait, the scores are up? Gina, why didn't you tell us?
Gina in a Bottle - 9:09 PM: …because you and Danny left town to get Taco Bell?
Candy Land (Jane) - 9:10 PM: oh sweet can you get us some
Pancake Panic (Patty) - 9:10 PM: no 3
Georgie - 9:10 PM: Oh, you don't have to call me "Mister," John, I'm not that old. It's in the settings widget up top, under "Notifications."
Monopoly (John) - 9:11 PM: cool thank you
Candy Land (Jane) - 9:11 PM: Patty youre no fun :(
Rainy Springtime (March) - 9:12 PM: You were literally talking to us about how much older you were than us last week at the finals, Georgie?
THE DESTROYER OF WORLDS! (Vivian) - 9:12 PM: march have u been there the whole time?
*Star* (Artemis) - 9:13 PM: vivi have *you* been there the whole time?
THE DESTROYER OF WORLDS! (Vivian) - 9:14 PM: hey shut up~
*Star* (Artemis) - 9:14 PM: :(
Candy Land (Jane) - 9:14 PM: March i think georgie left
Gina in a Bottle - 9:15 PM: I feel like we're getting off track here…
Rainy Springtime (March) - 9:15 PM: darn :/
Pancake Panic (Patty) - 9:15 PM: Still no leads on your girlfriend?
Gina in a Bottle - 9:16 PM: I have no clue where she could be!
Monopoly (John) - 9:17 PM: how i thought you two lived together
*Star* (Artemis) - 9:17 PM: help lol
THE DESTROYER OF WORLDS! (Vivian) - 9:17 PM: oh u sweet summer child T.T
Candy Land (Jane) - 9:18 PM: john no—
Gina in a Bottle - 9:19 PM: …no John, we live in our own houses.
Alex Gigas - 9:20 PM: Maybe someday!
Candy Land (Jane) - 9:20 PM: YO WHERE TF HAVE YOU BEEN
*Star* (Artemis) - 9:21 PM: hi Alex :)
Monopoly (John) - 9:21 PM: oh thank goodness i thought you were dead
Gina in a Bottle - 9:21 PM: You're OK, right?
Rainy Springtime (March) - 9:22 PM: why is this so intense
Danny 3 - 9:22 PM: I thought she died too T.T
Gina in a Bottle - 9:23 PM: DANNY AREN'T YOU DRIVING?!
Danny 3 - 9:23 PM: no we're at Taco Bell don't worry lmfao
Gina in a Bottle - 9:23 PM: Oh, OK, that's fine…
Pancake Panic (Patty) - 9:24 PM: We got you a taco!
Gina in a Bottle - 9:24 PM: Oh, thank you!
Candy Land (Jane) - 9:25 PM: why not usssssssssss /j
Alex Gigas - 9:26 PM: Sorry I took so long to respond, but yeah, the grades are up, thank you for informing me! I take it you all passed as well?
Gina in a Bottle - 9:26 PM: I did, yes. B+
Candy Land (Jane) - 9:26 PM: yea i passed. thanks Alex :))))))))
Monopoly (John) - 9:26 PM: pass!
Rainy Springtime (March) - 9:26 PM: i passed, yea
*Star* (Artemis) - 9:27 PM: ye
THE DESTROYER OF WORLDS! (Vivian) - 9:27 PM: did anybody not pass lol
Pancake Panic (Patty) - 9:28 PM: Not the twins, we passed, lmao.
Danny 3 - 9:28 PM: mhm!
Gina in a Bottle - 9:29 PM: Hey, Alex, where were you, anyways? It's not like you to ignore a ping.
Danny 3 - 9:29 PM: was it the triplets again?
Candy Land (Jane) - 9:29 PM: the WHO
*Star* (Artemis) - 9:29 PM: ?
Pancake Panic (Patty) - 9:30 PM: Alex's younger siblings, Zeke, Mary, and Unique.
Rainy Springtime (March) - 9:30 PM: Who names their child unique
Monopoly (John) - 9:30 PM: between jane and i, you two, and apparently alexs siblings how many sets of kids are in this town
Pancake Panic (Patty) - 9:31 PM: Who knows!
Alex Gigas - 9:31 PM: No, actually, it wasn't those three, sorry. It was Kevin. He failed the class. I was just talking to him.
Gina in a Bottle - 9:32 PM: He did?
Pancake Panic (Patty) - 9:32 PM: Top Ten least surprising things to happen.
Monopoly (John) - 9:33 PM: wait who tf is kevin
Candy Land (Jane) - 9:33 PM: idk
Alex Gigas - 9:34 PM: Oh, Gina and I knew him in high school. We don't really see him much, he tends to only take online courses.
Rainy Springtime (March) - 9:34 PM: oh i think i've heard of him, was he the one who blew up the chem lab in week ten?
*Star* (Artemis) - 9:35 PM: no i think her name was amadis i think
Candy Land (Jane) - 9:35 PM: I thought her name was lyanna?
*Star* (Artemis) - 9:35 PM: no ly dropped out.
Rain Springtime (March) - 9:35 PM: no amadis dropped out because lyanna blew up the chem lab.
Candy Land (Jane) - 9:36 PM: wait i thought ly dropped out after we did that whole thing where we tricked the whole town into thinking there was buried treasure for anthro.
Pancake Panic (Patty) - 9:36 PM: "The whole town" it was more like three people actually.
Monopoly (John) - 9:37 PM: yall who cares this isn't helpful i just want to know more about kevin ;-;
Alex Gigas - 9:37 PM: It's a shame, really. He was so smart back in the day, I wonder why he didn't do well?
Gina in a Bottle - 9:37 PM: Alex, I just texted him, and he didn't fail the class, just the final. He got a C-. Still, a shame.
*Star* (Artemis) - 9:37 PM: oh well thats alright then
Alex Gigas - 9:38 PM: Yeah, but… I offered for him to join us in our group, but he said no! He could have gotten more if he wasn't so stubborn!
Gina in a Bottle - 9:38 PM: Calm down, hon, you sound like you're about to pull some prank on him or something.
THE DESTROYER OF WORLDS! (Vivian) - 9:38 PM: alex pulls pranks?
Rainy Springtime (March) - 9:38 PM: Alex has fun?
Alex Gigas - 9:39 PM: You know what? I ought to!
Gina in a Bottle - 9:39 PM: what
Candy Land (Jane) - 9:39 PM: LMFAO WHAT
Monopoly (John) - 9:40 PM: i am SO invested rn in what alex thinks a prank is
Pancake Panic (Patty) - 9:40 PM: unironically i will support anything she does (heading back gina btw)
THE DESTROYER OF WORLDS! (Vivian) - 9:41 PM: i am so hyped for this you dont even know
Alex Gigas - 9:42 PM: I'm going to invent a fake religion and convince him that Dr. Hazel taught us about it in class!
*Star* (Artemis) - 9:45 PM: …
Alex Gigas - 9:45 PM: …what, is it a bad idea?
Gina in a Bottle - 9:46 PM: No, it's a great idea, but… why?
Alex Gigas - 9:46 PM: …fun?
Gina in a Bottle - 9:47 PM: I've never known you to say that but you know what, I'm in.
Monopoly (John) - 9:48 PM: that's honestly lit if anybody isn't in i'm banning them
Gina in a Bottle - 9:48 PM: John, only Alex can do that.
Alex Gigas - 9:49 PM: I'm glad everyone is on board!
Rainy Springtime (March) - 9:50 PM: i'm not, i'm just confused
THE DESTROYER OF WORLDS! (Vivian - 9:50 PM: yes you are
*Star* (Artemis) - 9:51 PM: yes you are
Rainy Springtime (March) - 9:51 PM: ok fine i am
Candy Land (Jane) - 9:52 PM: where the hell are we starting with this this is so damn weird i'm into it
Alex Gigas - 9:53 PM: I have some ideas! But you'll all just have to wait!
"...hm."
Edwardsville, for all of its troubles and boredom, did not have a reputation for being an ugly town. Maybe to some it did, but Alex didn't see it. At least not sitting down on the bench under the blossoming trees by the library she didn't. It was a… uh… good view?
Perhaps there was a more eloquent way to put that, she thought to herself, but out of her friend group, Alex didn't write too much; she was no "master of prose," or however someone who was a "master of prose" would put it. March was— well, maybe not, there were a lot of arguments among her friends about if their writing was any good or not. Another friend of hers, Caleb, also wrote, although he and a few others were off at a real college… when were they coming back again?
She didn't know, shrugging it off as she moved her pen around on the drawing.
…
It was at that moment that Alex found that she couldn't draw well either.
"Create a whole pantheon, I think…" she muttered to herself, and tightened her grip on the pen, before letting it go, and putting her head in her hands.
"What was I thinking…" she muttered, "I can't do that! How's Kevin gonna believe me if this looks like… uh…"
Glancing back up, Alex held the page up to the sunset across the lane, squinting at it to see well. She… intended to draw a llama-esque creature, because he'd be more likely to believe that the people of Guyana (which is, where she was basing her religion, of course) believed in something like that as their supreme overlord but…
It looked more like a squiggle monster if she was being honest with herself.
Alex groaned, the frustration potent, and tossed the pad next on the bench beside her. She pressed her hands against her eyes, about to pull out her hair. Three hours of brainstorming at the library, and all of Dr. Hazel's work to work with from her whole semester, and this was all she could do?
Why was she even doing this anyways…
…
… …
…she knew why.
Alex just wasn't ready to go home yet to the forms on her desk, waiting for her.
…
"Hey, sweetheart, where are you going?"
"Oh, you know, just off to the library for a bit of research, mom. I'll be home for dinner!"
"Research? Research for what, Alex?"
"Just a silly little project for Kevin, nothing special. After taking Dr. Hazel's class, I thought I'd use all that so I can make a fake religion to mess with him with. Kevin almost failed anthropology, can you believe that?"
"...what now?"
"He almost failed anthropology! I know, I was confused too—"
"No, I mean, you're messing with him? You've never messed with anybody."
"Well…"
"I mean, when you were a child, you told me off after trying to mess with the neighbor's cat when she ate a bird off our feeder."
"It wasn't our cat…"
"See?"
"Yeah… but I'm just trying to have a tad of fun, y'know? Doing something new?"
"I suppose… have fun, hon."
…Alex twirled the pen in her hands for a bit.
"Of course! I'll see you in a b—"
"Oh, shoot! Honey, before I forget, did you finish your forms for University?"
…she stopped, holding the pen in her hand. A bit of wind came, and despite it being May, it still brought a bit of a chill to her skin.
"Uh… yeah, yeah I did!"
"Did you really, Alexandria?"
"Oh, there's no need to call me that, mom, I promise, everything is under control…"
"You know, I remember you telling me that same story back in April—"
"Mom, it's fine!"
"—and you still haven't picked anything, young lady."
"...it's fine, trust me."
"..."
"..."
…
"...OK, I will. Be home soon, I'll have dinner ready."
"I will, mom…"
…It wasn't done.
Alex wasn't sure if she would ever be able to get it done.
…
Oh, come on, ignore that!
That wasn't why she was doing this! No, no, no no no no no no no— no! NO!
She's not ignoring anything, nothing is incomplete. She's on top of it. She's always on top of it, she's not being distracted, she's not ignoring her problems with a nonsensical project, no no no no no no no—
(She was a terrible liar.)
(But she had never got anything when she tried confronting the problem, so this was her new solution.)
The drawing taunted her on the sidelines, and she grunted at it, picking it back up. A name, something she made on the fly, crudely, sat on the top of the page under the ugly not-a-llama.
"Arceus…" she muttered, "why can't you just look… better?"
Arceus, the not-a-llama squiggly on her page, did not respond. How shocking!
Her chin in her hands, she stared at it. The off-balance proportions felt wibbly and wobbly… and it was not helped by the etch-ed on linework. The un-cohesiveness of it all made it look as if a child drew it. And she was twenty-two! She could drink and whatnot (not that she ever did), and yet, she couldn't draw, still? Did she have that little experience?
Did she…?
…
…she got back to it.
Behind her, the bell on the library's door chimed, and someone stepped out onto the cracking white sidewalk. Alex, ever attentive as she may be, remained too focused on the drawing to actually notice the one stepping outside. Dr. Hazel's book, alongside others he had recommended the class during their time together, were placed ever so neatly on a pile adjacent to Alex's bag. She grabbed the one on the top, setting the pad to the side. Perhaps she just had to do more research, and she'd be able to figure out how to handle the, erm, Arceus problem…
The figure crept closer, and as Alex flipped through the pages of the book, which was thick enough to be a blunt force weapon, the figure picked up the pad from the bench and squinted at the drawing.
"What to do…" Alex mumbled to herself, sifting through pages and pages and pages and pages… perhaps she ought to drop back into the building and check out a few on art tips? It was a shame Leah went off to art school with Caleb, she could certainly help her right about now.
And still, despite this, Alex failed to notice the figure sitting down next to her on the railing of the bench before pulling out a black marker, uncapping it with her teeth and drawing under the scribble monster.
Instead Alex merely flipped more… and more… and… oh, why bother! She was so stressed out that she hadn't absorbed anything she had just read!
She slammed the book shut, now criss-cross on the bench, then groaned, practically screaming in utter frustration, leaning back with her palms clutching at her eyes in agitation. The figure glanced at her as Alex snapped back and turned to the books again, still somehow not noticing her as she took another text from her pile, from somebody named Dr. Hazel, and flipped it open to a page in the middle.
Then immediately shut it, letting it fall from her hands and onto the bench once more.
"Oh, what do I know…" she mumbled to herself, "What's any of this research gonna do to help me anyways? I can't even draw…"
"Hey, it's not bad for a beginner, 'Lexi."
.
…?
You might be accustomed to characters cartoonishly ignoring them, not even realizing anybody was there. Or perhaps, instead, a double-take, where they don't realize and then do. Or maybe they scream, and shout, and let it all out, and scream, and shout, and let it out, saying "oh-we-oh, we-oh-we-oh," or something like that. But, remember…
Alex acts sort of like, well, this instead.
"LEAH!"
She leapt up, causing the books to tumble over onto the bench, but unlike most other scenarios, Alex did not care, grinning madly and squealing as she held her arms out for a hug. The figure, Leah, set the pad down and went in for it. For most, Alex would straight up squeeze the life out of them. But Leah told everyone she didn't have a life, so she was absolutely fine.
The woman was giggling with glee as she let Leah go, holding the other's shoulders as she beamed at her.
"I thought you weren't gonna be home for another week!" she managed to sputter out, eventually. Leah snorted, shrugging.
"I lied, Lexi," she smirked, eyes half-lidded, "Wanted to surprise you, y'know? Mom just got me from the airport 'bout an hour and a half ago… thought I'd drop by and surprise you."
"Aw… that's so sweet of you, you shouldn't've!" Alex cooed, and went for another hug, pulling her back in. Leah didn't flinch, instead retorting.
"You were planning a surprise party, weren't you?" she asked. Alex just laughed.
"Yep!"
"Oh, you, how typical."
"You love it!"
"Oh, I know…"
When Alex let go, she still beamed at her, holding her hands together and giggling just a bit more. Leah shrugged it off again, sitting back down on the rail.
"So, how was it? Your first spring semester off at art school?" Alex eventually managed to ask, calming herself down to sit next to her. The books weren't an issue, at least not yet. The other woman swung her legs to be on top of the bench, leaning down to look at the world from topside-down. Alex sweatdropped, but, well… she knew better than to question Leah Schaffen of all people.
Oh… yeah… right, right! You've never met Miss Schaffen, have you? She needs an introduction.
…scratch that, I don't think she needs an introduction.
She's… Leah is her own introduction, if anything.
…I'll just let her explain.
"Oh, y'know," Leah told Alex, sighing, chuckling a little, "it was fiiiiine…"
Alex scootched in closer, cocking her head. "That's it?"
Leah snapped up, somehow still perfectly balanced on the railing. Alex wasn't going to gawk at that, no, Leah had done far weirder back in her middle school "parkour" phase, so… sure.
"Oh, no," Leah told her, "far from it, but I just spent like, an hour talking about it with my folks, so who cares? What's Arceus, by the way?"
…that, Alex did gawk at.
"...pardon me?"
Sliding back onto the bench proper with a "THUD!," Leah took up the pad, holding it up to Alex.
"Your llama doodle thingie that you were juuuuuust stressin' about," Leah remarked, smirk ever present on her face, "What's it about? Were you thinking of art majorin' like me? Not a bad option, I might say, but'cha could use a bit of work if you're leanin' that way, you catch me?"
It took Alex a few seconds to process what Leah just told her, mind buzzing as if a spare nail came loose and started jamming the cogs. Then, when it came loose after what could be mistaken for an eternity and a half, her blank expression bubbled into nervous laughter, holding her hands up as she politely took the pad back from Leah.
"Uh… oh," she blushed, rubbing the back of her neck, "This is just… I thought I'd… well…"
"Take your time, sweetcheeks," Leah drawled, head resting on her fist.
"Well…" Alex stuttered. She took a deep breath, steeling her nerves a bit, and continued.
"Kevin didn't do too well in the anthropology final this semester, so…"
Leah stared, then after a long enough silence, rolled her hand, as if to urge her to continue. "So…?"
"...well, I thought I'd try and make a fake religion and civilization—"
"Woah woah woah…" Leah suddenly interrupted, guffawing a tad, "Did we miss a step here?"
Alex sighed, albeit nervously. Why was she even nervous? She didn't have the faintest idea.
"It's, uh, I wanted to mess with Kevin," she finally, finally managed to spit out, "So I thought, 'hey, let's pretend he just missed out on this part, so…'"
"You're pranking Kevin?!" Leah chuckled. Alex blinked.
"Why does everybody think that's so weird…" she muttered. Leah pressed on.
"Oh, that's so funny, you don't even know…" she shook her head in amusement, before putting her hands behind her head and leaning back.
Alex just sat there as Leah went on.
"And I'm presuming this…" she continued, "… Arceus thing, is like, a god of sorts, of your fake land?"
Clearing her throat, Alex nodded.
Then… stopped, sighing.
"Not exactly… it would be if I could dr—"
For someone who is, presumably, incredibly vigilant, at least according to her friends and family, Alexandria Gigas tends not to notice a lot of things. Like, for instance, the fact that there was now a much better and clearer version of Arceus's head on the bottom of the page, in perfect proportions and clear lines.
…
… …
… … … …
"...did, you, uh—"
"Yeah," Leah said, still snickering, if only a little. She had a tendency to do that.
Squatting on the bench, she leaned over Alex's shoulder to look at the drawing. "I liked the concept, with the whole wispy ponytail thingie on the back of its head and such. Nice touch, Lexi, it kinda matches yours— well, if you broke the laws of physics or whatever to make it float. I'll probably draw the rest of it too at some point…"
Blankly, Alex turned to her, mouth slightly agape. "Did. Did you—"
"Sorry, sorry, right…" Leah, again, interrupted, "I should've asked first, 'pologies."
"Did you draw that whole head in just the minute you were sitting there?"
Leah shrugged. "'Course, why?"
Alex pauses a lot. It's almost endearing. Perhaps obnoxious, to some. Don't worry when she does that, she's only thinking. She almost thinks too much, some say. And Leah didn't mind. Leah knew Alex well enough not to question it.
Although, when Alex handed the pad back to her, Leah quirked her eyebrow. Alex gulped.
"Could you… maybe… draw these godly creatures for me? I'm, uh… I'm out of my depth here."
…
…
…
…why was it, whenever she said anything at all, it always felt like the sky was falling?
…
…
…
…Leah snorted, smirking once more.
"Yeah, no problem, 'Lexi, anything for ya."
Alex sighed in relief, an unknown feeling of pressure evaporating from her systems and out into the atmosphere; something that went unnoticed as Leah took the pad from her and continued doodling.
(Her heart was pounding. Why? Was it too much to ask her friend to do something she enjoyed already?)
"How many of these do you have, anyways?" Leah asked. She stroked the pen in ways that made the process look impossibly easy, a million orders of magnitude simpler than it was. Alex found herself mesmerized by the motions as legs and hooves and a torso came into existence on the pad, as Arceus, her creation, suddenly had a form of sorts instead of a mangled mess of shape.
"...'Lexi? Are you dead?"
She inhaled sharply, senses returning to her again, and to put off the confusion, she chuckled a bit.
"The Anthropology chat… all eleven of us, well, they each have their own things to add and all… and Arceus is mine… so maybe that's a lot…"
"It's not, really," Leah said. Alex stared in confusion, Leah merely working her magic. The woman in question snorted, glancing over at her momentarily.
"C'mon, Gigas, gimme a challenge if you're gonna give my gods to make! One from the whole Kitchen! Your family, even! Heck, get that professor you were talking about in on this!"
"Wha—" Alex stammered, utterly, completely, and totally perplexed and bamboozled, "You want more?!"
"Why not?"
"I mean, you can if you want, but—"
"Wahla."
The pad was held up, and the full version was…
…the edges still remained unfinished, as it was a rush-job, but… it looked the part. The figure on the page, what Leah just drew…
That was it. That was… perfect.
Perfect…
It mesmerized her.
(She took the sheet in with both hands, holding it. The page chilled her palms as she grasped it, but she didn't notice whatsoever, the ink, already dried from Leah's marker, staring right back.)
(The eyes moved to look at her right back.)
(Right back.)
(She could swear she could see it.)
(...)
(No color was on the page yet, and still, it was if it glowed. As if the greens and whites and yellows and reds were already there, pre-colored in…)
(She could swear, she could swear that she was seeing something.)
(...)
(...)
(...)
(A crack went across the page, outlining the outline.)
(She could swear she saw it glow.)
(She could swear she saw it move off the page onto open air and onto her hand.)
(S—
"Pretty good, right?"
Alex breathed in. Had she not been before?
…what was she just thinking about?
…
…nothing important, presumably. And if it was it would come back to her later.
Shaking off her odd uneasiness (what was that about anyways?) Alex merely grinned back at Leah, pointing at it.
"This is… it's perfect!"
She laughed again, hugging it, and beaming back at Leah, who gave her a half-lidded smile in return.
"This is so perfect, Leah, you're the best!"
And, in typical Alex fashion, she went in for yet another hug. Leah didn't decline.
"Oh, shucks, don't give out all of your compliments on me," Leah deadpanned, albeit lightheartedly, and she snorted, letting Alex go and taking the pad back in one fell swoop, "'sides, it's not even done. Once I get my laptop charged back home I'll do a digital version, and that will look clean."
Alex stopped smiling as she said that, those obnoxious little gears turning in her mindscape once again.
"Back… home…" Alex muttered, thinking aloud.
Then, suddenly, she gasped, smacking her forehead with her palm and cringing. Leah glanced back at her, confusion manifesting on her features.
"What's the matter, 'Lexi?" Leah asked. Alex responded by swinging her backpack onto the bench and unzipping it in an unfinished hurry.
The woman began to haphazardly shovel the books, now toppled over hopelessly on the bench, back into the bag. "I told my mother I'd be home in time for dinner, and I'd hate to be late for her, that would be so rude!"
"Woah there, slow down there, sport," Leah said, watching as some of the books spilled back out. She grabbed one of them, a thick one by a name she wouldn't remember in two seconds, putting it back into her bag as more were shoveled in. "You don't wanna break these, do you?"
But Alex was already done, somehow, and zipped the backpack back up, slinging it back over her shoulder. The weight of all those books still didn't impact her posture in the slightest. Figures.
"I'll, uh… I'll get back to you on this!" Alex said, and she tried to give off her best smile. Goldish notes from the setting sun illuminated her… hm… Leah could use that for Alex's Arceus, she thought. It would match the color palette…
"Thank you so much, Leah!"
She turned to run off.
But, just then, Leah stood up, reaching for her and calling out one last time.
"Hey, Alex!"
The woman stopped, glancing over her shoulder. Leah was breathing heavily, for some reason. It felt intense, like she kinda had to.
"What are we calling these things, anyways?"
The air chilled, seemingly, by about ten degrees. Somehow, neither could detect, even in the empty streets of mid-spring.
The world was warping around them. It all hinged on this response. A response never uttered by a mouth before, never in that world.
A response that would end it by coming to be.
Alex smiled, and uttered a single word from her lips.
"Pokemon!"
She ran off, after that. And Leah nodded as she disappeared around a corner, sitting back down. A leaf fell onto Alex's pad as she pondered the word, over and over again, in her head.
Pokemon…
…what could she make from that?
The possibilities were…
Endless.
"If you see the wonder,
Of a fairy tale,
You can face the future,
Even if you fail."
"I Have a Dream" – Mamma Mia!
A/N: I'd like to thank the whole of the Kitchen for allowing me to indulge in this utter tomfoolery. You are all bad influences (affectionate).