A/N: Woo! This time of the year is busy! I've got three chapters due in as many days. It's a lot of fun!
My work on the new, short and zippy story is helping me make my dialogue smoother. Unfortunately, this story is not plot based, so there will be no other effect. Sorry.
All mentions of animated squirrels that have consumed stimulants refer to Chippy from Over The Hedge.
Anywhoos...
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Soye
Daybreak found Soye safe in her basement preparing for the recuperative state that passed for sleep among vampires. Normally, she did not enter it. There was always something to be doing, and she didn't really need more than two hours a week to heal the muscle tears and such generated by physical activity. Today, she had more than muscle tears to heal. Her mind also needed rest.
She moved about, double checking everything. The wire system that allowed her to control the curtains without exposing herself to sunlight was operational. Currently, every set of curtains was open. The door to the basement was locked securely, as were all the tiny basement windows. She hadn't expected any problems with them. This was just something for her body to do on automatic while she thought about everything that had happened over the past two nights.
The first night had really been the most exhausting, emotionally. It was fortunate that the humans showed up to remind everyone about the bill in the middle of a meeting, so Soye didn't have to waste time reminding everyone and cajoling them into supporting a sped-up version of the plan. Vampire political squabbles could result in just as much feet-dragging as human ones, so her only choices would have been to spend too much time trying to gather support and put herself in danger, or go into battle without full support. Thank the gods she didn't have to pick one of those options. It would have been even more of a nightmare. Even with full support, rounding up rogue vampires took ages. Without Kivi's network of nominally unaligned contacts, she couldn't have done it in one night.
The day after the roundup was spent in a basement jammed with vampires who she had to demonstrate patience and tolerance in front of while they relentlessly attacked her with guilt trips, then condescending putdowns, then insults, then threats to kill her, which she had prepared for, which made the basement all the more jammed with her guards and a truly stunning amount of restraining equipment. The sounds of straining against chains, handcuffs, ropes, and whatever else they had managed to find filled the basement with an incessant clanging that would have hurt even human ears. To vampire ears, it was agony. And they were all trapped there for an entire day because the sun was a deadly laser. Fun!
The second night was physically exhausting as they had to move all the captives out into the open, round up all the conspirators, hold a quick execution (thank the gods the conspirators confessed to plotting her death before they were even accused; it made everything so much quicker), and then she had to give a speech before the rogue supporters explaining what she was doing and why. Several of them had to be executed too. She left the job of hunting down and destroying any copies of the Bill that may have been produced to her allies. Dear gods, she needed sleep. And when she was done sleeping, she would have to make rounds to check on the captives, who had all been separated so they could have a chance to change their minds, and then hear all about Kivi's no doubt life-changing meetings with the prophet.
Normally, when a vampire decided to spend a luxurious day asleep, the recuperative state was maintained mostly by will. They could decide to lie dormant even when there was no healing to do. Soye did not use that ability on this day.
General
"This is weird."
"Yeah, I guess it is."
Yahiko and Kakuzu stared at each other across the hallway outside training room 2. "There is no reason why we should be training partners, and several reasons not to be." Kakuzu counted them off on his fingers. "We have completely different combat styles. We have completely different skill levels. You're better off healing instead of fighting. And our animal motifs are poorly matched - I'm a predator, and you're not. And if I accidentally hurt you, which is far too likely, I will suffer consequences. Best not to risk it."
"We've only trained together twice, and only with weapons. It is kind of weird that it happened twice, but hey, we both happened to have nothing else to do at the same time. It doesn't mean anything."
"It might or might not mean anything. That's what I'm concerned about."
"I like throwing shuriken with you," Yahiko said. "When we get our own packs, we can practice separately if you want."
It was close to the time when everyone with a job would be getting out of work. They had just finished an hour of throwing Konan's weapons at various targets. It would have been two hours, but Yahiko thought they should leave some charge in the remote controlled cars in case someone else wanted to play with them. Practice with them. Yes, practice. "So, wanna hang out until other people show up?" Yahiko asked.
"Fine."
"...What do you do for fun?"
"Read books, punch bags, go for walks in nature, take people's money. Let me guess: you play video games and use social media."
"You've literally lived next to me for a month." Yahiko smiled. "Was that just a funny play on stereotypes?"
"Yes. But I'm sure we have completely different interests."
"You're right actually. I spent the whole morning back at my apartment playing my favorite video game."
Kakuzu raised an eyebrow. "What kind?"
"Fantasy adventure RPG."
"Better than Candy Crush."
"What did you spend today doing?"
"None of your business."
"Aw…"
.
Not long after, people began to arrive. "Hey!" Laurie waved. "Where's, um, Hidan?"
"I don't know where he and Konan are," Yahiko said. "Let me check." In the group chat, he typed, Where is everybody? The answers he got were interesting. Hidan and Itachi were together on the opposite end of town. Konan was very far away and did not expect to return until past bedtime. And Kisame was waiting, together with Samehada, to meet with some higher-up. He also would not be back until much later.
"How far away, in what direction, and why?" Sasori asked.
"She didn't say."
Sasori narrowed his eyes. "Request confirmation, please." He did not need to specify what he was talking about. Yahiko complied instantly.
"Confirmation of what?" Laurie asked.
"Remember that whole thing with breaking into my place and stealing my laptop?"
"...Oh."
"She says it's the exact opposite," Yahiko told them. "She wants to do this now while she can still be trusted to. And she's exploring the campground Kisame found up north."
"Should I be concerned that she's worrying about doing things while she still can?"
"She's probably just being cautious."
"What was up with that, anyway? Did you guys ever find out?" Laurie asked.
Yahiko blinked at Sasori, who shrugged. "I don't like to talk about personal stuff at work." He filled her in on what Ruta had said. "And no, now that I think about it, I haven't told Ruta, either. He seemed oblivious at the time. I don't think he realizes how we took that."
Kakuzu entered the lobby. "Has anything relevant happened?" he asked Sasori.
"No."
"I just wanted to make sure of that before the weekend started."
"Is there something going on over the weekend?" Yahiko asked. Aside from that thing Itachi has with the demon kid on Saturdays now.
Kakuzu did not answer. He looked at Sasori. Sasori's eyes went round and wide until he reminded Yahiko of a certain animated squirrel on caffeine. "Excuse me." Sasori promptly disappeared outside.
"Don't expect to see him until Monday," Kakuzu told them. Laurie looked confused. "He got a shipment of all the parts he needs to start working on his project."
"Ohhh." Yahiko typed in the group chat, Sasori remembered he has all his parts now. We're not going to see him until Monday probably.
"So there's definitely not going to be a meeting tonight," Laurie murmured. "What will we do instead?"
Alternative entertainment options are requested.
A few seconds later, Yahiko's phone pinged. Itachi said, My apologies. If there is not one of us who owns a Wii, I will stop by a store and get one on our way. There were no further pings after that, indicating that nobody owned a Wii. "Itachi's picking up a video game station," Yahiko announced. "Hey, maybe it would be a good idea to move my computer here?"
Kakuzu shook his head. "Remember the last time she had access to the Internet while in that state. It's too dangerous."
"Oh, right. No computers allowed except for laptops, then?"
Kakuzu nodded. "That's a good house rule."
"We can make a list of house rules while we wait!"
When Itachi and Hidan walked in the door, Hidan carrying a large box, Yahiko brought him a sheet of paper. "What do you think?" Hidan handed the box to Itachi, took the paper and read it. On the paper was a list. The list said:
House Rules!
1. No computers allowed in the building except for laptops and smartphones.
2. No poking at personal neuroses in public.
3. No labeling. We're all weird here. Nicknames are acceptable.
4. Expect nightly meetings. They might not happen sometimes, but happening is the default.
5. Be nice to the neighbors.
6. All visitors are welcome. So are guests.
7. Always enter the basement respectfully.
"Nice list!" Hidan said. "I would only add one thing: No big, destructive jutsus allowed. Especially if they're fiery. We live next to a fucking forest."
"I thought that was the default around here."
"Hm. Yeah, you're right. Never mind."
Yahiko went to tape the list onto the fridge. Itachi elbowed Hidan, then led him to the designated game room. Kakuzu followed them and watched. They set up the system in the normal manner.
As they did so, Nagato poked his head in. "What's going on?"
"Gaming station!"
Hidan, Nagato, Itachi and Yahiko took turns opposing each other in the boxing game that came preincluded with the set. The machine seemed confused by some of their movements. When they tried to tackle, their character did a frontflip and ended up folded over the other character's head. A jumpkick turned into a headstand, which was also an automatic KO. Nagato tried a highkick. "Hyaa!" His character appeared to have a seizure, twitching all over before falling down.
They tried football next. Hidan did the Cha-Cha Slide, and his character replicated it. "Fuck, this one's got more advanced movement mechanics!"
They moved on to baseball in the hopes that it would be more interesting. Nagato twirled his controller like a baton instead of swinging it normally. This made his character swing the bat wildly in a circle. Even Kakuzu laughed at that one.
When they had tried all of the default games, Itachi promised to get more. Then Yahiko took them to the training room. Konan's weapon pouch was still there, carefully set in a protected corner. "I can't wait 'til we get our own," Yahiko gushed as he handed out weapons. "This is so much fun!"
The others agreed. Much fun was had throwing weapons. Meanwhile, Sasori had his own brand of fun. Concepts turned into images which linked up, first as images, then with increasing solidity. His hands tingled in celebration as they remembered what they were supposed to be used for. Mind, body and soul glowed in harmony. All he did that night was lay out his workspace and build a heart for his creation: a battery, threaded with wires, inside a casing. He smiled when it came time to go to bed. If wiring up the battery and building a casing was this much fun, how much would the rest of it be?
He put everything into order, resolving to think about it in the morning. Meanwhile, Deidara and Laurie sat in Deidara's room, which was crowded with spiders. "I had a nightmare last night, but I don't think it was that kind. It was more random and unrealistic, like a normal nightmare. I'll keep them here for another night and see how it goes, yeah."
Laurie sat on the largest of the spiders. "They're so cute!" She looked just like Hidan had.
If she thinks they're cute, maybe that'll stop me from having nightmares, yeah. Deidara asked her to explain in greater detail why she thought they were cute. Her explanation banished a low-level nervousness that he had not noticed. That convinced him. No nightmares! I'm free!
Someone made hamburgers. Kisame came back just in time to have one. When asked what happened, he only grunted. Samehada trilled and warbled happily, so it couldn't have been that bad. Nagato and Yahiko took turns petting the shark and telling him all about their training.
It was a good night.
Konan
Konan woke up very quickly. One moment, she was asleep. The next, her eyes flew open and roamed about the room, assessing its defensive potential.
This was because she was not in her usual room. Konan sat up, wondering if she would be charged for sleeping here. Her exploration the night before had revealed no sign of ownership. It looked like this campground was another abandoned yet mysteriously well-maintained place. Who, or what, performs the maintenance around here? Are there beings I don't know about living among us in secret, as the bicycles do?
She put on her cloak and went outside. The early morning sunlight had not yet reached the ground. It was a good decision to stay the night here. I can get more information about this place. She scouted around. There were other occupants, but none who were awake. She turned to paper and slid in underneath their doors to get a good look at them. Their faces were not familiar.
Overall, she judged this place to be a sleepy little camp of no importance until and unless something demanded that characters have a distant place to hide in. Now that Kisame was back, it would be some time before the northern camp was used again. She could safely ignore it.
Konan checked the group chat, saw no sign of emergency, and made her way through the forest back to her base in an unhurried manner. As she walked, she thought. Her thoughts made her heart pound. It's been a month. How long will it be before my mind weakens again? When it does, how much damage will I do to everything I have built? Will they leave me?
She reassured herself that no, the group could not leave her, because they were the main characters and that would not be permitted. But even so, how much trust in me will they lose? How will they look at me? With pity, or with anger? What if my mental problems are not the sole plot event occurring? If we need to interact with the vampires again, or the demons, and I am seen in that state… Goosebumps rose all over her arms. I would set the progress of vampire-vampiric relations back centuries in less than one day. They would have every reason to return to the beliefs they have always held. I would take their trust and use it to break their hearts. Soye, Kivi… She felt sick. I did not want this power. I did not want to be leader of the Akatsuki. As long as there was someone above me, I was safe. Safe from myself.
Thank the gods this version of Hidan was so powerful. He could not overrule her, but even so his presence was a comfort. If need be, she could flee into the forest and take refuge until the storm inside her mind had passed. Konan stopped to consider this idea. The more she considered it, the more her heart slowed. It was a wonderful idea. Perhaps she would be the next one to use the refuge of the northern campground.
She found a good place to rest among the roots of an oak and pulled out her phone. I have begun planning for my next episode, she typed. If my presence is not required, I plan to go to the northern campground and stay there until the worst of it passes.
She walked the rest of the way in high spirits. Now that the others knew she was planning for it, surely they would not fear her as much?
She found Hidan the cat sitting in the middle of the cracked rock, his white fur shining in the sunlight and providing a sharp contrast to the wilted flowers around him. He flicked his tail at her. She recognized it as meaning, I see you and I like you, but I am comfy so do not disturb. She nodded back and sat on the porch next to Itachi. "This porch needs another cleaning, I see."
"I happened to glance out back after training yesterday," Itachi said. "My Sharingan was still on. I'm sure I would have noticed if this white streak had been there. It must have been left by some nocturnal bird, or one active at twilight."
Konan wondered if he had an inherent interest in birds. If such an interest was embedded deeply enough into Itachi's personality for his world clone to share it, that would explain his crow summons. Come to think of it, didn't a lot of group members have animal motifs? She wondered which author had decided that. "Which author decided that we should have animal motifs?"
"Hm. Interesting question." Itachi thought about it. "I cannot make strong guesses, since I don't know how our originals were."
"I can tell you that."
"Did any of our originals have animal motifs?"
"Your original summoned crows, and Sasori's name literally means scorpion. He used an image of a red scorpion as his brand. That's all I can recall."
"So all other animal motifs are newly invented," Itachi said.
Hidan meowed. He got up, stretched, sauntered across the grass, and sat on the porch next to Konan in a very dignified posture with his tail covering his feet. Then he let go of the transformation. A dignified posture for a cat translated into a cross-legged posture with hands folded in the lap for a human. "Not totally," he said. "Other Me liked hunting and blood. Tying those things to animals might be new, but the rest of it isn't."
Konan nodded. "It was not a sharp enough difference for me to notice."
Itachi's brow wrinkled. "Excuse me. Sasori's original had a scorpion motif?"
"Yes. He also used poisoned needles as his primary weapons, and the puppet he hid himself in had a bladed tail." Konan understood why Itachi asked. "Our Sasori has none of those qualities. He has shown no interest in poison, nor needles. Many of us gained animal motifs from this new story, but he lost his."
Itachi picked up his guitar case, stood up and slung it over his shoulders. "I would like to speak with him before going to the hospital."
"I thought we weren't going to see him all weekend," Hidan reminded him.
"I will try, then. If I cannot talk to him, I will try to remember for Monday."
The three of them went through the building, checked, and saw that Sasori was not in his room. They then went to the shed out front. Sasori was carrying some parts from the garage to the shed and laying them on a tarp outside the door, presumably to be dragged inside when he was done. Itachi wondered aloud what the parts would be used for.
"A puppet, of course," Sasori told him. "But one I control remotely, not through strings. Stringed puppets are so outdated."
"Of course."
"I hope you aren't creeped out by bugs. It'll be insectoid in shape. Do you have any idea how many engineering problems insects have solved that humans would kill to know?" Sasori shook his head in admiration. "I just hope their solutions still work when scaled up." He went back for more parts.
Itachi turned away. "That answers my question. He still has some kind of animal motif. But rather than a specific one with a certain kind of animal, it's become more generalized, with all of the land-living arthropods that are referred to as bugs."
Hidan blinked. "Dei's scared of bugs." He looked around for Sasori and repeated that observation as Sasori hurried past.
"Only ones that are small enough to crawl into his hand mouths," Sasori replied. "I think he was traumatized by that urban legend about swallowing spiders while you sleep."
"Ah, gotcha. That makes sense."
"What legend is this, and what does it have to do with cities?"
"I will happily tell you about urban legends somewhere else. Let's leave him in peace," Itachi said. They sat in the grass on the other side of the parking lot near the street. "Let me look up the origin of the phrase, 'urban legends.'"
While he did so, Hidan rubbed his hands in anticipation. "I love urban legends," he told Konan. "They're spooky stories, like ghost stories, but instead of ghosts it's things you find around you in modern life."
"That is the answer Google is giving me," Itachi said. "It says urban legends may also be called contemporary myths, which is more straightforward. As the culture changed, technology developed, and people began to live in cities rather than on farms, the term 'urban legend' was developed to distinguish modern myths that are believed today from the old fashioned traditional myths of centuries past that modern people scoff at."
"I love the traditional stuff though," Hidan chirped. "Traditional myths are shit like, 'That place is haunted,' 'demons live there,' 'if you do this you'll attract witches,' and other fantasylike things. I love fantasy! Urban legends are more in the horror genre with a dash of dystopia, like, 'If you use tanning beds too much they'll cook you like a sausage,' 'spiders in your house crawl into your mouth while you sleep,' 'cellphone towers emit deadly radiation and/or mind control waves,' and stuff like that."
"Those are the basic premises," Itachi chimed in, "but the legends themselves are told in the form of stories that happened to a real person. I read a story of a specific woman who was supposedly cooked by tanning beds in a magazine once. She began to feel unwell, her dog behaved strangely around her, and she smelled cooked meat. She went to a doctor who told her she had cooked her internal organs and had only two weeks left to live. That's the form an urban legend usually takes."
Hidan wrinkled his nose. "Boring! I mean, the story's cool, but I want instructions on how to get kidnapped by the fae! Tell me how to meet fairies already."
"I never would have thought you had an interest in the fae," Itachi said. "They are said to be very organized, with royal courts, and to live according to strict rules and bargains."
"Oh. Shit. Maybe I was thinking of another kind of fairy."
"Probably. Speaking of, would you like to know where the stories of fae originated?"
Hidan's ears perked forward. "Yes please!"
"First, I must tell a story that shows what the fae are," Itachi said with a nod towards Konan. "In a village, there was a woman who longed for a child. But no matter what she tried, she could not conceive. In desperation, she went to a certain well in the woods…" Itachi explained how an unseen creature offered to grant her her wish, for a price. She agreed, went home, became pregnant and had a child. After a few months, the child began to act strangely. The creature summoned her back to the well and revealed that her child had been switched with a fae child. It then asked her to choose. The woman refused to choose.
"Other women heard of the bargain she had made and went into the woods, hoping to also receive two babies for one deal. Their wishes were granted. The creature never stopped making this bargain, and it never stopped the mothers from taking both children away. To this day, the people from that village are said to be odd. They never meet your eyes, and they speak too quietly or loudly, or laugh at the wrong times. But that is just how some people are."
Hidan clapped. "The fae love taking human kids away and replacing them with lookalikes," he explained to Konan. "That's one of their main things."
"As this story makes obvious, the so-called changeling can be distinguished from a human child only by its odd social behaviors. There is nothing evil about a changeling. It just acts strange. In other words, it seems that these legends originated from a desire to explain autistic children," Itachi said.
"Cool!"
Konan tilted her head. "Autistic children?" This tale resembles folklore from my world, but is not quite the same. I could understand it, if only I knew where it came from.
"You've seen Ruta's strange behavior?"
Konan blinked. "Ah. I see." She pictured a child acting like that. "Your story makes perfect sense."
"I love that story," Itachi said, "because the mother loves both of her children. And other mothers, hearing of it, think only that the fae child will be another child. They don't consider it strange or inhuman at all: just another baby." He smiled softly. "That story comforts me."
"You're still okay, right?" Hidan asked Konan. "Maybe Sasori will let us borrow his laptop so we can do a deep dive into autism. it's a cool condition, and super complicated."
"I would like to explain all the ins and outs of it, but I'm afraid I have to visit the demon boy. When I return, I would like to talk about what you've found." Itachi sighed. Then he got to his feet and, with a wave, started down the road to the haunted hospital.
.
A/N: The story that Itachi tells is a real one I read recently. It was the result of a writing prompt on some website. (I just googled; you can find it by searching "two infants fae bargain writing prompt." The website is MediaChomp. Or rather, that's where I found it; now that I look again, it seems like the prompt and the story were both originally Tumblr posts or something.) I love it. I love it very much. I highly recommend it.
Honestly, I only realized while writing this chapter that Original Sasori's scorpion thing was a full-blown motif. When I think of him, I picture him in his body-turned-puppet using strings, not in his Hiruko puppet using needles, and I barely remember about the poison. Whoops.
As I was writing Konan's scene, specifically the parts where she thinks about the northern camp and then goes back to her own base, I realized something that I should have known even before I started posting this story. I made a ninja version of the clan setup from Warrior Cats. Four camps, each group mostly sticking to their own camp aside from purposeful visits, tense relations varying from helping each other to kinda sorta enemies... Yep, I totally should have known.
Happy Halloween everyone! See you next week!