A few days have passed since Marth's return from Columbia. Things have been running as usual within the landship. Missions were given out, progress towards curing oripathy is being attempted, children enjoying their youth, older members watching the new generation enjoy themselves. These few days allowed people to catch their breath from the craziness of life.
"This drink really does hit the spot after working all day."
Within one of the bars in the landship Apollo could be found drinking. His white hair looked like it gained some color under the warm orange lighting of the bar.
"Tell me something, why are you at a bar if you are only going to drink apple juice? Seems kinda odd to me." The bartender asked him.
"Not really a fan of drinking that much on my own. Now being around friends is a completely different story." He replied as he chucked his drink. "Another one please." he asked as he raised his glass.
"Coming right up."
The bartender whipped up another cup of apple juice for the logistics operator. As Apollo drank his drink he train of thought quickly came and went with a new idea. He stood up from the bar and placed the LMD he owned on the counter.
"Thanks for the drinks." Apollo said before he quickly dashed out the room.
The bartender could do nothing but collect the LMD, he soon realized that Apollo overpaid.
"His lost, not mine."
Apollo made his way back to his office, much to his surprise he saw a certain dragon lady wearing shades and holding a megaphone. Her legs were crossed and appeared to just be enjoying the air of the room.
"Sup Nian. What can I do for my dragonic friend?" I asked as I made my way towards my fridge.
"Oh nothing, just came down to see what you did with the fruits of my labor myself is all." Nian said as she lowered her glasses enough for her to look over them. "I will say you did a really good job here, I like the way you have everything placed."
Nian looked around the room as she saw how homey the place felt, while many of the other rooms did have their charm you could always tell you were in the landship. The light rumbles of the ground as it moves from terrain to terrain yet Apollo's office wasn't like that.
It truly felt as if you were in a normal home, the walls were made out of perfectly cut logs of dark wood mixed with the triangle ceiling. To finish it all off he installed a fireplace although it wasn't lit.
"Hey Apollo! Would it be really cool if you lit the fire place." Nian said her intention was clear even those who are deaf could understand.
Apollo looked at the fireplace for a quick moment. "You know, it would be cool if I did that." Apollo snapped his finger and within seconds the fireplace was lit.
"Impressive, but I can do better." Nian boasted with her chest out.
"Perhaps, after all you are of divine descent." Apollo casually mentioned as he wisped up a drink for Nian. "I heard you were a fan of spicy stuff so try this. It came from one of the ancient parts of my homeland." He explained as he placed the drink on the table.
Nian could only look at the drink as it had a dark red color. "Apollo, are you a vampire?"
Apollo turned around with his eyes narrowed, staring at Nian like she not only insulted him but his entire bloodline with the racist intent of the old days of humanity. "Why would I drink blood, I'm not a dead apostle." He replied.
"Dead apostle, the hell is that?" She asked as she picked up the drink.
"For all intents and purposes dead aspolte is another term for vampire. But that's not important just try the drink I'm sure you'll like it." He said as he went to a bookcase.
Nian, trusting her newly found friend, drank the drink. Within seconds her stomach was on fire as the liquid ran its course throughout her body. The mix of spicy followed by the sweetness of the drink made her take another gulp not allowing her body to fully adjust to the heat.
"This is amazing, how did your people make this?" She asked as she took another gulp.
"We developed a lot of things over the centuries, after all humans like to make things regardless if they are useful or not." Apollo replied.
While Nian drank more of the spicy drink Apollo made the book shelf that was full of books change to that of movies organized by genre.
"Hey Nian, do you know any good movies I could watch? I love my books and all but good movies never hurt the soul." He said as he looked for an old movie he enjoyed watching.
Unknown to Apollo, Nian's face had wide, small and thin eyes. It was a devious smile, something that she was known for around Rhodes Island and was often seen as two things. The calm before the storm, or the storm before the calm.
"I have plenty of movies, want to watch some tonight with me?" She asked.
Apollo turned around with an equally devious expression on his face. "I don't mind, I'm free."
"Perfect, don't leave, I'll be right back with some movies." Nian said as she dashed out the room leaving her shades and megaphone on the table.
Apollo on his side got everything ready. He put some popcorn into the microwave, pulled out a massive movie set up, something you would see in a smaller theater. He expanded the size of the room to accommodate anything he needed along with something he plans to do tomorrow.
Nian quickly returned with a handful of movies and a red bottle in hand. Apollo quickly grabbed the popcorn from the microwave, divided them into two bowls with extra butter between them. Nian popped into one of her favorite movies.
The two quickly got comfortable as Apollo clapped his hands causing lights to dim before turning off completely.
What they watched first wasn't a movie but instead a show titled 'Yan to Yan' followed a nameless duo of siblings whose home was destroyed. The older brother was forced to grow quicker than he wanted for his sister while she was the heart of the two. For a little bit everything went well as they traveled the land since many people were in similar situations, even with everything that has happened to them the siblings smile and enjoy what they had.
However tragedy has a way of finding everyone. One of their stops, the brother takes a job to go fishing with some other people. He left his sister in the town with some other girls near her age so she can enjoy herself, plus is more of a people person than the brother.
The brother traveled for some time with the older men and woman trying to get food on the table, they started hunting for fish but not to much success. The catch was poor and many of the older people were restless since food around the area has been sparse at best, the siblings only got lucky with their food so they were decently well fed.
Out of nowhere a large gang of people came out from the forest, all of them armed with bladed or blunt weapons. Their eyes were covered by a deep shadow that was casted from their headgear. Within Seconds a scream was heard as one of the fishermen was cut down by one of the attackers, from there all hell broke loose. People were being cut down all around the brother, he turned and ran back towards the town to get his sister to escape.
Tired as he might have been intercepted by one of the attackers, fresh blood clear on the attacker's blade as he had already killed someone. The slather raged behind while all he had was a poorly made spear for fishing. Malice and greed filled the attackers eyes like fog clouding any sense of humanity or morality. The brother's eyes had worry but the worry wasn't for him rather for his sister who is enjoying life to the best she can.
The brother unskilled in combat couldn't do much besides narrowly dodging some of the attacks as more of his blood was drawn. He couldn't run anywhere as he could feel the cold embrace of the tree, he truly was a cornered animal that was about to butchered like a lamb. The attacker swung his sword across the brother's chest, a rush of blood came from the wonder as the brother could do nothing but fall onto the ground feeling the cold embrace of the world.
The sounds of the world became muted, his vision started to be overtaken by the dark. The only thing that came to mind was one closest to him, memories of his sister flowed into his mind both highs and lows. The deeper fell into them the quicker vision faded, yet once he imagined the future; the future where his sister is happy, has a family, or does whatever she wants a fire sparked within him. Like water rushing down a river, the brother's spirit and energy returned.
Pushing himself from the ground, the brother's vision returned but something was wrong, oh so wrong, but he didn't care as he had one goal in mind. He grabbed his makeshift spear and slowly approached his attacker. Once the brother saw an opening he thrusted his spear piercing the attacker's chest as his heart rested at the tip of the spare. The brother couldn't see whatever emotion, motivation, drive, everything leave the attackers eyes as they fell onto the cold ground nor did he care. All he could see was a black liquid leaving the wound.
The brother picked up the sword of his attacker and viewed the massacre that took place. The only ones standing now were the attackers, all the other fishermen he came with were dead, their corpses barely taller than the river itself. The brother didn't waste any time before cutting down the closest person.
The brother couldn't help but voice some thoughts. He believed taking a life would be hard, after all slaying your own kind felt so evil to him that he never understood why bandits did it. Yet as he could down another attacker a simple truth formed in his mind. It felt so natural to wield a weapon, it felt so natural to end one's life.
The last attacker couldn't do anything as he watched all his allies being slain one after the other but one person. It was clear that the brother didn't have any proper training but the sheer intensity of his fighting truly was a beast fighting for survival.
Simply looking at brothers eyes filled him with fear, to him the brother looked no different than a one of dragon gods he prayed to or demon shaped like one. He only knew if he stayed here that his death was doomed to happen so he ran and ran.
The brother didn't bother chasing the last one. The only thing that mattered was his sister so he ran towards the village. As he ran, stepping over the black grass and weaving between the white trees, the white sky turned dark until he reached where his sister was staying.
Everyone there could stare at the brother as he was covered head to toe in black spots. He asked where his sister was but everyone would step back as he moved forward, however he heard the call of his name, he turned to see his sister.
Her sister's peach skin was pale once she saw the state of her brother. Bruised and injured, barely being able to stand with the high of the fight being the only things supporting him. The sister managed to calm everyone down allowing the brother to explain everything that had happened. After much debate everyone believed him and went their separate ways to mourn the loss of their friends or family leaving the two siblings alone.
The sister wanting to cheer up her brother placed some items she made on the ground and asked him which one is the best. The brother couldn't choose which one as all of them lack any color. He asks his sister why they are all black and white but the sister could only respond with an expression that was a mix of concern and confusion. Saying how all of them were of different colors.
In that moment the brother became aware of the world beyond his sister. Everything lost their color, everything was some shade of black or white. The sky was white, the grass was black, the blood was black. Yet the only thing that retained color was his sister. Her skin, her hair, her eyes, everything about her retained their color.
With that the first episode ended. Nian paused the show which prompted Apollo to look at Nian with such a look of disgust.
"What are you doing, I need the next episode right now." Apollo questioned.
"Just wanted to hear your thoughts." Nian replied, shoving a handful of popcorn into her mouth.
"I want to see what happens to the brother, I mean losing the ability to see color in the world beside his sister is something quite interesting. Also I liked the fighting." Apollo replied.
"Fair enough answer, now it's your turn. Put something from your home." Nian said.
A wicked smile grew on Apollo's face as he stood up and ran towards his shelf of movies. "Nian, do you like comedies?" He asked.
"Who doesn't?" Nian responded.
"Then you are going to love this." He grabbed a movie off the shelf and tossed it to Nian which he picked up.
'Monty Python and the Holy Grail'
"This here is one of the best movies I've watched in a long time." Apollo said he quickly got the movie up and running.
The night was filled with laughter as Nian and Apollo let the hours pass watching a wide range of genres.
Morning quickly came as Marth entered Apollo's office to ask him something. Much to her surprise she caught her teacher and Nian passed out on both sides of the couch as a movie play screen was on the television. Not wanting them to get a cold, Marth grabbed a blanket Apollo had in the office and covered the two.
"I'll come back later." she said as she left the office letting Apollo and Nian sleep in peace.