Yes. Funny you should ask just as I get done with a chapter.
You’ve all been very patient with me. As a display of gratitude, I will throw a smidgen of **** at the fan this chapter. A tiny smidgen, but it’ll splatter quite well, I promise.
Chapter 3: The Fan, She is Broken
Before it went kablooie, Rozenom displayed the fruits of a massive, unified effort of engineering. The entire city as it stood was erected all at once, and as such, was uniform in design. Every block was a perfect square carved out of the whole, every street ran either parallel or perpendicular to one another, and there was not a single structure that did not have a duplicate somewhere in the city.
The city had a claustrophobic feeling about it; only in a few places could a person feel they were truly “outside.” Anywhere else, there was always a hallway of some kind to ferry you from building to building. It was like being in a gigantic shopping mall, complete with multiple levels to scale. Sunlight only came through the gaps in the layered stacks, creating a thickening dimness in the city as you descended levels.
In the upper levels, Johann is walking through one of those halls en route to his first day of work. Following behind him, is a white haired human that is just barely keeping up with his pace as she is busy taking in the clustered scenery of Rozenom. Every few seconds, she has to jog up to his back before lingering behind to let her eyes wander.
”Hahn, this place is really something!” Alice says.
”I suppose it is quite a sight if it’s your first time,” Johann says, keeping his eyes ahead of him.
”Hey, aren’t ya just a lil’ nervous?” Alice asks, jogging up to his side for the hundredth time that morning.
”I don’t get nervous,” Johann says, “especially not for something as mundane as a day of work. He turns his head to Alice walking at his side and winces slightly when he sees her sugary sweet smile in response to his bravado. “Ugh. At any rate…how are you enjoying being a Guardian?”
”It’s great!” Alice says, stopping to pump her fists. “But I’m really surprised. Keiko’s real busy! I barely see her.”
”That’s to be expected,” Johann replies, letting his eyes follow a caseal that walks by him in the opposite direction. Before his lips start to curve into a lecherous smirk, he catches himself and returns his attention to Alice. “Remember when I told you about full blooded and dilute blooded newmen?”
Alice nods, and Johann nods as well. As they walk up a ramp to a higher level of Rozenom, Johann continues, “full blooded newmen accrue valence at a much higher rate than the rest of us. Though she’s only sixteen now, I imagine in another year or so, she and I will be about even in radiance.” He pauses to grumble an obscenity or two and shove a cigarette in mouth to pacify himself. “The downside is that the higher a body’s valence, the more photons it requires to sustain it. Most of us don’t live long enough for this to become an issue, but the level of valence that Seishas can reach requires an enormous amount of photons to sustain.”
”Is she going to die?!” Alice yells as she jumps in front of Johann and grips him by the shoulders.
”What? No. You met her mother, didn’t you?” At a laser fence, Johann bends over to look a retina scanner in the eye and gain entry to yet a higher level. “No, you see, Neudaiz is much richer in ambient photons than the other two planets and Colony. So, once she gains that much valence, she won’t be able to leave Neudaiz. Knowing her, she wants to see as much of Gurhal as she can before that happens.”
”Aww…the poor thing…”
”Hmph, well, she wouldn’t want you feeling sorry for her. …All right, we’re here.” The sun shines brightly upon the highest layer of Rozenom, which Johann and Alice have walked out onto. “One could get lost here very easily,” Johann says as he looks on the vast and neat expanse of green turf. “All right, I believe my building is in this direction…”
*****
On fifth floor Colony, Keiko and Lumia are just now stepping out of the elevator. As they walk out, Lumia lags behind as she is wiping her legs down with a look of twisted disgust on her face. Giggling, Keiko turns around and says, “ah, sorry for not warning you about the Vitaces. They get kinda grabby.”
”I can still feel it on me…” Lumia moans.
”Hello there you two!” Stacy says from across the floor, “I hope your second day out was a good one?” The girls nod as their senior comes down the overlook to walks towards them. “Lumia, I talked Aegis Fairchild into giving you some weapon instruction. She’s waiting for you in training room 3.”
”R-right! Thank you Aegis Caroll!” With that, Lumia bows and runs off in the direction Stacy come from, still wiping the back of her hand across her legs.
”You…’talked’ Zoe into it?” Keiko asks while turning a glance sideways towards Stacy.
”Well, there might have been some coercion involved,” Stacy says with a furtive grin.
”What’s your interest in Lumi-chan anyway?” Keiko asks. “You’re going to a lot of trouble for one recruit.”
”Hmm…let’s just say this recruit is special.” Adjusting her glasses on the bridge of her nose, she goes on, “and get Johann up here some time. I need to get him in on this too.”
”Sure…” There’s a short pause as the trailing end of Keiko’s thought works its way to her mouth. “Um, Stacy-“ And that thought is interrupted when Stacy pinches Keiko’s cheeks and tugs at them with a flat expression her face. “Aegis Caroll, Aegis Caroll!”
”Yes, dear?” Stacy asks innocently.
”If you’re in such a teaching mood, would you mind teaching me how to cast Megistar?”
”Oh? Why the sudden interest?” Stacy asks as she shifts her weight onto one leg.
Keiko puts a finger on her chin and looks up at the ceiling while she considers her response. The whole answer would essentially require a recap of the events of Dezolis, something she is not quite willing to do. So, she looks for a way to condense her answer and eventually settles on, “I want to be able to keep up with Jo-sei.”
”…Wait. Johann used Megistar?” Stacy asks with a raised eyebrow. Keiko nods, and Stacy slaps her palm against her forehead. “Ugh, that moron. I told him that Megistar should be a last resort after his nanoblast. I bet he didn’t nanoblast?” Keiko shakes her head. “No, of course he didn’t, that would be smart…”
”Uh, so, will you teach me?” Keiko asks.
”Well…all right. I have a feeling we have some very difficult battles on the horizon,” Stacy says. “It’ll be important for all of us to be at our best. Come back tomorrow and we’ll get started.”
”Yes, thank you!”
*****
Back in Rozenom, Johann enters a lab room. Before taking another step inside, he takes stock of the room. It’s as stereotypical a lab as they come; the room is a sterile white, there are table stations throughout the room and there are several mechanical devices set up in the various corners of the hexagon shaped room.
”Seems they have everything I need…excellent,” he says.
”Nice to meet ya boss!”
”The hell?” Johann looks to his side to see a newman man, several inches shorter than he, greeting him with an outstretched hand. Rolling with it, Johann holds out his own hand and shakes the smaller man’s hand. “Er, nice to meet you as well…?”
”I’m Simon, one of your advisees,” the man says. He’s a small guy, with a narrow frame; clearly, he’s never seen a day of battle in his life, instead having had time to gel his blond hair to perfection.
”Oh. They gave me graduate students. That’s…that’s lovely,” Johann says. “Ffff…anyway, you said advisees, as in plural?”
”Right. Elly’s on a mat run. She should be back any minute.”
”Just two? I suppose that’s manageable,” Johann says. He pulls out a stool from one of the stations with his foot and has himself a seat. “I’m assuming you’re competent?”
”Oh sure! You got the best two doctoral candidates in Landale at your service!”
”Simon, is he here yet?” a woman’s voice calls from just outside the door. Johann and Simon look towards the door to see a human carrying a moderately large box in both hands. As she steps into the room, she trips, dropping her box. Lucky for her, Johann is over there in a flash to catch her in mid fall by putting his arm around her waist. With his other arm, Johann catches the box and holds it while the woman regains her balance.
”Are you all right?” Johann asks.
”I-I’m fine!” the brunette stammers as she jumps out of Johann’s arm and steps a comfortable distance away. As she starts calming down, she rubs her arm and turns her head to the box that Johann is carrying. “Thank you Aegis Launcher.”
Johann raises an eyebrow as he says, “Aegis?”
”Oh, Doctor! I meant Dr. Launcher…”
”Of course you did,” he says. Looking her over, Johann doesn’t see anything that piques his interest. She has a slim frame with the curves of a loaf of bread. And in contrast to his own impeccable fashion sense, she looks as if she let herself be dressed by blind monkeys with clashing colors, socks of different length and sleeves that aren’t even symmetrical. “…Elly, is it?”
”Yes,” she says.
”Elyham then?”
”Um, yes, but-“
”Elyham will do fine. All right Simon, Elyham; now that we have formalities out of the way, let’s get right down to work.” After setting the box onto the station, Johann turns back around towards the door and calls, “Alice. Come in please.”
Alice pokes her head in from the side of the door’s frame and only comes in at Johann’s insistence. “How do y’all do?” she says.
”Would you please take off your shirt Alice?” Johann asks nonchalantly. Seeing Alice’s flustered medley of stammering and stuttering, he adds, “I assure you, it’s medically relevant.”
”If that’s the case, then we have some examination gowns-“ Simon starts, before getting stealthily punched in the gut by Johann.
Though she pouts, filling her cheeks with air, Alice complies and lifts her blouse over her head, leaving her with nothing but her black bra up top. “Oh my, how risqué,” Johann says.
”Gwen picked it out for me,” she says as she folds her arms over herself while veering away from eye contact.
”Mm. Anyway.” Johann digs a finger into her exposed belly button and the skin on her waist peels back to reveal a softly glowing light inside. “Alice here, is a stateria. Seeing this, you should have no doubts what I’m telling you is true.”
”Whoa, I didn’t even know there were stateria that looked human! Awesome find, boss!” Simon says before walking up for closer examination. “You going to present this to the uni-“
Again, Simon is interrupted by a strike from Johann, this time to the back of his head. “First off, she is not a ‘this.’ Second, no, I’m not presenting anyone. There’s no need for anyone not in this room to know about this. They’d want just poke and prod her all day like some kind of lab rat.”
”What exactly did you have in mind, Aegis Launcher?” Elly asks. A short pause and a raised eyebrow follow after which Elly corrects herself, “er, Dr. Launcher.”
Johann grabs his wrist around his back and starts to pace around the lab station they’re all standing by. ”As you can see, Alice is a unique stateria. I’d like to find out why.”He nudges his head towards the stool he was sitting in and says, “have a seat, Alice.”
”Oh, thank ya Hahn.”
”We should be able to cap our experimentation to a reasonable amount of time as not to intrude on her life,” he says. “Honestly, I would be happier if it were just me, but this isn’t all bad. I was going to start today with some basic diagnostics, but since you two are here, you can do that boring grunt work for me. Get to it.”
”No sweat boss!”
”Oh, and my condolences to you two,” Johann says as he starts walking away to set up his office, “having to work for me, and all.”
*****
Oh, you didn’t think that was the **** did you? Please, no, that was weak. This right here, this will blow minds. At Yohmei Corporation’s main headquarters on Neudaiz is where we’re going to call for a mop. In a lavish office, built with lacquered wood, and lined with finely woven cloth, an aged human sits at the desk in the middle of the room. He’s dressed appropriately for his job, wearing pressed slacks and a buttoned shirt underneath a purple overcoat, though his hair is a bushy mess that extends down to his waist.
At the moment, he’s thumbing through a binder of his company’s quarterly earnings with a grin on his face much too wide for the work he’s doing. Even odder, he looks annoyed when he’s interrupted by the intercom on his desk. ”Sir, there’s a woman here to see you. She insists that it’s urgent. Shall I call security-“
”Send her in,” he says.
”Ah…certainly, sir.” After a minute, the doors to his office open and Gwendolyn strides in with a look on her face that could raise the hairs off the dead.
The CEO barely looks up from his binder and simply says, “your face will freeze that way.” After a few moments of silence, he sighs and looks up, “I’m sure you didn’t come all this way just to see if you could glare a hole in me.”
”No. I’ve come to ask a question of you, boy,” she says, seating herself in the plush chair in front of the desk.
”Oh really? I wonder, what knowledge does a mere business man like myself have to offer to the Profound Darkness…” he says, returning his eyes to his quarterly reports.
~~~~~~
Nah, I’m just screwing with you. There’s a little more to go. Gwen holds her stare, but allows herself to recline into her chair. She asks, “what’s your endgame in all of this?”
”Is that all you came to ask? Darkness, you should know by now. I’m in this for the lulz,” the CEO says.
”I don’t believe that for one minute, but seeing as this little mortal shell is lacking in omniscience…”
”Oh, don’t say it like that,” the CEO says with a toothy grin, “being mortal has been fun, hasn’t it?”
Gwen’s eyes drift to the side, and only return once she’s ready to sidestep the question, asking instead, “even if you are in all of this ‘for the lulz,’ you should understand what Howzer is planning. You really don’t intend to do anything?”
The CEO sets his binder down and leans back in his chair. Looking inside the binder, there’s a skin mag opened up to a page with a beast woman hidden inside. “I am just history’s witness now. If the world is to be destroyed, then let it be destroyed,” he says.
”Tch, if only you’d been this apathetic back at ‘that’ time,” Gwen says with a sneer.
”Heh, well, sorry. What can I say? I was young. I gave a damn.” Finishing that thought, he shuts his eyes for a moment, and then spins in his chair. Hopping on a new train of thought, he says, “but this is funny. You actually care. I wonder why that is.”
”Ugh, I don’t know why I came here. Talking to you is perpetually frustrating,” Gwen says as she shoots up out of her seat and makes for the door.
”I don’t suppose it could be that you’ve made some attachments to this world? Perhaps…you’ve come to like a certain cocky, douchehat son of mine?” the CEO says with a wry smirk.
Gwen is at the door when the CEO asks that question, so she pauses and places her palm against the heavy wood. “Don’t be ridiculous,” she says, whispering into the door, “there’s no fate for me but to hate. Hate does not love, boy.”
”Oo, nice lyrics, going to start an emo band?” the CEO asks as he picks his binder back up.
”Tch…one more question. If you are merely history’s witness, and history would have you die…what would you do?” she asks.
”I said it already, didn’t I Darkness?” He spins his chair around again and this time, ends up facing away from the door. “I’m in this for the lulz.”
~~~~~~~
Man, what a boring chapter.
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Originally Posted by Xaeris
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