“Alright we got one ‘Cheese’ for the Dagster, ‘Mushroom and Garlic Deluxe’ for Bat-boy, Mary wanted ‘Pineapple and Ham’...” Doodle rambled with a notepad in his hands and a phone in the crook of his neck as he came back towards the kitchen, “What’ll it be gals?” he asked, not looking up at them as he spoke.
“Two meat-lovers, one with black olives,” Shida returned while playing around with the knife with reckless looking but in reality skilled and dexterous movements between her fingers. “Isn’t pineapple and ham called a Hawaiian?”
“Yep! But to get it from this place you gotta make it a custom order. Asked for Hawaiian and they had the audacity to say ‘Do you mean you’d like to add pineapple and ham?’ugh…” he replied before adjusting his phone, “No offense miss, I know you’re just doing your job. Yeah we'll be getting two meat lovers on top of that, one with added olives. Yep. Cool. Drinks? Uhhhh…” he mumbled as he put a pen to the notebook, but not writing anything, “What do you got?” he asked before dropping the pen and notebook causing them to disintegrate into sparkles, “Cool… we’ll have two of the second one. Great. Awesome. Thank you.” he ended the call before attempting to do something else on Dagon’s phone. As if he was trying to send a text, but his thumbs just hovered over the screen.
A flicker of frustration crossed his face before he turned back around to return the phone.
“They’ll be here in thirty minutes or less! Otherwise it’s free!” he announced for all to hear as he walked.
“What a concept…” Shida mumbled while she stretched for a second and then looked around in contemplation. For now, she still didn’t have much of an idea what they were going to do next. Apparently this whole thing had been turned into a waiting game. No matter what Ms. Claus had tried to tell her, so far it seemed that everyone was just fine without the Christmas spirit, so getting rid of it on a large scale probably wouldn’t be too bad. Of course it stank mightily that that would mean people like Doodle would suddenly…well, cease…but what was she supposed to do about that.
Then again, there was a lot else to consider. Like what had been before Christmas came around. What was the point of keeping elves away from pure magic? Or, in fact, what exactly it meant that he was “still an elf”. She didn’t exactly want to think about it too much, and she certainly wouldn’t bring it up to not give anyone any false hopes should she be wrong, but she felt like there was a lot more to all of this than anyone knew, especially if the motto appeared to be ‘Just don’t question the magic’. Horrific, enslaving, family tearing and people kidnapping, monster-making magic. Of course it wouldn’t want to be questioned. If you thought about it for two seconds you wouldn’t be able to sleep at night if you were forced to support it…
“So, what now?” she asked aloud, not wishing to dwell on the idea. “Just wait until Bell shows up and shoot his ugly mug? That feels a bit too passive for my tastes.”
“We can go looking… Though I’m not sure where to start… Perhaps we can bait him out to us? Maybe after we eat we could do as you suggested and help out with the parade with Dagon and Mary? If nothing happens, maybe we can walk around town? See if there’s any fun to be had while we wait for violence against us?” Chak suggested.
It’s then a still haggard but spirited Dagon is assisted out of his room by Mary and Zithra.
“Right… parade… almost feels pointless if it weren't so important.” Dagon chuckled as he was guided into a chair. Letting out a gallon of air from his lungs he leaned his head back, “I should start making calls.” he concluded before pulling out his returned phone.
“Y-yeah… me too. I’ll make sure that all the streets we’ll be using are cleared to use. And I should also schedule them to be plowed the morning of. Don’t want floats getting stuck or caught on snow.” Mary added.
“Plowing might not be enough, see if you can’t track down volunteers to help clear sidewalks too.” Dagon pointed out.
“Good call.” Mary replied as she dug through her list of contacts, “Maybe I can contact the local high school and see if any of their Seniors need that volunteer work for college credit.”
“Perfect, I’ll pass along that that’s being handled. I’m sure my assistant will appreciate it.” the man said before bringing up his phone to his ear, “Hey… I- Yea- I know- Hey-hey-ey I hear ya. Take today off, I mean it. No seriously. I had some personal matters drag me away and Mary’s back on board. I- I know- hey- look, Mary’s handling the plowing and clearing of the snow for the whole thing. I understand where you’re coming from. But I promise everything’s back on track. Take the day off, you’ve earned it. Just forward me what’s on today’s to-do alright? Sorry we left you hanging, you did amazing. Right. Absolutely. Uhm… well we’ll talk about it later. Got it. Thanks.” hanging up, Dagon directed his phone to his emails, shoulders slouching a bit.
“What’s up?” Zithra mumbled.
“Uhhhmmm we have several shipments of decorations for the streets that need to be set up. And no one is available to drive the storage truck to go pick ‘em up.” Rubbing his brow Dagon sighed deeply, “We have a big protest going on near the warehouses… not much to do about that… but the mayor wants to meet with me about it. He’s probably going to ‘suggest’ we go back to the original theming plan. Fun.”
“Make sure it’s actually the mayor when you meet him,” Shida warned at first, before thinking for a moment about what she was saying there and how exactly Dagon would even get the mayor of the town to give him a blood sample, all things considered. “Actually, maybe I should just come with you…Just to be safe.”
However then she thought about how it would look if Dagon rocked up with an entire troop of people just to meet with the mayor. She really didn’t want to split up again, but could they really take everyone along? Likely not.
“Actually-actually…I’m out of ideas,” she mumbled and slumped her face onto the table, folding her hands on top of her head. “I can handle monsters and demons, but these darned mimics are making life really hard for us.”
“I can drive a truck…” Zithra uttered as he lifted his hand, also not having any ideas about the mayor-situation.
“Just take me.” Doodle said from behind Shida, “I can hang around Dagon and visually screen the Mayor, you guys can still be close by in case the peanut brittle hits the fan.”
“I can assist with the decorations and truck with Zithra.” Mary offered, “We’d be in a large vehicle most of the time and I can send everyone periodic texts every five or so minutes to let you all know we’re doing alright. We can all meet back up at the warehouses afterwards.”
Shida nodded.
“Just keep in mind that your teenage dream might still be after you,” she said unabashedly to the woman after briefly lifting her head up from the table again. “Apparently he can go through walls now, so don’t lock the car. Floor it.”
Then she pushed herself up into a proper sitting position again and began to tap on the table’s plate with her nails.
“Well I guess Doodle can pass as a mascot or something,” she then mumbled. “And I’ll come along and wait outside to watch over the whole thing. If the mayor gives you lip you can tell him you have Santa on speed-dial.”
“Still not over that part…” Dagon chuckled as he started to make another call to confirm the meeting.
-
The pizza -to Doodle’s profound disappointment- arrived at minute 28.
“Excuse me, I’m the one paying for it…” Dagon mused as Zithra placed down the stack of cardboard boxes.
Chak quickly rocked herself up into a standing position from the couch at the mix of delicious aromas.
“Oh! Is it pizza time?” she cheered in excitement as she hurried over.
“You didn’t…” Doodle muttered almost in accusation.
“What?” Chak replied in genuine confusion.
Narrowing his eyes, Doodle made an ‘I’m watching you’ motion with his hand.
“Okay…” the princess brushed off, too excited to try genuine pizza.
“We have soda too.” Zithra pointed out as Mary carried the two large plastic bottles to set down on the table once the boxes were separated out.
“Hate to rush, but the Mayor wants to see me sooner rather than later so… eat up and throw your leftovers in the fridge.” Dagon mentioned as he flipped his personal box open.
To make room for everyone else Chak accepted her box and practically skittered back to the couch resting it in her lap. Her legs kicked in childish sways as she opened it.
Upon directly seeing and smelling the genuine article, her Terran-Cali crisis almost rose back up out of sheer jealousy.
Pulling one of the four slices up she wasted no time taking a big bite. After the second chew her eyes rolled up and sealed shut. A huge smile spread across her face as she tasted the normally forbidden bread item. Feeling a surge of emotion her body rocked back and forward, a muffled laugh escaped her as she did so. Her boots kicked at the foot of the couch again as she corrected her posture.
“This is SO much better! By the fudging stars above!” she uttered before taking a second bite.
“I think she likes it…” Doodle commented before leaning his head on his hand while sitting at the table.
“Okay, it may just be my usually very limited palette,” Shida commented while she took her own bite, enjoying the many unknown flavors quite a bit, but nowhere near to the point of ecstasy that Chak was so clearly displaying, “But so far I am feeling like Chak is enjoying all this way more than I am. Which is weird, because I usually eat meat and only meat, so you’d assume this would be more of an experience for me. But so far, after tasting something sweet for the first time, the excitement has kind of died down.”
After she said it, she took another bite, and everyone was quickly treated to her coughing and retching it up again, having to fully bend over to get the mess of dough and cheese unstuck from her throat.
“Also…” she said, coughing a few more times after she had finally cleared her airways again, “I keep forgetting I need to freakin’ chew with this horrible throat.”
Doodle’s face hardened in sheer willpower to not say anything, but he couldn’t fight it, to him the consequences soon became worth the golden opportunity.
“Aw come on boss, your throat is one of your best features! Chewing is overrated anyway! I’ll see myself out.” he declared before shuffling off his seat to escape potential arm range.
“Yeah this gag reflex thing is… unpleasant…” Zithra said as he was noticeably eating rather slowly despite Dagon’s urge to be quick.
After another minute Chak came back up with an empty box, setting it on the counter.
“Ready when you all are!” she notified as she bounced in place on her toes, her mood higher than the clouds.
“It’s not the gag reflex, it’s just how narrow everything is. Myiat throats are so much wider,” Shida explained and shoved her own pizza aside after having eaten approximately a little less than half of it. Standing up she stretched for a moment, indicating that she too was ready to go. Then, she briefly glanced at Doodle, who was seemingly hiding away behind the backrest of a chair. Letting out a sigh, she very dryly added, “And yes, my boyfriend likes that, too. You happy now?”
“Lucky jerk…” Doodle grumbled with his eyes narrowing to imagine the no-context visage of his now sworn enemy.
Shida could’ve sworn that she saw Dagon’s and Mary’s gazes flinch away in embarrassment momentarily, however they quickly caught themselves again.
“On that note…” Dagon said as he put down his half-eaten third slice, with a prepping breath he pushed himself up from the table. Almost unable to stand without falling over. “Fuck… it’s like the day after a brutal session at the gym.” He chuckled as he steadied himself.
“So we're gonna carpool a bit or should one party get a pickup service?” Zithra pointed out, “Not sure if Shida knows how to drive a car on icy roads, but the two main drivers are leaving together.”
“Right. You take the SUV with Mary. I’ll get us a lift.” Dagon grunted as he laboriously removed his phone again.
“He’s tall isn’t he?” Doodle continued to grumble.
“Yes,” Shida replied unabashedly.
“I can take him…”
-
Adjusting herself while in this new vehicle’s seating, Chak breathed shallowly from the sharp pungent smell of what she guessed was smoke, although the driver didn’t seem to have a source for it.
Pointing up from the steering wheel at a local art gallery just down the street from the town hall the driver cleared her throat.
“First stop?” she asked.
“Oh…yes.” the Princess nodded, using all of her willpower to not cover her nose.
Coming to a lazy stop across the street the locks of the vehicle doors disengaged.
“Thank you very much! Let’s go, Shida. Good luck Dagon.” Chak spoke rather quickly as she hurried out of her door and into the crisp fresh air.
“Goodbye to you too!” Doodle waved, “Seriously, what am I? Chopped liver?”
“Yes, yes, see you soon Doodle.” Chak farewelled feeling a bit lightheaded.
Getting out of the car, Shida briefly put her hand onto the roof.
“Alright, don’t get yourselves ambushed in there and call when anything comes up. We may not be able to pull the Santa card, but I can still rip that Mayor’s world a-freakin’-sunder if he gives you lip about the holiday thing,” she informed Dagon briefly before turning to Doodle. “And if any of your extended family show up, just zap yourself to me so I can tell ‘em to buzz off.”
“Dang… politics are wild these days…” the driver chuckled a bit nervously.
“Nah, it’s just parade business. Stress levels are high.” Dagon laughed back as he adjusted his favorite casual suit and nodded at Shida understandingly.
“Yooooou got it, boss. You can count on me!” Doodle thumbed up, though his eyes didn’t share the enthusiasm his voice did.
Shida nodded and slapped the roof twice before slamming the door shut, taking a step back to allow the car to drive the last few meters to its final destination.
“Hope they’re going to be alright…” Chak said as she stood next to her friend.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
The car eventually pulled over once more, and with some struggle Dagon managed to step out and stagger up the steps to the town hall’s entrance. Doodle followed at his side, pulling off his hat he pulled out a long ‘candy-cane’-cane and held it up to the man who after a moment of hesitation accepted it. Fitting his hat back on Doodle ran up to the entrance and jumped to press the button for the automated handicap doors to open.
After a few minutes passed, a buzz came to Chak and Shida’s phones in the group chat.
“Mayer’s legit.” Dagon notified.
“Oh good…” Chak sighed in relief as she messaged a ‘thumbs up’ back.
“Welp, now to stand guard and…I don’t know…shoot pigeons?” Shida suggested and looked around, seeing very little in terms of other activities they could have while also remaining nearby. Some of the dirty looking birds were sifting through the snow on the sidewalks, probably looking for any scrums of food they could find in these barren times on the inhospitable planet.
“Rude…” Chak giggled as she joined in with the searching, “I’m guessing you’re not one for viewing art? Maybe we could walk around the block to see if anything catches our eye? Perhaps we can find an antique shop or a clothing store to pass the time in?” she shrugged as she trotted forward a bit, peering down a creepy narrow empty alleyway, “Oh! Maybe there’s an ice cream shop nearby! I keep seeing those peppered everywhere when we drive through town.”
Turning back around he bounded on her toes with her arms behind her back.
“Are you calling me uncultured?” Shida asked Chak with a playful skeptical look at the princess, before looking forwards again, burying her hands in her pockets. “And every shop around here is antique. Also we literally just ate, do you really want more already?”
“Well no I’m not really, but this is the only chance I’ll have to enjoy Terran foods. When would something this crazy happen to us again?” Chak shrugged, “And I’d never imply you’re uncultured. Out loud.” she snickered as she apologetically took hold of her friend’s arm, “Let’s walk around. I’ve been to my fair share of art galleries.”
Shida glanced down at her.
“You know, just because I promised some things that should be unspoken in public, I’m not actually trying to replace your girl,” she said and briefly jostled her arm a bit to readjust the way Chak held onto it. “No need to get clingy with me, I’m not going anywhere. I’ll drag your butt out of here if I have to, you know that.”
“I know…” Chak said as she awkwardly loosened her grip further, “I’m sorry if I gave you the wrong impression. I don’t see you as a replacement… or think that just because…” letting go completely Chak rubbed her face, “Sorry... I swear that’s not what my intentions are. You’re just the only person in this cursed town that I feel at ease with and the way my head is processing these emotions is so… what did I say before? More… impactful than I’m used to. I’ll try to not be so clingy from now on.”
Shida sighed slightly.
“You don’t have to take every offhand comment I make to heart like that…” she mumbled and looked away with a bit of a guilty pout. Then she quickly shook it off and tried to think of something to talk about. “It’s strange though. Just like with the food, I would’ve honestly expected that that stuff would hit me a lot harder than you, because…I mean yeah myiat and humans look a lot alike, but looking at it from a social perspective, you Cali are waaaaaaay closer to humans from a societal standpoint. You know? Living stacked on top of each other. Close family structures with huge groups forming. Constant need to have at least somebody around you. That’s all stuff that your people have in common. You think maybe those similarities make it somehow more intense? I mean, I can’t imagine why, I would figure it being completely new would hit a lot harder, but something has to be up, doesn’t it?”
For a moment, she missed her tail a bit, since it would usually help her in trying to make her comments seem more aloof by gently swaying it around. Like this, she would have to try to convey that much with just her gait and voice.
“Well… maybe because it’s so new that you don't have much to reference? Or being ‘Santa’ has its own influence on your mind that we haven’t cracked down on yet? Or… well… It's not like I grew up making a lot of friends. Or… any really. If you’re not counting family. Even then, there’s a reason I was alone with Chucknuq when things went down. Maybe I’m just a little weird?” Chak shrugged with a bashful smile, “I’m not the best case study for societal comparisons. It’s true that Cali and Terrans share quite a bit in common in a lot of ways like you said, but as a royal I was raised on a different standard of expectations for my life. So maybe if we had another Cali here to compare me to we might have a more clear answer.” Chak rambled, trying to help along with the change of direction but what Shida initially said stuck with her, “Shida… When I speak, I speak what I mean to say. Or at least try to. And growing up in the setting I did I always had to take in every word spoken to me because when something was said there was always intent and purpose for it. So don’t feel guilty if I take something you say too seriously, I’ll catch on. Honestly by this point I should have learned to expect it, but I genuinely value everything you say. So… uhm… your people don’t commonly have close family structures? Is that a base commonality of your species or a pattern of Miyat cultures?”
Shida exhaled slowly. She felt like they had this conversation before at some point.
“We myiat are solitary by nature and were more form-fitted into a society than actual desiring one. It comes with intelligence and expansion. At some point there’s not enough room to leave each other alone anymore, and also surviving in a group is a lot easier if you can pull it off. But we tolerate each other a lot more than we desire being close to each other at most times. There are exceptions with good friends and lovers of course, but even then we need our space whenever we can get it,” she explained while looking around at the different stores and vendors that lined the snowy streets. “And Dunnima is also ruled by a corporatocracy. So, in general, familial bonds are about as strong as your bank account is full. If you have more than enough to pay for it, you keep people around. If money’s slim, you start to use a lot more of it on yourself. If you have your own farm, your kids can stay around for a bit while they try to find their own place and probably work for you for a while. If you’re a poor slob living in the city, you get them out and off your charity as soon as you legally can. And if you have even less than that…there’s a reason our brat houses are so full even if our death-rates aren’t all that high.”
Chak nodded in recognition.
“Oh, that’s right. You mentioned a lot of this.” the Princess said as she looked down at the ground as they walked, her eyes narrowing, “Including that you were raised in one of those ‘brat houses’, correct? You must be so tired of me complaining about my royal upbringing, huh? You… grew up on the streets before being accepted into an academy, and… Stars… I'm sorry I know we had this talk before. Uhm… did you know that the Terrans became a corporatocracy as well? However… that really didn’t fare well for them. It eventually cost them their planet. I learned that from my studies before meeting… uhm…”
For a moment Chak stopped in place pressing a hand against her head.
“Yeah uhm… she… uhm…” she hummed as she felt like a knot twisted in her memory. Stomping her boot in a burst of anger she attempted to push past it. She had only spoken her name earlier that morning, why was it just escaping her? Her own fiance!
“I’ve never been to an academy, Chak. You might be thinking of Simone,” Shida commented, having been a bit too distracted by a few strangers passing too close to fully notice Chak’s outburst.
“Right! You’re right, sorry. Simone went to an academy. Where was I?” Chak practically gasped as the mind-knot unfurled. Feeling her upper lip feel warm all of a sudden the Princess reached up to feel a dampness.
“Oh… these Terran noses don’t do well in the cold… Cali don’t do too well in the cold, we do better with the heat though…” Chak chuckled as she decided to wipe her pink sleeve across her face as it started dripping, “Like that tub when-” she muttered as vague flashes of her memories with her redhead buzz through her mind, the moment she confessed her feelings. No… that was the second time she did so… right? More buzzing memories followed up of her life with the redhead, with Simone. Simone. Simone’s her name. She smells nice. Wait no… that was Shida… or did Simone smell nice too?
Stepping forward, Chak was too distracted to notice the smear of red across her sleeve.
Simone was nice. She found her in that bar. Chak was on her back as they ran by it.
“No… that was Shida…” she corrected out loud to herself.
“Whoa, Chak, you’re bleeding!” Shida exclaimed and immediately turned towards the princess, taking her by the shoulders to make her face her, before reaching to her face and holding her strange, terran nose. “You gotta hold it shut like this to quell the flow,” she explained while trying to get Chak to take over for her by coaxing her hand up. “And don’t lead back, or you’ll swallow it.”
The buzzing memories started to bend harshly inward on themselves, gradually making less and less sense.
Laying on top of her. Kissing her. She saved Chak’s life so many times.
The memories were all there, but it was like fluid layers that had been disturbed and multiple contexts became interchangeable. But they weren’t. They were special. Worth more than anything.
With focused effort she mentally dug around to grasp onto a memory of her that remained untouched, the panic rising with every turn becoming more and more fruitless. Like a thousand paintings graffitied over with a different one.
Tears dropped out as the realization hit her. There was no defined face to the name ‘Simone’, just concepts and scraps of scribbled recollections.
Forgetting where she was in this terror she pushed at the person hovering close to her.
“Don’t!” she screamed, “Don’t take her from me! Please!” she pleaded out to whatever malicious force was affecting her mind in this way.
The world became a blur. Feeling something grabbing at her she struggled not wanting her body to be retained as the control of a part of her mind was being overruled.
She had to find her, see her face. She’ll remember then. She’ll-
Like waking from sleep by dreaming that she was falling, the world came crashing back to her in an instant. Literally.
She saw her hands outstretched, descending down to the ground. What must have been nearly twenty feet in the air went by so quickly before she collided into plastic bags and stench, rolling over and knocking down metal cans. Unsure of what was going on as she sprawled out of the heap, she pulled out her pulse pistol. Her feet getting caught up in trash she nearly tripped head first into a brick wall.
“Shida?...” she murmured, as the sight of an known alleyway revealed itself to her recognition. Looking down she’s terrified to see red blood splotches everywhere on her new pink sweater. Were they attacked? Was she running? From what?
Hearing the sound of people making cries of surprise and the light patting of rushing shoes coming towards one end of the alleyway she instinctively turned and started bolting the opposite direction.
Fumbling through her pocket she yanked out her phone, now sporting a new cracked screen, and hurried to make a call.
“Be okay… be okay… be okay…” she uttered in shuttering breaths as she desperately hit the green indicator to call Shida. She’d know what to do. Where to go. What to do.
“Chak? Chak are you alright? What’s going on with you? Why did you fly off like that?” the feline’s worried voice replied quickly after not even a single sound of the connection being built. “Listen, if I was coming off that strongly, you should’ve said something. You know I would never even dream of trying to replace Simone - for so many reasons. So, please, come back and let’s talk about this, alright? I promise to be serious about it. No flirting, so coy comments, no nothing. I get it if that bothered you, and I’m sorry, but we should really stick together here. You know we have to be careful about splitting up with everything that’s going on, and if one of us gets trapped in that mirror place again, this time the other might not be able to follow.”
Pulling around a corner, Chak hopped down into a door to a building that was elevated under street level, completely disregarding the stairs.
“What are you talking about?” Chak whispered in heavy breaths that she attempted to quell, “What’s going on? Replace who? You don’t bother- W-what? Listen, I think I’m being chased. I have my weapon with me. And I’m hiding. I-I don’t know how to prove this is actually me and trusting that this is really you… but I don’t- I don’t know what’s going on. I just suddenly fell in an alley. What happened? Shida-” Chak held her breath as the hairs on the back of her neck stuck up, something told her to be absolutely silent.
“Chak, you just ran off on me! What do you mean what’s going on, we’re- Oh no. Don’t tell me you’ve blipped. In this situation? Oh darn, uhm - okay listen I can’t be too far. Just stay where you are and try to tell me how to find you, alright? We’ll figure this out. When you see me, I’m going to give myself a little nick in my skin, alright? I’ll bleed a bit, and if it’s red, you’ll know it’s really me, got it?” Shida said, trying her best to sound serious while also being somewhat calming and reassuring to her friend. “Now tell me what’s around you, anything I can find you by. Anything notable that could be seen from above close to you?”
Dread filled her chest as the sounds of footsteps came to a stop nearby. Clutching her pistol so much it shook she used her other hand holding the phone to activate the ‘facetime’ feature.
Only allowing shallow breaths through her nose Chak dared not speak a single utterance as the footsteps seemed to be wandering around the area near her.
Damp from blood and melting clumped snow, Chak lifted her pistol readying herself as the steps seemed to turn in her direction.
“Chak, you need to calm down,” Shida said in between the sound of her own hasty steps and heavy breathing. “There are people around, so look before you shoot, alright? Enough people have already been shot around here, we don’t need any more. So look before you shoot! Alright? Tell me that you understand me.”
Chak nodded. Though the fact that the figure didn’t say a single word kept her fear spiking.
Slowly turning to face whoever was about to look over the ledge the Princess kept her weapon drawn.
“Alien!? Where are ya!?” a woman’s voice whispered loudly, defeating the purpose of a whisper “It’s the Sheriff, remember me? Mostly talked to the other one of y’all. The taller one, Shida.”
Chak’s shoulders relaxed a bit, but she kept her pistol aimed. Then, she saw hands lifted up in what Shida once called an offensive gesture.
“Stop!” Chak demanded.
“Can do.” the Sheriff replied, only her arms and hat viewable at this angle.
“Blood! Now!” the Cali continued
“Gonna have to get a bit closer to show ya that hun.” the Sheriff countered.
“N-no! I can see your arms. Cut your hand-” was all Chak said before Shida’s view through the phone’s camera spun and landed at just the right angle to see the Terran-Chak convulsing on the stairs as thin wires ran from her shoulders to someone else off camera.
“Excellent.” The ‘Sheriff said in a completely different demeanor before walking around to the top of the steps, carefully removing the Cali’s weapon out of her grasp.
“Taser’s a taser. But I’d cuff her now, just in case. I’ll tell the car to come around.” an unknown voice replied before briefly exposing himself to be some sort of businessman.
The ‘Sheriff’ then dragged the Cali’s body up with great strength and clicked on handcuffs to Chak’s wrists behind her back. Chak then started to make pained sounds that were quickly drowned out by a quickly approaching vehicle.
“Do you realize who you’re messing with?” a voice simultaneously came from the ground and behind the imposter in a chorus with itself, as the ‘Sheriff’ shot around to see a heavily breathing woman stand in the patch of light that shone into the alley from the open street, a weapon clutched in her hand as it raised first to the vehicle. Shots rang out, followed quickly by loud explosions of compressed air escaping as the tires were ripped away from it. As the driver lost control, they decided their last hurrah would be to try and veer the vehicle into Shida, however a few steps into the alley thwarted that plan, as the vehicle instead crashed against the sturdy brick wall. Largely unbothered by the crash ringing out in a deafening sound that made her ears ring or the debris that was flung around as the car burst apart, Shida walked towards the Sheriff and her accomplice with firm steps, her weapon raising forward. “I am not playing around anymore.”
Black or red blood, it didn’t matter to her at that moment when she pulled the trigger, the sound of the exploding cartridges only reaching her ears after large parts of her targets had already turned into a bloody mist, as the hypersonic rounds tore through them like they weren’t even there.
Confident that nothing would survive shots like that, Shida let her gun sink and began running over towards Chak, who still appeared to be stunned as she lay on the ground, gently writhing in pain.
Gritting her teeth, the Princess tried to push herself over to her side, managing to find the fetal position. Thankfully not on the side where the wired barbs of the taser stuck out of her shoulder. Her nerves felt like a burnt out lightbulb and there was an incessant ringing in her head.
“Sh-idaa…?” she softly cried out in hope that the blearing world around her wasn’t just twisting into another again.
“Yeah, I know it sucks,” Shida assured her while gently moving to remove the barbs from her friend’s body. “Just be glad you have this human body. A Cali would be fried by these things.”
It would’ve also made removing these a lot harder had they been embedded in chitin instead of mushy skin.
“Seriously…that blip came at the worst possible time,” Shida mumbled while helping Chak with getting into a stable position. Then she looked at her a bit more seriously. “That…was a blip, right? You’re not slipping back into the whole Rudolph thing now, are you? I really hoped we had gotten that somewhat under control…”
“I… don’t think it was a blip… I don’t remember anything new… and I don’t feel Rudolph-y…” Chak replied wanting to touch her face, but her hands refused to separate, “I feel like I lost something… We were waiting outside the art gallery. I got too clingy?... something like that? Right? Then I was suddenly falling… right into garbage…”
“Something like that,” Shida confirmed, supporting Chak against herself for a moment. “We went to walk around and you suddenly got really upset when you mixed up Simone and me in a memory. Then you suddenly yelled something about not taking something away from you. Then you shoved me and just flew off…Next thing I know you’re calling me in a panic.”
“Oh… sorry for shoving you. I don’t remember doing that.” Chak mumbled apologetically before confusion crossed her face, “Simone? Who’s…? Is that someone we meet in town? Sorry, my head hurts.” she asked as she shook her head, but that just made the pain worsen.
Shida’s expression darkened into a mixture of confusion and sheer disbelief as she looked down at the princess.
“Simone, you know? Redheaded beefcake? Cracks bad jokes all the time? The love of your life? Your fiance? You have two children, for goodness’ sake!” she berated her friend and briefly took a closer look at the wound left by the barbs, making sure that the fluid flowing out of Chak was actually red. “You’re sure you’re not feeling Rudolphy…?”
“No… I’m feeling myself. I’m your friend. I’m Chak. Your friend. You need me, remember? I’m always going to be here for you.” Chak replied in a manner that indicated that she was trying to remind Shida of that fact before shaking her head again, “Children… right… Essjay and Jamie. But… Simone… there’s no face to that name that I can remember.”
“Not a face- Chak what are you talking about, she is the mother of your children. You can’t possibly have forgotten her! What, do you think it was you who pulled a Watath out of a fight with a Terran?” Shida replied, becoming slightly more irritated in addition to her worry at this point. This couldn’t be real. Another time her friend was slipping, but in a completely different direction this time? Just what was the magic’s deal with this? Forgetting Simone wasn’t stopping them, it wasn’t inconveniencing them, and it certainly wouldn’t motivate her to ‘save Christmas’. “She went through absolute fire for you. First time we met she got skewered by a crab so we could get out, don’t tell me you don’t remember, I know you do!”
“I believe you! I-I just I don’t- there’s nothing! I-” Chak attempted to reply, her eyes sealed shut trying to recall this person, there had to be something in her mind that could clue her in.
“Hey boss.” Doodle spoke out of nowhere, suddenly standing a bit away as he inspected the carnage. His hands are in his pockets, facing away from the two,, “Got a picture of that lady in question? Or an object of strong connection to her?”
Shida shook her head. She didn’t really have anything. She didn’t usually take a lot of pictures with her phone. Most of their worldly belongings had burned in the escape pod. All they had was what they had on their body, which was mostly junk that didn’t work-
“Chak, put on your lens,” Shida ordered, turning towards her with a serious gaze.