On the white surface sits a wide white pan which makes a soft hissing sound, and on that pan are a batch of perfectly baked cupcakes snugged in pink wrappers–with white star decals– and topped immaculately with frosting in precision of roses of various colors being pink, green, yellow, and blue. All of the cupcakes are perfectly spaced from one another with there being plenty to go around, for even in this turbulent of times there was space for inner peace.
A fair-skinned hand with pink nails curls its finger around one of the cupcakes with blue frosting, and pulls it off the plate, isolating it from the rest, up above to be devoured as the rest remain on the surface.
That blue-frosted cupcake glides up in the gentle grip of the hand away from the surface, bringing it towards the partly opened mouth of a woman eager to restore her mind, and by bringing it to her mouth and chomping on a corner of the cupcake’s frosting, at least a remnant of happiness strikes her from the heavens.
Pulling the cupcake from her face, Kokei rocks back and forth on one of the four white chairs surrounding the dining table in the kitchen, the chair able to tilt back and forth with the perfect smoothness yet speed to bring out a satisfying rock, for any small detail can brighten her day.
In front of her on the table is the circular tray filled with the fresh batch, and neighboring it are two mugs sculpted to resemble cartoon panda heads with wide, exaggerated eyes to amplify a sense of adorableness. Both of the mugs are filled with a light brown liquid which emits a gentle mist, containing a warm beverage.
Kokei brings her free hand towards the mug closest to her, just in front of her while the other is on the other side of the table, and that mug projects a white holographic handle which she wraps her hand around to bring it to her mouth and take a sip.
Afterwards she places the mug back on the table, and continues to rock back and forth aimlessly while taking minor bites from her snack, alone in the open dining room with the wide windows behind her to display the bright sunny day–golden cities on distant clouds and intricate gold treehouses right in front in rows of the neighborhood.
Such a grand, beautiful, vast world, and she experiences it all exclusively from the window of the bunker she works in, not having left the house all day. While the wideness of the screen nearly provides the illusion of her being out in nature, the lack of wind brushing her hair exposes the lie.
While there may be relief in the sweets she can put in her mouth, her eyes are still only partly open, and her mouth when closed to swallow her food is curved in a slight frown. But it was the best she could do in the chaos around her, for in a situation where she could not determine her survival all she could do was try to keep her soul afloat.
The silence of her solitude splits from the familiar whoosh of an elevator, to which her head perks up with flashing eyes, facing to the center of the floor.
Ahead of Kokei from the central hub of the four-room floor, an elevator pad descends from the upper level, carrying the one other being in the house, dressed in her formal blazer and neatly combed amber hair.
Excited from a presence, a smile lights up on Kokei’s face and she places the cupcake which she had been eating from back on the tray closest to her to keep track so she could use her free hand to wave while calling, “Dana!”
As the elevator pad reaches the middle floor and integrates into the surface, concluding its trip, Dana perks her head up and glances at Kokei. Her dim lime green eyes remain partly open in fatigue, and she weakly waves her hand with a mild, “Hey,” before approaching the dining hall.
Both of the inhabitants in the same room at last, Dana exhaustedly glances at the kitchen next to the dining room with the movements of a sleepy goblin. She sighs softly and inquires with little energy in her voice, “Did Medit buy any Royx? God I could really go for a quad-inject, honestly I don’t care if it tastes like ‘that’ tap water.”
To answer the call for action, Kokei waves her hand again and enthusiastically announces, “Actually, I made some moche for you! Extra celights to wake up the brain, and I made sure it tastes like something you want in your body! And I made too many cupcakes for myself so it’d be great if you could take some from my hand!”
Hearing the distant echoes, Dana faces Kokei, quietly murmuring “Huh?” Silently her sights settle on the cupcakes and drink, and she then intuitively approaches them while thanking groggily, “You’re the best,” without any spirit.
Kokei giggles as Dana seats herself opposite from her, and grabs the mug by the triggered handle. She then brings it to her mouth and takes a sip, and then another sip, and then chugs it, and proceeds to keep chugging the whole mug as she tilts it and her neck higher and higher, to which Kokei’s giggles get softer and more apprehensive.
After one last chug Dana places the mug back on the table, to which Kokei immediately glances through its aperture.
Visible from the other side of the table, the mug has been completely drained already, with nothing more than a few residual drops left from the container which was only a few seconds ago full.
Observing the mug, Kokei nervously giggles and remarks, “Heh, maybe I should’ve made more if I knew you were this thirsty.”
Instead, Dana places one elbow on the table, causing it to momentarily spring down by about an inch before bouncing back up, and with her elbow she supports her cheek as she places her head down, her amber hair gradually becoming messier as her bangs nearly cover her eyes.
In a lethargic voice she declines, “No, it’s fine, that was more than enough.”
Noticing Dana’s lassitude, Kokei instinctively grabs one of the cupcakes with yellow frosting off the table and hands it to her. With a bright, innocent smile akin to a dog returning a bone in hopes to play again, Kokei offers gleefully: “Here, take some!”
Staring at the cupcake held right in front of her, Dana instead waves her other hand and politely explains, “I’ll take some, don’t worry.”
A frown carves into Kokei’s face after the sudden rejection, and her hand reclines so she can place the cupcake back on the tray. She lowers her head with disappointment, keeping it hung low for a few moments of introspection, allowing silence back into the house.
A few more seconds pass of utter emptiness until Kokei raises her head back up and excitedly asks, “So, how was work today? I mean my day was okay, just had some meetings where we discussed some projects nearing their deadlines, another day of my coworkers guilt tripping me for not coming to the office but that’s how it spins, you know sometimes I really wish I had teleportation powers, or at least understood how to use the network, I mean like at least for a few hours just to hang out with them, you know?”
After hearing back her own words after speaking, she shakes her head and stops rocking to recalibrate nervously, “Ahah never mind, I don’t even know what I’m saying, so anyways yesh how was your day today?”
A heavy sigh emits from Dana’s tilted mouth as her eyes lean to the window, away from the claustrophobic enclosure, out to the boundless freedom where adventure blossoms, out in the golden cities full of life and chaos.
She then simply answers, “It was busy, there were a lot of meetings, like most days.”
Left with little more than scraps to expand upon, Kokei sways from side to side, attempting to extend the bleeding life of the conversation. Her eyes leap around the room as she seeks for ideas, and that’s when her eyes flash with a smile.
She focuses back on Dana and, with a sly and playful tone, she prods harmlessly, “Anything you can tell me about the meetings? Any insider scoops you have for me as the woman in charge? Or is it all top secret, confidential, you could tell me but you’d then have to kill me?”
Pursued further despite the clear lack of spirit, Dana sighs once again. Without making an effort to liven up, she answers again still with a deadpan voice: “Well, I was told today that we’ve officialized a joint project with Johnathon Smith, all without me knowing….”
Despite the lack of enthusiasm delivered in the news, Kokei springs up with a gleaming smile, her pink irises shimmering eagerly as she leans forward to Dana with anticipation.
Filled with astonishment, Kokei follows, “Wait, THE Johnathon Smith? Like, ‘Magazeye’ Johnathon Smith?? Woah, wait that’s so cool, I mean woah that’s like one of the biggest names out there, wow I mean dang that’s so cool like I can’t even afford to put them in my portfolio but you out here shaking their hands, that’s incredible!”
While on one side of the table Kokei is exhilarated at the news, on the other side Dana remains unentertained, drained, with a visible frown on her voice.
In a gentle voice nearly a murmur, she then reflects: “I should’ve known before it happened…if I did then I could’ve tried to do something about it. It’s too late though, if I tried to shut it down everyone would know and we’d be on fire.”
Initially taking the downer’s details as nothing more than a lighthearted joke, Kokei giggles and rocks back and forth in her chair, joking back innocently, “Yeah, because who wouldn’t want to group up with them? I mean only a goddess with the superpower you have could even say something like that so naturally, I mean I use their site everyday, I use it for work, for friends, and here you are literally making stuff with them. I would literally do anything to be you right now, I mean that’s so amazing!”
Readjusting her face lower to target her sights on the table in front of her, Dana sighs again and, with a completely serious, unsarcastic and unplayful voice, reveals: “This isn’t the first time there were talks of a partnership, they’ve been trying for decades actually, they once tried to talk Meditat into it but he rejected their offer. But to think now that we’ve stooped so low that we’re scrapping in these places…it’s so blatantly shameful.”
Still not succumbing to the melancholy but rather bright in her own aura of bliss, Kokei continues to shine while nonchalantly commenting, “Pfft wait really? Meditat actually rejected them? That’s so crazy, who in the right state of mind would ever turn down an offer like that, I mean I’d kill to work for them and he said no to being partners? God I mean maybe there were rumors back then, if there were I certainly don’t remember, but even if there were I would’ve probably passed it off as just more eyecoy.”
Further pressing her head into her hand with her attempts at genuinely explaining the situation bouncing off the bubble wall, Dana exhales heavily, still alone in her torment.
While an acceptable path would’ve been to simply allow the conversation to dissipate and not continue on when clearly the receiver wasn’t properly interpreting the topic, Dana instead further presses deeper into her wounds, “I still remember it so clearly…I also thought he was being crazy when he did that, and I told him that, but then he explained it to me in a way where it all made sense. What did he say…I still remember it…’they only wanted us so they could cling onto our name and look good, but all that would do is end up dragging ours down with theirs.’ He knew that even if it looked good on paper, it wasn’t for the best of the company. He knew we were better than that…that we had dignity. But here’s how I’m following up on that dignity…dragging our name even further below.”
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Slowly beginning to comprehend the true tone of whom she was hoping to enjoy laxed conversations with after a long, tiresome day, Kokei’s face gradually shifts from blissful delight to concerned intrigue.
While at first she had no intentions of any truly deep conversations, especially when in truth she was too exhausted to think deeply, a cog had clicked in her head and she was gradually beginning to soberize.
She leans forward although this time with more sincere intent, and she earnestly assures, “Well, I mean maybe he saw things one way when he was in charge, but he’s not anymore, you are. Come on, you’re the one who’s leading the greatest corporate empire of the Superverse, the hero who helped to bring peace to a never ending war, why are you so hard on yourself over one small partnership? Besides, even if it’s really bothering you, there’s so much more that you’re doing, so much better to focus on, don’t let this one thing get you down. Anyways, who cares what he said, he’s off on retirement doing joyrides with Ekitai or whatever they’ve been messing around all day while you’re actually at the throne working hard and keeping that behemoth running! You’re the CEO of the greatest company of a hundred worlds, and you earned that position, you have more dignity than what people fantasize having.”
Still leaning against her hand, Dana shakes her head side to side, sliding her hand from her cheek to her mouth and back. Her eyes remain on the table, specifically now on the tray of cupcakes between her and Kokei.
Even more precisely, Dana gazes at two cupcakes by the center of the batch, one of them with the green frosting which stands to the exact same height of a blue-frosted cupcake beside it due to their perfect consistency, an unrealistic perfection, an unachievable dream.
While watching the two cupcakes, she corrects in her lugubrious tone, “I wish at least one of those things could be true…leading a force like that…having dignity…earning my position. If only at least one of those things could be true. Maybe I happen to lead a company that has been all those things, who has made that name for themselves, but that all happened when I wasn’t in charge. Maybe once I told myself I had dignity, but even from the very first day on the job it was all just me trying to fool myself into believing I deserved it. But even from the first day as executive, I wasn’t nearly smart enough to fool myself into believing I earned anything. But no…the truth is…the reality is…I was handed a company by the man who made all the good it still is, which I drove to the ground a slow and painful death, with power that I shouldn’t ever have been given. I’m not a good CEO…I wasn’t even a good assistant…even if I had to bend my thinking I was able to understand and respect every one of his decisions…all but for that one…he bombed everything he had all in that one handoff.”
With every passing sentence further solidifying the true sorrow in Dana’s soul, Kokei’s smile became a frown, for the gloom had successfully swindled her too. Her head lowers in solemn, the heavy words crushing her shoulders, no words to speak with at first for in her mind she was locked up.
She hadn’t expected such a miserable interaction, for while she wasn’t exactly fully pleased with her day and the events of it was certainly not to this existential extent, but now that they had reached this point, she could not simply divert what had been directed to, she could not close what had already sprung right open into her face.
Even then, Kokei raises her head with a slightly optimistic smile upon a string of thoughts that she felt confident could help raise her friend’s spirits.
She leans forward over the table and attemptively praises, “Well, to be honest I didn’t even know the two were the same for the longest time, and I guess I can’t exactly say I know how he thinks…or if I’m fully on board with his ideas nowadays…but what I can say is that I think he made a great choice having you take over! I mean, you might think you don’t deserve anything, but that’s not true at all! People look up to you, Dana, and I don’t just mean the silhouette of whoever runs X-Prints, I mean they look up specifically to you, the person. People know you, they respect you, and they admire you. I admire you. I’m nothing compared to you, I’m like a spec, I mean I basically do junior level work, not a day does by that I think about how incredible it is that I get to be this personally close to you! You’re my hero, Dana, you were before I met you, and you are so much more now that I do know you. And I know Meditat knows the kind of person you are because he trusts you with a lot of things, he knows you’re a good person, he knows what you’re capable of and what miracles you can make! You’re made to be a leader, you’ve always been meant to be one from before you met him, and he somehow knew that too.”
“I’ve never told you where I’ve come from, right?” quietly asks Dana from across the table, to which Kokei’s eyes flash in intrigue, and she perks her head up.
First Kokei tilts her head in meditative thought for a few seconds to properly assess the question, although it doesn’t take very long for her to return no instances of such mention, for surprisingly the deeper Kokei recalls her interactions with Dana she’s hardly been given insight to her past beyond simply working as an assistant for X-Prints before becoming its CEO, a story that was already fascinating to her yet hardly tapped the surface of her life.
As a result Kokei returns her gaze to Dana and shakes her head, which tosses her pink back side to side, indicating “Not that I remember.”
While gazing specifically at one of the green cupcakes in the batch, Dana first treads, “Well, despite what you probably figured as someone with what I have, I wasn’t born on Earth 50, instead I’m from Earth 15, the place where you could hardly see the sky because the smog was that bad, the place that wasn’t even able to retain its position in the EGA because it couldn’t be defined as a ‘properly civilized Earth.’ My father raised me since my mom didn’t make it past me, he taught me how to build electronics since he was a weapons manufacturing contractor for gangs. It was the only way I could be raised there, which he knew wasn’t good, so he pulled some strings to get me a fake identity and send me to Earth 50 where I could be taught correctly and live a real life as he’d say. He did it, but it was a really dangerous job…which he never got out of to say goodbye. But to them I guess it was good enough so they sent me off to the ‘heart of the Superverse’ as they’d all say, and to be honest for the first few months it really was.”
Then Dana’s sights veer off slightly to the side, allowing her to watch not only the green cupcake but a yellow one beside it. She continues, “But in my first year I met a group of Exhumans who were all young children, and they told me of how the government was hunting them down for who they were, forcing them into a life of suffering just for how they were born. It reminded me of home, and I felt I had to do something, so I started to use what I learned to build tools they could use to protect themselves, and it didn’t take long for me to find that others also wanted my help. I got ahead of myself and saw a whole business operation, so much so that I dropped out of college in my first year to pursue illegal weapons manufacturing, synthesizing serums that could help them control their abilities with the goal of helping them stay out of trouble. But while some did that, it didn’t take long to learn that many others were using what I gave them to harm others, committing such horrid acts that it made me puke. I had enabled hundreds of thousands to unleash unfathomable power on uncountable innocents, and I started panicking, making suits to protect myself in case one ever came after me, and over time everything started to feel just the same as back at home.”
That is until Dana’s shift slides from the yellow cupcake, keeping focus on the green one but now also bringing into view one with blue frosting beside it. Her narration proceeds, “And that’s when reports of a being in a blue suit started to circulate, this man who’d hunt my clients and leave them badly injured. I thought my mistakes had finally caught up to me, and just as I feared he one day burst into my home. I tried to fight him thinking he was vengeance from the government for the monsters I had made, only to find that he was actually just another Exhuman like them, a rogue vigilante, and all he wanted to do was stop more innocents from getting hurt. He understood the pain they went through, but he also understood what they were doing was wrong, but most of all what I could never understand is that despite the damage I caused, he chose to give me a second life, said I could do better, and just left me unpunished, giving me the opportunity to make a life I could be proud of just like my father wanted from me.”
Past the window screen the cyan supersun glimmers brightly, flaring and beaming over the city of clouds, an inextinguishable light. Further Dana follows the story: “So over the years I tried just that, I tried to find jobs and failed all my interviews because the best I had was dropping out of a college in the first year, and at the same time his name was being picked up by everyone not just from our world but beyond. While I was struggling to get anything past minimum wage retail work which was hardly enough to even pay rent, I was seeing the exact same face of the man who gave me that second chance appearing on more and more headlines, seeing him rise up until he became a CEO of his own company, which then only exponentially grew more, working with the government on programs to design tools to harmlessly neutralize Exhumans and do what nobody ever thought to do, rehabilitate them, give them another chance like he did to me. Years went by and one day I miraculously ran into him after another tiring retail shift with minimum wage, and he took me to dinner to catch up, giving these epics of crazy supervillains and secret organizations he’s fought while all I could talk about was the old women who’d yell at me because they misread the prices. And then out of nowhere, he said the most ridiculous thing:”
And in his exact younger voice, Dana recalls: “‘Why don’t you be my assistant then?’”
While Kokei earnestly follows the chronicles, leaning forward with interest to the vast dump of history, she listens to Dana explain, “Just out of the blue, I was hired at a position people send years climbing ladders to reach, I went from working in barely running stories to working in an office I couldn’t even fathom, literally above every other tower in the city, wearing a suit we shopped together for, doing work I at first didn’t even understand until he helped teach me. I was working alongside people who had families in the industry, people who studied for years, worked for decades, lived a whole life in this job, and here I was just because the CEO offered it to someone who had no resume. And he continued to grow the empire, networked with more worlds, got further connected to the EGA, built machines that could harness power nobody even understood and revolutionized energy entirely, and somehow I was able to stand next to him everyday. Over the years he became more busy, I started to see him less, he joined the Shield and had constant adventures offworld, and more or less left Versepolis’s battles to its people who already could defend themselves thanks to all he did. He still kept growing the company to no end even over the cosmos, and we still kept in touch, just less and less. And then one day…it all happened so suddenly.”
Moving sight to the half eaten blue cupcake that Kokei had paused consumption on, just left on the tray as only a part of its former whole, Dana pursues with the plot, “Just out of the blue one day, during a heated battle from an army of robots set out to dominate the Superverse, the entirety of the Shield were declared deceased, including him. That’s when everything started moving so fast. At first I truly thought he was gone, and so when everyone was confused why the CEO was no longer responsive I did my best to cover for him, not knowing how I’d keep it up forever, hardly able to keep the pain of losing someone nobody else knew they lost. I did that for a while until one day in my office he just stepped in out of nowhere, and I was so glad to see that he survived, I still remember that stupid breakdown I had. It was a nice reunion at first, I was excited for him to return at the helm once more which I had already unintentionally setup since nobody thought he was gone for good, and then that’s when all the sudden he dropped the bombshell that he was stepping down from the company, and wanted me to take his place. It didn’t make any sense at the time, and I tried to tell him that, and at first I didn’t understand why, but he made me promise I’d accept the promotion, and I couldn’t say no. I thought at first maybe this is temporary, maybe he just really needs a break, I mean he still lost his team and I knew it was a lot so maybe he just needed someone to carry the work until he could again. But a year went by…and then three…then five…and eventually ten…and he didn’t come back. As you know, after his death was publicized the war began to ramp up, and so he started visited me frequently in the shadows of his own former home, asking for help to design and build a combat suit which at first I didn’t understand since I figured he of all people didn’t need one, but I went along with it anyways, I guess part of me was glad that there was something I could still assist him with.”
Leaning forwards and holding her hanging head with both hands, Dana’s body lightly shivers as she recites, “But even from when I first was given control of his company, we started to falter. I wasn’t able to make anywhere as ambitious of ideas as he was so we stagnated. When we stagnated, people began to get bored of us and looked elsewhere. When people did that, we started to lose shares, investors, relevance, everything he had worked so hard to build for all those years, and all I was doing was losing them all. And I saw him less and less yet again, but every time I saw him instead of having some extraordinary tales about giant monsters from the ocean or hivemind armies from man made viruses, he had paler skin, frailer hair, heavier eyebags, and more stress piled on him. And the more he came in, the less I could find how to help him. I tried my best, I made his suit as invincible as possible, but it didn’t help knowing that while I was ruining everything he had, he was sacrificing the little left.”
Suddenly, a teardrop falls on the table, followed by another teardrop, forming their own small puddles next to the empty mug.
Immediately Kokei’s eyes widen open in consternation as her jaw lowers, and she instinctively extends her hand out to the opposite side of the table, only for her to suspend it halfway not knowing what to do with it.
On the other side of the table, tears stream from Dana’s green eyes down her cheeks and pile up on the table below her face. Trying to speak through a voice congested with sniffles, Dana pushes forward, “And even when I try to be by his side to help him…all I find myself doing is either changing nothing or making things worse. I can’t maintain his values and dignity…and when he was trying to put a stop to the war…which I scolded him over…then I find out that one of the groups were able to do what they were doing because they were using a variation of MY drug, MY weapon which enabled an army of terrorists to carry a disastrous war that consumed the world decades after I thought I left that world. Because that’s my ONLY real contribution, Kokei, it’s not running X-Prints, it’s not helping us survive, it’s creating more problems that everyone else has to deal with. Because of everything I’ve ever done, the ONLY title I ever earned for myself was being a PROBLEM. And when I’m put to try running something real, something my dad dreamt of me doing, it becomes painfully clear that ALL I could’ve ever done myself was be a lowly criminal. And that truth came at the cost of the life of someone who should’ve never had to meet me.”
Lowering her head even more and only gripping her temples, sliding her fingers through her amber bangs, Dana continues to sob silently as she whispers to herself, “No matter how hard I try, I can’t do anything right myself. Even when he was the one needing help, I wasn’t there when he was grieving alone. I wasn’t there when he was torturing himself with work for all those years. I had the chance to do good…I could’ve been the right person to help…but I wasn’t. I just kept stealing everything from him…and now he has nothing…and still I’m managing to lose what he had. Why…why did he ever have to believe in me…why did he have to expect anything from me. Why did he have to bet on everything he had for something he saw in me…something that doesn’t even exist….”
Among the stream of tears, one drop shimmers in the sunlight as it plummets, embraced in the cyan light of the sun. But inevitably it drops into the puddle below, where it’s absorbed into the collective, fading as the ripples taper off.