Year: N/A
Location: Orion: The Citadel.
Time: N/A
“How… How’d I get here? Wh-Where am I?” I asked as Liyoxis- Who- Did I always know someone like- “Demitallis. Didn’t you have a question to ask me?” I looked at him as he spoke. Of course… It’s Liyoxis, I know him. “So I… I heard you’re twenty-thousand years old?” I instead asked. I learned from Oliver that he’s uh- No… That was wrong- He should be twenty-EIGHT thousand years old?
“Actually, I’m about thirty-thousand-eight-hundred-twenty-four. But you were surprisingly close.” He told me as I stared at the huge glass dome that allowed him to observe the world. “Wasn’t there- Shouldn’t there be.. More?...” I don’t- It’s like there’s something missing… “Are you saying I should be older? In all my years, nobody has ever told me THAT…” Now I know he’s lying. I mean I can’t imagine an immediate situation where he WOULD be told that, but it somehow seems impossible he wouldn’t at some point be told that…
“How old were you-” I might have forgotten again… “When I mastered the power of mind? I was three.” Was his answer… “Three years old? Three hundred?...” I tried to ask- “Three days. I am an unparalleled genius.” It dawns on me the situation I am truly in, and I feel my heart give way to anger… “You had it all planned from the start, Liyoxis… You are FATE itself… So why me?” But he shakes his head. “No, I might have mastered fate, but I do not truly rule over it. I didn’t choose you because you were special, but because you were my safest option for survival.” Just like before, he’d only ever given me trouble understanding him…
“After everything you’ve put me through… You still can’t give me a straight answer.” He rests his back against his chair, as Demistar adjusts it for him… “Do you have any idea how old Orion truly is? I suppose it doesn’t matter. Once again, I’m sorry. As time crawls forward, fate slides, it alters ever so slightly… I was never truly certain about her, maybe… Maybe all this fear wasn’t worth it…” I looked at Demistar, she was powerful, smart, beautiful, and most importantly: Obedient… She was everything he needed her to be…
“Demistar, open the gate, I’ve got stuff to do.”
“Of course.”
…
Much later.
Year: N/A
Location: The Underworld: The Jungle Archipelago.
So I’m basically a public hero at this point, saving citizens, saving kittens, fixing pipes, stopping criminals. Okay fine you’re right. I know that Tree-Guy was him, and I’ve been subconsciously seething for the past few hours. I mean seriously, that guy, if anything, HAD to AT LEAST have some kind of lead.
Just watch, he’s going to be the warlord roaming around here. This shit doesn’t even work on me anymore, I know how this fucking world works.
I’m basically just waiting for Celest to come back. I hate to admit it, but I’m downright useless without one of the others… I mean come on- Where’s MY damn cheat power?! I shouldn’t have to deal with this! I should’ve beaten Arigold the day I met him, be all- “ULTIMATE BLACK FLAMES OF UNSTOPPABLE POWAH” BUT NAH. No. I get to deal with existing in the world of all these unstoppable entities of mass destruction. I kind of just wanted to take it easy. Obviously not THAT easy, but I didn’t want my life to be ACTUALLY threatened. I wanted to beat up jerk-head womanizers, and then the girls I saved would shower me with praise, and then I guess they might join my party. I don’t know, I might let’em, if they’re cool enough.
But no, I get a forced family, most of whom disrespect and make fun of me every chance they get. The only ones who DON’T insult me… are honestly PROBABLY insane? I was never really clear on that front.
“Demitallis!” One of the kids called out to me. Yes they know my name, I don’t have to hide that shit here. I’m Demitallis the Water-Spirit. “Whatup?” I ask. “What’cha doin’?” They ask, as they tug at my watery-body, but only because I’m morphing it to let them, you know, since I’m so nice. “Oh, I’m just complaining to the endless void.” The Kid was confused, scratching the side of their skull. All “Scritch-Scritch” and what not. “Why’s that?” She seeks knowledge. I wonder if she’s even actually a kid- Right? I mean… bones don’t grow without anything to grow with.
So I’m mostly just wondering if these “kids” are like, hundreds of years old, but never grew up ‘cause ya’ know. They’re dead and stuff. Okay yeah even I know this is getting inane. “Because the universe hates me and life isn’t fair.” I told her. She in turn looked down and kicked a rock. “I know how that feels…” Oh right, she’s dead… Now I feel like a dick… “Sorry.” I say and she looks up at me, nervously waving her hands in defiance- “No, please, I went peacefully anyways-” Oh man she knows how she died- “I’m so sorry.” Here’s me bitching about my lot in life and this kid- “Please don’t pity me!” She yells and I cease my pitying-
“Ah- Sor- I mean- Shit- Sor- How the hell do I be polite without saying that word?!” The girl calms down and even begins laughing at me as I figure out how to word my apology- Oh- “M-Miss Demitallis- '' I accidentally interrupt her- “I apologize! Haha! Demitallis wins again!” I shout as she nervously laughs at me…
…
She claps her little skeleton hands- “That’s nice. It’s nice when other people win stuff.” She says as I shrink down to her size. “Yeah, it really is. It’s especially nice when it’s ME winning stuff. So what’s up with you?” Here I am, trying my hardest to try and keep another kid calm, like I’ve been doing with the rest of my family. I never really tell you guys about the more monotonous work I do, like trying to hang out with all twenty-thousand of my family members… I try to look for something else to talk about- “Well I’m doing alright. I’m still getting used to the whole being undead thing. Helvetica told me my body couldn’t be recovered…” She looked down and placed her hands in her pockets. She’s wearing shorts, you see. They’re cute I guess. Man, I feel bad for her.
“So you got any family around here?” I ask. “Not that I’m aware of.” She shrugged. “You wanna hang out, then? What’s your name?” I decided to ask, since I accidentally told her MY name. Obviously not my old one, the newer-ish one. “I’m Caslon. Isn’t what you do dangerous?” She asks, despite me having already considered that. “My whole team are kids. I’M a kid. Besides, I just wanted to hang out, being a superhero is hard work, dude, I’ve earned a break.” She stares at me for a moment then nods. “Yeah, fair enough. I suppose we can hang out.” Oh finally I get someone to talk to-
Seriously, Celest is taking WAY too long on those leads. Either that or she’s exploring them on her own time- “How about we- Actually. What DO you undead folks do for fun down here?” Many people of different shapes and sizes pass us by, as Caslon prepares her answer. “Well it’s not too much unlike what we did when we were alive. I guess nobody has really gotten along with the idea of giving that all up…” She told me as she looked around, putting her hands in her pockets as she guided me down the street into a more secluded area. “I suppose they just don’t want to give up who they were, maybe they worry they might forget somehow. It’s said that we only truly die when we are forgotten, so in the afterlife… we cannot afford to forget who we were, for what do we have left after that?” I in turn went on, as she stared at me, her skeletal head incapable of portraying any kind of expression. So I really couldn’t tell WHAT she was thinking.
“Yeah, actually. That’s exactly how I feel about it. I suppose we all WOULD come to the same conclusion, though…” And only then did I realize that I had found a world of people I could relate to… “Ah- Well… I guess… It’s nice having someone to talk to about it, you know…” Sure I was technically telling the truth, but I had to be careful about what I say, in case SHE says something I’d regret… I can’t risk my friends figuring out my secret… Because now they’re all I have in this world, and I can’t lose them too.
We make our way through a garden and she sits at a bench. “A lot of our time is really just spent running down the clock. We can’t leave, and the Underworld isn’t big enough for everyone to be a star. Not for a lack of trying, mind you- But that’s neither here nor there. Sometimes I’ll sit in one of the many gardens around here, and just watch the flowers grow for hours, days, weeks, sometimes even months at a time. Heck, some days I’m just looking for an excuse to sit down and space out.” Yeesh that sounds boring.
“Maybe it’s a form of meditation? A space between life and death, a sort of limbo that you’re exploring to return to the world you once knew… Or maybe it’s something more personal, your brain working through your whole death and stuff, trying to figure out where it went wrong, make sense of everything… as it all goes cold, and your brain shuts down, all your thoughts fading… It sounds so haunting…” She stared at me again as I spoke, while we waited for Celest to contact me again. I was never really sure what made me want to risk my secret like that, I guess I really DID just need someone to talk to about it… To relate… even if just for a moment…
I’ll be honest, I’m nothing like the girl I used to be, before I died… Sometimes I wonder if I ever-
Cele - “Hey, Demi, I’ve found him. Steriya is prepared to teleport you over as soon as you’re ready.”
Oh lord I can finally fight someone, thank goodness-
Demi - “Yes, now! Let’s do this! I swear, I was about to lose my mind.”
Caslon placed her hand on my surface, just as we’re teleported away- “Crap-” I say as I realized I accidentally took this little girl with me… She looks around quickly and takes a knee as she rubs her head. “You okay there? You weren’t supposed to be teleported too-” I say as Steriya and Celest looks at me. “Crap! Did I teleport her along with you?!” Steriya asks as she runs over and tends to the kid. “Yeah.” I answer, and she places her hand on the girl’s head. “Here wait, we’re nearby.” She tells Caslon as she places her hand on the skeletal-girl’s head.
“Ah. Okay… Thank you.” Caslon says as Steriya helps her up. “What happened?” I ask as I watch the kid rub her temples. “I screwed up her internal map. It’s why I don’t just teleport all of our problems far away.” She explained. “Oh. I guess that would be pretty annoying. Why not do it anyway?” I figured I’d ask. “Well it would mostly just serve to piss them off more. We’ve got enough problems to deal with as is. Imagine if we had, like, Vilstrous, Ling, Vultrym, MAYBE Sirius- '' -Celest looked over at us- “Solasara too- Although- You said she tried to do that to US… Which reminds me, I wanted to note that I HAD considered it previously, it’s just our adversaries were too strong. Sirius being one example of the bunch we have already faced. So yeah, teleporting them wasn’t really an option.” She finally finished.
Moving on-
We’re up in one of the many tree canopies, -as it turns out- we can see the bad guy from here. “Ah, so that’s what’s going on here… Oh.” Caslon says as she folds her arms and looks down. “So that’s the guy?” She and Steriya crawl right up to the front with Celest and I, as we watch the tree-guy from earlier go about his daily business. We gave her the gist of the situation.
“Yep, he’s the guy. I’m one-hundred-percent on this.” Celest tells me, she’s got a blank expression on her face. “Yeah, about that…” Steriya begins as I jump down and land on the so-called warlord, trapping him in my body!
“GOTCHA! Haha! Alright, you’re under arrest for your acts against the underworld, and other such things that Helvetica wants you not to do.” I tell him as I look at and spot Celest and Steriya talking to each other about some other stupid thing I don’t want to worry about- “Let me out of here! Do you have any idea who I am?!” He shouts as he flails his body around in there. I of course begin holding him in place and start walking over to the edge of the island as Celest and Steriya jump down from the canopy.
“Oh, hey. Teleport us down, Steriya.” She walks over and places her hand on my body. “Got it, target captured, come on Celest.” She says as Celest looks around. “Ah, no… I’ll stay here… We’ll need to know if any more of his flunkies show up.” I decided to agree with her on this one, and so we head off without her..
We arrive at the Chateau and look around as I spit out the warlord-guy. Steriya places a spell on him. “This should keep him from trying to escape with some kind of portal, or teleporter. It’s useful for almost anything along those lines-” As she speaks a skeleton digs itself out of the building below us, shoving material out of its way like a zombie in a grave.
The Skeleton spreads its limbs out, and covers itself in those familiar robes that Helvetica tends to wear. “Good job, lost child. You’re sure this is him?” She asks as he glares at her, and she turns to look at him. “Yep. Celest confirmed it.” I tell her, and she nods, before firing a wave of doom at him- “Oh come on-” I say, kind of just disappointed she had to kill him…
“He tried to break the rules, if I make an exception for him, I have to make an exception for everyone.” Steriya just frowns as Helvetica stares at us and sighs. “Lost Child, you take a break, apparently your mother has almost been found…” She takes a dramatic pause- “Luna, that insane girl… Elemental, I’ve got another mission for you.” She begins again, approaching Steriya as I prepare to head off and go find that island Valeria told me about.
Celest’ll find her own way back anyways.
I begin to find my giant threads extending between islands, and start grabbing them as I grow my size to shove my mass between them. I look at each island, the underworld’s citizens watching as I pull myself past their huge islands. I spot an aquatic island with a huge bell hanging from the top, two arches stretching to the edge of the island and converging on the middle to hold it up.
I shrink back down, and throw myself into it as threads build themselves between islands in the distance. I land and find plenty of aquatic-skeletal-demihumans staring right at me… Right, I suppose they would worry about me being a puddle kid, back to haunt them in their afterlife. Ironically I AM a puddle kid, but I’m not here to haunt them.
“Sup.” I say, and they all calm down. “You must be a water spirit.” One of them tells me as I crawl up to them. “Yeah, that’s what I am. Water that is a spirit. Spirit of water. Think of me like if you took a knife to a glass of water. I like to kind of consider myself a glass-half-full kind of gal, though. So anyways. Anyone here know Valeria?” After that he pointed me in the right direction.
The island had a sort of atlantic theme to it, like it was an underwater kingdom brought to the surface. The Architecture was a colorful gothic, it was very contradictory in design. I DID eventually find Valeria, she was hanging out in the middle of town. It looks like she’s doing a bit of shopping. “Heyo~!” I called out to her as I made my way over.
“Ah! Demitallis! You’re early. Did you already finish that task of yours?” She asks, as I look around again. “Yeah.” The air is thick with moisture, and I can feel the underworld’s breeze brush against me, as the subtle sounds of the city's intricate workings remind me just how many people there are here… Undead-Aquatic-Demihumans… “So… How many?” I ask. “Hm?” She questions. “How many were killed by my ancestors?” I spoke just barely loud enough for her to hear me, knowing what might happen if they were to learn of my origins…
“Honestly? Most of them.” She admits, as she folds her arms and looks down. “Look closely, most of them are made of Helvetica’s metal. Your, uh- ‘Ancestors’ never really left a lot to be recovered. I should totally take you to one of the Underworld’s pocket-universes.” I followed her as she spoke, while I watched everyone work away at whatever they were doing. Some of them were completely still, probably so old and so bored they weren’t really quite sure WHAT to do. Others kept themselves distracted and busy. And then there were the ones I could only describe as truly peaceful, moving every now and then to speak with friends, and just continuing on with their days, until finally they’re ready to leave…
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
“Pocket-Universes?” I figured I would ask, since this seems to be what I’m learning today. “Well… There’s an unknown number of pocket-universes that exist within the main one. The Underworld is one of the larger ones, with its own pocket universes.” Her shoes make light splashes in the water as she walks, the streets made of a reflective obsidian. Plants grew freely and wildly from the fresh nutrients, growing right through the unkempt sidewalks. I suppose it makes sense, though, the monotony and boredom probably killed any general desire to do anything, let alone clean.
“Demi?” She places her hand on my surface- “Ah, sorry-” I begin as I back away. “Hey… Do you think there’s any way out of here?... You know, in case you had stuff to do, -but like- Helvetica didn’t want to let you out for whatever reason…” She hums to herself for a moment, and something comes to her. “There is ONE way. I’ve only heard of it in rumors, but apparently there’s a place called Manoa. Some people believe it’s located somewhere in the underworld, still yet unfound to this day. Others believe it’s a pocket universe of its own, one just barely outside of Helvetica’s influence… It’s believed that if there’s any way out, it’s through Manoa.”
Manoa, huh? I suppose it would only make sense that there HAS to be SOMEWHERE you can go to get out of here. “Well, if even YOU know this stuff, then I would assume that everyone else does too.” She nods in response. “I guess it would only make sense to assume that anyone with any hope of escaping is looking for that place…” I finish as I realize she’s staring at something. “Huh. The R-D-R has gotten all the way out here, I’m almost impressed…” She comments as she shifts onto her right leg.
I look over, there’s a crowd surrounding a stage with a whaleshark-demihuman. The stage is made of wood, with two banners. A dome with an arch over it emblazoned on the banners. I THINK the demihuman is a banshee? She’s got the whole aesthetic, you see. Like the dress, and whatnot. She IS covered in armor, but I ASSUME she’s got to be a banshee.
“R-D-R… I assume that’s the rebellion, the public one. I heard about it around the time I got here. I suppose I should break it up, it’s still illegal, and I AM technically working for Helvetica.” She gives me a funny look. “That doesn’t mean I don’t want out. I was basically indoctrinated upon arrival, and Demistar refused to help me out… So yeah. I better go break this up.” I tell her as I crawl over, the citizens beginning to take notice of me.
“Hello! Is this one of those rebellion gatherings I’ve been hearing about?” I figured I would confirm, they’re public after all, so I doubt they would outright lie to me. “Yes. I’m trying to gather support for the Rising-Dawn-Rebellion. Did you have questions?” The spirit asks me, as she looks down. “No, I’m just here to break this whole thing up. I work for Helvetica, and this gathering is considered illegal via the law defined by Helvetica’s will. I hate to do it, but I’m going to have to ask all of you to disperse immediately.” The whale-shark-lady glares at me and folds her arms, shifting on her side as she jabs her finger at me- “Oh. So are you going to arrest me? Are we not even allowed to speak anymore?” She asks. “Oh, absolutely not. But conspiring against Helvetica is, and that’s what you’re obviously doing here. It’s my job to uphold the law in all its aspects. Now go on, get outta’ here.” I tell them as they all begin to disperse, while the whale-shark lady stares daggers at me.
“Have a good day!” I call out to her as I return to Valeria. “Heyyup.” I say. “Greetings.” She kind of just stares at me, like she usually does… Yeah, she doesn’t really seem to be one to emote very often. “So what’s up with the whole multiverse thing anyways? Do we know how many there are?” I decided to ask as we began walking again, to wherever we were headed. I mean I’m not walking, obviously, but you know- “I don’t really know too much myself, in all honesty. Just the stuff anyone would pick up from travelers coming and going.” Valeria tells me as I look around again. The dark atmosphere almost gets suffocating at times.
“There’s about twelve major dimensions, the most important of which being Subspace. It wasn’t made by Arigold and Demitrivan, but they’re the ones currently maintaining it. You see, it’s stabilized and MUCH easier to traverse than the space surrounding the multiverse. Next up would be the Spirit Realm, which as you can assume is where people used to go when they die. It got… FULL…” I think that sounds bad. “Anyways, as you can assume it was the first one, already pre-existing before any other. When the Gate of Hearts went down, and Solar took over its position, he immediately began tearing apart anything he didn’t like. Which if you know anything about him…” Valeria held that word for a moment until I cut in with: “Is everything…”
We arrive at a large set of arches before a tall building, a tapestry of vines, seaweed and coral marring almost all of its larger more elongated surfaces. “This is the hotel I’m staying at.” She explained as we walked through the arches and into the building. “Right. Right. Because you’re visiting family in the underworld. I only got in here because apparently I’m important for something. They want me to beat up this time demon or something, which SOUNDS pretty bad? Feel free to worship the ground I walk on at any moment, by the way.” I add in at the end as we make our way down the thin hallway and up the staircase surrounding an elevator. “I’ll be sure to get right on that.” Valeria giggled, making me internally grin with my success at making someone laugh for once. “Anyways, the next realm is Valhalla, where the gods live of course.”
“I’ve heard plenty about that one.” I tell her as we continue up the staircase until we arrive at a specific hallway and walk down it. “Hope empowers belief, and belief empowers Valhalla and the gods, yada yada.” She stops and stares at me in shock. “It does?” She asked, and I raised a nonexistent eyebrow. “Yes. Did you not know that?” I asked her, and she looked away, before nodding at me… Are you kidding me? “Not really, no. I just knew it was the place of the gods. Learn something new every day.”
I guess… not everyone knows what everyone else knows. Something I’ve been picking up on lately is the conflicting accounts I get. These people speak so confidently on their predetermined facts, that I had made this mistake of just outright trusting them…
We arrive at Valeria’s room, and she guides me into a quaint space with white walls, a kitchen built in with the living room, a door that I’m assuming leads to a bathroom to greet you, and another hall you can immediately spot as you enter into the living room. It has another set of doors. “I’ll finish in a minute. Wait here while I grab my stuff.” She told me before walking away, and I began to question why we even came here. I look around, and there’s not much in all honesty. Obviously she’s not been here for long, but for a world where you can make anything you want, you would think people would decorate a little more.
A little while later, and she’s out of her room again with a duffel bag slung over her shoulder, and in a different outfit. “I don’t know if Liberty or Unity have dimensions of their own, but there is one place I’ve rarely heard about.”
Valeria’s wearing this strange, stringy mess of an outfit. I’ll start off with the mask, it has a small headdress made of colorful stiff cords as thick as twine. “It’s called The Rapture, few have been there, and all I really know about it is that it’s this endless expanse of desert that stretches as far as the eye can see. It’s known for its heavy winds and these massive daunting statues of enthroned skeletons.” Her dress is similar to the headdress in that it looks weirdly rigid, but it moves well enough. It consists of a shoulder-length-cloak-piece-thing and what I am assuming is a sleeveless dress underneath. The colors descend down the outfit in a strange mix I can’t quite discern a pattern from. “Obviously you’ve had plenty of first-hand experience from the Underworld here, and I’m sure you’ve heard of the Void. After all, it’s what happened to Orion’s greatest disaster.” Yeesh. I agree with her, and we continue this conversation on the way back outside.
“So what are we doing anyway?” I ask her as I look at all of the undead aquatic demihumans. The Shark ones are the weirdest, because they have plenty of bones like humans, but all of the cartilage from their shark bits has been replaced with this ethereal transparent white MATERIAL that I don’t understand. “This dress is part of my Family’s culture, it’s how we pray to the old one. You should see what the boys have to wear.” She giggled as I followed her, making me smile as I waited in anticipation of what the boys must have to wear for this old god of theirs.
Eventually we arrived at her home, after a discussion about high-fiber diets… for some reason. “But why would you even care? I mean- Your body is hyper evolved to deal with almost anything along those lines. Right?” I asked her as we rounded the corner to her ancestors’ house. “Demitallis, being what you are. You must have not realized that there are benefits to keeping up with your physical health. Aside from staying alive, of course.” We had stopped at the gate so she could finish whatever it is she’s talking about. “While yes, magic can be used to enhance your muscles near limitlessly, a good foundation will only help.” Looking around, her folks seem to own a nice mansion. It’s a little on the smaller side, and most of the space is taken up by this nicely kept garden, a far cry from the rest of the city’s unkempt nature. “You see, the basic physical strength of your muscles can go so far as to amplify your magic’s output. I believe you should know this better than any other, seeing as your body seems to be a massive singular super muscle.” I look at her in surprise, then realize that I… may actually be a lot stronger than I realized. “Oh.”
So anyways, she guides me in through the front gate, opens the door, and oh- WOW. She was not lying about what these people wear. It’s like- So you know how I described that hotel? These outfits are spiky, elongated, ebbing and twisting, it’s strangely bulbous yet… EMACIATED in all the wrong areas. “This hurts my brain to look at.” I blurt out, surprising everyone and drawing their eyes to me. FUCK. “Which is Demi-Code for this looks great.” I add, making Valeria’s face shift ever so slightly in response. “Demi-Code?” She asked. “Yes.” I answer. “It’s a secret.” I also add, as everyone continues to stare. “Demi, it sounds a lot more likely that you accidentally spoke the first thing that came to mind, and you realized it’s rude and decided to cover it up with a weak, blatant lie.”
“Yeah, okay. I’m sorry.” I admit as we follow the guy that let us in, his body is… strange in how the bones connect to and interact with the carapace. I guess you never really think much about how that has to work, like a cat-girl having the cat ears and all that. It has to connect to the brain in some way. Right? So you would assume there’s two holes up there. Anyways, we’re guided into the entrance hall. “It’s okay, Demi. It’s supposed to be hard to look at, the Old One likes weird stuff, apparently. Though I wasn’t aware you had a brain in there somewhere.” Valeria explains as this guy who I’m led to assume is related to her somewhere on the family tree leads us to the living room.
“Valeria. I’m glad you were able to make it this year.” Her ancestor tells her, before I can say something. Which I obviously wasn’t going to do, since our conversation kind of ruined the introduction. “Ah, sorry, Great Grandfather. This is Demitallis Genesis, she’s my guest.” Valeria explains to him as he opens a set of doors to a surprisingly massive living room. I was not expecting it to be so large.
“Hello.” I say, and her great grandfather turns around to look at me. “It’s a pleasure, Demitallis. I am Galdritch, the head of the house.” He stepped out of the way, and Valeria guided me in as I said: “I see. You have a lovely home.” He simply nods his head, but I imagine a smile on his face anyways as he leaves the room saying: “Feel free to get acquainted with the rest of the guests and family.”
Turning around I’m met with a collection of friendly faces… that are all staring at me. Also wearing similar stuff to Valeria and her Great Grandafther. “Hey…” I say… “Everyone, this is Demitallis, a friend of mine.” She explains, and they all begin introducing themselves one by one. There is a surprising amount of them.
“So how did you die?” One of the younger ones, a living mantis-shrimp girl asks. She looks like she’s probably around seven? Give or take? “Valiantly.” I answer as her mother gently tries to explain why it’s rude to ask someone that- “Oh.” The girl said, and her mother face-palmed as she realized her kid just wasn’t going to listen no matter what she did. The room’s nice, a simple television at one side playing some campy love show about twin goblins princesses… Okay, never mind, I’m not interested in that. Couches, fold-out beds, plenty of tables and tons of chairs scattered about with all kinds of different people sitting around. Mostly undead, but plenty of the living who must be visiting.
So in case you’re as confused as I was, -and still mostly am- apparently I’ve been invited into some sort of traditional, yearly, family gathering thing. There’s some purpose here I’m not aware of, and I… I mean this is nice and all, but I’m kind of bored, what with all of the time I spent doing surprisingly meaningful stuff. Is this how all characters feel when they’re not doing something particularly interesting? Probably not, because this is real, obviously. I THINK… But thinking back on it, plenty of stories I read just glaze right over all of this, and I never really thought of it back then, but obviously they did. You might think I’m silly for not having considered it, but I never really thought about all of the time that went on in between-
Okay wow, I have dragged that topic right off the rails kicking and screaming right into a pit. I am currently in the fucking kitchen, and enjoying a meal with the entirety of Valeria’s Family.
How hard did I fall into auto-pilot?
Like, half an hour. You must have been so bored.
Yeah, no worries I got all of the memories. The patience you need to use IDM made this shit a cake walk.
Should we just call it HDR? I mean, that’s what everyone else calls it.
I mean I guess.
If we’re going to do that then we just will, obviously.
Roight. I keep forgetting that we’re the same- WHAT THE FUCK?
“WHAT THE FUCK?” I mentally ask myself as this man covered in the strangest outfit I’ve ever seen walks in. He’s wearing this huge headdress made up of a dense flow of golden glowing wires, it’s massive and they look so… delicate. The headdress is twice the size of his head, and the dress has a huge accessory that stretches even further back behind his shoulders. The threads converge on thick, intricately hewn spirals. It’s pretty, yes, but it’s just so… JARRING.
“Valeria-” I whisper, grabbing her attention. “Yes?”
“I’m confused-” She nods and shushes me. “I’ll explain more later, Demi, don’t worry.” I make no response, and simply assume she’ll take that as answer enough while this mass of wire walks to the other side of the table from Galdritch. Everyone seems excited, so I assume to whatever extent it MUST be a good thing that is happening right now. Right?
So anyways, after dinner Valeria and I find ourselves in one of the guest rooms, where she sits on her knees hunched over an open chest as she searches through her clothes. “One moment, Demitallis. I wasn’t expecting to invite a guest, so I didn’t prepare you an outfit earlier.” Ah, right. Of course. Indeed. “How do you expect that to even work?” I ask as I crawl around her, and she glances at me. “You can morph. Yeah? I was thinking I could put a headdress on you.” The guest room is pretty plain, you can tell it’s only ever used once a year, because it’s nearly spotless.
“I’m just looking for an explanation on that amalgamation back there.” She gives me another look, then after a moment more of searching, she pulls out a small headdress like her own, and holds it out for me. “Here you go. That’s my cousin Collin, he’s been undead for almost twelve hundred years now.” Well that’s a surprise. I shrink down, and she lowers it over my body. “How old did you say you are, again?” I ask her, and she sits back as she rubs her chin. “I’m twenty-four. My grandparents are in their thirty-eight-hundreds.”
“Wow.” I say as she adjusts my cool new outfit a little. “You’d think, but my great grandfather Galdritch is somewhere over twenty thousand, he said he kinda lost track after the first ten millennia. I’m sure somebody around here knows, but it wouldn’t be me. Anyways, I believe he’s my great-times-eight-grandfather?” She first explained as she continued adjusting this thing around me until she was satisfied, then asked as she looked away and rubbed her chin-
Suddenly the house shakes, audibly rumbling around the building, and we look around anxiously for a moment-
And then it’s gone, just as soon as it came. The two of us relaxed only moments after it died down. “Any thoughts?” I ask, and Valeria gives me a quick glance before shaking her head. “No- This is new.” She approached the door and I followed. “Figured…” I began as we were greeted by a collection of equally curious looks. “Anyone know what happened?” Valeria asked, and everyone looked between each other to confirm that no. They did not know.
“Is everyone alright?” Galdritch then asked as he entered behind a set of double doors at the end of this hallway. We’re on the upper floor leading in from the entrance hall, both ends of the hallway seem to lead to larger rooms. “Looks like it.” I began- “What happened?” His eyes glazed over everyone then focused on me, before shaking his head. “I don’t know anymore than anyone else.” He explained as he walked up to us.
Valeria walked past me and raised her hand to get his attention. “This won’t be interrupting the ceremony for today. Will it?” That seemed to elicit a reaction from most of the people in this room. I guess some of the guests are as in the dark as I am. “There is nothing to worry about, I’ll have this dealt with in a minute.” He explained, and she simply nodded before we left the room.
“Ceremony?” I asked as soon as we were alone. In the kitchen for some reason. “Yeah?” She asked rather absently, as- Oh. She’s making herself something to eat. Dude, you just had dinner. Anyways- “Valeria, you’ve explained almost nothing to me. I mean, I appreciate that you wanted to include me in a personal thing like this, but I can just leave if you don’t want to explain.” She paused to look at me, and stared for a moment with a somewhat surprised look on her face, before she apologized.
“I’m sorry- I’m used to everyone just kind of knowing. This is the yearly ascension ceremony, my cousin, he’ll be ascending.”
“I’m going to assume this has something to do with an end to his undeath?”
She nodded and took a bite of her sandwich. “Yes. It’s one of the few things the undead CAN control down here. Every once a year a random number of my family chooses ascension, and all we ask is that they hold it off until this day so everyone can come together to bid them farewell. You know, until we see them again.”
“Oh… holy shit.” I realize as she sits on the floor in front of me and looks away. “I’m sorry. It must take a lot of hard work to come to terms with that alone.” You know, I think at this point I would have preferred the murder death cult. These people are just looking for a reason to die. They want out THAT fucking bad, man… “Maybe you’re right.” Valeria says with a sigh as she stands up. “How about I show you the rest of the island?” She asked, and… yeah. I think I would like that more. “Then I’ll head home on my own when Halvin is ready for ascension.”
“That sounds good. I don’t know how comfortable I am with all of this. Thank you, Valeria.”
So after we agreed on that, we arrived at the front door only to find a group trying to pull it open. “Oh good. We’re stuck…” I grumble in a light tone as I immediately recognize what’s going on.
End of Chapter: 61 “Spoiled Indulgences.”
Thank you for reading.
“Sure… thanks…?”
“Uh- Yeah- Thanks.”
*Deep Sigh* “Yeah. Why not? Thanks.”
“Okay! Thank you!”