Chapter CXLV:
Foreboding Smells Like Lavender ~Kyanosa
Kyanosa sat in the corner of his room
with his legs out and ankles crossed, deep in thought. Though the voice in his
head was preaching on the myriad merits of deep thinking on a soft bed as
opposed to a hard floor, it wasn't the one currently in charge of the body. So there. Besides, after hopping across the multiverse twice, bashing on three demons personally and
twelve in theory with a giant rolling cat, attaining a weapon of apparent
unimaginable power, and meeting two people he hadn't seen in five years, one of
whom was supposed to be dead, the probability of napping on the bed was far too
high, and Kyanosa still had some Think power left.
{This wouldn't
have happened if you hadn't come from First Earth.}
[Prove it.]
{No.}
[Alright, you
were around on Zolott. I wasn't. Tell me about the
new people.]
{Get the book
for stats.} As Kyanosa pulled the book from his pants
leg and looked for the section on stats, the voice kept talking. {Sheko and I met in a forest. I think he was dead when I
found him, but not really. Anyway, he and I met Redaz,
a fire guy with terrible hair, and we wandered for a while until we killed a
mutant that turned out not to be Havering. Darn. So then we broke into the
Genesis, the flying fortress thingy that Havering had because black is so
popular nowadays. I got Mirror with them, but then we lost each other, so I
fought Scorn with Markior, 6400, and a very brief Naaro. Ratch stole our kill though. Big moder.}
Kyanosa's eyes went down the stats. [And
{She tried to
cut me in half.}
[I like her
already.]
{I read up on
her later, and she used the sword that only killed demons and spirits and
stuff, so it didn't affect me. She was angry. Think she hated humans. Seems over that.}
[She is,
according to this.]
{Alright, so she
just hates me. Got it. We also had a ghost who kept
changing into useless things and called me K.C. Didn't like him. Then there was
the Suicine without a shell. Of course, I didn't know
it was a Suicine until I got back and started reading
up on things. When I saw it, it just looked like a big blue ice dog.} For a brief moment, silence. {We didn't do much. Found
parasol with them, though.}
Kyanosa sighed and put down the book.
[What else did you do there about which I should know?]
{I was with two catgirls for a while who wanted to rip out each other's
throats. I don't think they liked me much. Or they loved me. Dunno. Should have pursued that. There was also a guy in green who
did wind things and was strong enough to kill an Infect by himself but not nice
enough to pull us all out of a gaping vortex of sand. He was mean too.}
[Did you do
anything on your own?]
{When I was by
myself, I found Yo-yo and Fire, got lost in the woods, ran from an Infect, got
more lost, got lost again, then got lost in the Genesis, then fell asleep.
After Havering died, I got into a another group, and we-}
[So you really
accomplished nothing before I showed up?]
{No, I did
things later.}
[In a group.]
{Well...yeah.}
[Trillions of
people in this world and I end up sharing a head with you.]
{It could be
worse.}
[No.]
{But what if-}
[No.]
{How-}
[No.]
{You're a meanie
too.}
They were quiet
for some time, doing the mental equivalent of glaring at one another, until
Personality 2 (who, for the sake of ease when discussing matters that occurred
solely in Kyanosa's head, will be dubbed
"Brick", whereas the other will have the moniker "Tuesday")
broke the pseudo-silence. [What is the new marble, anyway?]
{You know full
well what it is.}
Brick nodded. [Crash. The grand breakdown. The
energy drain'll probably kill us.]
{Nah, I've
looked at this. If we use a lot of energy, we can still use it at full power,
but with all kinds of negative effects. If it's the first thing we do, we can
keep going.}
[Excuse me?]
{Look, we have
the same memory from before Zolott, right?}
[Largely.]
{Okay, think
about Final Fantasy 4. In the
Brick was
impressed. [You know these powers, huh?]
{I'm like the
Donovan to your Powell.}
[Excuse me?]
{Isaac Asimov characters. Donovan was
a robot mechanics master, but Powell found the answers to their problems
through psychology and stuff. I am the programming to your mechanics, the
Project Manhattan staff to your President Truman. Except that the roles are
reversed when I take over the body. You're not listening.}
[I'm trying to
think of a way to dodge the dying aspect. Like how to come
back if we die.]
A moment for thinking and dramatic effect. {I have an idea.}
[What is it?]
{Give me the
body and go to sleep or something. I'll get you when I need you.} Brick wavered
for a bit, then Tuesday felt it regress, giving
control of the body to him. He smiled.
Kyanosa put the book back in his coat leg and stood up. He left his room, made a left, and wandered about until he found Omega and C.R., who were conveniently still together and conveniently in the engine room. He smiled at them both.
"We need to
stop the train. Omega, I'd like to know where."
Omega looked at Kyanosa like he'd grown eight wings of different colors and shot blue glowing mandibles across the room. C.R. was unaffected.
"Why?"
"I need to
pick something up."
"And what would that be?"
Kyanosa told him. C.R. turned to Omega.
"Fire up that Multinet. We need to find a route from our current location."
Five minutes
later, the Spectrum was very temporarily stopped so that a repaired Gundam Yarnlover could dock at
its side. Kyanosa thanked the others both for their
trouble and for the homing system they had installed so he could find the
Spectrum again later. He opened the door and went through the tunnel, then separated
the mecha and flew off.
Omega looked at C.R.
"What was
that?"
C.R. shrugged.
"I'm not
wholly sure yet, but if he's pulling this, I just don't want to mess with
it."
You can smell
the foreboding from your chair.