Adventures in Parodyverse:  Choices Part 2


    Anna looked sideways at Yuki Shiro, and seemed a little amused as she took a second sip of the wine that the purple-haired Legionnaire brought her.

    The android was attending her wine tasting in the most unusual of places.  She was sitting on a ledge directly below a skylight in the main stairwell of the Lair Mansion, her feet dangling, and her back facing the glass.  It wasn’t quite audible or visible from below, as the stairway itself widened narrowed as it peaked, leaving only a small window of visibility toward the skylight from the lower floors.

    Yuki found her way up there beside her.  Other than super-types who could fly, and the house hologram, she and Anna were the only two who could jump up there safely without a ladder.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“How old did you say this was?”  Anna asked.  She took a third sip, and savored the complex tastes.  She couldn’t get drunk from the alcohol, at least.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Let’s just say Sir Mumphrey bought it brand new.”  Yuki replied.  “I think you deserve as many human experiences as possible.  You’ve tried food, learned how to get along.  All you have to do is lose your virginity and you’ll have it all down.”

    Anna’s smile disappeared, and she gave Yuki a frightened look.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Don’t worry, I haven’t arranged that last one tonight.”  She smiled.  But then she sighed, and added, “Part of the experience is figuring it out for yourself.  And it’s not easy.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Oh.”  Anna replied.  She put one foot on the ledge, and leaned back against the glass.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Are there any more like you?”  Yuki asked.  “Maybe there’s someone literally made for you out there.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“I hope not.”  Anna replied quietly.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Why not?”

    Anna shrugged, and looked down the stairway.  “Considering I was commissioned as a contingency...to take on the Lair Legion if needed...another like me wouldn’t have gotten to know all of you like I have.  That could be incredibly dangerous.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“If you’re really so unique, it’s going to be tough for you to find a guy, that’s for sure.”  Yuki commented.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“I don’t know.”  Anna shrugged again.  “It seems there are a lot of natural human males who harbor sexual fantasies about a mechanical girl.”

    Yuki laughed, and had the bad timing to be sipping her wine when Anna said that.  She was fortunate enough to still have the glass close to her mouth.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Anna, let me tell you something about guys.”  Yuki said.  “At some point they really do want someone to grow old with and have kids with.  Since you can do neither...it’s going to be really, really tough for you to find a lasting relationship.”

    Anna sighed again, and looked down.  “I know.  I have a lot of people who care for me...I hope for a long time.  I do want to feel what it’s like to be loved physically for a little while too.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“I hope you get your wish.”  Yuki smiled and held up her glass, like in a toast.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Is Hatman like that too?”  Anna asked, referring to Yuki’s monologue a moment ago.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Oh, the worst kind.”  Yuki replied quickly.  “He’s so focused on having a family and kids, with passing down the family genetics.  His biggest ambition is getting married and settling down, and having two or three little Hatmans running around.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“And you know this because...?”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“He told me.”  Yuki said, sounding a little sad.  “It was part of his introduction into why my offer of getting into a relationship with him wouldn’t work.  I can’t have kids, you know...one of the drawbacks to having a mechanical body.  I also won’t grow old like he does.  Well, those, and the fact that the words ‘settle down’ aren’t really in my dictionary.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“He looks at things so logically, so coldly.”  Anna observed.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Yeah.”  Yuki agreed sadly.  “It’s to protect himself, really, Anna.  After everything he’s been through, I guess he’s entitled.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“No, he really isn’t.”  Anna responded.  “At SPUD, all decisions there were made carefully and logically.  It was a cold, awful place, without regard to anyone’s feelings.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“A ‘mechanical girl’, worried about Jay’s logic hurting people’s feelings.”  Yuki laughed.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Yeah, it is kind of funny, isn’t it?”  Anna joined her in the laugh.  “I don’t think I could tell him, though.  I don’t want to hurt his feelings.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“No, you should tell him.”  Yuki suggested.  “Someone has to, he doesn’t listen to me or Dream or Liu Xi.  Maybe the raw irony of you telling him he’s being too cold and logical might get through.  Or the raw honesty.  You have both of those down perfect.”

    Anna nodded.  “I’ll think about it.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“He likes you, you know.”  Yuki added.  “I laughed at him when he asked me why SPUD made you so cute.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“He said that?”  Anna asked.

    Yuki nodded.  “Oh yeah.  I teased him about it for around an hour after that.  I’ve got to get to go now, I’m supposed to be across town for a meeting in ten minutes.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Are you going to make it?”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Eh.  Maybe.”  Yuki shrugged.  She hopped off of the ledge to the landing below, and then leapt down to the main floor.  “See you later!”  she called up the staircase.


---

    
    Lara Night awoke abruptly and painfully.  She fell to a cold marble floor, while she was still wearing her pajamas.

    Her head still ringing, and her hair disheveled, she looked up slowly, and raised herself up slightly.  At that point, she recognized the hard marble floor, and the columns, and large room.  She didn’t remember it being so cold, but she could see her breath.

    The Chronicler of Stories appeared out of nowhere, smirking with pompous superiority.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“While you’re here, I get a peek at every thought of yours,”  he said.  “Every dream.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“I...don’t understand.”  Lara mumbled tiredly.  “Why am I here again?”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Ah-ah, remember your promise to me.”  he corrected her.

    She did remember.  Lara calmly sat up wrapping her arms around her legs to keep warm, and listened quietly as she promised.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“You know about the Chaos Force in this universe, don’t you?”  he asked.  “And who the human embodiment of it is?”

    Lara nodded.  “CrazySugarFreakBoy!”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“And you know it has to be balanced by other forces of this universe?”

    She nodded patiently again.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“And that you absorb all forms of energy?”

    This time, Lara nodded more slowly.  She thought she knew where this was headed, but she promised to remain patient.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“You were intimate with him once.”  the Chronicler accused.  “You stole a small amount of Chaos Force from this universe.  You screwed up the balance, and I had to fix it.  Since then, you’ve been skating on thin ice with me.  And then you came here and had an attitude.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“May I ask a question?”  she asked patiently.

    He rolled his eyes, but wound one hand in a circle to tell her to go ahead.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Why didn’t you just tell me?”  she asked.  “If I’d known, I would have offered to fix it.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“It would have been an empty promise.”  he scoffed, rolling his eyes again.  “Let me make this simple, Lara.  Like I said, your presence here is tolerated at best.  So think carefully about the consequences of your actions.  You’ve used up all your second chances.  So you can forget about that dream you had before I pulled you here.”

    Lara knew he meant the partial dream she had about CSFB! before she was rudely awakened.  She blushed, and felt embarrassed, but tried to keep her composure.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“I understand.”  she said.  “Hey...is this why I feel weird at the thought of being intimate with him now?”

    The Chronicler sighed, and shook his head.  He then snapped his fingers, and was gone.

    Or actually, it was Lara who was gone.  She had been dropped violently back into her bed at the Lair Mansion.  “Ow.”  she whispered.  “He’s still so rude.  Maybe that’ll change someday.”

    She then glanced toward the window.  The weather was threatening rain, so she wouldn’t be going on a walk with Jay.  Instead, she crawled back under the covers and tried to warm herself after the chill of that marble floor, and she drifted back to sleep.


---


    The indoor pool at the Lair Mansion was empty.  Jay Boaz looked upward, through the glass greenhouse-like enclosure surrounding it, and noted the threatening dark skies above.  The walk he promised himself that morning was postponed, so he decided to take a swim for exercise instead.

    He dove into the water, dropping straight to the bottom, and then floated quickly back to the surface.  As he approached, but didn’t yet breach, the surface, he thought he saw movement around the edge of the pool.

    Liu Xi Xian was standing by the side of the pool in plastic slippers and a white terrycloth robe, contrasting her long jet black hair and brown eyes.  Over her left shoulder was a yellow towel.  She was silently watching him, and seemed to be contemplating whether to leave.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Come here for a swim?”  Jay asked.  “You’re allowed, you know.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“I...wasn’t sure if you wanted to be alone.”  she whispered.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“No, no, don’t worry about that.”  he replied.  “It’s not really safe to swim alone anyhow.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Okay.”  Liu Xi smiled and tossed her robe and towel into a beach chair.  Underneath she wore a tasteful and matching bright blue and black bikini.  She stepped out of the slippers, too.

    She dipped her foot into the water gingerly.  The indoor pool had warmer water than the outdoor one.  She looked upward as the storm outside produced a flash of lightning, but she was perfectly safe inside the glass enclosure.

    Liu Xi jumped in and swam around Jay, showing off her swimming agility.  She loved playing in water from a young age.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“You know,”  she said in her softly accented voice as she swam close to him, “I could do some really interesting things with the water in this pool.”

    Jay smiled.  “You probably should leave the water alone.”  he said.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Cannonball!”  the both heard echoing loudly through the pool room.  

    The two of them knew what it was, and had just enough time to dive under the surface before Dreamcatcher Foxglove crashed violently into the water, splashing nearly every chair on one side of the pool.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Hi guys.”  he said as the two of them surfaced.  He looked at Liu Xi and asked, “What’re you wearing a top for?  It’s not like this is a public beach.  C’mon, let ‘em run free!”

    She rolled her eyes and poked her thumb at Jay.  “I will if he wants me to.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Of course he does!”  Dream slid up behind Liu Xi and reached for the neat bow tied at the middle of her back.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Leave it alone, Dream!”  Jay protested.  He instinctively reached the bathing suit also, trying his best to keep it in place.

    Dream laughed heartily when he saw the shocked look on Jay’s face and realized the cause of it.  Jay was pressing one of his hands against the front Liu Xi’s chest to keep the bathing suit there.

    Fortunately for Jay, Liu Xi already knew what was happening, and was characteristically calm about it, even as Jay panicked and pulled his hand away quickly.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Could you leave us alone to talk please?”  Liu Xi asked Dream politely.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Sure, no problem.”  Dream climbed out of the pool quickly, and raced out of the glass room still dripping wet.  Liu Xi watched him go at first, but then she turned away abruptly.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“He wasn’t wearing a bathing suit, was he?”  Liu Xi asked Jay in a whisper.

    Jay slapped his own palm against his face, and sighed as he shook his head.  “I’m really sorry about...you know--”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“I didn’t mind.”  Liu Xi interrupted him calmly and patiently.  “I know you didn’t mean any harm.”  She finally laughed and added, “I think Dream was stalking us, waiting for us to get into the pool so he could jump in.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Probably.”  Jay cracked a smile too, and nodded slowly in agreement.  “That would be so him.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“You look distracted, like you have something on your mind.”  Liu Xi observed.

    His smile disappeared, and his eyes looked a little haunted, as he cleared his throat and said, “I do.  But can we get out first?”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Sure,”  she replied.

    Jay was a little impressed with how athletic the slim Chinese girl was - instead of climbing out using the ladder, she simply swam to the side of the pool, then pulled herself out vertically, returning quickly to her feet.  Obviously someone, probably Yuki, put her on an exercise regimen so she wouldn’t be so soft and idle anymore.  He could see it was definitely paying off.

    By the time he got out the same way she did, she dried herself with the towel she brought, and then tied it around her waist like a colorful skirt.  She then sat down and leaned back in one of the wooden deck chairs around the pool.

    Jay picked up the plain white towel he brought with him, and dried off.  He tossed it over his shoulders, and sat down on the lower part of the same chair, at Liu Xi’s feet.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“I talked to Faite.”  he nearly whispered, hoping his voice wouldn’t carry in the large room.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Really?”  Liu Xi sat up again.  “I haven’t seen her in...a long time.”

    Jay ignored that part and went on.  “She gave me a choice.  One that would let me live a normal life.  She said she could take the Serious Matter...so I would just be Jay, and not Hatman anymore.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“That’s--”  Liu Xi started to say.  But she couldn’t think of the right words, so there was just silence between them.

    Above, the skies opened up, and rain started falling hard.  There was a flash of lightning, the wind picked up, and then thunder.  Jay and Liu Xi were protected in the pool room, but they could hear the sounds of it all within.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Do you know what you’re going to do?”  she finally asked.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Not yet.”  Jay replied.  “She told me I had some time to think about it.  But she also said the Lair Legion was going to be hunted, and I was going to be the first.”

    He looked up, sadness in his eyes, and added, “She knew I was lonely.”  he said.  He almost said more, but he cut himself off.

    Liu Xi frowned, and gently hugged him across the back and chest.  She rested her chin on his shoulder, so he could feel her damp hair against his ear and back.  

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“I know it too.”  she said.  “And that you had to give up so much that you loved to stay with us.  But Jay...giving up your powers won’t guarantee you can have it all back.  In fact, you’ll be giving up even more of what’s...you.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“I know.”  he agreed.  Then he whispered, “Faite also said I had friends who would protect me.”  As Liu Xi let him go, he looked at her.  “I guess she means you.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“I would protect you.”  she acknowledged.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“That’s what makes this so complicated.”  Jay explained.  “I don’t want my friends to get hurt protecting me.  As long as I have powers that won’t happen.  But, maybe it’s my powers that will put my friends in danger.”

    Liu Xi frowned, and sighed impatiently.  “You have to stop doing that to yourself, Jay.  Look...if you need protecting, I will protect you.  Not because I have to, but because I want to.  But I don’t need protection from you.  So choose how you want to live your life, but don’t you dare make it about me.”

    Jay saddened, and fell silent for a short while.  Finally, he smiled sightly, and softly replied, “You’ve really changed, Liu Xi, you’re much stronger now.  I like it.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Yeah?”  she asked, smiling too.

    He nodded.  “And it’s making me feel a little better about deciding.  I’m still not sure what to do, but I feel like I can draw on your strength.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“I’m more than happy to let you.”  she said with a smile and a nod.  She leaned forward again, and whispered to him, “Just decide soon.  It’s easier to change your mind at the last minute than to try and make it up.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“I’ll do my best.”  he said.

    Liu Xi quickly said more.  “And don’t feel bad.  I don’t think Faite did this to hurt you.  I got to know her a bit, and I think she’s hurt as bad by this as you.  She thinks she’s helping.”

    Jay nodded sadly.  “I’ll keep that in mind.  I guess it’s about time I got back to work.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“I’ll see you later, then.”  Liu Xi told him.  She got up and picked up her robe as she headed out of the pool area.

    As she left, she turned to look out of the glass of the pool area.  She thought she saw the silhouette of a man outside...but she blinked, and it was gone.


TO BE CONTINUED
    

-- Story written and copyrighted (C) 2009 by Jason Froikin, and may not be 
--    reprinted without permission.  
-- Yuki Shiro designed by Jason Froikin, based on designs by Masamune Shirow
--  Liu Xi Xian and the Psychic Samurai are original design by Jason Froikin
--  Lara Night is an original creation by Jason Froikin