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+--- Thread: The Scoundrel Arrives (/showthread.php?tid=7011)
The Scoundrel Arrives - Aello - 11-17-2017
Aello had slept with her door open, again. This meant that she was either stoned out of her mind or having nightmares. More than likely it was a combination of both. Visili sighed as he knocked on the wall outside her room before inviting himself in. Empty pill bottles sat scattered across her floor like orange landmines. A tornado had gone through here recently and her name was Aello. The drawers to her dresser lay thrown across the room and empty. A layer of clothing covered her floor and hung itself from every available perch. The girl herself was half-naked and lying on her bed in a puddle of cold sweat.
“Come on Aello, time to wake up darling we’ve got work to do today,” Visili said, reaching out and shaking her bare leg.
“Eh, give me five more minutes,” Aello said and rolled onto her side.
She curled up into the fetal position and clutched at her stomach. She was wearing a grey sleeveless shirt and black underwear. Although it wasn’t very cold she shuddered and pulled her ball even tighter. Her high had worn off and she was out of drugs. In her panic to dope herself up she had torn through her room, trying to find any narcotic to dull the nightmares. Visili shook his head and sat on the edge of her bed, with a careful touch he rubbed her shoulder. He grabbed the blanket at the foot of her bed and pulled it up over her.
“Take your time,” he said, “I’ll go make us some breakfast and when you’re ready come out and eat.”
“Kay.” She responded, pulling the covers over her head.
She hated this. She hated her brain and she hated the drugs that she craved, but most of all she hated making Visili worry. He left the room and she spent a few more minutes acclimating to painful sobriety. There was a knot in her gut, right below her sternum. It felt like a gremlin was in her stomach, pulling her muscles tight and scratching at her lungs.
“Fuck,” she whispered and forced her body to sit up.
More a test of will than a physical challenge, she stood and stretched. The gremlin was still there, but at least she was up and moving. Picking up a set of clean clothes from the ground she shut her door and stepped into the shower. She stripped naked and took a long and hot shower, stepping out once the bathroom had been swallowed by a cloud of steam. Mornings to the poor girl were all about momentum. If she paused in her routine, even for a moment, it was very likely that she’d end up doing nothing for the rest of the day.
Aello wiped the thin film of steam from her mirror and appraised herself. The scars were still there as was her prosthetic arm. She frowned. Her right eye was slightly swollen and a ring of purple surrounded it. It was tender to the touch and blinking made it sting. Last night was clouded in a haze, but she could remember going out to the bar after Visili had fell asleep. She looked at her knuckles and sighed. Dried blood stained her prosthetic and the knuckles on her real arm were puffy and swollen. Something had gone done, but just what had she done? Her mind jumped through hoops trying to piece together the previous night, but memories came at her like trees in a fog -- distant and scattered. Well, she figured, if it was important it’d come back and bite her in the ass eventually.
Visili was working in the kitchen when Aello stepped into the living room. She sniffed the air and with a raised eyebrow wandered over to the stovetop. Eggs, honest to God, Visili was cooking eggs, a rare treat on the space station that would’ve costed him a pretty penny.
“Holy shit,” she said, “what’s the occasion?”
“No occasion” Visili answered, “just figured it’d be nice for a change.”
Aello’s eyes narrowed, but she decided to let it go. After all curiosity did kill the cat, and she had no interest in fucking up a good thing by being nosy.
“Damn, that’s a pretty good shiner you’ve got there,” Visili said, pausing a moment to get a good look at her face, “who did you fuck up?”
“Oh you know, just some creep trying to have his way with me,” she lied.
“Good for you,” Visili said before chuckling, “you’d think they’d learn their lesson, you’re probably the toughest chick on this space station.”
“Oh you know how they are, only thinking with their dicks,” she said and turned away. Something felt a bit off about the whole situation. Eggs for breakfast and blood in her sink. Something bad had happened.
Breakfast came and went. The two ate their fill of eggs, toast, and orange juice - another space station delicacy. Aello sat still, her eyes half closed. She was riding that pleasant wave of sleepiness known as a “food coma”.
Visili sat across from her and with a saccharine smile asked, “did you have a good breakfast?”
Aello raised an eyebrow, she knew something like this was coming.
With a bit of hesitation she answered, “yeah, it was alright.”
“Good! Cause I need your help,” Visili said.
“Always something ain’t it?” she said with a sigh.
“Oh don’t be like that,” Visili said, “anyways we need to find a ship that’ll take us to Eckert.”
“For what?”
“Got a message the other night, me mom’s real sick” he said before putting on a high pitched voice, “she says ‘if I don’t get to see my baby boy’s future wife before I croak I’ll be rolling in my grave’.”
Aello glanced away. She couldn’t remember her parents. Those nebulous years were nothing more than ghosts. Hell she couldn’t even remember her real name.
“Wait,” she said, pushing the thoughts from her head, “future wife? We aren’t even dating Visili.”
While it was true that they had fooled around on more than one occasion, a stable romantic relationship was not something that either wished for.
“Well once she gets an idea into her head there’s no stopping her,” he said.
Visili stood up and threw on his coat, and after a quick double check to make sure he had his essentials he put his hand on the door leading outside. Aello sighed and followed. Of course she’d help him, after all that’s what they did - help each other.
However she never got the chance to help him. As she stepped through the doorway her vision turned dark, like someone had killed all the lights. She tried to call for help, but her mouth has frozen, in fact her entire body refused to move. She was helpless.
Quote: “My name is Omni. This is not the world you know. This is the Omniverse. You interest me, so I have made you part of it. The Omniverse is a place that reflects the wishes of those who are part of it. But! There are rules. I will explain them only once, so listen carefully.”
Aello became aware of an entity, seemingly made from pure white light. She wasn’t sure how she had missed him, but his voice drilled into her head. She wanted to scream. She wanted to thrash. She wanted out. She wanted Visili. But all that she could do, was wait and listen. The being reached across the yawning chasm and held out an orb seemingly made from rainbows.
Quote:“This is Omnilium. It’s what ties the Omniverse together. Without it, you are nothing. With it, anything you desire can be yours. But you will need more than this. If you desire it enough, you will find it. You will find that using it comes naturally. Just think of what you desire most. You will not be alone in the Omniverse. There are others. Of course, they, too desire Omnilium. Do not fear death. For as long as you interest me, you will be reborn. That’s all you need to know right now. You’ll figure out the rest soon enough. I’ll be watching … and waiting.”
And with that her vision was flooded with a world of ivory. Her body was once again free to move and she found her heart going a thousand miles an hour. A fountain bubbled behind her and figures were present on the horizon of this white landscape. Visili was gone, and the Helios was nowhere to be found.
“What in the hell?” she asked outloud.