Wednesday, February 1, 2006

   Chibis Gone Wild! Chapter 2
What is this? Find out.

Chapter 2: Because They Do.

Sanzo stands so abruptly that all eyes in the bar turn to him. The inebriated stares and comments go unnoticed by Sanzo, however, as he is lost in some inner vista.

He leaves: not a word, and hardly a stagger.

But not before Goku looks up from his food long enough to say, "Hey, yeah! That was a great story!"




"How the hell would you know?" Gojyo slurs in rebuttal. "You never stayed awake through the whole thing!"

"So? It had a great beginning, and Sanzo said it had a happy ending!"

"Not all happy endings are good endings, idiot..."

"Both of you, stop!"




Like magic, they stop.

It's the Voice. Hakkai can threaten evisceration with a tone, not even a word, or a facial expression. He could hum 'I'm going to eat your liver.'

It tends to evoke cooperation.




Gojyo and Goku sit, hands politely folded, deeply attached to their respective livers.

"Gojyo. I thought we'd agreed never to mention that Time again."

Gojyo hangs his drunken head, "I know..."

"Now you've upset Sanzo. We'll have to go and find him."

"Relax, Hakkai. He's probably just gone back to the hotel."




Hakkai sighs, and tries to stretch the tension out of his neck. "I'm sorry. But those are... disturbing memories for me as well. Aren't they for you?"

Gojyo studies his beer can with intensity, then sets it on the table with exaggerated gentleness. "Yeah. I guess."

"Then that settles it. Don't mention it again, just as we agreed. You, too, Goku. Just let it drop."

"Hm. Okay." Goku doesn't understand, but Goku agrees anyway, and that's normal enough. Agree, and no one smacks you.




They pay up and head out the door. High above, even the wispy clouds are disappearing, leaving the sky a smooth-glazed bowl.

Gojyo gazes absently up into it and mutters:

"But we were so damn cute!"

---

Thousands of miles and thousands of years away, someone else is very, very drunk.

She smiles happily in her quiet, little house and settles into a chair with a book and a tall glass of mostly rum.

The book is thick, wordy, deep and contains no pictures at all -

...unlike the one that remains tucked away on its low bookshelf. You know the one, "The Little Kitten Who Could."




The rum is consumed almost reflexively, a kind of charm to wards off thoughts of sparkling eyes and attempted huggings.

She snorts derisively at a passage in her book: "Extensions of subconscious thought, my ass! The guys a drunk, and he writes like a drunk. Get over it!"

This literary criticism echoes unchallenged through the empty house. And that's how she likes it: quiet, empty, unchallenging.

...though, sometimes...

Again, reflexive consumption of booze drowns out the whimpers of uncertainty.

---

Back at the mythic hotel, Genjyo Sanzo, great Buddhist icon, is once again drinking with determination.

Bad times, bad memories: Sanzo is full of them. All his bad memories are carefully tucked into separate mental files, ready to be taken out and examined for yet-more evidence of his personal weakness.

But none of them are as - disturbing? Humiliating? How to label the file for those days puzzles him still. The uncertainty troubles him, and he drowns the troubles desperately.



'I am a scary, cold-hearted bastard.' Sanzo thinks, with the precise care of the very-drunk-going-on-unconcious. 'I kill people. Often. I'm mean to people just because I can be. Because I don't give a damn what they think, and I don't need their help. I don't care if they even exist.'

'So what if I like kittens?'




He blinks.




He stares out the window in pure concentration. He carefully wipes his mind clear through meditation and more booze.

'Everyone likes kittens.'




He can't stop the thought. Bright sunshine does nothing to improve his mood. He is a cold-blooded killer, he doesn't care about people...

'But it's pre-programmed into the human psyche to like kittens. That's why I like... I mean, it's not possible not to like...'

"Damn it all." He mutters aloud, crushing the next beer can. He desperately tries to push all thoughts of the picture in his wallet out of his mind.

Cute though it is.




I'll post this one here as long as it stays PGish. If there's excessive swearing, or something, I'll post the link instead.

I figured you wanted something cute... since the Dream Chapter of Attack! didn't go over too well. Funny, I thought you would like the reversal of the guys in their jeep picking up a chibified narrator.

Ah, the audience is a harsh mistress... I mean, master. I mean...


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