Reversed Chapter 9: Beauty and Knowledge
I have internet back! For the moment anyway. I'm in a different house now, and my computer's working fine on this connection. I guess it only has trouble reading the connection at my house. Awesome xD Anyhow! I'm taking this opportunity to post the next chapter of Reversed. I now have 5 new chapters ready to be posted, counting this one. In two chapters, Bernard becomes the focus of the story for a bit. I'm excited to get there. :D If you guys think it's a good idea, I'll post chapter 10 tomorrow (if only because I don't know when I'll get another chance with internet) or wait a while. I have a few other things I've been wanting to post, buuut their not as important. If you have any questions about this chapter, please ask, and as always, critiques, comments, thoughts&ideas, corrections, blah, welcome welcome welcome. Also, 3,977 words, 5 words more than the last chapter~
Title: Reversed
Chapter Title: Chapter 9: Beauty and Knowledge
Author: MassivelyMinute
Rating: PG So Far
Chapter Rating: PG
Characters in this Chapter: Roxanne, Abraham, Nigmadem, Minion, Nannarry, Nigma's Mother
Overall Summary: What if Roxanne was sent as a baby to Megamind’s home planet to survive, instead of the other way around?
Chapter Summary: Roxanne and Nigmadem finally make it to the secret place in the woods, and when Roxanne has something special of her own to show Nigma, he learns things that make him see her in a new light.
Chapter 9: Beauty and Knowledge
By ‘Our neighbors’ Nigma had been talking about a much larger scale, Roxanne had discovered as he explained the upcoming event on their walk back from shool. He hadn’t meant neighbor as in the building over, he had meant neighbor as in the planet over. The large, intimidating, slowly revolving, slowly rotating, moonless, golden planet with a single dense band of dust and ice: Geoluperia.
Nigmadem said the event was called Deciemesh. Every decade, a group of povoirans, which were the intelligent species of the planet, would travel from their planet to Caelumar as a kind of ‘learning’ experience for both povoirans and scirians. That last Deciemesh happened when Roxanne was six years old, and it would happen again now that she was sixteen. The povoirans who made the journey were chosen from the youth, only adolescents deemed mature and with enough self-control were picked. Not only was it for the education of the youths, but it also symbolized the long standing peace between the two worlds - something everyone seemed eager to maintain.
The planets had a system interplanetary trade, but direct interaction between the two races had become rare over millenniums of technological advancement. The people of Caelumar had mixed feelings about Deciemesh ; they are either fearful of the povoirans, excited to meet them, think it’s a waste of time, or feel it’s another opportunity for the povoirans to steal scirian technology. One thing everyone agreed on, however, was that it was good the event didn’t go both ways. No one in their right mind would want to visit the inhospitably inhabited planet where even the most impervious of the living struggled to stay alive.
Roxanne decided she was excited about it, even if the thought of meeting beings that had extraordinary strength, the ability to fly, lasers vision, and super speed made her a little apprehensive. It would be nice to be surrounded by people that looked like her, even if they had an entirely different body build, and were lacking in freckles. At least they had hair and tan skin. She felt lucky her district had been chosen to be one of the many hosts across the planet for the far traveling guests. Too bad they wouldn’t arrive for another thirty so star rises. She wondered how they would react to her, if they would be welcoming of a species that shared their face, or if they would shun her for her lack in super powers. Well, she thought as she prepared for her night adventure, I guess I’ll find out when they get here.
Night fell entirely too slowly, but now that it was here, she felt it was too soon. She had second thoughts about going outside, in the dark, at night, in the woods - a place she’d never been too or even thought of going too. Where does one even find a wood in this world of high chrome buildings of all sizes and shapes, wall to wall, fence to fence? The only trees and grass she had seen were ones placed by the roads, and it would seem they were only there for decoration, a brief slab of nature in the shiny metallic environment of computers and croscalators and shuttles. But, apparently, Nigma new a place and wanted to show her. So she would put on a brave face, swallow her fear, and go for her friend. He did say there would light, didn’t he?
Nannarry halted her on her way out the door, “And where are you going at this late hour, Ritchi? It’s pretty dark out there,” She said knowingly.
“Out. With a friend,” Roxanne replied simply, if not smugly, looking down at Abraham by her feet instead of at the silver eyed woman addressing her. She hadn’t told Nannarry about Nigma, and hadn’t had any reason too.
“A friend? Since when do you have a friend?”
Roxanne crossed her arms, “I told you once a long time ago I could make friends. It just took a while.” She sounded defensive.
“What kind of friend, what are they named?”
“Nigmadem,” She was getting impatient with the interrogation. Why does she even care?
“A boy?”
“Yes, a boy! A friend who’s a boy! I have a friend who is a boy, can I go now?”
Nannarry frowned, but shrugged as if she could care less. “If you think it’s a good idea, there’s no changing your mind anyway, is there?”
“I’ll be back,” Roxanne promised, and exited the building.
Reaching the croscalator where they were to meet, she sighed in relieve when she saw the glowing fish standing besides his master, already there waiting for her. Oh good, he brought Minion with him. It wasn’t only that she liked having the extra light, but she wasn’t sure Nigma wanted it to be just the two of them tonight. She had hesitated with bringing Abraham along, but gave in, knowing there was no way she could walk in the dark at night without him leading the way.
Nigma looked sour faced, but instantly brightened when he spotted Roxanne nearing. “See, Minion, here’s Roxanne now! I told you she’d come.” Minion rolled his eyes, “Sure you did, Sir.” She smirked, and had a feeling they had been arguing the opposite before she arrived.
Minion acted as leader and guided everyone back over the croscalator, with Abraham at his side, and Nigmadem and Roxanne taking up the rear. “So how long have you known about this ‘special place’ if you say you’re new to the district?” Roxanne inquired curiously.”
“Oh, I’ve known of this place since Minion and I were eight years old. This is my first time living here, but I used to come down here all the time with my parents to visit family and what not. Every time, we’d go to the place you’re about to see.”
Soon they were standing in front of one of the wider, taller structures of the area which had many floors where multiple families could live under the same roof. She hesitated when Nigma and Minion walked up to the entrance, “Why are you going in there?” They looked back and motioned for her to follow, “This is where I live, our arrangement is on the top floor,” Nigma explained, “Come on; we have to go through here and out the back in order to get to the woods.” She stalled a moment longer, wishing the buildings weren’t built so close together their walls kissed so that they could just go around. She didn’t like the idea of walking through a place full of people with distasteful gazes, but finally followed them.
The interior was oddly styled and completely riddled with advanced technology, just like the rest of the world. The walls were round and had absolutely no corners, vertexes, and edges, and seemed to be made of a computer screen - virtual clouds danced a cross an artificial blue sky. Thick glass was the floor, and beneath the glass electric charges reached up to where your feet were, licking the other side of the glass like ravenous tongues that followed you whenever you took a step. Chairs in the lobby floated, and the transparent tube of an elevator made a center piece. Everything that wasn’t a sky or decorative electricity was polished white. Fancy, Roxanne thought silently, hard to believe this place is middle class.
Once inside, heads turned and directed grimaces towards the human in the room, while others simply looked her up and down in surprise. Those who were surprised had probably never seen her around before. It didn’t matter how they were staring at her, Nigmadem met everyone with an open glare. “Staring is rude,” he pronounced loudly for all to hear, and slowly everyone looked away, a distant snort of disbelief came from someone. Roxanne curtained herself from the world with her long hair and covered her mouth with a hand to have a fight with a bout of nervous laughter even though nothing was funny. “I can’t believe you just did that,” she said in a trembling whisper through her fingers. Nigma shrugged, “I only offered them the truth. Staring is rude.” He started walking again and she kept up.
The group nearly made it to a door coming out of a deceptively realistic cumulonimbus cloud when a woman’s voice stopped them, “Nigmadem! I thought it was your voice a heard echoing through the place.” Nigmadem whipped around, “Mo-mother! You’re home!”
Roxanne turned around and her breath hitched - she was beautiful! She had perfect dark lips that required no makeup, and only a faint shade of blue accented her eyes, but the most noticeable of her features were her striking green eyes. So that’s where Nigma get’s his. Her natural beauty was stunning, and Roxanne swallowed a lump in her throat, knowing she would never be pretty. As the two held each other’s faces and press their foreheads together, she looked away from their moment.
“What are you doing here, shouldn’t you be at work?”
“I finished my quota early so they were kind enough to dismiss me sooner. Your father is still not as fast with his hands as I am, he stayed behind.” Her emerald irises spotted the human in the room, and Roxanne’s heart skipped a beat at her smile. “So, this is the unique and lovely creature you’ve told us about?”
Nigma purpled and coughed sheepishly, “Y-yes. This is Roxanne.”
Unique and lovely? Roxanne blinked and peered up at the older woman in a stupor.
“It’s a pleasure to finally meet you, Roxanne. I’m Dame Shibirry Kerserem. My spouse is Husman Tukun Kerserem. It’s ashame he isn’t here; he’d love to meet you as well.” Shibirry extended a hand and Roxanne felt stupid when she didn’t know what to do with it. Abraham climbed up her back and whispered into her ear, “Join hands with Dame Kerserem, Ms. Ritchi.” Oh, duh. I’ve never handlocked with someone before! Handlocking was like handshaking on earth, she realized, except instead of moving hands up and down, you twisted your wrists to one side and then the other, like locking something with a key. Shibirry’s hand was soft and warm with a delicate grip, while Roxanne’s were cold and trembling. “Thank you. I mean, the pleasure is mine.” She said quietly.
Nigma was barely containing his excitement as he watched his mother meet Roxanne. She seemed accepting of her. Not that he was surprised; he knew his mother would see her how he did. His father probably would too. He grinned like a fool, and hesitated looking at the door again, not knowing when he’d get to see Shibirry again, since she was always at work. “Listen, mother, I know we never see each other anymore…but, we were just heading somewhere…”
Just then, Shibirry’s minion approached from behind and tapped her on the shoulder to whisper something in her ear. The pudgy red and orange striped octopus creature with stubby tentacles and lacey fins looked apologetically at her master and master’s son with black marble- like eyes. Shibirry signed, but smiled and waved them off, “It’s fine. Plummers here is telling me I’m needed somewhere now anyway, you four have fun.”
They nodded and waved good bye before turning back to the door in the wall. It led to what seemed to be a storage room, and beyond that room was an area entirely dedicated to the overflow of wires, modems, and other electronics that fed into the magnificence of the building, sprouting out of the walls like out of control vines. It was cold because of the chilly fog that crept through the place to prevent overheating. Beyond the tangle was a final door, which they exited through swiftly.
Being in the lobby with walls designed to mimic the day time sky was a bit disorienting, Roxanne found, as she walked outside into the darkness of night. She shivered involuntarily even though the air was rather warm. “Are we close? To the place?”
“Very! Let’s go!” Nigma replied indicating a wall the height of an average person. “It’s just over this wall and a short walk after that. I promise.” She watched him climb up and over the wall like a pro. Then Minion approached her with his hands out, “May I?” She glanced at the wall and back to him and nodded slowly, and he picked her up by the hips and sat her on the top where she made the rest of the way over on her own. Minion climbed over himself with Abraham on his shoulder. Roxanne glanced around at the environment now around her. It was completely different from what she was used too, nothing but huge trees which were packed closely together, dark with red leaves, and red undergrowth made the floor of the wood. It was spooky. Maybe this wasn’t such a great idea after all…
“Now close your eyes.”
…Wait, what? “Wait, what? Close my eyes? In this dark place? Full of th-things?”
“Do you trust me?”
“I-I suppose, but -”
“Then close your eyes!” And with that he started off, leaving Minion to guide her from behind by the shoulders. “Eyes closed, Ms. Ritchi. Nothing dangerous in these woods except for me!” He said with a toothy grin. She nodded and squeezed her eyes shut, more out of fear of what might jump out at her from the shadows than anything, while he coaxed her forward. Abraham walked down Minion’s arm to her shoulder, and she instinctively grabbed him and clutched him to her chest.
Looking back at her, Nigma had to stop himself from chuckling out loud at her scrunched up face. She really was afraid of the dark; he smiled when he realized how she would have to trust him to allow him to take her to a place like this at night. Better not mess this up.
Roxanne had just tripped over her own feet for the fourth time when she heard him say, “Okay, you can open your eyes now,” so fast and excitedly the sentence sounded like one word. Minion took his hands away, and when she opened her eyes, she wobbled and jumped backwards at the sight she saw. And then what she was seeing sank in. And then she heard herself go, “Wow,” about ten times under her breath.
Before her was a lake, but the surface was so perfectly still, and reflected the sky above so well, one could mistake it as if a hole was cut out of the planet all the way to the other side, so that if you were to get too close, you could fall into never ending space. This is why Roxanne had jumped, feeling she was too close to the edge. Above, the stars shone brightly behind space clouds, and the two moons were the same height in the sky. Looking at the water’s surface, anyone would believe there were four moons. The light from the sky and the reflection gave everything a silver blush.
Nigma walked over to her while she continued to stare, spellbound. “Sooo…what do you think?”
“This place is amazing, Nigmadem! It, it, this, it’s, this is just…there are no words.”
He smiled widely, “I’m glad you like it, Roxanne. I knew you of all people would be able to see it for what it is, instead of what it could be, like space to be developed upon. I’ve never shown it to anyone, it’s a total secret.”
“Like it? Nigma, I love this. And I do appreciate it, this place is so…tranquil…pure.” She took her eyes off of the lake for the first time to look at him, “Thank you for showing me this. Thank you for trusting me.” She said quietly.
“You’re welcome.”
“The pH levels are perfect, Sir.” Minion’s voice cut in. Looking over her shoulder, Roxanne saw him poking his robot finger into the water and reading blue text that was appearing on the front of his glass dome. Ripples spread out through the surface of the water from the finger, temporarily destroying the illusion.
Nigma blinked and shook his head, “Huh-Oh, yes. Excellent Minion.”
“That reminds me!” Roxanne said suddenly, digging into one of her pockets, “I brought something to show you, too.” From her pocket she brought out a small glowing blue sphere. “Who ever invented pseudo-dehydration has got to be ridiculously rich,” She said as she dipped her own finger into the lake water and dripped it onto the sphere, which then transformed into a kind of hand held device.
“And whoever invented pseudo-dehydration has got to be ridiculously stupid. Having the object dehydrate into a cube shape would have been a much more practical design. Dehydration cubes would be better than dehydration spheres any day. And what’s that?” He questioned, pointing at the electronic.
She held the device close to her heart, and Nigma recognized it as the same device she had dropped on the floor when Abraham was used in a game of catch, the same day he had truly spoken with her for the first time. The way she cradled it and smoothed her thumbs over the plastic shell, he could tell it was something special. “This,” She began slowly, “is what I call my Earth Encyclopedia. It contains all the information I could ever want about my home world.” Roxanne’s eyes flicked up to his and then back down to the device, “You did say you wanted to learn more about Earth…right?”
He was momentarily silenced at her willingness to share with him such precious and private information. Then he shook himself, “Yes, absolutely! That encyclopedia was sent with you when you came here?”
Roxanne chuckled, “You mean you can’t recognize your own world’s technology? No, this device was created for me; the information was originally contained in books and other items from my planet.”
“What’s a bukk?”
“And so it begins!” She said with a smile. “Is there any place we can sit around here?”
Nigmadem led her over to a boulder resting on the edge of the trees a small way away from the shore. It looked smoothed from the many times he’d sat on it with Minion when they visited. They took a seat and Roxanne explained what books were as she turned the encyclopedia on. The screen came to life with a rotating image of Earth. “Beautiful.” He commented, staring at the blue and green planet with white caps and swirling clouds. “What’s all of that green?”
“Vegetation.” She answered as she tapped the touch screen a few times, bringing up a new image. “And this is what a book looks like. If you didn’t want to use artificial light, you could read them with candles.”
“Oh! oh! Show me what a candle looks like!”
It was for a long while they just sat with Roxanne teaching Nigma about Earth, about how most of the vegetation was green instead of red, about the weather and geography and how similar it was to Caelumar, about how there was only one moon named Luna and one star named Sun, about what freckles really were, and about the people and races. When Nigma had first seen an image with all different colored humans, he had asked enthusiastically if she could change the color of her skin. Finally she started to show him the different animals, beginning naturally with fish and other marine life.
“Dolphins would make great minions if they were smaller,” He commented.
“And dolphins aren’t the only intelligent mammals; apes have pretty impressive brains too. There’s some speculation that humans evolved from apes, like chimpanzees.” Roxanne pulled up information and pictures about apes.
“We aren’t sure where scirians evolved from. Don’t even mention a missing link; we have a completely broken chain. We probably just haven’t looked hard enough; society is too busy sticking its head in clouds to be digging holes.”
“I think your species probably just thought itself up one day,” She commented jokingly.
He laughed and agreed, “Yeah, probably. Tell me more about apes.”
“Many apes are capable of creating and using tools, or even learning how to communicate through hand signs.”
“What is That?” He asked, pointing at a black hairy beast baring its teeth.
“That’s a gorilla,” She tapped the image to bring up more gorilla info. “They’re the biggest of the apes and live in social groups with an intricate hierarchy. That’s a picture of a silverback, a dominate male.
“I like gorillas. I like them a lot.” He smirked and stroked the hair on his chin as though pondering something. Then he thought of something, “Hey, what kind of animal is Abraham supposed to be?”
Roxanne looked up at her teddy. He was sitting on the still form of Minion’s robot body while Minion himself swam in the lake. Minion poked his face out of the water and laughed when Abraham acted startled after Minion’s fishless body stood up and started walking around. Then Abraham looked like he was spurring the body forward while Minion swam along side. He looked like he was having fun, until she remembered he wasn’t real, and he wasn’t really having fun, he was only acting. It was fake-fun. She blinked and looked back down at the encyclopedia, “Abraham is designed to look like the toy form of a bear called a teddy bear.” She brought up pictures and data all about bears on the screen. “Bears are large carnivorous mammals who can be very aggressive and territorial, especially about their young, who are called cubs. They can also be very social and loving.”
Nigma smiled at the robot and his minion playing. “It suits him, I think.”
“Hmmm,”
He sensed it was time for a topic change. “I think I’d like to visit Earth someday in the future, if I ever earn a space travel permit.”
Roxanne faced him directly then, surprise and sorrow evident in her facial features. “What?” Nigma asked, confused.
“Oh, I’m sorry Nigma I didn’t mean too…but I guess the way I was talking…Nigma, Earth doesn’t exist anymore. It’s dead, I was sent here right before the Sun went super nova. I’m the last of my kind, Nigma, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner…”
It was then Nigmadem decided that he was a part of the most intelligent species who didn’t think. He had never even questioned why Roxanne was here, he just new she was, and he was glad. Of course there was a reason; no one is just sent away from their home to a foreign world at random. And why was she apologizing to him, he was the one too stupid to make the connection? How tragic and completely lonely, he thought, and then realized she was still talking.
“…I was talking as though Earth was still around. I guess that was a subconscious decision. Sometimes I allow myself to believe it’s still out there, waiting for me to return. But I’m just lying to myself. There is no going back, there’s no one waiting for me. Sometimes I wish I could have shared the rest of humanities fate, or that I was never found out in that asteroid field.” Her voice trailed off to a whisper, and her eyes were distant as they stared out into the stars. I’m not going to cry, she told herself, I haven’t cried since I was ten.
Nigmadem didn’t know what to say or if he should speak at all, so he did the only thing he could think of at the moment. He reached out and took hold of one her hands, covering it with his own and gave a gentle squeeze. The action spoke louder than words; you’re not alone any more. She couldn’t hold back the tears after that.
Also, Merry Christmas! I hope you all had a good one, I did ^_^
Title: Reversed
Chapter Title: Chapter 9: Beauty and Knowledge
Author: MassivelyMinute
Rating: PG So Far
Chapter Rating: PG
Characters in this Chapter: Roxanne, Abraham, Nigmadem, Minion, Nannarry, Nigma's Mother
Overall Summary: What if Roxanne was sent as a baby to Megamind’s home planet to survive, instead of the other way around?
Chapter Summary: Roxanne and Nigmadem finally make it to the secret place in the woods, and when Roxanne has something special of her own to show Nigma, he learns things that make him see her in a new light.
Chapter 9: Beauty and Knowledge
By ‘Our neighbors’ Nigma had been talking about a much larger scale, Roxanne had discovered as he explained the upcoming event on their walk back from shool. He hadn’t meant neighbor as in the building over, he had meant neighbor as in the planet over. The large, intimidating, slowly revolving, slowly rotating, moonless, golden planet with a single dense band of dust and ice: Geoluperia.
Nigmadem said the event was called Deciemesh. Every decade, a group of povoirans, which were the intelligent species of the planet, would travel from their planet to Caelumar as a kind of ‘learning’ experience for both povoirans and scirians. That last Deciemesh happened when Roxanne was six years old, and it would happen again now that she was sixteen. The povoirans who made the journey were chosen from the youth, only adolescents deemed mature and with enough self-control were picked. Not only was it for the education of the youths, but it also symbolized the long standing peace between the two worlds - something everyone seemed eager to maintain.
The planets had a system interplanetary trade, but direct interaction between the two races had become rare over millenniums of technological advancement. The people of Caelumar had mixed feelings about Deciemesh ; they are either fearful of the povoirans, excited to meet them, think it’s a waste of time, or feel it’s another opportunity for the povoirans to steal scirian technology. One thing everyone agreed on, however, was that it was good the event didn’t go both ways. No one in their right mind would want to visit the inhospitably inhabited planet where even the most impervious of the living struggled to stay alive.
Roxanne decided she was excited about it, even if the thought of meeting beings that had extraordinary strength, the ability to fly, lasers vision, and super speed made her a little apprehensive. It would be nice to be surrounded by people that looked like her, even if they had an entirely different body build, and were lacking in freckles. At least they had hair and tan skin. She felt lucky her district had been chosen to be one of the many hosts across the planet for the far traveling guests. Too bad they wouldn’t arrive for another thirty so star rises. She wondered how they would react to her, if they would be welcoming of a species that shared their face, or if they would shun her for her lack in super powers. Well, she thought as she prepared for her night adventure, I guess I’ll find out when they get here.
Night fell entirely too slowly, but now that it was here, she felt it was too soon. She had second thoughts about going outside, in the dark, at night, in the woods - a place she’d never been too or even thought of going too. Where does one even find a wood in this world of high chrome buildings of all sizes and shapes, wall to wall, fence to fence? The only trees and grass she had seen were ones placed by the roads, and it would seem they were only there for decoration, a brief slab of nature in the shiny metallic environment of computers and croscalators and shuttles. But, apparently, Nigma new a place and wanted to show her. So she would put on a brave face, swallow her fear, and go for her friend. He did say there would light, didn’t he?
Nannarry halted her on her way out the door, “And where are you going at this late hour, Ritchi? It’s pretty dark out there,” She said knowingly.
“Out. With a friend,” Roxanne replied simply, if not smugly, looking down at Abraham by her feet instead of at the silver eyed woman addressing her. She hadn’t told Nannarry about Nigma, and hadn’t had any reason too.
“A friend? Since when do you have a friend?”
Roxanne crossed her arms, “I told you once a long time ago I could make friends. It just took a while.” She sounded defensive.
“What kind of friend, what are they named?”
“Nigmadem,” She was getting impatient with the interrogation. Why does she even care?
“A boy?”
“Yes, a boy! A friend who’s a boy! I have a friend who is a boy, can I go now?”
Nannarry frowned, but shrugged as if she could care less. “If you think it’s a good idea, there’s no changing your mind anyway, is there?”
“I’ll be back,” Roxanne promised, and exited the building.
Reaching the croscalator where they were to meet, she sighed in relieve when she saw the glowing fish standing besides his master, already there waiting for her. Oh good, he brought Minion with him. It wasn’t only that she liked having the extra light, but she wasn’t sure Nigma wanted it to be just the two of them tonight. She had hesitated with bringing Abraham along, but gave in, knowing there was no way she could walk in the dark at night without him leading the way.
Nigma looked sour faced, but instantly brightened when he spotted Roxanne nearing. “See, Minion, here’s Roxanne now! I told you she’d come.” Minion rolled his eyes, “Sure you did, Sir.” She smirked, and had a feeling they had been arguing the opposite before she arrived.
Minion acted as leader and guided everyone back over the croscalator, with Abraham at his side, and Nigmadem and Roxanne taking up the rear. “So how long have you known about this ‘special place’ if you say you’re new to the district?” Roxanne inquired curiously.”
“Oh, I’ve known of this place since Minion and I were eight years old. This is my first time living here, but I used to come down here all the time with my parents to visit family and what not. Every time, we’d go to the place you’re about to see.”
Soon they were standing in front of one of the wider, taller structures of the area which had many floors where multiple families could live under the same roof. She hesitated when Nigma and Minion walked up to the entrance, “Why are you going in there?” They looked back and motioned for her to follow, “This is where I live, our arrangement is on the top floor,” Nigma explained, “Come on; we have to go through here and out the back in order to get to the woods.” She stalled a moment longer, wishing the buildings weren’t built so close together their walls kissed so that they could just go around. She didn’t like the idea of walking through a place full of people with distasteful gazes, but finally followed them.
The interior was oddly styled and completely riddled with advanced technology, just like the rest of the world. The walls were round and had absolutely no corners, vertexes, and edges, and seemed to be made of a computer screen - virtual clouds danced a cross an artificial blue sky. Thick glass was the floor, and beneath the glass electric charges reached up to where your feet were, licking the other side of the glass like ravenous tongues that followed you whenever you took a step. Chairs in the lobby floated, and the transparent tube of an elevator made a center piece. Everything that wasn’t a sky or decorative electricity was polished white. Fancy, Roxanne thought silently, hard to believe this place is middle class.
Once inside, heads turned and directed grimaces towards the human in the room, while others simply looked her up and down in surprise. Those who were surprised had probably never seen her around before. It didn’t matter how they were staring at her, Nigmadem met everyone with an open glare. “Staring is rude,” he pronounced loudly for all to hear, and slowly everyone looked away, a distant snort of disbelief came from someone. Roxanne curtained herself from the world with her long hair and covered her mouth with a hand to have a fight with a bout of nervous laughter even though nothing was funny. “I can’t believe you just did that,” she said in a trembling whisper through her fingers. Nigma shrugged, “I only offered them the truth. Staring is rude.” He started walking again and she kept up.
The group nearly made it to a door coming out of a deceptively realistic cumulonimbus cloud when a woman’s voice stopped them, “Nigmadem! I thought it was your voice a heard echoing through the place.” Nigmadem whipped around, “Mo-mother! You’re home!”
Roxanne turned around and her breath hitched - she was beautiful! She had perfect dark lips that required no makeup, and only a faint shade of blue accented her eyes, but the most noticeable of her features were her striking green eyes. So that’s where Nigma get’s his. Her natural beauty was stunning, and Roxanne swallowed a lump in her throat, knowing she would never be pretty. As the two held each other’s faces and press their foreheads together, she looked away from their moment.
“What are you doing here, shouldn’t you be at work?”
“I finished my quota early so they were kind enough to dismiss me sooner. Your father is still not as fast with his hands as I am, he stayed behind.” Her emerald irises spotted the human in the room, and Roxanne’s heart skipped a beat at her smile. “So, this is the unique and lovely creature you’ve told us about?”
Nigma purpled and coughed sheepishly, “Y-yes. This is Roxanne.”
Unique and lovely? Roxanne blinked and peered up at the older woman in a stupor.
“It’s a pleasure to finally meet you, Roxanne. I’m Dame Shibirry Kerserem. My spouse is Husman Tukun Kerserem. It’s ashame he isn’t here; he’d love to meet you as well.” Shibirry extended a hand and Roxanne felt stupid when she didn’t know what to do with it. Abraham climbed up her back and whispered into her ear, “Join hands with Dame Kerserem, Ms. Ritchi.” Oh, duh. I’ve never handlocked with someone before! Handlocking was like handshaking on earth, she realized, except instead of moving hands up and down, you twisted your wrists to one side and then the other, like locking something with a key. Shibirry’s hand was soft and warm with a delicate grip, while Roxanne’s were cold and trembling. “Thank you. I mean, the pleasure is mine.” She said quietly.
Nigma was barely containing his excitement as he watched his mother meet Roxanne. She seemed accepting of her. Not that he was surprised; he knew his mother would see her how he did. His father probably would too. He grinned like a fool, and hesitated looking at the door again, not knowing when he’d get to see Shibirry again, since she was always at work. “Listen, mother, I know we never see each other anymore…but, we were just heading somewhere…”
Just then, Shibirry’s minion approached from behind and tapped her on the shoulder to whisper something in her ear. The pudgy red and orange striped octopus creature with stubby tentacles and lacey fins looked apologetically at her master and master’s son with black marble- like eyes. Shibirry signed, but smiled and waved them off, “It’s fine. Plummers here is telling me I’m needed somewhere now anyway, you four have fun.”
They nodded and waved good bye before turning back to the door in the wall. It led to what seemed to be a storage room, and beyond that room was an area entirely dedicated to the overflow of wires, modems, and other electronics that fed into the magnificence of the building, sprouting out of the walls like out of control vines. It was cold because of the chilly fog that crept through the place to prevent overheating. Beyond the tangle was a final door, which they exited through swiftly.
Being in the lobby with walls designed to mimic the day time sky was a bit disorienting, Roxanne found, as she walked outside into the darkness of night. She shivered involuntarily even though the air was rather warm. “Are we close? To the place?”
“Very! Let’s go!” Nigma replied indicating a wall the height of an average person. “It’s just over this wall and a short walk after that. I promise.” She watched him climb up and over the wall like a pro. Then Minion approached her with his hands out, “May I?” She glanced at the wall and back to him and nodded slowly, and he picked her up by the hips and sat her on the top where she made the rest of the way over on her own. Minion climbed over himself with Abraham on his shoulder. Roxanne glanced around at the environment now around her. It was completely different from what she was used too, nothing but huge trees which were packed closely together, dark with red leaves, and red undergrowth made the floor of the wood. It was spooky. Maybe this wasn’t such a great idea after all…
“Now close your eyes.”
…Wait, what? “Wait, what? Close my eyes? In this dark place? Full of th-things?”
“Do you trust me?”
“I-I suppose, but -”
“Then close your eyes!” And with that he started off, leaving Minion to guide her from behind by the shoulders. “Eyes closed, Ms. Ritchi. Nothing dangerous in these woods except for me!” He said with a toothy grin. She nodded and squeezed her eyes shut, more out of fear of what might jump out at her from the shadows than anything, while he coaxed her forward. Abraham walked down Minion’s arm to her shoulder, and she instinctively grabbed him and clutched him to her chest.
Looking back at her, Nigma had to stop himself from chuckling out loud at her scrunched up face. She really was afraid of the dark; he smiled when he realized how she would have to trust him to allow him to take her to a place like this at night. Better not mess this up.
Roxanne had just tripped over her own feet for the fourth time when she heard him say, “Okay, you can open your eyes now,” so fast and excitedly the sentence sounded like one word. Minion took his hands away, and when she opened her eyes, she wobbled and jumped backwards at the sight she saw. And then what she was seeing sank in. And then she heard herself go, “Wow,” about ten times under her breath.
Before her was a lake, but the surface was so perfectly still, and reflected the sky above so well, one could mistake it as if a hole was cut out of the planet all the way to the other side, so that if you were to get too close, you could fall into never ending space. This is why Roxanne had jumped, feeling she was too close to the edge. Above, the stars shone brightly behind space clouds, and the two moons were the same height in the sky. Looking at the water’s surface, anyone would believe there were four moons. The light from the sky and the reflection gave everything a silver blush.
Nigma walked over to her while she continued to stare, spellbound. “Sooo…what do you think?”
“This place is amazing, Nigmadem! It, it, this, it’s, this is just…there are no words.”
He smiled widely, “I’m glad you like it, Roxanne. I knew you of all people would be able to see it for what it is, instead of what it could be, like space to be developed upon. I’ve never shown it to anyone, it’s a total secret.”
“Like it? Nigma, I love this. And I do appreciate it, this place is so…tranquil…pure.” She took her eyes off of the lake for the first time to look at him, “Thank you for showing me this. Thank you for trusting me.” She said quietly.
“You’re welcome.”
“The pH levels are perfect, Sir.” Minion’s voice cut in. Looking over her shoulder, Roxanne saw him poking his robot finger into the water and reading blue text that was appearing on the front of his glass dome. Ripples spread out through the surface of the water from the finger, temporarily destroying the illusion.
Nigma blinked and shook his head, “Huh-Oh, yes. Excellent Minion.”
“That reminds me!” Roxanne said suddenly, digging into one of her pockets, “I brought something to show you, too.” From her pocket she brought out a small glowing blue sphere. “Who ever invented pseudo-dehydration has got to be ridiculously rich,” She said as she dipped her own finger into the lake water and dripped it onto the sphere, which then transformed into a kind of hand held device.
“And whoever invented pseudo-dehydration has got to be ridiculously stupid. Having the object dehydrate into a cube shape would have been a much more practical design. Dehydration cubes would be better than dehydration spheres any day. And what’s that?” He questioned, pointing at the electronic.
She held the device close to her heart, and Nigma recognized it as the same device she had dropped on the floor when Abraham was used in a game of catch, the same day he had truly spoken with her for the first time. The way she cradled it and smoothed her thumbs over the plastic shell, he could tell it was something special. “This,” She began slowly, “is what I call my Earth Encyclopedia. It contains all the information I could ever want about my home world.” Roxanne’s eyes flicked up to his and then back down to the device, “You did say you wanted to learn more about Earth…right?”
He was momentarily silenced at her willingness to share with him such precious and private information. Then he shook himself, “Yes, absolutely! That encyclopedia was sent with you when you came here?”
Roxanne chuckled, “You mean you can’t recognize your own world’s technology? No, this device was created for me; the information was originally contained in books and other items from my planet.”
“What’s a bukk?”
“And so it begins!” She said with a smile. “Is there any place we can sit around here?”
Nigmadem led her over to a boulder resting on the edge of the trees a small way away from the shore. It looked smoothed from the many times he’d sat on it with Minion when they visited. They took a seat and Roxanne explained what books were as she turned the encyclopedia on. The screen came to life with a rotating image of Earth. “Beautiful.” He commented, staring at the blue and green planet with white caps and swirling clouds. “What’s all of that green?”
“Vegetation.” She answered as she tapped the touch screen a few times, bringing up a new image. “And this is what a book looks like. If you didn’t want to use artificial light, you could read them with candles.”
“Oh! oh! Show me what a candle looks like!”
It was for a long while they just sat with Roxanne teaching Nigma about Earth, about how most of the vegetation was green instead of red, about the weather and geography and how similar it was to Caelumar, about how there was only one moon named Luna and one star named Sun, about what freckles really were, and about the people and races. When Nigma had first seen an image with all different colored humans, he had asked enthusiastically if she could change the color of her skin. Finally she started to show him the different animals, beginning naturally with fish and other marine life.
“Dolphins would make great minions if they were smaller,” He commented.
“And dolphins aren’t the only intelligent mammals; apes have pretty impressive brains too. There’s some speculation that humans evolved from apes, like chimpanzees.” Roxanne pulled up information and pictures about apes.
“We aren’t sure where scirians evolved from. Don’t even mention a missing link; we have a completely broken chain. We probably just haven’t looked hard enough; society is too busy sticking its head in clouds to be digging holes.”
“I think your species probably just thought itself up one day,” She commented jokingly.
He laughed and agreed, “Yeah, probably. Tell me more about apes.”
“Many apes are capable of creating and using tools, or even learning how to communicate through hand signs.”
“What is That?” He asked, pointing at a black hairy beast baring its teeth.
“That’s a gorilla,” She tapped the image to bring up more gorilla info. “They’re the biggest of the apes and live in social groups with an intricate hierarchy. That’s a picture of a silverback, a dominate male.
“I like gorillas. I like them a lot.” He smirked and stroked the hair on his chin as though pondering something. Then he thought of something, “Hey, what kind of animal is Abraham supposed to be?”
Roxanne looked up at her teddy. He was sitting on the still form of Minion’s robot body while Minion himself swam in the lake. Minion poked his face out of the water and laughed when Abraham acted startled after Minion’s fishless body stood up and started walking around. Then Abraham looked like he was spurring the body forward while Minion swam along side. He looked like he was having fun, until she remembered he wasn’t real, and he wasn’t really having fun, he was only acting. It was fake-fun. She blinked and looked back down at the encyclopedia, “Abraham is designed to look like the toy form of a bear called a teddy bear.” She brought up pictures and data all about bears on the screen. “Bears are large carnivorous mammals who can be very aggressive and territorial, especially about their young, who are called cubs. They can also be very social and loving.”
Nigma smiled at the robot and his minion playing. “It suits him, I think.”
“Hmmm,”
He sensed it was time for a topic change. “I think I’d like to visit Earth someday in the future, if I ever earn a space travel permit.”
Roxanne faced him directly then, surprise and sorrow evident in her facial features. “What?” Nigma asked, confused.
“Oh, I’m sorry Nigma I didn’t mean too…but I guess the way I was talking…Nigma, Earth doesn’t exist anymore. It’s dead, I was sent here right before the Sun went super nova. I’m the last of my kind, Nigma, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner…”
It was then Nigmadem decided that he was a part of the most intelligent species who didn’t think. He had never even questioned why Roxanne was here, he just new she was, and he was glad. Of course there was a reason; no one is just sent away from their home to a foreign world at random. And why was she apologizing to him, he was the one too stupid to make the connection? How tragic and completely lonely, he thought, and then realized she was still talking.
“…I was talking as though Earth was still around. I guess that was a subconscious decision. Sometimes I allow myself to believe it’s still out there, waiting for me to return. But I’m just lying to myself. There is no going back, there’s no one waiting for me. Sometimes I wish I could have shared the rest of humanities fate, or that I was never found out in that asteroid field.” Her voice trailed off to a whisper, and her eyes were distant as they stared out into the stars. I’m not going to cry, she told herself, I haven’t cried since I was ten.
Nigmadem didn’t know what to say or if he should speak at all, so he did the only thing he could think of at the moment. He reached out and took hold of one her hands, covering it with his own and gave a gentle squeeze. The action spoke louder than words; you’re not alone any more. She couldn’t hold back the tears after that.
Also, Merry Christmas! I hope you all had a good one, I did ^_^