An Outsider's Perspective Ch 5 (Patreon)

Good evening y'all. Sorry for the late post, was busy all day and I wanted to take some time to do one last editing pass.

I'll say that this chapter probably won't be the follow up some of you lot were expecting from Ch 4, but I'll say...yeah fair. But I do feel that this is what was best for the narrative.

Now, some of you lot will recognize part of what I did here. And to those I'll say, think deeper on it, and you might be able to predict some of the crazy that Alex and co will end up having to deal with. ;)

Anyways, here is chapter, drop me a comment if it pleases.

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Silly awoke instantly, there was no period of uncertainty, no grogginess, no confusion. She lay supine on her bed, her body had a slight stiffness from not having moved beyond minor adjustments for several hours, this would not bar her from explosive movement.

A large male was eighteen meters away and closing, his steps making any noise meant he wasn’t worried about detection, and though they were fast, they were unhurried, their heavy tread allowing her to relax.

She had no trouble recalling the events prior to laying down to sleep, as well as what she did on the hours prior to slumber.

Not only that, the clothes she had on were the clothes she wore on the night she remembered prior to sleep.

From this she surmised that this was, indeed, the morning, and that she hadn’t just recovered from severe trauma and injury.

As such, she remained where she was, and as Alex’s feet came closer to her door, Silly turned to her side and curled up into a ball.

She suppressed a twitch as her door opened.

“Jeebus, Silly, when will you learn to wake up on time?” Asked a deep male voice.

Silly scrunched up her face, turning over and making some mumbling noises.

“Don’t you give me that.” Alex said, walking into her room. “Up up and away.”

“It’s too early.” Silly complained, mock sleepily. “Five more minutes.”

“Nope.” Alex said, taking her blanket and dragging it off her. “If I let you sleep in, you won’t have time for breakfast.”

Silly grumbled and sat up slowly. She turned around and opened her arms toward Alex’s broad shoulders. “Carry me.”

Alex’s eye twitched.

As Silly was dragged out of her room by her ankle, a small pile of clean clothes dragged behind her on her outstretched arms, she theorized that he’d had one of those dreams that left him in a foul mood when he woke up.

Silly was the airheaded and somewhat spoiled little sister, so she would not begrudge him the comedic handling. It made for a nice change of pace.

She was dragged unceremoniously to the shower room, where Alex dropped her leg. “Take care of yourself. I’mma continue with breakfast.”

“Kaaaaay.” Silly said with a mock stifled yawn and walked into the shower room. “Thank you.”

Alex grunted in response, making Silly certain that he had, indeed, had a bad dream last night.

As she took off her night clothes and stepped into the shower, she reflected on how best to modulate her ‘sporty and spoiled little sister’ role to cause Alex the necessary amount of grief without getting on his nerves too much.

She showered quickly and checked herself in the mirror. A familiar face awaited her there, she noticed she was paler than usual and had slight bags under her amber eyes, and resolved herself to go to sleep the first time Alex told her to this time.

Her dark red hair was starting to show its true color in its silver roots, which meant Twiggy had gotten up early and had already taken care of her own hair, and would be on Silly’s case about her hair until she repainted it. It was also getting long enough to brush her shoulders, so it was about time to go for a trim.

She fiddled with the untouched silver streak she kept in her hair, then quickly dressed. The shirt was one of her favorites, Alex had made it for her, it was black, and it depicted in red and green color an ugly and boxy-looking robot with claws that were also guns, it had the words ‘EVERYONE HAS A PLAN UNTIL THEY RUN INTO A CRAB’ split between the top and bottom.

With that she put on her skirt that went down to mid-thigh, a light blue vest, and her shoes. Then went out to eat breakfast.

When she reached the apartment’s kitchen she saw Zoya, her head resting on her crossed arms at the table, her ear twitched as Silly approached, one red eye opening to look at her before her eye closed again and she continued resting. Out of everyone, Zoya had the hardest time getting up at the time they did. Once she was awake though, she was the Second In Command.

Twiggy was setting the table. Her dark blue hair was dark from its tips at her mid back to its roots, not counting the lone long silver streak she left untouched in the same spot as Silly. Other than the hair, the only differences between Twiggy and Silly was the scar over Twiggy’s right eye, and she was noticeably less toned than Silly.

She dressed almost identically to Silly, but her shirt was dark green, it had the words; ‘There are two kinds of people in New Eridu: 1. Those who can extrapolate from incomplete data.’

Once Alex explained the joke, Silly thought it was really funny.

Twiggy took one look at Silly’s hair, and huffed.

Ever since Alex had…taken them in, Twiggy had taken the role of the stern and nerdy older sister. It was nice, now that they didn’t have the old Captain—

…

It was nice.

Twiggy sighed and crossed her arms while glaring at Silly. “You went to bed late.”

Silly twitched. “I was in bed on-time.”

“And at what time did you stop browsing Inter-Knot on your phone?”

Silly looked away.

“Silly!”

If movies had taught Silly anything, it was that when people were angry at you, their vision was based on movement.

“Lay off her, Twiggy.” Alex sighed, laying a big plate in the center of the circular table, Silly perked up when she saw what was for breakfast.

She’d forgotten it was breakfast burrito day.

Silly’s favorite day.

“But—!”

“At least her vice is free.” Alex cut through Twiggy’s protests, making her flinch.

“That game has deep lore and engaging gameplay!” Twiggy hissed, her face turning red.

“Don’t stop it being a borderline porn gacha.” Alex pointed out ruthlessly. “Seriously, cut out the middleman and just play porn games. It’ll be cheaper.”

“It’s not porn!” Twiggy denied illogically.

“I know! That’s the problem!”

Silly watched the argument, silently finishing the first huge burrito and taking a big bite out of a second.

Unfortunately, they realized what happened shortly into her third, and Silly had to share the eggy and bacon and potato and beany goodness with Alex and her last sister.

And Zoya, once Alex shook her awake.

It still surprised her how little Alex ate, considering how much bigger he was than Zoya, Silly and her sister. But that meant more for Silly.

After breakfast, Silly and Twiggy helped Zoya take care of the dishes while Alex got ready, they were on their way out the door when Alex stopped and looked over his shoulder, a cloth facemask with the Starlight Knights logo covering the lower half of his…unique face. “Oh right, someone wake up Bean, I’ll go warm up the truck.”

“I’ll get it.” Silly said and went to their Bangboo’s charging station. A few pokes later, the unremarkable black Bangboo woke up, its face screen showing a pair of green circles for its eyes blinking blearily up at her.

“Ehnna?” It asked sleepily.

“Good morning, it’s time for us to go.”

“Ennne enah!” Bean answered, its pudgy body waddling forward energetically, the two cloth bunny ears on top of its dome-like head twitching excitedly at the prospect of another day weighing tables.

Silly locked the door, then for the sake of expediency, grabbed the handle Alex had welded onto Bean’s back and picked it up, the Bangboo’s pudgy limbs waving around in a moment of panic before it extended them and made its best imitation of a propeller airplane engine noises.

In ‘Ehnna’s.

She used the stairs rather than wait for the elevator to come back up, it was faster, and safe so long as she jumped down one story at a time. Because of that, she reached the bottom a little bit before Alex, Zoya and Twiggy did.

When Alex stepped out, he turned to look at Bean as it ‘Ehnn neh!’ed  its way through an areal dogfight. “Goddammit, I thought patched that!”

Twiggy skipped past him, tucking her hair behind her ear. “That patch only lasted a few hours before its voice modulator went back to Bangboo speak.”

“Why I oughtta…” Alex muttered, snatching Bean from Silly and tossing the Bangboo up and down to the small automaton’s audible delight.

Alex’s apartment was in a building in one of the more affluent middle class areas of New Eridu, it wasn’t much to look at, just a concrete rectangle, but it had an underground parking lot and afforded residents two parking spaces, or a discount to their rent if they only used one.

They walked past all the cars that were newer and had a shinier paintjob than Alex’s truck, itself sitting next to the biggest car in the parking lot, it also belonged to Alex and it looked just like a big van on raised wheels.

Alex tossed Bean unceremoniously into the mobile kitchen that was the truck’s bed, the rest of them piled into the truck’s cab, Zoya claimed the cramped seat in the back as she usually did so she could doze on the way. Twiggy took the middle seat, it was her favorite. Silly preferred to lean her head against the glass, she liked to imagine someone running next to the truck and jumping over other cars or whatever obstacle was on the sidewalk.

They drove out into the night, New Eridu never truly sleeping, the streets busy even at 0345.

As usual, when Alex drove, it wasn’t much later that they arrived at their usual spot outside a convenience store, at the crossroads between Lumina Square, Reverb Arena, and Ballet Twins Road.

And unlike Twiggy, he managed that insane feat without going more than two kilometers over the speed limit or running any green lights in the 255,0,0 RGB coordinates.

Alex parked, and they all climbed out, Bean waddling out of the back while dragging a box of sodas. Alex climbed in and set out the cooler while Twiggy and Zoya went to the convenience store to buy a few bags of ice.

Silly set up their foldable tables and chairs and switched out her tennis shoes for roller skates.

Even though she didn’t like them, she put on the knee and elbow pads, as well as the helmet Alex made for her. They looked horrible, but if she didn’t wear them Zoya would nag, and Twiggy, that traitor, would take her side.

Then again, that fit Twiggy’s role as the strait-laced older sister, so it checked out.

As Twiggy squeezed into the mobile kitchen to help Alex cook, Silly helped Bean get the drinks ready.

She then had to listen to Twiggy chop cilantro and onion, as well as get the beans and rice on the steam table while Alex cooked the six different egg dishes for the breakfast menu, the smell making Silly’s mouth water.

She skated by the window and picked up the breakfast taco plate that Alex snuck there for her when Twiggy wasn’t looking.

Their first customer arrived at 0718. A bleary-eyed office worker, one of their regulars. He made his order and shortly thereafter Silly delivered his breakfast tacos with a big side of beans.

By 0740 all their tables were filled, Silly and Zoya delivered to-go boxes to a steady string of vehicles. The smell coming from the truck changing as Alex grilled the meat he’d seasoned the night before.

At 1030 hours they changed to the lunch menu and at 1115 Silly skated to the back of the truck as Alex and Twiggy finished closing the big thermal insulated backpack for the lunch delivery.

“Don’t forget your lunch.” Alex said, tossing her that weird but tasty burger with shredded meat and a bunch of other stuff.

“Be back soon.” Silly said, and skated her way to the nearest Metro Station, and from there onto the line that would take her close to HAND Headquarters.

She ate her lunch on the way, some people on the Metro looking at her and probably wondering at Alex’s food.

It was weird, but it smelled good and tasted great, so that’s what mattered.

Once she reached her stop, Silly got off the train and continued to skate down the sidewalk, bobbing and weaving between other people, she hummed her favorite Starlight Knight’s theme song as she elbowed a purse snatcher on the way, snatched the purse before it could hit the ground, and dropped it on the hands of the old lady that had been trying to chase the boy that had stolen it from her.

Silly heard the old lady yell something about PubSec, but didn’t stop.

She didn’t talk to cops.

Except when Alex and Twiggy told her to.

She skated up the drab concrete road to the first barricade/checkpoint to get into the HAND building, she saw Lance in his suit, shades, and slicked down black hair, and drifted to a stop in front of the officer. “Hey.”

Lance twitched, he had rather slow reflexes for an officer that was supposed to be specialized in battling ethereals. “Ah, Miss Silly.” He looked at his watch. “Yeah, it’s about that time isn’t it.”

“Yup.” Silly answered, following him to the checkpoint’s table, setting down the backpack, and beginning to pull out the various plastic plates full of food in it.

She pulled out eight plates, each filled with a different dish, rice, and a big heaping of beans, as well as twenty ‘flour tortillas’ and sixty ‘corn tortillas’ wrapped in aluminum foil. The food had weird names Silly had trouble pronouncing, like ‘tortilla,’ or better yet ‘Burrito’ of which there were three tucked into the bag as well.

There was no way she’d be able to get everything back in there all neat and tidy.

Twiggy had looked into the food, apparently the style of cooking and its names came from an ancient ethnic group that was long extinct before the creation of Eridu. Making the food Alex made the only one of its kind in all of New Eridu, and the first time that style of food appeared in centuries.

Silly was sure this meant that Alex was from the far past and had gotten lost in a Hollow, only to emerge in the current day and adapt.

Twiggy had told her to stop being an idiot and watch less sci-fi movies.

After checking that everything was, indeed, food, Lance gave Silly a visitor’s badge and waved her through. Silly put everything back in the backpack as best she could and rolled her way into the building, then navigated around suited officers, until she reached the Section 6 office.

“Delivery from Bean Papi.” She called out.

There came a childish ‘Yaay!’ from one of the desks, before a bright blue Oni child stood up and waved her arms enthusiastically. “Silly, Silly over here!”

Not having needed the help spotting her (Sokaku stood out at the best of times) Silly rolled over, set down the thermal backpack, and grabbed the one the Oni had had next to her on the floor, opening it, she saw it was full of the fancy plastic Tupperware that Alex used for to-go meals, and they seemingly had been cleaned. “Yup, that’ll be at the usual discount.”

Sokaku laughed while making a pose she thought made her look grown up. “I cleaned them myself, and this time I didn’t break any of them by accident! Nagi had to stay late for meetings and couldn’t help me.”

Silly finished zipping up the bag and put her arms through the straps. Then put her hand on the Oni’s head and rubbed gently. “Good job little blue.”

Sokaku simultaneously made her posture more rigid and leaned into the head pats. She overpaid as usual, Silly gave her back the extra and the returned Tupperware discount as usual, and she was off.

She turned her back on the sounds of food being demolished and rolled around Harumasa as he zombie walked toward the Section 6 office and waved at the short-but-tall Hoshimi Miyabi.

The city’s youngest Void Hunter waved back, her face retaining its usual stern and cold expression, but her fox ears twitched in relaxed amusement.

Silly had learned that trick to tell a thiren’s mood from Alex.

Silly rolled past a PubSec officer who had the purse snatcher from earlier in the back of her car, the old lady probably telling her what had happened. Silly hummed the stealth song from Attack on Cyberz, thus ensuring she wasn’t spotted by the small mouse thiren PubSec lady.

Ignoring the calls for her to stop by the copper (she still didn’t know what a common metal had to do with PubSec officers, but Alex said it and he was smart so it was correct), Silly made it to the Metro.

Her belly rumbling, she sent Alex a DM on Knock Knock.

[Lumberjack: Can I have a seafood burrito?]

[Nevermore: Your desires are affronts to reality, good sense, aesthetics, and whatever passes for a god on this bleak armpit we call reality.]

[Lumberjack: Please?]

[Nevermore: …]

[Nevermore: I’ll have it ready when you get back.]

[Lumberjack: Thank you.]

[Nevermore: Apologize to whatever it is your worship for your transgressions.]

Silly didn’t know what ‘worship’ was, or ‘transgressions’ she thought about asking Alex but she didn’t want him to know she was even dumber than he knew about, so she resolved to ask Zoya later.

She got off at her station and rolled to the corner where the van was parked, by then it was 1320, and Bean looked tired as he bumbled around, Zoya looking her usual mix of sad and bored as she picked up the plastic plates Alex used for the business, Silly arrived and helped Zoya with serving food during the tail-end of the lunch rush.

At 1430 when the lunch rush was over, Alex set down a burrito for Silly which she took and ate gratefully.

Mmmh, salmon.

At 1500 their last customer left, and at 1510, Zoya, Silly, Twiggy and Bean put up the tables, threw out the ice in the cooler, put away the plates to be washed at home, and piled into the truck.

Bean snuck into the back of the cab, and Silly took advantage to sit the pudgy Bangboo on her lap as she lay sprawled on the seat at the back, and rested her head against the Bangboo as Alex drove.

She woke up as the truck came to a slow and gentle stop.

“You know the drill.” Alex said, hopping out, carrying the duffel bag he took everywhere he went. “Twiggy, Silly, you each get to pick two movies. Zoya would you like to pick a movie this week?”

Zoya shook her head, then spoke for the first time of the day that Silly could remember, she still couldn’t place the Second’s accent. “No, it’s your turn this week.”

“I wanna watch Sharknami five.” Twiggy said.

Alex scoffed. “You need to grow a better taste in movies.”

Twiggy sniffed. “Sharks are cool.”

Alex opened the back door of the video store and held it open for them. “You’re not wrong. But those movies are trash.”

Silly moved away from them as they continued to argue, Alex went to the front desk and pulled the tapes they were returning out of his bag and gave it to the white and black Bangboo wearing an adorable little jacket, it wore an orange scarf with the number 18 on it.

She browsed the shelves and read the back of a few of the movies, and settled for Disappearing Elevator, she almost went for Dimensional Musketeer, but found Invasion: Next Gen, and the idea of Etherials that could exist outside of Hollows was too good to pass up.

“Finding everything okay?”

Silly twitched, realizing that she’d become so engrossed in reading the descriptions in the back of the movie cases that she’d failed to realize that Belle, one of the managers of the video rental shop, had snuck up on her.

Belle was taller than Silly by several centimeters, she had a long sleeve black shirt, a red glove on her left hand, an orange and grey jacket, a dark grey skirt, and she wore a knee-length stocking on one leg and a standard length sock on the other. Her dark green eyes were soft, open, and welcoming.

Alex would probably snap after a few days, he had a thing about blatant intentional asymmetry.

Silly had no idea how to handle people like Belle. All soft, and nice, and squishy.

Silly turned away, nervously tucking her hair behind her ear. “N-No, I’m okay. I mean. I found everything I needed.”

Belle’s smile widened, and the strangest thing was that Silly didn’t feel it was mocking. “Okay! So, what films did you pick?”

“Disappearing Elevator and Invasion: Next Gen.”

“Oh! Those are both really good!” Belle said, leaning forward slightly. “Invasion is a bit of an older blockbuster, but Disappearing Elevator was a surprise break-out hit! It had a really low budget, but the production team worked around and within it to make a really interesting narrative!”

Silly tried not to fidget. “Okay, that’s good.”

“Yep! Really solid choices!”

The following silence was a bit painful, so Silly pushed herself to ask. “What about Sharknami?”

Belle blinked. “What…What about Sharknami? Like, the first one, or the whole series?”

“Erm, Twiggy wanted Sharknami five.”

Belle leaned back, supporting one elbow with the opposite hand and cradling her chin as she frowned in concentration. “That’d be…Sharknami 5: Hollow Swarming. I think…no, I’m certain we have it. In fact it should be riiiiiight.”

Belle leaned past Silly. Silly could not help but notice that Belle left herself open to several avenues of attack, exposing her liver, armpit, and carotid artery. That was a mistake the Captain and Harin would have severely punished in training.

“Here!” Belle said, holding the tape. “Though if she’s trying to make her way through the whole series, she’ll also need Sharknami 6: The Sharkoning. Five is widely thought to be the lowest point of the franchise, with six being a nice return to form and a good capstone for the series. So it’d probably be best to check the both of them out at the same time and binge them.”

That would probably be an issue, over the last four weeks, Twiggy had rented one of the Sharknamis and one other movie because Alex insisted he needed ‘something actually decent’ after watching a Sarknami movie. She thought of it for a bit and held the Invasion tape out to Belle. “I’ll take Sharknami 6.”

Belle took it, tilting her head. “Any particular reason?”

“Alex said that if Twiggy ever forced him to watch two Sharknami movies in a row, he’d die of an aneurism. I don’t want him to die.”

Belle turned away and coughed into her hand. Silly stepped back, she worked in the restaurant industry, and it would be bad if she got sick. At first she’d told Alex that she couldn’t get sick because dumb people didn’t get sick. And he’d sat her down and explained many things that were difficult to understand and used very long words to let her know that dumb people could get sick.

So if anything could get her sick despite being dumb, then it would be extra powerful, and it might hurt anyone she passed it on to.

“Would you like some cough drops?” Silly asked as Belle stopped coughing. “I’m sure Alex has some, he has everything on him, always.”

“Erm, n-no, I’m good, thank you Silly.” Belle said, then smiled and held Invasion out to Silly, closing one eye. “I’ll let you borrow this one, a personal loan, so you can return it whenever. It’ll be our little secret.”

Silly’s stomach fell. “I’m…I’m not very good at keeping secrets.” She confessed. “Twiggy always finds out.”

Belle coughed again, she definitely needed some cough drops.

She shook her head. “No no, don’t worry about it. It’ll be fine. Anyways, it looks like the other three are ready?”

Silly turned and saw that Alex was leaning against the counter, and Zoya was leaning against him while Twiggy was still trying to convince him about the magnificence of sharks.

She nodded her thanks to Belle and went to the front desk.

“You good?” Alex asked.

Silly nodded and placed the four movies on the counter, next to the two Alex had.

He tilted his head.

“It’s fine.” Belle said preemptively.

Alex shrugged.

Silly saw the two movies, Glorious Guardians and Last Flight. Glorious Guardians was probably Twiggy’s choice.

“Why Last Flight?” She asked.

Alex shrugged. “I wanna see how wrong they got time travel.”

Silly’s eyes widened. He admitted he was from the past!?

“So, you very experienced in time travel then?” Belle asked jokingly.

“I took a seminar.” Alex said. “You mind if I pay next month’s subscription early? The day it expires will be a bit awkward for me.”

“None at all!” Belle smiled. “But wouldn’t it better to put the subscription automatically on a credit card already? You’ve been a subscriber with us for months!”

“Hiss!” Alex did not hiss, he said the word. “Back to whichever pit you spawned from, daemon!”

“Okay okay!” Belle backed down with a laugh.

“Anyways, you girls ready?”

“Yup.” Silly said.

“I’m good.”

Zoya squeaked as she yawned. “M’ tired.”

He nodded at Belle. “Thanks.”

Belle waved and said. “Bye! See you next time!”

On the way, Alex picked up Bean by the handle, lifting it out of an enthusiastic conversation it was having with another Random Play Bangboo.

The drive to Alex’s apartment wasn’t overly long, they split the used plates between the four of them to take them up, today was Silly’s turn to take care of the dishes. It was always a lot of dishes, but Twiggy and Zoya always helped with drying and putting them away, so it wasn’t too daunting a task.

While they took care of the dishes, Alex prepared the meat for the next day and put it in the fridge, and Zoya checked they had enough supplies for the next morning. While they did that, Silly pressed Invasion: Next Gen into the videocassette player and got a few snacks ready.

At 1630 they all sat down to watch the movie together, by the end of it, Silly and Twiggy were sniffling at the brave sacrifice by the Hollow Investigators as they brought down the self-sustaining ethereals and saved New Eridu from destruction.

Zoya had watched it intently, Alex had put his arm around her shoulders but like always, she didn’t seem to mind. Silly made a mental note to try that, Zoya made it look comfortable.

Alex was seemingly untouched by the movie, though he did spend quite a bit of the movie speaking with someone through Knock Knock DMs.

They took a break at 1830 to deliver their leftover food to Sokaku, their next-door neighbor, who was happy to purchase their leftovers at-cost every night for an ‘early evening snack.’

At 1920 Silly was ready to go to bed, she’d browse Inter Knot for a while first though.

+Silly.+

Silly stiffened and turned to look at her door, and there Alex stood in the clothes he wore the day that…that day. His mask making her head hurt as it simultaneously made his voice completely unique by giving it a hard to describe reverberation, and somehow stopped her from recognizing it, so every time he spoke its morbid hiss caught her by surprise.

+Something’s come up.+ He said, the mask’s four glowing eyes making a shiver run down her spine, the weird marking on its skull-like face catching the light and seeming to glow. +I’ll be out for the evening. Go to sleep on-time today, getting little sleep twice in a row is bad for you. I should be back by the morning. Take care of your sister. Zoya is in charge.+

With that, the mask looked away, and Alex disappeared in a puff of dark smoke, the only sound the faint echo of wind.

Silly shook herself, said goodnight to Twiggy, then went to bed without browsing Inter Knot.

The Major had given a direct order, and the Major’s orders were absolute.