Chapter Twenty - Age

Cassandra was tired. The heat always sapped her energy a ton, way more than it seemed to affect other people. She always found her eyelids droopy when the  heat was cranked up.

She sat on the ground propped up next to a boulder, watching The Super and The Blue Octo fighting. Arguing. She always used to argue with her sister, but it was nothing like this. She and her sister could yell at each other for hours, and then love each other the same as always the next day. But these two never stopped. The tension only grew and grew, and they stayed grumbly even when the other wasn't around.

She knew that to some people, it looked like she knew everything there was to know about these two. But that wasn't it. She had only just started writing her comics before she left -- in fact, she'd only finished about one or two. And the second one was about developing The Super as a character, and only included The Blue Octo for a few panels. She had the basic stuff down -- who they were, how they fought -- but it was obvious that this would probably be the 600th issue, in front of her. She'd only just finished the second. There was a lot to learn. She tried to pay attention to their fights to figure out what she'd missed, but it was really hard because they skirted around subjects a lot.

They'd say stuff like:
"You remember the Smoke Mines?"
"Of course I do!"
"Then you remember that it was your fault -- ha, you practically admitted it!"
"I wouldn't have even been there if it wasn't for you!"
"All those poor souls.... Innocent... Gone because of you."
"Oh, of all the things to say! After all, it was you who ended up killing the judge!"
"Come on, let's not stoop to this level. You know how much I ha--"
"Stoop to this level? You brought it up in the first place!!!"

And so on.

Cassandra shifted her focus to behind the argument, where Alfonso sat against another boulder. His hair swept across his face, obscuring it so you couldn't tell what he was thinking. The crafty dog. She thought he was watching her, though. She watched him back for a while, until he perked up suddenly and mouthed something to her she couldn't catch. She was always bad at understanding the words people mouthed at her. She put her hand up to her ear, and tried to mouth the word, "What?"

Alfonso's shoulders slumped with a sigh, and he rolled his head around; an emphasized eye roll. He got up and walked over to Cassandra's spot, avoiding the arguing creatures. They both were strange to look at -- if you just heard stories about The Super, it would be easy to imagine as a human, but when you met him face-to-face it was obvious he wasn't of any Earth origins. His hands were... fists? He didn't need to wear any clothing, sporting only a red cape. His sea-green complexion was smooth and uniform, and he seemed to not have any muscles to speak of -- but don't let that fool you. His head was a peculiar shape, though... Cassandra couldn't describe it, as hard as she tried.

The Blue Octo, of course, was an octopus. He just took a slightly more humanoid form, with an actual face of sorts, and clearly had the ability to speak. Cassandra wondered how the creations of her comics had found themselves standing in front of her very own eyes, crept out of her mind into the real world... Or maybe it was the other way around: Were these real creatures that had existed always, and had just crept into her mind?

If so, why?

Alfonso slid down next to her, both staring in the direction of the two arguers, both deep in thought and not actually paying any attention to the other. They sat there for a moment, relaxed and lost deep in their own worlds...

Alfonso took a deep breath, his eyes regaining their focus, as if waking from a dream. He shuffled a bit on the dusty ground, turning to face Cassandra better. "So," he said. "What I had been trying to ask you earlier is: Where's Rose?"

This was a very good question. Cassandra looked around, but didn't catch a glimpse of anything interesting. Just the barren landscape with some random rock formations here and there.

"I don't know," said Cassandra. "When did you last see her?"

"Before I was left alone out there," he said, gesturing with a thumb toward the cliff. He shrugged. "Maybe she had to pee or something."

"Yeah, well." Cassandra looked at Alfonso. "If she doesn't show up in half an hour, we can officially freak out, okay?"

"Alright." He leaned back a bit, looked up at the clouds.

Cassandra took another second to think. "How old do you think I am?" she suddenly asked. She didn't even realize she'd asked the question until she looked at Alfonso's expression. She drew up her knees to her chest, feeling her face get even redder than it already was.

"Uh," said Alfonso, "that's a weird question to ask." He thought for a moment. "Um... ten?"

Cassandra made a buzzer sound: "ERRRR. Wrong answer."

"Well, then," said Alfonso, obviously confused about where this conversation was headed. "Erm... how old are you?"

"Eight," answered Cassandra.

"Isn't that-"

"I don't need your sympathy. I'm not poor or helpless, so don't try to get me out of doing this. I'm here to help, like all of us. So quit it." She stared off into space again for a few seconds, waiting to see if he'd say anything. When he didn't, she broke the silence with, "Of course I knew you thought I was ten. I thought I'd just play along, you know. Keep at least some respect for myself. But Rose talked me out of it. Darn it, she's so persuasive."

"What?" Alfonso looked at Rose again with that look of curiosity mixed with confusion and a bit of worry as well, the look people give you when you tell them something they weren't expecting. "You told Rose?" His tone implied, and you didn't tell me any of this?

"Gosh, no," said Cassandra. "She figured it out herself. Maybe from that thing where she says we're actually the same person? I don't really know. But when you guys had left to pick up The Blue Otco, she gave me a strong talking to, that's for sure. Can't be taking advantage of other people, that's what she says."

"That's what who says?" asked an authoritative voice, coming from above for some reason. They both looked up to find Rose sitting on the top of the boulder they were leaning against.

"There you are," said Cassandra. "We were getting worried. Where were you?"

"Ah," said Rose, "I had to take care of some..." she grimaced. "Business."

Alfonso elbowed Cassandra. "What'd I tell you, huh?"

Rose glowered at the boy. "Not that kind of business. Other time business. As in setting my whole journey in motion."

"You were... getting ready to leave?" asked Cassandra.

"No," said Rose, sighing. "I mean, my first journey. Through time. I had to be there, had to leave at the right moment. And, as the only possible outcome dictates, it went according to plan." She looked up, at the fighting creatures. "Excuse me for a moment..." She slid off the rock and stormed over to the argument.

If she had just accomplished a mission -- or whatever it was -- according to plan, shouldn't she be happy? Why was she all mad like that? And what did she mean, "time business?"

This was all getting very weird and confusing again. And she thought she knew everything that she needed to. She and Rose were going to have another talk. Very, very soon.

Alfonso and Cassandra watched Rose as she approached the argument. She said something, very calmly, looked at each of the perpetrators, and stood there, folding her arms as if waiting for an answer. The Super and The Blue Octo locked eyes for a second, then hung their heads in shame. Rose nodded, said something else, and turned on her heel to walk back to Alfonso and Cassandra, who were staring at her in utter shock.

"Why didn't you do that before you left?" asked Alfonso. "Would've made our lives so much easier."

"Ah," said Rose. "But life isn't easy, is it?"

Alfonso just sort of stared at her looking confused.

"Oh, come on then, get packing. We're leaving in five minutes."

"We are?" asked Cassandra.

"Yes. We got what we came for. Besides, we've got a lot to talk about back at HQ."




Twenty Chapters?? Wow! Never thought I'd actually follow this through as far as I have... When I started this blog, it was just me writing some goofy stories and uploading my not-so-perfect artwork. Just goes to show: Your support makes such a huge difference! :3

As of when I wrote this, I'll be going back to school tomorrow. That'll be an adventure! Sorry I didn't get the picture up like I promised to; my parents made some plans that I didn't really know about until the last minute, and that sort of distracted me. I've written something to compensate.

So yeah, depending on the workload I get, you guys might be seeing some artwork up here pretty soon! Keep an eye out for that!

Thanks so much for reading. You have no idea how happy it makes me when you read my blog; whether I get one view a day or 44, I always get so happy to know you're looking at my stuff. Keep being awesome! :D

       ~PolarFarina