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Author Topic: Life In Chouetsu by Michael Gordon  (Read 2822 times)

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Life In Chouetsu by Michael Gordon
« on: April 06, 2012, 01:49:10 PM »

Author's Note
This is a little something I wrote in the event of my being mighty close to finishing the first "tankobon" of Empyreans. Hope you enjoy it, I really poured a lot of effort into it. In fact, this is the longest single piece I've ever written. To sum it up, it's really just a day in the life of half of the series cast. Later on, I'll also be posting this on FictionPress, as posting in BBCode with the formatting I use in Word is pretty tricky.



Life in Chouetsu by Michael Gordon

                The professor assigned me to make a short documentary. Thus, I approached my friends to help me, and Blaine near-instantly volunteered to share a normal Saturday with me, free of charge. The result was an insanely good grade and a position in a local skaters’ magazine, or at least, this article, which is basically just a transcript of the happenings of the day from my point of view.
                The rough rolling of skateboard wheels quickly greeted me, followed by two door-endangering knocks and a precociously-deep voice, which was apparently very happy to be up so early, “MIKE!!”
                Immediately, I snapped to attention, but decided not to respond, hoping that the rather mysterious boy would simply stop trying to get in and wait outside, allowing me to eat my breakfast of banana French toast in peace. These expectations were apparently rather unrealistic, and another barrage of knocks were quickly heard from my door, as well as a rather loud crack and Blaine’s still-excited voice, “MIIIIKE!!!??”
                Startled, I sprang to my feet and ran to my living room, fiddling with the lock for a second before managing to open the door. Dewitt Blaine, a trained soldier, stood before me, wearing a simple linen flannel, black denim jeans, a pair of sneakers, and a burgundy hat—Supreme brand without a doubt.
                He was much shorter than me, but it was pretty apparent his rather vivacious personality made up for it, especially as he grabbed me by my wrist and effortlessly pulled me outside despite my rather… horrible state of dress at the moment: my favorite leather jeans and black canvas sneakers—nothing else. He apparently didn’t care about my state of undress however, as he shoved me my skateboard deck-first with no hesitation. I simply looked down at myself without a word and pointed to my bare chest without a word, but all he did was push the board even closer to me. I grabbed the board with a resigned sigh and followed him as he began to walk away.
                “Come on, we can buy you another shirt later if you want one!” He shouted, running for the banister of the staircase and gleefully launching over it—a fall that most definitely would kill the average person. However, the sound of his death wasn’t heard at all. Instead, a gleeful “thank you!” was.
                I quickly made my way down the stairs, praying that nobody would break into my condo in my absence while making sure that my board was totally unscathed. As I hit the bottom of the stairwell, I saw the self-proclaimed “brain” of Blaine’s circle of friends: Jay Desbois, known to his friends as “The CopKiller.”
                You see, his friends called him “CopKiller” because of his rather loud and reckless personality, equating the amount of danger he threw himself into on a daily basis to killing a police officer in cold blood. It seemed as if this nickname was commonplace throughout the entire island nation, even in stores, where clerks would gleefully ask the (also) deceptively-precocious boy what likely-illegal acts he’d taken part in as of recent.
                Despite his often-erratic personality however, he was, at the heart of the matter, the far more mature and thoughtful member of Blaine’s posse, who admittedly and shamelessly without any sort of label aside from the occasional makeshift mantle of “Blaine’s Friends.”
                Presently, he sat on the curb, sipping lightly on a can of AriZona-branded Green Tea with a small container of Oreos in his other hand. He rolled his skateboard below his feet as he drank his tea, obviously bored by the situation. Blaine, on the other hand, stood across the street at an intersection, dancing to entertain the passing cars, or at least to entertain himself.
                Meanwhile, the token girl of the group, Sachiyo, a girl who initially appeared to be barely nine years old (but turned out to be Jay’s twin sister) sat playing a video game on her iPhone. Some sort of crazy experiment was the reason for their radically different appearances at birth, they say. And with this place being the “Isle of Superheroes,” I’m not all too surprised by this explanation.
                Blaine spotted me as a stepped into the sunlight, pointing to me near-immediately before scampering into the street despite its relatively high activity prior. He stopped between the lanes, however, waving to the yellow Lincoln Continental that was presently speeding down the street towards the intersection next to my complex. It stopped as it approached the boy, and a hand reached out and gave him a high-five before speeding off once more.
                Immediately afterwards, he made his way to me, and threw his board to the pavement, then hopping on it. Hearing this, Jay shoved his Oreos into his pocket and finished his AriZona, dropping it to the ground as he stood to his feet. He pushed himself forward on his board, gaining enough speed to pop onto the curb. Sachiyo stood up as well, cautiously climbing on her board, which was much too big for someone of her diminutive stature in a deceptive display of inexperience.
                “Come on!” The skater beckoned to me, pushing off for wherever. I simply nodded, decided to get a running start on my board. I decided to follow him without so much as a word, but still internally wondered wherever we were going and when we’d get there. Luckily, Jay was my saving grace:
                “So, where are we going?” Jay asked, doing a heelflip absolutely out of the blue. Jay was of African-Australian and Amerindian descent, his skin a yellowish tone and his eyes a shade of hazel. He easily towered above Blaine at an improbable 6’5”.
“Hungry Jack’s,” Blaine responded, taking a jab at Jay’s Australian origins. Clearly, we were headed to Burger King. Soon, we reached our destination
                A tall, buff, dark-skinned guy around my age with cornrows and a disregard for the “no shirt, no service” motto maintained by most United States restaurants lingered around the establishment’s entrance. Luckily enough for him, however, this disregard was rather irrelevant as he lived in the wondrous island nation of Chouetsu, where this law was nonexistent at most fast food locales.
                “’Ey…” The kid that sat next to him vaguely vocalized, totally caught up in his video game whilst another girl, pale but perpetually blushing, sat next to him, tapping her feet rapidly. Meet Xavier and Nixe (pronounced Nex for some reason) Fidatof, a pair of half-identical twins.
                “Dewitt!” Nixe gleefully called, gingerly stood to her feet, and effortlessly tackled Blaine to the ground without even moving his board. Jay snickered as he witnessed this, pulling a camera out to take a choice snap of the scene. He quickly put the camera away and turned to shush me and Sachiyo immediately.
                Blaine simply growled, obviously irritated by the girl’s rather excited greeting. He pushed her off of him, then mounting his board once more with her still gleefully skipping along at his tail. Blaine then stepped off of his board and walked into the establishment. He quickly walked out with a Whopper (even though it was way before lunch time) and sat on the curb, beginning to eat it gleefully.
                Just from this, I could tell that I was in for a ride, so I asked around about what we were going to do as the wolf pack’s leader took his sweet time with eating the burger. First up was Xavier, who stepped into my personal space with a wicked, red-eyed smile on his face.
                “Nothin’!” He yelled, paying explicit attention but obviously trying to get passersby to pay attention to him, “jus’ gonna you know, shoot up some local crackhouses and buy some cough syrup to sip on and shit like that, and… and you know the rest man!”
                I simply yelled in assent, playing along with his obvious act before turning to talk to his twin sister, whose whole face flushed red as she stood there, idle as she stared at Blaine. Apparently the girl had some sort of fixation on the guy, and had no need to hide it in all its obviousness, lest I wouldn’t have let that go to print.
                “Me and Blaine are gonna go all. the. way,” she whispered into my ear, making her affection for Blaine even more obvious than it already was. I understandably began to back away.
                This time, I walked over to the silent guy who gleefully viewed my investigation. Naturally, he instantly greeted me, raising a hand to high-five me. However, I felt somewhat hesitant with his rather antagonistic expression.
                “Come on!” He shook his palm again. I simply followed his unsaid directions and slapped his hand with my own.
                Of course, this act of kindness lowered my guard, and before I knew it, he’d leapt into the air and body slammed me. Naturally, I was sent to the ground, sprawled across the pavement next to Blaine. Luckily enough for me, however, the shock of his attack kept me from feeling the full extent of the pain in a way.
                Blaine giggled as he saw me sprawled across the pavement, balling up his now-empty burger wrapper and haphazardly throwing it into the distance as he turned to face me, “That’s Will Killhim.”
                “’Sup,” Will kindly waved to me, then beginning to help me to my feet to show that he truly didn’t intend to cause too much harm to me. He then reached behind him and grabbed his own board, no-complying off of the sidewalk. Obviously, he was less-inclined to skateboarding than the others.
                Fitting this, Blaine stood to his feet as well, stepping back onto his board as well. He then began to push off, turning to beckon for his posse shortly thereafter. Naturally and systematically, they all mounted their boards. Jay split from the group after a while however, turning to face me ever-so-calmly.
                “Blaine,” Jay began, turning back to his friend immediately afterwards.
                “What’s up?” Blaine shot back. Soon, however, he answered whatever question Jay was about to ask him without even giving him a chance to do so, “Oh yeah, give our buddy Mike G the tour.”
                After that, my memory went blank for a moment, with no sort of consistency at all; just a few scenes of Jay underflipping off of picnic tables and expertly grinding up and down rails in the near-abandoned Industrial District of the island. However, my memory lost didn’t consume the entire day, and I soon found myself at the mall with the rest of the ground intact.
                Each member of the posse had their own task: Nixe was on the floor below in the food court trying to secure a free smoothie while Xavier was lurking the local gaming shop. Meanwhile, the leader himself, Blaine, was deep into the skate shop, buying totally unnecessary accessories for his board whilst Will hung back, taking in all the individual scenes of chaos with a calm smile.
                At least, he did, until his jaw dropped at what was likely one of the craziest sights he’d ever seen in his life:  Sachiyo moved a broken picnic table into position at the balcony whilst Jay stretched, posed just above his board a few feet away from the table.
                “CopKiller!” I laughed, the phrase being my first 2 real worlds of the day. Jay heard this and turned to give me a golden smile and two thumbs up before pushing off three times and popping his board at the edge of the picnic table. He flew straight into the air, aiming to land on the other side of the balcony on another strategically-positioned table. He soon found himself falling short, however, and abandoned his previous goal by aiming his weight towards the roof of a kiosk on the floor below.
Smiling maniacally, he managed to grab the edge of the kiosk’s roof before landing on the ground with board in hand. He then proceeded to, while screaming at passersby, walk over to the smoothie shop next to Nixe.
Apparently, his stunt won him a free smoothie, which he greedily and tauntingly drank right in front of Nixe before giving her cup one he’d drained it halfway. Nixe growled initially, but then decided to remove the top and finish the cup off. It was that point that Blaine walked out of the skate shop, holding his newly-stickered skateboard into the air.
As he began to yell for his posse, however, he yawned and pointed to me, “Mike, check your watch!”
Not knowing what else to say or do, I complied, looking down at my watch: it was about six-thirty, which I quickly told him.
“Guys!” He yelled then, mounting his board and skating to a bench, which he then sat down upon, “We’re gonna stop by the coffee shop!”
Shortly thereafter, his collective stood before him, waiting on their supposed leader to guide them wherever they were going next. Blaine stood to his feet then, skating off once more, out of the mall. Naturally, everyone (including me) followed behind him, trying to reach the coffee shop.
Now was a prime time in Chouetsu, when the sun began to set and the beautiful island nation was orange, setting the best spots (which many members of Blaine’s group did single tricks off of) ablaze. Jay seemingly led the pack for once, Blaine skateboarding right behind him.
This was short-lived, however, as we all parked at the café in what felt like less than five minutes. Blaine quickly directed Nixe to fetch the coffee (whilst labeling it has her turn). Soon, she came back out of the shop, gleefully smiling as she passed out coffee for the entire group and sat on top of a table, right next to Blaine with a redder blush than ever.
“So,” Blaine childishly began, “What was everyone’s favorite part of the day?!”
The CopKiller came first, screaming to the general public as he began using another table as a platform, “I underflipped off of picnic tables and popped over a balcony, man!”
Xavier followed him, “Nothin’! Today was a boring day where all we did was shoot up local crackhouses and sip cough syrup! And… and, y’all know the rest!”
I spoke as well, trying my best not to fall asleep, “I’d like to say that I really enjoyed the day as a whole, but I’m about to pass out.”
“Go home, then, man!” Will insisted, lifting me up and beginning to push me away from the coffee shop. Jay followed him, a sincere smile on his face.
“Yeah, we’ve done pretty much everything worth seeing,” Blaine nodded, allowing Nixe to lean against him despite obviously feeling very nervous, “go home, man!”
Grateful, I finally nodded and began to skate away, happy that I’d gotten a good look at life in Chouetsu.

Logged




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