The Vespidian

Arc 8 Superficial

Chapter 10

I am getting tired of hallways. The only good thing about it is that the ceiling is fairly high, so I don’t hit my head. Oddly, though it felt like somebody was watching me. Well, I guess that is to be expected. Just about everybody is gawking at me if they see me. I looked around, not seeing anyone. It was just Mom and I, but she was in front and not looking back. I heard footsteps from time to time. My feelers twitched, hmm strawberries… smells kinda like Ichigo. Oh great, am I going to get turned on every time I smell strawberries? Should I fill a bathtub up with strawberry jam and lather it all over myself?

Sub whispered in my head, Sounds delightful.

‘How much would that even cost though?’

Who cares, we are rich bitch. Besides, we can eat it when we are done! So it is like two birds with one stone.

‘Alright, but where would we even do this?’

I don’t know. Ooo Ah, I know. Neon Nurse. Although she would likely record it.

‘Not sure if I want there to be a video of this out on the Internet.’

We both know she has way worse than that on us.

‘True enough. She has got some serious dirt on us after all.’

Did I just develop a new fetish? So this is how these things happen. Could be worse, could be like midget dungeon porn or vore, or guro, igh… well, I guess the last two are far worse than the first, but still. I am looking at you Sub.

She just shrugged, not even trying to deny it.

Ignoring all that, I feel that I got rather sidetracked. We were going to go visit Sunshine and I was rather excited about this. With our determined and quick pace, we arrived at the correct room in no time at all. Caroline opened the door for me and I ducked in due to being a bit taller than the entrance. This place was not made for people of my stature. It was a rather unimpressive room, barren of any furniture save three chairs sitting in the middle. The area was about the size of the booth that Isabella had been in. There were three people in here, Sunshine, Dreamer, and a scrawny looking dude that looked like he hadn’t slept in a few days, whom I can only assume to be her teacher. I mean, who the fuck else would this guy be?

I didn’t like the look of this guy. I was getting a little bit of a tweaker vibe with his gaunt cheekbones and dull eyes. His clothes weren’t doing him any favors either. They were a little ragged and definitely well worn. He had on a pair of frayed jeans, black teeshirt, and a loose unzipped hoodie. His hair was black, but there were some gray streaks here and there. He wasn’t particularly tall, a little shorter than Dreamer. He didn’t look professional at all, unlike all the other teachers I had seen. Maybe this is a case of the drunken hidden genius type thing like they do in stories. My eyes wandered over to mom, I mean I got a real life example of that here. Say what you will about her, she gets the job done. Ok, that might be a little harsh on her, she doesn’t drink on the job.

I spent a moment longer looking at him. I guess I will give him a pass for now. I averted my eyes to the reason why we had come, Sunshine. She stood over there, being all bubbly and cute, with glitter and sparkles floating everywhere, as usual. Singing some song, which wasn’t usual since it didn’t sound like some Moon Sailor theme.

Though something seemed off… what was it I wonder? Ah, it was that thing sitting on her shoulder. I had missed it in the cloud of glitter and sparkles floating around her. It kinda looked like if a bunny, fennec fox, a butterfly, and a unicorn descended into an orgy of cuteness and this thing crawled out. To top it all off it even had on a little pointed hat. Whatever this abomination of cuteness was, I wanna pet it. It is so damned fluffy!

I pointed at it, “What the hell is that thing?!”

It seems that I interrupted her singing practice as the music halted and everybody looked over at me. Sunshine looked lost for a moment, in a daze, until she realized it was me and her bright smile nearly blinded me. She rushed over, latching onto my leg. Now that I was up close and personal with the creature it looked up at me with those bright swirling rainbow filled eyes. It was even more adorable up close. Those eyes though… if I looked too long it felt like they were pulling me in. I mean they swirled around like a whirlpool, so it was a little hard not to follow the spiral. Absently, I found myself petting it and had to look away to refrain from touching it. Using my lower hand to more or less block the thing from my view I looked down at Sunshine who happily continued hugging me.

“Sunshine where did this thing come from?”

“Sunshine made Mellow. Isn’t she cute? Dreamer said all the kids will like her. Mellow also helps Sunshine when she is lonely.”

“Mellow?” I asked, making sure to avoid looking at it. The cuteness will overpower me. It is a sin, a sin I say!

“Sunshine named her after Marshmallows, since she is fluffy and soft, but Mellow sounds nicer.”

“Alright… Why are you lonely Sunshine? You know you have me right?” I pet her head. My Sunshine has not been getting enough attention! I have to properly take care of her with love and cuddles. I mean magical girls need those sorts of things to survive, right?

“Well, Nee-san keeps sleeping and won’t wake up though. So Sunshine got lonely and made a new friend.”

I rubbed the back of my head, “Sorry about that. I promise, I won’t do anything that will make that happen again. We are going to be working together every day, so we will get to hang out a lot more.”

“Nee-san promise?”

“Yes.”

“Pinky swear?”

I extended my pinky and she coiled her own around it, trying to shake, “Mhmm.” I nodded, smiling.

“Isn’t that super, Sunshine?” said a very, very feminine and soft voice. It was Mellow. I don’t know why, but that voice sent cold shivers down my spine. It was like somebody got handfuls of ice and rubbed it up and down my back. Even though that voice was so disarming and sweet and something tells me it could lull me to sleep without even trying.

“Oh Mi God it talks!?” I screeched, almost reactively slapping the ever living shit outa that cute critter. I did manage to hold back, for Sunshine’s sake.

There is just something wrong with a talking animal. It makes all my little hairs stand up. I mean if it talks then it is smarter than it is letting on and that well, that is just unsettling. It could be up to something for all I know. I stared at the creature suspiciously and it just floated about innocently. Why do you have wings if you don’t even need them to fly!? It is not fair, not fair at all.

Hold on now me… I mean Sunshine made this thing so it should be harmless. It is not like she would make something that could hurt people. Her knights, maybe, but they are more for defense. Hell, last time she got in a fight it started raining puppies and kittens to drown them in cuteness.

“Sunshine this, eh… Mellow just talked. Did you tell it what to say?”

She thought about it for a moment and shook her head, “Mellow is always happy!”

Well, that didn’t answer my question. If it was anybody else I might have thought that they just dodged my question, but since it was Sunshine it comes with the territory while she is all looped out on her happy drugs. The creature in question had started rubbing up against me, making sweet cooing and purring noises. I wanna pet it. Ahh, it is so soft and fluffy.

That thing looks kinda tasty, doesn’t it?

‘Sub? What?’

I don’t like it. I think we should kill it and eat it. That would show it who is boss. I wonder if she could make more so we could skin them and make a blanket?

‘Jesus, Sub, it is just one of Sunshine’s imagination things. It is not even real. There is no meat or fur on that thing.’

But it smells good. Complained Sub.

Smells good? I gave it a whiff. Hmm, she wasn’t wrong. Mellow radiated an aroma of cotton candy and lollipops. Is Sunshine getting stronger? I don’t recall her being able to alter odors with her illusions. Now I am actually starting to wonder what the hell this thing tastes like. Why is it always food with me? Maybe just one bite wouldn’t hurt? No, no, no that is just wrong.

I decided to keep my mind occupied and asked, “So what were you singing?”

She hopped up and down excited, “Oh, oh Sunshine was practicing the song we are going to be singing together.”

“Oh right, we are supposed to sing. What song is it?”

“We could be. Sunshine really likes this song. It makes Sunshine feel all bubbly and happy.”

I don’t think that I had heard of that one before. “How are you coming along?”

“Sunshine is trying what does Nee-san think?”

“Alright, well lemmy hear it.”

She let go of me and nodded happily, walking back over to the center of the room. The music started back up. I wasn’t particularly a connoisseur of music, but it sounded like a nonelectric guitar with some drums in the background. Sunshine took a deep breath and sung along.

“We go hide away in daylight.

We go undercover, wait out the sun.

Got a secret side in plain sight.

Where the streets are empty that’s where we run.

Everyday people do everyday things, but I can’t be one of them.

I know you hear me now we are a different kind.

We can do anything.

We could be heroes~

We could be heroes~

Me and you~

We could be heroes~

Anybody’s got the power

They don’t see it cause they don’t understand.

Spinning around and round for hours.

You and me we got the world in our hands.

Everyday people do everyday things but I can’t be one of them.

I know you hear me now we are a different kind,

we can do anything.

We could be heroes~

We could be heroes~

You and me.

We could be.”

I stood there taping my foot to the beat. Towards the middle, it had gotten faster and gone a little techno? I don’t know, I suck with music. At any rate, it wasn’t bad. In fact, it was pretty catchy and Sunshine sounded amazing. If Sunshine is this good and she is only second string… then how good is Ichigo? Ichigo is the triple threat, talented, adorable, and cute.

That is two things.

You can be adorable and cute, Sub. They are not mutually exclusive.

I don’t think that is how it works.

Ok, ok. Talented, cute, and smart.

Remember the three S’s for women, Vesper. Sexy, Sane, and Smart.

What is your point?

Don’t you remember you only get to pick two! No one has all three!

No, no, no Ichigo is the exception.

There are no exceptions.

But Sunshine is not sane or smart.

Well, some people don’t even get two.

That is mean, mean Sub.

It is the truth though.

This is our friend we are talking about here though.

All the more reason to be honest.

I nodded grudgingly, she had a point. Sunshine gazed over at me with sparkling eyes and Mellow hovered around her. I can see why she would be a hit with kids. I gave her a thumbs up and she did a little victory pose with the V. Mellow flew about raining sparkles and glitter everywhere.

Caroline murdered the mood when she said, “Mecha Fairy, we should be going now. You can play with your friend later.”

I frowned, “But I hardly even got to hangout.”

“You are at work. You can play in your off hours. We still have to see if you can sing, remember?”

“Fine,” I relented, walking over to Sunshine and giving her a hug, “We will do stuff later.”

The normally bubbly Sunshine looked a little sad and pouted, “Nee-san is leaving?”

“Only for a little bit. I will see you at the station.”

“Sunshine has sessions with Dreamer after practice. So, so Sunshine can’t play,” she looked wearily over at Dreamer, who nodded.

I guess she doesn’t want to do her therapy. Well, I don’t blame her, Dreamer is a cunt. I would take my toad any day of the week over her. Still, that is a bit of a gray area for me since I don’t know too much about her problems, that sort of stuff is personal after all. It is serious and I doubt that I could help. This was the sort of things that Mind Divers were actually useful for. Well, that and drugs. I know that she takes medication and stuff cause of her nightmares and let’s face it, that could be dangerous if scary things came crawling out of there. I just… kinda been avoiding it since it is not really something to be sticking my antennae in. She never really opened up to me about it, so what am I supposed to do?

Reluctantly, I waved goodbye and left Sunshine to her practice. We continued on a few doors down and came to a classroom. There were ten talents and a teacher looking over them. It appears that for once we were not interrupting a class since they were talking amongst one another and still getting to their respective spots. The instructor looked a little annoyed. Like usual the room grew silent the moment I entered and all wide eyes fell on me.

Awkward! I broke the ice, “Hello.”

The teacher guy looked over and saw Caroline, visibly relaxing. Why does everybody act like I am scary? I don’t remember doing anything wrong. It is cause I am tall isn’t it? I am just a big old love bug, I swear.

“This is yours, I take it Caroline?” said the man, glancing over me a little. Oh, I am a this now, eh?

“Despite how she looks, she is well behaved, Darren.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” I crossed my arms.

“Well,” she said, “It means despite looking like an intimidating person you are rather nice.”

“Why didn’t you just say that?”

“It was a compliment, ok,” she scowled at me.

“Don’t talk down to me like some animal.”

Now she crossed her arms and stared me down like a viper, “I wasn’t. You would know if I was talking down to you. Now, while I am still in a good mood, go do your assessment.”

I bit my lip. Civil damn it, be civil. So what if she is antagonizing me and I could throw her through a wall. I took a deep breath and nodded grudgingly. Think of the money, think of all the BBQs with dad I could afford. Ah, well that did the trick. Suddenly mom was a lot more bearable to be around. She is a little snippy, but she has always been like that.

“Do you know what this class is?” asked the teacher.

“Vocal exercises?”

“Close enough. You have any experience?”

I shrugged, “Never really tried.”

He sighed a little. Oh boy, it is going to be like that, is it? “Very well. We will start with warm-up exercises. To ensure that it is your real voice could you remove that helmet?”

“I will not, but I can open the bottom part if you like?”

“We just want to make sure you are no auto-tuning our voice.”

“Auto-tuning? Wait really? Is that actually a problem?”

“You would be surprised.”

I opened the mouth section. “Is this better?”

Now that my voice wasn’t all mechanical and synthetic it returned to being somewhat feminine yet deeper than the average woman’s voice. Not really my fault, it comes with the size. This being said I can change the tone and pitch a bit. We started out with some warm ups. First was humming to loosen things up. At first I merely listened since I don’t do this sort of thing ever really. After about ten seconds or so I figured out what they were doing and took a deep relaxed breath before exhaling and realizing that I don’t have a nose to hum out of like them. Now, this was very awkward. I can’t just say oh hey, I don’t have a nose the looks I would get for that are undoubtedly bad. So I did the next best thing, I tried to mimic the sounds that they were making.

At first, it sounded like something between a cat being strangled and a growl. Everybody looked over at me. Eh come on now, just keep doing what you were doing. Don’t mind me.

The teacher’s face pursed as he winced from my sounds, “Are you making fun of me?”

I shook my head, “No just bad at this sort of thing.”

“Well, just try your best,” he sighed dismissing me as some sort of irredeemable, untalented person. Clearly, he was not expecting much from me. Well, I don’t blame him.

I nodded, “Ok.”

We started again and after a bit, I managed to get it to the point that it wasn’t some abominable sound, much to the relief of everybody in the room. I was actually starting to get the hang of controlling my pitch and tone. As it turned out, I had a wide range in this regard. It was more than I had initially thought. I started to notice a difference between me and the other students. I could hold the notes for far longer than them due to my lung capacity. This, of course, didn’t mean that my voice was beautiful or anything. No, I had a long way to go to get on their level or Sunshine’s or even Isabella’s level.

Speaking of Isabella. I really liked her voice. If only I could sound like that, all angelic and stuff, instead of well, like me. That is certainly confidence building, not. I tried to emulate what I remembered. We were doing the A E I O U and as much as I tried, I couldn’t quite get her voice right. It needed to be higher and clearer. Seems a bit beyond my capabilities. Then again I haven’t really practiced this sort of stuff much so it could be better. It would be a bit like cheating if I could just do things that these people have practiced years to be able to do immediately. As usual, low expectations are the key to not being depressed.

“You are getting better,” commented Darren.

See, look at that I was not even expecting a compliment and I was pleasantly surprised, “Thanks, though I need a bit of work.”

“You have a pretty good range, just need practice a lot more to refine it,” he replied, “Try as high a note as you can.”

I nodded and took a deep breath, I have three lungs after all, so that is quite the bit of air that I can hold. I let it out in an “Ah” sound that hung and was drug out. I went higher and higher, imagining and recalling Isabella’s voice. The vibrations in my throat felt rather strange. It was like they were resonating. The pitch kept climbing until it was a piercing, ear-splitting tone. People were plugging their ears and the lights shattered and the glass window on the door fractured.

I stopped, having jumped from the sudden sound of glass breaking. Everybody looked like they were in pain and the girl closest to me had fainted. Others were crying and holding their hands to their ears… I smelled blood. Sure enough, several people’s ears were bleeding. Oh fuck, that looks kinda bad. Did I rupture their eardrums or something?

Darren was still standing shakily, grimacing as he steadied himself, he shook his head a little to focus and yelled at me, “Get out!”

“But-”

“Never sing again, you are dangerous!”

“But I can learn to-”

“Get the fuck out of here you freak!”

I have been called a lot of things in my time and usually they just kinda roll off. This though felt like a steak knife to the heart. I was trying here. I was giving it my all, even though I didn’t even want to fucking sing, but I tried damn it. I want to do good, but it hurt people. Every fucking time it goes sideways somehow. This is like that time on the bridge or that guy in the slums. No matter what I do, I royally screw the pooch. Why the fuck can’t this be like one of those comic books or stories I read where the person just does stuff and it all works out somehow? Can I even do this? Was this whole sponsorship thing just a big fucking mistake? Maybe I am just a fool? I am an idiot, aren’t I? Why can’t I do anything right?

My face felt wet and my vision was blurred. I couldn’t even wipe the damned tears cause of the helmet. I needed some time to myself and just be away from all this shit. I turned and forgot to duck, smashing a hole through the top of the door frame. It didn’t even slow me down as I ran away. I didn’t even care about my other stupid assessment classes or whatever, I will probably fail those too.