(You were stolen from us,

You took a piece didn’t you?

You belong to us Kage

You should join us Kage

You–)

–Bummmmmm!

The horn of a ship blares as we arrive on one of the many docks on the plastic beach,

“Home sweet home,” whistles Lyra sarcastically,

The pilot of the Killer whale who had been stationed at Jamrock, returned immediately after Alexander left chartering the craft back to the beach,

Waiting for us at the docks is another uniformed government official who ushers us into a vehicle, dropping us off that beach house

(What house?

You went behind there?

Blackmagic dealer

I assure you I am a Silicon based human

The first ring,

The second ring,

The third ring

What about the world Kage?

The world

The world)

“The wo–”

“–Kage, relax,” Lyra shakes me,

I notice we are back in the living room of the beach house

“You’ve been mumbling to yourself ever since that coward Alexander ran away,” Lyra tells

“I’ve just been processing everything,”

(Processing)

“Lyra, do I seem human to you?”

“I couldn’t tell you,” the girl shrugs

“I’ve seen people worse than you, and we consider them human,

I don’t see why you think your not,”

…….

“I’ve been feeling disoriented since meeting, Satan,

My brain feels so scrambled,

Just like when I met Murdoc for the first time…”

“Yeah traumatic experiences tend to do that to a person,” Apollo who emerges from the kitchen says, his and chest are covered in flour

“Lyra do you know how to make what the people of this ring call pizza?

This is kind of complicated,”

“There is something called the internet here Apollo, look it up,” Lyra rolls her eyes

“Yeah I did that,”

“Fine I shall help,”

(How these acting so normal after everything that’s happened?)

“Don’t go zoning out again Kage, relax,” Apollo says gently nudging me to join,

…..

“Gahhd! Don’t you read Apollo it says let the dough set you can’t just-

-You know what let me-”

….

“Stop blocking the oven Kage, do something at least…..”

…..

…..

For a short moment in time, I felt as though everything was normal for once, maybe it was their way of coping, but Lyra and Apollo both acted like nothing we just went through happened…

(This isn’t so bad actually)

“Oh cool, so that is how works,” Apollo eyes the rising pizza in the oven,

“I told that you if you follow the instructions it would come good,” Lyra half gloats

“I still prefer using our magic stoves, but this will have to do,”

“Don’t really think there’s much of a difference,” I put in,

“Yes there is Kage, can you feel magic emanating from this mechanical stove?”

“No, but do you need too?”

“Yes, the heat outputted would depend on the amount of magic inputted, that’s basic magic theory.”

“Forgive me for not being in a city called the Magic City, how could I possibly not know of every aspect of magic theory.”

“Don’t get sassy with me Kage,”

“So you can but I can’t?”

“You learn quick,” Lyra tries to pat my head but I artfully dodge back

“You know...

Hypothetically…

If we were to fight right now Kage, you no longer have your bow/guitar anymore,

I’d destroy you,”

“It does feel weird not having it on my hand anymore,”

(And I spent all that time learning to play the guitar, not to mention how long it took me to fire arrows accurately)

“You never know Lyra, Kage could have something else up his sleeve,” Apollo inputs

“I am still in awe of that attack you did on the Caribbean with the guitar

But I do have a few critiques,”

(Here we go)

“Why does the strumming have to disconnected for one, it should at least be a cohesive song,

And secondly, could you make it so that you knock out your opponents rather than kill them,”

“No, no, and I don’t have anything else up my sleeve,”

(Not for now at least)

“Yeah you say that now, but by next week you’ll firing beams out of your eyes like Alexander,” Lyra jokes

“I’m actually surprised you were able to beat him so easily,” says Apollo

“If I had to guess why, it’s probably because his brain records mathematical probability and he had pre-calculated that you might attack with long range magic attacks and not close range reinforced strikes, when you did it caused him to recalculate which was enough time for you to severely injure him,”

“First of all Kage, how did you get that from one fight, and you do realize nobody but you understood that explanation,” drawls Lyra

“My hunch is that if Alexander is an android–a human/machine hybrid, then maybe I am one too,”

(How else could I have healed that quickly)

“Nah,” Apollo shakes his head,

“I don’t think you’re the same as Alexander,

He didn’t even refer to you as one of his people,

He spoke aa though you were an object, a possession of theirs,”

“hhhhh,” I sigh

“We might have gotten more out of him of you hadn’t suddenly attacked Lyra,”

“Listen Kage, in all my experience with people, I know that anyone who gives you information for free is either trying to manipulate you or playing you for a fool,”.

“So beat them up?”

“Well here’s another thing from my wealth of experience, until you beat someone within an inch of their life, will they start squealing the truth,

It isn’t my fault the bastard could teleport,”

“You know… that isn’t half advice…”

“When have I ever given bad advice?”

“I can name a few times.” Apollo starts receiving a warning glance from Lyra

Ignoring her, he continues on

“Back when we still living in the void in Soterra, Lyra thought it would be a good idea to keep roaming into the outer ends of the plane, then maybe we might find some resources or something stupid like that she said at the time,

The only thing we found were people who went out there to kill themselves, it was horrifying at the time,

But kind pf funny to think back on now.”

“Funny?”

“Not the suicide part, I meant the sheer horror we felt at the sight, no one ever took Lyra seriously again, that was during the suicide year,”

“I don’t even know what to say to that, suicide year,”

“We named our years after major happenings at the time,” Lyra gingerly inputs

“There was the starvation year, the murder year the building year the 'baby incident’ the-”

“-Wait, the baby incident??”

“To put it lightly there was a year a lot of babies were born,

They could not survive in the conditions there…”

“Oh,”

(Maybe I should not have asked)

“You showed up at pleasure year, Kage,” Apollo tries to put his arm around me

Easily I side slip through before he gets the chance

“That was when Karina started doing her thing in secret,” Lyra adds

Ringgg!

The oven alarm goes off, signaling the pie having finished baked

…..

…..

***

(This is not how I expected things would be after meeting both Brandon and Alexander)

….

“Say what you just thought out loud,” Lyra gives me a look

The aroma of pizza fills the living room of the beach house as the three people sit relaxed on a comfortable coach their hands still covered with dried bits of flour,

“I was just thinking, that after all that’s happened over the past few days this is not what I would expect us to be doing,”

“Yeah well when your entire life has basically been fucked up shit one after the other, you eventually reach a point where thinking about the fucked up shit just makes you more fucked,” Lyra explains munching away at a slice

“What she said” Apollo also eating, cosigns the statement

“Now stop being such an edgelord and have a slice of the pie Kage,”

“Edgelord?”

“Saw that online five minutes ago and immediately added it to my vocabulary,” the young man grins

“We can you un-add it?”

Instead of replying Apollo pushes the tray near me beckoning for me to have a slice

(Can’t remember the last time I ate,

I don’t even think I need to,

I thought I did once, but…

Nah, why am I thinking about this right now)

“You know what,

Let me have slice.”