Chapter Text
“I’m bored,” Stelle muttered as she was surrounded by imaginary golden origami birds. In a bystander’s perspective, it would appear she was merely lying on the ground; but there were at least two or three people vomiting all the alcohol and Soul Glad on the streets so it was nothing new. It is ironic for her when there’s always something unexpected in the land of dreams.
Having free time until the Astral Express’s departure from Penacony, she tried to make the most of the vacation they were meant to have. After resolving all the political concerns and management of Penacony, things have felt nice to be able not to do anything briefly. Stelle traversed through the other Moments and did everything one could do in dreams. Now with nothing left, Stelle’s single brain cell was trying to conjure up how to pass the time.
“Maybe, I’ll try talking to that puppet at Dreamflux Reef again.” The puppet named Elegy brought fun challenges when revisiting foes she had defeated in her journey with exciting rules. Perhaps the adrenaline rush will wash away when fighting them again.
Stelle brushed off the origami birds off her and made her way out of Aideen Park; but not without passing by a cluster of people at the slots machine area. “Huh? What’s with this large crowd?”
Curiosity took over and followed the crowd. She listened to the people gossip to get exactly what was going on. An Intellitron man on her left spoke to a purple haired woman, “Hey, you aren’t joking? This kid won the super big prize seven times?”
“He’s probably cheating,” the woman dismissed, “Something my son would try to do if he ever goes near one of these games.”
“Excuse me, what’s going on?” Stelle asked as she tapped the Intellitron man’s shoulder.
The Intellitron man turned to her and explained, “Oh, well there’s this kid over there that’s been winning the super big prizes in the capsule machine. And not just that, he went to the slots and lucky draw machine and also won them all.”
The crowd before her was slightly taller and couldn’t get a glimpse of the boy of interest. The purple haired woman continued, “It’s strange, I’ve been observing him for a while and it doesn’t seem like he’s cheating. No sleight of hands or distractions. He really is just a kid playing games.”
Stelle tried to get a better look at the center of attention, and the crowd slowly dispersed as if they were running away from something. After getting closer to the front, Stelle saw two buff Bloodhound guards towering over a little blonde kid with rips and tears on his clothes. One of the guards who had an interesting beard said to the boy, “Hey kid, we’re going to have you come with us.”
“Uh oh looks like the Bloodhounds are gonna get him,” the purple haired woman muttered, ushering their Intellition friend away, “Let’s have them take care of this.”
“I should probably help him.”
“Oh! It’s you. You’re the Nameless helping with the Family? Well, Nameless or not, we cannot stand aside and let a suspicious person out and about. So let us take care of this matter.”
“We don’t want to escalate this further, with the crowd we have here. Please cooperate with us.”
She looked down at the boy who was clutching her jacket the moment she stepped in. She could tell how afraid she was from the way he slightly cowered and hid his face. The boy needs to be safe, she thought.
“Alright, well I have another idea for all of us.” Stelle scoops up the little boy and runs away from the Bloodhounds. “Hey! Someone stop her!” Some people stood aside to watch the situation unfold, some people tried to act the hero but chickened out when Stelle summoned her bat as she stared at them with a threatening look ”I mean, would you really want to hurt someone that’s holding a child and possibly hurt them too? ”
It took some time getting away, but Stelle managed to shake them off her tail after hiding in a small area at Oti Mall. She sets the kid on her shoulder and pats him down. It was the first time that Stelle got a good look at the boy's face and was taken aback by a familiar pair of ringed violet-blue eyes. With those alluring eyes and the light blonde hair, he resembled a bit like a certain gambler in the IPC.
Aside from that, Stelle broke her train of thought and checked on the kid’s wellbeing. “How are you kid? Nothing hurt?”
“I’m okay,” the boy responded, “Thank you for saving me Miss. You were pretty cool back there!”
“Where’s your family?”
“I…don’t know where they are. I just wanted to play games and have fun. I didn’t mean to cause trouble!”
He was on the verge of crying, probably because of the stress of the situation earlier. Stelle felt the need to comfort him and extended her hand to him. “What’s your name? My name is Stelle.”
The boy placed his hand over hers and gave it a gentle squeeze. The distress in his face was replaced with a kind smile. “I’m Kakavasha! Your eyes are very pretty, Big Sis.”
Everything in her chest squeezed from how cute this boy was complimenting her and smiling. “Oh…thank you. But it’s not safe for you to be alone. We should find your family as soon as we can.”
“But…Big Sis saved me. I want to stay with you! Can we play some games together?” Kakavasha begged.
“Oh no, he’s doing puppy eyes,” Stelle thought to herself. Of course she’ll stay with him until his family comes to pick him up, but she doesn’t even know where to start with finding them. There were the authorities, but the Bloodhounds won’t handle the situation gently considering what happened earlier. Worst case scenario is that they catch the boy, charge him with some crime without evidence, and kick him out of the sweet dream all alone. “No, I can’t let that happen to this sweet summer child.” (The power of cuteness really affected Stelle a lot.)
Stelle looked at the boy closer and her eyes kept leading back to the violet-cyan ringed eyes of his. It reminded her so much of the IPC ambassador, the alluring bright colors drawing her deeper into a bottomless abyss hidden in the pupils. But unlike him, this boy’s eyes were filled with happiness. Perhaps there is a connection between the boy and Aventurine…maybe because they have the same eyes they’re probably family? Aventurine didn’t look like the person to have any siblings though, he gave off lone wolf vibes. Still, it’s something to start with at least, and maybe she’ll bargain with him to help her for the benefit of friendship.
“Hmm. Okay. Let me get some help and figure something out.” She motioned Kakavasha to sit with her by the wall as grabbed her phone up and pulled up her text message chat with Aventurine. It feels weird to ask him instead of the crew, but it’s best to ask him if it could be most related to him.
Stelle: Hey, do you know of any other relatives or family?
Aventurine: What a bold question to ask, Ms. Stellaron.
“He actually responded,” she blurbed out, “And so quickly…”
“What are you doing, Big Sis?” Kakavasha leaned in, looking at the phone like he’s never seen it before. Perhaps he was raised in a place with no big technology?
“I’m texting a friend.” Stelle responded. But would a friend be the right person to describe him? He threatened to blow up the Stellaron inside her and fought with him, and then swept it off like it was nothing but a silly mistake. Maybe acquaintance slash frenemy fits more since most of their interactions was just a friendly front to deal with Penacony. Stelle’s thought process broken again as her phone pinged again, Aventurine texting back.
Aventurine: But to answer your question, no.
Aventurine: I’m the only living member of my people.
Stelle stared at that last message for a bit. This new bit of information struck a chord in her and more questions filled in her head. He’s the last person of his generation? Was his home planet destroyed like Firefly’s? How can he chat about that without any hesitation?
Back to the point. She leaned towards Kakavasha to come closer to her and took a group selfie with him to send to Aventurine.
Stelle: I found this kid that reminds me of you. He said he’s lost and was looking for his family.
Aventurine’s reply icon showed, but it took three minutes until Stelle saw his response.
Aventurine: Where are you? I’m coming to see you.
~~
In less than thirty minutes, Stelle sees the blonde gambler in his hat and shades walking her way, but not alone. She sees the Memokeeper Black Swan following him and gives Stelle a mysterious smile at her.
“Hello dazzling hero of Penacony!” Aventurine greeted,” It’s been a while since our last reunion.”
“You brought Black Swan with you?” Stelle asked.”
Black Swan gave a small bow and said, “Do pardon my attendance. Mister Aventurine has requested my assistance for this matter.”
She walked past her and crouched in front of little Kakavasha taking a step back in slight fear. Black Swan cups Kakavasha’s cheek and stares at him intensely. “Why hello cutie, let me have a good look at your face.”
There was a small bit of silence as Black Swan analyzed his features. Stelle looked at Aventurine and asked him, “Who is he? You wouldn’t have come here if he wasn’t that important.”
“Well, the thing is, my friend, is that he can’t be real…” Aventurine explained as he removed his shades and put them into his pocket, “...because he’s someone who was gone a long time ago.”
At the same time Black Swan was finished with her meditation and gave her analysis to the two. “This little boy is a Memory Zone Meme that originated from Aventurine’s memories. With the dreamscape slowly taking in more memoria from the system, the effects have expanded to replicating figments of people’s memories. Like a pet you once had or a person that you’ve met before. Only this is the first time I’ve seen this sort of thing happen with a meme, since most of them are slightly distorted with other memories and just faint echoes of the past.”
Aventurine puts a hand under his chin and then asked, “Is there any way to get rid of them?”
Stelle’s head turned to him and was shocked. He may be a meme, but does he deserve to die? Her mind traces back to Misha…despite being a meme his pure desire for trailblazing and sacrifice meant a lot to her. Aventurine raised a hand and explained, “Please, I’m only looking out for the safety of other people. Imagine if the meme goes berserk and attacks others. Or the realization of a meme finding they aren’t a real person and can cause the memoria to disrupt everything.”
“The danger of a meme relies on how negatively strong the memories were. But for this little boy, he is small and filled with pure positivity like a little songbird. He won’t do harm to others if we let him be, and will return to the Memory Zone in time.”
Aventurine ponders on the information Black Swan provides, but his will is unshaken. “Well, we’ll still need to take care of this as soon as possible. We can’t let him cause trouble if things get worse.”
“Isn’t there that trope where we fulfill the spirit’s request and then go to rest peacefully?” Stelle proposed, “Can’t we do something like that?”
“Do you really believe in stuff like that Miss Stellaron?”
“I suppose you could do that,” Black Swan agreed, “The primary solution is to let them return to the Memory Zone on their own, and that can be either done by force or the meme goes willingly.”
“Alright then.” Aventurine extends his hand towards Kakavasha. “Just hand the kid to me and I’ll be sure to help with whatever he needs.”
Kakavasha scurries and hides behind Stelle and shouts, “But I want to stay with Big Sis! I’m not going to go anywhere without her!”
Aventurine showed a face of annoyance as he stared at the boy’s resistance. Stelle held her arm out in front of Kakavasha to protect him. “If you try to send him to the Memory Zone by force, I’m not afraid to fight and beat you up again.”
With a look of defeat, he signed, “Fine. But let me come with you guys. Relax, I won’t pull any sly moves and hurt him. I’ll do everything on my end to help you with this your way.”
“Don’t you have IPC duties to take care of? Surely they’re more important than him.”
“With the success of the Penacony situation, I was given a temporary break here before I returned to Pier Point. And I’ve been bored with the short free time I have alone so why not? Two heads are better than one when facing a problem.”
Stelle really should have thought about this more. But her single brain cell threw caution to the wind and went with it. “Okay. but any funny moves and I will whack you with my bat.”
“If that’s the case I shall take my leave,” Black Swan speaks up, “Should you need my assistance once more, feel free to give me a text.”
She walks by Stelle but not without a small whisper of advice to her before vanishing into the air, “Do enjoy your time with Aventurine.”