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11:11 - A Dorky Fanfic, Part 2 |
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Because the song plays a significant role in this part of the story, I present to anyone who hasn't seen it, "Chase The Morning" from Repo! The Genetic Opera, featuring Alexa Vega as Shilo and Sarah Brightman as Blind Mag. It's my favorite scene/song in the entire movie, and there's no gore.
When the boys came back, we started up our second movie. I sang along quietly to every song, punctuating with my traditional commentary, which made the rest of the room ring with laughter, even during serious moments. Then the movie reached my favorite scene.
The violin started as Blind Mag got out of her limo, and I gasped. A chill ran through my spine as Mag began to sing. I mouthed the words along with her. I heard Pink’s soft “ooh!” as Mag’s amazing eyes swirled, lit up, and projected the image of Marni Wallace into the foyer of the house. Her message of “Chase the morning, yield for nothing” suddenly made my breath catch in my throat. My eyes snapped away from the screen and I turned to look behind me.
Matt and Mello stared at the screen, their faces curious, peaceful, awed. It occurred to me that they probably had twenty-four hours or less left to live. They would be dead in a day. For such beautiful, brilliant people to be killed so young, without accomplishing their dreams or living their lives freely, to the fullest… My heart seemed to twist itself free of its normal position in my chest and fall, slowly, through the floor. That these two young men were in the last hours of their lives, and would die under the shadows of L and Kira was physically painful to me. Tears started to burn in my eyes, and I switched my view back to the TV screen; Mag had just switched off the projection for the second time, and began to sing again. I sang with her, my voice shaking slightly:
“Let your life be a dream, integrity, honesty. It’s too late for me… Don’t look back ‘til you’re free to chase the morning!”
I took a deep breath and wiped the first of the tears from my face as the song rose into its final chorus. Pink looked over at me. “Are you crying?” she said softly.
The song abruptly cut itself short; Matt had paused the movie and put a hand on my shoulder. “What’s wrong?” he said softly.
“N-nothing,” I said. “I’m sorry, that line can make me cry even in the best of times. It’s just... That last part of the song means so much to me, a-a-and you guys here, it’s…”
“What does she mean, ‘chase the morning’?” Mello asked.
I took a deep breath, wiped my eyes, and started to explain. “Sort of like, carpe diem. Don’t hold yourself back from doing the things you love because there’s something big and oppressive hanging over your head. Express yourself, even if it means other people will criticize you. Don’t be afraid to have fun and enjoy the little things in life, don’t let bad conditions and a big scary world-dominating dictator control you or ruin your life and your ability to have fun. Seize the day. Live every minute like your last. Go out at night and enjoy what life has to offer and live freely, even as the sun peeks over the horizon and the horrors and monotony of day-to-day life in a screwed-up society crash back in around you. Break the chains and run away. Don’t look back until you’re free to chase the morning.”
As I spoke, I was staring at the boys, pleadingly, looking from one to the other, begging them to accept Mag’s message. My message. Enjoy life while you can, because your lives are almost over. The burden of knowing was almost too much to bear; my body curled involuntarily into a small ball and I began to cry in earnest. Pink cradled me in her arms, crying as well, rocking me gently as I wept into my knees. The couch squeaked, and before we could even look up, the boys’ arms encircled us and we snuggled into their embrace. After a few minutes of almost stifling body heat (and cheeks turned bright red by the fact that oh my God, Matt and Mello are hugging us), we broke apart. I sniffled a few times, and we all smiled at each other.
“We really shared something just then, didn’t we?” Pink said, her voice wavering slightly. We giggled and settled back into a much closer cuddle puddle.
After “Chromaggia,” I couldn’t sing along anymore. It took all I had to keep myself from crying through the rest of the movie. I almost wanted to ask them to turn it off, but as it would be the first and last time they ever saw it, I held my tongue.
When the movie finally ended, I blinked, yawned, and stretched. The DVD player was shut off, and the four of us looked at each other. “What now?” Pink said softly.
A mischievous grin split across Matt’s face. “I have the entire first season of Pokémon if you want to keep watching the tube,” he said.
All four of us smiled. “Let’s do it,” Pink and Mello said together.
Seven episodes later, we still hadn’t got tired of singing the theme song or reciting the Team Rocket intro, but our attention was slightly diverted. We started playing a game of slap about four and a half episodes in, which lasted until about 3:00 in the morning, and then Pink pulled out her DS and challenged Matt to a Pokémon battle.
“Damn, when did it get to be 3:30?” Pink asked when the battle ended.
“No clue,” Mello said. “How long do you girls plan on staying here?”
“No clue,” I said, “but we should probably try to get to sleep. Assuming we can get back to our world, we’re going to an anime convention in the morning.”
“Lucky! Can we come too?” Matt said. “I’ve always wanted to go to a con, but somebody won’t go with me.” He turned his head very slowly and looked very pointedly at Mello.
“I wish we could bring you with us, hun, but we’ll be in the con long before the next 11:11 happens,” I said.
Mello tilted his head and stared at me, curiously. “What do you mean?”
“I don’t know, this is probably just a wild guess, but I think that’s how we got here. I made a wish that we could spend a night with you guys and make you happy, and Pink agreed with me. We closed our eyes, and when we opened them, we were on your couch instead of the one in my hotel room, and I saw that the clock said 11:11. That’s the time when you’re supposed to make a wish,” I explained.
“I don’t—“
“Maybe you’re not supposed to understand,” Matt said. “Maybe it’s like falling in love at first sight. You don’t know how it happened, you can’t explain it or understand it, and maybe you’ll never be able to. But it just feels right, and when it happens, you’re happy.”
I bit my lip so hard that I thought I would break the skin. The last thing I wanted to do was start crying again. Without really saying anything, all four of us came together and embraced. I closed my eyes and let the warmth of our bodies speak for me. Thank you for everything tonight. I had a great time with you, and I know I’ll never, ever forget this. I love all of you so much. Please, please remember me.
When we broke apart, all of us had tears in our eyes. Mello took a deep breath and said, “If you plan to sleep here tonight, you can use our bed if you want.”
We shook our heads and plopped onto the couch. “We’ll be fine here, but thank you so much,” Pink said.
“Hey, guys?” I said.
“Yeah?”
“Thank you so much for everything tonight. I… I love you guys so much.”
“I love you too!” Pink squeaked.
Mello chuckled. “You girls are adorable,” he said. Matt nodded in agreement. “Sure you don’t want our bed?”
“We’re fine.”
“You wanna pull that out into the sofa-bed, though? It’ll be a bit roomier.”
We shrugged, and Pink said, “As long as it’s not too much of a hassle, why not?”
Between the four of us, it only took a few minutes to get the sofa-bed set up. They let us use the bathroom to wash up before bed. While I was standing outside waiting for Pink to come out, I looked down at my wrist. I was still wearing several of my favorite kandi bracelets.
“Hey, guys,” I said. “Once Pink comes out of there, can I show you something?”
“Sure.”
Right on cue, Pink emerged from the bathroom. “Can I use you to demonstrate something?” I asked her. She nodded. “Right. Well, guys, I’m one of those crazy ravers, and as a sign of friendship, we trade these bracelets that we call kandi, and I wanted to give you some, but there’s a certain way that we do it. Give me your hand, Pink.” She held up one hand, and I held up one of my own.
“Ravers have this thing called PLUR, which is sort of like our philosophy, and there’s a kandi-trading handshake that goes with it. It goes Peace—“ I made a peace sign with my fingers, and Pink followed suit. “Love—“ I made half a heart shape with my hand, and Pink completed the heart with hers. “Unity—“ I placed my open palm against Pink’s. “And Respect.” We closed our hands together, lacing our fingers. “Then I take my kandi and put it on her wrist,” I said, and I did so without letting go. “And then we hug,” which we did. I repeated this process with both of the boys, an enormous grin plastered on my face. “There,” I said. “You have something to remember us by now.”
We shared one last group hug, and the boys each kissed us on the tops of our heads. Blushing furiously, Pink and I settled in on the sofa-bed. “Goodnight,” the boys said.
“Goodnight,” we called back to them.
Their bedroom light flipped on for a few minutes, and then it turned off. Within minutes, Pink and I fell asleep.
It seemed like only a few minutes later that the alarm on my cell phone sounded in my pocket, but at least it was a few minutes of great-quality sleep. Without opening my eyes, I slipped a hand into my pocket, extracted the phone from my pocket, and flipped it open. I turned off the alarm and opened my eyes. It was 7:00 AM, on the first morning of Otakon, and we needed to get ready.
We were back in my hotel room, huddled together in one of the beds, two DVD cases at the foot of the bed. Pink yawned, stretched, and sat up. She stared around for a minute before she looked at me. “Ashlynn?” she said.
“Yeah?”
“That wasn’t a dream, was it?”
“Matt and Mello?”
“Yeah.”
“No. That was real. I was there, you were there, and they were there. And we had a damn good time, the four of us.”
She flung her arms around me and didn’t let go for at least a minute. I held her tight and sighed. “And guess what?” I said.
“What?”
“We’re gonna have more damn good times pretty soon, aren’t we? Are you ready for Otakon?”
She broke away from me and threw a fist into the air. “Oh HELL YEAH!” she shouted.
We got out of bed and got ourselves ready; we ate a quick breakfast, put our costumes and makeup on, packed our backpacks, and hurried off to get in line. By 8:00, we were lined up with our fellow anime fans outside the Baltimore Convention Center, itching to get inside and let the good times begin.
As we waited, a large group of Death Note cosplayers strolled down the sidewalk, making their way towards the end of the line. “Hey, guys,” I called out to them. “Can I get a picture of all of you? Everybody in!” Pink and I pulled out our cameras as the group huddled together, slinging arms around one another while trying to pose. We took our pictures and thanked them, and they went on their way. I looked at my photo and smiled; after last night, it was so heartwarming to see them all together, alive and happy.
“Do you think we made them happy, Ashlynn? Last night, I mean?” Pink asked me.
I looked at her, then back at the photo on my camera. A determined grin set itself firmly on my face. “Yes,” I said. “Very happy.”
EvFaerAshlynn · Fri Aug 20, 2010 @ 04:42am · 1 Comments |
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