Six Months, Six Stories: November

NOVEMBER

After saying some calmer goodbyes to the rest of her family, Shimmer skates off into the stars, moving through the galaxies and exploring the cosmos as she makes the long trip to Earth.

"Ugh... my legs are tiiiired..." Shimmer says, space eating her words with its emptiness as she lets herself tumble through its darkness. The former Deck member grasps at her legs, rubbing the aching muscles inside as she sees Porphyrion, still a not-so-small marble in the distance.

"Why didn't I just hitch a ride with someone..." Shimmer's cheeks puff up, but her thoughts quickly change. A grumble in her stomach, not audible but felt, made her realize her situation even more.

"Craaaaaap, now I'm hungry too? Maybe there is like, some place near here or something... in space..."

Shimmer rights herself as best she can, not entirely sure which way is up after the free tumbling, and kicks her feet together, beginning a long skate through the stars once more. However, persistence and a bit of optimism can payoff...

In the distance, a metal structure looms, long and cylindrical but glittering with large spotlights beaming off in every direction. Had Shimmer not been emitting her own brilliant light, she would have likely been blinded by the shear power of the glow.

"YESSSSS! I knew I'd find something! Like, there has to be OTHER people who do this, right? Right?" Shimmer's energy is renewed by the sight, darting toward the building with little regard for the massive freight ships docking in it. She does not even bother looking for the door, instead passing right through the wall and skating into the first area that looked like an open room.

What she found surprised her...

"Aww sweat! It's like, some sort of outer spacey diner placey!" Shimmer jumped in place in glee to see she had not only landed herself in a place to rest, but a place to chow down as well! Bolting to the counter and ignoring the glares of obese amorphous alien truckers, she slams her hands down on the counter and calls the attention of the orange pinecone-looking thing that seemed to be handing out the food.

"HEY ORANGEISH PINECONE-LOOKING THING! What's on the menu? I'm staaaarving, and like, I haven't had anything to eat in... days? Maybe? Hours? Look, I don't like, know, ok?"

The creature growled and grumbled as it scooted over, looking over Shimmer before saying one word: "Mooooneyy?"

"Oh yeah! Of course! Money! Money for food, that's how it works, right? Um... Hmmm... Say... could I maybe like... start a tab?" Shimmer gives the pinecone creature a big toothy grin, her cheeks straining to contain the the white grin that was literally beaming. The pinecone creature had no eyes to blind, at least from what she could tell, but a nice smile always looks nicer in the light, right?

"Noooo tabbbbbs. Moooneyyyy onlyyyy." It growls, slowly shifting its body before it finds one of its bract scales grabbed by the desperate young woman.

"PLEEEEEASE mister pinecone thingy! I'm starving.... OH! I know! I can work for you! Like, dishes or something! OR!! OR, tables! Wait tables, right? I got skates, I'm fast!"

The pinecone creature turns back to Shimmer, still rather slow in doing so, and again utters one word: "Aaaaaage?"

"Aaaaage? Aaaaage.... OH! Age! Like, how old I am! Duh. Ok, I am sixteen years old! My birthday is July 25th, and-"

"Toooooo younggggg. Musssssst beeeee eiiiiiighteeeeeen." The creature mutter before finally turning away for good. Which is fortunate for it, because it gets to miss Shimmer slamming her head into the counter in defeat. Her stomach growls again as she lets herself fall to the ground.

"Eighteen? Eighteen? Why do I have to be eighteen? I'm good at stuff! I don't need to wait two years to be good at stuff!"

As she mopes on the ground though, Shimmer notices a few of the grubby looking trucker monsters moving up a staircase at the side. She could not read the sign they were following, but she could see what looked like some sort of food on the sign.

"AH! More places! More work! I'm not gonna die of no food yet!" Shimmer says, the tears in her eyes evaporating as her pupils glow brilliantly and the skater girl immediately jumps from downtrodden to upbeat and from floor one to floor two.

Floor two was manned by a more humanoid looking creature, although it looked more like mannequin than anything, right down to the lack of a face and odd lines where the limbs could be attached. It was undoubtedly organic though, but it had a few doubts as Shimmer came in demanding a job to work for food or pay.

"A.G.E.?" The mannequin said, each letter of the word seeming to be a separate sentence without actually spelling out the phrase.

"Eighteen! I am totally eighteen, been alive eighteen years! Can I work here pleeeeease?" Shimmer says, bounding up and down in anticipation.

"N.E.E.D. T.O. B.E. T.W.E.N.T.Y.O.N.E. T.O. W.O.R.K. W.I.T.H. A.L.C.O.H.O.L.I.C. B.E.V.E.R.A.G.E.S."

Shimmer's eager grin immediately turns upside down, and the mannequin does get to bear witness to this meeting of head to counter, although it is quick to lift her head and remove the scuff with little regard to the stream of tears forming in her eyes.

"I'm dying here man... doll... thing... I need fooooood. I won't touch the beer I swear! I'll be the best- FINE, walk away, I... I'LL JUST EAT ALL YOUR BAR NUTS!" Shimmer yells, snatching up the bowl of complementary nuts and scurrying to the next floor as she scarfs them down.

Shimmer sits tearfully on a stair finishing them, grimacing at their flavor and smell.

"Yuck, these things smell just like Everett..." Shimmer coughs, never having tasted a nut so ashy before. She should have really looked at the bargoers on that floor more closely, since most of them where business types whose hands were basically brimstone.

"Ok... FLOOR THREE, HERE WE GO!" Shimmer says, leaving the bowl on the stairs and entering the last pedestrian accessible business in the station.

What looked like a blue sun was working this floor, extending tendrils from its core to serve food and drink to anyone no matter where they sat. Shimmer had hardly entered the room before one extended, presumably expecting something like a coat or hat, but instead got Shimmer's hands wrapping themselves around the tendril.

"Hello mr. space sun blue guy! I am Shimmer and I would like a job here at... Your Place! It looks very nice and clean and I'm twenty one so I can be hired right?"

Mr. Space Sun Blue Guy's tendril quickly shifts into the creature's entire body instead, and it looks at the teenager with suspicious eyes. "Nice try, kid," is all it says, in a surprisingly quiet but incredibly audible voice, before both it and its tentacles proceed to ignoring her entirely.

With no counter to bang her head against, Shimmer instead crumples to the ground. The food in her stomach was all that kept her from weeping openly, but her sadness was hardly a secret.

"Great, no food, no job, no way to this Earth place Utsuho and the others are going to. I am totally super screwed..."

Shimmer's moping does not go unnoticed for long, as an automated being comes to try and shoo her out. Shimmer crosses her arms and legs and reluctantly refuses to move, and right as the robot begins to form a scoop to just lift her out, a rather human looking hand reaches for the robot's shoulder.

"Alright there friend, cool your jets. I got this." A man steps forward, no gimmicks to his appearance or speech, nothing odd about him except for being the only other human in this section of the station.

"Need some help up little lady?" He says, his voice jovial and friendly. Shimmer looks up at him suspiciously, cheeks puffed, but she eventually takes his hand, allowing him to pull her up.

"I'm not little, I'm 21..." she adds defiantly, but the man can't help but laugh.

"Now now, you can stop with the act. I don't care none about your age, but I do care about something else. Let me get something for you to eat-"

"YESSIR LET'S GO!" Shimmer says much too loudly, bolting into the restaurant before realizing she had no idea where this man's table was. This public embarassment was felt more than the others, and her arms shoot down and her body goes rigid as she waits to be shown where to sit.

The meal is ordered first before discussion begins... and a second meal... and a third meal. Shimmer wishes her friends could see her now eating like she is, but the stomach ache that follows proves that this big eating will not get a repeat performance anytime soon. As she groans and clutches her gut, the man begins to speak.

"Alright, so... You are one of them Kobbers, right?" He asks.

"Yeah! Oh well, I think so? I hope so! Like, I mean, I don't think there is any real WAY to become a Kobber or anything, at least I was never told about it. But like, if you think I'm a Kobber, I probably am one?"

"Good, good, you know them though, right?"

"Yeah totally! They are super cool! Why, you know them or something?"

"Yeah, you could say that... although they didn't call themselves that back in the day... Kobbers... funny name to pick for yourself."

"Yeah, like, I don't get it either, but like, people pick names for a reason you know? It doesn't sound bad once you get used to it!"

"I guess... Anyway, do you know that ghost Jumpropeman? The one who runs the fites?"

"Yeah! I mean... kinda? Like, I know a ghost runs those things, but like, I've never met him. He doesn't hang around in the bars or nothing, but I know people who do his fite things, and like, I see him when he's doing that. So I don't KNOW him, but like, I don't know you either old man, but I know you, you know?"

The man flinches at being called old, but he tries to keep up his friendly composure. Still, he finds himself talking more to himself than the girl in front of him. "Heh, the ghost couldn't bear to be around those he slaughters no more...Maybe he does have some form of conscious."

"Yeah, maybe," Shimmer says for no reason in particular.

"Look, you seem to be in a bad situation, and I like helping people in those. So listen here, I'll get ya some cash, a ride to Earth, all that and a pack of cigarettes-"

"Ugh, I don't like cigarettes. Everett always smoked those ALL THE TIME and it-"

"It... was an expression. Just, hear me out. Ride there, food, yadda yadda yadda, you, however, gotta do something for me."

"...Is this gonna get weird? Like, I've been offered stuff like this before, and I got a card put in me because of it. So... like, tell me what you really want and don't play pretend mister!"

"Nothing weird, I just need you to watch that ghost for me. Guys got a bloodthirst and he don't care what he does to people's lives. So, keep an eye on those fites of his, got it? If he does anything big... not Big Bar Brawl big, you'll know it when you see it, you call me up. I ain't gonna let him get away with hurting nobody else again..."

"Why not stop the regular fites then? Or the Big Bar Brawl? Or like, just him? Is he bad or something? Or strong? Or... what?"

"Look, it ain't that easy! I would watch the ghost myself if I could but I'm a busy man. All you got to do is watch him and report anything funky to me. Best case scenario: nothing happens, and you just walk away with some cash in your pocket. That's not bad, right? I'm trying to stop something bad if it happens, and well... the fites aren't bad necessarily... It's complicated, alright? Do you want the job or not?"

"YES! Sure! Okay! Sounds easy!

...there's no age requirement, right?"

The man laughs before getting up, leaving his money on the table for the sun creature and some to start Shimmer off before walking away.

"WAIT DUDE! You didn't give me your name! Or, like, a way to talk to you again? Or like, anything but money!"

The man was gone though, even as Shimmer skated after him, he managed to disappear amidst the many creatures as they rush in for what can presume is a mealtime in this sector of space. Shimmer droops, but clutching the money in hand, she begins to consider what to do with her time between now and May...

"I'm gonna go bug mr. pinecone man!" She states, skating down to the lower floor to begin her time in this odd interstellar truckstop. She would spend much of her time here, becoming a face of the place just as much as the mannequin, sun, or pinecone, still not working for them but always interacting with new faces as she learned more about the universe and life away from the medieval world of Porphyrion, and all the while, the money from the mysterious man would keep coming in...