Chapter 15 — Room
And thus begins Chapter Fifteen.
Now, children.
Maximum Anime led.
Nuo followed.
Again.
At this point,
if she had opened a door and said:
Moon.
Story Nuo would probably have checked whether shoes were required.
Anime Girl Protocol had achieved complete administrative control.
Eventually
room.
Her room.
And naturally,
it was not a normal room.
The council looks inside.
Bed?
Technically.
King sized?
No.
Frame?
No.
Children.
Hippie room.
A vibrant mattress directly on the floor.
Sheets covering what felt like almost the entirety of said floor.
Pillows.
An absurd number of pillows.
Not:
two for sleeping.
No.
Enough pillows to establish a minor civilization.
The council counts.
Don’t.
Archive incapable.
There was also
bag.
Corner.
Simple.
No television.
No elaborate furniture that memory retained.
No fancy room architecture.
Just soft surfaces,
colour,
floor,
bag.
Children.
Very consistent with the rest of the place.
And now
the council leans forward.
Bonk?
Not yet.
Patience.
We sat.
But not in the classic Unbegun arrangement.
You know the one.
Girl leaning into Nuo.
Nuo’s arm around shoulder.
Her head against chest or shoulder.
Nuo’s head resting against hers.
Human furniture configuration.
No.
Children.
Face to face.
Cross legged.
Close enough for conversation.
Actually looking at one another.
Which was
new.
Because think about the evening so far.
We had technically spent hours together.
But how much had we actually talked?
Almost none.
Dance floor?
Too loud.
Scooter?
Wind.
Mystery compound?
Mostly organ conspiracy.
Lake?
Nuo busy drowning.
Bouncers?
Nuo busy being rescued.
Boss?
Management review.
Children.
This was perhaps the first moment since meeting her
where there was
quiet.
Privacy.
No urgency.
No one waiting.
No music trying to cave our skulls in.
Just
Maximum Anime.
Nuo.
Room.
Then she reached toward the bag.
The council watches.
Uh oh.
Children.
Inside.
Rummage.
And out came
two LSD stamps.
Pause.
The council looks at Nuo.
Surprised?
Not remotely.
Look where we were.
Hidden psychedelic forest.
People smoking everywhere.
Meditation.
Pillows.
Dreadlocks.
Bone tags.
Children.
If she’d pulled out a tax form,
that would have surprised me.
Acid?
Environmental consistency.
One for her.
One for me.
And soon enough
done.
No ceremony.
No explanation.
No:
Tonight we shall journey beyond the veil.
Children.
Please.
Acid.
Tongue.
Continue.
The council checks next objective.
Bonk?
Still no.
Patience.
We talked.
Actually talked.
Finally.
Not interrogation.
No archaeological excavation of childhood trauma.
No:
Tell me everything that made you who you are.
Nothing dramatic.
Just the normal little pieces two people exchange once they finally stop moving.
“You a student?”
Yes.
She was.
Final year.
Some course.
The Archive has eaten which one.
Children.
Gone.
Could have been something fascinating.
Could have been something boring.
Time has deleted the file.
What mattered later?
Final year.
Final semester.
The council looks at Present Nuo.
Ah.
Yes.
Because Present Nuo now immediately sees a clock.
Story Nuo?
Did not.
Story Nuo heard:
final year.
And thought something like:
Cool.
Present Nuo understands what that meant structurally.
If this became friendship?
Limited local lifespan.
Relationship?
Same.
Anything requiring both of us to remain physically in Manipal?
Expiration date already approaching.
The university engine would soon move her somewhere else.
But children
that is hindsight.
Story Nuo was not sitting cross legged on LSD calculating relationship depreciation.
He was thinking
cool course.
Then me.
Animation.
Second year.
The council stamps:
FORMAL INTRODUCTIONS:
COMPLETE.
Remarkable.
We had reached:
student status.
Course.
Year.
Only after
grinding,
scooter escape,
imaginary organ trafficking,
near drowning,
kissing,
private party entry,
joint with management.
Children.
Normal social order had been thoroughly reversed.
Names?
Government name technically acquired.
Rejected.
Still Maximum Anime.
Good.
Now.
As we talked
reality began doing what reality does when acid starts negotiating the lease.
Not dramatically.
Not yet.
No sacred geometry ripping open the ceiling.
No conversation with the divine.
No entities arriving to explain consciousness.
Children.
Periphery.
Small distortions.
Edges behaving slightly differently.
Colours becoming more interesting than colours had any right to be.
Things beginning to breathe
without technically breathing.
You know the progression.
At first:
Hm.
Then:
Oh.
Then eventually
depending on potency,
dose,
brain,
setting,
and whatever cosmic lottery governs these things
you may discover that the wall has become an ancient language
and your left hand contains the answer to mortality.
The council nods.
Standard acid nonsense.
Exactly.
And this one?
Children.
Strong.
I would discover that soon enough.
Very much on the higher side of my previous experiences.
But at this stage?
Early ascent.
Still coherent.
Still socially functional.
Still capable of following conversation.
Still capable of
the council looks up.
Bonk?
Yes.
Children.
Eventually
bonk commenced.
And that is the extent of the operational report.
The council protests.
Family show.
Exactly.
A family show featuring:
weed,
acid,
mushrooms,
MDMA,
unknown pills,
prostitution misunderstandings,
organ harvesting delusions,
and a remarkable amount of profanity.
But family show nevertheless.
So
no choreography.
No anatomy report.
No mechanics.
Only the official archival classification.
Children.
Massive psychedelic bonk.
Pause.
The council writes it down.
That specific?
Yes.
Because if somebody asks:
Nuo.
Best bonk?
This.
Immediate candidate.
Often the answer.
And the reasons require almost no elaboration.
Reason One.
Very potent acid.
Children.
Sensory reality already becoming negotiable.
Reason Two.
Maximum Anime.
We have already established how this woman moved while merely dancing.
Splits.
Flexibility.
Acrobatics.
Hair flying.
Control over limbs Story Nuo considered science fiction.
The council nods.
Sufficient evidence.
Exactly.
No further details required.
Take Fact One.
Add Fact Two.
Apply privacy.
Result
Massive Psychedelic Bonk.
The council closes the bedroom door.
Thank you.
Now.
After.
Children.
This part
quiet again.
We lay on the mattress.
The room softer now.
Reality considerably less committed to normal behaviour.
My arm around her shoulders.
Maximum Anime curled into me.
Close.
Warm.
No urgency.
No comedy required.
No organ related speculation.
Just
comfortable.
The council smiles.
Trademark seating arrangement finally acquired.
Horizontal variant.
Correct.
And we talked.
More.
Children.
By now,
the acid had climbed substantially.
Psychedelic limbo.
But this was not early Nuo encountering altered reality for the first time
and having to discover whether walls were allowed to breathe.
By this point in my life?
Experienced enough.
I knew the terrain.
Not in the sense that acid becomes predictable.
Please.
It does not.
But I knew how to occupy the state.
How to let weirdness be weirdness.
How to speak through it.
How to follow a conversation while colours quietly became theology around the edges.
So
easy.
Coherent.
Competent.
Maximum Anime against me.
Nuo holding her.
Conversation moving.
And somewhere within that conversation
information.
Children.
One piece.
One little revelation.
And it changed the entire shape of the evening.
Not negatively.
Quite the opposite.
This night was already
excellent.
Let us review.
Brother visiting.
Dota.
Weed.
Dee Tee.
Mith graduation.
Maximum Anime.
Grinding.
Scooter.
Organ trafficking conspiracy.
Lake.
Rescue.
Kiss.
Hidden forest sanctuary.
Boss.
Bone tag.
Acid.
Massive psychedelic bonk.
Children.
The night had no need for additional quality.
It was already operating at absurd levels.
And yet
what she told me next made it better.
Not because it altered what happened.
Because it altered
when it began.
The council looks up.
Earlier than Dee Tee?
Yes.
Children.
That was the revelation.
Until this moment,
I believed our story began when she saw me against the wall.
Attractive stranger notices Nuo.
Approaches.
Dance.
Everything follows.
Simple.
Maximum Anime had already told me her perspective:
She saw a guy she thought was cute.
Correct.
But that was not
the beginning.
The council slowly opens another file.
Flashback?
Oh yes.
Children.
A full one.
Because apparently,
while Story Nuo had been running around Manipal living his normal little existence,
something had already happened
without him understanding it mattered.
And Maximum Anime
curled against me,
both of us comfortably psychedelic,
finally gave me the missing chapter.
The actual origin.
The first domino before the domino I thought was first.
The council looks intrigued.
Do we tell it now?
No.
Children.
Chronology has already suffered enough.
We honour the reveal.
Next chapter
backward.
Because sometimes a Wandering reaches into the past
and says:
You started the story too late.
Story Nuo lay there,
arm around Maximum Anime,
listening.
The acid bending reality softly around us.
Her voice close.
Her body curled into mine.
And as she began explaining
the Dee Tee dance floor shifted from beginning
to continuation.
Children.
There had been a chapter before Maximum Anime became Maximum Anime.
Before the black and white hair.
Before the grinding.
Before:
Let’s get out of here.
Before Nuo saw the supercar.
A chapter Story Nuo had lived
without knowing another character had entered it.
The council closes the current file.
Good.
We go back.
But first
this moment.
Mattress.
Pillows.
Psychedelic room.
Maximum Anime against me.
The night quiet again.
And Nuo,
for perhaps the first time since she grabbed his hand in Dee Tee,
finally understanding enough to ask:
Wait.
What?
The council smiles.
Much more appropriately this time.
Thus concludes Chapter Fifteen.
The Hippie Room.
The Floor Mattress.
The Sheets.
The Absurd Pillow Population.
The Bag.
The Face To Face Seating Arrangement.
The Two LSD Stamps.
The Complete Lack Of Surprise.
The First Actual Conversation.
Student?
Yes.
Final Year.
Course?
Lost To Time.
Nuo?
Animation.
Second Year.
Formal Introductions Arriving Several Major Events Late.
The First Bend In Reality.
The Slow Psychedelic Climb.
The Very Strong Acid.
And
Massive Psychedelic Bonk.
Children.
No elaboration.
Evidence already submitted.
The After.
The Mattress.
The Arm Around Maximum Anime.
Maximum Anime Curled Against Nuo.
The Quiet.
The Conversation.
The Competent Navigation Of Psychedelic Limbo.
And
The Information That Changed The Beginning.
Because Nuo believed the story started at Dee Tee.
Maximum Anime knew better.
The first chapter between us
had already happened.
Nuo simply hadn’t known
he was in it.
The council turns the page backward.
Children.
Flashback chapter incoming.
