Paradigm City - Fan Fiction - The Whole Family

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The Whole Family

Chapter 7

Dorothy unpacks all the new shopping with Norman as the sun quickly fades beneath the horizon in the icy winter sky outside. "Well, Miss Dorothy. Did you manage to invite everyone in time?" questions the old butler.
"Yes, all 15 guests have received their invitations prior to the engagement, despite Tim's efforts to keep me from achieving such a goal."
"Really? What did he do?" asks Norman as he turns to the oven to supervise the thawing chicken.
"Firstly, I believe he caused a much more rapid decay of the food supplies we had so that I would have to go shopping for more, and secondly, I also believe that took control of my hands and vocal synthesiser to cause me to play an ancient song at my piano lesson instead of Beethoven's Fifth. Fortunately, he neglected to halt the courier I sent to the Speakeasy to invite Big Ear and Mata."
"Well, perhaps there's a reason why he's just the Overlord's bodyguard then." He smirks at the thought of Tim being incompetent at anything but protecting Jack and Scott, but it degrades rapidly when he realises what he would do if he realised what he was thinking. "And perhaps there's also a reason why he is quite productive when he desires something."
"Really, Norman? What could that be?" Dorothy completes stocking the cupboards, and places her basket back next to her coat.
"Well, if he truly is the creator of the planet and universe, then it would stand to reason that he wanted something in return for doing so, would it not?" Dorothy remains silent to the question, unsure as to the answer. "I believe he may have simply been bored with the company, or perhaps the layout of his home at the time, but another idea suggests that he actually just wants to make people happy, and what grander a scale than an entire planet to make so?"
"Perhaps you are correct," she finally replies, picking up her coat and basket and preparing to replace them in her room. She leaves the kitchen as Norman prepares the oven for its own Christmas present of the chicken.

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Dorothy proceeds down the darkened corridor to her room, passing Tim's door as she does so. She halts for a moment, and peers through the slightly open doorway at the interior, but to her surprise, she finds none. Simply put, all she can see is a black room divided into squares by thin beams of blue-ish light. She slowly opens the door to reveal Tim standing in the middle, watching as he types numerous commands into a transparent keyboard, the screen above it flickering rapidly. "There is not wind enough to twirl. That one red leaf, nearest of its clan. Which dances as often as dance it can." Dorothy attempts to decipher his latest riddle, but is dumbfounded instead by a large burst of tempestuous flame that explodes from just metres in front of Tim, who simply stands there as if nothing had hit him at all. Still she watches, as the flames reverse inward, until they become a single, unified, ball of molten rock. Tim types a couple more commands, and then ball cools to a blackened state, and then erupts into life as hundreds of small trees shoot up all over its surface. Oceans appear all over it, dowsing what little heat remains in the ball. Dorothy's eyes zoom in, revealing tiny light-blue creatures than thunder across the plains of the world, towering over anything else there. Tim startles slightly, and Dorothy quickly closes the door and hurries back to her room before she is discovered spying on him.

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Nighttime comes quickly to Paradigm City, and it is soon engulfed by a large black sky, the single solitary moon shining brightly between the equally bright stars that dot themselves around it. Dorothy lies in her bed, contemplating what she saw inside Tim's room when she was spotted. She deduces that it must have been some kind of simulation, or else Tim would have experienced massive fire damage from the initial explosion, or perhaps it was real, and Tim was creating a new planet to insert somewhere. She slowly drifts into a trance state, her equivalent of sleep, until she hears a most curious sound from outside. A large number of bells echo as the sound of something very large landing on the roof reaches her poignant ears. She removes her covers, and walks to the living room door quietly. "Could we be being robbed?" she wonders, as she silently opens up the door. She sees first that the balcony doors are open, a chill wind blowing through them, and then that a rather obese man is at the chimney. She bursts open the door, and confronts him in the eerie scene. "Who are you? What are you doing here uninvited?" she asks the strange figure.
"What?" he startles, "Oh, I had no idea you were awake my dear, run along now back to bed." He smiles through his thick white beard. Dorothy is puzzled as to his attire, a completely plain white suit, except for the woolly white cuffs, a bobbled hat inclusive.
"I will ask again, who are you?"
"My name is Nicholai, Dorothy. Now, as I recall, you are one of the most well behaved people in Paradigm City, aren't you?" Dorothy herself startles to learn that this 'Nicholai' knows her, but continues with her questioning.
"You still have not answered my question of what you are doing here, Nicholai."
"Oh, where you not expecting me?" he asks in return.
"We were not expecting anyone at this time of night."
"Midnight."
"Pardon?"
"It is technically neither night or morning as it is currently Midnight, young Dorothy." Dorothy glances over to the grandfather clock, and indeed it has completely stopped with both hands frozen at 12 o'clock.
"That still does not explain your presence, Nicholai."
"Oh come now, you've heard the stories of Santa Claus before, surely this is no surprise to you."
"Are you implying that you are Santa Claus?"
"I am indeed Dorothy. Nicholai Claus at your service. Which stocking is yours exactly?" He motions toward the rather long line of stockings, stopping specifically on the strenuously long one, which just happens to belong to Tim.
"Mine is the second one from the right Nicholai" He nods, and then begins placing all manner of things in her stocking, mostly chocolates to her glee. "Now, I remember reading that you had a few wishes this year, Dorothy, what were they?"
"Wishes?" He nods.
"Yes, there were three things you severely wanted from me inscribed into your database. What were they?" Dorothy blushes slightly, but answers nonetheless.
"I firstly wanted for..." she points downward at her legs, and fortunately Santa manages to get the idea.
"Gladly done Dorothy. No woman should have that to endure." He snaps his fingers and Dorothy feels a tremendous relief vanish from her processors.
"Secondly, I wanted to know why Tim created the universe."
"The meaning of life? That's a very simple answer, the meaning of life is to live."
"To live?"
"It's quite obvious, Tim is the Guardian of The Overlords and as such it's his job to protect, period. So naturally the meaning of life for his creations is to continue living. It's a task that he has invested quite a large amount of time in I'm afraid." Dorothy nods compliantly, then continues.
"Lastly, I'd like to know what it is to be..." she stalls for a moment,
"To be?"
"To be, in love." She finishes with a deep breath.
"To be in love? Why would you want to know that?"
"Well, everyone I have met thus far has been in love with someone; Schwarzwald with Angel, Scott with Tsunami, Jack with Tokimi, even Beck has managed to acquire a lady friend recently."
"You have no idea," grimaces Santa, "I honestly wish I could tell you what love is Dorothy," he sighs, "But I'm afraid it is something I myself haven't experienced in over 5 thousand years."
"Why not?"
"There just never seemed any reason, not after Rachel died."
"Rachel? You mean Mrs. Claus is dead?" He leans on the fireplace, his head supported by his hand, and nods. "I am terribly sorry for you loss, Mr. Claus."
"It's OK, it happened a long time ago. I'm afraid the only way to know what love is is to be in love yourself Dorothy."
"Then, could you instead make it possible for me to be in such a condition?"
"Well, I'm sure Suwah could do that, but she'd likely play around with everything else inside of you as well." Dorothy's silent blush reappears. "All right, I'll give such an ability, if only for the season." He snaps his fingers again, and Dorothy is enveloped in an uproar of bright light. Her systems are taken by a tremendous storm, as she floats a few inches above the ground, her nighty flapping about in an invisible wind as a large portion of her is altered significantly. Finally, the light subsides and she returns to the floor unharmed. "That should do it." Dorothy clutches her chest, and feels within an almost remarkable beating, one she has never felt before. "Pinocchio lives again, ay?"
"Th-Thank you, Nicholai." Dorothy lifts her head toward him, and for the first time in her life, her smile is not dimmed by her mechanical emotions, as it breaks through clearly onto her face, brightening the otherwise dark room with its presence. "One last question, how do you know of the Overlords and the Goddesses?"
"Well, aside from the old 'he sees you when you're sleeping' gag, they created me." Santa smiles back at the pleased android, or woman considering her very recent alterations. "I am the product of a rather curious experiment of Tim's over 8 thousand years ago in the year of 350 AD."
"Which means that by the oldest known recorded event, you are currently the oldest person in known existence, after the Overlords and Goddesses."
"And yet I remain irrevocably human, startling isn't it?"
"How can you possibly be human if the average human life span is 76 years?"
"Originally, I was to be born of a human parent, but the plans changed a little after my birth, and the history of earth was changed slightly to allow me my longevity and other abilities, as I'm sure you will have noticed."
"Who were your parents?" He smiles, then walks to the centre of the fireplace, taps his nose twice, and with a whoosh, he vanishes up the chimney as quickly as he had come. Dorothy rushes onto the balcony, just in time to see a large sled bearing 9 reindeer flying off into the night.
"Merry Christmas to all!" he yells at the top of his lungs, "And to all, a Good Night!" Dorothy smiles again at the old man, who is becoming more and more distant as she watches in the bitterly cold night, her feet encrusted in the freezing snow. Eventually, she can no longer see him, and she quickly retreats back into the house, closing the balcony doors behind her, and returns to her room. She takes a moment in the bathroom to realise just how different she is now to when she got up from her bed just 15 minutes ago, roughly. She realises just what she has lost, her original emotions, her harshness, her unrelenting unwillingness to change her routine, but also what she has gained; real human emotions, a warmness within her new heart, a human woman's body, complete with all the common traits. She reflects on just how lucky she is, and realises just how late it is. She yawns for the first time, then snuggles up in her bed, and sleeps, dreaming of what beholds her in the morning.

NO SIDE - 01:12:17

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