Mighty Aftergame: Quest for the Deep Power Stones

Life is a Trip!

Sigh... okay, I should probably rewind here a bit, and lay out the situation between Trip and I a little more.

Since you've all probably heard the oft-told tell how trip and I first met, courted and I, uh... got married due to my ignorance. So, I suppose I should start with what came after. We were on the plane ride back to Station Square, having finished our stay on Crescent Island, and had stowed our gear... along with that of our new companion... in the cargo area. Trip had snuggled up next to me, and was resting her spiky head on my shoulder, while the extremely confused Ray sat across from us. This was all so surprising to me, I had expected to comeback from this year-long excursion with training experience and fond memories... not a wife! But as surprised as I was about everything, I was entirely unprepared for what happened next.

"Hey, Trip..." Ray asked her, cocking his head curiously. "... I never thought to ask this, but can you talk?"

I was ready to scold him for that, thinking either she did not want to talk, or could not speak- which one of these it was, was her business. But then, for the first time, my new wife spoke.

"Y-yes, I can, R-ray." Trip replied, in a very... shy and feminine voice. "I-I just d-don't do it that o-often."

We both stared at her, dumbfounded. I was in shock! Ten whole months with her... ten months of spending time together while Ray and I had conversations, joked, and laughed, and she just sat there, silently. Oh, we talked to her all the time, she laughed along with our bad jokes, nodded her head along when we talked, and she frequently wrote many notes for us to read, when she wanted or needed to tell us something. So while there had been some minimal communication... this is the first time I had ever heard the voice of the woman I was now married to!

"Huh, you can talk?!" Ray said in surprise. "Why didn't you ever tell me?"

"Y-you never a-asked." She replied simply, hugging my arm. "There w-was no reason to."

"Trip, you do realize, we just got married... and this is the first time we've ever actually talked?" I gave her an incredulous look. "I've heard communication is very important in a relationship, what does that say about us?"

She gave me a sad almost disbelieving, look.

"Huh... what do you mean we've been talking this whole time?" I asked her in confusion. "Except for your notes, you never said anything?"

She raised an eyebrow at me, smiling.

"Well... yeah I always did seem to know what you wanted, whenever you looked at me." I replied, unsure how that was possible. "But we never talked before, and we're married now. What do we even know about each other? Do you even know my favorite book?"

She reached into my bag, and pulled out my copy of 'King Arthur and his Knights'.

"Okay... but do you know my favorite song?" I ask her, smiling smugly.

Reaching into my bag again, she pulled out my music player, and hit the button and the country song "Sweet home Southern Baronies" started playing.

"All right..." I rub my temples, starting to get annoyed. "What about my favorite food? You never served that on our stay here, so there's no way you could know!"

Putting the music player back, she pulled a cookbook out of one of our bags, and pointed first to a recipe for chili dogs, and one for pepperoni pizza.

"Hmmm..." I sigh, getting desperate. "Okay, then there is no way you know my deepest, darkest secret."

She then smiled at me, mischievously.