Consoulia Chronicles: Booting Up [~ read description]

Chapter 8: Spire

The sun rose over Arcadia, giving the sky dull hue of blue. Inside the house was a couple of sleeping entities on the couch as the television projected what appeared to be an early morning comedy show. Clover and Iris watched the television as the sound of dull banging could be heard on the wooden staircase Zander's feet collided with each surface until they finally touched the ground floor.

It was the same comedy show that was recorded from the night before. Zander sighed and dragged a nearby blanket that was hung around one of the chairs and wrapped it around them. "You two looked cold," he patted Iris's head as he turned towards the kitchen.

Zander trudged into the kitchen and opened up a cabinet, but while there were glasses dotting the shelves, there were no mugs. With a sigh of exasperation, he resorted to loading the dishwasher to relieve the sink of its untidiness from all the dishes that invaded that area from the night before. Upon opening the dishwasher's door and loading in the various plates, glasses, and silverware, he heard splashing from the living room. 

"What's going on in there?" It was the catfish swimming around in the tank frantically, in circles. With a sigh, he approached the tank. There was a glow to it that made it look almost magical, but he knew it was just the overhead lighting from the tank. "What, you hungry? Here." He fed it some flakes and carried on with his kitchen task. 

It started to thrash instead, and splashed some water onto Clover. She woke up from the water entering her nose, and her choked coughing had awakened Iris. "No! Zander! Save me I'm drowning!" It took him tapping her on the shoulder to get her to calm down and expel whatever water got down her throat through some last rounds of coughing. 

The catfish lunged out at Zander, causing him to try to catch him. "Gyah! Get off me, damned fish!" He got a firm grip on the fish and put him back in the tank. "What was that for?!" 

"Zerrin.. must.. reach.. Zerrin." 

"Zerrin?" Iris's head tilted in curiosity, her eyes glowing momentarily at such a moment the siblings couldn't see. 

Zander had to have been feeling the after effects of a concussion after a sleep walk, or maybe those two were trying to mess with his head. "Nice try, but this prank won't work on me." He spoke without looking behind him. 

"Uh, Zander, that wasn't any of us," Iris confessed.

"Wait, how are you talking?" Clover asked, now becoming wary. 

"Where did you come from and how did you get here?" Iris questioned as her eyes began to glow amber with curiosity as she poked at the fish's body with her index finger. "Well, aside from us fishing you up and bringing you here, that is?" 

"A better set of questions would be to ask who he is and what's a Zerrin." Zander approached the marine animal as her arms were crossed with an expression of impatience and confusion scribbled on her face.

"Zerrin, she's-" 

"A dear friend of Iris's," he interrupted Iris.

"Wait, how do you know this? Zander, please wake me up, please tell me this fish isn't speaking to us." Clover begged.

"Right, I guess I don't have much of a choice." the fish spoke. "My name is Spire. I'm what they call a Consouloid." The three of them looked at each other, one albeit nervously. "Don't tell me you don't know what a Consouloid is. We're these androids that can run video games. We're like living emulators." 

"Gaming console robots, you mean?" Zander clarified. 

"You're taking this rather well, aren't you?" Spire questioned. "You're not weirded out?" 

"I mean, Iris is the same, right?" Zander questioned, leading to the little girl's eyes and mouth to widen. "I knew something was up the moment Iris's collar did that thing where it hooked up to the TV and played just about any game she could have wanted for that console." 

"B-but where was the hole in my story?" Iris questioned, upset. "And you're not weirded out?" 

"Electronics and brains aren't a pair that's mainstream yet, kiddo. Better luck with your stories next time." Zander pat her on the head. "I mean, you're also a little girl who's run away from somewhere all injured, you're all burned up like you fell to earth, and your friends and family are all scattered from what you told me. It's obvious, really." 

"Zander told me to shut my trap about it," Clover shrugged. "So you're, what, an alien robot who plays video games, hm? Even the classic bad ones?" She received an almost playful nudge from her brother in response.

"Is Zerrin really here, Spire?" Iris questioned.