The man baby strode out of the room to pack up the rest of the house, leaving a bemused Bobolous with a myriad of questions on the tip of his tongue. Where were they going? WHY were they going? Couldn't he say goodbye to his dearest Carver, or any of his other friends? He also wondered, with an increasing sense of dread, how Ben was involved in this sudden movement. He knew that Ben had been acting rather odd lately (he heard the wild singing on his way to the bus stop, after all, and he may be a cumbersome whale shark, but he wasn't stupid enough to not notice his own father featured on Youtube).
If, dear reader, you could imagine being plucked out of the town you knew and loved as suddenly as this unfortunate whale shark was, you can imagine the confused, rising bubble steadily growing in Bobolous' stomach as he was hurried out of the last of the treehouse labyrinths, and bundled into the large stretch limousine, which had been lined with cotton balls to prevent excessive noise. Once they were inside, Bobolous looked to each of his parents; Ben's eyes were red, as if he'd been crying, and he was still whispering to himself, his head pressed against the window. The man baby was clenching his hands together in worry, half glancing at his once beloved Ben, and half longing to turn back to his masterpiece of architecture, but he knew that he mustn't. After a few minutes of driving, after they had all looked out of the windows at the sleepy little town rapidly dwindling away into nothing but a memory, Ben lifted his head, and sighed.
"Man baby, Bobolous, I feel that I owe you an apology," There was an affronted miaow from a basket in the corner. "And you of course, Biscuit. You are the three creatures dearest to me in this whole world, but please, hear me out about this. I need to tell you what's been going on." Ben looked appeasingly at the man baby, silently begging him to at least listen. Unbeknownst to Bobolous, who was still looking out of the window, the man baby hesitated, before reaching towards Ben and squeezing his hand, then nodding to indicate that he could continue. Ben took a deep breath, and began.
"I've had this happening for a while, now. Do you three remember that one article about a revolutionary discovery to do with the works of Phillip Pullman or something along those lines? Well, I reckon that the reason it was covered up so quickly is because the various governments of the world found it to be true; I mean, can you imagine what would happen to the world if stuff like that was available to the public? I've read those His Dark Materials books, and I think that they may have found the windows, like in the books, that go to parallel universes. Now...I'm curious to see what'll happen if I say this, but do you, man baby, remember someone who went by the name Diglet?"
The world seemed to hold it's breath for a second, before relaxing again, and the man baby nodded uncertainly, for the mention of Diglet the self-proclaimed psychic music teacher might have torn the fabric of the space time continuum. And here, in an adorable little ampersand similar to the last chapter, is why.
If we took the Large Hadron Collider into account, there is a one in uncountable millions chance that the experiments taking place underneath the Franco-Swiss border, in the Large Hadron Collider, would cause the fabric of the space time continuum to rip apart rather vigorously. This is because beams of protons are being propelled through the 27km ring at unthinkable speeds, which is the kind of activity that goes on inside the head of this Diglet. Because she is trying to break back into the world, thus tearing a small portion of the space time continuum in order to get through, the mention of her name triggers the psychic Diglet-particles to be propelled closer to their ultimatum: reaching their own world again. This could cause catastrophic events for all the universes currently existing, as the rip would carry on ripping, through many other universes, until eventually, everything in existence would fall apart.
The only reason the man baby could recall for knowing this was a strange dream he had two nights previously, after a particularly raucous and somewhat wild evening with his beloved, in which he was watching a Mozart concerto, being performed by a hauntingly beautiful oboist. She was a female oboist, so being a man baby, he did not register this fact, but in her concerto, as she shaped the notes, she seemed to be giving him that very message. The man baby could not remember the last time he had a dream like that, so vivid, so colourful, so clear, so...real. This entire thought happened in a split second, of course, as the man baby nodded uncertainly, for he was rather worried about the risk they all just took in Ben speaking Diglet's name.
"Well...she told me to avoid mentioning her name as much as possible, but I had to say it just once, right? Well, I can't be sure...but I feel like I know her. Like I've always known her, all through these years, after you finished making Bobolous, but she was always too far out of reach for me to contact her. I looked her up in the library archives of newspapers the other day - she was banished! The paper only said that she was exiled for severe conspiracy, but I think that means that she was forced through the window, and that she's now in another world. But I feel like I can help her, just by keeping this connection strong, she has something to work with. She can already project her thoughts to me, and her voice, and an apparition of her old self. I have no idea what she looks like now, of course, but I'm sure I'd still recognise her. I honestly believe that she IS psychic, and that it wasn't just something she made up to get her music school on the map. That's only what that rather strange ex of hers said, so I don't know why everyone believed it so firmly. Oh say you believe me, man baby, I didn't mean to give us away! I was just...so desperate to know more about her, because I honestly feel like she's so close, like a long lost sister or something, and yet I know so little about her. You can see why I've been so disorientated these last few days, surely?" His voice broke, and he delved into silence once more, before the man baby moved closer to him, and hugged him tightly.
"I wasn't even cross, Ben. I was just worried, and quite upset that we had to leave. But I knew it would happen anyway, what with Bobolous growing up, and everything becoming slightly more relaxed..." But his beloved hushed the man baby by putting a finger to his lips, and eventually, Ben and the man baby dozed off to sleep, Ben's head on his beloved's shoulder, as the limousine sped steadily onwards, before giving the ground the finger and moving onwards and upwards, for it was, unknown to the passengers, being driven by a penguin. They always did have an obsession with flying, those penguins...
*
A loud crash resounded across the once-silent crags of rock in another world, as she toppled off her makeshift rocky bed, landing on her already fairly bruised behind. Before stumbling to her feet, she made a mental note to smack Ben around the head after she had finished hugging him, when they were finally reunited. She walked down her own crag of rock a small way, before reaching a river, surrounded by strange looking...sugar cane trees? She wasn't sure, but it gave her comfort to see these sugar cane trees, even if they didn't strictly exist in her world. It reminded her of...the old days, back on l'ile Maurice, walking through all that sugar cane back on Earth, past those beautiful headlands, with the sea endlessly crashing against them. She wondered if the same fate had become of Carver, and almost tried to contact her old walking companion there and then, but held herself back. It would be a ridiculous thing to do at a time like this, and she knew it. Carver was mysteriously engrained into this whole affair. It had taken her weeks to gather enough strength to even allow Ben to hear her voice, let alone get her whole self back into the world she belonged again. She would have no choice but to find another window, she supposed. Either that or rely on someone back on Earth to open one for her. She couldn't risk appearing to Ben again for a long time now, she had a feeling that she'd caused something bad for him. The feeling that she had done that sickened her to her stomach, as she loathed hurting people, especially her nearest and dearest, of which Ben was certainly included. She wondered how much more he had remembered about her; she wasn't sure of exactly which memories she had managed to plant into his head to stem the brainwashing.
*
After arriving in the up-built, frighteningly modernised airport of Dubai, Ben, Bobolous and the man baby soon made several furious phone calls to the municipality and picked their way down the most dangerous roads they had ever encountered, to eventually be granted the rent of a villa in the suburbs of Umm Suqeim (which ironically translated from Arabic to "Mother Of Disease". It was an oddly shaped building, compared to what this family had been used to back in Somerset, but it seemed to offer all their basic necessities, but they felt it necessary to extend the air-conditioning system, purely for Bobolous' sake. Ben and the man baby had sat him down in the limousine, and explained that given the current, rather troublesome circumstances, his education would be put on hold for the time being. Bobolous accepted this with a heavy heart, and made his way up to his new, much larger, tiled room, complete with laptop, double bed, and iPhone. He opened his suitcase with a sight...and nearly had a heart attack. "Comrade...you have got to learn to fold your underfoils properly, for the sake of ANYONE who might ever be stowing away in a suitcase of yours at some point," There he was, his beautiful luscious eyes twinkling in the Dubai sum streaming in through the window, with a broad grin on his face. He embraced his dear friend yet again, before collapsing onto the double bed, stretching out his rather crumpled, stiff limbs.
"Hmm, judging by that rather confused look on your face, you're wondering how I got here? Yeah, I sort of...stowed away in your suitcase, there isn't much left for me back in Somerset now that you're gone. Besides...there are people there who I'd rather not have to deal with right now, so hopefully we'll just be able to rave it up here for a while then go back, eh?"
"Well...yeah, of course Carver, but...seriously, how did you get in there without me noticing?"
"That...cannot be revealed. I always was rather good at that sort of thing, I used to give my comrades in Di Ofae a good old fright by popping up in odd places. Jesus, all those hours without a sugar cane have driven me mad, dear friend, would you happen to have a stick or two?"
Though remaining as worried as he ever was about Carver's sugar cane addiction, Bobolous gave him what was left of his own supply, before unpacking his xbox and offering a controller to Carver. Halo was always a way to get your mind off your father becoming an internet meme and being bustled away into a completely different country for reasons still not quite apparent to your young, still maturing mind. After being rather embarassingly beaten by Carver, as always, Bobolous began to tell him as much as he was permitted about what Ben had told him in the limousine. As Bobolous explained, all the colour seemed to drain out of Carver's face. At the mention of the name Diglet (after the obligatory gasp from the atmosphere, and the world shuddering slightly, but it seems that they had yet again gotten away with it, although Bobolous would have a rather cross Diglet to deal with once she had returned to Earth), Carver cried aloud, the controller falling from his limp hands onto the floor with a bang.
"I...I never thought I'd hear that name again. Your dad...KNOWS HER?"
"Yes...holy crap, Carver, was she a member of Di Ofae?!"
"But of course, dear Bobolous. She was one of our best, she weakened by the end, but I took pity on her and shared her load, for her rucksack was somewhat heavy. She was what can only be described as a tank for the previous days walking though. I shared many a fascinating conversation with her - "
Now, dear reader, you must prepare yourself for yet another rather unnecessary ampersand, as I explain a little bit more about the group known as Di Ofae. They were a collection of misfits from a larger platoon of Award Candidates. There were several members: Carver himself, a mysterious friend of his who went by the name of Cool Richie, Melon, and four girls: Diglet of course, followed by Breadstick, Wad, and two local young women of l'ile Maurice who both went by the name of Neha. They walked many miles together, and Diglet and Carver did indeed have many insightful and interesting conversations, but alas, dear reader, as is sometimes the way with friends, they drifted apart. But little did Diglet know that she left a slightly more lasting impression on young Carver than she thought. You must also remember, reader, that despite the fact that Diglet is assumed to be the same age as Ben and possibly the man baby, Carver has been involved in several rather bizarre experiments, rituals, and one or two karaoke competitions, which have resulted in him being shifted backwards a generation, thus making him the same age as Bobolous, Patricia, and the rest of their old year group.
"I don't know why I lost contact with her, really. I suppose we just went our separate ways in the end, although that was rather a shame. If she's going to be able to return to this world, perhaps I shall hail her as a comrade once again. I'm sure she has much to say about other worlds, and she and I could reminisce about l'ile Maurice...my goodness Bobolous, knowing you has certainly been a blessing to me. Now, I understand that there's a rather good waterpark in this city...Atlantis, I think it's called?"
"Hmm," said Bobolous "I remember one of my dads mentioning it at some point. We must keep as low a profile as we can, though, if we do go, but I think man baby will let us if we ask very nicely," "Do you think they'd mind that I stowed away with you?"
"You know Carver...for some reason, I doubt it"
And Bobolous was right to doubt, for Ben and the man baby hailed Carver as if he was part of the family, each of them embracing him, and being momentarily lost in his enchanting eyes, before giving them the necessary currency to go to this Atlantis, and explore.
Upon reaching the waterpark, Bobolous and Carver tried out each attraction, which after the global chocolate whale shark campaign, had been redesigned in order for chocolate whale sharks to be able to use them as well as human beings. Bobolous and Carver particularly enjoyed the large Leap of Faith, which would send them rocketing into a tunnel at many many miles per hour, before hurtling out of the end, flailing, into a deep pool. They had many an amusing hurtle yelling ridiculous things such as "MAN BABIES" and "BLAME MARTIN" (this was a saying that Bobolous had heard his father say many times, and had taken Martin to be some sort of god that one of Ben's old cults would have worshipped). After that rather enjoyable morning and afternoon, they dried off and made their way to the aquarium, to look at "all the pretty fishies", as Carver so aptly put it.
Upon reaching the aquarium, they found many protesters stationed next to one particularly enormous tank, with Slogans reading "FREE SAMMY" and "ACROSS THE GLOBE EVERY WEEK? GOOD LUCK ARTIFICIALLY CREATING *THAT*". Carver and Bobolous were utterly bemused, and edged their way through the large crowd, to try and get a better look at the tank. It was a shade of blue, reminiscent of Carver's eyes, and as Bobolous looked at the glass, he saw Carver's face reflected in it, and it was almost as if he had become part of the tank itself, as his wondrous eyes blended in so seemlessly with the colour of the water. Bobolous looked up, and an incredible, spectacular, almost unbelievable sight met his chocolatey eyes. What he saw looking down at him was...well it could only have been, another whale shark. But there was something different about this one, something softer in the features, leaner in the dorsel and back, more...feminine. It hit him like a large spraying of Agent Orange. This was Sammy. A female whale shark.
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