Avery looked around the planet they had appeared on. He had a feeling that it should look very strange, but it didn’t. In fact, the other side of the galaxy looked a lot like Earth. The grass was a greenish-yellow color, dotted with pinks and purples and more yellow in clumps of flora. The trees were tall and green and very tree-like. Everything seemed to be exactly the same as the little valley back on Earth. His car was even a little ways down the road.
Then he looked up. Filling the sky was a bright, pink, boiling mess that stretched across the atmosphere for miles. Tendrils of darker pink reached for the horizons in every direction and a swirling silver bit, almost like the eye of a storm, inhabited the middle.
“What is that?” Avery exclaimed, stunned by the beautiful, yet for some reason terrifying, sight.
“Well, I’m not quite sure,” Jason began, inspecting the sky. “But I’m gonna go out on a limb and say its the sun.”
Avery stared at Jason, his mouth gaping open. “What do you mean ‘the sun’? That’s no sun! Not if I’ve ever seen one, at least!”
“Well then, you haven’t seen very many suns,” Jason replied quite smugly. He then wandered to the edge of the road to pick some flowers.
Avery couldn’t believe this and, despite the terrible state that the sky was in, he refused to accept that they had shot across the galaxy.
“Prove it.”
Jason froze from his flower-picking and spun around. “What do you mean ‘prove it’?”
“Prove that this isn’t Earth. Prove that we’re on the other side of the galaxy,” Avery stated in a tone that suggested he had cornered Jason.
Silence floated between them before being shot down by Jason’s voice. “Alright.”
“Ha! I knew it-- Wait, what?” Avery watched as Jason made his way down the road to the car. He quickly jogged after Jason, curious as to how he would prove such a thing.
“What’s this?” Jason asked, tapping the car’s hood and crossing his arms.
“My car…” Avery replied.
“Really? You sure sound uncertain.” Jason smirked at the look on Avery’s face. “Alright then, if it’s your car, like you say, then surely you can unlock it?”
“O-of course! Surely, surely!” Avery said. He dug around in his pocket for the keys and, with his own smirk aimed at Jason, pressed the corresponding button.
Nothing. Not a beep or a blink of the headlights, not even a clicking sound. Avery pressed the button again. Still nothing. Jason looking on expectantly, Avery grew nervous and frantically mashed the unlock button.
Suddenly Jason snatched the key from Avery and held it away from him.
“Okay, okay, stop it. You’ve proved my point. This isn’t your car, this isn’t your Earth.”
Avery glared at Jason and made a quick grab for his key. Jason reacted to this by tossing the key into the open top of the silver can.
“Why’d you… do that?” Avery asked disappointedly.
“Because,” said Jason, “you weren’t being very sportsmanlike. Now, if you’ll stop acting like a child and let me explain…”
Avery crossed his arms stubbornly, only acting more like a child, but agreed to listen.
“Thank you. So, you see, this isn’t your Earth, but it is still very much an Earth. In fact, I believe this particular planet is called ‘Terra’.”
“‘Terra’?” Avery questioned. “As in ‘earth’ in Latin?”
“Yeah, yeah, whatever, I doubt that’s the reason they named it that. Anyway, if this is indeed Terra then it’s one of the worst places for you to be.”
“What? Why?” Avery suddenly became very paranoid and incredibly alert. He even managed to notice the otherwise unnoticeable change in the air, as if something dangerous was nearby.
“Are you originally from Earth?” Jason asked almost sarcastically.
“Yes, of course! Where else would I be from?” Avery’s eyes were fearfully darting around as he answered.
Jason cringed at this and wanted very much so to list off every inhabitable planet he knew, but he held his tongue. “Well, Terra has been known to copy Earth. Almost exactly, as you can see by example of this car here. And if this car is here, and you claim it’s just like yours, then that means there’s another you here. A less-good version.”
“What do you mean--?”
“NO!” Jason screamed, causing Avery to nearly leap out of his skin.
“What is wrong with you?” Avery hissed as he continued looking around.
“We’ve used up all of our ‘what do you means’ today. No more. All I mean by ‘less-good’ is that they aren’t necessarily bad. Just less-good.” Jason explained.
Silence had survived Jason’s attack earlier and gotten back up. It now limped between the two figures standing alone in the valley. Alone aside from the less-good figure who appeared beside them.
“Hello there!” It said cheerfully, popping up beside Avery.
“AUGH!” Avery and Jason exclaimed in unison. Frightened a lot more than Jason was, Avery took out his handkerchief and swung at the figure maniacally.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” The figure shouted as it dodged Avery’s attacks. “Calm down!”
Noticing the figure’s face, Avery froze. It was an incredibly familiar face, one that he saw every day. Now that the figure had stopped hopping around to avoid Avery’s handkerchief, Jason realized what it was too.
“Who are you?” Avery asked. The figure smiled as he replied.
“I’m Trent. Less-good Avery Trent, to be precise."
In the previous two chapters, it has been well established that Avery-san runs on tea (well, not really, but considering how he loves it so...). So why would it suddenly disappear completely in this chapter? Sure, they're on an alternate world, and tea is nary to be found. However, you can have him at least reference to tea, or think to himself, "If only I could be at home now, with a hot mug of tea..." It seems that "tea" is a consistency in between the chapters, so it's good to have at least a little reference to it in every chappie. 
Points: 2200
Reviews: 235
Donate