Kin's pov

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I closed the book. Glancing around the classroom, I realized just how enveloped in its story I had been. Tangled up in a world of harmoniums and machines and chrono-synclastic infundibulums, watching the hustle and bustle of the class suddenly had an order, a pattern. It seemed real to me that the machines of Tralfamadore could really have been controlling us from their far-off Solar System, using human beings as ink to print out a series of messages to a messenger carrying a single word of little meaning.

And then the bell rang.

Suddenly, the students formed an amoeba and sludged out of the classroom at a painfully slow rate. It seemed too slow for the plan we had been born to carry out - not a plan, a simple message we were being made to deliver. The messengers for the messenger. That's what humanity seemed to be to me in that moment.

"Kin!" The all-too familiar sounds pulled me out of my thoughts as though I were a harmonium and my thoughts were the wall.

"Hm?" I glanced up, once again aware of my surroundings. It was Tatsuo. I had never really met him before, but I had heard quite a lot about him from Yoko, my adopted sister. She had quite a few pictures of her and Tatsuo, which had all been forced down my throat. In my moment of post-book end, I couldn't help but wonder if the machines on Tralfamadore were planning that, too.

"You are Kin, right?" I nodded. "Have you seen Yoko today?"

"She's home sick," I replied dryly. "Why didn't you ask Akira?"

"I couldn't find her. She wasn't in class this morning." I sighed.

"She probably went home early, then. She worries way too much."

"Oh..." Tatsuo waved a little and said a farewell, then moved on to his next class. I did the same.

My next class was English. Everyone had to take it at some point. I didn't know why I was in there, though; I was already nearly fluent. It was too late for me to switch out of it - besides, the teacher was nice enough to lend me Vonnegut books whenever I wanted one.

"Hey, Mr. Fullerton," I greeted in English. However much I tried, I still had an accent, and I hated it.

He smiled at me and mumbled something I didn't understand. He saw my blank face and laughed a little. "You can read Vonnegut, but you still don't understand 'How are you?'" he commented in an accented Japanese. He looked at me sternly, as a joke. "There's a reason you're in here, you know." He playfully shook his index finger at me. I smiled.

"I know, I know." I took my seat.

Soon enough, the other kids in the class sat down and pulled out their English notebooks. I kind of just huddled in the corner, pondering over which book I should read next. During a lull in the constant reciting of English phrases and words, Mr. Fullerton took it upon himself to quietly place another book down on my desk. He walked away before I could blink.

Galapagos. Kurt Vonnegut.

I suppressed a gleeful shudder and slid it into my bag, exchanging it for the copy of Sirens of Titan. I put that on the desk.

Soon, English was as good as over. I had practiced the letters, worked on some phrases, and however much I wanted to read Galapagos right away, I didn't. It was more of a sacred tradition of sorts, waiting until the next day to start reading the next book. It gave me time to let the previous book sink in, to let the story brand itself into my memory, to let it...

Sayuri had told us about Koichi and Tamotsu. I was a little sad about Koichi, but even more so for his brother, Takumi. He had showed up to our irregularly scheduled "meetings" (if they can be called meetings) but hadn't spoken much. Not that there was much speaking to do, anyways. It had started out as a chess club, as strange as that sounds, but as people joined it became less chess and more hang-out friendship times. All of us had become very close friends - Sayuri, Koichi, Takumi, Satoshi, Hikari, Tatsuo, Fuji, and me. Because we were such social creatures, we dropped chess and just started talking. This is where I was now.

"Yo, Kin," Hikari's hand popped up from the couch, then flew back down after a few seconds.

"Hey," I responded half-heartedly. I was mainly focusing on Sirens of Titan (totally not wanting to read Galapagos and theorizing about what it could be about, what are you thinking you monster??) and the possible fanfic material between Salo and Winston Niles Rumfoord. Of course, I wouldn't write any, just acknowledging the fact that it was there-

"Did you finish that book yet, Kin?" Sayuri sat down next to me, her famous smile on her face.

"Oh. Sirens of Titan? Yeah."

"Was it good?"

I nodded. There was an entire review ready to roll off my tongue, and I was ready to deliver. "It was so obvious that Unk was Constant, and I feel really ashamed that I hadn't realized that until, like, three chapters away from when it was revealed, and the harmoniums were such a nice touch on Mercury, and Boaz's personality was so warped by them, and it was so beautiful how they fed off pulses and I really loved how Boaz's music was a sort of reference to drugs AND HOW HE SAID 'JUST BECAUSE IT FEELS GOOD DOESN'T MEAN YOU SHOULD HAVE IT' AND IT'S SO ANTI-DRUG AND I LOVE IT ANd yeah sure he says that Salo doesn't have a gender BUT HE CLEARLY CALLS HIM HE and so that would make the love homosexual or was it just friendship? we'll never know and there is so much left to be questioned like where did Rumfoord go? If someone's memory is erased can they get it back? What happens to the antennae that control them? Do they get removed? WHAT HAPPENS?? I kind of want a sequel to it that goes further into some of this stuff like who does Rumfoord play with next? Does Salo ever find Rumfoord after Constant puts him back together? And what happens when-"

"Okay, okay, I get it." Sayuri laughed a little. "It must have been really good if you went on for that long."

"Why didn't you stop me?"

"You seemed on a roll and I didn't want to stop you."

"You should have stopped me if you didn't want to listen..."

"I never said I didn't want to listen. Tamotsu read one of these once and he wouldn't stop raving about it. So I figured I'd look into this Vonnegut guy myself."

"What book did he read? I can probably back him up on it," I asked, eager to review another book.

"Player Piano."

"Oh... That one was good, but not as good as Sirens of Titan. It was a little slow but it was still pretty cool. The whole thing with the Shah of Bratpuhr was really cool, especially how they incorporated it all at the end. But it still wasn't as good as Sirens of Titan."

"Not as much feedback, I see." Sayuri chuckled again. I had noticed that it was a habit of hers. She chuckled at the strangest things.

"That's good!" Tatsuo called from across the room. "We don't want to hear any more."

"I don't want to hear any more of your whining, you little-" Fuji laid her hand on Hikari's shoulder before she could finish.

"Violence is never the answer," she cooed.

"Then how has Trumpica been so successful?" Hikari retorted.

Fuji didn't have an answer. I snickered quietly to myself.

I left school that day with a new vision on the world, a new story in my mind, and a nearly unbearable urge to break Galapagos open and absorb the juicy story inside.

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A/N: This book is going to be mostly fillers for a little, so stick with me. It's gonna go for some character development, too. So hopefully I can get those chapters written. And yes, this is all canon, but it's just without a story for right now. There is gonna be some deep fight-tense-mystery shit in this installment too, so be patient and I will hopefully get this book written smoothly (unlike the first book).

Enjoy and have fun!

Or don't. This may not be so fun.

-Parker