July 10, 2025

Voidhearts Chapter 1: Music

Alicia and Lex listen to music, make plans, and ruminate.

You go to my innermost gate
And I go to yours
Within we’re both lonely
And lonely we shall remain

- Halldis Moren Vesaas - Ord Over Grind (my translation)

That morning, Alicia heard something she had not heard for months; Electronic Music. At first, she wasn’t quite sure she had actually heard it, she was after all jogging through the murky halls of The Castle, trying to maintain good jogging form while keeping up the tempo and watching out for opening doors and other hazards all at the same time. Once she made the lap through the hallways that circled the upper floor of the chimeric giant building they all called The Castle, though, she was all but sure. As she traced the musical will-o-wisp into the center portion of the Castle, she was unable to piece together what kind of music it was, but the random-seeming noise certainly stood out enough to unmistakably be some interpretation of the concept all the same.

For a brief moment, Alicia hesitated in front of the door. Back in her life in the quote unquote real world she wouldn’t follow something like this, even in a reasonably familiar place. It wasn’t just that electronic music was plentiful back on earth, it was more that unusual stimuli should be viewed as a sign of danger moreso than an invitation to explore. Then again, then again, it was following such a novel sound that had landed her in this world-hopping hero business in the first place. Alicia opened the door.

The scene past the door was one that was starting to look familiar, although he inclusion of a visibly turned on cellphone rendered it somewhat absurd by contrast. Sure, Alicia had seen Lex, the Polish enby science prodigy and self-proclaimed mad scientist puzzle out near-impossible math on their swarm of levitating blackboards many times before, but the phone being on and belching out music that sounded like an old-timey computer struggling in vain against a too complex calculation, made it feel decidedly unreal.
“Oh hey, what’s up?” Lex asked once they noticed the door. It took them a bit longer than usual.
“Nothing much,” Alicia said as she closed the door after her. “I heard music and wanted to find out what’s up with that.”

“OH!” Lex spun around, sudden acceleration. “I forgot to tell you, this shit is really cool, check it out,” they picked up their phone and paused the music.
“I was about to ask what kind of monster battery your phone has, or if you’ve found an outlet somewhere.”
“The latter is actually closer to the truth, if you can believe it,” Lex flipped the phone in their hand, revealing a strange shape etched into the plastic of the phone. The shape seemed like it was glowing, but it was hard to tell if that was the case or if it was a trick of the light.
“That’s not Aurol magic is it?” Alicia was no expert, but she was starting to get the feel for what magic could do what.
“It is indeed not. It’s a bit from a lot of places, the rune itself is from Middleworld, of course, the rest was just finding a way of restocking the battery, not that hard once you understand the science of it, really.”
“Huh. Still no service though, I take it?” Alicia asked.
“Yeah,” Lex’ sharply chipper mood got a notable hairline fracture from this. “The theory between the MTN is sound, but there is something causing interference in a bunch of ways, and I haven’t really had the time to look into it lately, Eltern’s no help, as you can imagine…”
“The MTN… Magical Talk Network?”
“Bingo! I’m terrible with naming things. Most scientists are, really.”
“Huh, so you’re playing, what, the songs you have downloaded to your phone?”
“Yes,” Lex handed the phone to Alicia. “Why don’t you see if you can find something you like, I just gotta finish this thought real quick.”

Alicia scrolled idly through Lex’ collection of tunes while they scribbled furiously on a couple of blackboards. There were a lot of names she hadn’t heard of in there. Some soundtracks from stuff she had at least heard of. It took a bit of scrolling before she arrived at the obvious choice. Alicia’s eyes lit up with surprise.
“Didn’t know you were into these guys Lex?”
“Huh?” Lex said without turning back from the blackboards. It took a second before the song started up properly. “Oh, yeah. They had a song in a game I played, so I looked into them and turns out they rock. How did you come across them?”
“I was looking for music that reminded me of Steppeworld. Got into a bunch of rock- and metal that’s kinda traditional folk music themed. These are the closest fit I ever got. It’s not quite the Deep Song but it’s very close.”
“Mhm. Less magical though,”
“Well yeah, I don’t think these guys have like superpowers or anything, but on Steppeworld they’d… hm, this is kind of bothering me.”¹

“Hm?”
“Steppeworld. It wasn’t called that back there.”
“What was it called”
“Steppeworld… man fuck, come on, let me say Steppeworld.” Alicia felt her temper rise. For the most part she hardly even noticed the Translation Field, but on this topic it got to her, mostly because there was no arguing with the fucking thing.
“Yeah, that is an unfortunate side effect of the TF field alright. You’d be surprised how many names for cultures or places is just a simple descriptor if you translate it directly.”
“I guess it’s easier to get used to for you, since it is translating from Polish and all.”
“A bit,” Lex shrugged. “It really is doing a number on the very entertaining swears and innuendos I can express though.”
“Oh I bet.” Alicia placed a soft kiss on Lex’ head, just over their right ear. The skin was smoother there than she expected. “Oh wow, did you shave recently or something?”
“Hm? My mirror dome? Oh no that’s all magic. I got my follicles stuck in a Groundhog Day type situation. It sure beats shaving with whatever sharp objects are available every given week.”

“Oh, speaking of hair care,” Alicia said “did you make the shampoo I asked you about.”
“I tried,” Lex said, Alicia could hear the slight grimace. “With the more detailed notes I think it’s closer to the real deal, but I am flying in the blind here. It’s in the fancy bottle over there,” Lex nodded towards a glass bottle Alicia would have expected to contain a concoction called “Unicorn Tears” or “The Final Absolute Death.”
“I’ll try it out. Worst comes to worst I’ll just rock the GI Jane.” Alicia had been pondering on what to do to make Wash Day less of an ordeal in the fantasy refugee city of Thereafter. Water was not a limited resource at time of speaking, thank god, but that didn’t mean washing your hair was an easy task.
“Won’t we be a right pair of dykes,” Lex chuckled. “You know I love your hair, but you would be so hot with a buzzcut.”
“Don’t go renting an u-haul just yet, Eleven. I’ve seen some kinky curled heads out and about, I’m going to ask how they manage.”
“Aww, I love renting U-Hauls.” Lex whined. “Anyway, if you’re going out, could you do me a favor?”
“Hm?”
“I’ve runed up everyone’s phones so they work again. We won’t have service for a while, but it may be nice to have access to the ol’ surveillance brick again all the same.” Lex motioned for the stack of phones. Alicia’s was on top of the stack, followed by Felipe’s and finally…

Alicia cleared her throat. “Him too, then?”
Lex nodded. “It’s only right, I mean if he’ll take it.”
“Why would he not?”
“I mean it could be a surveillance ploy, by yours truly or Eltern, if he even draws a distinction these days.”
“Do you think he’s that paranoid? It’s been like a month.”
Lex sighed. “After what happened, I wouldn’t blame him… sure as fuck wouldn’t mind if he didn’t move out though.”
“Yeah…” Lex said. “It has put a bit of a strain on things. I just hope he’s ok, you know how he gets.”
“That’s very you, Alicia.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean when a polyfriend runs away from home to join the mob ones first thought isn’t usually “Oh I hope he’s ok,” now is it?”
“I don’t even know what’s a normal reaction these days. Felipe’s been acting weird too.”
“Yeah I suppose you’re right about that. Guess this whole phone errand could be a Wellness Check as well.”

Alicia didn’t say anything, but she got the distinct impression that the wellness check would be the most important part of this errand. They hadn’t really had the chance to sit down and talk it out after the disaster that was the Sword Of Lakes Heist. They had been tricked into killing a mob boss on that particular outing, and while there were no shortage of voices that maintained that even if it was done extrajudically and practically out of the blue, it still was for the best. It didn’t sit right with Alicia, and she hadn’t even been the one with their hands on the sword that pierced the mob boss’ heart. In a way she wished she’d been, so she could own it, so she could say that right or wrong, it’s what she did. No such luck, though. She had only been an accomplice, and while that did provide some relief in the form of distance from the thorny situation, it also made the guilt tricky to deal with. She had helped in a cockamamie scheme that ended in killing someone. Granted, it was someone who would be a criminal if Thereafter had anything resembling laws, but he had, annoyingly, not done the one thing they went after him for. There was also the question if going around killing people that probably would be criminals if there was a law to break was a morally sound thing to do. No, Alicia decided, there was no question there. They had not intended to kill Nih-Ka, but the fact that they were operating under the false assumption that he had done this particular bad thing should not exonerate them.

Alicia became aware she had gone quiet while that moral debate occured in her head.
“Hey, girl, you ok?” Lex asked.
“Yeah,” Alicia lied. “I didn’t sleep very well last night,” that part, at last, was true, if not relevant. “Nightmares again.”
“I guess it could be an anxiety thing? I’d get some similar stuff around when I did my Master’s”
“Pft,” Alicia scoffed. “I don’t get anxious, I get even.”
They laughed at that.
“But seriously,” Lex said after the comfortable silence passed. “Don’t forget to pay attention to #1 in all of this yeah?”
“I suppose… hey, if you want to help me relax there’s one thing you could do”
“Sure, what?”
Alicia leaned over to whisper the particulars into Lex’ ear. The flush spread from their ears to ther forehead like a magnificent crown of conflagration.
“Seriously?” Lex’ voice didn’t squeak, but Alicia got the distinct impression it had been a roll of the dice.
“Mhm. After I’ve delivered these,” Alicia held up the phones. “Think you’re up for it?”
“I’m more than up for it, you could say I am down with it.”
Alicia snorted at the dorkiness of the statement “You are so lucky you’re cute.”
“Cute, Smart, Quick-witted, Humble, As Beautiful as I am Horrible and as Horrible as I am Beautiful, Gay in ways that challenge most social conventions, the list is quite long as you well know.”
“You doofus,” Alicia said with love and planted another kiss on Lex’ forehead.

Author’s Note: I firmly believe that it’s important, even in a rinky-dink operation like mine, to leave a little room for fanart and -fiction creators to have fun. This, I suppose, is my way of telling you that while I have Thoughts and Ideas about what Alicia’s suggestion to Lex was, I will not share them at this time. Except, perhaps, to clarify that it is definitely a Sex Thing.

Catch you next chapter, when Alicia goes on a superpowered constitutional and gets some banter in.

VSD