Serial Experiments Lain Fan Fiction / Fan Fiction ❯ Cyberian Winter ❯ One-Shot

"The Czarina of Cyberia strikes again!" JJ shouted at Lain, bowing to her in time to the beat that threatened to drown out his voice.

"Hai, this one's turning out great!" Lain replied, struggling to be heard over the music.

Just how she liked it.

This was one of the trademark happenings at Cyberia, a Lain rave. Participants always needed a couple of days to recover, but all of them would tell you it was worth it. A couple of tracks switched now and then, but a playlist had formed that was played at every rave that everyone couldn't get enough of. At the heart of the playlist was the perennial highlight: An hour-and-a-half trance song named Cyberian Blizzard. The original song, with the real spelling of 'Siberia', was about half an hour; Lain remixed it herself, added in some more trance that complemented the base song and renamed it, making it the marquee piece of the nightclub.

"Of course it's great, you planned it!" JJ shouted back, his voice almost getting lost in the bass that was right now to this nightclub what a snowstorm is to a lonely Russian outpost. "What, you think you could throw a bad one?"

"Not if I tried. Anyway, I think we've led them on enough. Time to throw it on."

"Hell yes." JJ switched on his mike. "Yo, ladies and gents! How you liking this party so far?" He yelled over the pounding music.

A collective shout that sounded pretty ecstatic found a voice above the music. "Alright then, how's about we take it to the next level? It's about to get chilly in here! get your parkas, and be ready to brave the blizzard's fury!" At once, as everyone realized what JJ was talking about, the shouts grew into one big roar. "Cyberian Winter, coming up!"

Always the showman. Lain thought as she headed through the crowd, which was buzzing with anticipation as the track switched from a remix of Phantom of the Opera.

The lights in Cyberia suddenly cut off. A quiet intro played for a few seconds, then a bass-filled icy trance song hit as the club was bathed in various shades of light blue. Snowflake-like kaleidoscopes were projected onto the ceiling. Winter had arrived.

Lain laughed as her creation effected the crowd so forcefully, so quickly, as it always did. The dance floor became packed, and it almost seemed like the group was huddling together for warmth. Then the A/C kicked in, and the atmosphere started to change from hot and muggy to cold. Lain sat at one of the tables to catch her breath, as even Lain of the Wired needed a breather every so often.

Just about time... Lain thought as she checked her watch.

Something that looked almost like a shuriken, only modified to be caught, flew through the air at Lain, and she caught it easily, as this was a tradition she had since she started throwing raves at Cyberia. She opened the spherical container in the center of the projectile, and pulled out her delivery: an Accela nanomachine and a dime bag. She stuffed 6,000 yen into the sphere, closed it up again, then stood up and threw it back in the direction it came from. She never really knew if the thrower ended up catching her return; all she knew was they caught it enough times to keep delivering for her, and that was all that mattered.

She got up from the table and headed towards a seemingly empty wall. She pressed a hidden button and reinforced steel plates shot out from it and snapped into place, making a stairway. She climbed up and went out the door at the top, and as it closed she could hear the plates retreating.

She walked over to where the Cyberia sign was, and something most people would deem out-of-place was there: a table, just like the ones inside the club. On the table was a glowing seafoam green drink, and a stand-up card that read "Reserved for Lain". It was an old joke between her and JJ, since the two of them were the only ones who knew it existed.

Sitting down, she took out her tools and set them on the table: Her obsidian pipe, a metallic torch lighter with an L engraved on the side and a small pair of scissors. She took her jacket off, as the summer night was decidedly hotter than the now over-air-conditioned club, she went to work on the dime bag first.

Opening it, she dumped the three mini-buds on the table, then picked up one and examined it. "Hm. A bit wetter than I was hoping for, but it'll do just fine." She said to herself.

She inhaled the scent of the marijuana, trying to determine what strain it was. "Blueberry, maybe? This should prove an interesting trip..."

She plucked the bud from the stem and packed it in the pipe, and repeated this with one other minibud, making up about half of the usable weed. She put the stems and the last bud back in the dime bag and put that into her pocket. Raising the pipe into the air, lighter lit in the other hand, she said "To Cyberian winters." and sparked.

The familiar burning hit her throat, and after taking a sizable hit she took the lighter away and put her thumb over the opening to stop any more smoke from escaping, resting one hand on the table and idly spinning the lighter on its side with the other.

While she was holding the hit in, she drank some of the strange-looking drink that had been waiting for her. It was a special herbal blend she had shown JJ how to make, a combination of ginseng, green tea, guarana and several others. The colour came from a harmless photoactive dye.

After another twenty seconds or so, Lain exhaled her hit. She mentally counted to ten and while she did, the internal buzzing she was waiting for started to creep into her conciousness. She closed her eyes and concentrated, feeling the prescence of the high entering her. She tried to feel how it was effecting her, if she was particularly filled with energy or tired, or unable to think straight. I'm not tired at all... this high should be very, very interesting. She thought as she took another hit.

After the second hit she leaned back in her chair as the buzzing grew louder and her senses started to sharpen. She could hear the music pounding through the door a little clearer, and it seemed she could pick out every star in the night sky, even with the light pollution of the stores and clubs around Cyberia.

How long have I been staring up at the sky? Lain thought suddenly. I better finish this bowl and get back to... She thought as she tilted her head back down.

At once a headrush hit her, and she shuddered involuntarily as it compounded her high temporarily. After a few seconds, it left, and Lain shook her head to get the cobwebs out. "That-that was fun." Lain said out loud in a stoned stutter, her eyes almost to slits.

"Looked like it."

Lain's head snapped around to the direction of the sound, and saw that one of the partygoers had found their way up to her sanctuary. "How the hell did you get up here?" She asked angrily.

"I saw you go up when Cyberian Winter started. After a while I decided to follow you." She replied.

"And then what?"

"Huh?" The question stopped the girl in her tracks.

"You have no idea what I'm doing up here. What did you think following me up here would accomplish?"

She didn't have an answer. "I thought so... ah, to hell with it, I'm not in the mood to bust heads over something trivial. Come on, sit down." Lain motioned to the other chair around the table, one JJ sometimes occupied when he needed a breather. "What's your name?"

"I'm Rei."

"Nice to meet you. Nice hair, by the way." Lain added, noticing Rei's short, spiked bright orange hair as she sized her up.

She looked like the typical partygoer. Tall and lanky, with an orange tube top that almost matched her hair, a small white jacket and a short orange skirt, it wasn't hard to guess her favorite colour. I bet she gets called 'Peaches and Cream' a lot. Lain mused with a mental smirk.

A slight pause, then: "You want a hit off of this?"

"What? Oh, no, that's alright, I'm fine."

Lain looked at Rei in a mix of confusion and amused disbelief. "You've got the balls to head up to Rome and yet you're not even going to do as the Romans do? It's not gonna kill you."

"Alright, if you insist, jees." She took the pipe from Lain's outstretched hand. "I didn't think getting me high was so important to you."

Lain shot Rei a look that both confused her and stopped her in her tracks, a cross between a mischevious smirk and a deathglare. I don't know whether she's just crazy or ignorant. Lain thought as she slid the lighter over to Rei. She couldn't have heard all the rumours about me in the Wired and say something like that. Lain thought, weighing her statement and seeing if was a big enough deal to repeal her earlier statement about busting heads. Maybe she thinks they're all a pack of lies, and deep down I'm just an amiable kind of wild girl. Oh, is she about to get a rude awakening... She decided her own personality would be retribution enough.

Rei put the pipe and lighter back on the table when she was done and managed to hold in the hit for about five seconds before starting to cough. Lain couldn't help but laugh at the force of her coughs, as if she had never inhaled anything that even resembled smoke before. Or maybe I'll just let karma do its thing. "You gonna live?" She joked.

"Yeah, I'll--" She managed to get out before being overrun with coughing again.

"Here, have some of this. It should help your throat." Lain handed Rei the energy drink.

After taking a swig, Rei's coughing slowed somewhat. "Thanks. What's in--<cough>--that stuff?"

"Ginseng, Guarana, Yerba Mate, Green tea, the list goes on. It's probably the closest you'll ever get to drinking pure energy."

"Looks a lot like energy." Rei commented, as she brought the pipe, lighter and drink back to Lain's side of the table.

"Photoactive dye. Expensive stuff, too, comes out to around 4,000 yen for one of those." Lain pointed to the energy drink, then picked up the bowl and lighter again. "You may as well head back inside, Rei, I'll be down in a sec. I'll find you."

"O-okay, if you want." Rei walked back to the door and entered it.

"Ooh, probably should have mentioned the steps are on a time delay and there's another switch here. Ah well, that's what the air bag under the door's for." Lain chuckled at the mental picture that presented itself to her, then took another hit.

Two or three hits later, the bowl was finally done. "Ah... now th-this is the way to be at a rave. Compleeetely inable to..." Crap, what was I thinking about? Bah. Not important I didn't smoke a bowl to continue thinking straight anyway. "One accela nanomachine, and I'm all set."

Lain chugged the rest of her drink to wash the taste of resin out of her mouth and slow the progression of dry-mouth she always got, then picked up the little pair of scissors and the nanomachine. Cutting one end of the protective gelatin case off, she squeezed the machine out onto her other palm. Then she popped it into her mouth and took another drink, swallowing it.

Countdown... Lain thought. "Ten... nine... ei...ght... se...ven... s...i...x..." She spoke aloud, to illustrate to herself the progression of Accela's effects..

Everything seemed to slow down as a second high came in on top of the first. "Ah, perfect. Now, back to the rave and the best song ever created." She said to herself as she stood up.

"Whoa..." She had to grab hold of the table to keep from falling over, struggling to maintain her balance.

Willing herself to her feet, she walked to the door, her jacket forgotten on the chair, and pressed a button. The door swung open and the steps went back into place. Lain went through the door, and shivered, realizing the air temperature was probably hovering around 10 degrees celcius. Leaning against the wall to prevent herself from falling off the stairs, she made her way down into the crowd.

The light show had altered somewhat since she left. The ice blue was now switching to arctic green and then an icy purple. Colours were blending together and shapes were blurring into one big mass, and Lain lost herself in the crowd. This was when she truly felt alive, when several forms of sensory overload were bombarding her. She could resume her role in the Wired at a later date. Now was the time to have some fun.

---

After Winter had ended, most of the people formerly on the dance floor went to tables, and when those were full found spots on the floor to sit. Lain was contemplating going back up to the rooftop table for the simple reason that there simply wasn't enough room in the club when she realized someone was waving at her, trying to get her attention. She squinted through the light, which had turned from blue to a neon green, and saw that it was Rei. She waved back to acknowledge her presence and walked over to the table, where Rei had saved a seat for her. "Thanks." She said, again barely being heard over the next song, a decidedly less cold techno song named Machete.

"No prob." Rei replied. "After not kicking my ass for coming up to your private table up there, I figured I owed you."

"Yeah, well, we're even now."

Lain crossed her arms on the table, then laid her head down on top of them. She could feel herself start to run out of the last of her reserves, as the THC started to leave her bloodstream and she began burning out. "You alright?" Rei asked.

"Yeah..." Lain didn't bother to lift her head up while speaking. "I love the Winter, but it takes so much out of me I normally pass out. Speaking of which, how'd you manage?"

"I managed, but barely... somehow I ended up in the middle of the sea of bodies, and I'm surprised I haven't cracked a few ribs..."

"Sounds perfect." Lain's voice showed no trace of joking or sarcasm.

"Yeah, for masochists, maybe."

"Naw, just for adrenaline junkies. Moderate pain coupled with loud music's on a par with, say, having a gun to your head as far as getting the juices flowing goes."

"...On second thought, I won't ask how you came to that analogy."

"Good advice..." Anything Rei tried to say after that never got through to her concious mind before it shut down.

---

Some time later, Lain awoke again. The first thing she did was figure out what song it was, as the core playlist had long since been memorized and she would be able to tell how long she was out for by the length of the songs in between. "Alright... this song would be Static-X's Cold... and last song I remember was Machete... Damn, that's almost forty minutes." She remembered that the had only packed one bowl, and another bowl's worth was in her right jacket pocket right now...

Wait... Lain thought, as she realized she wasn't wearing her jacket. Shit, where is it? Her brain started working furiously until she got back to her smoking the first bowl. I must have left it there... perfect, that's where I need it.

She Cheshire cat grinned to herself and sat up, then paused as she noticed something falling off of her back. Turning around, she realized it was someone else's jacket, a white one. Wait a second... Rei was wearing that, wasn't she? Lain thought about what that meant. Something tells me she's not as intimidated about my reputation than the rest of the planet... I'm going to have to keep an eye on her.

Making her way through the dance floor, which was again moderately packed with people, she went to the button for the staircase and pressed it, then went up the steps and back onto the rooftop.

---

Her bowl done and her head back up in the clouds, Lain went back down into the crowd, now dancing to a german technoish rock song. She started to dance absentmindedly as sensory overload again took hold of her. She closed her eyes and let her body react to the music.

More than usual, Lain realized as by the next song she started to feel her hormones flow in response to her gyrating. Damn, I'm right in the middle of this crowd, I can't just go somewhere and cool off... she thought as she started getting more and more aroused. She could feel her tight shirt brush her sensitized nipples, and how her jeans rubbed up against her inner thighs as she danced. A few minutes later, and she realized her clit had emerged and was now lightly rubbing up against the front of her panties, something that she knew would drive her insane if she didn't do something about it soon.

I'm in the middle of a crowd of people who are probably as lost in the moment as I am. Lain reasoned. So who's gonna notice if I have a little fun?

To the casual passerby, Lain simply switched to a decidedly sexier dance, and only she really knew otherwise. She wondered how long she'd be able to keep this up, with all the sensory overload hitting her...

Then she felt a pair of hands slide around her waist, and their owners' chest pressing against her back. "Having fun?" Came Rei's whisper, as she started to move with her to the music.

Lain couldn't answer, she was too lost. "I'll take that as a yes..."

Rei cupped Lain's breasts, making the brown-haired girl's eyes flutter. Rei kept up this for a few minutes, then slid one hand down and ran her fingers up and down Rei's right leg. Soon Lain could feel an ache develop between her legs, and she moved her hand to rest on top of Rei's, guiding her to where Lain wanted her to go.

Lain's eyes shot open as Rei's hand reached its destination, and it took all she had to keep from moaning aloud. She bit her lip and reveled at how good she felt. After some time of Rei gently rubbing her through her jeans, she slipped her hand inside both them and Lain's panties. The lack of the thick denim barrier increased Lain's pleasure tenfold, even as Rei started simply by playing with Lain's pubic hair. All thought fled Lain's mind as she was truly lost in a haze of ecstacy.

Rei finally moved to her final goal--Lain's now-throbbing clit, begging for attention--and just lightly went around it in circles, intensifying the pleasure Lain was feeling even further. Soon Rei stroked Lain's clit directly, making her knees threaten to buckle on her.

Everything that was bombarding her--the music, which had switched to a remix of Rammstein's Feuer Frei, the combined high of Accela, hormones and THC, and Rei's ministrations--crashed down on her simultaneously as she came, spasming roughly against the other girl. Her world exploded and shattered into a million pieces like so much thin ice.

And then it all faded, as she slumped into Rei's arms and lost conciousness.

---

Lain awoke again like she did before, at the table, with Rei's jacket over her. Through the haze of three different highs now-- Two chemical and one digital-- she again tried to figure out how long she was out by the song. It was that Feuer Frei remix, I think... and it's God is God now... Kami-sama, I've been out almost an hour. She sat up straight and shook her head to get the cobwebs out.

"You're awake." Rei said from across the table.

"I'm concious." Lain corrected, as she could barely think, let alone be coherent enough to justify being called 'awake'.

"You alright?"

"I'll let you know when I figure it out. Damn, that was fun..." Whatever it was, Lain added in her head as she realized she couldn't remember how she got to this state.

"Looked like it."

At once, the memories rushed back and Lain's eyes went wide. "You..." She began, trying to figure out how she was going to continue that sentence, and instead just trailing off.

"I hope you're not pissed at me. I saw you there, all hot and bothered, and thought you could use some help."

"Pissed? What the hell could I be pissed at you for, giving me one of the best orgasms I can remember?" The same expression of amused disbelief crossed Lain's features.

Rei noticably relazed. "I just didn't know how'd you react."

"Forcefully would be one way of putting it..." Lain said dryly.

"That works." Rei said, and by her expression Lain knew a light blush was crossing her features.

"You know this ends here, right?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah, of course. What goes on at a rave always has and always will stay there."

"Good girl." Lain got up from the table, then regretted the decision as again her body forgot how to keep balance. "Whoa..."

Rei got up. "You sure you're alright?"

"After I get another one of those energy drinks in me. C'mon, I'll buy you a drink." Lain slung an arm over Rai's shoulder, half as a sign of affection and half to keep her own balance, as they walked to the bar.