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Posted: Fri Nov 20, 2009 6:11 pm
Who knew how time passed within the cube. This perhaps was what ultimately drew Arctang's attention. It was a slow realization, potentially prodded by little details. It never became winter, but remained at the height of summer. Vegtables were harvested from time to time, but they never stopped producing. His children remained small, never growing in maturity or height. Despite the fact that they played outside constantly, their clothes never wore out or needed mending. Noone's birthday ever arrived. Oh, each day was somewhat different from the last, but their overall perfection remained the same.
The dawning of it was gentle, subtle, creeping up on him unbidden, unseen, and unlooked for.
He awoke in his comfortable armchair, bathed in a pool of golden sunshine. For a moment he merely sat there, blinking in the light, the prevading feeling of contentment weighing heavily, a muffling air that coaxed him towards sleep again and stifled him at the same time. Hazily he struggled against it, like trying to swim upwards from the depths of a lake. The dark beckoned, but he strove towards the light. He inhaled deeply, sitting up straighter, trying to clear his head.
A noice behind him made him turn, squinting into the room cast into shadow by the brilliant sunshine. A child stood there, not one of his own. She was dressed in ragged clothes, dirty and torn.
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Posted: Mon Jan 04, 2010 8:50 am
He blinked at her in surprise. Despite her bedraggled appearance, her expression was serene and supremely peaceful. For a moment they stared at each other, something stirring inside him at the sight of her. What was it? Mentally he searched for the thread of thought that wriggled just beyond his concious reach. He frowned faintly, but before he could quite grasp it, she spoke.
"You have forgotten who you are, Pie Bird," she announced solemnly in admonishment. "You have forgotten your place in the worlds. He still requires your service. You are His regardless of where you are." She paused and her mouth curled up in a rather adorable smile. "Or where you aren't," she added with an impish smile.
He mulled her words as a fine wine, rolling them about in his mind. "I realize this is not reality," he began, eyeing her with speculation. "You are not real, and neither is this." He gestured vaguely at their surroundings. "But am I real?" She gave him a wide-eyed sober nod, clasping her hands behind her back and leaning forward, clearly expecting more of him. Glancing down and thinking hard, he tentatively went on. "So if I'm real, and this isn't... I need to go back to reality. But how?" His eyes met hers again, only to realize with a start that she was not actually looking back at him. Milky white eyes. A hand darted to his own eye as he sucked in a sharp breath. The answer lay in the past, the answer to why he was here and not where he belonged. Quivering with the certainty, he whispered, "I need to remember, dont' I?"
Without waiting for her to respond, he shot to his feet, a sense of urgency rising to overwhelm the addictive complancency this non-place fostered. He glanced around once with a single p***k of regret. Life had been good here, but not worth it if none of it were real. Sucking in a deep breath, he turned to give the girl a nod. "I'm ready. Thank you." She did not speak again, but merely grinned at him and then turned to disappear into the shadows deeper into the room.
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Posted: Mon Jan 04, 2010 10:08 am
Not bothering to try and figure out how to accomplish 'going back', he braced himself in place and began to turn back the clock of his mind. Things began to happen around him, things he was not part of actively. He saw himself, moving through sedate everyday life with the family that he might have had, given the perfect situation. As life moved in reverse, he reflected that even if he'd managed to accomplish it in reality, he'd have had neglected something. What exactly that was, he was sure he'd rediscover it as he learned about himself backwards.
The pace accelerated until the days flew by in a perpetual dusk, the paths they normally trod a blur of motion. He breathed deep, pressing on, until things began to slow again of their own will. Intrigued, he watched as life re-emerged, still running backwards, right up until a point where he saw himself moving away from the house, heading for a gate seldom used. It was time to move.
He followed himself into the surrounding forest, watched as he stumbled along a winding pathway. Time continued to fly by as he collapsed, day cycled, and it was inexplicably snowbound of a sudden. He watched himself shiver, remembered he had realized two people, real people, who meant the world to him. Their names came to him as he watched himself stagger backwards after rising from a tumbled heap. Their names... Cosine. Rairne. As time sped past a desert scene and a great lizard, he pondered those names. Pondered their meaning. Savored who they were.
But an abrupt change shook him from his thoughts. No longer speeding, he watched in slow motion as his former self emerged from an object. A cube. The puzzle cube. He shuddered as logic clicked on where he was, why time worked this way, why it wasn't reality. It was the cube.
Even as he came right side up again, Arctang was distracted by something nearby. Rocks tumbled backwards, rising to form an arch, and from that portal emerged a small figure. Not Rairne, no, that wasn't possible. Blue hair, long fuzzy ears, fluff-tipped tail... he watched as she turned from the gate to look at his old self. Betha. It was Betha. The ache of rememberance tore through him as time fast fowarded in reverse again. He followed their travels, watched himself snarl and snap, put names with faces. Rajakhrev. Rissa. Moment.
Despite time going faster and faster, every scene was crystal clear. Meeting Taj, being tended in the same room as the pod. The sight of the thing reminded him of a sudden of his actual purpose. Of what he was. Of what the others were.
They were gods. He was a god.
The realization was earth-shattering and yet familiar comfort all at once. It made sense. He knew who he was now, knew whom he served.
How could he have forgotten Him? Destruction was the one he lived to serve, to free. As these thoughts flowed, he saw himself explode back through a window, coming face to face with the enemy.
Grigori. Queen. Samyaza.
Time stopped with him facing her. He'd stepped in front of her in a vain attempt to stop her advancing, her leaving. He remembered now. He could remember it all. A hand went to his throat, which was still scarred. He swallowed hard, mentally glancing back over all he'd just relived.
Shame was the result. Yes, he'd had good intentions originally, but he'd let his heart overtake his sense. Numbers should be logical, predictable things, not chaotic and emotional. He had failed his Master, and he was doing noone any good where he was.
This caused him to suddenly wonder where the cube was now. In the real world, did they know he was here? Only Betha had been near when he'd become trapped. Trapped due to his own irrationality. He heaved a deep breath, the scene around him fading to grey nothingness.
Regardless of the cube's situation outside, inside he was powerless to free himself. He was reasonably sure of that. Raja had been held inside the cube in a timeless state for who knew how long. So all he could do was wait, and trust that the fates would bring him out in time to help. In time to serve his lord before all was lost. But what to do with himself in the meantime?
The best place he could figure to create for himself was his guest room in the Pantheon. It formed around him as he pivoted, recalling it with a sense of solidity. It might not be real, but at least it existed in reality. At least it was a ground for himself until he could escape.
All he could do now was wait, and dwell on how to better himself for service of his master, and for those he cared for.
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