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Post by metreu on Sept 10, 2016 18:55:38 GMT -8
Clear sits in the green rolling fields inside the large walls of the city-state known as White Wall. In the distance was the city itself, sitting on the coast of an ocean. Trees dot the landscape and a forest covers the hills to the north. The goddess watches the clouds roll by... wondering about her actions. She was calculating the outcomes quietly, and retelling them to herself out loud. A tractor drives down a nearby road, creating a bit of noise in her thoughts. A tree sprouts up behind her, shifting her seat in the grass. The roots writhe around before settling in the dirt...
Clear stops and keeps her hands on her knees, still staring at the sky.
"For what reason... does someone live their entire life in the sacrifice and mercy of others? Is it Love? Affection? Inclusion? How could one love so much... and take so much upon themselves to try and write wrongs that weren't their own..."
She frowns slightly.
"Were you a fool...? You never let anyone help you... it always had to be you... why?"
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Post by metreu on Sept 10, 2016 21:37:54 GMT -8
Clear stands up, tears welling up in her eyes as she angrily shouts into the sky.
"You dump me in a world of conflict and I'm not supposed to do anything?! What were you fighting for?! Selfish and bullheaded, every last one of you! Mike, Micha, Omega, Solaris, the Null! All of you!"
She holds her arms to her aching chest.
"And then you all went off and killed each other! You left only me standing here in the wake of your destruction and for what?! To prove some petty point? To be a hero?! None of you were heroes! Nothing was ever that hard for you! You were all smart or strong. You had wild imaginations and machinations! And you wasted it on arguing with yourselves and trying to destroy each other!"
Clear's words tremble with her breaths.
"And now you're all gone... and theres still evil out there... evil that you failed to take notice of until it was staring you in the face... and now you're all gone... there are no more heroes... because you killed them all..."
She rubs away the tears on her cheeks in vain as they continue to stream down her face.
"I can't wave away everything that is wrong... but thats how you programmed me right? You told me I could do all these amazing things... but in the face of a ghost, I can't do anything... I am uselessly powerful... so why...?"
Her voice cracks at the end...
"Why did you make me...?"
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Post by raz on Sept 14, 2016 7:49:58 GMT -8
"The questions you ask... Do you think the answers you seek lie in here?"
A boy reclines in the grass next to her, hands folded behind behind his head. Both arms wrapped from top to bottom in white bandages, his wild hair hides his empty eyes, eyes looking to the sky above.
"I don't mean to come off as sarcastic or anything it's an honest question. Do you think this world of creation holds the answers? Are they within you?"
"...This place really is beautiful, huh?"
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Post by metreu on Sept 14, 2016 8:24:35 GMT -8
Clear lowers her hands, turning to look at the boy who suddenly arrived.
"It's just... all the people who made me are dead... the people responsible for my existence have died and I can't ask them why..."
She turns and looks at the sky again.
"They all selfishly died. Every last one of them... I'm just a product of all of their combined mistakes and tragedy."
Clear holds her arms around her, keeping her shawl close.
She tries to take the scenery in again, calming down some but her jumbled thoughts still clouded her mind.
"It's a peaceful place... someone can think here. They can live here... this was his project you know?"
She glances at the boy.
"There was one who used his vast powers to create a world from the dust of space to create a resting place for gods... and another one used his hands to create a world like home as a resting place for their souls."
She lifted her hands, in one, the Earth known as Augataur. In the other, a small scale model of White Wall.
"Body and Soul, flesh and mind. All he wanted was somewhere with peace and quiet where he could lay down his head to rest... with all the noise in his life, I guess I don't blame him..."
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Post by metreu on Sept 16, 2016 6:10:47 GMT -8
"...but why?"
Clear sinks to her knees, holding her arms closely to her chest.
"Why did it have to end up with me. I told you they wouldn't accept me. I'm just another scary monster to them."
Clear's eyes see vague outlines of Mike, Micha, and Omega standing before her.
"I just want to erase this rotten world..." She whispers.
The walls surrounding the land begin to crack and fade, a torrent of white light beginning to consume the city.
"I'll be no better than he is... but is that so bad...?"
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Post by raz on Sept 16, 2016 8:59:15 GMT -8
"Carving out a niche like this... maybe because he didn't think he had a place in the world. And now here you are. Here we are."
The boy rises to a seat, wrapping his arms around his knees and tucking them close to his chest as he watches the light-swept horizon.
"Maybe this place was a mistake. Maybe this world and the next were, too... I've seen so much strife, and conflict. Hate, and anguish, failure and loss. And those things will never end... you look up to the sky at night, and you see nothing but infinite darkness. Knowing that you are alone in the world."
The light wind tosses his hair just enough to grant a hint of the bandages wrapped over his eyes, obscuring them from view completely. Images flash in the clouds above. A girl, drowning in inky blackness. A wolf devouring the arm of a purple-haired boy.A boy bleeding out in a parking lot, surrounded by dark, ephemeral figures. A man wearing a wicked smile holding one ringed hand out. Figures with pale, cracked skin, taking a step back, then flying off into the distance. An arm underneath a fallen tree, entrenched with black. Countless scenes of strife bereft of context, that the boy turns his stony gaze up to before raising a hand.
"So many things born of mistakes and tragedy. So much tragedy... knowing all that is our burden. But, you narrow your eyes, and realize that that sky isn't empty darkness."
The scenes shift. A girl riding a turtle along the waves with shining eyes. A boy held aloft by countless others slathering gels and offering potions for him, the severe wound in his chest half closed as he offers a tired smile. An excited merchanist with a welding mask up tinkering on the last of a machine's innards, before hugging it tightly. A haughty looking girl laughing a haughty looking laugh as a taller figure offers a lunchbox to a small child with a slight smile on their face. A girl holding a hesitant hand back before breaking out a wide smile to leap forward and take the boy in froth of her in a hug. A boy in a dress tugging at it with a slightly horrified expression before turning around to stand proudly for his guffawing companions. And more, still.
"The stars in the night sky... You realize each of them is a story. And even in the dark, even among the mistakes and tragedy there's so much beauty in the world. In the simple things, victory, hope, camaraderie. Or in greater successes. Love. Family. Ties on a grander scale."
An alien of indeterminate race shaking hands with another, surrounded by important-looking figures in some sort of assembly. A boy sipping a cup of tea with one hand and reading a book intently with the other, before a pair of hands wrap around him from behind and initial shock fades, as he reclines into them. Two parents tearfully looking into one another's eyes, then down to the tightly wrapped bundle in her arms, looking curiously up at them. A figure of indeterminate gender in blue armor clicking away at some manner of control before dashing on ahead. A man thrusting a practice spear forward, flourishing a series of precise strikes on the empty air before exhaling deeply and smiling at the cheerful clapping of the woman sitting on a rock a few feet away.
"Seeing everything... seeing the darkness of the world. It also means seeing the light. Greatness from small beginnings... The meaning in life is something you find by living it. Meeting others, expanding your horizons. Pushing the boundaries and seeing what fights, and what joins you. Power is a funny thing..."
The boy lowers his arm now to look down at it curiously, bandages unraveling and floating freely to reveal a black arm flecked red and blue, dimming between dull and empty.
"When you have enough of it, you see everything that comes from it. The burden of knowledge and responsibility, and inadequacy when it falters. But even then... there's a story it enabled. There was meaning in this, meaning I, and everyone else, carved out. Just as there's meaning in its absence, and meaning in you and your power. Meaning in its absence, as well."
Space ripples before the pair, a line of light splitting it before expanding outward into a rippling mirror through which they can see... The battlefield she just left behind.
"The world has enough almighty power. I think what it needs, is another story. You can provide that. My tale, is all but done. Even so I want to see this finale. You though... There's meaning to come in what story your actions write. Just as there's meaning in the story their actions will pen."
For the first time, the figure... smiles, softly, gaze turned ahead.
"There was meaning in this fucked-up world, I can say for sure. And for what it counts... I had a lot of fun."
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Post by metreu on Sept 16, 2016 10:49:36 GMT -8
Clear watches the sky unfold in front of her. Suddenly made aware of the lives across the universe. The gripping light of the horizon fades like the sun going down. The large white walls crumble away into dust without so much as a low rumble, their dust being scattered into the wind. The distant city sits quietly in the dark hour that has claimed it. One by one it's lights turn off until the night sky can be clearly seen above. A vast galaxy that spans all the way across the curve of her vision as she views it.
"...you live long enough inside of a cage... that you begin to think it's your only home."
Clear lifts her arm out to the sky, the rupture that shows the battlefield bends into a ball that floats above her hand.
"I never knew what freedom was, until I learned what prison meant. There are so many things in this awful world that he wanted to correct, something he wanted to fix. I was programmed with so much knowledge... so many things that I can do, destroy and create. He gifted me with the ability to do so much more, but Her voice is so loud in my mind that it's hard to ignore. She was betrayed so heavily by her own actions and views. She was like me, powerful to a fault. Omega got exactly what he wanted... He almost got me to accomplish what he was doing... at every corner his plan comes into my mind that I can barely shake it. My mind continues to be full of so many doubts I can only cry and scream!"
She clutches the ball in her hands and the sun struggles to come back, a glaring light creeping up the landscape to cast away the shadows. Clear turns to the boy holding back bitter tears.
"Every single voice is crying out to end it. Everything they do is trying to come to the end. Must I force my hands to bring it to them? Do I let go of everything? You're saying there is good in this world, but where was it when they were crying?"
Clear's thoughts are interrupted by a quiet voice behind her, like someone had asked her a question. Clear turns and looks around in the dark, the stars were being out out by the creeping sun but there was still no light yet to see with properly. The girl's brow furrows together and she looks around the grass for the voice, but sees no one. She puts a hand on her face, still holding the ball still close to her chest. With eyes wide she tries to keep herself upright.
"There is a crying for an end... but there is so much life... there is too much to life..."
She breathes deep and sighs, straightening up. She starts to hear small voices all around her with no origin.
"I've made a mistake. I've shouldered the mistakes of all those who came before me. I've taken on all of their feelings, needs, wants, and desires. It's like they've been shoved in me since the start... I wouldn't be alive without them, but with them I feel like I would die."
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Post by metreu on Sept 20, 2016 14:13:16 GMT -8
In the skies above, a direwolf with an icy mane crosses the heavens and howls. The weight of the world pushes down on it's inhabitants and the land shakes and trembles. A notification appears before Clear, Ragnarok.exe has been initiated.
Clear's eyes widen. "They... They're destroying white wall...? They're dismantling it?!" She looks into the sky, watching Fenrir cross the clouds, howling into the wind.
"They're going to destroy it... there will no longer be a bridge between the worlds..."
Clear holds her hands to her chest.
"I've failed to act... and now they are shutting it down to try and destroy the scourge in the blast..."
She looks to the orb with the rift inside where the battle resides.
"It's the only option left isn't it...? I'm so sorry..."
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Post by metreu on Sept 22, 2016 8:53:07 GMT -8
The sun crawls back to the horizon, pushing the crumbling world into a land of perpetual twilight. Clear watches as the world of white wall is consumed by an encroaching darkness, leaving nothing behind. Standing on the grass with her, a small group of people stands before her. Several of them clad in armor or robes. A familiar Knight steps forward, one in sliver armor with blue adornments and a large two handed sword on his back. Clear looks up at him before he kneels down in front of her. Behind him, the others kneel as well. A female knight in a skin tight black suit covered in flexible armor plating rises back up, holding a long rifle in her hands. Her silver plates and black suit were decorated with yellow. A tankish looking Knight steps forwards with cannons mounted on his arms steps forward. His dark metallic armor glinted only a little of the light around him. His armor was decorated with white. The rest of the robed ones bow and vanish. Clear holds her hands over her chest, watching the knights with a baited breath before speaking. "...are you all that is left of them?"
The blue knight nods, not speaking. "Ragnarok has begun... if you are to follow me, we are diving into a dangerous place... will you be okay following me?"
The knights nod to her and rise. "I haven't been alive long... and I've made so many mistakes that I may be irredeemable to my peers... will you still follow me?"
The three knights draw their weapons and overlap them lowered to Clear. The girl places her hand on them. "...very well... in mistakes, defeat, or victory... follow me to the ends of this world."
The knights draw their weapons back and stand around Clear like body guards. The world's end closes in on them, the grass being eaten away by the darkness. Like a torrent of wind, the darkness blows past them, consuming the rest of the world behind them. The twilight sunset persists right to the very end. Clear lifts her dress and begins walking into the darkness with her knights at her sides. |
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