The wooden door of the botanical creaks as it swings open, Aarius stepping out with Lyanna resting against him.
From above, they would be two small shapes in a very large place; One standing, one carried. A single warm smudge on a pale strip of street.
Evening sky washes the dome in a soft orange hue, light spills across the stone pavement, and the noisy street calms down. Jessene lingers at the doorway for a moment, still processing the events of the day before quietly retreating inside.
Above them, the dome sits like a lid. The sky is orange at its center and bruised along the edges, where the light seems to thin before it reaches the walls. Beyond those walls the maze goes on in every direction, mile after silent mile, and none of the people below are looking at it.
This definitely was not how I was expecting my day to go.
What’s left of the crowd is mostly families strolling through the lines of stalls at their leisure. Children with their parents, some even older couples still roaming, their murmurs fill the street with an abundant hum of life he hadn’t experienced in a long time.
Close by, a woman haggles over a bolt of cloth, and further down, the stalls shrink into a line of awnings, each one cut with the same straight edges as the last, every roofline ruled flat. At the far end of the street, where the lanterns finally blur into a single thread of light, the dome wall rises out of the dark like the side of a mountain.
This thing is way too damn bulky. BUT, for how much it’s worth, I really can’t complain.
He shuffles through the pockets and zips of his coat to free the cloche-like container. The container of the flower. The flower for her. His eyes trail up the arm locked onto his right shoulder, stopping at the child peacefully sleeping on his back.
Was it worth the exhaustion and
internal pain
?
/-- Yes --/ |
Yes |
Yes.
A bag materializes under his coat, spawned in that specific location to not catch the attention of anyone watching. Then he grabs it out of his coat, proceeding to hang it around his neck. Carefully shoving in the container that sizes it exactly. But that small use of creation through his imagination was enough to reignite the burning sense of exhaustion he’s been covering with a placebo this entire time.
Aarius adjusts his grip on Lyanna, her weight shifting slightly against his back. But despite everything that happened, a strange sense of satisfaction settles in his chest; Subtle, but undeniable.
His eyes wander, catching the rows of small shops line the street, their windows glowing faintly in the light of lanterns hanging on their ceilings. Trinkets, fabrics, tools,
food
—each catching his attention for a second too long. The excitement from earlier, which seemed to have dulled down a bit, begins to stir again, but this time in the form of nostalgia.
He pauses for a moment, steadying himself.
Oh, this is going to be interesting.
Then steps forward onto the pavement, gaze sharpening as he begins to scan the area for a suitable place to get some rest. His eyes trace along the buildings up ahead, then the lanterns, then through the people moving about, then-
Aarius’s body jerks.
His spine tingles in a cold sharp tickle as Lyanna squirms in place, still in deep slumber.
The legs that carried him all this way decide to lock in response, and he tries not to slip, holding onto Lyanna so she doesn’t fly off, both literally and figuratively
.
“JESUS”
Catching himself with his left foot forward, grounded to the pavement so he doesn’t topple, the only thing that his body does is sigh so get some air back into his lungs.
Lyanna squirms again, the cherry on-top, and for a second, many emotions flood his brain. Some good, some questionable, and without even realizing it, his head stays locked onto the floor with another heavy breath, breaking that deadlock.
Ok that may have been an overreaction…
Eyes back up onto the street, a faint grin pulls the corner of his lips.
But… I don’t mind this.
Chilling air brushes past him as the warmth of the mockup atmosphere dissipates, perking up the hairs on his skin; Still observing his surroundings for somewhere to set up base.
Ok, so… So… Sooo…Soooo—Nope I got nothing.
Adrenaline makes it hard to think straight sometimes.
How the hell did I not notice any motels or something…
Lanterns following the lining of the street flicker on, even though it looks wildly similar to a hand-lit one.
They don't come on all at once. One catches, then the next, then the next, a slow wave of light traveling the length of the street ahead of him, as if the news of evening were being passed from lamp to lamp. No hand touches any of them, no wire runs between them that he can see.
How did they manage that?..
His gaze drifts through the numbered stores, whilst still racking himself over how the people of this place managed to automate lighting when there’s no mana to circulate.
Huh.
The lower consciousness makes his impulses want to question passersby, but he keeps the thought to himself realizing that itself is a separate set of time wasted.
They encounter the junction of the Inner street and Outer-Ringed Street, and it seems there’s less crowd there. Aarius slows down, taking his time to recall what he noticed there.
The street runs around the dome in a ring, one running straight through the middle, and the land between them is their own continent; One side completely green, the other more residential.
There
was
a small hut there, but I’m not sure if they’ll let us use it.
He changes course and turns to the place he remembers.
I don’t think anyone is living there, but it’s just a bit too much in the open… I need somewhere inconspicuous.
He shifts lightly to the left; Out of the inner street.
But I should be able to use the grassy area in between this inner street and outer street. It’s somewhat covered up, because trees can
somehow
grow here, I should be able to make a small room for us to get ready in.
Crossing over the street pavement, they land on the entry to the woodlot ahead. The dense grove feels unnatural inside a dome, but Aarius takes the convenience anyway.
The sound of the street goes first; The haggling, then the bells, then the shuffle of sixty feet. The music holds on a little longer, thinning to a pulse he feels through the soles of his boots more than hears.
Nothing about the place makes sense. A tree has no business growing under a ceiling, and there’s no explanation behind how it’s possible. Their crowns reach up toward a sky that isn't one, and the orange light that makes it to the floor comes down in thin, broken threads.
He covers Lyanna from the scraping branches overhead, and the touch of her head feels oddly… comforting; A warm sensation that he’s used to. Aarius doesn’t think deep into it, just a smile to a lost memory.
Trees wrap past them, branches cutting the side of Aarius's arm, until he catches sight of a small open area North-East bound.
Behind them, the street shrinks to a bright slit between the trunks, then to a single lantern, then to a smear of warmth that could be anything. Ahead there is only the dark and the smell of damp soil, a smell that belongs to no place he has seen since the maze.
Oh thank god.
His mind wants to rush the path there, however the compact nature of this ‘forest’ forces him to keep his pace; With his main concern placing Lyanna at the center of that reasoning.
Leaves and tiny branches lowering down brush past as they get closer and after a few grueling seconds—
/-- Ah fuck --/
—they’re revealed to a small, tight spot between the trees. Disappointment fills Aarius as the situation sets in.
The hell am I gonna do now, because I am not doing that shit all over again.
He takes a second to process his thoughts and
focuses
on his thoughts.
Space warps into thin lucid blocks in order with Aarius’s imagination, mixing his emotions into a ball of motion his consciousness can control. The cubes align together to morph into the picture of his imagination, and a metal axe drops in front of him.
/-- Ever wondered if you can give an object movement? --/
He pauses at the thought, flashing through his memories to find any semblance of it. But it’s almost as if his thoughts slip midway, because he loses track of where the memory is. Now he’s somewhere in between his consciousness with no direction and no idea of whether he was able to manipulate the movement of an object or not.
I don’t think so. Can’t remember doing anything like that.
From his previous experiences, the result came that he has the ability to give any object of his creation
initial
velocity. Thus, the only solution for this predicament came out to a simple axe.
With not much room for movement, Aarius circles in place. Then circles the other way, then circle again.
“Is there no other open place I could use?”, he mutters.
I don’t have much wiggle room here, so I’m not sure how exactly to do this.
/-- You know this looks pretty dumb right… --/
Yeah I know thank you.
/-- You’re sure this is the only viable ‘open’ place you can use --/
Why the hell else would you think I’m here right now…
/-- No, it’s just this seems a bit childish. --/
…Fuck you mean childi— Ok I get that but what else do you expect me to do here…
His eyes travel up the surrounding trees, and he reflects on all the possible solutions he has.
/-- Find a better place? --/
Bitch I just said I’m going through this ‘grove’ again—
A sudden cold sensation to his right immediately sends him on a high run. Jerking head-first in its direction, the axe jumps to his right hand. The momentum from the swing locks the axe on a tree trunk and without a word, he stares through the dense forest as visibility is on a chokehold.
Arm extended, Lyanna’s grip almost instinctively tightens, and even with the adrenaline pumping, he remains steady.
Glancing through the field in front of him, the cold sensation lingers, which is… odd even though the atmosphere is still warm. His eyes defocus—
“Ohhh”
Blood drips down the cut from earlier, and he lets his body relax.
In relief, “Was scared as shit for a second there.”
Forming a circle of regeneration, the wound heals in mere seconds.
Aarius turns his focus back to the issue at hand and is finally revealed to a solution.
/-- Wait a minute- You can give an object of your creation
initial velocity?
--/
Pretty much. I can only give an object
initial velocity.
He’s still for a moment.
/-- You FUCKING DUMBASS. --/
Huh.
/-- INITIAL VELOCITY IS ALL YOU NEED --/
How does that make sense— Oh.
/-- YOU DUMBASS --/
Now that you mention it, I do have an idea.
He shifts his focus between his sight and imagination, to the point where imagination blends with reality. The frequency build up becomes slightly bearing on his mind, but through sheer will, he holds onto it.
Fragments of space thin and develop cubes, but this time a bit unstable. They circle Aarius like planets orbiting a star, not sinking closer, and not drifting away; It's a ring of space. They cluster together to form one solid ring of space, though it's more liquid than solid. It morphs in a fluid like motion to separate into individual portions, forming objects similar to daggers.
Analysis spreads the surroundings across his mind like a map unrolled on a table. The clearing, the ring of trunks, the strip of the outer street just past them, and beyond that the dome wall, curving up and over until the whole interior is a school and a half of floor space held under a single lid.
The picture of the daggers flying at specific speeds; All instances of the daggers at .5 second intervals are displayed in his imagination. With the surrounding area mapped onto his mind, the picture becomes stable by the second, and within the span of 6 seconds,
“Done”.
Coming back to reality, the daggers slice through the range of trees around them.
They travel a few meters off, then after a second, Aarius stops them mid-air by forming wooden blocks that instantly break the momentum.
A sudden silence envelops the space—Only the sound of settling leaves remain. A slight unsettling crackling shifts the air, and within a second, he forms a circle of distortion to block the sound of the trees in their immediate vicinity crashing down; Though the noise drowns out by the trunks covering their own fall.
Even so, a dull boom slips through and rolls out across the dome. It reaches the end of the grove, climbs the layer of distortion, and comes back a heartbeat late, smaller, like something calling from the other side of a very wide room.
He rushes to cover Lyanna again from the dust thrown around, and as soon as everything settles, a set of symptoms Aarius recognizes sets in.
“I do
not
want to do that again…”
Happy?
/-- Of course --/
He takes a deep breath, using merge to collapse the trees into miniature balls so dense they instantly run holes down the soil.
/-- You know that was a bit excessive --/
I like having my own fun.
/-- Guessing that was the entire reason you did this? --/
Pretty much.
/-- Just a thought, but I think you’re going to throw up now --/
Yeah… I kno—
His stomach juices regurgitating up, Aarius hurries to get Lyanna down. Her thin curly hair skims down the top of her nose, almost waking her up; And
immediately
after she touches the grass, Aarius bolts away and lets the rainbows flow.
2-3 minutes in, his body starts to relax.
I am… so fucking… tired.
Bleeding sweat out of his body, he lays down with an Aquant circle flushing him down. Gurgling out the water, the circle deconstructs, and he ends up
face-up
without the
strength
to get back up.
“One hell of a place I ended up in.”
The tall trees sprouting up is strangely comforting to him—Bringing him back to a more peaceful time. A time where life was much simpler. Never a need to be on high alert every waking hour.
So many things I wanted to do. So many things I wanted to do with
her
…
/-- Huh? --/
Not in that way…
He watches the crowns sway against the dome, thin black lace over a darkening orange, and past them the ceiling itself, so high and so smooth it could almost be mistaken for a real sky.
His head slides down to the sight of Lyanna sleeping,
But Meh, I don’t ‘hate’ this either; Not like I got another choice.
I’ve lost things, I’ve gained things, mostly lost, but… one thing I did acquire is this,
Materialized blocks swirl around his raised arm.
This,
The blocks splice into smaller pieces, swirling around faster.
And finally, this,
The split blocks converge and condense into a sphere.
I-I’m still absolutely shocked I have these skills, or whatever they are. Because I can Create Matter.
I can fucking Create Matter.
How. Why. I don’t know, I still don’t know how to process this. I can create
anything
I can imagine, obviously with its own bullshit to deal with.
He scoffs as his arm covers his eyes.
“Fucking amazing.”
The silent hum of music playing on the streets echoes past the trees as the ground conducts the sound to his head.
But I still do really miss my Bass.
Taken back, no dragged into those times, under the cover of his eyes, those memories flow like a river before him—
“Ar?”
A familiar voice resonates with him, a very familiar voice, tossing him up.
“WAIT”
Lyanna sitting down with her legs crossed,
“You ok Ar?”
He doesn't breathe for a second, that's how badly he wants to
see
; hearing doesn't do much. Because he still struggles to let go of it. So when air rushes back into his lungs, and the picture of
her
evaporates, Aarius takes note of his misinterpretation.
“Yeah, almost fell asleep there”
“I could see that...”, Lyanna takes a second as she stares at Aarius. Looking him up and down, “I don’t think we’re up for this.”
“Up for wha— Oh that.”
He pushes himself up,
“Well to answer that—”, he brushes the dust off his coat and trousers, clearing out anything remaining out with Separation. “—No, we definitely aren’t, but a promise is a promise.”
The glare Lyanna shoots at Aarius is decently seasoned with a hint of frustration and ‘Bad Choices’.
Lyanna’s practically sobbing when she says, “Why couldn’t you just set this up for tomorrow.”
“I was kinda high when I decided that.”, Aarius treads the boundaries of playful teasing, and literal sadism with that comment. “But anyhow, we should probably get started. Don’t wanna make them wait.”
I think I’m prepared enough to use Creation again—
“Ar, why is there white stuff here?”
I think.