Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back.
The sky is still black. Don't know how many hours it's been, but there's no change. There's not even any stars. Just a black sky looming over a white planet.... and damned if it isn't driving me nuts.
So, for a change in pace, I decided to connect with the pendant. Sure, it holds a fuck-ton of bad memories, stolen from that universe where my double was a power-hungry warrior with a scheming bitch of a wife. But it's useful.
Well, sometimes.
For instance, it's not so useful when one is alone on a barren planet, a little delirious from lack of food and water. Everything tends to get a little blurry then. And, when you connect to the pendant, things tend to get weird. So, if you don't have a firm grip on reality to start with, better buckle up. It's gonna be a bumpy ride.
Touching the pendant with the intent to connect with it is always a bit risky. If it's not fully charged, if it hasn't had the time to collect the what-ifs, and the could-have-beens, and the maybes of a certain time and place, then it just shows you blankness. And not having a future, seeing just blank space and snow in the place of actual events, is enough to turn any man's mind against him.
But, boredom and curiosity prompted me, and I reached out and placed my forefinger on the stone. It flickered, flared.... It's hard to describe. You can't actually see it, but you feel it, in your blood. It's like waves, or the tide. Rising, and pulsing, and pushing, 'till you can barely see for the blur.
And then, it hits you. Like a motherfucking brick to the head. The blur is gone, replaced with flaming images, swirling past so fast that you can barely get more than a glimpse at a couple of them. They spin around, morphing and flowing into one another.
To be honest, I don't know why I thought this would be useful.
Sometimes, during battle, Air Elementals would use them to glimpse possible plans of their enemies. But often times not. The pendants are a little bit more trouble than they're worth.
So, I lay my hand on this thing, and all of the sudden, I'm seeing shit.
There's me. 'Cept I'm softer around the edges, less scarred, prettier. I'm sitting by the side of a bed, a bed lousy with wires and mechanisms, that's beeping softly. In the bed, is the sorriest excuse for a human body I've ever seen. It's bloody, and mashed, and I can't help but wonder why it hasn't fallen into a million little pieces yet.
An extremity twitches. I'm pretty sure it's a hand. And the prettier me is up and out of the chair in an instant, rushing to the side of the mangled body, messing with the mechanisms, running a little black box over anything within reach.
I'm about to peer over the other me's shoulder, get a better look at this poor soul's face when the entire thing shifts.
I'm on a beach. I'm on a beach and I'm curled up between the prettier me and a young man with dark blonde hair. I'm on a beach, curled up between two men. And I'm naked.
And it morphs. I'm at the back of a hall of people, standing at attention, dressed in the fanciest military garb I've ever seen. We're all done up in the gear, almost every single person in the hall. All heads are turned off to the side.
I follow their gazes. Him again. The prettier me, standing at a lectern, knuckles white where they clutch at it. It looks as if he's holding himself up by pure willpower. His face is puffy, deep shadows underlining his bloodshot eyes. He starts to speak, starts to say something, when his voice breaks.
He runs.
The hall of people watch him, quietly. There is no outrage as he slams through the doorway, turning the corner to get out of the hall as fast as he can. There is only silence.
I turn my head to the front of the hall. There's a casket there. Closed. A framed picture rests upon it, showing a grinning man with dark blonde hair. The man from the beach.
And it changes again.
There are more images, more scenes that I could see, could agonize over. But I don't want to. I pull my hand off the pendant, ripping it away from the powerful tug of the Air Elemental's magic.
So... not very helpful. More confusing than anything. But at least it gives me something to worry about.
A goal has been set in this universe. I will not let the man with the dark blonde hair die. I can't. Because if I do, the version of me in this universe will break.
I know what I have to do.
How to go about doing it? No clue. But one thing at a time.
So, for a change in pace, I decided to connect with the pendant. Sure, it holds a fuck-ton of bad memories, stolen from that universe where my double was a power-hungry warrior with a scheming bitch of a wife. But it's useful.
Well, sometimes.
For instance, it's not so useful when one is alone on a barren planet, a little delirious from lack of food and water. Everything tends to get a little blurry then. And, when you connect to the pendant, things tend to get weird. So, if you don't have a firm grip on reality to start with, better buckle up. It's gonna be a bumpy ride.
Touching the pendant with the intent to connect with it is always a bit risky. If it's not fully charged, if it hasn't had the time to collect the what-ifs, and the could-have-beens, and the maybes of a certain time and place, then it just shows you blankness. And not having a future, seeing just blank space and snow in the place of actual events, is enough to turn any man's mind against him.
But, boredom and curiosity prompted me, and I reached out and placed my forefinger on the stone. It flickered, flared.... It's hard to describe. You can't actually see it, but you feel it, in your blood. It's like waves, or the tide. Rising, and pulsing, and pushing, 'till you can barely see for the blur.
And then, it hits you. Like a motherfucking brick to the head. The blur is gone, replaced with flaming images, swirling past so fast that you can barely get more than a glimpse at a couple of them. They spin around, morphing and flowing into one another.
To be honest, I don't know why I thought this would be useful.
Sometimes, during battle, Air Elementals would use them to glimpse possible plans of their enemies. But often times not. The pendants are a little bit more trouble than they're worth.
So, I lay my hand on this thing, and all of the sudden, I'm seeing shit.
There's me. 'Cept I'm softer around the edges, less scarred, prettier. I'm sitting by the side of a bed, a bed lousy with wires and mechanisms, that's beeping softly. In the bed, is the sorriest excuse for a human body I've ever seen. It's bloody, and mashed, and I can't help but wonder why it hasn't fallen into a million little pieces yet.
An extremity twitches. I'm pretty sure it's a hand. And the prettier me is up and out of the chair in an instant, rushing to the side of the mangled body, messing with the mechanisms, running a little black box over anything within reach.
I'm about to peer over the other me's shoulder, get a better look at this poor soul's face when the entire thing shifts.
I'm on a beach. I'm on a beach and I'm curled up between the prettier me and a young man with dark blonde hair. I'm on a beach, curled up between two men. And I'm naked.
And it morphs. I'm at the back of a hall of people, standing at attention, dressed in the fanciest military garb I've ever seen. We're all done up in the gear, almost every single person in the hall. All heads are turned off to the side.
I follow their gazes. Him again. The prettier me, standing at a lectern, knuckles white where they clutch at it. It looks as if he's holding himself up by pure willpower. His face is puffy, deep shadows underlining his bloodshot eyes. He starts to speak, starts to say something, when his voice breaks.
He runs.
The hall of people watch him, quietly. There is no outrage as he slams through the doorway, turning the corner to get out of the hall as fast as he can. There is only silence.
I turn my head to the front of the hall. There's a casket there. Closed. A framed picture rests upon it, showing a grinning man with dark blonde hair. The man from the beach.
And it changes again.
There are more images, more scenes that I could see, could agonize over. But I don't want to. I pull my hand off the pendant, ripping it away from the powerful tug of the Air Elemental's magic.
So... not very helpful. More confusing than anything. But at least it gives me something to worry about.
A goal has been set in this universe. I will not let the man with the dark blonde hair die. I can't. Because if I do, the version of me in this universe will break.
I know what I have to do.
How to go about doing it? No clue. But one thing at a time.