BOOP - Dec 13th
in which, even after a setback, getting a head can take one over the edge.
Their little world was still and silent. Mr. Winkle stood stupefied by the clownish countenance of his misplaced mystic, pants asunder. Boop and Little Doom Guy made a game of the misplaced mystic's ball, flippers engaged. Dek stared out at his head, clearly contemplative.
"You seem mercifully quiet," Dek noticed. "Are you finally coming to terms with your attitude?"
Mr. Winkle wasn't. He expected order and had convinced himself that he was its champion or, at the very least, its proctor. The changes spilling from the Wall challenged his very sense of self and continued to leave their marks on him. Tradition filled his confusion with endless complaint.
"This is a disturbing paradox," complained Mr. Winkle. "The Oracle has always revealed himself FULLY Assembled and much later than this. He was meant to do us a wisdom. Do us a profundity!
"You use words weird," Dek determined.
Thoughts can sometimes choke on themselves. It is difficult to grasp disarray when the tools to sort it feel non-existent.
"Why not relax like Headacles over there and talk about literally anything else besides your flappy obsession?" Dek suggested.
"BECAUSE YOUR STUNTED MUTT DROP-KICKED MY BLESSED PROPHET CLEAR OUT OF CLAREVOYANCE!" flailed Mr. Winkle.
"Bet he didn't see THAT coming," Dek forced a smirk.
The Raisin Man felt familiar to Dek. Not a face remembered from the past, only the expression upon it: weary, resigned contentedness. The Wall showed him dancing, but he was stiff and clearly out of place in the snow. Behind the mask, he was basically anonymous. Beside him; some cold behemoth winked knowingly. Beside the winking behemoth; what was left of the Wing Cull.
Mr. Winkle paused his disappointment and looked across the tiny wasteland, carefully averting his eyes from Boop's blasphemous frolicking with Little Doom Guy. They were simply beyond his logic.
"Has he spoken you any revelations?" Mr. Winkle dared to hope.
The Raisin Man softly opened his mouth.
"Does the Big City have a big zoo?" inquired the Raisin Man. "I like the giraffes."
Dek half-smiled. It seemed genuine.
"See? He likes animals." Dek felt a glimmer of hope.
"Imbecile." Mr. Winkle dismissed the both of them. "But even your own profound idiocy should NOT have been able to alter the Order of the Assembly!"
"Well, who was he SUPPOSED to be?" Dek protested.
"Doom!" happily chirped Little Doom Guy, lost in his own little game.
"Boop," Boop had to choke back a joyful tear.
The little guy was so deft on his feet, even while wearing commandeered flippers. They had even fashioned a makeshift eyepatch from one of the drool-guards to make Little Doom Guy look as tough and cool as he deserved. Boop squeezed a(n) [extra?!] flipper in proud delight. It was such a precious sight.
Mr. Winkle wouldn't have thought so. Mr. Winkle wasn't watching.
"Who are YOU supposed to be?!?" vented a frustrated Wing Cull.
Dek hesitate.
"I... I don't know... Dek..." Dek guessed. "I think my name is 'Dek.' I can almost remember saying that word a lot for a while… no real reason… just 'Dek.'"
No one had called Dek anything at all before. No one would tell Dek anything after.
It is just not a question many are prepared to answer from the ends of the world.
"I don't even remember why… I was confused and alone for a long time after I dropped. My first thought was pretty much "weapon" (look it up!) but then I found something already there. Waiting…"
Dek did not turn around. It didn't really matter if anyone was listening.
"After a while, there was nothing to do but try to make sense out of my only company..."
Boop was blissfully lost in the little game with Little Doom Guy, warping the [extra?!] flipper between two proud [hands?].
"Then there was this moment, when I was 'Assembling' Rol3Pol3... and suddenly, I could understand 'Boop' for the first time."
"I like that word," smiled the Raisin Man.
Something in the great void might listen, even if just to a single name. As good as a bell.
"Someone was talking," said Dek, "and I was no longer alone."
Dek remembered a lot of things. Dek felt a little better for a little while.
'Go ahead, put anything.' this place keeps telling you.
"I apologize, Duck, but you are so much more than just a lonely creature..." he had only been half listening to Dek.
"ohm wee keecho..." Little Doom Guy had only been half listening to Mr. Winkle.
Boop's grip loosened on the [extra?!] flipper.
"...you're an insane and dangerous creature without precedent." concluded Mr. Winkle.
Mr. Winkle was disinterested by any emotions not written on the Wall and was determined to return to that idyll mural. With a final glance at his lost prophet, he marched purposefully across the [snow?].
"Your pattern of chaotic blasphemy will not steer us through this Build and it is time for structure, order, and above all: wisdom," he proselytized.
"duckduckduckduckduckduck..." Little Doom Guy had gotten a word stuck in his little head that suited the quickening speed of the game.
"Boop," quacked Boop, innocently trying the word out.
"Bwomp," honked Little Doom Guy.
What else is there to say when you suddenly lose your only ball and it rolls into the neighboring abyss?
"boop," sighed a startled Boop.
It was beautiful while it lasted.
Dek regarded Mr. Winkle as he waddled just shy of the edge.
"Do you fear a wisdom?" challenged that Bronze thing.
Dek wondered at the odd phrasing. The question unfolded just as strangely.
None of them could understand the repulsion crackling like a terrible itch at this boundary. A single step further had been inconceivable. Anything beyond it, even within eyesight, felt lost. This was a prohibitive place.
"Hey guy," smiled the friendly Raisin Man from beyond the edges of reality as they knew it.
Dek wanted to help. Dek really wanted to help the Raisin Man.
The itch radiating from the edge was intense.
Dek lifted one foot and pushed it into the glossy darkness.
It was burning...
...but Dek's foot landed in [snow?].
It was their same world laid out in full. There was Boop's [sculpture?]. There was the Wall; spent doors wide open with no new vacancies. Was that Dek's own door so high up? Has it been so long since then? How long had he gone?
Dek could see the others at the [far?] edge. They seemed surprised.
The itch was beginning to subside. A quick look back confirmed that [nothing?] had changed. There was a... fading glitter... to the eigengrau behind whatever had always been out there. The sight of it was making Dek nauseous.
The others were racing across the [snow?].
"Poof!" exclaimed a wide-eyed Little Guy.
"BOOP!" cried an extremely distraught Boop.
"¿¡¿THAT'S A THING THAT CAN HAPPEN NOW?!?" Mr. Winkle was bewildered.
Dek felt tired. The world had been spinning.
———————-
DEC 14th:
in which everyone catches up on the things that can happen now.
or just start over?
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