the nature of the diseased, fifth and final
@hallowed-nebulae
There is a world, at the end of all things, where skies and seas that reflect them stretch out as far as the eye can see.
Can it properly be called a world at all, for having no end? Merely a plane where fragments of lost souls gathered. Waiting to be either forgotten entirely or released to whatever lies beyond the forever horizon.
Salt grinds underfoot a boot, the secret to why the seas looks so much like the sky.
A figure in black waves his hands about as he shifts back and forth, excitedly explaining something to a shimmer of stars.
"-and that's why salt drives away ghosts. Because it reminds them of the Final World, where the purest salt comes from."
A wavery voice of a girl emits from the star shimmer. "Is that true?"
"No idea!" The figure shrugs. "But it makes for a good story, doesn't it?"
The sound of a giggle. "That sounds like something Ruse would say."
"Really?" The figure tilts his hooded head. "And speaking of your friend, Ruse...I have another story to tell you. Using..."
He reaches into his coat, bringing out... "Puppets!"
"Huh?"
They're papercut, these puppets, somehow casting intricate shadows in this sunless place.
First, a princess in layers and layers of fancy skirts.
"Once upon a time, there was a princess. But there was something very different about this princess from other princesses."
The head tilts as the princess sits down on the air, like there's a chair for her underneath. Paper hands go to the chest.
"For you see, she had no Heart. Born without one. And we all know what girls with no Hearts are, hmm?"
A gloved hand flicks at the top of the physical paper head, pulling a fragment that makes the shadow of a pointed hat. A witch's hat.
"A witch. She was a witch."
Another shadowed figure enters the scene, one with a crown. And spiky hair. Too familiar in silhouette.
"Now, the witch just had to get a Heart somehow. So she cast a magic spell on a prince to get one. Made him forget everything, isn't that crazy?"
"...yes. Crazy."
"But before the prince fell completely under the witch's spell..."
The prince vanishes. Swapped out for an armored figure, heart patterns intricate in their light and shadow mix.
"A knight appeared! Dahaha!" He makes a fake trumpet noise in announcement.
The knight takes to a knee, before the witch princess. Bowing its head.
"The knight loved the princess, as a true friend does. Loved her enough to offer her..."
The knight shade tugs at its chest. Seemingly prying it open to hold up a...Heart. A beautiful shape of a Heart, in paper and cast shadow.
"No, that didn't happen."
The storyteller hums. "It didn't, hmm? Are you sure? Because the princess..."
The princess puppet accepts the Heart from the knight, holding it above her hands. Before tossing it to the side.
"...didn't think so either. She took the Heart and because she thought she was worth nothing as a witch..."
A shadowed knife appears. The knight watches in helmet shaking horror as the princess grabs it to stab into her chest.
"She kills herself. For another princess. And from there, the Heart that knight so naively gave up..."
The storyteller flicks his hands. The shadow Heart breaks apart, in pieces and pieces, and as it does, the knight puppet slumps down.
"Broke. And the princess witch ended up killing her friend too, isn't that great? Just because she thought she wasn't worth anything, how funny!"
A flick of gloved hands makes the entire puppet show disappear. Just like the paper heart, fragmented into pieces.
There's something almost upset to Namine's star shine, but who cares about that? He's only told her the truth as in story, after all.
Not his fault it hurts the feelings of the Heart she never believed she had.
"Maybe I'll change 'friend' to 'lover', hmm..."
"But it's not like that at all!" Namine protests.
"Yes, but 'lover' is a stronger word. They'll understand the loss better for some reason." The figure rubs his unseen chin.
"Give people a story on the Power of Friendship, and they'll be arguing on whether the hero should end up with the girl or the boy. They're funny like that."
"Ruse said that too. That people prefer romance over friends."
"She would know, wouldn't she?" The figure hums. He wishes he could sit back and kick his legs back and forth.
He'll have to settle for grinding the salty water underfoot.
"I don't blame you for what you did, by the way."
"...what?" Namine sounds completely confused.
He doesn't blame her, though he understands why that may be hard for her to believe. His story is pretty much focused on her failure, isn't it? People hate to be reminded of their failures.
"Of course you sacrificed yourself. What else would you do, after being told your entire existence that you didn't matter as much as others, because you're a different kind of being."
The figure spreads his arms once more.
"Not only that, but they were scared of you. Of what you could do, change those memories like you can. Of course they put you down, didn't correct their ideas how you actually were, instead of the monster in their mind."
"They didn't all do that!" Namine argues, lights flashing angrily. Probably more angry than she ever was, alive.
"Oh right, Ruse didn't. But we were just talking about that, in the story." The figure tugs at his hood, rests his chin in his other hand. "One person isn't enough, to change another's nature."
An amount of silence, as he takes in the glimmering stars about them. Each and every one a soul who cannot yet leave their own world behind. Reminders of what lies ahead and behind.
"That's fate, you know. Just living up to your own nature. Fate happens as we follow what our Hearts tell us, to the very end."
That's how he can 'retire' really. Because people rarely change, much more keen on following what they know. Even when that leads them off a cliff.
Darkness sought the Book of Prophecies, fell for its trap because that's its nature to devour knowledge like that. To try getting a headstart on Light.
Every Hero that is and wasn't follow their natures and that's how the Worlds will be saved.
Even this witch, this Nobody, followed her own lonely nature in the end.
His counterpart of that other worldline, ah, he worries too much. But the figure supposes that if he changed the inner nature of his own students as the other did, he would be worried about Fate more as well.
But all things find their way. The stars turn on their axises, the universe spins out further and further, and Light conquers Dark.
The beings of his world-selections will return to their homes and the beings of his counterpart's world-selections will keep to theirs.
That's Fate. That's how it will be.
He wouldn't be the Master of Masters otherwise, right?
2 notes
·
View notes