008

[withoutablade]

Comments

written, as always

[queendramabitch]

That was beautiful.

dictated back

[withoutablade]

Lucy?

[ Well, that's not so bad. Worse people could have heard it. There's a pause before he responds, thinking it over. ] Thank you. It was only what came to mind at that moment.

[queendramabitch]

[she hears just about everything that gets broadcast over the journals]

Yes, it's Lucy.
You have a gift for words.

[withoutablade]

Hm. It is a gift, I suppose- I had thought myself fairly average when it came to such things, but occasionally the burden of royalty requires something more.

They deserve far better than this, however.

[queendramabitch]

You have a very [she pauses for a moment, thinking] formal way of speaking. I don't think anyone talks that way anymore, when I'm from.
Were they your parents?

[withoutablade]

It is an ordinary way of speaking in my time. But, if you are conforming to the most common calendar, this time would be somewhere around the year of 500BC- a long time ago, for many.

Only in part. King Sharaman was my father...Kaileena, a past lover.

[queendramabitch]

[she thought as much, about the dates]

I'm from 2009 AD.
Did I hear correctly that you included yourself?

[withoutablade]

As are many, it seems. Such a future seems impossible.

...yes. I did.

[queendramabitch]

I've been to the end of the universe. That kind of future seemed impossible to me, too. I don't think anything's impossible now.
You're dead back home, then?

[withoutablade]

[ The end of the universe...it's a little too big for him to grasp. He makes a 'hrm' noise and notes it down for later. ]

In a manner of speaking. I have avoided my own death, through my own actions, but I have still died. Sacrificed, to a ceaseless beast.

[queendramabitch]

[it was too big for HER to grasp, and she was actually there!]

You've said something about that beast before, haven't you?

[withoutablade]

I may have. It is the protector of the timeline- since I was meant to die where I had not, it chased me ceaselessly for nearly seven years.

[queendramabitch]

Why didn't you die when you were meant to?

[withoutablade]

I had manipulated time. The Dahaka had cornered me, along with a strange monster, but I managed to leap out of the way at the last moment, leaving the other monster to be devoured. For some reason, the Dahaka seemed content with this, leaving me in peace.

It was only later that I discovered that I was that monster - the Sand Wraith - and my efforts to set the timeline right and save the life of Kaileena led me back to that very spot in my own future. However, this time...it was my past self that was devoured, instead of me. Only then was I able to remove the mask which had transformed me into that awful form, regaining the human stature that you are aware of today.

[queendramabitch]

[only comprehends about half of that... but it's okay]

If your past self was devoured, why do you keep existing?

[withoutablade]

[ Translation: WEIRD TIME SHIT. ]

I do not know. Only one could survive, I suppose, and I took the chance to assure my survival. As long as the timeline is assuaged, the rest seems trivial to it.