a story for another day
It was on my mind all night. "Solve the puzzle and eradicate the Watchers"... how could I do that? How could any of us do that? I hated that this was partially becoming my responsibility! I don't even know who I am! I don't even know who I was! It was so hard to sleep that night that I had Scriff get in touch with Flux and Craggy to see if they could comfort me. I felt dumb and childish for needing to rely on them, but if I didn't, I would have spent all night wide awake racked with fear and upset.
They showed up well into the night and kinda just laid around me. "Ｙｏｕ'ｒｅ ｓａｆｅ. Ｉ'ｌｌ ｍａｋｅ ｓｕｒｅ ｏｆ ｉｔ. "
"Thank you for coming over here, it does make me feel better."
"ᔕᑕᖇIᖴᖴ E᙭ᑭᒪᗩIᑎEᗪ IT ᗩᒪᒪ TO ᗰE. IT ᔕOᑌᑎᗪᔕ ᖇOᑌGᕼ, ᗯᕼᗩT YOᑌ'ᖇE GOIᑎG TᕼᖇOᑌGᕼ ᗷᑌT I ᕼOᑭE TᕼIᑎGᔕ ᗯIᒪᒪ GET ᗷETTEᖇ ᖴOᖇ YOᑌ ᔕOOᑎ!"
"Ｇｅｔ ｓｏｍｅ ｓｌｅｅｐ, ｐｌｅａｓｅ."
"I'll try. Thank you, sincerely."
I closed my eyes and sighed. You ever have one of those moments where you're trying to force yourself to sleep because you just can't do it on your own? And then the act of trying to force yourself to sleep just makes you more awake because you're thinking about the process of sleeping and—I'm going to stop myself there, this is a rabbit hole that could go on for pages and pages, I should maybe just not think. But that's hard to do when so much is on your mind. The Watchers, Bit dying, how I'm no closer to my past, how the only thing I know from it is beep boop boop beep, beep boop boop beep, beep boop boop boop boop... mmm, beep boo... beep boop boop beep... beep b... b...
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I woke up sometime the next morning, I don't know how I did it, how I finally went to sleep, but I did, somehow. Craggy had placed an arm over me, resting her head on my shoulder, and Flux had kind of just melted onto the floor around Scriff. I gently nudged Craggy to try to get her awake enough to let me go.
"Ｍｍｍ... ｎｏ, Ｉ'ｖｅ ｇｏｔ ａｍｐｌｅ ｌｉｆｅ ｉｎｓｕｒａｎｃｅ... ｏｈ, ｙｏｕ... Ｉ ｔｏｌｄ ｙｏｕ Ｉ'ｄ ｓｔａｙ ｈｅｒｅ ｖｉｇｉｌａｎｔｌｙ ｐｒｏｔｅｃｔｉｎｇ ｙｏｕ. "
"You've got a lovely sense of humor," I whispered to her.
"Ｉｔ'ｓ ｔｏ ｇｏ ｗｉｔｈ ｍｙ ｄａｓｈｉｎｇ ｇｏｏｄ ｌｏｏｋｓ ａｎｄ ｒａｚｏｒ-ｓｈａｒｐ ｗｉｔ."
"Right. Um, I was just wondering if I could get up?"
"Ｏｈ, ｙｅｓ, ｌｅｔ ｍｅ..."
She raised her arm off of me and gently helped me off the ground. "Ｔｈｉｓ ａｐａｒｔｍｅｎｔ ｈａｓ ａ ｂｅｄ. Ｄｏ ｎｅｉｔｈｅｒ ｏｆ ｙｏｕ ｕｓｅ ｔｈｅ ｂｅｄ?"
"The carpet's nice and soft, and Scriff likes to bask sprawled around on the floor."
"Ｉ ｍｉｇｈｔ ｈａｖｅ ｔｏ ａｓｋ ｈｅｒ ｉｆ ｓｈｅ ｋｎｏｗｓ ａｂｏｕｔ ｂｅｄｓ."
"Oh, um... you were saying something yesterday, about how you met Flux?"
"Ａｎｄ?"
"I was wondering if you could tell me that."
"Ｄｏ ｙｏｕ ｗａｎｔ ｔｏ ｒｅａｄ ｔｈｉｓ ｆｏｎｔ ｆｏｒ ｍｕｌｔｉｐｌｅ ｐａｒａｇｒａｐｈｓ? Ｈａｖｅ ｙｏｕ ｓｅｅｎ ｈｏｗ ｗｏｒｄ ｗｒａｐｐｉｎｇ ｄｏｅｓｎ'ｔ ｓｅｅｍ ｔｏ ｗｏｒｋ ｎｏ ｍａｔｔｅｒ ｗｈｅｒｅ ｙｏｕ ｒｅａｄ ｉｔ?"
"Oh, um... so how do you think we should do this, then? Flux's... er, 'font' isn't much better."
"Ｉ ｃｏｕｌｄ ｗｒｉｔｅ ｉｔ ｄｏｗｎ, ｉｆ ｙｏｕ ｗａｎｔｅｄ ｍｅ ｔｏ. "
"I mean, the Retconologists seem to believe this is already a book, so you have plenty of open space to write."
That's fair.
"Yeah, just like that!"
Give me a moment, I haven't done somgashgrf
"Did you just press your whole hand on the keyboard?"
hgfvlujfhv
"Just take your time."
"Ｉ ｕｎｄｅｒｓｔａｎｄ."
It begins sometime after the Nexus was destroyed. I was still young but was much taller, much larger than my peers. I felt foreign, incorrect. Lizi did not want to get to know me. This was right around when that book Shim wrote came out, no Lizi wanted to be tough, I had no other choice. I was bullied for my differences and had no friends.
I gripped her hand the best I could. "That sounds awful."
It was bad when everyone was making fun of me. It was worse when there was nobody around, period.
"What do you mean?"
The other Lizi
"...What about them? Craggy?"
She rested an arm around me and slowly sank to the ground, taking me with.
The other Lizi disappeared. At first my classes had twenty other Lizi. Soon it was ten, five, and eventually just myself, not even an instructor. I do not know where they went. Soon people didn't talk to me. Soon nobody seemed to know I existed. Nobody would acknowledge me. I beat myself up for scaring everyone that much...
I looked over as she ran her hand across her other wrist. "Oh... oh, that's..."
"Ｉｔ'ｓ ｏｋａｙ ｎｏｗ. Ｉ ｄｏｎ'ｔ ｈｏｌｄ ｔｈａｔ ａｇａｉｎｓｔ ａｎｙｏｎｅ ａｎｙｍｏｒｅ. Ｔｈａｔ'ｓ ｔｏｏ ｍｕｃｈ ｗｏｒｋ. "
I found a place to hide, I found a place I could just disappear and nobody would know. The old warehouse where ration packets were stored. That's where I met Flux. She came in one day curious about what everything was, and at first I was upset that she was bothering me, but... she acknowledged me. She knew I existed. That was more than I had become used to. So much more.
"I could imagine."
She wondered why we had all these foods, I said that they were just here for storage, and then she had the idea to turn this into a place for the disadvantaged to get free food. She really helped me figure out my place in life...
I...
She saved my life...
She was the only hope I had had for years...
She introduced me to Scriff, who she hung around with shortly after finding her on the beach. I saw myself in Scriff, somehow. She's half my height and a fifth of my width, but that bright-eyed, vacant, confused look... it was my own. I was afraid I would disappear from her life, they'd disappear from mine... and I did everything I could to make sure they didn't... and I don't know what I could do if they left... I don't know if I'd still be here without them...
I was kind of teary-eyed, again clutching my hand as best as I could around a bit of hers. "I... that's... I'm glad things got better for you, at least."
"Ｔｈａｎｋ ｙｏｕ ｆｏｒ ｌｉｓｔｅｎｉｎｇ."
"Any ti--"
I didn't have time to figure anythin gou tbutI wasu rethatw as Flu
"GOOᗪ ᗰOᖇᑎIᑎG!"
"Wh—what have y—y--you done this ti—time?!"
"I ᗪOᑎ'T KᑎOᗯ. ᕼOᗯ ᗪO YOᑌ ᖴEEᒪ?"
"Weird! Weird and—and..."
I was I felt It was like You know how So when you get a static My thoughts are looping over themseWhat was goinWhy was it so hard to thiIs this too much or too littlBut everything's I'm so tingly and Why am I so giddy and What even isWhy am I getting the feeling of It's like pins and needlAnd its whenever someone touches mAs you could gueWhen it comes to this housThat's happening all the time hereIt took that long to Why did it take me so lonFormulating thoughts is so hard when your brain can't keep stillI'm feeling so giggly.
"I think you fried her this time!"
That was ScrifGood morning ScriBut yeah I'm in a bit of a Having a bit of a It's a problem.
"Can you fix her?"
"I—I—It's—But—Okay--But--I... give me a—it'll just be a—okay but---I..."
"Ｈａｖｅ ｙｏｕ ｔｒｉｅｄ ｓｈｕｔｔｉｎｇ ｈｅｒ ｄｏｗｎ ａｎｄ ｓｔａｒｔｉｎｇ ｈｅｒ ｂａｃｋ ｕｐ?"
"I ᑕOᑌᒪᗪ TᖇY!"
I was starting toThis was feeling kinda good for some reAnd let me say that the thought It was worrying that they just Like nobody asked me what I wanteBut I guess to them I just look like a stammering mesBut I am a stammering messMy brain is all tinglyI'm so super happy for some reThis isn't normal by any means but wiThe skipping and looping is kinda a little frustratBut in a fun wayWhy am I having so much fun with thi
um
hi
i dont know where that emmi went
the weird skippy one that couldnt stop laughing is like gone
um
im tired
but i just woke up
i want a snack
i should probably say that out loud.
"i want a snack"
"Do we have any snacks?"
"Ｔｈｉｓ ｉｓ ｙｏｕｒ ｈｏｕｓｅ. "
why is it they dont get electrocuted by flux
can she
she should
make them all skippy and fun
i don't know what a philly cheesesteak is
but i want one
where can i get afterward philly cheesesteak
"afterward philly cheesesteak flux electrocute the lizis?"
"Yeah, that's... definitely broken."
"ᗯᕼIᑕᕼ OᑎE ᗪO YOᑌ ᗯᗩᑎT? TOO ᗰᑌᑕᕼ Oᖇ ᑎOT EᑎOᑌGᕼ?"
"Normal!"
"I ᗪOᑎ'T ᑫᑌITE KᑎOᗯ ᗯᕼᗩT TᕼᗩT Iᔕ, ᔕO ᔕᕼE'ᒪᒪ ᒍᑌᔕT ᕼᗩᐯE TO ᖇE-ᗩᗪᒍᑌᔕT ᑎᗩTᑌᖇᗩᒪᒪY."
"So she's stuck on either end?"
two roads that split or something
the one tells only silly lies
the other wants a juice box
give me a juice box
ecto cooler
that was a thing right
it was green
let me drink the green
flux is green
ergo flux is ecto cooler
slurp slurp
pack that's a lot of energy oh my gosh so they're just going to keep fiddling with the dials until they get me in check but like okay my heart is racing I don't feeling like im crashin n burniunn
"too lo w"
what was i eve
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--soanywaysthatswhythefirstcrusadesfailed whoa what happened. Don't feel sluggish. Don't feel over excited. Not skipping, kind of miss that one a tiny bit. I think I feel normal? I still kinda feel weird, though.
"How ya feeling?"
Scriff. Scriff! Scriff? Things felt weird. I felt weird. Hard to describe weird. All the furniture in your house two inches to the left weird.
"A tiny bit lost."
"Maybe you're just fried up. Let's go get some food in you and then we can go meet with the gang about the Watchers!"
That sounded good. Hoping I'm not, like, dead. Electricity coma or something, hopefully not.
ns 15.158.61.8da2
