Post by Eternity on Jul 3, 2016 20:02:49 GMT
Alone in the darkness and at the mercy of your imagination, you cannot see and you can barely hear anything.
Anything except the subtle ticking of a clock. Tick-tick-ticking precious seconds of your life away as you stand here, wondering and wandering.
Lost in the pitch black of some eternal void. Without light, without sight, without sound, without sense.
Any sense of how you got here. Neither here nor there, nor anywhere you felt safe.
Tick-tick-tick your life away on some list somewhere before you die. Tick-tick-tick the box before you end up in one.
Tragic irony or poetic justice? I don't suppose it matters much in the end.
Tick-tick-tick-tock. The sound of many things. Grandfather clocks and lives wasting away.
Funny when and where your mind goes, and eventually everybody's does, especially when they're alone in the darkness with me and my memories...
The familiar voices of little girls drown it out quickly with their song as they dance around me, flickering shadows against the light of just another match. I sit cross-legged on the floor.
Girls: Ring-a-ring o' roses
A pocket full of posies
Ashes, Ashes
We all fall down...
The match is blown out just as they fall as the clock chimes in, announcing a new hour with all the old familiarity of Westminster.
A dim purple light slowly dawns, just enough for you to see the four pretty little Angels sprawled out all around me as I hold the used matchstick in my hand, letting the last little wisps of smoke dissipate.
Where have you been?
What have you done?
Thirty five days without me, five weeks without her. Has it driven you mad yet?
The darkness, the loneliness, it feels like forever doesn't it?
No light will ever shine as bright as that which I have already extinguished, not even yours Paige, but you've never let that stop you, so why should it now? It shouldn't, don't let it. Shine on, shine on, you crazy diamond. Half as bright as you ever were or ever will be.
Don't let them tell you any different.
The more important half of an ultimately lesser whole still has its part to play in this life, even a life as divided as yours.
Tell me what it like Paige, tell me what its like to never have been alone. Tell me what it's like to share a life I have never known. Tell me what it's like to share a face, a place, to split time and space.
It's a funny little feeling isn't it?
To be yourself and not be yourself at the same time. A beautiful lie, a wonderful contradiction, flawlessly replicated. A copy marked against the original your whole life, whichever one of you that is. I couldn't tell you, I've never been good with faces, but names...
Oh what pretty little names you both have.
All the better to separate you, said Grandma, and Mother and Father and little Brian too, I bet.
You see me then frantically look around, looking left, right, up and down.
Where is he? Have you seen him?
The four girls laying around me all silently shake their heads.
Me neither. God, I miss him!
I guess we're not that different after all, are we Paige? We're both Champions, we both care for Brian, and why wouldn't we? He's quite the sweet little teddybear, isn't he? To be honest I had no idea you two knew each other quite so well, but I can't say I'm surprised, he can get rather frisky, can't he?
Just make sure you clean him up before you return him. Hand wash only, oh and make sure the water is no hotter than thirty degrees, he doesn't like that.
I never did like to share, but for you Paige I'm willing to make an exception because I know you know no better.
Sharing is caring, and that's all you've ever done since the beginning, isn't it?
You poor, poor thing. Never knowing true individuality. Oh what a sad existence it must be to know that the only unique thing about you is that you've never been unique. You're a baked bean, a slice of toast, an undigested bit of goat's cheese. There is more of gravy than of gave about you, at least for now.
And in the end, that's all we ever really have, isn't it?
The here and the now. One moment, one match, once in a lifetime.
That's all it comes down to in this life, in this job, in the ring.
It's a funny old life sometimes, but it's the only one we're ever going to get, so make it count, Paige. All the way to three if you can. Come and tell me your story Paige, tell me the story of a shared life lived in a shared spotlight, rich and full as it is in its shared experiences with your sister, Sara.
You've already spent an eternity together, and you couldn't and wouldn't be separated.
So you won't be, you are destined to be together forever, bound by blood through the trials of this life. Sisters until the bitter end.
Ashes to ashes
Blood to blood
Gold to gold.
Champion to Champion.
It doesn't matter how you enter this world or even how you face it, Paige. The only thing that matters, the only thing that has ever mattered is how you will leave it all behind, in MY ring, over MY shoulder, around MY waist...
We all have our burdens to bear, our weights to carry and our parts to play in this life Paige. You handle yourself well, you carry the Shieldmaiden with grace and you play your part well, better than any clone I have ever seen before but if Arnold Schwarzenegger has taught me anything it's to keep you in check. I can't and I won't let you take over the world and ruin my whole life!
Not for anything less than a SimPal doll, at least.
No? How about a nacho-flavoured banana, then?
None of those either huh? Well, that sucks.
Just what kind of clone, are you, anyway?
Oh God, don't tell me, you're one of those sucky ones from Multiplicity aren't you?
First Michael Keaton, now you Paige Garcia, you guys really don't make the best career choices, do you?
Shame really, at least Keaton got to play Beetlejuice first I suppose, so that's something...
Not very fair I know, but then life seldom is.
It wasn't fair when The Black Death struck, it wasn't fair when the Great Fire ravaged the streets. That's why I loved this city once Paige, it has such a rich and bloody history. This place, it was my home, it was my kingdom, every time I came here I felt at one with its spirit.
But now it feels different.
Now it struggles, uncertain of what exactly lies ahead now that it has shunned its place in the greater whole.
Now it is all alone, without an identity, divided, lost, barely a sovereign crown to its name.
This city just isn't me anymore, it's you Paige.
It's just another city in my world and it's burning, just like you, I can smell it.
Burning to prove a point, burning to prove you're better, burning to prove everything to everybody.
Burning, burning, burning. Burning right down to the ground.
All because of this one little match...
Your focus is drawn one last time entirely to the expired match in my possession, before thick grey smoke clouds your vision and ends your visit here...
Anything except the subtle ticking of a clock. Tick-tick-ticking precious seconds of your life away as you stand here, wondering and wandering.
Lost in the pitch black of some eternal void. Without light, without sight, without sound, without sense.
Any sense of how you got here. Neither here nor there, nor anywhere you felt safe.
Tick-tick-tick your life away on some list somewhere before you die. Tick-tick-tick the box before you end up in one.
Tragic irony or poetic justice? I don't suppose it matters much in the end.
Tick-tick-tick-tock. The sound of many things. Grandfather clocks and lives wasting away.
Funny when and where your mind goes, and eventually everybody's does, especially when they're alone in the darkness with me and my memories...
~~~~
A teenage girl in London, hot pink streaks of rebellion in her otherwise blonde hair. Dark shades and a bright purple T-shirt, proudly proclaiming her love for the city across it. Just another tourist outside Buckingham Palace, just another face lost in the crowd, watching.
Beefeaters marched in step, in perfect time with one another. Everything in pitch perfect synchronisation. Indistinguishable equals forming a greater whole under the warm bright rarity of a British summer sun. Today was a special day indeed. Today was the day Daddy's little Princess saw her first real Queen.
Live.
Alive, oh what a day it was to be.
If only Daddy were here, but he wasn't and he never would be again...
She wanted to tell him of her first trip, her first real adventure without him, but she couldn't, not just because he was dead, but because she felt incredibly guilty.
Who was she to think she could ever have fun without him?
How could she go on living without her Mommy and Daddy?
How dare she betray them like that?
How can she forget?
She couldn't, she wouldn't, and she shouldn't be enjoying herself, not without them.
Never without them...
Never without them...
~~~~
A match is struck bringing what little natural light and warmth it could muster on its own to the darkness. The bright yellow flame stood tentatively, balanced yet shaky. Uncertain now that its life had finally begun just how long it would last, just how long it could survive alone in the dark as the clock continued to tick-tick-tick away.The familiar voices of little girls drown it out quickly with their song as they dance around me, flickering shadows against the light of just another match. I sit cross-legged on the floor.
Girls: Ring-a-ring o' roses
A pocket full of posies
Ashes, Ashes
We all fall down...
The match is blown out just as they fall as the clock chimes in, announcing a new hour with all the old familiarity of Westminster.
A dim purple light slowly dawns, just enough for you to see the four pretty little Angels sprawled out all around me as I hold the used matchstick in my hand, letting the last little wisps of smoke dissipate.
Where have you been?
What have you done?
Thirty five days without me, five weeks without her. Has it driven you mad yet?
The darkness, the loneliness, it feels like forever doesn't it?
No light will ever shine as bright as that which I have already extinguished, not even yours Paige, but you've never let that stop you, so why should it now? It shouldn't, don't let it. Shine on, shine on, you crazy diamond. Half as bright as you ever were or ever will be.
Don't let them tell you any different.
The more important half of an ultimately lesser whole still has its part to play in this life, even a life as divided as yours.
Tell me what it like Paige, tell me what its like to never have been alone. Tell me what it's like to share a life I have never known. Tell me what it's like to share a face, a place, to split time and space.
It's a funny little feeling isn't it?
To be yourself and not be yourself at the same time. A beautiful lie, a wonderful contradiction, flawlessly replicated. A copy marked against the original your whole life, whichever one of you that is. I couldn't tell you, I've never been good with faces, but names...
Oh what pretty little names you both have.
All the better to separate you, said Grandma, and Mother and Father and little Brian too, I bet.
You see me then frantically look around, looking left, right, up and down.
Where is he? Have you seen him?
The four girls laying around me all silently shake their heads.
Me neither. God, I miss him!
I guess we're not that different after all, are we Paige? We're both Champions, we both care for Brian, and why wouldn't we? He's quite the sweet little teddybear, isn't he? To be honest I had no idea you two knew each other quite so well, but I can't say I'm surprised, he can get rather frisky, can't he?
Just make sure you clean him up before you return him. Hand wash only, oh and make sure the water is no hotter than thirty degrees, he doesn't like that.
I never did like to share, but for you Paige I'm willing to make an exception because I know you know no better.
Sharing is caring, and that's all you've ever done since the beginning, isn't it?
You poor, poor thing. Never knowing true individuality. Oh what a sad existence it must be to know that the only unique thing about you is that you've never been unique. You're a baked bean, a slice of toast, an undigested bit of goat's cheese. There is more of gravy than of gave about you, at least for now.
And in the end, that's all we ever really have, isn't it?
The here and the now. One moment, one match, once in a lifetime.
That's all it comes down to in this life, in this job, in the ring.
It's a funny old life sometimes, but it's the only one we're ever going to get, so make it count, Paige. All the way to three if you can. Come and tell me your story Paige, tell me the story of a shared life lived in a shared spotlight, rich and full as it is in its shared experiences with your sister, Sara.
You've already spent an eternity together, and you couldn't and wouldn't be separated.
So you won't be, you are destined to be together forever, bound by blood through the trials of this life. Sisters until the bitter end.
Ashes to ashes
Blood to blood
Gold to gold.
Champion to Champion.
It doesn't matter how you enter this world or even how you face it, Paige. The only thing that matters, the only thing that has ever mattered is how you will leave it all behind, in MY ring, over MY shoulder, around MY waist...
We all have our burdens to bear, our weights to carry and our parts to play in this life Paige. You handle yourself well, you carry the Shieldmaiden with grace and you play your part well, better than any clone I have ever seen before but if Arnold Schwarzenegger has taught me anything it's to keep you in check. I can't and I won't let you take over the world and ruin my whole life!
Not for anything less than a SimPal doll, at least.
No? How about a nacho-flavoured banana, then?
None of those either huh? Well, that sucks.
Just what kind of clone, are you, anyway?
Oh God, don't tell me, you're one of those sucky ones from Multiplicity aren't you?
First Michael Keaton, now you Paige Garcia, you guys really don't make the best career choices, do you?
Shame really, at least Keaton got to play Beetlejuice first I suppose, so that's something...
Not very fair I know, but then life seldom is.
It wasn't fair when The Black Death struck, it wasn't fair when the Great Fire ravaged the streets. That's why I loved this city once Paige, it has such a rich and bloody history. This place, it was my home, it was my kingdom, every time I came here I felt at one with its spirit.
But now it feels different.
Now it struggles, uncertain of what exactly lies ahead now that it has shunned its place in the greater whole.
Now it is all alone, without an identity, divided, lost, barely a sovereign crown to its name.
This city just isn't me anymore, it's you Paige.
It's just another city in my world and it's burning, just like you, I can smell it.
Burning to prove a point, burning to prove you're better, burning to prove everything to everybody.
Burning, burning, burning. Burning right down to the ground.
All because of this one little match...
Your focus is drawn one last time entirely to the expired match in my possession, before thick grey smoke clouds your vision and ends your visit here...
Well howdy there pardner.