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To learn love and joy is to learn sadness and grief.
If so, wouldn't it be better not to know it in the first place?
“Kronini, have you ever been to Tau Ceti?”
“Tau Ceti…? No, I don't think I have ever really gone beyond this solar system”
“You should have come with me sometime! There's this one planet in the system, and I know just the spot! It's so nice, warm, quiet, and the view is just so beautiful!”
“There are reasons why this system is so popular with humans you know? Well..in their fiction, I mean. Oh! Maybe we could have a picnic there, I'll pack you a nice sandwich with delicious juices to go with it! What do you think?”
“But there's nothing out there, is there? There's no reason for me to be out there”
“Hey! There are tons of things…all the stars, all the galaxy, all the life! ..well maybe not intelligent life but still, there's a lot out there Kronini!”
On the pure white roof, backdrop of black space filled with colorful stars, there is a white-haired girl who’s flying around me
pleading with her cute face
I can't help but crack a smile at the sight
“Okay alright, I'll go with you if I have the time”
“Oh, wipe that smirking off your face and look who's talking!"
We laughed
It's as though I have lived through thousand of lifetime
Where is the beginning, where is the end should be trivial matters to me
Know all possible past and future across all the world lines
Yet, why does this feeling exist?
Being called forth by the higher power
A materialization of time, the concept of it
I don't remember the first time I opened my eyes
It's as though I have always existed, such is the nature of our being
We don't know our beginning and yet…why do we know our end?
It doesn't matter if I can see the future, knowing all the paths that could happen, watched as threads of world lines spread out like a beautiful blue gentle waves
The destined event cannot be changed
It might have happened earlier, it might have happened later, but it doesn't matter
The role of an observer is to witness them
Again, we don't even see our beginnings, and yet… I have to be the one to attest to your ends?
How could this be the reason of our existence…MY existence
I have known better now not to get close to being with such small life spans, the missing watch spot on my shelf is always a reminder
But why do even those that I have always known, always being here, being the same existence as me, have to meet the same fate?
“Shh…please don't cry”
A hand gently pats my head
“Stop…talking…”
I can't meet her eyes
Is that all I can manage to say?
“...then how about I sing you a song?”
She slowly said in her soothing voice
“You always love them, right?”
“..Please…stop..”
The world stuck in my throat
There's so much that I need to say
So much that I wanted to convey and yet…
“Mhmm mhmmm mm”
She starts humming a similar tune
Her voice echoed through the ruined garden
The sunlight is all but faded
“...I’m…sorry…”
She doesn't say anything but keep caressing my hair for one last time
“I…”
“... kronii…please look at me”
I slowly turn my head up
One lush green hair has now turned all white
The gold light that used to be in her eyes has now all but faded too
Yet she looks at me so gently
“It's okay..”
“...but”
Her hand cupped my face
Her lips grow into small smiles
And our eyes met
“I love you”
I hugged her for the last time
…Despite almost being cold dead planet at this point in time humans had somehow still survives, The Nature that they have always been hurting has finally abandoned them, The so-called Civilization has fallen and yet “humans” still remain here, puny little thing that are barely scraping by
But they still doesn’t give up
One full of orange light at night, now just small dot scattered around barely visible
I dropped down to the place where we first met
All I have in my hand now is just her feathers
We meet as strangers
We say our goodbye as strangers
Perhaps it's better this way
Yet the pain in my heart has never receded
Can we call this her home?
She did call this “one of” her home
A small, beaten-down house tucked away from society
Small trinkets and random objects spread around the house, her “decorations”
I lit candles around the place, now that electricity is no more
A shell of its former self, a cozy little house now collecting dust, small cold wind blowed in
I suppose it's time to get cleaning
A house full of memories
The sofa that I always throw myself into and relax
The sofa that I first held her hand
A table where all of us were drinking and playing board games that she found, induced in “human leisure activities”
The TV where we watch sea documentaries and listen to her yapping about all sorts of living fish on this planet
A game console where all of us had our fair share of close to world ending fighting over a small losed in video games
A shelf full of small plants and all of her favourite books, now withered away
A kitchen where I watch her attempting to cook for us as I have been banned from doing em, I can't even give her a hand, isn't that ridiculous?
I put down the wiping cloth
There's something about doing such a mundane task that human does
That's… soothing?
Back in my own domain, even though I could freeze everything in time
Nothing will ever deteriorate, not a single dust will be created or fall, not a single thing will need to be changed or taken care of
But I think at some point…I just let everything exist in its own time
After all, wiping all those clocks can be very relaxing, you know?
but here….is different
Nowadays I have come here, certainly not to relax
But to relieve the feeling, perhaps
of people that are no longer here, thing that no longer exists
a singular flower on the table
frozen in time
The petals that will never reach the ground
Perhaps I should have frozen you in time too?
never letting go of your hand, keep them intertwined forever
But I know that isn't what you want despite what my heart is telling me
I dropped the feather in my hand
her feather
It fall down and down
before stopping in front of the flower
among countless feathers that have been falling before it
“I missed you”
The door has now been closed
Who could tell when it will be open again?
Tomorrow? or near into future in the doomsday, where everything will fall into ruin
By then, I will have no choice but to trapped these memories in time too
Goodbye my beloved, until we meet again
An empty dark sky, nor the sun nor the moon nor the stars spare its light to this place
A sound of gentle waves
A fire crackling, the only source of light to this empty beach
“Come here yet again, god of time?”
“Warden of time”
“Ehhh? There's a difference?”
“Yes”
If…if I were truly a god, none of this would have happened
“Sorry, but all you got is just lil ol' me”
A girl sits beside me
“That's fine by me!”
Staring into the empty sea, we shared small talk, but eventually she dropped her head, hugging her knee
“...I don't think we've got much time left”
“But you can live on the surface”
“...Is there anything left on the surface?”
“Well, humans are still here…your friends are still here…they won't give up…and humans won't give up so easily”
“Ah.. but I think I have enough fun on here already”
She let out a small sad giggle
“Is that so?”
“Yeah”
“They will miss you”
“Yeah..”
I turned to look at the blue girl beside me
A girl who has run away from her responsibilities and decided “to live”
I sometimes daydream of the same thing, maybe that's why I can connect with her
And yet, one full of life, now looking like she barely got any left
Her light blue eyes are now looking at me
“...Thank you”
“I didn't do anything to deserve your thank…quite the opposite actually”
“But still…Thank you for being here”
Sound of fire crackling yet again
Soon it too will run out of fuel, the light will go out, and darkness will once again engulf this beach
The Blue girl stand up and walks towards the ocean
She turned back
“See you!”
“See you.”
We will never meet each other ever again
A knock on the door
“Come in”
A slow crack
“Excuse meee..”
Bae walk in through the door while IRyS just popped her head just a little to look around
“Heyyy how it's going?”
“It's going”
Bae fell silent for a short while before leaning on my desk
“Well…um are you ok?”
I stop writing, put down my pen and look up at her
“Sorry! Shouldn't have asked!”
I take a deep breath
“.... I’m fine, you two don't have to worry about it”
I turned my sight toward IRyS who’s just outside the room
“Well you haven't come out of your room for a while now….so you know…”
“Work just has been piling up as of late, that's al!l”
I take off my glasses, placing them on the table
“That reallyyyy just it”
Bae doesn't respond but just gives me a sad smile
She hopped off my table
“Well.. we were thinking about grabbing something to eat for dinner, Do you wanna come with?”
Ah yes, the grabbing something to eat tactics
“I’m fine, you two can go ahead, this will probably still take me a while”
“It's alright! we can wait! Meet you downstairs, yeah?”
“But-”
“If you don't come, we will surely starve to death *shudder* I don't wanna imagine the sight!”
Right, after all we are entities, a beings who can surely starve to death
“Haaaa… alright fine, I'll come down as soon as I'm done with this”
“Yes! We’ll be waiting alright?”
Bae waved before closing the door
“....They said they'd come after finishing the work”
“Ah..how are they doing tho?”
“Well…”
The sound of the two talking trailing off, leaving only the silence yet again
I supposed It's a good time as any to stretch a little
I guess that's all we have left huh?
A Big empty council with just the three of us
Outside of this room is a white hallway that seemingly spreads into infinity, neither cold nor warm
It's indifference
I bet even when we all have leave, it will remain the same
But my room…well all of our room is personalized though
I do hope that if there is ever a next generation of council to fill our spot, they'll leave our room as it is
After all, there's an infinite room here
The sound of an old grandfather clock ticking
An old-looking chair
A whole room lit by the fireplace and a single lamp
A blue carpet floor
A wooden table where I did all of my work…who would have thought being a warden of time would involve this much paperwork..
Overall, a comfy place where I can work peacefully
A sanctuary blocking all the noise from the outside
But it can't do anything if the noise is coming from the inside
Dropping down to my table, I spin the pen around
A Blue pen with a gold seam looping around it
Round and round and round
How long will this go on
How long must we go on
I could always take the peak into the future, looking at all the possible world lines
But is there really a point in any of that?
“The now” is now
And the event that I observed right now…is just the pen that keeps spinning, a finger pushing it
Psh
The pen comes to a stop
Indeed…how long do I have to do this
The world lines will diverge and merge without order
Anomalies will begin to roam wild, causing havoc across the timestream
And eventually, perhaps the time itself…will stop
The past remains forever and the new will not begin
A loud sigh
There really is no point to any of this
Just exist, keep doing the job that we were designed for
biding our time
It didn't used to be like this but…
Time will march on
As long as I’m here
So wouldn't it be better if I…?
A crystallized crack
A sound of a thread, of the world lines branching where it isn't supposed to
“...haa…..”
I get up
I opened the curtains to the sight of the space full of bright blue waves
A singular red gives its light
Never time to rest, never time to have useless thoughts
Is this a curse or a blessing?
“Kronies!”
A vent in the ceiling pops down
And bunch of blue clock-like creatures falling through
“Tell Bae and IRyS I'll be a little bit late for dinner!”
They shake their head in unison
“And…tell them I'm sorry”
…They start crying
“Oh! Come on, you cry babies!”
“I’ll be back okay? So stop crying already”
“Go now, I'll be fine really”
It takes a little while to convince them but they eventually start running along
“...haaa what will I ever do with em”
A little smile crept up on my face
And I let myself drop
Into the blue gentle wave
That's just a life for being like us
Just until then…Until we meet again at the end of time