Chapter Text
The sound of an alarm clock rang through her ears; a clear indication that she was to be awake by now. Eclipse arose up from her very comfortable bed, and took a step on the cold hardwood floors of her bedroom. Now facing her calendar, Eclipse noticed something that she had forgotten; it was her fifteenth birthday. “Hell yeah!” She exclaimed before stretching out her arms and walking towards the door. The door creaked open, and she stepped out towards the kitchen.
To her surprise, the kitchen was almost completely silent, if you didn’t count the fans that were on. “Might as well head to the living room-“ she said while already making her way to her destination, before being abruptly interrupted with a choir of voices—her parents, friends, and grandparents—in her living room greeting her happy birthday. She glanced around excitedly, all the while noticing the gifts left for her on the table, and the birthday cake, in all its fondant and icing glory.
The time flew by quickly, as she was mostly preoccupied with talking to her friends and family, until one curious interaction came. Her grandma walked up to her, to offer a special gift that she wanted to give personally. “Here you go, dearie” her grandma opened with a smile, and handing her a box with a small white ribbon keeping it from opening accidentally. “Open it when you’re alone, it’s a special gift, just for you”, she was told, and wait she did, till it was the end of the party, and the sun was setting.
After helping out with the post-party cleanup, Eclipse walked to her room, gifts and mystery box in hand. Setting all the gifts aside, she opened them one by one, reading the cards, and taking off the wrappers to see the gift; leaving the mystery box from her grandma for last. After putting away all of the other opened gifts, Eclipse was brimming with curiosity and excitement for what was in the gift from her grandma. “Oo, maybe it’s a necklace! Or maybe a ring?” She thought about the many possibilities of what it could be, but came to a quick conclusion, “I’ll open it and find out!”, and she carefully undid the ribbon and opened the box.
Surprisingly, it was neither of her guesses, it was a vintage pocket watch, with sparkling purple accents, and a smooth gold exterior. The inside seemed just as refined as the exterior, and also featured a crystalline purple finish. Judging from how old it looked, it was probably mechanically powered, instead of the more modern battery powered ones.
She adored this gift. “It’s beautiful!” She exclaimed, “this is sick! Wait.. do I have to adjust the time displayed so I can actually use it? Oh probably, I might as well.” She stated before pulling on the dial at the top. Suddenly, the pocket watch emitted a mysterious purple glow, before properly being adjusted.
“What the hell was that?” She whispered under her breath, with an extremely weird gut feeling, and a strange tingling sensation at her fingertips. “Woah, did I just get cool powers?” She guessed, surprisingly accurately, before actually noticing the book below where the pocket watch was, conveniently hidden under some wrapping paper. She took off the wrapping paper, and removed the hardcover book from the box. It had a smooth leather cover, with ‘a guide to your powers’ etched into it. “Oddly specific, but I’ll take it!” She declared, before opening the book, and reading through its contents, testing out trick after trick. It mostly contained different small things she could now do, related to either teleportation via shadows, and shadow manipulation. What caught her eye however, was the 157th page, that was an explanation and guide of teleporting yourself to other places, worlds, universes! “What?? Oh I’ve got to try that!” She exclaimed before immediately trying to teleport herself, completely missing the second page next to it. She was progressing fast, and within 30 minutes became able to teleport to the other side of her room. “Wait, maybe I need intent? Where would I go anyways?” She asked herself in contemplation. Before getting a totally not dangerous plan.
What if I went to a fictional universe? She asked herself, before landing on one, relatively quickly; Epic the musical. Now with the powers, and a will, she made her way to the other universe. She felt herself fading into her own shadow, a cold chill coming over her. Darkness enveloped her, fully covering her vision and letting her disappear from her universe. She could only describe this experience in one word “ Cool ”. However, the second page held important information, that she probably needed for where she was going.
In the blink of an eye, she was now in Ancient Greece, on the top of some hill nearby what she hoped to be Ithaca. “Woah! I wonder what point in the story I’m in!” She said, before following a random path leading to the nearby kingdom. On the way, she passed by many merchants and travellers, who all stared intensely at her, thanks to her outfit. She stood still after realization dawned upon her. “Right, Ancient Greece. Of course I stand out, I’m wearing clothes from another era entirely! Sheesh, how’d I forget?” She said under her breath, before deciding to walk just a bit closer to have a look at how it was like at the time when Odysseus existed, before thunder clouds surrounded her. “Oh boy.” She said even quieter, before a gleaming strike of lightning struck near her feet; she was sure that the next to come would hit her directly. This lightning was different from what she knew, as it flashed more than one color; a divine hue. That only meant one thing; divine intervention . She was about to be smited with lightning by none other than Zeus. Unwilling to deal with the situation, Eclipse smartly decided to teleport the hell outta there, but unluckily for her, another lightning strike was going straight toward her as she disappeared into the shadows. Eclipse blocked her face with her forearms, which wasn’t a bad move, as the lightning struck her just before she fully teleported away from Ancient Greece.
With a flash of light, the powerful impact spread across her body, as she recoiled onto what felt like the ground, and screamed in pain, but this time surrounded by darkness. A constant ringing filled her ears with a lot and no noise at all, overall leaving her disoriented and in pain. Where the lightning bolt hit, she felt a burning pain spread across her right forearm. She groaned in pain as she laid on the ground in pain for what felt like an eternity of suffering. After a couple minutes of writhing agony, she was able to slowly get back to her feet. “What was that?” She asked, voice sore, but no one was there to answer her.
She realized that she was in what the book called the shadow realm, where time passes differently than outside, and accelerated her healing. It was the space separating everything, the wall between fiction, reality, and any alternate universes. She also liked the quiet. There was no one to judge her, just her and her thoughts. It was a kind of peace that was rare to find. After a while of sitting on the ‘ground’, she got up, and checked her arm. A lightning scar, shimmering a faint golden color, was visible. “A reminder to not be dumb I guess..” she said, softly this time to avoid hurting her throat any further. Rolling back down her long sleeve, she slowly teleported back to the comfort of her own room, before curling up into a ball in her bed. It was already night time, and she was definitely tired.
She awoke the next day alone in the silence of her room. Her parents would be out and not return till dark, she learnt, as she read through her messages on her phone. She had no plans for the whole day, and had nothing to do, so she decided to actually read the guide book she was given. “Oh wait… SO THIS COULD HAVE BEEN AVOIDED?” She exasperatedly exclaimed while reading the second part—page 158—which stated that this type of teleportation was technically against the rules of the universe, and that if she were to teleport anywhere other than her home world or universe, that any divine being would automatically hold some level of hostility against her, mainly to get her to leave and to go back to her origins.
As she properly read through the book, she learnt even more about her powers, including what to not do. However, this time around, another page caught her eye; the 786th page, which stated that as long as she has her powers, she’ll be immortal, starting her first use of the magic.
“WHAT?” She shouted, realizing that she should’ve read the book before doing anything rash. She should’ve read the book properly. She had inevitably doomed herself from the start, and never knew. “Congrats Eclipse.” She said dead-panned. “You’ve just won the award for dumbest person ever.”
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“What the hell I’ll just make the most of it.” She exhaled, before flopping once more onto her bed. “Might as well have fun with it..” she mumbled before changing into better clothes, grabbing a bag with her phone and wallet, and teleporting to a nearby mall. “If I’m going to suffer, I’d at least like to look good.” She stated, before walking into a random clothing store.
“Something that’s versatile across a wide enough range of time should be good” she thought, before stumbling across a rack of black trench-coats. “Jackpot.” She whispered, while taking one her size, and paying for it at the cashier. Afterall, 25,99$ was cheap if anything, especially after a 20% discount.
Eclipse slowly browsed the many stores in the mall before getting an outfit that suited her taste. It consisted of a greyish blue vest on top of a white button up dress shirt, with a navy blue pair of stretchy formal pants, topped off with a black trench-coat, and black semi-formal shoes. Eclipse neatly folded them all and put them in one shopping bag, before going into the girls washroom to teleport back home without being seen by any possible onlookers. Mission success.