Normal world. The term sounds strange, suddenly. What makes that place normal and this one not?
Artemis seems to sense what I am thinking. "I personally call it just Earth, or the Solar System," she says. And she lifts a paw to move her hair out of her face. Her eyes are ice blue, large and round.
"Solar System. We should probably shorten that. SS?" I suggest.
She shakes her head. "No... Time is the only thing we have left, and we might as well take full advantage of it." I ponder her words for a while, eventually deciding that she is right.
"Solar System then."
That was what happened three hours ago; I am sorry for confusing you with the tenses.
Two seconds later, three voices filled my mind. These were not normal voices, like the kind I imagine for my own amusement, they were real. Already I could feel their differences. The voices continued shouting, making me scream in shock, until they gathered themselves and split into three parts of my brain. One was purple, another brown, another blue.
Each spoke a sentence in turn, introducing themselves. "I am Henry," says one.
"And I Reef."
"I'm Lucy."
Artemis looks at me in concern. I make wild gestures to my head, and she seems to understand. "Are you okay? The first time this happened, I nearly fainted." I nod in reply.
She smiles happily, and I feel her mind connect to mine. "Must you?" I groan, annoyed. She shrugs.
Then the other three begin talking. "Is that another person?"
"Yes."
"I'm Artemis. And you?"
They introduce themselves again, and I feel a faint air of annoyance from Lucy.
"Okay, back to what we were here for, please?"
"Lucy, we did not have a goal."
"Indeed we didn't.
"You mean you took all the troubles for no reason that you know of?"
Artemis sounds frustrated. Lucy laughs.
"Well, I think the weird voice in our heads said that we could free one of you and bring you back to Earth. It also said a bunch of other stuff. Heck, I think you could read our minds if you wanted. It said my mind was insane."
"Oh. Really?" I then peer into each of their minds. I start with Henry, the one who had spoken the least. He put up resistance, but he eventually gives up. I slip past them and enter his mind, noticing that it is not made up of words alone. It is not simply verbal thoughts; I enter his being itself.
I notice that, first of all, he has a relaxed mind, with curiosity overshadowing everything else. I mumble something, and he strains to hear it. It is then I realise how much knowledge means to him. As I press on, with maybe a few insults along the way, he gets annoyed and his mind lashes out. When it comes, his anger is like a strong gust of wind, intense and wild, not hesitating to do anything it wants to. It seems as if it could easily capture me. Then eat me too. And if my thoughts were solid, it probably could. His mind is strong, much more so than mine. Artemis pulls me back out of concern of what could happen. I thank her for this.
Then I enter the mind of Lucy. Her mind is largely blank, and I snicker at the implications of that. Her brain is empty. I realise she can hear me when she growls at me about how my mind is equally plain, clearly annoyed, and I sigh. A tune of music captures my attention, and I realise that visuals are not how she portrays her emotion: That honor would go to sound. The music carries all she is. I relax, listening to it; the sound is beautiful but so inconsistent that I have no idea what is happening. One moment it is happy, the other it is sad. From her mind I withdraw by myself, pondering what it means. Perhaps that she is confused?
Next, Reef. She is the most reluctant to allow me access to her mind, but after Artemis assures her that all is well, she agrees. And when I see her mind, it is different from that of the others. It is so utterly boring, so blank, that it is almost unique. I comment on this to her, and at the insult, I almost feel her fur bristling. How dare you? she silently bellows, unleashing a tsunami of emotion. All these feelings fill the whole of her mind, suppressed anger and sadness. But the wave is very controlled; if Henry's mind is strong, so is Reef's. I feel Artemis's panic, along with the shock of Henry and Lucy, but Artie does not have the opportunity to pull me out before I am forced out, in a daze.
Reef curses at me, and I stumble.
"Wow, Reef. Remind me to bring you hunting sometime. That should help with the anger thing." She hesitates before replying.
"Of course." She sounds strangely calm, and my sister scowls. "Artemis, if you wish to express your annoyance to me by frowning intensely, please turn around. You are looking in the wrong direction." Lucy seems like she is about to die from laughter; Henry is mildly amused, as am I. Artemis's exprsssion does not waver, but I sense from a twitch in her mouth that she too is.
"Are you going to actually do something now or just keep sitting around and picking fights?" Artie snaps.
"Both, probably. And none of us tried to pick a long-lastig fight. Besides, we're all standing. Excluding Reef, she got tired."
"So she's sitting then?"
"No, I am lying down."
Artemis stares at where Reef told her to, sighs, and herself lies down, crossing her forelegs in front of her.
"We're not sitting nor lying down... Our physical forms partly disintegrated so we could talk to you."
"And you still don't know what to do? You let your bodies disappear for a reason you don't know?'
"It would do you good to ignore Lucy, Artemis. She is often wrong-"
"Hey!"
"-and this is one of tne many cases."
Lucy jabs at Henry with her mind, but Henry barely even notices it, and I conclude that either her mind is really weak, or it was just a playful, friendly thing. We talk for a while more, and the subject of the reason they are here comes up.
"Well?" I question, curiosity piqued. Despite all that happened, I find that they still have an odd charm to them - Henry excluded, but he makes up for it in knowledge. "Why did you come here?"
Henry begins a statement that they are not actually there, but Lucy growls at him. This gesture is more for the sake of letting him know to let her speak than trying to intimidate him, and he obeys.
"I think we already explained this, Artemis."
"I agree with Lucy. Indeed, we have said that we were here because a strange voice - whom for whatever reason, she refers to as 'The Author' - told us we could free one of you."
"Actually-"
"Fine. We did not originally come here for that reason."
"Wow. This is happening, and all of you are just 'Hey, Lucy, you stink and 'Hey, Reef, you stink more.' Seriously?"
"Hey, Henry.
You stink."
Artemis begins laughing, as do I. Reef is once again amused, but Henry is annoyed.
"Wow, Lucy," my sister breathes. "That was so beautifully funny."
"No, it isn't," Henry grumbles, but our mirth is contagious and his frustration soon fades away.
***
After about ten minutes filled with laughing, talking, and Lucy humming, nothing significant has changed. Henry is less tense, primarily because of Reef and Lucy, and I believe more than one private conversation between him and the purple one.
('The purple one' sounds like a funny nickname... I shall use that in future)
Then Reef intervenes. "Do you remember when we said that we could retrieve one of you from this place?" she asks, and we - Artemis and I - nod.
"We aren't actually with you, you know. We can only see more major movements. Unless you begin nodding like a punk rocker, it won't be visible to us." Henry is the next to speak. Just to annoy him, I do not reply verbally, instead nodding heavily.
Artie suddenly realises what this means. "Wait, so one of us can escape this damned void?" She says this in such quickness and vigour that I am hard-pressed to capitalise the word "void". Shame.
"Yep. You two decide which of you. I'll leave now, before you begin spouting some cheesy speech meant to be touching," Lucy says. Then she withdraws from us. Henry and Reef say their goodbyes before doing the same.
At least they were moe polite.
When they leave, Artemis blinks, closes her eyes, and rolls over, rainbow dust everywhere around her. Not for the first time, I wonder where it comes from.
"So, um, shouldn't we be having some meaningful conversation about who leaves now?" I ask.
"Nah, I make decisions better in silence. Do you want to talk?" she replies, and flicks her tail. I shrug, thinking it over in silence for a while.
And then I realise that if I decide, in quietness, that I think better out loud, then that would likely be a wrong decision, since I would not be able to choose properly in that state. But then, the choice that I... choose... is that I will talk aloud, so if that is a bad one, then that means I should think silently. But then I would make a bad decision because of that...
I am so engrossed in this paradox that it takes Artemis a loud cough and a punch on the shoulder to get my attention. "Um, Apollo?" she says. She is now standing. "You weren't even thinking about anything related to this, were you?"
"Well, I was figuring out the answer to a paradox. Does that count?" I reply, and she sighs.
But before she can say something, the presence of the three appears in our minds.
"Well?"
"That's an awfully small amount of time to make such a big decision."
"Nothing's perfect, Apollo. Deal with it."
"As much as I do hate cruelty - shush, Lucy - I would agree with her. Make your decision now, or forever stay. We have limited time, I believe."
"'Make your decision now, or forever stay.' That sounds like a line from the climax of a story."
"Oh. Is that so? Would punching you in the face multiple times over if I ever had the chance fit the role too? I haven't slept in a day and my beautiful body half-disappeared. Hurry up already, so I can fix that."
"Wow. I think that made our decisions. Apollo, you're getting out of here."
She shoves me forward.
"Wrong direction again... 70 degrees to your right."
"Oh, um, is this enough?"
I turn around and stagger forward as if pushed, the pain certainly helping with that, before glancing back at Artie. She has walked up beside me and sits down, staring distantly upwards.
"Goodbye," she says, and I detect faint sadness. "Until next time." She lowers her head, as do I, and we nuzzle.
"I hope 'next time' does happen," I reply. I feel Lucy's annoyance and hear her growl, but Reef nudges her mentally. I admit I probably should have had all this conversation earlier on, when we were given the time alone to do so.
Another mind, heavy and thick, weighs down my mind, though unlike the rest it does not take up a specific part of my mind, instead manifesting itself as a green mist of sorts, floating throughout everything. Do I really need a fifth one? I wonder.
Yes, it says. Its voice is louder than the others', and it just feels right somehow to embolden its words. I am your creator.
I blink and close my eyes, trying to remember any similar scenes that would tell me how to act around this person in order to gain its favour.
No need for that, it says. [I]I'm here to get you back to the normal world. Or, as you choose to call it, Earth.
I nod. "Is there a catch?"
That would depend on what you call bad. You will forget about Artemis. However, should she get to leave the Void, I will give her a special phrase that will send all memories of this place back. It turns its attention to her. It is as follows... It recites some gibberish, and in a daze, she nods.
Apollo, Reef, Henry, Lucy. You will get all of your original memories back, and no longer remember anything of this. I will create new experiences that will replace them, and you will believe them to the fullest extent. Apollo, your diary will appear in your room.
I hesitate before nodding and stating my agreement mentally. Artemis simply curls up. "I shall sleep when you leave, and I shall not wake up for a long, long time." I take note of the sudden change in her style of speech, which I choose to attribute to grief.
That's really not a good idea to pass the time, even though it's possible. The voice does not explain itself before I am whisked away, waking up in my room.
_____
Wow. Reef has a strong mind, knows about music, is physically strong, and is smart. Isn't she way too unrealistically perfect? Nope, or at least I hope not. She is better with music in theory than practice, and her singing voice is trash. Cooking isn't her thing either.
By the way, I realise I seem to have completely forgotten about the exams. They will be mentioned soon, no worries. (I'll have to come up with an excuse, though, for them taking so long to mark...) The rules of Earth seem not to apply here, because... do I really need to explain this? The work will regain its lighthearted tone by next entry.
I was actually going to have the Author be a recurring character too, helping out the characters and such, but then in conversation that would sound like nonsense:
"Ooh! In this story, these characters got these epic powers!
"How? You don't usually read high fantasy, so I'm guessing they weren't born with them."
"The author gave those to them! ^-^"
"Yeah, that's obvious. In the plot, what form did it take?"
"I just told you! The author gave them the powers!"
"..."
