Cloudsea - The Chronicle of Alice Van Vaugen

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"Earl- We gotta get going."

"I don't need to go anywhere, Jude. If you have somewhere to be, don't let me stop you."

". . ."

Earl's house was a mess. Judith had to wedge her way in, which is a bit of a worry in itself. Most doors were oft to submit to Judith's advances. Her muse chuckled at that. She could still make jokes, so that means it wasn't absolutely dire. . . but . . .

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"Alright Earl, I'll drop the pretense. You're scarin' the crap out of me. This is- Unnatural. Even for you."

Earl's living room, which was already quite sparse, was practically empty. Everything had been thrown own or otherwise stuffed into other rooms. Judith could only figure that it was Earl's current level of power that had made it so hard to push her way in here. It was like he was projecting a shield. . . Or a field?

Earl was floating. He glowed with an internal light, as little flickers of electricity jumped from his body to pages of paper, keeping them aloft with the static energy in the incredibly dense, heavy air. . . His muse was curled around him, practically a real, physical creature with the nimbus it currently put off- Jude wondered if she could touch Fatalism. That was then followed by wondering how hard she'd have to swing to dislodge the muse. . .

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"That may be the case- but this is important. I need to find it. What I've been missing the whole time. . . How does a young girl and her strange friends just show up and put everything we've known into upheaval? Even for a main character. . ."

"Earl, I keep telling you, that's not- that's not how people work."

". . .Jude. . .You don't understand. You've seen my writing. The books. It's not just coincidence, right?"

". . .Right."

"I can't see my time anymore."

Judith shifted uncomfortably. She didn't like this line of conversation anymore. Earl's books were not perfect by any means. . . but they had so much information. So much stuff fit, just right. In some cases, he described events perfectly. Things he could not possibly know about. Things that, for example, only Judith knew.

He was also 'incredibly lucky' as Katie would put it. But Judith has seen the kind of things he's subjected himself to. He really shouldn't be alive- and his explanation for it- no matter how ridiculous, how insane. . .

Judith thought about Alice. Cute girl. Nice, polite smile. What little she has heard of her makes her so much more interesting. So much more. . . appealing. But then she thinks about those eyes. And she thinks about Earl's eyes. And how he would always glance at his right hand before doing something stupid. She thought about how she could just get lost in those eyes of Alice's. . .

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". . .What are you looking for? Maybe I can help?"

"I don't think so. If you get any closer. . ."

"I know. I can feel it. This energy, it's oppressive. Is this what they have to put up with?"

"I think this is the weight. . . of one's darkness. It's a weight we're each used to- our own, that is. But to feel the darkness of someone else. . ."

"Earl, you're still scaring me."

". . .I'm trying to find two things, Jude. The first, is what danger Alice poses to us. Is she the danger herself. . .? Or is it something pursuing her? Like a storm. . . A storm. . ."

"What about the storm. . .? There's one rolling in- it should hit by tonight."

". . .Are you as afraid of Alice as I am?"

"Well- I mean, come on- that's not fair. You know my type- if she was normal, I wouldn't be so seriously interested-"

"The second thing I'm looking for- is a reason."

"A. . . reason. A reason to what?"

"A reason to care about the coming storm. A reason to help. A reason to do something other than just accept that the life I've lived is the life I needed to live and that's all there is to it. I just want my life to be. . ."

Earl blinked. His sunglasses had slid down his face, and whatever he was smoking last had long turned into ashes between his teeth. Everything stopped. The hum of static, the movement of the dissected book pages around him, the swirling of the small inexplicable clouds over him. . . He blinked again, and his shoulders shook with something between a sound of utter shock and terrified humor. His muse shivered, and turned into something resembling grey haze, before dissolving back into his body.

His feet touched the floor and he started brushing himself off as the ashes scattered across his shirt. He shook his shirt until it was rumpled and crumpled just right. He fished his smoking pen out of his pants pocket, and rolled something into the end of it. Pages started to flutter to the ground, and Judith felt a great weight lifting itself from her- like some sort of large beast had her pinned and was told to move.

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"It's as easy at that, is it? Huh. . .Jude."

"Ah- Yeah- Hey-"

Earl had wandered over. He leaned up and smooched her on the cheek, then grabbed her mechanical hand and manipulated the thumb so that it ejected flame so he could light his cigarette.

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"Ew! Augh- Earl- Why would you do that?!"

"Just thanking you for being such a good friend to a cranky old man."

". . .Yeah- Yeah well, someone has to watch after you. You can barely take care of yourself on your best days."

"Right? And I can barely walk, but we need to find the others and get to Alice as soon as possible- so you can carry me, right?"

"Oh for fucks sake, Earl."

"You don't want to leave me here by myself, you don't want to let the others possibly be left along by themselves, and you're at least a little worried about Alice, even if it's only because you think you have a chance with that literal hell spawn."

". . .Damn it, I am too nice to you people."

Jude reached over and hefted Earl up. . . and put him under her mechanical arm, carrying him like a chunk of debris. In response, Earl reached up with a hand and batted at her face. She resisted the urge to toss him out the front door.

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"Don't forget, Miss Jude. You're one of us 'people' too, you know. Just like how I'm still one."

". . .For the time being."

"Yeah yeah, for the time being. Let's go find the others. Alice can handle herself, I suspect."

"That is dangerously close to a compliment or positive remark."

"Would YOU like to be some ancient powerful evil challenging her and her harem face to face?"

". . .No! No I would not. Also don't call them a harem! That makes it sound. . . indecent!"

"What would you prefer we called them then, Hmm?"

"We are done talking about this. Let's go find the others."

The sky was dim, and dark clouds hung in the distance, obscuring the world around the island. . .

Earl was already back on his feet, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a short punching dagger that resembled a sharpened pencil. Judith's mechanical arm opened up, a barrel sliding out into her palm.

They barely even registered the shadows.

---

Sebastian spiraled around, deflecting a claw strike with his blade, a series of shadows following up behind him as he wavered and flicked back and forth up and down the street, blades of concentrated shadow stabbing into these strange masses of meat and metal. . .

A large arm knocked him over, slamming face first into the ground, he rolled and stood back up, spitting blood as one of his shadows flickered out of existence, torn into shreds by the claws that would have easily killed him had he not been manipulating the light to obscure where he was actually standing.

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". . . With a name like True, we really are a pair of liars, aren't we?"

"A paradox then, for you only speak truth, do you not? That was our trade. Your power in exchange for your ability to lie."

True guided Sebastian's hand, living inside the rapier, it was like they were holding hands. True brought Sebastian's hand to bear on the closest threat. Sebastian took control and rent it asunder, placing a series of shadow blades inside it's chest, then momentarily flaring his power. . .

These blades will cut you in half, monster. Let this truth be heard.

The rippling shadows cut the beast neatly in two, but as he drew away to dodge another attack, Sebastian could see tendons and organs and blood vessels and bits of metal that aren't normally inside meat pulling it back together.

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"Who decides what is truth? Who decides what is lie?"

"Why, you do, of course."

"Then what if I decide a lie is truth?"

"Another paradox. You cannot lie. Thus it never was."

"You know, a short lifetime of thinking I had everything figured out, put into contrast with the knowledge that not only am I probably tricking myself and others into believing falsehoods. . . But that I likely lack the power to actually make any impact on those around me. . . I thought I was going to save the kingdom, True."

"Then you will save the kingdom, will you not?"

". . .Not if I die here."

Sebastian crumpled to the ground. He raised his rapier to block an attack. . . Then laid it down at his side. The beasts hesitated for a moment. Assessing him. His leg was not in any condition to be described as working. One of them reached down, slowly, and took Sebastian's head into it's claw. It was. . . Unusually intimate.

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"Before I die, I would know something, True."

"You wish to know The Truth?"

"What is happening? Why does it feel like someone is playing with our lives? Where did these beasts come from. . .?"

"Those are many things. I only have time to answer you once."

". . .Who is Alice van Vaugen?"

"She is nobody, Prince Merriweather. A storybook character. A girl, scared, running from stories and legends. But if you are a character in this story as well, what does that make you?"

"Oh. . .Well. Fuck."

Ping. . .

Out of the corner of Sebastian's eye, a coin hit the ground, bouncing so hard that the small gemstone in the center of it shattered. A royal. The beasts also were paying attention to it, as it bounced off the ground so hard that it flew up so that the beast holding Sebastian in it's claw could see the barrel of a gun through the hole in the coin.

The bullet passed through the coin, the forces ripping the soft gold into shrapnel as the metal found it's mark. The beast screeched and let go of Sebastian, who rolled over and backed up as quickly as he can, while a colorful cloak of feathers drifted down in front of him, the gentle sound of claws on stone clicking away as Katie came to rest. Roost? Rest. Ha ha.

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"Need to borrow some luck, Princeling?"

". . .I would sooner ask for help from Earl."

"Then it's good you do not need to ask, Yes? Can you walk?"

"Not at all. I'm mending, but they broke my leg. . .And what are you doing here, anyway?"

"You tend to get caught up in details, and forget the big picture, princeling. You have been missing for far too long. Jude went to retrieve Earl. Then I helped them with a predicament. Now I am here to help you."

". . .So what's the plan?"

"These creatures have proven, so far, to be resilient. Annoyingly so. They have been a strain on my funds. . . I'll need to take a few of your paychecks to make up for this, princeling."

"And this. . .Is why I hate getting help from you. Damnit- What will this pay for?"

Sebastian pulled a small bag out of his pocket and tossed it up to Katie, who caught it with her free hand, the other one still training a gun on the beasts who had yet to make any moves. He wondered why. Katie clicked her beak, then gritted it.

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"Is this what your life is worth, Prince Merriweather?"

"A single life, is worthless, when weighed against the whole of a kingdom. It's also all that I have on me right now. You're going to have to make due."

". . .You've gotten unusually poetic. What did you do to these beasts? Why are they not attacking?"

"I- I presumed this was your doing."

The beasts shifted. . . then slowly turned away, and started to move away, then picked up speed and leapt away-

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". . .That doesn't seem good."

"No. No it is not. That is. . .Curious."

"We should go after them."

">WE< should catch up with Earl and Jude, then >I< should go after them."

"That is a terrible idea. Also, help me up."

"Well, we should figure out what we are going to do. Quickly."

( ) Continue to follow Katie and Sebastian
( ) Observe Earl and Judith's shenanigans
( ) Go back to observing Alice and Suit
( ) >_