i'll trade my mistakes or they'll fade away [thirteen]

Sky · Dec 3, 2015

At this point, Neil couldn't even tell if Aurora was kidding or not as she mentioned ghosts, spirits, all sorts of other stuff that supposedly appeared on the island. Even the idea of powered humans was no longer a surprise, but rather an anomaly-- he'd seen enough in his short time here that he'd believe almost anything about the world around him.

"I don't actually know why I'm here," he found himself saying. "I get that this place is for extraordinary people and for people with weird abilities, but all my life I've been a pretty normal kid." It would be cool to turn back time or blow stuff up or destroy his enemies in his wake, but he'd never recognized that sort of latent ability in himself. He'd always been just Neil. Smart, quiet, bookish Neil who would rather talk to a computer than a fellow human being.

"There's probably... Some sort of computer I can use somewhere, right? I couldn't find my phone in my room, or a computer when I got here. I-- maybe I was brought here by mistake. Maybe this is an error of some kind." He hesitated, his voice hitching in his throat. Neil didn't dare say his next thoughts out loud, but they rang loud and clear.

Please let me go home.

Neil squeezed his eyes shut.

"Can I... Can you tell me where I could find a computer, please?"

Thirteen · Dec 3, 2015

So...he was here, but had no known abilities. On Manta Carlos, having no ability was an extraordinary rarity in itself. Less than 1% of the population had no ability at all, or was just so latent as to be effectively undetectable. Usually the island worked at least in some pattern, but so far he was proving to be the exception to every rule that Aurora had learned in the past.

But hey, it made him interesting.

"I guess you'll have to find out on your own. The chances of you being here by well...chance though are quite rare. I'd think you're more extraordinary than you think."

Aurora finally removed herself from the bar protecting against a long fall and started to walk from the tower. There wasn't too much more point in being out in the cold if they were going to find out why or how he had gotten to the islands.

"The closest one is by my fourth floor office in the Library. If someone hasn't vacated it by now. You're welcome to use it if you want. It's also a lot warmer inside."

Sky · Dec 3, 2015

Neil laughed at Aurora's statement. "That's what everyone says. When you're ten, they call you a prodigy. When you're fifteen, they call you a genius. At twenty you're just an ordinary person... I'm only three years away from that." He paused, flushing slightly. She was probably trying to help him feel better and he just dismissed her just like that. Wow, that was rude.

"Oh god I'm sorry. I didn't mean for it to come out that way. I meant that we're all told how special and wonderful we are but at the end of the day... I don't know. I still don't feel like I've accomplished anything yet." Granted, he was seventeen. Nobody did anything with their lives at seventeen, but Neil couldn't help but have the sinking feeling that he should have. He trailed after the woman as she walked towards what was presumably her office.

"That-- that would be great. Thank you." Maybe he could contact his mum and dad, figure out what was going on or what plane he was supposed to be in. After two days of wandering around completely aimlessly, it would be nice to finally get some answers.

Thirteen · Dec 3, 2015

"At 50 they call you old, at 80 they call you senile, and at 140, they wonder what sort of cream you've been using."

At 148, Aurora was relatively old for a Chakravanti mage, but young for a Seer of Chronos. The seers, if they got good enough, had a general life expectancy of 800 years. The Chakravanti, usually being a tradition of death and destruction, had an expectancy closer to 35 or 40. Of course if you were careful, it was easy to go and live a relatively normal life.

"Really though, you wouldn't be here otherwise. Even the kid that can talk to pigeons is extraordinary. Fate doesn't just randomly eat people and spit them out here. It's much more selective than that."

Part of the reason were the extensive entropy wards that surrounded the island, deterring boats, actively removing records from anything that might leave a memory of the place to a sleeper. If Neil was here, he had something. Or WOULD have something later on. That was the only thing that was really assured about him right now.

Aurora started heading down the tower, nodding in the direction she was taking, and for Neil to come along. Her office wasn't far, maybe a 3 minute walk at most.

"It's fine, you're not the first one to argue against what I said. You're definitely more extraordinary than you think, even if you haven't accomplished anything. Students here sometimes don't accomplish anything, and by supernatural standards, they're nothing out of the ordinary. But they're still part of a group that most humans will never comprehend. And a lot of the time, that's enough."

3 minutes later, a large wooden door, and a plaque with her name on it. Acharya Aurora C. Silivasi-Awren. Inside, there was plenty to look at. Clocks, numerous books and an entire library of musical scores. And some floating things to go with it. Aurora immediately dragged down a a box of scores that had gone floating away for some reason or another. The computer was thankfully anchored, and with a few keystrokes, unlocked.

"All yours. Can I get you anything? Water, juice? ...Skittles?"

Sky · Dec 3, 2015

Neil was about to ask whether she was actually 140 years old, but kept his mouth shut. He'd almost stuck his foot in it far too many times this day and it was rude to ask a woman her age. God knows that he'd had that drilled into his head time and time again as a young, curious child. Seventeen seemed so mature and old when you were four or five, but right now Neil just felt like an idiot. A lost idiot who had no idea why he was supposedly "special".

"There's a kid who can talk to pigeons?" Well, he supposed that there were powers that could be worse. Better a pigeon-speaker than that kid in the book he'd read about, the one who transformed into a hamster. Neil smiled a little to himself at the thought. Come to think of it, that could be fairly advantageous too. He followed Aurora to her office, basking in the sights of the room. Books, books everywhere in sight, with gorgeous, beautiful things all floating in mid-air. All curiosities and oddities, the sort of things you would find in a museum or art gallery rather than in an office.

"It's like being in Harry Potter," Neil muttered to himself. He watched with awe as Aurora walked up towards the computer and unlocked it for him, turning to her with a tentative glance.

"Uh, I don't need anything, thank you." She'd invited him into her office; he wasn't about to trouble her even more than he had. He slid into the chair in front of her computer somewhat tentatively, ready to scoot away if she told him to leave. That was one of the many downsides of not knowing where he was: everything was terrifying, and by extension, so was everyone.

Though at least now he had the chance to find out. He swallowed the lump in his throat, typing in his full name "Neelanjan Martin" into the school database. Lines of information about him showed up less than a split second later. Neil frowned.

"Arrival: Normal. Two days ago, by plane and then boat. Dropped off by his parents, Elijah and Chellapriya Martin..." His voice began to shake. Why couldn't he remember any of this? At least his parents knew he was here and that he was safe, from what this said. He blocked the thought away. Time to read the rest of the file.

"Suspected transcendent--" He turned to Aurora.

"What- what's a transcendent?"

Thirteen · Dec 3, 2015

Although Neil didn't want anything, coffee was already brewing in Aurora's Keurig for herself, a much needed pick-me-up for the night ahead of her. It was likely she'd be up for at least a few more hours, but as she didn't have to teach, it wasn't of much consequence.

"Yeah, one of my students talked to pigeons at one point. Not the most glamorous superpower, but it made for great conversations sometimes."

The machine stopped brewing, and the mage picked up her mug, sitting down in a chair that was normally reserved for students as Neil got to work on searching his records. Nothing confidential mind you, but detailed enough that they'd both get an idea on who had actually ended up on the island.

"I liked the architecture, so I designed based on it. Harry Potter gives real magi a bad name though. Not like anyone really knows."

She hated it. Casting spells without consequence, every wizard and witch using the same spells with the same incantations. Magic distilled down to its simplest and most hermetic elements. Yuck. And Quidditch may have been the stupidest sport ever invented. There was almost literally no point to any position except the seeker.

"Expecto patronum my...yeah, anyways. Find anything?"

His answer couldn't have come any sooner.

"Arrival: Normal. Two days ago, by plane and then boat. Dropped off by his parents, Elijah and Chellapriya Martin...suspected transcendent--"

The mage audibly choked on her brew, setting the cup aside on a nearby table and wiping her lips after coughing once. Well...that was entirely unexpected, but at least now Aurora had an excuse to pry a little bit more later. The explanation of a Transcendent was a little difficult since the term was vague, but there was a specific use here at the school.

"Have you ever had memories of past, or otherwise alternative lives? I guess the simplest answer is...you have threads of yourself embedded into other timelines. It's a...complicated matter at best."

This explained why Aurora felt a panic first meeting him. The two Neil's were effectively one in the same, existing both separately and together in two or more timelines with multiple sets of initial conditions. It stands to reason...this innocent kid here had a dark side somewhere else that would come back to haunt him later.

"I'm not really the best person to ask. but I do know someone that might be able to give you a better explanation."

Sky · Dec 3, 2015

Neil kept very silent as the administrator ranted on and on about Harry Potter. He absolutely loved the series, and was pretty sure he owned a Ravenclaw scarf somewhere in his closet at home. When he turned sixteen, he'd asked his parents if he could go to Harry Potter World in Florida and they'd taken him. It was absolutely awesome.

Besides, there were more important things to concentrate on as opposed to their differing opinions on children's literature. Neil frowned as Aurora mentioned alternate timelines, perhaps previous lives? He bit his lip. "So there are different parts of me out there... Is that what you're saying?"

"Wow." Neil took a deep breath. This was really a lot to take in, all at once. "What were the other timelines like? Are they just different versions of this one?" The more he thought about it, the more this was kind of cool. Neil wasn't sure whether he'd like to meet an alternate version of himself, but knowing that another Neil, or at least someone who had a part of Neil, existed out there was pretty awesome.

"Or are we talking alternate universes? Aliens? End-of-the-world scenarios?" Now this was getting cool. His face lit up with delight at the thought. Speculation was certainly his element.

Thirteen · Dec 4, 2015

"That's the basics of it, yeah. Transcendents have memories that are direct connections to these other lives."

The patterns they followed were rather complicated, and often there were differences between each person. In general however, the memories were near to the current timeline for the most part. It made a Transcendent good at being an apparent psychic.

"If you follow multiverse theory, you theoretically have memories from every timeline imaginable, but the clearest ones will be the ones that are the closest to this timeline. So yes, alternate universes, aliens, etc."

Aurora didn't usually see those timelines either since they were so far away from reality as it was. Being so distant, they held almost no influence over anyone's current life, and so they were simply ignored.

"If you don't remember them yet, you will later probably. You should go talk to Queen Adularia."

Was that a good idea, considering their history?

"She lives in a cave somewhat close by...she's an actual queen, so if you feel the need to go, bring tribute."

Sky · Dec 5, 2015

"So you're saying that... I'm going to start to get memories of other versions of me. That's awesome." Neil was practically jabbering with excitement, his face lighting up the way it did when he was talking about security systems or the merits of PC vs. Mac. Sure, he couldn't make things blow up, but he'd get a window into another life. Hopefully other Neil would be a pretty chill guy, too-- there had to be worlds where he wasn't doing as well, where he was completely different, but it'd be nice to watch.

"Pity about the aliens, though. It would be cool to speculate about life outside this Earth." Physics wasn't his strongest suit (he'd only gotten a 98 on his HSC exams) but he loved the idea of space and stars, the knowledge that there absolutely had to be a world outside this one that promised something more. Aurora continued talking, mentioning that there was someone else he could talk to. A queen?

He frowned. Did they really have queens out here?

"Tribute...?" Neil asked, cocking his head to one side. He hoped that didn't mean human sacrifices. He certainly wasn't willing to do that, even for the sake of knowledge. After all, he wasn't a complete monster. "What do you mean by that?"

Thirteen · Dec 5, 2015

"If the suspicion is correct, yep, you should start at some point. I couldn't tell you when, but if you were suddenly whisked away here without any other reason, I'd assume you'd start getting vague images at least sooner rather than later."

Images first, then full blown memories later. The kind of memories that you remember living as if they were yesterday. Sometimes it was a blessing, having memories you didn't actually create meant that you had lifetime experiences from other places, and didn't have to recreate them. The feelings though were known to be quite overwhelming at times. Aurora walked over to the computer to glance alongside him. There was a familiar name on the list.

"Actually, don't have to speculate. If you want to meet an alien, I'd suggest the admission officer on your record there. She goes by Cytus. Eccentric lady, but she'd be more than happy to answer any question you might have. And I mean any question."

Literally any question.

"As for Her Majesty, the tribute isn't strictly necessary, but she's quite old, and one of the few actual natives of the island. Something small as a token of respect for your first visit. ...Dog food. Wet dog food will do. I hope. It's best you try several different brands to find out which stuff smells the least."

Aurora's tribute had been a Pembroke Welsh Corgi, in fitting with a Celtic myth that Corgis were a gift from woodland faeries. Not quite in line with what she had known about faeries at the time, but Corgis actually made excellent mounts with training.

"I know it sounds strange, but...yeah. Just do that."

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i'll trade my mistakes or they'll fade away [thirteen]

Sky

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Thirteen

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Sky

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Thirteen

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Sky

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Thirteen

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Sky

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Thirteen

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Sky

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Thirteen

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