A/N: Written for the Diversity Writing Challenge, C45 – write in future tense.
Decrowning Blank
.
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There will be another battle. Another game.
Nobody can defeat Blank, they say. Nobody now. Tet said that too, when he ruled. Nobody could defeat him. But then Blank came along and did just that. Called by Tet no less. He'd been bored.
Maybe he'd been cocky too.
Blank is pretty cocky. And with no-one to challenge them left, they'll only get cockier.
And then someone will appear who can kick their buttocks back to their own world.
Maybe Blank'll be so cocky as to conjure them, just like Tet did to Blank. He hadn't thought he'd lose. But he did.
Blank won't think they'll lose either. They don't. And they're on top of the world now. In charge of all the pieces, except one. And they'll get that one. It's only a matter of time.
And waiting out the time.
.
There'll be someone, the humans whisper. Someone who can defeat their God. Someone who can restore their honour.
Because they're too proud to admit they're left in the dust. That they're the most powerless of al the races. Someone will come, they whispered. Someone, amongst them, that'll show the others what strength humans really have.
Nobody's come yet, but they will. Somewhere. Somehow. That's what they say. Someone will come.
And they believe it too. So much so that the other races think them as fools. Someone will come. Someone will come and save them from this powerlessness. This oppression.
.
And then someone does come. Two someones. Collectively, they're called Blank. And they defeat the world. They defeat Tet.
They're humans. They're the proof humankind is strong. Can be strong. But it's only them. And, in a flash, it's the humans that are on top of the world, propelled by them. By blank.
Humanity wins. Blank wins. The human race win.
The other races are left hoping someone will come and defeat them.
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Tet's not bad. As far as Gods go. Neither is Blank. The problem is, neither of them do anything. The world just develops under them. The world just assigns itself ladders and pitfalls and they just let it happen.
Someone will come one day and fix it, we hope. Someone will come and tidy up the world. Get rid of this hierarchy and give everyone an equal chance.
Someone will fix the world, we hope.
We'd hoped Blank would do it. But they didn't.
.
Hope. Hope. Hope.
That's all we have. That's all we'll ever have, consistently. Power comes and goes. Friends come and go. Allies come and go. Heck, even Gods come and go. It was Tet before. And before him were those others whose names no-one recalls. And now it's Blank. And, later, it'll be somebody else.
Hopefully someone will live up to that hope. Someone will break that cycle. The cycle of waxing and waning power. Of arranging and rearranging hierarchies. Or building and rebuilding the world.
Hopefully, someone will come alone and build it the right way and then the world will just stay like that.
Hopefully.
Some day.
.
The world will always be ruled by games, probably. The games themselves might change, but the arching rule probably won't.
It hadn't since time began.
And it probably won't. The crown of Godship will be passed along through a game. Through a battle that is a game.
Battles are games. Lives are games. That's the way this world works. That's the foundation of this world.
That's why it'll never change.
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The rulers change. The Gods before. Then Tet boots them off. Then Blank comes along to boot him off. Then someone will come along and boot Blank off.
That's just the way the world works. And, by luck of fate, some ruler will eventually come along that can change things. Because Tet is not his predecessors and Blank is not Tet or Tet's predecessors and so it stands to reason that Black's successors will not be Blank nor Tet nor Tet's predecessors…and whatever predecessors came before that…
Somewhere along the long line will come a ruler that'll break the current cycle. Surely. There were only so many types of living beings in the world after all. They'll run out of the ones that sit by and let things happen eventually.
And then they'll start running through the ones that will.
Or, who knew. Fate or luck or something similar might just mix them all up.
Maybe Blank's immediate successors will do it. It'll be nice if things happen in their lifetime.
.
Things will change. Things have to change.
They think that as Blank appears – still naïve, but strong, already so strong. Not yet rulers – but they will be rulers. That much is obvious once they gain control of the first race piece. Once they set their eyes on the next one.
Once they gain it all. And sit on them, waiting for someone else to challenge them.
Or the rest of the world waits, once it's clear that things have changed as far as things are going to change: that the hierarchies have rearranged themselves and now it's going to sit like this until someone else comes along.
Because they all know someone else will come along. We all now now.
Even when Tet was still around.
.
Maybe once upon a time we believed things stay the way they are forever. Before Tet kicks his predecessors off the throne. Before he's kicked off the throne himself. By Blank. Before Blank is kicked off the throne by their coming succeeders – whenever they arrive. Or whenever Blank goes to fetch them, having gotten cocky enough and bored enough and ready for a challenge enough…
And everybody is waiting for that. Maybe even the human race, who were the bottom of the barrel and are now the crowns in the kingdom. Maybe they're bored. Maybe they'll get bored if they aren't. Maybe they'll be like Blank, like Tet, wanting a challenge.
Maybe the bottom of the barrel will spit out someone to step up, just like the human race did.
That's where everyone's looking anyway. At the bottom of the barrel. That's where everyone will look. At those bits no-one's scaped off yet.
We know the future's there now. Blank gave us that much more at least, aside from just messing about with the world order and then kicking back.
A new player's going to rise from there. And then there'll be another battle. Another game.