11/10/06
After the End
Had Nooj known what it would be like after the end, he might have reconsidered his choice of destinies. When he became Taydrcaagan, he had believed it to be the most honourable path he could take. How better to spend his strength and talent than in a selfless devotion to the service of Spira? With no thought wasted on the preservation of his own life, he had found himself free to risk all for his world, to do the dangerous things other men might fear to do and not worry about a non-existent future.
When he had, upon rare occasions, turned his mind to what might follow death it was only to dismiss the common concept of the FarPlane. For himself, heathen that he was, there was only Nothingness once his heart had been stilled. He anticipated neither reward nor punishment; he expected a void, a vacancy, nothingness.
And now this! It was one thing not to be rewarded for those virtuous acts one had performed, quite another to apparently become the reward for another soul.
Shortly after he had fallen to the crushing attack of the Queen Coeurl and had seen the pyreflies stream from his shredded corpse, he had found himself here in this disconcerting world. He assumed since he was here and not aware of having become a fiend that sometime in the brief interval between the end of breathing and the regaining of consciousness, he had been Sent. Well, that made one more thing he had been wrong about.
The place in which he stood looked like an immensely large version of the stuffy bedroom in the Guadosalam chateau. There was even a towering vitrine holding a gargantuan statue of himself just to his right. The heart-shaped jiggling bed spread out like a playing field for giants and the top of the mirror at the dressing table was shrouded in atmospheric mist. Possessed by a sense of resigned horror, he awaited the appearance of a fifty foot tall LeBlanc for whom he would be just a pathetic toy.
With a frantic rush of confusion, he wondered if the soul, once sundered from its physical bounds, was split into wedges of various sizes so that true justice could be meted out universally. Perhaps, somewhere, most of his immortal part was relishing the Nothingness he had anticipated, unaware of what was happening to this small section of his self.
Something was changing. Either he was growing or his surroundings were shrinking. Proportions were becoming closer to normal.
Heralded by the advent of her signature lilac perfume, in a clatter of stiletto heels, LeBlanc swept into view.
"Noojie-Woojie! You're finally here! What took you so long?" She flung herself against him, nearly knocking him over in her enthusiasm.
"Had I know you were waiting, I would have tried to die sooner," he said sardonically but she did not notice his tone. "After the manner of our parting, I did not expect so affectionate a welcome."
She fluttered her fan and stared at him critically. "Oh, they didn't fix your arm and leg. I'll have to do something about that." She scurried over to the desk which had appeared to one side and began scribbling on some papers. "This won't take long, then we can catch up with one another."
Alarmed by the implications of her words, Nooj called out, "Stop! Don't do anything else! You've done enough as it is."
"Don't you want to be normal again?" LeBlanc looked up with a pout nesting on her pale lavender lips. "I want you just the way you were when you finished school, all in one piece and such a manly man."
"All I want is some explanation why I am here in your idea of the FarPlane. I don't believe in it and I certainly don't want to be a part of your fantasy."
She raised an eyebrow and smirked at him serenely. "You still don't get it. This is my world now and since I was your victim in the outer universe, you are mine to do with as I choose here. I could torture you, kill you every hour for the rest of eternity, but - Noojie - I love you so I am going to make your existence here a paradise of pleasure. We will be together all the time, day and night. We will be lovers forever." Her voice rose to a triumphant cry as she tilted her head to the sky and spread her arms in an encompassing gesture.
As a rational man, Nooj had long rejected the concepts other humans used to comfort themselves. He had never believed in an afterlife - neither one which rewarded the virtuous nor one which punished the guilty. To him, all justice was meted out on Spira during the lifetime of the individual. If justice was not done then and there ... well, too bad. The universe was indifferent to the petty concerns of humanity. This had to be a nightmare. He was obviously not dead at all but only trapped in a dream of surpassingly bad taste. He had been on his way to find Paine when he had encountered the Queen Coeurl and it was evident he had been badly injured by the beast, since only a fever dream of gigantic proportions could account for the horrors he was now facing.
"Madam, I beg of you, go away. You are a figment of my imagination and I find this entire scenario entirely offensive. I shall now wake myself and you will be less embarrassed if you go of your own accord rather than wait to be banished by my conscious mind."
LeBlanc giggled delightedly. "Noojie-Woojie, you're so cute when you're lecturing. You used to do it just that way when we were kids. But you have to stop being silly now that we're all grown up and dead. This is it, sweetheart. This is what we have from now on, so face it and be honest with yourself." She stepped behind him, wrapped her arms around his waist and hugged him to her. "Isn't it nice we keep our pleasure parts even after we have died?"
Appalled by her comment, he whirled around, nearly toppling as he did so. "Stop that, woman! I am not going to be your paramour no matter what you think."
"Oh, what I think matters a great deal. It's what you want that doesn't. You don't have any choice any longer. Haven't I made that clear? This is my paradise and you are just one of the furnishings. It will be better if you do as I say but if you won't do it willingly, I'll just have to arrange that you lose your free will and obey me in spite of yourself." She looked at him darkly and waved a small thick book which had materialized in her hand. "All the rules are set down here. You can read it if you like."
"N-no. I don't want to read it. I believe you; it seems I have no alternative. So, you have condemned me to an eternity of serving your needs, of fulfilling your fantasies simply because I did you the favour of taking you out of a wretched existence as painlessly as I could?"
"That's about the sum of it. But you shouldn't think of it that way. Rather think of the fact you will have the freedom of my bed and my body forever. There are men who would have done more than kill for that reward."
"I wish you had chosen one of them and let me be." He did not dare say the last words aloud. If she was right and was to be his mistress on this nightmare plane, it would be better not to give her more reason to punish and humiliate him. Forlornly, he gazed across the misty landscape outside the window. This was a bleak future indeed. If he was to keep his sanity, he must make an effort to find someone even more unworthy than himself to torment.
He had never been an optimist and change did not seem possible so late in his existence - or nonexistence. However, he was a man of strong appetites and he thought, reluctantly, if there was no way to escape and this was to be his lot, he might as well find what pleasures he could. It would also be useful to have his original arm and leg back.
After all,, Nooj plotted, it should not take long to show her who held the upper hand. He wondered what would happen if he killed her again here. She had mentioned the possibility and it would give him something to do with his time. Yes, in spite of the difficulties, he might be able to amuse himself. With a feeling of inevitability, he held out his arms to the woman preening before him. "As you say ..."
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