Chapter 2 - A Matter Of Life And DEATH
***
A long time ago, in a land far, far away...
Well, not so long ago. Just a month, actually. And the place was only a few lives skip to the left, if you left the back way and didn't knock over the trash cans.
But it wasn't now. And it wasn't here. It was... there.
Her name was Illa. And the wheels in her head had just begun to turn. She knows the golden rule... Gods cannot exist without belief. And once belief begins, they cannot help but exist.
Illa was about to destroy the world.
***
In a white world on the edge of the universe, the Woman let go of Her teacup, which disappeared with a POP before it could touch Her white dress. She stood carefully, with much precision, much like the way She did everything. Her business was serious business.
She appeared, at first, to be a woman. A woman with capital letters and flashing pink signs and perhaps a few neon flashes of a female's rear end wiggling back and forth.
Clean that up right now, young man.
Her dress was not, as it were, revealing. She just MOVED as if it was, with the rock-hard knowledge that underneath Her clothing, She was naked. She had long, fluffy brown hair, blue eyes, and a perfect complexion.*
The Woman snapped Her fingers. A Lifetimer appeared, hovering in the air until She grasped it. The sand looked old and worn, but somehow unused. The writing at the top was worn off.
Life smiled benevolently at it, running Her fingers over the inscription. It glowed with an inner light, burning the word back...
"Go, Mort," She whispered to the Lifetimer, as though She were speaking to a small child. "You have your entire life ahead of you. Go where the winds take you."
The sand moved upward through the cinched glass in a gravity-defying rush, and She smiled.
***
Death glanced up at the noise.
SQUEAK? asked the Death of Rats.
I'M NOT SURE, he answered, and stood up. PROBABLY NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT. He paused. PROBABLY SOMETHING IS TO WORRY ABOUT, ACTUALLY.
Death was like an old engineer, who could hear if something went wrong in his engine. Something was wrong in the world, one note suddenly out of tune, changing key. Death sighed and sat down, since he didn't know a thing about music.
One change of key changes the symphony.
_______________
*Of course.
***
A long time ago, in a land far, far away...
Well, not so long ago. Just a month, actually. And the place was only a few lives skip to the left, if you left the back way and didn't knock over the trash cans.
But it wasn't now. And it wasn't here. It was... there.
Her name was Illa. And the wheels in her head had just begun to turn. She knows the golden rule... Gods cannot exist without belief. And once belief begins, they cannot help but exist.
Illa was about to destroy the world.
***
In a white world on the edge of the universe, the Woman let go of Her teacup, which disappeared with a POP before it could touch Her white dress. She stood carefully, with much precision, much like the way She did everything. Her business was serious business.
She appeared, at first, to be a woman. A woman with capital letters and flashing pink signs and perhaps a few neon flashes of a female's rear end wiggling back and forth.
Clean that up right now, young man.
Her dress was not, as it were, revealing. She just MOVED as if it was, with the rock-hard knowledge that underneath Her clothing, She was naked. She had long, fluffy brown hair, blue eyes, and a perfect complexion.*
The Woman snapped Her fingers. A Lifetimer appeared, hovering in the air until She grasped it. The sand looked old and worn, but somehow unused. The writing at the top was worn off.
Life smiled benevolently at it, running Her fingers over the inscription. It glowed with an inner light, burning the word back...
"Go, Mort," She whispered to the Lifetimer, as though She were speaking to a small child. "You have your entire life ahead of you. Go where the winds take you."
The sand moved upward through the cinched glass in a gravity-defying rush, and She smiled.
***
Death glanced up at the noise.
SQUEAK? asked the Death of Rats.
I'M NOT SURE, he answered, and stood up. PROBABLY NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT. He paused. PROBABLY SOMETHING IS TO WORRY ABOUT, ACTUALLY.
Death was like an old engineer, who could hear if something went wrong in his engine. Something was wrong in the world, one note suddenly out of tune, changing key. Death sighed and sat down, since he didn't know a thing about music.
One change of key changes the symphony.
_______________
*Of course.