3.
It is my belief that rather precious concepts like Logic and Rationality, although not being absolute creeds, are indeed part of the Chaos we live in and not exceptions… Therefore, the simple idea of our own thoughts and dreams merged together into a seemingly perfect society, with its towns and people… The idea of our own inner chaotic universes converged into some kind of metaphorical balance, should not surprise us… Not at all.
Isn't Chaos the unbalanced balance of Life, after all? Perhaps, it's a too rational reasoning… Then again, I chose to be as more rational as possible for this story, since I still have to deal with my sapient side… And of course I chose to ignore all the outrageous paradoxes that will inevitably cross this chosen path…
As for this imaginary yet, realistic realm… I've already explained that since dreams didn't respond to our desperate need for rationality, something like a society built up from them should not be possible… Rationally speaking… But there it was anyway.
Was it just a general metaphoric representation of everyone's feelings? A metaphor, therefore a lie…
Was it real? As far as the whole concept of reality would still be of some purpose…
And here's my usual answer… Who cared?
Who cared if all of this realm has been built out of pure raw thoughts thanks to Void's influence over the Precioustone… Who cared if such place was real or just the delusion of some rather arguable would be writer (which convenient excuse you prefer)…
For the sake of yours and my own sanity… I chose, or perhaps I deluded myself into believing I could choose, to accept those impossible things as they may come… Why, you may ask?
Because I have a story to write and characters to develop… That's my perfectly rational excuse! What about your excuse, uh?
It has been said… Feelings were real… But I'm sure that whoever said that would not imagine those to be THAT real!
Apparently, the majestic God gem that kept things in their rightful chaotic balance in the realm of Maginary World… Had powers beyond imagination… This pun was intended, by the way.
Moved by the sheer will of its guardian and master, The Precioustone has been able to unify all the raw subconscious manifestations into a perfect society… Whether illusive or not.
Since the very first dream reading experiments operated by human psychiatrist Sigmund Freud… The idea of describing such inner representations as a perfectly logical structure for us to better understand ourselves… Has not been fully possible to achieve, for obvious reasons…
With its current aspect, Maginary World could be almost considered the realization of such purpose… Or so it seemed.
Each and every zones or structures could be seen as metaphorical representations of certain feelings and desires…
The amusement park, Void and his daughter just left, could very well be, symbolically speaking, the cluster of all childish and joyful thoughts that small kids or certain adults used to have… Their little happy place, one could say.
A big city nearby, similar to Station Square in size, was a melting pot of all emotions in general… A confusing melting pot, just like big cities used to be…
And so on and on… With infinite locations… Some come out from general ideas… Others, more personal and unique…
And there were people who would live in them… Living people with feelings and emotions of their own… With dreams of their own… With inner chaos of their own… And all of them were Void's children… His personal memories merged into real persons… As far as all of this could be considered real…
There were Mobians and humans alike living peacefully together… An utopia that was possible only in fiction… Here's those doubts again.
Idealistically speaking, Void was the God of this world, even though the prime material he used to create everything was not his own (or at least, not all of it) and his daughter, Lumina could very well be… His chosen messiah.
But we're losing the point here… Theological speeches can be very backstabbing some times… Therefore let's just leave it at that… For now.
Despite its fancy look, This dimension existed for our dreams and with our dreams… They would come, reborn inside the Precioustone and recreate themselves into the fresh minds of newborn children… Almost like Reincarnation, if one would believe in it, of course…
One could say, this place was Nirvana… Among other mind blowing things.
However… There were times in which such thoughts would not leave this realm… In which dreams would die… Hopes would be shattered and never return as whole… Things that, once again, could not be explained but that, once again, would continue to happen for whatever chaotic reason…
Death is part of our Life… And even this realm wasn't immune to that…
Thanks to Void's doing… Those dead dreams had now a place to be… An immense graveyard situated in the extreme corners of his kingdom… If a border existed of course.
In such place, those broken dreams and hopes… Those shattered souls devoured by torment would peacefully rest until their re-awakening would, eventually, come…
There were millions… Billions of graves all over the place… While walking inside the cemetery, both Lumina and his father could read some of the sad farewells written on those aforementioned tombstones…
Phrases like these:
"Here lie the hopes and dreams of a man who wanted to change the world he lived in… And failed."
"Here lies the loving feeling of a broken hearted woman."
But also encouraging sentences like these:
"Here lie the greed and lust for power of a man who decided that there were more important things in life."
"Here lies the despair of a now realized individual."
And so on…
It was refreshing, in a way, to think at this place as both an ending and a beginning for everybody's soul… Whether being positive or not.
Lumina looked genuinely fascinated by all of this… As a child of her (supposed) age would be.
"Daddy?" She suddenly asked.
"Yes, hun?" He asked back.
"What happens to people who die?"
So small… Yet so perceptive. She by now already understood the conventional difference between life and death… Therefore she was curious to know if there was an afterlife… And of course, despite being some kind of a God… Not even Void could answer such question for two rather simple reasons…
1) He didn't know if he or Lumina or everyone else in this realm would sustain a normal life cycle… For what he knew, they could all live forever, like Ixis Naugus did before…
2) He didn't really know if there was an afterlife or everything that vaguely resembled that… If he would have had such knowledge, he would have known the Meaning of Life and Chaos wouldn't even exist… And the whole universe would have probably collapsed under the sheer weight of such disfiguring paradox… And all that jazz.
He looked his sweet daughter in the eyes and smiled, finally answering her question…
"They become angels and goes to a happy place where they would ride roller coasters and giant purple stones for the rest of the eternity…"
"YAY!!!" Lumina cried.
What would you do if you were into Void's shoes?
After walking for a while… The two of them reached their destination… The exact middle of the tombstone garden… Where she lay.
She was beautiful as ever… And asleep, of course, inside her frozen, shiny case… Blaze the Cat, Void's queen and Lumina's mother… Her mother, somehow, someway.
"Say hello to your mommy, Lumina." He said.
"Hi mum!"
For the next few minutes, the little Seedrian girl would talk to her mother about the Beatuful day she and daddy spent together… Riding roller coasters… And other cool stuff.
Void would watch the both of them from the distance… Sighing within himself.
It was such a heart warming picture, the way little Lumina used to react in front of her frozen mum… Almost as if she wasn't frozen at all… As is she was alive… With them.
A sudden pain eroded its way inside the older Seedrian's heart… A reminder of his namesake sufferance… A sorrow that never truly left his soul and never truly will… It was his condemn after all… To feel the void… To idealistically be the void within everyone's soul…
To suffer for the sake of his symbolic role…
The source of his current pain, however, has been caused by a knowledge… A sad, no, an horrifying knowledge towards his daughter… Towards what could possibly be the sole purpose of her existence… The real reason of her birth… As far as predestined roles would be possible.
He tried to suppress such thoughts inside the back of his mind… Of his being… But to no avail…
He was conflicted, to say the very least.
"Daddy? I'm done."
"Okay… Let's go."
And so they did.
Once out of the romantic metaphor for people's dead dreams… The small child's gaze fixed itself on her father's own… She had watery eyes.
"Dad… Do you think mommy will ever woke up?" She almost muttered.
Void couldn't take it anymore and hugged his only daughter tightly and lovingly… She hugged him back, sobbing quietly.
"I don't know, Lumina, I don't know…" His answer… Which was a lie.
When she asked him if there was an afterlife, he couldn't quite know about it… But he certainly knew the answer for this latest topic… Or better, one of the possible answers…
Only, it was too painful to even be considered…
"If I could… I would do anything to woke her…" She declared all of a sudden in her dad's ear.
That was a further stab in the Seedrian's heart…
When she was born… He decided to put all of his doubts aside and believe in what he could feel… But now, his own feelings were getting back at him in an almost sadistic way…
And once again… He had doubts... And he would grief about…
Because it seemed that the key for his queen's awakening… Lay within his daughter's very soul.
There are beings meant to suffer, isn't it?