Waves of Blinding White (J v. Mutts; Day 3)

The field of blinding white sets his mind on fire.

The stab wound that had once been upon his body stings for a moment as he remembers the motions and the anger that filled the man who took a knife to him. Jequirity's death, so loud in his mind as he watches his allies. They were there for him, even with Cal's death. They were around for now, as an anchor to the life that he had given up. Strength filled within their bones as their joints move to the tune of their own heartbeats. Adrenaline rushing through his veins as he swung first, cutting hard at the jellyfish, with tentacles that could cut into the flesh, leaving a wound for the body. Jequirity was dead and her voice would live on through him, for however long he could live. He wanted to live now. He wanted to find a way out and into the building, where his life was truly born.

The blue rose in his hand, shines like a beacon of light in the white. A comfort upon the heart for only a moment. A moment is all teh king of fools needs. A second to breathe in whatever air he can breathe in. The air mixing with his lungs as the carbon dioxide escapes his body, giving him life. A breath of the wild and Riordan could feel his heartbeat in his ears. Anarchy swings next at the moose, with antlers of fishlife flying above. A creature created to kill them by command of Cricket and the old woman, who he clearly can't remember. Alcohol would have been nice for the king of fools. Incentive to not think about the reality that he was trapped in, as beast threaten to cut him open.

Cassie's voice echoes in the white, as she swings the staff that resides in her hands. "Well done genius!" No smile pulls on his face. Smiles were gone and passed with the faces of the dead. Zanita. Elvania. Scarlett. Brooke. Death wasn't kind. Rather than taking a man who wanted to die, he had taken the ones who would make him suffer. Brooke's flowers bloom upon his palm, just like Jequirity grows from his palm and Iris' cheek. A prayer for the safety of Iris Eckhart, he hears Cassie speak up again in the blinding white sea of monsters and demons. "Spoke too soon!" Cassie strikes it, doing much better than she had the day before. Riordan feels the words wanting to come out, but stays silent. The weakness in his veins had been the reason Callixtus fell by the hands of Eszter Summit. Another dead that fills his mind with whispers of sorrows.

A king of fools who couldn't protect anyone, but himself.

Weakness was in his veins.

Strength was what he wanted in return.

There's no strength for the selfish.

The beasts strike at them with a strength that could only be artificially created. No really idea what the world truly is. A place where animals grow and control the planet with their superior numbers. The king of fools used to watch the birds sing as he would visit the dead. Stone headstones and wooden coffins. Trees carved with the initials of dead lovers as they buried their partner in the ground. Tears that fueled the sorrows deep in their souls. Riordan knew what true sorrow was. A crown that sat upon his head, crooked with the sorrows that filled his soul, moves for a second as he feels the jellyfish cut his leg. Blood comes out of it slightly. The jean shorts doing nothing to protect him from the attack of a jellyfish. All this armor and he still couldn't block a jellyfish's attack.

As Anarchy had just swung at the beast, it attacks back. Cutting at her forearm, with a want to protect the creatures above it. The fish swimming through the coral antlers with no clue that their home was getting attacked by three teens who had witnessed death and sorrows. Riordan threatens to scream out in anger at the moose-like thing. No one touches Anarchy without his say. No one will hurt her like Elettra and Iris had done. Riordan was going to keep that promise to himself.

"Fuck! C'mon guys, let's kill these things."

The king of fools swings his weapon once more, switching targets to the beast that had attacked the smartest person he's ever met.

Crown crooked with sorrows, blade glittering in the blinding white, and weakness in his veins.

That's all he wanted.

The strength to live.

Weak.

A pathetic swing at the moose that had fish floating around it everywhere had occurred. Blue rose in his hand, crushed in the grip of his weapon. THe glittering sword only being seen by the confetti glitter that hides within the white. The blinding white area hurting his eyes, but fueling him with fire. The moose was only an obstacle to the common, but to Riordan, it was a test of strength. A test to determine if he truly was a king of fools. A test to see if Riordan could kill if needed. Riordan could feel the adrenaline pumping through his veins. He had swung at the beast, only to barely cut it at the hip. The king of fools stands there as he watches his allies attack the beasts.

Anarchy swings at the moose, just like he had. Sword grazing the moose, just like he had. A wound so small could lead to death. Riordan has seen it happen before. Riordan has seen death in front of him, face to face. Death's cold hand grazing the wound of the beloved, until they fall to their eternal death. No idea of what is on the other side waiting for them. Loved ones or fire that will consume them for the rest of their years. Riordan was clueless to what was waiting on the other side for him or anyone. Beliefs were dead when Jequirity's name had been called. A godless world with too many deaths to feed the next life to come.

Cassie had swung at the jellyfish with the bat. Another miss from the one who was supposed to be a career. Eyes heavy upon her form, his mind coming through thinking Cassiopeia Shaw might not be as scary as he had originally thought her to be. As he wants to chuckle to himself, he forgets where he is. He forgets who he is. He forgets what the price he was paying for his selfishness. A game leading to the death of too many people that volunteered to give up their lives for different reasons. Riordan had volunteered. He did it for a dead girl, who never even had mutual feelings for him. The day she left him, still throbbing within his mind as the blow came quickly.

The moose charges him with it's head. The heart in his chest beats as he tumbles out of the way to the left. The moose missing him completely. A frown pulls at his lips as he watches the creature sneeze the fish out of it's nose. A cute and yet dangerous mutt, who could probably break bones with the head it has. Riordan clenches his sword tightly as he watches the Jellyfish wrap itself around Cassiopeia's bat. Then it attacks. Fingers fall and Riordan wants to look away, but can not as the jellyfish had taken his friend's fingers.

Something courses through his veins as he can feel that he's weak, but not at the same time. Pathetic vanishing from his mind as he wants to protect them from the thing that stings with tentacles. The colorful Jellyfish floats with brilliance, but Riordan knows it's true intent. Kill them and leave the bodies for the next life. That wouldn't happen on his watch. He wouldn't let a moose and Jellyfish tear them apart. Riordan Einfallen was a king of fools and also a man who needed to help his allies from the monsters that stand before them. His voice rings out as he swings the sword at the jellyfish.

"Thought you could use a hand, Cassie."

Blue petals crushed under the weight of the weapon.

The King of Fools strikes.

They come in waves of blinding white that sends shivers through his body.

The first wave is the miss of his weapon at the brightly cover jellyfish. A curse almost slipping from his lips as he watches the beast flutter in the air, mocking him with it's ugly tentacles. The king of fools was a failure, even when he was trying to save the day and his allies. A king was no king without others to guide him through the horrors. The crown sits lopsided upon his helmet, like the weight of the world upon his shoulders. Atlas Lumiere's words remembered upon the tip of his tongue, as they had left his lips before. Zanita died because he was too weak. Scarlett died because he was too weak. Brooke. Elvania. Callixtus. There were so many bodies going home to stone cold graves with families mourning their loved ones who had sacrificed everything for this. Fear drives their bones. Bravery fuels their blood.

The second wave of shock hits as he looks over at the moose. Anarchy's blade moves through it's neck, blood flowing, eyes fading as Riordan feels for the beast. Mutts or not, they still seemed like gentle creatures of the world. Unfortunately, evil got it's hands on them and turned them into something more sinister than before. The moose dies like it had to, meat upon it's bones. Eyes stare at it for a bit longer than before as Riordan remembers what poison that he's learned that will fill blood from the words of people. The moose's body filled with the words Riordan had spouted, until Anarchy put it out of it's misery. Ear gone from it's head as Riordan stares at it. Then he can hear Cassie screaming at the pain of her fingers. The words of dad jokes and not the time for them hitting Riordan's ears as she hits the damned jellyfish with a bat. Voice threatens to echo out as he wants to cheer in success for his allies, who had taken down both beasts. Too little too late for that.

Ignite.

The explosion hits like a wave of worry onto Cassiopeia.

Heart beats swiftly.

A loud yell escapes his throat, unlike before.

"CASSIE!"

There's been too many familiar faces gone from the world. They float above him, haunting him with the memories that show he isn't strong enough to protect them. His feet move before his brain can even think. Ice cold chills flow through his spine as he's already reaching into his bad for the plants that he had grabbed upon day one that'd ease the pain. Tears threaten to flow, but he's stronger than that. Two fingers rest somewhere in the white, as the explosion fades away to a Cassiopeia with severe burns along her face and shoulders. Hands move to help her with the wounds. Words drip from his mouth as the worry in him can be heard. The care for someone who had once terrified him comes bubbling up. Everything was different now.

If someone told him days ago that Cassiopeia Shaw would mean something to him, he would have laughed in their face as he tried to impale himself upon the blade. Riordan wasn't someone who he wanted to be, but a man that had learned that all he could become was what he already was. A weak man with big dreams that he could never achieve, no matter how hard he tried. Atlas Lumiere made him jealous. Cassie made him terrified. Anarchy made him feel stupid. He wanted to be like them all. He wanted to be strong. He wanted to be brave. He wanted to be intelligent. Except he wasn't any of that. He was just Riordan Einfallen, a king of fools, who wore a fake crown in a white empty space of nothingness. Only creatures beyond his imagination, things that were meant to kill him and yet had no interest in them.

"You'll be okay, Cassie. Let me patch you up."

The king of fools helps his friend with the worries in his mind. Patching up Cassiopeia Shaw, who threatened to stab him on the day they met. They were attached to one another now. Callixtus Shim buried in the ground, all because Riordan Einfallen was born a weak man, who only had a bit of everything. An average man with average skills, but sneaking by everyone with weak charm and weak words. A whisper falls from his lips, as he wipes a tear away while staring at the terrifying girl.

"I'm sorry. I'm so weak that I can't even kill a damn jellyfish."

Eyes avert away from her for a second. Movement of some sort catching what attention he has left, Cassie cleaned up to the best of his capabilities. A giant tortoise moves slow and steady in the whiteness that surrounds them. Canons echo in the distance, but he ignores them, in turn for the tortoise who has living things upon it's back. As he moves closer, his sword is out, hiding in the white, only the sparkle of a confetti glitter can be seen. As he gets closer, there's no reaction from the tortoise. Face close enough to rub upon the shell now, he backs up a bit. Hand moves slowly to rub his hand against the hard shell of the tortoise. A butterfly moves away from his hand as he tries to grab it with the other hand. His words finds their way out first.


"It's beautiful, for such a massive and probably dangerous creature."

Mind wanders for a second as he then feels at ease. Memories fade into his mind as his mother colors a tortoise in a child's color book. The smile upon her face vanishing away years later. Tempus house coming into view of his mind, the rose upon his hand a blue color, then changing to a scarlett, reminding him of the girl who made out in the training center with him. Wishes of going back fading from his mind as he reminds himself that there will never be a chance to go back to the times where he wished to feel alive. There's one thing that he's learned in the arena. The past only holds a man back from is true strength, hope in the hopelessness. Dreamers dream of a place where they can find everything that they truly wanted, but people, people were the ones who realized that everything you need is with you already. Riordan was turning into a king of fools, but also a person.

Limitations were bound to the human body like the thoughts that roam a person's mind. No one else may see them, but they are there hiding where only the owner can see them. Riordan knew what limits he had. Riordan was learning how strong and how weak he truly was. Jequirity Eckhart had experienced the same thing, or he would like to believe so. Death was the escape from those limitations at the cost of losing everything that you once had. Theseus and Naveen wouldn't want him to live a life where all he did was try to remember who they were. They would have wanted him to discover what he could become in life.

Someone once told him that Tempus had multiple meanings. The first was finding a perfect balance in music, which is exactly what it had done for him. It hadn't been in music, but in finding out who he truly was. Through sickness and health, everyone in Tempus cared for him as a friend and a sibling. They all grew up together. They all died together, emotionally or physically. They had been a family for him and now he was the sole survivor. The one that had to stay behind and keep it running. The one who learned what true inner strength was. Rebuilding it had been the only success he had, until he became a survivor of it. There were others. The Casovniks, the Eckharts, and now his own last name, the Einfallens like Caspar. Even if Caspar hated him with the words like poison that still sink into his veins, they were the survivors.

Another meaning of the word Tempus had turned out to be time. Time itself had become a piece of the place from everything that had stayed in the building. Memoirs and things left behind stuck into random rooms. Props and items would line the walls. Memories of the gifts that they had received as a joke in his mind. When he had the run of the place, they had been sent prankster items, such as something that he learned to be a glitter bomb of sorts. He learned it the hard way. Taking off the cap ended up springing a pile of glitter into the air as it got everywhere, letting it drift to the ground. His friends had laughed at the angry words that left his lips. It was a good memory of a time when the people he considered family smiled at him. That was all gone now. Now Riordan was fighting for everything he thought he wanted, but instead found out the hard way like then that this isn't what he had wanted in the first place.

No one would remember.

He would remember.

The crayon is pulled out of his bag that holds the map of Jequirity's final resting place. The yellow crayon with rainbow glitter comes out before any of the others. The white ground, a perfect place to draw with the crayons. Starting with the major part of the thing, he draws a cylinder about the size of his forearm. The width of the cylinder is just perfect enough for his hands to be able to grasp around it. Thoughts of filling in the object flows through his mind, but he decides against it as if the inside doesn't end up hollow, it wouldn't be able to hold anything and from what he learned from the silver canteen in his bag was that specifics were important to the drawings. They could end up turning into something very wrong and very useless. He didn't want to injure anyone with this item, only for it to be a surprise of sorts that could create a sparkling scene.

Next his hands move to one side where he fills in the bottom circle, showing that it's closed and something would be blocking it. If it ended up being see through, from the outside, it would still work in the way he would want it to. After this, he moves to the other side, where he draws a cap, that wraps around the cylinder, keeping it closed and what would go inside safe from escaping, until he wants it to. The part before the last and tedious part comes next. First he puts a line from somewhere between halfway in the cylinder to two thirds of the way in, that would represent the platform that would move when he opens the cap. Then he moves the crayon in a spiral from the line to the bottom that would represent a spring, trying to push it's way out.

The last piece of the drawing that would be the most tedious part was drawing the glitter. Little tiny squares that he spends so much time doing. Speck after speck of nothing but squares that he fills in. They are put above the line, on the side with the cap. Each speck isn't perfect as they are so tiny. It takes too much time to do it, as he expect Cassie and Anarchy to be doing their own thing while he draws his thing that had been sent to him by pranksters and his brother. Each speck contains a memory in his mind. A time where he felt happy with his life or at least content. There were so many that his mind was overflowing and by the end of it, there were so many specks that it filled the whole top to the brim. Threatening to overflow, but staying in by the cap. A smile forms upon his face as he is finished with his drawing.

He would never forget.

The king of fools would learn that he was strong inside, even if he wasn't outside.

After all, he only needed tempus.