timewatchedguardian

[timewatchedguardian]

Superbia Ante lapsum

Liam Ford. Erk Ballard. Two sides of the same coin. Two sides in eternal struggle for domination. Two sides in bitter conflict made in malcontent. He longed for the days of simplicity and peace for its own sake, not having it be something that he sought to look for. He longed to share his life with his wife, not live his days out in widowdom. His connections- his friends and family- all but a distant memory as he stood at the threshold of his ship's cabin. "I could start over", he thought to himself as he laid his hand upon the grim clawed etches of the door, eyes closed in passing, yet treacherous hopes. It would do no good. He was too far gone to build anew, and the man he slowly found himself to have become would have shamed his younger self; perhaps his more naive self. A soft push and the door gave way to entrance, eyes laying upon a scene seemingly untouched through the passage of time, slowly giving way to reality. The ironwood facility he once called home was now sick with wood rot, infesting every nook and cranny as tattered paper and books lay strewn about as if tossed in a frenzy. Sheets on his bed were molded; shelves with various decorum either broken or entirely or barely held together by a thread; the floorboards gapped and cracked, through and through. Time was not kind to not only him, but his life's work. "How foolish was I to think I could take everything on my own. How foolish was I to think that I could shoulder everything for everyone. How long did I let myself subsist for the sake of others? How much did I sacrifice and give for nothing in return? How prideful did I have to be?" He ruminated on these thoughts, perhaps for far too long. He knew not where or how to start, but he would have to build something even if he could not rebuild. What was lost shall forever remain. His pride before his fall.

[timewatchedguardian]

Aetate ultra tempus

It had been some time since he had laid eyes upon the city he once called home; the city that abandoned him to the fates he sought to deliver it from. Years he had spent as its backbone, holding it together as he hoisted up the citizens who grew to rely on him, only for his inevitable cries for help to fall flat upon the ears of those who had forsaken him. And for what? What had he done to deserve such a fate? Sacrificed to the other side where time had all but stood still for him, aging him ever-so-slowly while the world churned around him, encapsulating his every thought in a statue's state. His cries deafened before given life; his hopes slashed before affording growth. He knew not how he wrangled free from his eternal captivity, only that he was no longer its slave. It was a thought that relished itself in momentary bliss before gathering himself and setting his sights on the world at large. So much time had passed that all around him appeared different; it appeared new. Perhaps it was him who was different and new; an intruder upon life itself. Yet here he was, standing alone under the darkened sky, his only source of light being the stars that lit the way before him. Would he dare himself to cross the threshold to the past, or would he turn his back and look to the future? So much time had passed, so much so that he was free from time itself. He alone now lived in an age beyond time, and he alone would walk its halls.