The Great Accomplice

Her eyes hovered around Somen's, as if inquiring him, really? 

He nods back with a serious face.

"So ya' tricked time." Loretta reaffirmed. Her head is starting to heat up. It is taking all of her power to not beat the brains out of her brother. 

"Don't look at me like that, trust me, this is for the better!" Consoled Somen. Loretta's brows furrow further as he does his pitiful attempt at convincing her. "Ack--Look, I even have a profile now."

Her eyes shift towards his own as if he's been convicted of a crime. Her gaze fills with intrigue as she commands him, "Show me."

He swipes his hand on the air and a box filled with his information appears.

[Somen Elkin, Level 1

Human, Titles: The Time Thief

Skills: Regression]

She shakes her head in disbelief. Meanwhile, Somen doesn't seem bothered at all. He looks delighted even. 

"Don't you get it? Lo, this is our ticket out of here!"

She frowns, then it turns into a bloodthirsty desire to murder her brother dead. So much so that she quite literally starts beating him and shouting, "Are you stupid? You could have just wished for money ya' dimwit. Now that you've done that, you've got eyes on you, and most importantly, us!"

"Hey--! What about-smack!- The people here!" 

Her anger eases.

With a coy tone, she asks him, "What about them?"

"They ain't good people, but we ain't good either. Money could get us out of here, but if we're excessive with it, the authorities will question us. It'll be game over then."

She shimmies her knuckles, "So you do have a functioning brain..." She suddenly stops, her face seizes with fury stifling once again, "You're planning to get everyone out of here? Even them?"

Somen takes a moment to think. This conversation has prompted memories he did not want to relive. "No. They'll rot and die here." 

Her worry starts to seep in. Her brother is stupid, beyond recognition, but he is smart when it comes down to it. With complicated emotions swirling inside her mind, she makes out a vaguely indifferent look and asks him, "What of the crooks who swindled you? The brutes who beat you?"

"We'll deal with it once it comes. If they deserve to be here, then they live and die here. So are you going to listen to my request or not?"

She sits down on her desk filled with iron scraps and tells him to get on with it.

"Sweet. So I need a taser."

 She looks at him again with a accusatory look. 

"You want a taser? Seriously? I can make you a laser rifle, a droid that can fly as far as the upper capital, and if I had the materials, I could construct a literal nuke here. You.. want a taser?"

He shrugs, "Stop flexing. A teeny tiny taser is all I need." 

"Gonna ask the obvious here.. Why?"

"Don't worry, just trust me."

"Why would I.." She meant to retaliate to his statement. She would have, if her brother wasn't so damn capable. "Actually, nevermind. I'll be done in a day, see what you can do while you wait."

"Thanks, you're the best!"

****************

He wandered around town, a hood covering his face. He wasn't walking without purpose though. There were people he needed to see. 

After a while, he finds them, standing at the entrance of the gate. The citizens of the underbelly of society, us, aren't here by choice. We are here because even the commoners couldn't handle us. The people hanging around these slums are criminals, brokies who have a debt, or people like my sister and I, just unfortunate to have been born here.

The thing stopping us from escaping here are those guards. They may be fat, vulgar, and their weapons may seem more decorative than anything, but they're beasts. The spear they hold is a sign of power. They won't use it to hurt you, they use it to identify themselves as the knights of the upper capital, Maltrom. 

I am here to find a way through them. I need them to talk. I need to know their weaknesses.

"Hey-llo good sirs! Would you fancy talking with this lowly man such as myself?" I introduce myself. The way through these people is always to suck up.

The first guard gives me a cautionary glance while the second one already looks like he's warming up to me. Good, it's working.

"Had you perchance have stories to tell me?" I piped, while making small gestures to move to them slowly.

The first guard stands stiffly while the second one looks to be in thought.

The second one has a moment of realization and then speaks, "I once saw a horse go inside a bar. Do you know what the bartender told the horse?"

Why the long face?

Of course, I don't speak, and hummed, "What?"

He grabs me by the collar and hisses, "Get out!" And throws me away.

Ouch. I stumble back on my feet and limp over to them. The first guard seems to be whispering something to the second, and the guard doesn't seem to like what he's hearing.

I garner the energy to smile and then say, "I'm sure you-- must've not meant that. It was part of the punchline!"

The second guard awkwardly laughs and goes along, "The punchline, haha!"

"Tell me another story."

"Oh-Uh, there were two gatekeepers, one always tells the truth and one always tells a lie. I will whisper something to you and you need to guess which one I am!"

I lean forward closer to the guard and he whispers, "Get. Out."

I smile back at him and say, "You're the one that tells a lie!"

He flinches, clearly annoyed, but facetiously agrees, "Correct!"

This is taking too long. I'm wasting time. "Tell me mister. Do you have family?"

He looks back at me with a stern gaze that tells me he doesn't want me to pry further. That only means one thing. Keep digging.

"So you have a wife! A daughter? Son?"

He throws me back a face filled with anger and booms, "What's it to you?!"

I'm in his head.

"You know, if you had a daughter, I would love to marry her."

His face reddens with fury and he points his spear at me. That's step 1 done.

"Bazoonga!"

***************

Somen arrives back in space, the table is served and the deity known as the Time Handler is pouting at him.

Somen blunders, "Why are you.. like that?"

It sighs and keeps pouting.

"Is it such a burden? I mean, it's just me."

It grows increasingly annoyed and blurts, "You messed with time! And- and-" It's face grows bashful and averts Somen's gaze, "You didn't eat with me."

...

"Is that really why you're mad?" Somen asks, confusion airing out his fear.

"It's rare that a deity gets to spend time with a mortal they like, and I was really happy when you said you wanted dinner with me."

A mortal they like. I am a person that someone likes.

"Oh." Somen replies. "You should have just said so."

The stream of time is awfully loud.

Somen chucks the steak inside his mouth and starts to chew.

"Huh.. This is.. really good."

He hurries and chucks the remaining pieces of meat as quickly as he can. Every second counts.

He buries his stream once again with a cup of sand and waves goodbye to the Time Handler.

***************

Somen appears in a familiar place. There are metal scraps lying near his feet. His nose is bleeding. He smells like piss. That's right, the place right before he met Time.

[Heaven watches you with a curious eye.]