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Chapter 11: The Deferent Purple
When the atlas was suitably modified, and Red_Two's initial rage and sadness had run its course, he placed the book down on Emmet's desk gently, and handed Emmet his pen back even more so, looking down off to the side. His throat made a quiet noise, before he turned back to the bookshelf and looked down into his lap.
Emmet now properly looked over the atlas: lace names were crossed out with new, unfamiliar ones replacing them; full swathes of coastal land was scribbled out, presumably underwater and new borders were drawn on, particularly centred around mountainous areas. He was surprised to see particular rivers swollen up, and new lakes and estuaries where there were previously none.
He looked back at Red_Two, his face crumpling. Pain medication or not, the man was sat hunched over, back shaking and soaked with sweat. His hands were laid limp at his side on the floor, fists unclenched, but elbows and wrists wobbling regardless, telling him all he needed to know.
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The Boy who Circled Time Chapter 12: No Sleep for the Wicked
Red_Two wasn't sleeping, Emmet noticed. Black bags hung under his eyes, in stark contrast to the slow recovery of the rest of his body. The more he seemed to heal, and the less grey his skin was, the more exhausted he seemed, though that didn't dim his excitement in the morning when he first entered the office.When Emmet had handed him his medical report though after their little façade of a deal, he had just stared at it, not even reading a single word, as Emmet had analysed his new map, mentally traced possible etymologies of the new place names, and guessed at the events which would occur in the future that would keep Switzerland mostly intact but would massacre England into a collection of tiny states. Even as he placed it aside, and begun battling through his piles of paperwork, Red_Two had not moved.His inner world must be at least rich, Emmet had mused, before scolding himself for his insensitivity. The man was suffering trauma, and he was making jokes
The Boy who Circled Time Chapter 13: The Injuries of Both
The falling rocks entombed his family, community, and all he knew. His ears were deafened by the colossal crashes and his eyes by the humungous dust clouds. He couldn't hear anything or see anything, and he felt as if he was coughing up blood, trying to free his throat from those all-encompassing streams and plumes of rocks and dirt, hellbent on suffocating him. He watched his home fall into a giant heap of dust, crushed under his own weight. He looked up towards the cloudy, grey skies, and saw a swarm of tiny, grey dots under the cloud cover. He needed to rescue his family. He stood to sprint towards them, only to see the first of the burning, red flames to fall from the sky.He awoke. The sun had not arisen. He laid awake, blanket thrown aside, for the rest of the night.The morning, his forth day at the facility, the newly named Jasper had learned over breakfast from under the glaring, wrathful eyes of Doctor Johnstone, occurred just like
The Boy who Circled Time Chapter 14: The Unethical Side of Love
Doctor Johnstone had woken up as she did every morning at 5:00 with her "roommate's" legs wrapped around her torso like she was some spider monkey. Although the bedroom technically had two beds, only one bed was ever used, with the other delegated to act as the table to throw the problems that the couple didn't want to solve. Currently, it was piled with unfolded clothes from the laundry yesterday.Doctor Johnstone looked over to that pile and sighed out loudly. "I'll do it Lisa," her roommate answered softly into her neck, her warm breath caressing her skin with those heavenly words. Lisa Johnstone hated folding clothes."Thanks Alice," she sighed out, bringing her arms up around Alice in a hug, leaning down to kiss her short, wavy, blonde hair.Lisa untangled herself from Alice, making sure to wrap the warm covers over her, watching her snuggle in for a some more sleep, and made her way to the bathroom to take her daily, twenty minute long, hot shower, thankfu
The Boy who Circled Time Chapter 15: One Pillow too Short of Comfort
Fire had run through the forest, alighting every bush, shrub, and tree, and creating giant, black plumes of smoke, chocking everything. It fell from the sky, from the clouds like rain, and Red_Two knew, peeled to the shattered cliff edge, that he could not go back. His legs shook and his entire body shivered, too weak to move against the burning stones fell from the community. He was sweating and crying and the dust in his eyes just wouldn't leave him alone. He tried to move away from the cliff edge, crawl at least to the cool of the river, but his body wouldn't listen to him. Hot bile rose from his stomach and Red_Two vomited off to the side.He lay face down on the floor, eyes glued to the upwards, gazing up at the floating city.He just wanted to close his eyes and see that everything was going to be alright. He wanted to wake up from his hellscape dream.He woke up.He woke up again.And again.And again.His name wa
The Boy who Circled Time Chapter 16: Catch the Reference
"My name's Alice, and today we're leaving Emmet to sleep off his two all-nighters. We're gonna have breakfast in the kitchen. Then you can go to your daily physio with the one and only Doctor Lisa Johnstone!"The blonde woman held Jasper up as if he were nothing, not even shaking sweating as he was propped up on her shoulder. He could feel the muscle his legs and found himself sweating.She carried him from the medical wing into the heart of the facility. Jasper had only known the route from his bed to Emmet's office, quite literally down the corridor. Jasper was carried through one long corridor, tilting his head, side to side to spy down the long halls and through the windows of the doors he could see.The facility had grey halls, but the halls and ceilings were at least white. The corridor ceilings had lights to illuminate wherever the sun's rays missed, flooding in from the windows at each turn. Jasper saw workroom tables with laptops behind them. They were
The Boy who Circled Time Chapter 17: Forks
Rehab consisted of practising walking and simple exercises and stretched under Doctor Johnstone's watchful eyes, with her strict hands correcting any imperfections with his posture as he moved through his motions. When he was finished for the day, Jasper didn't know what he was supposed to be doing now. Doctor Johnstone was writing up her reports and would be completing whatever research or work she would be doing.Alice would be doing whatever work she was doing and Emmet was asleep on his bed.He could search for his time machine and microchip, but he had no idea where it was, and it was highly likely that he was being watched at all time. He wasn't being trusted yet, and as a stranger who showed up one day who was massively injured.And now three people possibly knew that he didn't know what a mini trident was.Jasper had two viable options: could either make his way back to the common room or his own recovery room where Emmet was. If he went back to t
The Boy who Circled Time Chapter 18: Sitting Alone
Jasper had been in the common room for an hour and desperately needed paper and a pen. He thought about breaking into Emmet's office, but the lock conundrum arose again. He had no idea what he was supposed to. There was nothing to do but think and panic.There was nothing to do but look through the giant glass window towards the sea, sitting on a stool, keeping his back stiff. He couldn't sit on the beanbags as it would be bad for his back and Doctor Johnstone would correct him silently, doing her job and without comment, like a blank interface existing to mask the efficient, cold, unjudging code running on the machinery behind the back panel.She was so much like Sýnnefa, only she actually spoke, and didn't hide her face behind technology. She was still following programming. Everybody followed programming. It was natural.But what programming did he follow? A man who had followed Gryaz blindly then put sunglasses on to combat the harsh, grey glares of S
The Boy who Circled Time Chapter 19: Mirror, Mirror, On the Wall, Who is Bravest of them all?
The sand was dry and dusty, too slippery to grip by itself with his shrivelled, wet hands alone, but the grains had become more solid, and rough enough on his bruised, freezing skin to help him grip onto a large, gnarling, tree root. All he could miserably do was hold on, too weak to do more than keep his head above water and breathe. His arms burned and his stomach wailed. He wanted to cry but found that no tears were coming. He tried to make a sound, but nothing but a pathetic cracking noise emerged from his throat.Was it worth pulling himself to shore? Was it worth doing any of this? If he just let go, he would reunite everybody from Gryaz after he made the journey back in the afterlife, when his soul was severed from his useless, beaten body, strong, and ready to trek back to the gorge.And if he just let go, he wouldn't be in this river anymore, freezing cold and burning at the same time, the sensations mixing, overlapping and swirling in his chest, making him si
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