Grandiose Delusions pt. 2

The slice of the world that floated in his vision between his two eyelids expanded ever so slowly, until Mond had opened his eyes completely and saw what his world had become.

 What once he would have described as an abyss in hyperbole truly was an endless chamber of misty indigo. Chains of shadowy sapphire snakes slithered along the walls in between cracks of prismatic gold. 

In every direction ran rails of icy steel , carrying ethereal phantom trains that ran silently and without physicality. For years he had imagined the uncontrollably joyous celebration such a sight would induce from him, only now to simply stare in somber awe.

“Mond, you see it… you see the other side of the watch don't you?” Sonne’s tone was flat, analytical, but his eyes were on fire. “I do… Do you?” “No,” Sonne replied quickly, “ but I think it, all the time constantly, like it exists in the corners of my eyes, tickling my frontal cortex like a teasing demon with a quantum feather.”

Roses, along with the rest, caught their breath from the scare, each coming to terms with the event in their own flavors until of rationalization. Roses sneered softly to herself, “Sonne really did go out and find a mini-him didn’t he”

Mond kept his hands gripped tightly as he’d been instructed, feeling a painful sharp static running in his palms like he’d just grabbed an angry pinecone.

 He could feel the significance of it, the causal link in the acausal action, somewhere down the line a vital power component had burst a circuit, but something told him should he loosen his grip, it would get itself working again. “Just by chance, of course,” he whispered.

“Now’s as good a time as any” Sonne said, gesturing to his familiar audience, “everyone go ahead and take them as well”. 

MF and Roses looked to each other nodding, taking out medicine bottles and slipping the contents into their mouths. Vertigo pulled up a small yellow capsule that had been dangling like a necklace down her hoodie, popping it open and flicking the pill into her mouth, “Bottoms up chaps!”

Sonne stomped on the rails, walking back and forth on them along the tunnel to prove they'd been rendered inert. “Come on- lets get a move on, number nine’s bound to make its way back here eventually, and I get the feeling it doesn’t exactly obey the rules of conventionality all that nicely either.”

Vertigo was the first to leap down onto Nine’s line after Sonne, spinning on the slick metal like a manic ballerina, “What, you thinkin' the trains some kinda pill popper like us? Hah, guess you could call it a tweaker train” 

She giggled wildly , following behind Sonne as he and the others made their way down the dark cavern. Mond watched for a minute, wondering what would come next, from the group, from the train, from himself, before leaping down and running eagerly behind them into the deep dark twilight.

______________________________________________________________________________

By traditional description, Mond thought the tunnel seemed like the nightmare version of his dreams, yet he found the atmosphere more palatable than the existential pale lit hallways he was accustomed to. 

Surrounding walls of brick in every shade of velvet blue, shifting and scurrying along each other like sapphire scarabs. “So… will we all be seeing the same thing? Once your pills kick in?” Mond questioned, tracing his eyes along the temperamental architecture.”

“Oh they’ve been in effect, kick in almost immediately, you didn’t notice when you took yours?” Roses looked back at Mond, her black hair seemed to twinkle in the violet dust, but otherwise she seemed unchanged.

“It’s a bit of a silly question anyway isn’t it Mond?” Sonne asked from the front of the group, without turning his head. “Huh? Silly? I dont-” “Would you ask if someone could see the color blue the same as you do? Of course not, because even if they didn’t they would never be able to describe the difference to you right?”

Mond wasn’t sure how sound that particular bit of logic was, but he let it go, the others clearly perceived at least the basics of the environment as he did, considering their ease of navigation.

 Roses tapped his arm, leaning in to whisper, “It’s better not to ask too many questions, at least while we're in the middle of the high, too much self awareness can send you crashing down”. Now that was logic he understood all too well, when you’re letting this stuff into your mind it's all or nothing. Question things too much and you end up having to be saved by your best friend from a speeding truck. 

It was a concept he had to practice in the back of his mind, holding the electrical strings of fate tight in his fists so they didn’t all end up blown to high heaven. Being surrounded by the others however, he found it a relatively easy task to suspend his disbelief.

 They were like an anchor he used to peer over the edge of the existential waterfall, rooted firmly enough that he didn’t slip, but built with plenty of slack, so that he might peer over the edge.

“Ey Sonne! I gotta question-” MF shouted louder than he probably needed too, his heavy voice echoing through the shifting tunnel, “You said this train ain’t exactly gonna be normal, what’s that supposed to mean eh?”

“That’s something we're here to find out, but think about what we know already”, Sonne stopped and turned around in a large open crossroads, illuminated by rivers of crimson black neon streams that flowed across the ceiling, memories of the neon serpent sending shivers down Mond's spine.

Sonne continued, “A runaway train in a system this advanced is exceedingly rare on its own, but one that’s been uncatchable for this long going at such a speed is an oddity even in a world like ours”. 

It was clearly an exciting thought to all in the party, even Mahou's face seemed to light up at the novelty of such a mechanical cryptid existing in some capacity. An undeniable truth that teetered on the edge of the fantastic, it catered right to these peoples tastes.

The rail’s split into five paths, each vaguely lit with a different color that crawled its way out from an unimaginable distance at their ends. Everyone looked around the vast chamber, straining their eyes to see anything down any of the tunnels.

 “So this the part where we all split up, yeah?” MF remarked, spinning around to get a good look at everyone, arms out in physical expression. “Yeap! And I call the new kid!” Vertigo suddenly appeared behind Mond, leaping up on his back and causing them both to tumble to the floor, along with a small shriek that echoed down the five pronged intersection.

“Nope! Sorry tiny but he’s coming with me, gotta show the newbie how MF likes to move “ He lifted the still frazzled Mond to his feet by the back of his shirt like a scruffed cat, using just one huge hand. “Aww come’on that’s not fairrrrr” she appeared again seemingly out of nowhere, climbing up MF’s back till he threw her off him with a huff, another surprise appearance that got a scream out of Mond.

Sonne nodded plainly to the chaos, saying his piece, “ It’s best Mond goes with MF, he’s the most experienced of us other than myself, and I’ll need to go with Mahou given that he doesn't have any synchronicity control.

Mond looked at the Doctor in surprise “ Wait- you don’t have any kind of altered perception? But I thought you developed the pills in the first place”. Mahou closed his eyes and smiled gently, adjusting his glasses on his downturned face, “This kinda thing’s been around long before I ever made those things Mond, trust me. Well talk later, yeah?”

Sonne nodded in agreement, “Mahou is one of our greatest assets on his own merit, for one, we’ll need his expertise to help us find out exactly what went wrong with this train.”

 He stretched one arm out to point down a softly pale lit path, his sleeves rolling down just enough to show thin pale arms covered in bandages, and the two watches.  “We will head down this way, everyone else may choose their own route but be sure to stay in frequent contact, alright?”

Mond's eyes perked a bit, “Oh! Are we going to communicate with telepathy? Phenomena of twins or close teammates in sports having the same thoughts isn’t unheard of, we gonna try and exploit that?”

 Roses snorted out a small laugh, “ No hun, groupchat” she tapped her phone to his pocket, a tiny buzz running up his leg indicating a successful connection. She winked to him before turning around to Vertigo, already skipping down their own direction, “Trust me, you don't want too many voices in your head down here”.