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ENW Short Story Smackdown Summer 07 (Winner Announced)
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<blockquote data-quote="Trench" data-source="post: 3782774" data-attributes="member: 40464"><p>May The Air Bring You Down</p><p></p><p>by Shawn Feakins</p><p></p><p>Kendrick ran as quickly as he could, adjusting his helmet as he did. He climbed up the side of the formation, lichen getting under his fingernails only to be gouged out by weeds. He hopped on one foot as he struggled to get on the ridiculous striped tights. He couldn't wait till this ritual fell under the waves of something new. Of course, by then, he would be cycled into something new as well. Perhaps a storyteller or a history changer. Regardless, for now, he was a ritual minder.</p><p></p><p>He groaned as he saw Azure and Mere had already claimed their spots at the bell and mouthpiece of the horn. He grit his teeth and knelt down to duck under pitted brass horn, specks of dirt still caked inside the dents from where they excavated it. Mere could barely hold up her end, so he struggled- his arms slipping to one side of the horn while propping most of the weight on his right shoulder. It was painful. The vibrations of the lasting horn massaged his screaming muscles, although the blast of stale air and dust that came out the other end must not have been pleasant for Mere. There was a cry from below as the crowd heard their call to begin their changes.</p><p></p><p><a href="http://www.enworld.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=30746" target="_blank">http://www.enworld.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=30746</a></p><p></p><p>Azure dumped his mouthpiece end unceremoniously and the horn clattered to the stones. He nodded. "Well gents, its been fun."</p><p></p><p>"Your time is up?" Mere asked, sniffling.</p><p></p><p>"On to wherever the Wind blows me."</p><p></p><p>"Well good luck then," Mere shakes Azure's hand. "Let me know what your new name is if you're still here."</p><p></p><p>"Likewise," Kendrick said, not as enthusiastically.</p><p></p><p>As Azure took a final look and left, Kendrick took off his helmet and rubbed his shoulder. He looked down to the plaza below. Already, people were piling their old possessions onto the ancient straight-cloth wing/sail transports. The chimerical vehicles were two months (two months!) old and the zeppelin freights had been shipped down by the Star Dwellers. This promised to be a Big Splash, and the people were feverish in anticipation. Some were naked as they threw in their clothes in a fit of zeal. They would most likely regret it as their bodies would remain most likely unclothed till the next clothing shipment next week. But for now Kendrick watched the orgy of metamorphosis as their city shed itself and turned into something new again. The square looked like a kaleidoscope of merging and babbling color- the parrots fluttering about and squawking throwing a decidedly tropical air to the proceedings. Since they were high on a mountain top, Kendrick could appreciate that.</p><p></p><p>Kendrick's eyes were attracted to the one still spot on the edge of this miasma. A young girl stood very out of place in clothes that were nearly six months old. It was a wonder she hadn't been stripped for it. Her wide-brim grey-felt hat stood out amidst the dancing colors. But just as startling was the rhino, a creature that had gone out of style nearly a year ago. Most people gave her and it a wide berth (which is simply good sense when dealing with a rhino...). She looked like a rock stubbornly set against the tide of change, which was dangerous. The Wind wouldn’t allow it.</p><p></p><p>"Going to head down?" Mere tapped Kendrick on the shoulder.</p><p></p><p>"Yeah sure," he said.</p><p></p><p>"Won't be long till this goes under the waves," mere kicks the gargoyle looking out from their perch. "I'm feeling crusty already."</p><p></p><p>"It's only been two weeks," Kendrick says.</p><p></p><p>"Long enough. Come on. I don't want to miss it."</p><p></p><p>The zeppelin freighters towed them out while their difference engines wound down. The priests had never liked the requirement on improbability for the vehicles, so these zeppelins were a welcome arrival- for the time they would be here. The sails and wings of the transports looked ratty and torn, as few people cared for them near the end of the year of their use. Screens projected their descent into the waves as the zeppelins tossed them out of the holds to have them careen into the deep, unchangeable deep. A burst of superheated plasma came from the chimney of one just before it splashed down, and a burst of applause came from the crowd in response to it's splash.</p><p></p><p><a href="http://www.enworld.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=30745" target="_blank">http://www.enworld.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=30745</a></p><p></p><p>"The Air is holy," the priests said- wearing a frock of discarded bird feathers. "The Air changes and sweeps and is free. The air holds the Water at bay. The Water that shifts yet never changes. That is always there in it's terrifying solidity. By destroying the old, we are the wind. Remember the sin of attachment. Remember the sin of permanence. In Change, we touch Divinity. We use what the Air gives us, and in this we become close to it."</p><p></p><p>The crowd murmured its agreement. Kendrick watched the girl lead her rhino away from the crowd.</p><p></p><p>~</p><p></p><p>The next time he saw her, he wasn't Kendrick. He was Gypsum. Mere had long been sent to the Deep Area and Gypsum was sure he wouldn't recognize him afterward. That's how it always worked. Nonetheless, Mere (when he was Mere) got him into the Air Wielding so he went today.</p><p></p><p>The teams were something called "Japan" and "USA"- more clothing taken from the Air. This would be the last game played with these teams as new uniforms were found recently. The crowd roared as the hollow boned athletes rolled onto the floor. It was midway through (Japan leading asteriks to 8) that she saw her again.</p><p></p><p>She sat at one corner of the court, knees tucked up to her chin and wearing the same grey felt hat. Her clothes were different, but the flower dress was still an antiquated piece of clothing that made others shy away from her nervously. She didn't seem to mind. She simply pet her rhino and watched the game with sad eyes. Gypsum wasn't sure why, but he walked over anyway.</p><p></p><p><a href="http://www.enworld.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=30747" target="_blank">http://www.enworld.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=30747</a></p><p></p><p>"What name does he have this time?" Gypsum ran his hands over the rough rhino hide.</p><p></p><p>"Same name he's always had. Tide."</p><p></p><p>Gypsum balked at that, both the uncomfortable name and the fact that it had been his always. He peered into the rhino's eyes and was surprised to see them milky and sightless. "He's blind," he almost gasped.</p><p></p><p>"That’s what happens when you get old," she said as the crowd cheered on a particularly effortless lay-up.</p><p></p><p>"I...see..." Gypsum's hand slowly moved away from the rhino to drop uncomfortably to his side. He felt his skin crawl with... with age. With something that lasted.</p><p></p><p>They didn't talk the rest of the match. After it was over the crowd filtered out. The girl picked some of the flowers growing by her feet and put them behind the rhino's ears as they walked out.</p><p></p><p>"If...uh... You don't mind me asking..."</p><p></p><p>"Why do I keep him?" she said. "Because I love him, and just because something is old doesn't mean we throw them away. Sometimes having something stick around can be a good thing."</p><p></p><p>Gypsum blushed and looked around to see if anyone heard. "Ah, that's a little... ah... It's not safe to get attached to things. The Wind could change and the Water can come up to us and wash it all away again. It's happened before-"</p><p></p><p>"-And it will happen again, I know," she said. "But is that any reason not to have a home? We're always in this constant state of getting used to something. New jobs, new names, new pets, new clothes. Don't you ever want to just sit?"</p><p></p><p>Gypsum had honestly never thought about it before.</p><p></p><p>~</p><p>They would meet at the games. She would often sit in the same spot again and again. Sometimes she would have to argue with people who insisted on her spot for a change of pace. Usually when he came over as well, they walked away sullenly- eager to demonstrate their lack of attachment. Tide would chew contentedly on the grass as they watched the chairs wheel and pivot and dive past each other to get to the net.</p><p></p><p>"You know why I like watching them?" she said once.</p><p></p><p>"Why?"</p><p></p><p>"Because of their bones. They've had to get so many surgeries to hollow out their bones to be that light. They can't even hold themselves up any more. But even in the chairs, they can fly."</p><p></p><p>To illustrate her point, one of the team flew up in the air to tap the bullseye above the net. The crowd cheered as the chair pivoted on the ring and floated down.</p><p></p><p><a href="http://www.enworld.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=30748" target="_blank">http://www.enworld.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=30748</a></p><p> </p><p>"But once their turn is up... I mean most people hate getting this shift. The surgeries are painful and there's certainly the adulation. They mirror the birds we admire. I've even heard the priests say it's the most important job one can do, entertain. They always say we should be thankful for their sacrifice, but..." Gypsum shook his head. "But this is it for them. If they get a new occupation that they can't do before the next surgeries blow by..."</p><p></p><p>"The get put out Above the Waves," she nods. "I know. No attachments even to our own."</p><p></p><p>"So why do you admire them?"</p><p></p><p>"Because no one's body is ever quite the same after their tenure as a Ball-Bird. They're always a little lighter... and that's permanent. They have scars, have you seen them?"</p><p></p><p>Gypsum shuddered. He didn't, but he had seen those wavy, raised white lines of flesh- a terrible thing to see. They were a permanent mark on a body that you couldn't change with paints and henna and dieting and gorging. Most people tried their best to hide them.</p><p></p><p>"It shows that something ACTUALLY happened in their lives. That they did something besides flit around."</p><p></p><p>She looks hard at the court as the Ball-Bird's wheel about. "I hate the fact that this land has turned flying into something to be ashamed of."</p><p></p><p>~</p><p></p><p>His name changed again. He became Ellis. And through it all her rhino got older and more rheumy-eyed and he told her things. She told him how her father would read to her from blasphemous texts. "History" books. She told him how they lived on trash that was thrown from people living in the stars and thought it was something holy when it was not. She told him how the people who could afford to, left this world long ago and had built something permanent- and that THAT was the true nature of humanity. Not living off what the Air gave but being like the water. Shifting yet never changing.</p><p></p><p>He was beginning to feel attached to her, and he felt shame. He shifted jobs to the difficult duties of Stonecarver to the pleasing job of Grower. And still he found her, no matter how different he looked she always looked the same. He grew to know her. He knew her father's name and what he did. What jobs she liked and didn't. Where she got her hat from. He began to know her and inside himself he felt something shifting. Shifting like the tides.</p><p></p><p>And then it all came crashing.</p><p></p><p>~</p><p></p><p>Logically, he was surprised it took so long. The rhino had been walking around getting older and ore feeble and reminded the others of what could happen. People became familiar with it, and that made them uncomfortable.</p><p></p><p>He wasn't there. If he were, he may have been able to stop it. But as it happened, he didn't know about it till he came back from his current job at the Scavenging Piles. And as he walked back to the hovel that was his home for this cycle he saw Tide. Flayed out in the Town Square and having his parts be picked over by others. Bladders and stomachs were being turned into canteens and balloons. Skin was being stitched into flags and shoes and being made into something that would be thrown away in a few weeks time.</p><p></p><p>In a pile, nearby, he saw the grey hat.</p><p></p><p>He ached. He knew he could never see her again. He went out Above the Waves to see where they hung her. There, surrounded by the unlucky Ball-Bird players and those too old to change easily any more- she lay swaddled in cloth. He cried out to her, but no answer came. None ever did. People never knew what the priests did. Before they punished those who defied the transitory nature of life. For those who transgressed, they were sent to hang Above the Waves, suspended in the Holy Air as it whipped around and changed until the Air was too much and dropped them below the cold, immutable Water. Where all the Old was placed to rust and disintegrate. There would be no air burial for these, they would simply be swallowed by the Water. The terrible, hungry Deep.</p><p></p><p><a href="http://www.enworld.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=30744" target="_blank">http://www.enworld.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=30744</a></p><p></p><p>He slept there. Talked to her. He left only to go to his job. The worst days were those that when he came back a new one had replaced one that had fallen. Each time he wondered if it was hers.</p><p></p><p>Eventually, all of them were new. As it should be.</p><p></p><p>He wished for permanence. He cursed the change that took her. He would draw her. He had no skill for it, but carving was another matter. His hands would move across the fruit that they would be given and that they found and he felt air in his veins. He felt Water in his heart as he shaped sensuous melons, bitter oranges, unyielding apples, and gory pomegranates. He worked on those times when he did not work. His names changed. People would ask him or see him carve and get uncomfortable. To carve a face was a soft blasphemy. The face revealed our emotions. The face was the Air in its mutability. It betrays our moods like the wind betrays the moods of the earth. He realized that the Air and the Water were not that different. The air mirrors the Water below, our inability to see the air represents the unknown below the waters.</p><p></p><p>But it wasn’t enough. All the food rotted and decayed. Just like her. It never stayed long enough.</p><p></p><p>One day, he looked at his most recent work as felt terror. He saw a half hint of a smile that she never had. She had earrings that she never wore. And worse yet, her eyes... her were shadows.</p><p></p><p><a href="http://www.enworld.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=30749" target="_blank">http://www.enworld.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=30749</a></p><p></p><p>It was horrible. All his attempts to blaspheme, to make something last, and even then his mind betrayed him. He looked down at the carving knife in his hands and cursed it. The face, bloody with melon innards smirked at his pain.</p><p></p><p>It was the color that inspired him. He closed his eyes. He chose a name for himself. A name he would take with him. He opened his shirt and started carving.</p><p></p><p>His scars would be permanent waves to drown the airy sentiments of the wisdom of non-attachment. He would walk shirtless and watch mothers shield those children whom they had for that month's eyes. They would see her face staring at them always and forever. Until one day, when he finally threw their denial, their lie back in their face for one too many times- they would come for him. They would hang him Above the Waves. And he would rock himself to sleep in his cloth coffin, waiting for the Air to take him somewhere that mattered.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Trench, post: 3782774, member: 40464"] May The Air Bring You Down by Shawn Feakins Kendrick ran as quickly as he could, adjusting his helmet as he did. He climbed up the side of the formation, lichen getting under his fingernails only to be gouged out by weeds. He hopped on one foot as he struggled to get on the ridiculous striped tights. He couldn't wait till this ritual fell under the waves of something new. Of course, by then, he would be cycled into something new as well. Perhaps a storyteller or a history changer. Regardless, for now, he was a ritual minder. He groaned as he saw Azure and Mere had already claimed their spots at the bell and mouthpiece of the horn. He grit his teeth and knelt down to duck under pitted brass horn, specks of dirt still caked inside the dents from where they excavated it. Mere could barely hold up her end, so he struggled- his arms slipping to one side of the horn while propping most of the weight on his right shoulder. It was painful. The vibrations of the lasting horn massaged his screaming muscles, although the blast of stale air and dust that came out the other end must not have been pleasant for Mere. There was a cry from below as the crowd heard their call to begin their changes. [url]http://www.enworld.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=30746[/url] Azure dumped his mouthpiece end unceremoniously and the horn clattered to the stones. He nodded. "Well gents, its been fun." "Your time is up?" Mere asked, sniffling. "On to wherever the Wind blows me." "Well good luck then," Mere shakes Azure's hand. "Let me know what your new name is if you're still here." "Likewise," Kendrick said, not as enthusiastically. As Azure took a final look and left, Kendrick took off his helmet and rubbed his shoulder. He looked down to the plaza below. Already, people were piling their old possessions onto the ancient straight-cloth wing/sail transports. The chimerical vehicles were two months (two months!) old and the zeppelin freights had been shipped down by the Star Dwellers. This promised to be a Big Splash, and the people were feverish in anticipation. Some were naked as they threw in their clothes in a fit of zeal. They would most likely regret it as their bodies would remain most likely unclothed till the next clothing shipment next week. But for now Kendrick watched the orgy of metamorphosis as their city shed itself and turned into something new again. The square looked like a kaleidoscope of merging and babbling color- the parrots fluttering about and squawking throwing a decidedly tropical air to the proceedings. Since they were high on a mountain top, Kendrick could appreciate that. Kendrick's eyes were attracted to the one still spot on the edge of this miasma. A young girl stood very out of place in clothes that were nearly six months old. It was a wonder she hadn't been stripped for it. Her wide-brim grey-felt hat stood out amidst the dancing colors. But just as startling was the rhino, a creature that had gone out of style nearly a year ago. Most people gave her and it a wide berth (which is simply good sense when dealing with a rhino...). She looked like a rock stubbornly set against the tide of change, which was dangerous. The Wind wouldn’t allow it. "Going to head down?" Mere tapped Kendrick on the shoulder. "Yeah sure," he said. "Won't be long till this goes under the waves," mere kicks the gargoyle looking out from their perch. "I'm feeling crusty already." "It's only been two weeks," Kendrick says. "Long enough. Come on. I don't want to miss it." The zeppelin freighters towed them out while their difference engines wound down. The priests had never liked the requirement on improbability for the vehicles, so these zeppelins were a welcome arrival- for the time they would be here. The sails and wings of the transports looked ratty and torn, as few people cared for them near the end of the year of their use. Screens projected their descent into the waves as the zeppelins tossed them out of the holds to have them careen into the deep, unchangeable deep. A burst of superheated plasma came from the chimney of one just before it splashed down, and a burst of applause came from the crowd in response to it's splash. [url]http://www.enworld.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=30745[/url] "The Air is holy," the priests said- wearing a frock of discarded bird feathers. "The Air changes and sweeps and is free. The air holds the Water at bay. The Water that shifts yet never changes. That is always there in it's terrifying solidity. By destroying the old, we are the wind. Remember the sin of attachment. Remember the sin of permanence. In Change, we touch Divinity. We use what the Air gives us, and in this we become close to it." The crowd murmured its agreement. Kendrick watched the girl lead her rhino away from the crowd. ~ The next time he saw her, he wasn't Kendrick. He was Gypsum. Mere had long been sent to the Deep Area and Gypsum was sure he wouldn't recognize him afterward. That's how it always worked. Nonetheless, Mere (when he was Mere) got him into the Air Wielding so he went today. The teams were something called "Japan" and "USA"- more clothing taken from the Air. This would be the last game played with these teams as new uniforms were found recently. The crowd roared as the hollow boned athletes rolled onto the floor. It was midway through (Japan leading asteriks to 8) that she saw her again. She sat at one corner of the court, knees tucked up to her chin and wearing the same grey felt hat. Her clothes were different, but the flower dress was still an antiquated piece of clothing that made others shy away from her nervously. She didn't seem to mind. She simply pet her rhino and watched the game with sad eyes. Gypsum wasn't sure why, but he walked over anyway. [url]http://www.enworld.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=30747[/url] "What name does he have this time?" Gypsum ran his hands over the rough rhino hide. "Same name he's always had. Tide." Gypsum balked at that, both the uncomfortable name and the fact that it had been his always. He peered into the rhino's eyes and was surprised to see them milky and sightless. "He's blind," he almost gasped. "That’s what happens when you get old," she said as the crowd cheered on a particularly effortless lay-up. "I...see..." Gypsum's hand slowly moved away from the rhino to drop uncomfortably to his side. He felt his skin crawl with... with age. With something that lasted. They didn't talk the rest of the match. After it was over the crowd filtered out. The girl picked some of the flowers growing by her feet and put them behind the rhino's ears as they walked out. "If...uh... You don't mind me asking..." "Why do I keep him?" she said. "Because I love him, and just because something is old doesn't mean we throw them away. Sometimes having something stick around can be a good thing." Gypsum blushed and looked around to see if anyone heard. "Ah, that's a little... ah... It's not safe to get attached to things. The Wind could change and the Water can come up to us and wash it all away again. It's happened before-" "-And it will happen again, I know," she said. "But is that any reason not to have a home? We're always in this constant state of getting used to something. New jobs, new names, new pets, new clothes. Don't you ever want to just sit?" Gypsum had honestly never thought about it before. ~ They would meet at the games. She would often sit in the same spot again and again. Sometimes she would have to argue with people who insisted on her spot for a change of pace. Usually when he came over as well, they walked away sullenly- eager to demonstrate their lack of attachment. Tide would chew contentedly on the grass as they watched the chairs wheel and pivot and dive past each other to get to the net. "You know why I like watching them?" she said once. "Why?" "Because of their bones. They've had to get so many surgeries to hollow out their bones to be that light. They can't even hold themselves up any more. But even in the chairs, they can fly." To illustrate her point, one of the team flew up in the air to tap the bullseye above the net. The crowd cheered as the chair pivoted on the ring and floated down. [url]http://www.enworld.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=30748[/url] "But once their turn is up... I mean most people hate getting this shift. The surgeries are painful and there's certainly the adulation. They mirror the birds we admire. I've even heard the priests say it's the most important job one can do, entertain. They always say we should be thankful for their sacrifice, but..." Gypsum shook his head. "But this is it for them. If they get a new occupation that they can't do before the next surgeries blow by..." "The get put out Above the Waves," she nods. "I know. No attachments even to our own." "So why do you admire them?" "Because no one's body is ever quite the same after their tenure as a Ball-Bird. They're always a little lighter... and that's permanent. They have scars, have you seen them?" Gypsum shuddered. He didn't, but he had seen those wavy, raised white lines of flesh- a terrible thing to see. They were a permanent mark on a body that you couldn't change with paints and henna and dieting and gorging. Most people tried their best to hide them. "It shows that something ACTUALLY happened in their lives. That they did something besides flit around." She looks hard at the court as the Ball-Bird's wheel about. "I hate the fact that this land has turned flying into something to be ashamed of." ~ His name changed again. He became Ellis. And through it all her rhino got older and more rheumy-eyed and he told her things. She told him how her father would read to her from blasphemous texts. "History" books. She told him how they lived on trash that was thrown from people living in the stars and thought it was something holy when it was not. She told him how the people who could afford to, left this world long ago and had built something permanent- and that THAT was the true nature of humanity. Not living off what the Air gave but being like the water. Shifting yet never changing. He was beginning to feel attached to her, and he felt shame. He shifted jobs to the difficult duties of Stonecarver to the pleasing job of Grower. And still he found her, no matter how different he looked she always looked the same. He grew to know her. He knew her father's name and what he did. What jobs she liked and didn't. Where she got her hat from. He began to know her and inside himself he felt something shifting. Shifting like the tides. And then it all came crashing. ~ Logically, he was surprised it took so long. The rhino had been walking around getting older and ore feeble and reminded the others of what could happen. People became familiar with it, and that made them uncomfortable. He wasn't there. If he were, he may have been able to stop it. But as it happened, he didn't know about it till he came back from his current job at the Scavenging Piles. And as he walked back to the hovel that was his home for this cycle he saw Tide. Flayed out in the Town Square and having his parts be picked over by others. Bladders and stomachs were being turned into canteens and balloons. Skin was being stitched into flags and shoes and being made into something that would be thrown away in a few weeks time. In a pile, nearby, he saw the grey hat. He ached. He knew he could never see her again. He went out Above the Waves to see where they hung her. There, surrounded by the unlucky Ball-Bird players and those too old to change easily any more- she lay swaddled in cloth. He cried out to her, but no answer came. None ever did. People never knew what the priests did. Before they punished those who defied the transitory nature of life. For those who transgressed, they were sent to hang Above the Waves, suspended in the Holy Air as it whipped around and changed until the Air was too much and dropped them below the cold, immutable Water. Where all the Old was placed to rust and disintegrate. There would be no air burial for these, they would simply be swallowed by the Water. The terrible, hungry Deep. [url]http://www.enworld.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=30744[/url] He slept there. Talked to her. He left only to go to his job. The worst days were those that when he came back a new one had replaced one that had fallen. Each time he wondered if it was hers. Eventually, all of them were new. As it should be. He wished for permanence. He cursed the change that took her. He would draw her. He had no skill for it, but carving was another matter. His hands would move across the fruit that they would be given and that they found and he felt air in his veins. He felt Water in his heart as he shaped sensuous melons, bitter oranges, unyielding apples, and gory pomegranates. He worked on those times when he did not work. His names changed. People would ask him or see him carve and get uncomfortable. To carve a face was a soft blasphemy. The face revealed our emotions. The face was the Air in its mutability. It betrays our moods like the wind betrays the moods of the earth. He realized that the Air and the Water were not that different. The air mirrors the Water below, our inability to see the air represents the unknown below the waters. But it wasn’t enough. All the food rotted and decayed. Just like her. It never stayed long enough. One day, he looked at his most recent work as felt terror. He saw a half hint of a smile that she never had. She had earrings that she never wore. And worse yet, her eyes... her were shadows. [url]http://www.enworld.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=30749[/url] It was horrible. All his attempts to blaspheme, to make something last, and even then his mind betrayed him. He looked down at the carving knife in his hands and cursed it. The face, bloody with melon innards smirked at his pain. It was the color that inspired him. He closed his eyes. He chose a name for himself. A name he would take with him. He opened his shirt and started carving. His scars would be permanent waves to drown the airy sentiments of the wisdom of non-attachment. He would walk shirtless and watch mothers shield those children whom they had for that month's eyes. They would see her face staring at them always and forever. Until one day, when he finally threw their denial, their lie back in their face for one too many times- they would come for him. They would hang him Above the Waves. And he would rock himself to sleep in his cloth coffin, waiting for the Air to take him somewhere that mattered. [/QUOTE]
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