>>6035470The competition was over, and the winner had been declared. After all, I landed silver place. Joco said it was fine, the gold standard was dead anyway in old Woldoria, so thank goodness he could never be in Jenk's earshot. I decided that the true victory for me was that, I'd gotten to see so many unique people, unique to worlds beyond my own. Or, was it truly that beyond the Milky Way after all, given all that I came to find out? Could just be the upper reaches of imagination. *Their imagination*. Maybe in the end, this was just me getting a glimpse of that. The possibilities, and riddles that lied at the end of the expanding pathways. Dreams. Just that. Dreams and fictions. It was a lot of thinking I was doing about thinking.
The real loss of this tournament to me, was that I was left with more questions than answers about these dreams, both vague and vulgar, among those I'd seen who made it and got to compete, and those who didn't get the chance alike.
[NEGAI] "DREAMS ARE NICE, ARE THEY NOT?"
'Yes. It is a shame that not too many people where we come from can have them.'
[NEGAI] "WOULDN'T IT BE NICE IF SUCH DREAMS COULD BE SET FREE?"
All around me was black again, the proverbial hand had shut around me. His fingers clasped, and I was gone before anyone knew it.
'...'
'Is this why I got to come here and do this? Did any of this actually happen, master? Or was this really just something you set up, to show me more? More about the stories you have as Senex?'
[SENEX] "IF YOU HAVE TO ASK..."
'Hmph. Well, I did enjoy it. No matter my own wonders of solipsism.' I said, grasping the necklace I'd been given by that wonderful figure just prior to my departure from the events; 'But I know you want me to do something with it.'
[NEGAI] "INTERNALIZE, MY PROGENY. YOU INTERNALIZE."
'Internalize?'
[NEGAI] "WHAT YOU HAVE SEEN AND LEARNED OF THE DREAMS OF THOSE POSSESSED BY IMAGINATION."
Internalize what I've experienced... internalize what I've posited. Use it, anyway I can. The dreams were probably not real, not in the respect I might have thought they were, but there are dreams like them, and they need to be set free. Whether that means I tear down the Axis Mundi, or anything...
[NEGAI] "..."
...or any*one* in my way. I think that was the moral of this story about witnessing dreams.
I blinked. The fingers had let go. I was no longer in a dream or a vision. I was just back home, in my room at the Bunker... ...and I opened my hand. I certainly still felt something I grasped. I saw it was the... necklace I was gifted by that Anofelis. The shining nanite necklace with a pretty blue countenance. I smiled at the thing, prodding it with my thumb.
This was what I internalized. What I got for seeing those dreams of other worlds to the finish.
Won't do anything for me except make me look even more amazing... Nah. It will help!
"Thanks, Anofelis. I won't forget you."
(Received ADD: Ano's Necklace.)
(Effect: 30% more damage to Sefirot Bodies.)
