[bbs]

[thatched]

Time is the most powerful force in existence.

If we let it run its course it's regimented, second by second, minute by minute, especially here in the Garden. You are told when to get up, when to eat, when to learn, when to fight and even when to goof off. Time effects everyone, whether it wears them down to bones and dust or if they stand outside it and watch those they care about get worn down; powerless to save them or start the clock for themselves.

My old man was one of the strongest in our world. He had 1600 loyal men and allies who would fight for him. He could cause tsunamis that could wipe out entire villages with one fist. We all who served him and would give our lives for him thought it would last forever. But time caught up with him. Even before the great war which he gave himself to, time was pecking away at him, running out and soon he will be nothing but bones and dust.

It's no wonder that people want to learn how to use time. Manipulate the threads between their fingers. What could be the harm in pulling here, yanking there, stopping time completely or even changing the past. If a great man could have lived one more day then damn the consequences. If you are happy then what else matters? One person's gain is another's loss, but what does it matter if you are that person or they are your people?

I want to stop time. To live in this half-world with people I love forever.

But then I remember, one of the greatest men in our world, even greater in some ways then my old man. His time did not just run out, he chose when it did. The exact hour. The exact way. And though he has been gone some twenty years, his name lives on. There is not one person in my world who doesn't know it. Very few who aren't touched by his legacy good and bad. And it was this legacy that he left that gave me one of my closest friends.

Through him, I remember that even when my old man is bones and dust, his legacy will carry on through the will of the people that remember him. It is the same for the people who die here. Who disappear into compression, or their own clocks run down.

One day that might just be me. But I won't stand here, wasting the moments I have on mourning what has yet to happen. Maybe I will run with time, maybe I will stand outside of it--but I just want to say:

Almost six years ago, on October 30th this world's time, I died.

This world gave me a second chance.

And I am ready to take it.

Comments

[BBS] + [PM]

[redcinemareel]

[The post is quite a read, and she knows that it took some effort for him to say as much, and be willing to live by his proclamation. The same man so opposed to moving on before and refuting anything else. But she wonders what brought this on.]

I'm glad you are ready. It's really more than what we could ask for.

[PM]

Are you alright?

[PM]

[thatched]

To be honest? No. I'm halfway out of town and I don't know what the hell to do with myself. It's a gorgeous night, though. Come join me? We can have champagne. A little moonlight rendezvous before the great sparkly chicken starts freaking out?

[PM] --> [ACTION]

[redcinemareel]

[Halfway out of town?!

Grell doesn't really bother with a reply and just appears next to him, wearing a red, button down dress with a black waist cinch and black heels. The weather was nice enough to not need a jacket for the moment.]

I'm sure he'll panic quite soon.

[jointheclub]

Thinking like all that in the middle there is precisely why Time Turners are regulated, and good job of it too. (Well, if they hadn't all been smashed.)

No call for all the melancholy, though. Take the word of an old man who's seen many good men and women die young. It isn't how much time, it's how well you use it!

[thatched]

[He can be melancholic all he likes you stuff-shirted supercilious twit.]

It's what I was getting at, aye.

[only, you know, being subtle]

What's a time turner?

[jointheclub]

[It's a fair cop.]

Time travel devices. An hour back in time for each turn you give it. Dreadfully dangerous though. Highly restricted. And as I noted, all wrecked. Smashed to bits during the incident in the Department of Mysteries, I hear tell.

[mera_mera_ace]

[Ace had read all of this and then instead of replying had walked down the hall to his room. Upon realizing he wasn't there he returned to his own and replied to his BBS]

Where are you?

[thatched]

That depends on how much you want to roast me.

[mera_mera_ace]

I don't wanna roast you at all, I wanna make sure you're alright. [It wasn't a lie. He loved his brother and he did want to make sure he was alright....before he roasted him.]

BBS

[om_nom_namur]

Tldr what you getting at bro?

[He might go back and read it later. >.> Maybe.]

BBS

[thatched]

Nothing important, Nam-chan. Just rambling. Having a good night?

BBS

[om_nom_namur]

Uhh... sure? Got lessons tomorrow so. Just taking a break from proteins and shits like that. What you up to?

1/? AS THATCH KNEW; Marco has a freakout

[fierybluebird]

[Huh. Well. That was... unexpected.]

2/?

[fierybluebird]

[Oh lovely, and Thatch even knows the day he died. Awesome.]

3/?

[fierybluebird]

[And also just announced to the world that Whitebeard was dead... the detail Marco was trying most to keep secret from Ace. Or had he figured it out already?]

4/?

[fierybluebird]

[You know what? Fuck time. No. Seriously. Fuck it.]

5/? BBS

[fierybluebird]

Time is illusion constructed by mankind as a means of measurement. It's relevance is only what people apply to it.

Perhaps it should be no surprise then that most would use it for their own whims, I certainly would if I had the power.

- Marco

6/?

[fierybluebird]

[So far as Marco's concerned, all time is crammed together in a headache he doesn't want to deal with.]

[How long had he known Espio, Grell, Namur, Thatch? It didn't matter.]

[All that mattered was what he applied to the significance of the amount he knew them and how "much" that even was.]

[What was time?]

[A fucking illusion.]

[But a tangible one.]

7/?

[fierybluebird]

[What does time mean to a phoenix? How many years went by while his brothers ages? While his father's once blond tresses turned white and then bald? While his son grew up or backwards?]

[Oh, aye. Time affected him, to be sure, but never directly.]

[Couldn't he choose then to avoid it entirely?]

[Yes, but only in the same way as avoiding all people.]

8/?

[fierybluebird]

[Wasn't it better this way? To be grounded in the same "time frame" as everyone else? As if time could frame anything.]

[But still, to walk on the ground, to sail the seas, and to...]

[Watch it all fade.]

9/12

[fierybluebird]

[Okay, so maybe he hated it.

[A lot.]

[It was like everything was a broken clock. Not frozen, oh no. Just running as chaotically as possible.]

[As impossible.]

[Wasn't that a good thing? When clocks could only move forward, people like Thatch were lost forever.]

[Maybe it's not time that Marco hates, just forever.]






[Oh yes, that's definitely the one.]

[To be fair, anything absolute like that is something Marco hates.]

[Even absolute vengeance is fucked up, so far as he's concerned.]

10/12

[fierybluebird]

[So where does that leave him?]

[Here and now, glad that Thatch is taking what he can, like a pirate should.]

[Good.]

[And Marco is still a part of the fucked up clock, never going the same direction more than he feels like it, but isn't that good too?]

[He misses people, but that's always. Toby, Pops, his whole god damned 1600+ family. But they were safe from time, and Thatch and Ace were moving forward on separate timelines, and for that, Marco is grateful.]

11/12

[fierybluebird]

[Had Marco been hiding away again? He can't remember. Time tended to slip by him like that. He knew he spent his birthday with Espio instead, but that was fine, wasn't it?]

[And Ace and Espio he was still trying to get to be roommates since Espio needed the warmth and Ace needed the attention.]

[Che.]

[Time.]

[Maybe he hates time after all. If she's a harsh mistress, she could at least be as sexy as Grell. Jeez.]

[Let's see, half a year until Pops' birthday when Marco typically reserved his most outward grieving for, and Thatch's deathday was the day before Grell's birthday, half a year away from Pops.]

[Awesome.]

[More things that would mean nothing naturally on their own, but because people placed significance on them------]

12/12

[fierybluebird]

[Even in his own thoughts, he's getting lost. No. Purposely avoiding being in the moment, because frankly? Fuck this moment. Yes, that's much better.]

[This moment sucks.]

[He's annoyed, he's not doing much, everything flies past him and he can't keep up, and doesn't that just scream a bad omen for back home?]

[Yes, yes it does.]

[But as they say, no time like the present.]

[And speaking of harsh mistresses, he better go rescue Thatch. Or seduce him and Grell? Or make sure they don't seduce each other too much. Actually what is too much? Aside from which --]

[Oh lord, the Kitten is on the loose!]

[FLY! FLY FASTER!]

[Or maybe he should give them time?]

[NO FUCK THAT. HE IS THE CAPTAIN, HE WILL BE SELFISH. BWAHAHAHAHAH.]

[thatched]

[it isn't long before he spots the phoenix glimmering blue fire in the air and puts his fingers in his mouth to whistle shrilly to him before holding out his arm. Marco will either alight majestically or peck him viciously in the head]