Sick Days and Golden Cities
The four horsemen of the apocalypse were beings of utter despair and merciless destruction. Oh, woe were the pains they brought with them into the world. Noire was being tormented by every single member of the foursome, at least from his point of view.
War. His body was in an utter state of battle with the wretched intruder that targeted him, the spiritual and physical toll on him vast and never ending. This was not a battle he could flee from, nor surrender.
Famine. He had no energy to eat anything, the grossness and fatigue he felt made filling his stomach feel like too much of a chore with not enough benefit at the moment. Truly, his body was one of mild nausea and disgust all wrapped into a sloppy bundle of sweat and groans. Ironically, eating would likely improve his condition. Shame he didn’t push a little harder to eat.
Pestilence. His body was being ravaged by sickness and neverending fever. Congestion, coughing, shivers and hot flashes. Ough, how much worse would he become before he started getting better? He wanted an answer, he wanted some being from beyond, demonic OR angelic to reach down and offer him a resolution to his pleas.
DEATH. What he feared was in store for his frail, pathetic little body that couldn’t fight off a single sickness rotating around the community. He didn’t want to die, not yet! There was so much more to do, so many more discoveries to make in the skies above, this would be an insult to everything he had worked towards.
In truth, this was all dramatism. It was a normal flu that's going around and they were struggling just as much as anyone else who had caught it. Their immune system wasn’t overly fragile and the fever would break very soon, but not soon enough in the “eyes” of Noire’s scrambled brain.
He wondered for a moment if brains could have eyes, what if a creature evolved to be nothing but a brain with eyes? Wouldn’t that be funny? Hold on, it would need a way to move around. Legs? Yeah, it needed legs. Funny little stubby eyeball legs… good lord, he was out of it.
Noire groaned, pulling himself deep under his weighted blankets. Obsidian’s long noodly body was curled up at his feet beneath the covers, the Ryuudra anchored in a nice warm spot that Noire had left behind after moving around a bit. His two imps were glued to him during his time of need, being quite the comfort.
While his Ryuudra lay with him, his Erose- aptly named Erosa of all things, was moving about his apartment. She was more of the useful type, bringing over fresh glasses of water to his bedside despite how heavy they were to her little body. She'd probably turn on the kettle if she could, but it was impossible to safely handle thanks to its weight when full, so that was not an option.
Noire was deeply thankful for both of their company right now, but he still wasn't cured, so he was sworn to continue whining and whimpering. His woes and unheard complaints carried on in his mind until he began to drift off into a fitful slumber, his body given a chance to heal unconsciously for a while.
He dreamt of a place familiar to only him, to his knowledge. When he first witnessed it in his dreams, he dismissed it. When it kept coming back, so vivid and lucid of a sight that it felt different from his usual dreams.
It could all be argued away that it was a result of his hyperfixation on this mystery land in his dreams, or a demon with the ability to toy with one's dreams, but it did not change the fact that the sights and sounds of this gold-coated city in the stars was remarkable to him.
He felt no fever as he walked through the empty streets, a sunless but bright sky bringing out an eerie humming above his head. The towers spiraled upwards, a gilded castle in the distance behind several gates bearing down on his vision.
He wandered, feeling so at home in a place that never existed, nor ever would. The stars above... Perhaps Allocer had something to do with this after all. But the gold... all that gold. What harm would it be to enjoy his time in this place for a while longer, real or not?
Noire woke several hours later, their fever broken. They could have tallied it up to the dreams, but even they knew better than that. The medicine had finally kicked in and they were on the mend.
Still... It was nice to see that place again. He would keep that sight in mind when he went up onto the rooftop to “stargaze” again. Now then, he needed to let work know he was ready to return. Ugh, jobs.
