Chapter Text
The ocean breeze was strong today, and strong was not the way that Charlie wanted it to be.
It was bad enough that he had to be traversing across waters to begin with, but having the wind constantly try to topple him over the side of the boat was an even worse side effect.
Every time Charlie walked on the deck he would be thrust from side to side and spend most of it held onto something. Grizzly must’ve been more adjust to being on a ship, either that or he used his magic, because he walked around with ease compared to Charlie.
They had been sailing for a few days now, but Charlie had barely seen his mage companion. He had been cooped up in the Captain’s cabin, dealing with what he called his ‘work’ but when Charlie had looked in, all he had seen were masses of paper and magical tools strung across the room. He didn’t know how he had fit so much in his bag, but then he had to keep reminding himself that he was a mage.
At least with Grizzly out of view he hadn’t seen as many memories.
It wasn’t any fault of his own, but being around a man with so many lives made it harder for Charlie to keep them out of his mind. And that made it very loud at all times of the day.
Ah well; it wasn’t like he slept anyway.
However today, Charlie climbed out of where he resided in the night and onto the deck and to his surprise, Grizzly was actually there too. He stood with his back to Charlie and his face to the sea, his chest moving up and down slowly to the rhythm of his breathing.
Somehow, despite Charlie’s silent movements, his head turned and eyes locked onto him and Grizzly smiled, though he didn’t turn fully away from the view of the waters.
“Morning, my boy!” he said loudly, “Tides seem quite placid today, won’t have you stumbling around today!”
Charlie smiled half-heartedly and looked towards the water himself, even daring to move closer to the side of the boat and look down towards it, though his stomach dropped when he did and he found himself pulled down to his knees, his breathing harsh.
The water did not seem to be calm at all, to Charlie it seemed even more fierce than before. The waves crashing into one another brutally, the roar of their screams loud, the riptides angrily ongoing.
Despite Charlie’s obvious panicked state, Grizzly was still only smiling at him, then he leaned over and gave him a simple pat on the back.
“You’ll get used to it…at some point, I’m sure. Now, I’m making breakfast, are you sure you don’t want any? Your health is your own concern, but I don’t think not eating is good for anyone?”
“I’m fine,” Charlie mumbled harshly, “I don’t have to eat, so have plenty to yourself.”
“Suit yourself,” Grizzly said with a shrug and walked away, the stomp of his boots on the deck harsher than Charlie’s words. Charlie remained with his arms hanging onto the side of the boat still, his knees pressed into the wood of the deck and his eyes grey, looking intently at the ground when really he was looking far past it.
Another version of him would revel in the water, but he could only shudder at it. It brought out who he was, and that was not someone he wanted anyone to know, for their sakes and his own.
Charlie flexed his jaw as water splattered up from the ocean and looked back up. To his surprise, a small, pink creature sat on the side of the boat by his hands, looking down at him curiously.
It was a frogtopus, he realised. Aquatic creatures were not his strong suit, but he had seen a few in places he had visited. This one seemed a lot more lively than the others had, as it stared down at him with wide eyes that were filled with wonder for the surface.
Charlie looked up at it with a small smile and trailed one of his fingers across its head. It made a small noise like the purring of a cat and blubbering of a squid mixed, then with one small wave of one of its tentacles it hopped off of the side and back into the treacherous ocean.
Pity. Charlie hoped that it survived.
He pulled himself up from the ground and looked at the mage, who yet again had his back turned to Charlie.
There was something about the man that was so irritable, yet he didn’t hate him. He had seen him before, and in that world he had been his most cherished companion.
It was the way he barely seemed to care about anything that hadn’t been thought out, his decisions were clear and made up in his mind and Charlie could only commend him. Still, it was clear he was only in it for the ‘prophecy’, and Charlie didn’t know how long he could hold up his façade of glee.
Grizzly sat down on a barrel, some fruit Charlie didn’t recognise in his hand and he looked at Charlie as he ate.
“So, boy, tell me a bit about yourself,” he said as he munched down onto the outside of the fruit, the juice dripping down his mouth, “Since we’re going to be together a while, we might as well become…acquainted. You must have a lot to tell!”
“Oh, me? Well, there’s not much to say!” Charlie said with a shaky laugh, rubbing the back of his neck and turning away from the mage in hope to hide his distress. He sat down on a box opposite the man, though it felt like it was going to break under his weight.
“Oh get off it! Someone like you, so renown and destined for greatness, must have quite the story!” Grizzly said excitedly, looking at Charlie with much eagerness.
Charlie’s lips traced a smile with much hidden sadness.
“Not me, I’m afraid.”
“I’m not buying it,” Grizzly sat forwards with his hands clasped, red juice all over them. Charlie sighed and looked to the ground, trying to find his own memories amongst the others.
If he wanted a story, then Charlie would give him one so real he wouldn't believe it.
“Well, I didn’t have parents, or anyone else. I didn’t have any kind of story like that. One day, I woke up in a pond, like I had just appeared there. Endlessly floating with no desires or idea what was happening. But I had all these…images, running through my head, all these stories, these lifetimes, but they weren't mine. Not mine here, anyway. There were all these voices and they were just so LOUD in my head. I didn’t know what any of it was until…I saw myself among them. Sometimes they didn’t look or sound like me…but they were. I knew they were. It was…horrible,” Charlie sighed and looked up at Grizzly, who was staring intently at him, and stood up, pacing slowly across the deck and pressed his hands on the side of the boat once again. He continued.
“It was many years ago, I suppose—I don’t really recall time, it just kind of….goes…along. But, all I could do with my life from then on was…grow…survive…see these things in my head and behind my eyes and not be able to do anything about them other than watch, constantly in a loop over and over and OVER again. It wasn’t at all fun, but, it was simply the way my life was, the way survival was. Constantly on the move, the only source of…entertainment or difference was the things I saw. And they weren’t even happening to me they were just THERE, to everyone else but me. But you can only walk so far in a world before you end up right back where you started, and that happened to me many times before. And I tried SO hard, because if there were so many worlds that I saw, why couldn’t I…FIND them, why couldn’t I GO to them, why couldn’t I walk THERE instead of being bound to only one mortal plain? It must be possible because we live in a magical world full of so many things, so why wouldn’t it be possible. Well, I realised a long time ago what I had to do with what I saw. But instead I ended up here…on a boat, in the middle of the ocean. One thing I told myself I wouldn’t EVER do, but here I am.”
Charlie turned towards Grizzly with a sour look on his face and swivelled his hand into the air. Then, he bowed down to the ground in mockery, and when he looked back up Grizzly had a face of equal defiance, though his was less profound and more collaborative.
“Well…that’s quite the story. One that makes less sense than if you hadn’t said it at all. It seems your visions were prominent a while ago, and maybe what you saw was what will happen if this threat is not solved,” Grizzly said simply, then he rose and walked past Charlie patting him on the shoulder.
Charlie scowled as he walked away and shook his head. Why he had to have a Grizzly that was a prick was not known to him, but he sincerely hoped the other two were better or close to their other selves.
“You don’t understand a thing,” Charlie spat, though it might’ve been too quiet for the mage to hear.
He looked around and moved over to the side of the ship, looking down at the thrashing waves. Charlie’s foot was a step away from him plummeting down towards the sea…and he didn’t seem to mind.
Being in water only scared him because of what it turned him into. He had no problem with swimming…or drowning.
That night Charlie sat in the darkness of his room, not sleeping; he was never sleeping.
Grizzly was snoring soundly away in his own cabin, a sound Charlie had been forced to listen to over the nights. It was very annoying and repetitive, and sometimes listening to it made him wish he could storm in and silence the man, but then he would never finish the job.
He sat with his legs crossed on the ground and his hands were clasped over one another in his lap. There was a small window on the wall, but it was large enough to let the moonlight shine through. It trailed down his face and Charlie enjoyed the comfort of the cold glow. Its beam was enough to see the ooze beneath his skin.
Charlie’s eyes were closed but if someone was to stand in front if him they would see them rock from side to side under his eyelids like some sort of psychic.
The sounds were not screeching loud tonight, only prophetic whispers into his ears. Images were more focused today, honing in on one certain thing instead of multitudes.
Charlie was close to working out what exactly. An asylum shrouded in darkness. A lab in the middle of abandoned woods. A watchful god. These were only a few, but Charlie’s eyes narrowed.
“Tell me,” he murmured to himself, clenching his fist tighter as though it would tell him everything he needed. Then, an epiphany, a flash in his eyes, a face carved in stone and memories.
Charlie’s eyes snapped open and the corners of his mouth tugged into a smile.
“Condi,” he whispered, smiling as he saw, “I like the look of you…well, this version of you.”
He saw exactly what he was looking for, and Charlie only smiled more sincerely.
“I look forward to our meeting, my friend.”