A New Home

An old friend

Balance didn't know exactly how long he'd been in that empty, white, bland-tasting house. He just knew that he was there alone with walls that came closer and closer to him and yet seemed so far away. Sometimes he even heard angry voices blaming him for something he couldn't understand. But he never heard the voices for long. Most of the time his consciousness disappeared shortly after the voices started yelling at him, always with a soothing hissing noise in the background. It wasn't until later that he realized that this was causing him to lose memories.

The first time he noticed it, he woke up and felt a sharp pain in his right eye socket. When he curiously touched the painful area, a thick, dark purple liquid that shimmered slightly blue stuck to his phalanges. This color tasted very sweet, in his opinion, coupled with a sour aftertaste that Balance simply loved. He also found that he could at least make some white disappear in his white house with the liquid. Only later, when this had already happened many times, as you could see in the many drawings, did the few nice voices tell him that he kept inflicting this injury on himself when the other voices yelled at him. It also happened to other parts of the body later when his eye socket no longer began to heal. His ribs and legs in particular seemed to be most of the targets.

Another time he noticed it when a small skeleton appeared in his not-so-white house and talked to him as if they had known each other for a long time. But Balance had no idea who this little skeleton with the pretty, star-shaped hole under his right eye socket and the dark gray eyes that were almost black and tasted pleasantly bitter, was. Of course he told him. The short skeleton looked at him with a sad expression before introducing itself as Nobody. Apparently Nobody had visited Balance several times in the past three months and the two had become friends. But Balance, to whom the concept of time was alien at the time, as there was no clock or any other indication of time in his no longer so white house, did not remember any of it. But Nobody didn't seem angry with the fact, like the voices sometimes were, when he forgot something they said to him. Instead, he let Balance become his friend again.

But being Nobody's friend had put him in that situation too.

Slowly, Nobody had taught Balance how to use his magic. And wasn't that cool? He could use magic! Like the monster in the stories of the good voices - that which destroyed worlds with its threads so that they could finally rest and the younger ones could take their place. Balance wondered if he could create threads too.

In fact, the threads were one of his skills. Even if his weren't in the breathtaking blue the voices always described. His were dark, almost black, and shimmered in pretty shades of blue and purple, like the liquid with which he had filled his no longer so white house. He also apparently could create bones and large, very cool looking skulls that had the same bright spots as himself.

But the most important thing Nobody taught him was his way out. Because he showed Balance how he could create his own portals and Balance was enchanted when he saw his own portals for the first time. It was a vortex of the same fluid that he had used to make his white house less white. That alone was incredible. But what he really liked about it was the fact that its portals were sparkling and had little bright spots. Nobody had said in astonishment that Balance's portals reminded him of the starry sky.

Balance really wanted to see the starry sky. And when he could, after Nobody took him to a world called the Outertale? Balance found that his portals were just a cheap copy of what the real starry sky represented. The real starry sky tasted so breathtaking that he couldn't even describe the taste. In return, his portals tasted weak and unimaginative. But it suited him. After all, he was just a cheap copy of someone whose names he had forgotten.

So he was finally able to bring more color into his no longer so white house that Nobody called the Doodle Void. Balance liked the name. It satisfied something in him that he didn't know was there by then. In addition, thanks to all the new colors, this place no longer tasted bland, but exciting and exotic.

But he should have guessed that all good things don't last long. He just wasn't made for having anything good in life. The voices were right, he knew that now.

It had been on a day when he wanted to meet Nobody in a world called Reapertale. Balance had gotten to know Life lately and apparently he should get to know the rest of the gods now as he was to work with them later. Whatever Nobody had meant by that.

But as he was told, he waited at the place where Nobody wanted to meet him. Instead, so many different monsters were waiting there that Balance was overwhelmed and didn't really know what to do or say. Fortunately, the monsters took it from him.

Spears, swords, knives, stones, fire, all sorts of things these monsters threw at him. They called him a false god, a being that is not allowed to exist. They called him the greatest pest of the multiverse. At some point the voices of the monsters had started to sound like the voices in his no longer white house and Balance... He had just endured that. Maybe he really deserved this treatment and just forgot what he'd done to deserve it? It had to be like that. It sounded like something that was his fault.

So he didn't call for help. He didn't deserve help.

When the monsters finally managed to crack his skull, his consciousness slowly began to wander. He could still feel someone pick him up and carry him away. The monster did not use a very comfortable grip, because after a short time its Balance was abysmally sick. Or maybe it was the head injury. But hey, at least he managed not to throw up on the ugly purple cloak all the way to the unknown destination. Although purple was mostly sweet with a sour aftertaste that Balance loved, this purple tasted lazy, old, and dusty. He just wanted the taste out of his mouth.

Balance saw how the monster threw him down from a cliff into a soothing, delicately tasting blackness that welcomed him with waiting arms. It was one of the gentlest touches he'd ever received.

~ * ~

When his mother alerted him to come home quickly, Nobody did so without much hesitation. His mother rarely called him back home. Especially since she knew he was on his way to Balance in the Doodle Void. He just hoped his friend could forgive him if he came a little later.

But as soon as he got to his mother's, his soul stopped. There, in Mother's kind hands, there was Balancence in his own blood and marrow. The longer Nobody looked at his friend's body, the more his anger began to boil. So he fixed his gaze on one of Mother's thousands of eyes that had been watching him.

“Who was it, mother? Which monster dared to throw Balance into the void?" Nobody just saw how his mother began to smile at his anger and spoke in a thousand echoing voices.

“My child, the gods of Reapertale have become cocky. They heard Fates whisper about a hybrid of creation and destruction and feared that force. They lured your beloved friend into a trap and threw him into my domain." His mother's words only fueled his anger. Fate had long been a thorn in the eye of the Void. But his mother's next words aroused a sense of anticipation in him that he didn't often allow himself. “I think it's time we put Fate in her place. She has played her games long enough. It's time to drive her out of my realm, my child." And oh, how much Nobody was looking forward to hunting down Fate and her followers. His mother was always hungry. Time to bring her a snack. But before he went to work, he turned back to his mother.

“What will become of Balance, mother? Are you going to take him?" Nobody wouldn't even be angry if his mother did that. Balance deserved every rest he could get. But surprisingly, she shook her head.

“I'll give him a second life out of Fate's reach. He will be able to recover there." Nobody was satisfied with this decision. As he said, Balance deserved every rest he could get.

Without asking another question, Nobody turned and left. Better not to know where his mother was taking balance. It would just distract him from his mission. Besides, he could still ask when he was done with everything. But now he had to kill an annoying parasite first.