The Empty World | The Empty World Sequence [complete | rewriting]

Nineteen

"You like it?" Morpheus asked, tipping his hat. "I got mine from this adorable, barely-legal kid from Long Island."

"You did not!"

"He was wearing purple lipstick."

"Shut the fuck up!"

"At The Garden."

Julien lifted his hands to touch his face. "It was the Eighties! Give me my hat!"

Morpheus took one big step forward, then placed his hat atop Julien's head.

Julien did not seem able to stop grinning. "Gawd. I know I look ridiculous. I used to wear this damn thing all the time. At school!" He narrowed his eyes at Morpheus, who took a seat on the edge of Julien's desk. "You are lying to me."

Morpheus smiled smugly. "You think? That's not even the gift." He reached under the back of his coat and pulled the rolled t-shirt from his waistband. "I stopped to get you this."

Julien glared, but he took the shirt and unrolled it. "This," he paused, pale fingers moving over the cloth, "from when Vlad." He lifted the concert tee to his face and inhaled. "It smells like new tee and cheap beer. How did you do it? There was a collector."

"I told you."

Julien shook his head. He removed the hat to look at it. It wasn't, in truth, an authentic biker cap, but a costume hat of cloth and plastic. "You could just make it, like your clothes."

"I didn't. Julien...."

He tossed the cap to the desk; the shirt was bunched in his right hand. "Then why didn't you-?!"

Morpheus had highly suspected this part would come. He was not informed from his own experience, as most people he knew had similar levels of abilities. But, this came in so many stories.

"You could have...." It was better, Morpheus thought, Julien didn't precisely put it into words.

"I know. At least, I know it seems that way. I've thought about it, often. The temptation to think I could save someone - fix things - is so strong."

Julien didn't speak, just looked down at his hands and clenched the shirt.

"This I could do. Occupy a place. Observe. Remove what was already a misplaced object. Purchase a common object for sale, to replace the common thing lost. I could quietly remove a piece of art from a place about to be destroyed. Take expensive shoes from a dead man, when bandits are on the road. Take a tent from shifting desert sands."

"It probably should have been obvious. The way you just wink in and out with that fluttering sound. Angels aren't like us - like I am." He looked up, smiling, though Morpheus was certain it was more than a little forced. Julien set the shirt on his desk.

"I don't think it's meant to be obvious. The working of most things is like that: more to be figured out than explained. But, I don't like hiding things from you, so I decided to make it a little more obvious, even if I don't explain the small details."

"You're allowed to tell me, now?"

"I-" Morpheus hesitated, needing another moment's thought to make his answer truthful. "Yes, but it's more precisely true I only just realized I didn't need someone else's permission to do so."

Julien nodded, gaze drifting toward his computer monitor as he procesed the answer. "I know what you mean. Sometimes, I think it took me longer than it should have, but, when you get beat down so much - even if it's not physical, maybe especially when it's not only physical - you sorta forget you have any power or control over what happens."