Aeon stands in the basement beneath the shop, in their hands are the latest Blinky plushie, a shiny green apple, and the two mysterious cards. The Warlock, and The Watcher With a Thousand Eyes. They stare into the incinerator, thinking. Then they set the items down and collapse to the floor. From the pocket of their jacket, they pull their tarot deck and ask something they tended to avoid. They ask about the future.
Am I going to end up like him? Am I going to be what they tried to make me?
He shuffles through the deck, silver right eye shining in the dim light. For a brief moment, he sees shadows of infinite timelines open before him, like a terrible flower blossoming. Then his hand finds the card.
The Moon. Uncertainty and confusion. Aeon frowns, this is not the answer they wanted. Usually, when asking about the future, the answer was always the same, certain disaster in every timeline. This was the universe shrugging. In a way, it's a relief. Their fate is not inevitable. And yet this made things so much harder, because that truly left the decision up to them.
Aeon looks at the plushie, the apple, the strange tarot cards not a part of his or any other deck. All taunts from an enemy that wanted to do nothing more than break him. His heart still fluttered in an uncertain manner.
It all went in the incinerator. Aeon watches it burn with a blank face. It brings to mind the memory of their eighteenth birthday. The ritual they had not wanted to be a part of, the robed figures, the whispered chants all around them, the burning fire full of screaming bodies behind them as they ran through the forest, desperate to escape. They remember running out of Hatchetfield, across the bridge, and they remember taking on the new name of Aeon Bones and returning to Hatchetfield after a few years, unable to ignore its supernatural draw. They don't want to do that again.
Screw you Blinky... and screw you Wilbur.
