.

..

...dream

I'm dreaming? naah - I always die in my dreams -- get killed and fun

so I'm me - and -- he's me, too? - whatever - just run

dude, it's Mik! I mean, Mikumo -- stupid stick

yeah "running with stick", or something

wait, why am I up here floating, anyways?

what the h

why is the tree pulling me into it? that's just weird! THIS is all – weird -- what's going on, godda-

SHAYNE

"What the-!"

He awoke, shuttering his eyes.

'oh, maaaannn That was such a WEIRD dream' he thought to himself. 'whatever... c'mon, Shaynster, what's up'

Shayne opened his eyes fully and immediately pulled back, or rather, tried to. He didn't seem to be able to distance himself from whatever was right in front of his face, even thought he felt himself stepping back.

"Woah. Trippy."

All the world in front of him looked like a massive TV screen picking up nothing but static.

"Heh. Snowflakes... I'm totally still dreaming, aren't I?"

"Andrews."

Shayne shot rigid, as if at attention.

"Shayne Andrews." Said a deific voice behind the teenager. He swallowed a couple times and managed a hoarse reply.

"That'd be me."

There was silence as the boy tried to figure out just what was going on. And where he was.

A flicker among all the visual noise in front of him caught his attention and his mind jumped to it, recognizing it from somewhere. It seemed to become clearer and take form despite the chaos around him. Still, he couldn't quite make out what it was.

He shook his head, giving up on that, and waited for whatever would be said next. After a minute without any words, his head drooped and he addressed the faceless voice himself.

"Okay, Where am I?"

"We are inside of myself" came the soft reply.

'wait a second, I know I've heard that before' Shayne thought.

A hand touched his shoulder and the scene changed. Turning around, he saw that he now stood on the very surface of water, and as he raised his head he saw that scattered around were various platforms on a level with the water and many trees that radiated the purest of light. He ducked his head again, however, and turned halfway back when he saw who it was that had addressed him.

"Tsunami."

"Yes."

'what, shame?' the boy thought to himself. 'w....why can't I look at her?'

He tried to speak, to ask what had happened, but he couldn't bring himself to say anything.

"You're not here to be punished." The silken voice told him. "You're not in trouble."

Another silent moment passed as Shayne tried to look at the goddess and respond, only to find himself shaking.

"You're going to have to remember what happened, Shayne. Please, try. For my sake."

The scene before him started to fade and fuzz out as he found his tongue.

"What? Christ, how am I supposed to figure that out???" he shouted as his view returned to static.

Silence. And waiting.

He waited and failed to act bored, too shaken to lie about his nervousness. And it's not like he could pace to pass the time away. Heck, he hadn't been able to tell if there was any sort of gravity ever since the view had returned to static. His feet rested on nothing, and the view in front of him (and behind and all around) was a 'snowstorm', a flurry of static like one would see on an old television that was off-channel. It seemed to him so close that he could reach out and touch it, but no matter how far he reached or tried to approach the view, it remained some uncertain distance away from him.

And yet so strikingly close to see.

Shayne soon tired of trying to make sense of where he was or what he was seeing or what had happened. It always seemed to catch his eye here and there with something that looked familiar, some tiny image of something he would recognize, and yet would just as consistently change before he could make heads or tails of what it was that had caught his attention.

'choose one' came the soothing thought of the goddess.

"Umm... 'kay." the boy thought aloud.

Feeling as if he could recline, Shayne somehow relaxed and stared at a pin-point of infinitely shifting color.

'color? it looked black-and-white a minute ago'

His gaze strayed and began to wander until it suddenly locked on to a point that, like many others, had caught his eye. This time however, he kept looking.

The point did not remain an eye-catch any longer than others had, but quickly again another something flashed up that seemed familiar.

"Hey, it's Elliot."

The image had grown. Now barely large enough to make out what it was that he was looking at, Shayne studied what it was that he was seeing.

'uhhm... that's a lot of whatever that I'm not familiar with'

He blinked, and the image shrank into the image-noise all around him.

"Ah, for Christ's sake. Can't I just see what it is?"

With a grunt, the boy locked his gaze onto another point of light, and this time it very quickly grew and became clear.

'cool. married, single, old, young, dead... dude, this is starting to make sense!'

'push'

"wha? Tsunami?"

There was no answer, so Shayne reached out and tried to touch an image as he focused on it.

'what's she mean?'

He felt an odd sort of contact and the image in front of him stabilized and froze where it was. Now the image remained with the person in it as they were.

"Push, she said, push." The boy reminded himself.

And with a 'push' of the hand, the person in view became younger.

"What the-"

"Do you now see?"

The boy nodded an affirmative and jerked his hand back.

"It is a record of the past, present, and future." Declared the now-unhidden goddess.

Shayne nodded and looked around, amazed and yet decidedly grumpy about nothing in particular.

"God, this is too weird. Why can't I just know what's going on and get it all over with?" He growled. "Lemme try again."

One last time his gaze came to rest on a point.

"Wait, wait, that's me an' Mik walking from his house!"

On its own will, his hand reached out and 'pulled' at the now-enlarging image. The timeline spun forward and sped through-

"Jesus Christ! When did..."

The palace. Mikumo. Shayne.

Seto.

The hall of trees.

...

Tsunami.