A bold figure stood on the fore of the ship, proudly facing the deadly seas. His mangled hair blew in the wind and his energetic blue eyes glimmered and his smile was spreading from shining sea to shining sea and his arms were out to his sides, catching the wind to let it billow through his sleeves. He also might have been T-posing, but I'd like to think that he was just trying to feel the wind.
What's funny though was that Xaniel wasn't on a ship sailing through the open waters. Rather, it was the remains of the front of a ship in the middle of the desert. The rest of the ship was buried in the fine powdery sand. He was roleplaying the world as he wanted, as if fate hadn't thrown him a curveball and said, "You're the antagonist."
"Don't try to imagine joining us," Cyprian said as he walked across the fine desert sand, careful to not get any of the microscopic particles into his boots. Like always, he was wearing his lime green lab coat, and the whites of his scars glimmered in the light.
"Oh let me have my fun," Xaniel said. He was still grinning even as he faced the Professor of the Circle, "Also, aren't the Professors the very same as me? You were created for revenge, right?"
"Yes, I do think so," Hyatt MacQuoid said from behind Cyprian. The gray-clad psychic was the true gray man-- he blended in almost perfectly. He looked up at Xaniel, entirely serious. "And here's the thing-- 'the sky continues to soar by, your chances of serving the cold dish will make you cry'..."
There was a moment of awkward silence as Hyatt gripped his staff awkwardly.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to make that prophecy mean," Hyatt apologized, "I just wanted to say, bud, you gotta let go. Do you think this world will ever change?"
"No... it's been more than a year," Xaniel muttered in recognition. His arms flopped down to his sides as he nimbly hopped off of the ship.
"Exactly. It's time to truly move on to fresher fields. I know that this world is nostalgic, but it's not healthy to stay," Cyprian said earnestly to Xaniel. As earnestly as one could while fruitlessly attempting to water the desert out of a mysteriously conjured watering can.
"But... I can't," Xaniel kicked at the dust, making both Hyatt and Cyprian cough, "I simply can't. I can feel it in the air! Something is bound to happen!"
"No, Xaniel. The air is dead," Cyprian said after he recovered, "Everything is moving like a machine as if nothing's wrong, but not even a million trees can save this world anymore. Don't stay here-- come join us so that we can be a part of the Great Next."
"They're right, you know," plantain boy emerged from within the confines of the covered aft. Sand hadn't seeped into the room at the aft of the ship. "This world is holding onto the ash that has already burned away. It's holding onto trash. What fun will you get from kicking trash? I can see the flames of justice have burned away in your eyes, Xaniel. As much as I would also like to crush the trash into a single point, it isn't even worth the effort."
"Here, let me show you what's next here," Hyatt offered. He raised his staff, and a mirage appeared. There were foggy figures that seemed frighteningly real-- the past year created a lot of change-- but it was as if it were always two steps out of reach.
"Well, if that exists, I have to stay," Xaniel said sadly, "The green pastures can be planted here, even if it only an oasis, right?"
"I doubt it," plantain boy said with a frown, "Even God has to take a decade-long bathroom break."
"All I have to do is wait for the sound of the toilet flushing then, right?" Xaniel asked.
"I guess you could think of it that way," plantain boy said with a crooked frown. It was clear that they weren't happy with what was going around, but they didn't have the energy either to argue back. I knew that Kiro, the plantain boy, could have easily beaten Xaniel in an argument if they wanted to.
“Look, it isn’t like I want to stay in this world, where I’ve been the bad guy,” Xaniel burst, “I wish that I could move on! I want to, with every bone of my body! Move on, they say! But from time to time, I feel a longing for the past, where I’ve heard of places like ‘Kawakami City’ and ‘Lone Tree High’ and ‘Sliver’ and ‘Rustlands’ and all the things that I’ve heard from Ann! I know that this place has devolved so low that any shining beacon like that could never be found again, but still! I must!”
"Well, I see that I can't convince you," Hyatt said disapprovingly, "That's okay. We can't all choose our fate."
As Cyprian and Hyatt began to walk back into the billowing dust in the horizons, back into obscurity, Cyprian suddenly turned around to face Xaniel.
"You know, Xaniel, you remind me of my friend Roy," he said, "He was also here for the sake of revenge. But he managed to get past his fate to have fun. I hope you can too."
Without waiting for a reply, Cyprian gave a friendly wave to Kiro and Xaniel before both Cyprian and Hyatt disappeared into the dust.
"Yeah, hopefully, things will either pass or start," Xaniel said wistfully, "So that I can finally stop feeling trapped in this hellhole with all these fake people."