(Oliverick POV)
Guiding Melina into the bar, my clones were either tending to the customers or relaxing in the back.
I pour out her favourite rimed rowa fruit mead and sit across from her, a glass of the same in my hand.
"So what now? You're technically retired." I took a sip and asked her. "I doubt you had anything planned after your martyrdom, but anything springing to mind?"
"Oh, good question. I fear I don't know, that was supposed to be mine end and the tarnished's beginning. Oh Marika I'm retired at only the age of 5724, I've barely lived!" She massages her forehead and looks truly disturbed.
"I don't think you need to do anything as grandiose as creating new eras, but maybe take up a craft or trade? No doubt there'll be new job opportunities in the new era, take this as a holiday of sorts." I might not be in the best position to be giving advice on this considering I'm in eternal service.
"Mayhaps, I have the time to try all I need… I would like to thank thee. I realise I have been ungrateful, though I may have only discorporated, you still saved me." She started standing up as if to curtsy, but I cut her off.
"No no, none of that. Stop it, that's just unnecessary. I appreciate the sentiment but I was just looking out for you, something anyone here would do for another. Even Steve." Steve gave a drunken smile and raised his pint glass to me, he became a regular since he found a door to the bar in his bathroom.
She looked conflicted before finally relaxing into the chair again. "I don't know, everything feels wrong now. That single moment has been building up for centuries for me, I don't have anything to my name, it was all sold or donated to Jarberg. Words fail me, life seems ultimately pointless. Do you know what it's like, to have everything completed and then snatched from the ledge, forced to make decisions hereon? Life is full of opportunity and choice and yet I feel boxed in, is that strange?" I simply listened, it was clear to me that what she looked for wasn't direction, just an ear or two. "From birth, the world assigned us purpose." She summoned a fiery butterfly to land on her finger, "Not once have I been given the time to think about something outside of this. The world has always been in constant peril, and I was willing to cast my form away to further the fight against peril. That sheer drive was what allowed me to spend centuries looking for the right tarnished for the job, but now there is nothing. I am sinking into a chasm of which I fear there is no return, and yet ropes descend everywhere."
"Time, this genuine hopelessness and loss is truly temporary. Don't worry, it's in every living beings' nature to set goals to some degree, most are unachievable, but those that do achieve it float towards a new goal sooner or later. For now, enjoy yourself, paint, play, socialise and learn." I patted her shoulder and gave her my best reassuring smile.
With Melina on her own journey I sit back with a Pornstar Martini in hand and read my newest fictional (or not) interest, Dragon Ball. Mother's Milk was telling me about how he and his daughter watch anime together, so I used [Google] to find out more, so I decided to buy and stock as many different ones as I could. The list includes but is not limited to: Berserk, Jojo's bizarre adventure, Naruto, Baki, Rurouni Kenshin and Dragon Ball, Z, GT, Kai, Super.
So far Dragon Ball has shown some interesting utilisations of energy, flight is something that interests me as I can only float for a few seconds myself. Maybe, if I try the training shown here, if it works then I'll have proven that the fictional worlds are real and also have cheap training manuals available.
Not to mention that there are some fictional training styles that if proven to work can give me some more assurance that I won't be blown away by a certain customer's sneeze.
[(1) year has passed since your previous universe linkage, (1) new universe available for linkage.]
It doesn't need arbitrary requirements anymore? That's useful I suppose, I think before I do link it, I want to install some 'modern technology' that people keep mentioning. Hughie used to do that for a job, I'll have him do it for some random junk I have.
[Time Skip]
8 TV's, 10 speakers, 1 wifi router, 1 ethernet cable, 1 card machine, 3 kettles, 1 till, 1 PC and monitor and 1 pool table with a card reader installed.
It took Hughie a while to set it up, I honestly wasn't much help, I still think ethernet sounds vaguely magical. Nevertheless, he got his reward in the form of 1 flame grant me strength manual and a two-fingers talisman. Though he appears to be lacking faith in any native God to his planet, maybe the confirmed existence of actual Gods may boost his faith to level him with the supes.
Now with the bar closed, I walk over to the wheel and spin it. Now with a theory on other worlds existing, I actually pay close attention to the wheel. Stationary, the words are ever changing and illegible, but eventually when I spin it I will catch glimpses.
I pull it down swiftly, stepping back to watch it go. A minute later and I can begun seeing actual titles or names, 'Harry Potter', 'Nightmare on Elm Street', 'Good Omens'. I recognised the second one, but was unfamiliar with the other two.
It wasn't much later that it finally landed on 'Record of Ragnarok', unfortunately one that I wasn't familiar with. So using [Google], I found out.
[Record of Ragnarok -
Set in Earth's future, Gods of all famous Pantheons have democratically voted for Ragnarok to wipe out the human race. Humans and a few Gods opposed this and thus a tournament has been created to determine Humanity's fate.]
Ah interesting, a semi-apocalyptic world, I'm now slightly concerned where my doors will appear now though.