(Rose)
Aside us are leftovers of an ancient yet advanced civilisation. Ruins of a radiant yet long over era. Mine.
The little roses sprouting from my clothes are nodding with each step I make. I'm feeling better when they accompany me. Maybe I am a trivial human being if the mere sight of flowers can cheer me up. But I think I like that part of myself.
Before us, the road is in pieces. Small segments remain here and there, the whole roads being cut into pieces of a few dozen metres each by some unfathomable force in the past. Some still are straight ahead and flat on the ground, in rather good shape. Some are planted like trees or walls, or as if they fell from the sky. They make bizarre giant curved plants or rather odd tree stumps. Others are simply sideways or leaning.
Some small streams flow over some.
A few streams flow upward along them. It looks odd. The water seems to just vanish in the end. It vaporises I guess.
And the sky above this devastated land I really yellow, and orange on top of me. It makes me feel uneasy.
R - So you'll be able to fly us above the sea?
B - Sure. I've recovered enough strength meanwhile.
R - You're not afraid anymore of using your powers, or to wreck our landing?
B - Just reasonably. I think I can manage. Also the few god-like beings-like-me I felt the presence of here and there over the world, I believe now that they're like the Dragon you met.
R - How so?
B - Even though they're much higher than me in the scale of power, and ergo the food chain. I think they don't care at all about what beings-like -me could do, as long as we don't threaten them directly.
R - So if they could see you act, they probably wouldn't care?
B - Yes. I think so now because they look older than me and yet they don't seem to move much from where they appeared. So they probably don't hunt at all. Maybe all of them are actually more plant-like than animal-like in their will.
R - New Flora and Fauna to study. New ethnology in a way. Well, I like it better if you don't feel afraid anymore to be gobbled up whole, if you were to show off your power.
B - Yup. Though regarding your other wish... Bringing back your blue bird of happiness...
R - Even for this world we live in, it's impossible. Right. Don't worry.
B - It may perhaps be.
~
We eat lunch, well, I eat lunch and she digests for both of us, atop a wreck of road leaning upward. The edge is above the canopy and I have a fair sight on the Indian yellowish landscape, gold and deep.
A small stream of water comes up along the road and next to me, where it falls up, in thin droplets up to this fully yellow sky. Weird place, yet this is Earth.
It may perhaps be.
R - It wouldn't be the first time that you trick or cheat death. Is is that simple for you to overcome human mortality?
B - Yes... And no. My first input would be to say that all is a matter of amount of energy, and time. Now to be more specific, it's not impossible to me in theory, but still a little far-fetched.
B - It's already difficult for me to maintain a precise picture of your full being, body and brain, as a safeguard to resurrect you in case of accident.
R - But what happened actually was creating a copy of the past me, using that picture. You didn't actually resurrect me, the past me.
B - That's right. But when your head is blown off, the two are essentially the same thing. Resurrecting you on the spot, that I can probably never do. But keeping a picture of what makes the most of you, and use it to build a new rose, that is doable. Not easy for me, but doable. Billions of particles to assemble while keeping them together.
R - Billions?
B - Far more. Well. So as I worked already on how to bring you back to life as you are, I think bringing your blue bird may not be fully impossible, though it's still slightly far-fetched. There would be some compromises.
R - Then how would you do it?
B - Well... The original body doesn't exist anymore, but creating a human body isn't the hardest thing in the world. And giving it the right appearance from your memories isn't either.
R - Wait, but then it would just be a human doll.
B - That's right. Or a mindless... blue bird. If we kept its consciousness shut. It would just be a human doll looking like your loved one. The soul will be the much tougher part to recover. Because it's gone with the original body, and harder than a mere appearance to build or imitate. The thing is here that I may be able to craft a personality composite, on the same model as mine, but using with higher focus your memories of her, and as much as possible, every other possible sources of memories of her we could find, to polish her soul, and body.
I take a moment to understand. Is this real?
But for memories of her left outside of me...
R - But is there any other memories of her left?
B -There may be. Perhaps where she lived or is at rest. Or within the being-like-me she knew, if it's still alive nowadays. A few remnants of her being may have lingered like... fossils, into the world I come from.
R - That sounds... Really unlikely... But yet... Even if we found some memories of her still lying around... We would in the end just craft a human being that would look like her, from all we could find left of her appearance and personality.
B -Yes. It wouldn't be the real her, but rather the her from your dreams, and as close as can be. It would still be anew person.
Not the real you... But the you of my dreams?
An idealised you born from my wildest dreams and fantasies...
Is the wish of bringing someone back to life from the dead very different from this?
Is either less sinful?
R - The truth is... You could create nearly anything I wish for or name for you, but hardly create anew something you have no picture of.
B - Basically yes. We can craft what we imagine or what we've seen, not something we know nothing of. What we lack, the holes and miss we have in the structure of her body and persona, we would fill either with what we want, or what's most reasonable, what a normal human would make of it. The more data we can find about her, the less holes in the pictures there will be left to chance.
A picture with holes, with us as artists to complete it. Painting whatever we want and desire over what we don't have but know, and leaving time, chance and chaos complete the missing parts by themselves as life appears in the creature...
R - I'll... have to think about it... For a little longer...
B - That's alright. I know you would have felt uneasy about this idea. It would be a creature like you, or Licht, or the mindless roses this Dragod created for its own use. You said I cheated death, but the thing is actually more that I cheated resurrection, rather than death.
R - Something like me? ... Yes... So you can't really undo destruction and time, you can just create anew something similar, and try to fill in the gaps... Well, the truth is, I think we do so all our lives.
B - Are you meaning I filled a gap she left in your heart?
R - Well... Yes, in a way. Had I found her when I returned home, we would never have met you and I, probably. And weren't she gone... My heart would have had little room for you to love.
B - If I bring her back to you then, will you leave me?
I stop breathing.
Would I?
I would certainly care less for her at least.
R - I'm sorry, I've hurt you.
B - I don't blame you. That just... gives us a lot to think about for the future.
What do we both want truly.
And where is the right compromise?
At least we know for sure one thing. We're alive and don't want to hurt each other over that or egoistical concerns.
If we must, we'll separate in good terms. But do we want to end our journey together?
I would feel sad. She would feel even worse than I...
I breath slowly as evening comes. The yellow sky is turning green. Maybe it's because of a cloud of spores staying still very high in the air?
I climb down the piece of road. I head to sleep. We're both feeling a little down. We're uncertain. What's the best choice to pursue our life and dreams? Copies... Creations... What do we need to create?
~