“Look at him, look at those young, uncorrupted eyes. Isn’t that something, you could put a little faith into?”
“You know, it’s not that simple.”
“Of course, I do. This isn’t a sprint, it’s a marathon. Even more reason, why we can’t fall here.”
“I see.”
He looks up to the air.
“Attempting to use the devil, in order to help deal with oddities, you certainly aren’t the first one. Let’s hope, you are the last.”
“Does that mean, we get to live?”
Quinn asks.
“…I didn’t say that.”
“Mh!”
“Calm down, I also didn’t say, I would be the one to do you in.”
“Then?”
“This is basically the best I can do. I’ll pretend like I don’t know what’s going on here. That means two things. First, you will be on your own, dealing with the oddities that appear in this city.”
“…Okay.”
“Second, it also means, that I can’t help you, if another specialist shows up. Primarily meaning, you will have to figure out how to deal with them, when the time comes.”
“Understood.”
“And just a word of warning, the others won’t be like me. Most of them, live on the edge of sanity, with the killing of oddities, being the only uniting factor between them.”
“… What if we had results on our side?”
“Hmm, you mean, like a good track record against oddities?”
“Yes.”
“That would be able to win some over; but it still comes down to luck, on who comes across you next. There are some, that would be absolutely impossible to convince. If one of them were to find out about your existence, nothing could save you. They probably would go as far, as to kill everyone who so much as helped you. That’s why, I’d appreciate it, if my name didn’t come up, if they came around.”
“Alright, I promise I won’t say a thing about you.”
He looks out, a bit confused.
“Heh, you know what? That will be good enough.”
The mist starts to clear up. The man pops in another cigarette.
“What was your name?”
“Quinn.”
“Then Quinn, good luck.”
He waves his hand, and starts to walk off. As he is leaving, Quinn musters up the limited energy he has left.
“Hold on!”
Cresswell stops, and turns back.
“Hm?”
“There’s someone, who I want you to talk with.”
“And who would that be?”
“My friend Neri, she wants to eventually join the world, you people inhabit. I want her to have the first-hand experience, of talking with an Oddity Specialist.”
“Oh, the daughter. I’m not sure that’s my place.”
“Please.”
Cresswell looks over to Lucifer.
“Well?”
“Why ask, my permission? Apparently, I am just a helper oddity now.”
He glares back at Quinn. “Sorry, I think.”
“If that’s the case, I guess, I could at least pay my respects forward.”
They head over to Neri’s place.
“Also, could you not mention, the true nature of Lucifer, and just leave any mention of him, as a nondescript oddity.”
“If I must.”
They arrive.
“AAAAHHHHHHH, a really real Oddity Specialist!!!~”
“Uh, hello.”
Cresswell is bashful, towards the reaction.
“I must know everything…”
She looks to the man wide eyed.
“I don’t really have time for everything. How about just some basics?”
“That will do!”
A small conversation later.
“So, you were dealing with the oddities here, while you were passing through.”
“That’s the gist of it.”
“Hmm, I should have thought of that, sooner. I just thought…”
“What?”
“Nothing, I was under the impression this area didn’t have a specialist anymore; but it makes sense, one might end up eventually passing through.”
“Yes, well.”
“Alright then, tell me more!”
“Hehe, I suppose I have to at this point. Though, just until it’s time to catch the last bus out of here.”
The man explains some questions, while dodging others.
“I want to know, how I can get in contact with other Specialists.”
“Sorry; but it’s not that simple. Though, from what I understand, you already have a path, correct?”
“Yes.”
“I didn’t know your mother as well as others; but if I had to guess, she would have laid things out fairly clearly. She was the type to over explain, not under explain.”
“I see.”
Lucifer sits somberly, near Quinn. The man glances over to him.
“That’s all for right now.”
“One more question?”
“Alright, just one more.”
“Was my mother, a good detective?”
The man stares blankly down at the girl, then he gives a smile.
“Yes, she was the best.”
“Hm, alright, thank you.”
“No problem.”
He motions towards Quinn.
“Walk me to the stop, will you?”
“Alright.”
Quinn gets up and follows the man out.
“Three things to keep in mind.”
“Yes?”
“If I were you, the only person I would trust, would be that girl.”
He glances back to Lucifer.
“Does that include you?”
“Naturally.”
“Okay.”
“Two, your motivations seem alright; but the road to hell is paved in good attentions. You’ll need more than just a clear consciences, to survive this gamble.”
“Like what?”
“A goal, a dream, an ambition, a love. Doesn’t really matter, just something that can keep you grounded, and will stop you from falling over the ledge.”
“I will try to find something then.”
“Third, have you thought about it yet?”
“What?”
“If dying is enough, to keep things from getting worse.”
Quinn stops.
“I don’t...”
“If you die, so does he. That though, still might not be enough. In case of a particularly dangerous, or intelligent oddity, it might take more than dying, to clean up the mess you will have left behind.”
“…I hadn’t really thought that far ahead.”
“Then start thinking about it.”
“Hey, I…”
He waits patiently for the boy to speak.
“Is there actually a way, for me to accomplish my goal, while protecting this place from the oddities, that have been made because of it?”
“…Who knows?”
Quinn looks down, though his face hasn’t shifted much.
“Thank you, honestly, even knowing that there might be a chance, is good enough.”
“I see, that’s good.”
The bus arrives and the man boards it.
“I wish you luck, paradigm walker.”
The bus leaves, taking the man out of town.
“We survived, the first hurdle.”
Lucifer is looking down the street, to where the bus had gone down.
“Yeah.”
“Me thinks, we might actually have a chance at survival, for the both of us.”
“I hope so.”
“You don’t seem very enthused.”
“The world, is a big place, isn’t it?”
“Of course, it is.”
“There are hundreds of Specialists in it, and a completely unknowable number of oddities.”
“Indeed, there is.”
“Against those type of odds, I guess all anyone can do, is protect
what’s right in front of them.”
“Hm? What are you thinking about now?”
“I guess, what I want to eat for dinner.”
“Not what I meant.”
“Chicken and rice, or tacos?”
“Tacos.”
“Alright, tacos it is.”
Chapter 2: Reset
“August 19th begins like any other day. The folks head to work, and I’m left to think about various different things. Honestly, sometimes everything that’s happening feels so visceral, then other times it doesn’t even feel real. I don’t know what to make of it. Not that I particularly had things figured out before. Though, the couple of limited goals I had to drive me forward in the past, have taken a backseat to basic survival. Oh well.”
Quinn continues through the day, as normal. He looks out to Lucifer, who is vacantly staring back at him.
“What’s up?”
“…Nothing.”
“Hmm, okay.”
Quinn goes back to twirling his pen, while watching a video. “He’s acting strange today… I suppose he acts strange every day.”
Uneventfully, the day comes to a close. When Quinn wakes up in the morning, he heads downstairs.
“Hm?”
He looks around. “Isn’t this, kind of familiar?”
Then, the boy gives a confused look to the clothes he’s wearing. “I didn’t sleep in these.”
Quinn walks back upstairs and grabs his phone, noticing something.
“…It’s August 19th…”
He closes his eyes, then looks back at the date.
“I must have misread it, yesterday.”
“Misread what?”
“The date. I mean, it’s not like it could have been August 19th two days in a row.”
Lucifer looks out, stunned. Then, a look of anguished relief comes across his face.
“You finally remembered... At least, partially.”
“Remembered what?”
“The previous day of the time loop.”
“…Huh?”
Lucifer let’s out a sigh and walks around, with his fingertips placed over the top of his face.
“Finally, I was really thinking that you might not become cognizant of it for a few more months, if ever.”
“Wait, cycle it back there.”
“Yes, yes, don’t worry, I have gotten plenty of practice explaining this to you, already.”
“Enlighten me then.”
“You know Groundhog Day?”
“The Bill Murray film?”
“The very same… That.”
“You mean-”
“That.”
“Huh.”
“Your next line is, am I Bill Murry?”
“Am I Bill Murry?”
“No.”
“Hm, alright.”
“You always take this news so well. I mean, with everything else that has happened recently.”
“I mean… Do I even need to be here for this conversation?”
“Not really.”
“Hm, so the day is looping over and over again.”
Quinn realizes something.
“Wait, what loop are we on?”
“This is the thirty fourth.”
Quinn pulls back. “My stomach feels uneasy.”
“Alright, I get the picture. How come I became aware of it?”
“It seems like, you had been slowly building passive awareness, this whole time. Then, with today, it went from a sense of déjà vu, to full on remembering. Most likely down to my presence within you.”
“I see, so you were aware this whole time?”
“…About that. You see, normally I believe I would have; but with my current condition, I believe the first three days are a blur. That is, if I’ve not forgot some entirely.”
“I understand. Alright then, how do we stop it.”
“As you might suspect, this must be some sort of oddity. That or, science has come a really long way.”
“I don’t think it’s the second one.”
“Then, if it’s an oddity, it can be dealt with, like any other.”
“That’s good. Then, how do we deal with it?”
“No idea.”
“Ah.”
“I also, don’t have even the foggiest clue, where the source of it is.”
“Oh.”
“Though, it’s not like we are lacking on time.”
“Okay, then I take it there isn’t any adverse effects on the people within the time loop, or on the space time continuum, or anything?”
Lucifer stares blankly at the boy, then he simply shrugs his shoulders.
“You fill me with such confidence…”
“What can I say, I have a soothing presence.”
Quinn twitches. “Said with such an uncomfortable voice.”
“However, the worst case has already been avoided.”
“That would have been?”
“…If no one else, had become cognizant of the time loop. If it was just me, I’m not sure what I could have done. Besides just wait it out, which could have taken, who knows how long.”
Quinn feels a tinge of emotion well up inside himself. “Yeah, that wouldn’t have been good.”
“So, you mean this might like, fizzle out?”
“Tell me, has tomorrow come, in the past?”
“…Yes?”
“Then obviously, we haven’t had a permanent time loop, yet. Why should this one be different?”
“Good point. Does this happen often?”
“Who knows?”
“Oh, yeah, no one would remember.”
“I would also keep in mind, that I’m not sure if you will continue to maintain your memories forever, either.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m just saying, this is thus far uncharted territory. Even if you remember things today, you might not today.”
“…”
“You see I replaced tomorrow with today, because it will still be today.”
“Yes, I see. Let’s just use the term tomorrow, anyways.”
“Fine.”
Quinn goes into deep thought, on what their next move should be. “Lucifer seems limited by what he can do here, at least for now. What are the facts? We are in a time loop, likely caused by an oddity, which would be caused by a person. Meaning, we have to find the one person in this city who caused the loop. That then raises a big question. Are they aware of the time loop, or are they also being reset? If it was the second, we would have to question every single person here… That would be a daunting task. Let’s at least, think about the first choice. If they are aware, we just need to find the one person who takes different actions, from reset to reset. That seems more possible; but it also means, if they are moving around, we would have to cross paths with them. How could we even begin to cover so much information? It’s daunting. How can I do it? Can I?”
“Hey Lucifer, when you explained the situation to me before, what did we do next?”
“Hmm, you thought for a while. Then we would have a back and forth, that developed differently each time. Finally, we set off to find something that was off, and came up with nothing.”
“I see. Do you think anything would change, if we did the same thing again?”
“No.”
“Then, we probably just have one correct solution.”
“That is?”
“I’m going to use my phone a friend.”
“Oh… What?”
The two head off.
“Hey oh!”
Neri waves down at Quinn, from the tree branch she is sitting on.
“Do we have another oddity, already?”
She clambers down the tree.
“You know, I could come here for other reasons.”
“Ah, true; but would you?”
“…We have another oddity.”
“Okay, what do we know, thus far?”
“That’s the thing.”
“What, we don’t know m
uch again?”
“Not that, rather it’s that what we do know, is problematic.”
“Given your tone, it doesn’t seem dangerous. Though, it does seem like it might be somewhat overwhelming.”
“Yeah, you see, we are stuck in a time loop.”
“Oh, that is discouraging. I take it, I won’t be able to remember anything the next loop?”
“No.”
Lucifer looks at the girl cross-eyed.
“What do we have to do, to razzle her?”
“I’m not sure.”
Quinn whispers back.
“Interesting, well at least one of us can remember what happens. That’s a relief.”
“Sure.”
“Hm, do we know anything else?”
“No.”
“Hmm, so again, not much to work off of. I’ll probably need a bit of time, to think about this.”
“Alright.”
Neri crosses her arms and closes her eyes, going into her thought domain. While she does this, Quinn thinks to himself. “This is an extra difficult situation. We really are only going to be able to work with what she can think of, in this single day. After that, it’s down to me and Lucifer to figure things out.”
Quinn examines the girl. “It feels like, we might not be able to talk for a long time. That kind of makes my heart feel off. Well, I guess I could come hang out with her whenever, during this loop, if I get lonely. I also wouldn’t have to worry about doing something stupid, since she’ll just forget anyways… She’ll forget everything that happens… Wait a minute, couldn’t that be used in my favor? If I play out this day over and over again, I could get closer to her. Like a dating sim, where you’re constantly save scumming to get all the right answers. That’s actually, ingenious. No nerves, no chance at blowing it, infinite attempts…”
“Hmm.”
He watches as the girl carefully thinks over her options. “She’s trying her best, and I’m thinking about something stupid. If I used the circumstances of an oddity, to do such a thing, that would be cheating, wouldn’t it? It also seems, kind of immoral.”
Neri’s eyes pop open.
“Okay, I think I figured it out.”
“Yeah?”
“This is what I am going to do. I’ll establish a system to check over every avenue I can, to find the source of the loop. Then, during the next loop, you’ll give me my notes from my previous self, and I’ll use them as a direction on what to check next.”
“Wait, you mean, you’re going to look for the source, as well?”
“Of course. What else would I do?”
“I don’t really know… I guess if that works. We would cut the looking time in half.”
Oddity Specialist: Purgatory Page 3