Here at the End of Time

-Here at the End of Time-
by Waterway the Wordsmith

[A4A][Mysterious Speaker][Accepting Failure][Calm and Poignant]

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You grip the arms of your seat, watching the gauge of your time machine. Years flash by by the billions. Your destination lies at the end of all things. Your mission, though not strictly urgent, is one of the most important missions a person has ever undertaken. You're going to ensure that humanity is able to last forever.
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(THE LINGERER): Well, it’s about time you got here.

(Chuckle)

Ah, I’m sorry. That joke wouldn’t make sense yet, would it?

At any rate, I’ve been waiting for you… though I could have waited forever, if need be. In a way, I did.

Won’t you come over and sit by the fire? You’ve journeyed a long, long time to make it here. It might have felt like an instant, but I’d say it’s still a harrowing trek.

Suit yourself. But I think you’ll want to sit eventually. It can be hard to take, failing at a task as important as yours was. It’s the sort of thing you need time to work through. Which, fortunately, you have plenty of here. Well, technically you don’t have ANY time, but those two things are practically the same.

Yes, that’s right. We’re just in the middle of an empty field, under a starless night sky. And yet, we aren’t. This isn’t really a field, or a place at all, no more than I’m a person. You can call me the Lingerer, by the way. I don’t have much use for a proper name.

Don’t bother with that equipment, my friend. It won’t work. All that hard work to bring it all here, and now it’s just a pile of junk. I’m sorry about that, I really am. I’d rather it not have turned out that way, but I’m afraid I’m in control of very, very little here. Though if you ask me, control is overrated.

I told you it wouldn’t work. There’s no sending messages back in time, because we’re outside of it. It’s like you were trying to get to the other end of a building, but shot straight out the back door. So to speak.

It was a brave thing you signed up for, don’t get me wrong. Volunteering to travel to the end of time and then send data back, in the hopes that humankind could avoid it. A worthy goal indeed, and a noble sacrifice for you, given that you knew that you wouldn’t be able to return.

I admire humanity for its desire to persist, to keep exploring and creating. But your kind were never meant to last forever.

No, it’s not just that you overshot your goal. I’m afraid that your goal was simply impossible. There are challenges that even your species cannot overcome.

Perhaps it will comfort you to know that humanity will persist far beyond what should have been possible. They’ll even outlast the heat death of the universe, finding a way to reverse entropy within massive, artificial worlds. They will be the only species to figure out how. But ingenious as you all are, there is no way to prevent the end of time.

Oh yes, I’m sure you have questions. And I have answers, though it’s my personal philosophy that answers should come slowly. It’s better if you have time to digest things.

As I told you before, I’m the Lingerer. I’m nobody of consequence, really, but I did outlast everything else. And I didn’t even have to cheat by time traveling.

(Chuckle)

No, I’m no deity. That’s somebody else. As I said, I’m nobody important. Or should I say, I’m simply nobody. If I were somebody, I couldn’t have made it past the end.

As for where we are… Well, that’s too complicated to answer in a satisfactory way. Actually, more like it’s too simple. I wouldn’t worry too much about it, really. Sometimes, the true nature of something eludes us, but we can still coexist with it. We can still appreciate it in our own, incomplete way.

That’s the nice thing about everything ending, in my opinion. Everything that is incomplete or unfinished finally reaches a resolution. Things remaining half-done forever… that would be too painful a fate for reality to bear, I think.

Oh yes, I’m sure that’s not a satisfying answer. But it will be. Like I said, answers should come slowly. Don’t rush things, and they’ll come on their own.

But I can share a bit about what you can do here, even if a thorough explanation isn’t possible. Possibilities are infinite here, and yet at the same time very limited. Like how there are an infinite amount of numbers between one and two, yet none of them are three.

The main thing you may be interested to know is that you can change the way it all looks. None of this is really here, after all. And unlike somewhere, nowhere doesn’t really try too hard to always look the same.

Perhaps you could add a few trees to our surroundings? I fell as though a campfire should have trees around. It’s an arbitrary rule, but one I cherish.

How do you do it? Well, that’s a funny question. You already did. Look around.

You see? There’s quite a bit you can change. Though no matter what you do, things will always remain dark, and quiet. It’s only appropriate, after all. After everything ends, there shouldn’t be too much light and noise. That sort of thing belongs inside a universe, not outside.

Later, you can explore if you’d like. You can find fragments of what used to be. It’s a peaceful way to spend your time, or lack of it. Like walking among gravestones, I’d say.

No, believe me, I understand. You left so much behind, and you couldn’t do what you came to do. It’s a devastating thing. But some things must happen. It didn’t HAVE to be you, but somebody needed to come. And as painful as this is for you, I must confess that I’m glad you were the one to do it. If it wasn’t you, I wouldn’t exist.

Hmm… that answer will come even more slowly than the rest. So slowly it might not ever reach you, but one can always hope.

But let it suffice to say that you did something important, though it wasn’t the thing you set out to do. It will be meaningful someday, when the concept of a “someday” becomes possible again.

Sometimes that’s the way things must be. Failure can bring success, because nobody truly fails so long as they’ve done something. Contributing to the great sequence of events is the easiest thing someone can do, but it’s also the most important. It’s something I greatly wish I could have been a part of, but I too have to accept that there are things beyond my ability.

Yes, I get the impression that you haven’t accepted that for yourself quite yet. It’s a daunting thing, acceptance. But it’s something we all must do. You’ve already learned that lesson once, haven’t you?

Well, of course I’m talking about the one you lost. You know exactly who I’m talking about. At that time, you had to come to terms with the fact that you couldn’t have changed that outcome. That’s simply how things played out.

(Chuckle)

No, I don’t know everything. Truth be told, I know very little. But I know everything about YOU, specifically. You are a… unique individual. Truly unique, it must be said. You’d be surprised how often people “repeat” throughout human history. There are only so many personalities that can exist, though that number is vast. But you… you only ever existed once. It’s a very interesting trait, and it makes you someone worth knowing everything about.

Well, I know that you’re brave, though you insist that you’re only doing what you have to, as if those things are mutually exclusive. I know that you work hard, but that you feel overwhelmed by everything you don’t get to finish. And I know that you have an intense focus on the future, and a deep craving to make it one worth living. None of those things are unique, but your particular way of working through them is.

This is all going to take some time to get used to, I know. Are you sure you don’t want to sit by the fire? Staring at it will help turn your mind to other things. Or better yet, to nothing at all.

Ah, lovely. You can take the seat across. I won’t force you to sit right next to me, you need your own space.

There’s something magical about a fire, isn’t there? I think it was the first magic humanity ever created. A barrier against the night, a beacon to lost wanderers, and most importantly a gathering place where people can simply exist together.

I think it’s appropriate that this fire is here. The last representative of the human race, and one last fire for them to sit by. If anything is to exist after it all comes to its completion, it should be that.

I wonder… would you be willing to tell a story? That, too, is something that a fire is good for.

It could be about anything, really. I don’t mind the subject, so long as it’s something about your life. I know all there is to know about you, but it’s quite a different thing to hear it from your own lips.

Take your time. I’ll be ready to listen when you’re ready to speak. Here at the end of time, nothing needs to happen before you’re ready for it.