Retkan's BG

Times upon times ago back in an undisclosed universe, a war raged on. Meta, the blue-skinned King of that world’s Demon Realm had found a way to continuously drain the world of its energy for his own usage, separating himself from its existence to do so time and time again. This cycle was coming to an end however, as each restart destabilized the continuum of the realm’s timestream and energy, contaminating it and corrupting it beyond repair. The inevitable end was drawing near.

For most citizens life was normal, many unaware of their lives stuck in repeat. There were a few however who were more in tune to the world’s energy and even knowledgeable of the lengths their King had gone through to achieve power, while they themselves studied for survival. A crimson demoness named Convi was one of them. She had worked with many others in her world to establish a safehaven, a dome that protected against Meta’s draining ambition to try to preserve themselves and allow for enough time to be able to flee their collapsing home. Convi was as cold as she was calculating, a cunning wit skilled with imprinting magic and ki into items to boost their effects and allow for proper anchorage against oncoming forces. So it came as a shock to her comrades one day when it was noticed Convi was pregnant. The father remained undisclosed.

Convi wasn’t one to let such a thing hold her back, simply taking charge and doing her part to help others avoid the next reset of their world. It was a battle against time as time’s integrity was failing and parts of their world became unstable, intangible. Meta had realized he wasn’t gaining as much energy as was the norm, so the preservation alliance was soon discovered and labeled traitors against their King. It was during an ongoing attack against the preservation dome when Convi went into labor. Rifts tore through time and space, unstable energy ransacking buildings and lives alike as whole areas of terrain and landscape dematerialized. A rift crossed right before Convi and her medical support, only to end with a brilliant flash and deafening slam.

An infant’s crying was what broke the silence. Convi gave birth to a small, light lavender skinned daughter with a mop of light cerulean hair. The battle’s rifts had left its mark however, rendering Convi with multiple scars across abdomen and legs while her daughter received a large crescent-shaped lash across her back. At first Convi paid little mind to the infant, pawning her off to others and not even finding time suitable enough to give her a name. It was a wonder as to why she even had the child in the first place.

Births, names, even energy was a complex matter in their world. Ones energy was closely known to be tied to emotion, which resulted in an utmost cold atmosphere and company to avoid detection by Meta and his loyal followers. Dark Energy was harnessed from the darkest of emotions, the raw and unbridled, which was often done by outsiders to try and fuel the Realm with new energy to avoid its total collapse each time there was a drain. That said, Meta was still the King and fancied himself their god, using his own Realm to not just fuel himself but as an entertaining personal ant farm to observe and shake up now and then. Names themselves were even often bestowed by the oldest, the Elders who lived amongst the various clans and groupings across the Realm. Ones birth was a matter of species survival in these times. The strong claimed those they could overpower if mutual agreement hadn’t been met. Politics were all shoved aside just for the sake of procreation with little to no care actually involved, save for between those who called one another mates.

Meta was in the know when it came to new life in his Realm, new energy to absorb and stifle or otherwise attempt to whisk away to join his forces. Nevertheless, there were rules and protocol that even he went through to try and make his battery of a world run just a little bit longer. For each life, there was a star, and for each star, his little Oracle had a single sentence that was a glimpse into the lives of what could be. For the new, unnamed child, the Oracle had only this to say, “One can expect the unexpected from that one.” It was an amusing enough notion for Meta to simply allow things to play out. He had more powerful, stronger beings to gather.

The child grew up in reserved silence, adapting to her mother’s life and watching from afar. It wasn’t until she had the physical age appearance of two when an Elder demon by the name of Jejment finally came upon Convi and the little one, and gave her a name: Retkan.

Retkan learned to read and write at an early age from her mother’s fellow team members, finding it easy to hide her nose away in a book and escape to some other fantasy world. There was also a shared thirst for knowledge, which had her pointing at things, but never questions asked. Most just assumed she was mute, as reserved as she was. On a day when Meta’s power waned, his increased drain sparked up the rifts that occurred for the first time in Retkan’s life. Convi’s attention to detail took note that in the chaos of trying to reinforce their dome of an existence, Retkan’s form flickered in and out of tangibility, blinking here and there in place of each surrounding rift after closing. It was at that point that Convi took to studying her own daughter.

While the crescent scar upon her back had healed long ago, the residual warmth was felt from the very energy of the time rifts. It also had a foreign feel, something unknown to their universe and indescribable. Unable to reach out to any of the outsiders who catered to trying to prolong the Realm’s destruction, Convi could only make guesses. Her own scars held no such properties.

As time went on, Convi took to using basic inks upon Retkan’s back. They helped to mask the scar in decoration as well as allow Convi to keep better track and study over her with that special imbuement of energy and magic. This proved to be too fickle as painted ink wasn’t meant to last and each time a rift was near Retkan, that strange sensation and instability was felt. Convi ended up moving onto a more permanent solution. Ink. Ki. Magic. Dark Energy. All intricately woven together as one with the help of her comrades, all laced through the flesh and energy of young Retkan. It was odd for a child, even a demon of that Realm, to for some reason just endure the pain and question nothing.

Convi kept Retkan near her then, the girl following like a duckling although her crimson mother was no mother hen. The demoness was an emotionless witch as far as anyone knew. That was perhaps why it came as a surprise as to what unfolded next...

Meta’s forces were ones to collect any time anomalies that slipped inward and Retkan had registered as such. So when the troop arrived upon Convi and Retkan, the crimson demoness had no choice but to summon her dual blades and go on the offense. Retkan got to see first hand what her mother was capable of, ripping through Meta’s forces with a soldier’s prowess with untold talent and raw power. It took its hold however, as Convi sustained more than her fair share of wounds. With the soldiers dead or fleeing, Convi took to a knee with both blades wedged to the ground for support. Retkan ran to her of course.. and it was at that moment a massive shadow loomed over the two. It was Meta.

It wasn’t abnormal for the King to take an interest in his so-called subjects, nor time anomalies. Retkan was just unlucky enough to be both. “Let’s make this easy.. I’ll take the girl.. you get to live. You can always have another one. Unless that little tiff left you even more useless...”

“No.” It wasn’t Convi who spoke, but Retkan, standing there at her mother’s side. It garnered a look of surprise from Convi, while Meta reacted... most different.

Having some unknown insolent little whelp tell him ‘no’ of all things, Meta slammed his tail forward, knocking into Convi and Retkan. Retkan however vanished, sucked into one of those unstable rifts. She was gone.

It was a dark, lonely solitude, like being trapped in a box deep under ground. Every now and then a light would shine, a rift opened and she could see out to the world she knew. Time cycled and Retkan could see things on repeat, but for her it was just mere moments with her displacement. When she saw her mother and her again being attacked by Meta, something in Retkan snapped. She cried out, causing her tattoos the flare to life as small fists pounded against the wall of that rift... and she fell through!

Only.. Retkan wasn’t Retkan... Upon opening her eyes, she found herself staring at the younger her. She was Esis, one of her mother’s assistants. Esis was a full grown male with dark blue flesh at an 8ft height and two white horns curving from his brow with a third eye in between. The feeling was surreal. While the hidden Retkan had some control, Esis did what Esis always did and she was within, along for the ride and learning. She could hear every thought he had. Time to time she could influence his choices and actions. It only lasted a short bit though. Then Retkan grew dizzy and woke up back in the void. This was how she grew up, repeating the same manner of escaping back to the world. She retained her knowledge gained from it and eventually, used the enriched forms to study and learn more. Retkan also learned that she could not influence time differently in any major way, such as when she tried to compel another to follow Convi and Retkan on one of the days they were attacked. She could influence small adjustments though, such as Esis giving her younger self a toy. The odd thing was that as little Retkan was affected, Retkan felt and remembered it there and then, even beyond the void. As Retkan noticed this, she began to make her own changes to better her younger self.

The largest change came when Retkan was in her early teens within the void, and traversed through the rift.. only to find herself as her own mother, Convi. This was many years beyond her own time when Convi was a soldier working under Meta’s forces and just starting to dabble in the influences of time herself. It opened Retkan’s world as she got to study through her own mother, see the source and where it all began. By doing so, Retkan was able to prolong the time she could remain as that outsider looking in. It all continued to repeat itself, over and over again. Eventually Retkan got to the point that her magic, her energy.. it was all connected and came second nature with little thought beyond will. She could pinpoint times and people and make subtle adjustments that carried over to the next reset, each one fueling herself in some way.

Every little change had a price though. Where some memories were gained, others were lost. Knowledge lacked links and became befuddled without guide and reason. Of course during this time, she saw the world caving in more and more. Meta had somehow redoubled his efforts. An idea came to Retkan then and she dared to try to pinpoint him of all people. Retkan opened her eyes, only to stare down at her own hands and find herself standing in Meta’s shadow in a world apart. The demon King stood there with eyes shut until he seemed to pick up on her presence, black gaze shifting open to gaze down upon the demure demoness. The two stared at one another for the longest time, an eternity in a moment.

Meta’s booming voice echoed from all about without so much as a word spoken. “You’re... Convi’s progeny... I was wondering what happened to you. You’ve caused me quite a little hiccup. I can’t seem to get past the point of our... initial meeting.”

It made sense to the quiet Retkan, as to why time continued to restart and relapse, she herself unable to get beyond that one point as well. Finding out that this was something beyond Meta’s control was not only frightening, it was THRILLING. This was something that directly involved her very actual existence, which hadn’t truly existed in so long for Retkan herself. Granted, she was standing in the pocket folds of a dimension that was created for Meta by Meta.. and Meta was eyeing her like a loose thread in need of snipping.

As the young, teen demoness stood there in silence, Meta offered a large hand down to her with palm extended. “No isn’t an answer anymore. You’re where you belong. Let’s make this easy... I don’t want to have to hurt you.” His black-nailed fingers beckoned.

Before Retkan could respond, her time was seemingly up. A rift tore open behind her, strands of time and energy striking outwards and entwining about her form, yanking her back into the dark chill of the void. Her heart was pounding, a mix of fright and relief. Retkan learned a few things from that experience though... Meta was in his own little hole just as she was. He was also aware of time and the displacement, just as she was. Now, Meta was also aware of her.

A deadly game of cat and mouse began. Each time Retkan found her way to press through the rift, Meta was right on her trail, taking out whoever she happened to be at the time. The world reset, so they were fine. However Retkan’s mind was not, nor was her ability to dive right back in to the reality of her home. The Realm itself grew even more fractured with each death, each imprint it created upon the fragile shell of its existence. Finding her small space of existence to be the only safe place, Retkan settled back into observation mode, to see the world go on from afar. This didn’t stop her from developing her abilities however, as she was able to pick out select moments in time and capture them for her own viewing without the rift. Glimpses. Small green orbs that could be held and expanded to watch passing moments that had already passed. As she created these, her little pocket of existence seemed to expand from the closet it was into more of a room. Finding she could alter this pocket to a point, Retkan worked to make herself more.. at home. She could create. So she created. Books. Pens. Shelves. Retkan dedicated herself to making a proper study with all she had learned from her studies and experiences beyond herself.

Then it happened.

SHHHHHNNNNK!

Retkan heard the sound but by the time she turned her gaze, all she saw was a strange, mysterious tear in her pocket. It wasn’t a rift to the world she was from. It was... different.

Driven by curiosity, Retkan took a moment to anchor herself properly before releasing a Mirage, a duplicate of herself to an extent. The energy flowed outward, taking form beyond the tear as twilight hues shun and took over her sight. Each sensation was anew on flared senses, the alternating warmth and chill. Her bare knees hit the green grass of a world unknown, a time set apart from what she knew.

Retkan began exploring across time like this, ever an observer but never a participant. She collected information to fuel her curiosity and theories. The demon even began to think up ways to try and stop that infernal loop, to get back to her world without Meta being so quick to cut her down. For such a feat she needed more knowledge! She needed to.. experiment.

Time and time again Retkan watched and partook in small possessions of others to see from their views, hear their thoughts and gain knowledge through them while they lived their lives and did their things. Finding out about the Time Patrol and keeping clear of their radar was the hardest part. While Retkan hadn’t actually done anything to alter precious time on her visits, she was an anomaly herself. Knowing this potential was all the more reason she held back. It was almost instinct.

Unfortunately curiosity also had the best of her. Rookie Time Patrollers were perfect for her to explore.. which resulted in the knowledge of even more times, worlds, and of course.. time scrolls. They seemed to be the essence of existence themselves!

Fascinated, Retkan developed a plan, a final endgame for better or worse. She just couldn’t be an observer anymore to put it into motion. Over a span of time she couldn’t even fathom, Retkan began collecting. Lost remnants were gathered, stored away in their own unique little pockets tethered to her own. At first it was just places, ground terrain, debris.. Then plants and insects, various animals and even dinosaurs. She worked her way up to being able to take her first person. It was a matter of timing and confidence. That was why she waited until the last moment to ‘borrow’ certain time scrolls and study them. Of course this went nearly horrifically, involving getting chased by a kai and a bird and trying to explain she was only borrowing these things while hearing about rants of demons meddling with time. Apparently this had been done before?!

Her first choice was a time traversing hero by the name of Trunks Briefs. He was someone she was certain would understand her plight and goals, someone strong she could hopefully work with. With his little escapades, he wouldn’t be missed for too long, right? Right! However no sooner had she gone to do her own plucking, was another plucker doing said plucking! Retkan caught her first glimpse of the white-haired purple demon scientist. It was quick, then gone.. but enough for her to feel that mysterious zing of fascination and awe. She had to change her plans slightly, moving on to choice two, who was someone she had planned to go for either way. A trio would have worked best but a duo could be fine. Her next target was a male demon named Nitmer, a gray-skinned youth that was a bit older with a bit of an imbalance problem in energy and mind. She could work with that! Or so she thought...

Right as his time was coming to a final end with no chance of return down the line, Retkan put all she had into pausing the moment before her. Nitmer had his eyes shut and was braced for the impact of impending death so when it didn’t come, he peeked his crimson gaze open.. catching sight of Retkan. All he saw was his own personal angel in the form of the light lavender skinned demoness there with the glow of time-frozen ki behind her. Nitmer couldn’t tell if he was seeing things or if he had already died and somehow gone to Heaven.

Retkan just smiled a knowing, dangerous smile that the demon before her would have little choice for his matter of survival... but she wanted him willingly. “So! I couldn’t help but notice you’re about to die here...” That was how it began, a playful taunt and an outstretched hand, a smile laced with all the mischief she contained. Nitmer took her hand, a bond made instantly between the two as Retkan’s tattoos flared to life, markings etching through Nitmer’s own flesh in magical enhancement. In a blink, the two were gone as Nitmer was presumed dead from his time.. and he was. That life was dead to him. He had a new one.

Ever the quiet one compared to Nitmer’s loud personality, Retkan tended to him and him to her. She took the time to actually do most of his tattoos by hand in their own little pocket, fawning over him as a prized pupil. For once she wasn’t existing alone. At the same time, she wanted something more beyond her little bubble. Retkan couldn’t handle her Mirages too often, what with keeping up her other things. So she sent Nitmer off to gather things most often and he had his own agenda at times, between her training him and teaching him some of the basics and her own set of rules and laws. When he was gone, Retkan took to staring at the blurred image she Glimpsed of the purple skinned scientist. She had a new project and began to scour across happenings, find other moments caught in time she could simply copy and collect. Moreover, Retkan’s fascination grew at finding out their locations, while different, had been devastatingly similar across her studies and collections. They had totally different reasons and targets, but a separation of mere degrees by proxy. Her zing only grew.

Unaware of Nitmer’s own growing agenda, Retkan turned her focus back to her home Realm. If her plan worked, she could set not only break the reoccurring loop but set everyone free from Meta’s clutches over their world. Nitmer was able to pass through that rift without the consequences of becoming trapped, free to explore the very world she sought to save. He just had to follow her rules. He didn’t. Unable to help himself, Nitmer took to little Retkan from afar, getting insight as to where she came from to better understand the woman she was now. Of course, both were nameless to him.

When little Retkan experienced with Nitmer’s presence, Retkan herself adapted to as part of her being, variations across time. Retkan worked alongside Nitmer in their pocket, teaching him various techniques for traversing time and how to fit in with her world, even going as far as to help him create his own weaponry—a pair of three switchbladed metal finger gauntlets for each hand. Once she felt Nitmer was ready to have her back properly, Retkan dared her ultimate feat with inscribing him with a magical mark of shared blood and Otherworldly ash that mirrored the one he had her do. The two became linked through magic and energy, through ki and will.

The targeted day came and Nitmer stepped through the rift with Retkan hugging to his back. She was able to step foot to her home for the first time in far too long. It felt familiar but foreign all at once. Having timed things juuuust right, Retkan saw Meta before Convi and her younger self. An hourglass formed in floating visual to help them keep track of exactly what time they had. With one hand to Nitmer’s back and the other raised, she channeled the energy between the two of them to pause time within the moment. Finally she could release Nitmer’s back and stand on her own two feet. To keep things in play as they should be, Nitmer wasted no time in gathering up little Retkan and tossing her into the very rift they had come from to keep the cycle going proper.

As Convi and Meta were frozen in place, Retkan unfurled the time scroll she had pertaining to the there and then, her home Realm. Nitmer turned just in time to see it happen—Meta reached down, snatching Retkan up by her back in massive clawed grip, forcing her arms together.

Meta spoke loud and clear, “I would have thought you smarter. Did you seriously think your petty magic could hold the likes of me?” He had only pretended to freeze there, to observe and watch what would play out.

Retkan screamed out from the sheer pain of literally being crushed in the demon’s muscular grip. Her tattoos flared to life, violently crackling against his palm as Meta’s own indigo energy snuffed out each attempt of her natural magic.

“Time for you to take your proper place girl.” Meta’s other hand took hold of Retkan’s head, purposely turning her gaze to his own steely gray eyes.

Just what Meta had meant by that was unknown to Retkan as a deep, ominous chill came over her. It reminded her of when she had first fallen through that rift, that out of body experience of falling forever. Only this was cold and burning all at once. She wanted to curl up into a ball, to shrink away, to hide. And part of her was doing that on the inside.

Nitmer recognized this. He had experienced it, a father’s ability to suppress his offspring. The male demon had gone fully unnoticed by Meta, which made it easy for him to blink in and out, swiping claws wildly at the demon King’s face. Meta just knocked him away like a pest with a simple flare of indigo ki. There was no way Nitmer could take him on physically, try as he might. Again and again Nitmer went at him, only to be knocked back like a fly just the same. Even in his rage, Nitmer could see the light fading from Retkan’s eyes and feel what he knew of her slipping away.

With a deep breath, Nitmer charged forward, “SPACIAL DISTORTION!”

Nitmer blinked out, gone in an instance only to let himself flit to intangibility and slam towards Retkan. As he did, Nitmer not only became tangible once more, but both hands raked claws through Meta’s heart, cleaving him nearly in half. Retkan was dropped as Meta wobbled and fell backwards, leaving Nitmer to pry himself up and get to the fallen demoness.

The day was not won however, as with Meta’s fall, the entire Realm lost what little stability it had. Just as he had been tearing it down and draining the energy he gathered from it, he had kept it in tact. With Retkan unconscious and Meta dead, Nitmer watched as the world dismantled itself into oblivion. He quickly gathered the demoness into his arms and lunged through their fluctuating rift.

As he skid into their own little pocket of existence, the rift behind Nitmer destabilized and snapped shut violently. He stared back, realizing that Retkan’s world, everything she had fought for, had pretty much been destroyed. Not to mention the fact that he.. just killed her father?... “Fuck my life..”

To be Continued!

It felt like forever, Nitmer waiting there, checking on Retkan every chance he could. He would stare at her, waiting for any sign of her stirring from whatever had gone on. For Retkan, things were still going on. Not only had Meta managed to suppress a good portion of her, but upon his physical death, he used their familiar connection to imprison himself within her. Retkan had gone from trapped in a void, to trapped in a loop, to trapped in her own body and mind.

By the time Retkan opened her eyes, the light had all but left them. Nitmer knew something had happened, that something was wrong. He just didn’t know what. Unable to voice what she was going through, unable to tell the difference, Retkan took on more and more of her father.

That was when “he” appeared.. the vain, smug male version of dark violet flesh. It wasn’t Retkan, but a perverse, exagertaed image of what lurked in the confines of her mind. To Nitmer this was just some weird alternate form. To Meta, it was the future. Beyond a lack of sleep, the only thing that kept Retkan grounded, gave her any semblance of fight, were her glimpses. Namely she found herself staring at that one who took Trunks before she could, that white-haired purple demon who apparently could slip through the streams of time with even more ease than herself.

From then on, everything she did seemed.. tainted somehow. Retkan went back to collection, fueled by the desire of finding the artifacts of the lost times. Of course Nitmer was kept under heel rather than at her side. She sent him off every which way and when he mouthed off or didn’t comply, the very tattoos she had given him turned against his body in horrific pain of being torn apart from the inside out.

Beyond this personality hybrid of Retkan, the true Retkan pounded away at her newfound sheltered existence. Meta toyed with her at every corner, her plight fueling his sadistic lust for what energy she had that he could morph and twist to his own desires. He enjoyed the torture in her eyes, that explosive temper each time he mentioned how her little collection would be perfect to convert and utilize for the energy of his own universe with her abilities. Meta was barbaric and it fueled every bit of her being.

That was why when Meta decided to show her one of his private pieces, things.. changed. The demon had conjured the likeness in her mind, a small prismatic glow, a soul. It was the start of creation and life itself, a spark used by others to create life. He intended to use it as the catalyst for the dawning of a new Demon Realm apart from all others. As Retkan’s gray gaze settled to that small glimmer of awaiting life, it bled the light back to her own, tired gray eyes. Fighting against Meta, her physical form held hands together as inside, Retkan focused. If he could will things and use her, why couldn’t she?

After fighting against him for so long and being one in the same, Retkan had weakened physically by far. That raw energy to her, that magical ability about her, that was what grew in spades. Between her physical hands, that very soul began to manifest into being, plucked from wherever it was Meta had kept it. That connection between them was reversed and as Retkan opened her eyes, she found herself back at her little pocket, holding that very fragile spark of life in her hands.

Nitmer returned shortly after and upon noticing something was different and seeing what odd thing she held, the demon had to ask what it was.

“Our future..”

[ OOC: WHEW! Okay so I’m a bit of a sadist doing this to your eyes. Or a masochist to my fingers. Anyway! If you’ve gotten THIS far, thank you! Thank you for reading! I hope you’ve enjoyed! Want to read more? Okay! There’s more listed below. If that’s too much to read, don’t fret! A small summary has been provided to you. And by small I mean get ready to burn your retinas some more!]

Summary: A journey between the two began, a need for their own existence. Retkan had time scrolls to return as she did say she was only borrowing them.. granted some had been scrapbooked. The two were oblivious to the lurking danger of Meta, who would reel his head time to time. Retkan’s memory was scrambled, as between losing her past and being dominated by her father, her own fragile existence was at stake on a mental level. Magic had its price and time was fickle. Nitmer’s own possessive, jealous nature had him dabbling in magic just to focus on spells he could use against Retkan herself all in the sake of twisted romance and his realm’s rules on claiming mates. Retkan and Nitmer put that soul into play in a time-lapsed world destined for destruction, taking grave measures to alter time and keep it alive as at every turn, it was as if existence itself wanted to snuff out that light. That was of course, the nature of the world they were at under guise. Retkan could see a change in Nitmer instantly though the moment that soul became life, the moment that life existed. She left him to tend to it while she went on to continue her collection for the glorious plan of preservation, a small universe for the lost to remain. Unfortunately time was fickle and as Nitmer went through his own changes, he found himself grounded, centered and filled with humanity—a stability he ended up giving up as he set the paving stones for that soul, that little life he essentially raised, to escape to find its own time and existence. He had seen too many futures where it died and couldn’t stand the thought of a final end. While Nitmer battled with that, Retkan faced her worst fears, the demoness actually returning the rather decrepit time scrolls she borrowed. The only saving factor was she had not only kept her word, but Retkan didn’t technically change anything at all that messed with any timelines. It was an innate instinct to carry such careful grace while being apparently horribly reckless. Given a bit of leeway, Retkan was warned of the Time Breakers, the very group she had initially been accused of being part of. This meant beyond Towa and Mira, there was Demigra and Dabura.. and of course Fu. Existing beyond her place and time made her an anomaly, no matter where she would go or what she would do. Everything had been going according to Retkan’s plans and she had a newfound freedom, a drive for existence. This was cut short however as Meta again reared his ugly head deep within her. The demoness cut herself off from the outside world, stuck in a perpetual loop of misery where her lack of memory fought against her making sense of Meta and the demon used that to his advantage. This caused more tiffs between her and Nitmer of course, as aside from him “losing” that little life into the unknown element of time itself, the two had different ideas of their own futures together. Stronger in brute strength and with a mastery of a few needed techniques, Nitmer ended up snapping and attacked Retkan during one of her dominated battles. He won and had been about to actually kill her, until he noticed a distinct change in Retkan before she slipped into unconsciousness. Whatever had happened, it had been enough to not just suppress Meta, but cause nearly a complete rewind on Retkan’s mind and personality back to the demoness he first met. She retained quite a bit of information and general knowledge but now had a thirst for experience rather than living in that shell of existence.

So Nitmer and Retkan left their little pocket, off to see all they could through her new eyes. It was that childish wonder that had Nitmer grounded once more, indulging in every new experience he could with Retkan. He became her attendant in all things, from getting her food to showing off unique fashions across worlds by presenting her with clothes he thought would please her. She often didn't sleep or eat without him poking at her to do so. Retkan continued her collections and gathering of glimpses, but now she got to experience it all in a world wide open. For the first time in her life, she lived.