How Did We Get Here?

XXI. The World

Summary

Welcome, let us talk. Is The World fulfilled or not? Go, go back to life

And it ceases. No more wind. Scar opens his eyes, it's the void. Jellie opens her eyes as well and Scar lets her down.

There is a card in this distance, it has a blue aura like all the others. Scar weak and slow walks towards the card. A version of Scar and Jellie lay in a bed. XXI, 'THE WORLD'. Scar looks down at Jellie, who nods. He reaches out to touch it-

"You don't deserve that now!" Scar says. But he doesn't, he knows he didn't. Before Scar can react, a grayscale shirtless guy (who has both a few muscles and holes in his skin) with the same hair as him snatches the card. Snatches it. He actually grabs it. With a laugh, the gray Scar walks around them.

Scar whirls around to see the guy heading towards a table. The same one he saw on the Judgment card. He sits in a chair and adds the new card to a deck which he shuffles.

The gray man sets the deck down, "Well, why don't you sit?" As soon as the sentence is over, two also-blue stools appear on the other side of the table.

Scar looks warily at the man before going up to the seat and sitting. Jellie jumps up to her stool. "Who are you?" Scar asks.

"Why I'm you, of course!" The gray man laughs like this is a totally normal answer. "But you can just call me Demise!" He holds his hand out.

"And you can call me Third," the gray man is gone. Replaced by a different gray Scar. His eyes are red and there is blood dripping out of his nose. The outline of three hearts sits on his wrist.

"I'm Last," dark gray cloak with red lining. His eyes are red and there's a bleeding hole in his chest. Six hearts are outlined on his wrist.

"Double!" His eyes are also red. This one wears an unbuttoned dark gray shirt and suspenders. His ears bleed and a gray string lays limp where Scar imagines his heart is.

"Limited," this one smiles even though there's a gaping hole in his chest and his mouth drips the same red as his eyes. His open white button-down is dirty, his red glasses are askew and cracked, the clock he wears as a necklace spins wildly, and his arm reads '00:00' in gray.

Demise is back and still holding his hand out. With a confused look Scar reaches out to shake his hand. Demise grabs it and shakes it wildly. He picks the card deck back up and keeps shuffling.

"Where are we? And what are you?" Jellie narrows her eyes at the strange man.

"Limbo! The one of our own creation, not the real one. And I'm your spiritual guidance. The other four have the same job."

"Sooo, are you the leader...?" Scar asks.

"No, just the first. Do you know how long you've been here, Scar? Not here specifically, but in this state?"

"Oh, well, uh...a day?"

Limited sighs, "About 25-and-a-half hours in limbo time. Limbo time is about...three times faster than real time. So it's been...3 days, 4 hours, and 30 minutes in the waking world."

"Since?"

Third sets the deck down, "Since you got hit by the car, silly!"

"Am-are we dead?"

Last smiles and fans out a part of the deck and flips a card. To Scar, The World was upright but Last said, "This card is reversed. The World, when upright, means fulfillment, as it is the last card in the major arcana-"