Fragmented IX
Created | Updated Mar 7, 2010
Episode 9: Baxter and Robin
It had taken twenty minutes for Baxter to reach a state where he was willing to be unwillingly willing to converse with the representative.
For those past minutes he'd been pretending to be dead.
This was not Baxter's most established form of cowardice. In fact he detested having to resort to playing dead as it's not particularly safe, especially around cats, rats, vultures and people with pointed sticks.
He eventually moved when, out of the corner of his eye, he realised that the rep hadn't moved, but stood patiently, and Baxter was pretty sure he was lying on a broken bottle.
Having picked himself up, dusting off his jacket plus constructing a quality sandal, the two were now walking through the Citilian streets.
It was pretty quiet for the time of day. This, however, was due to an accident in a street near the Market Cube with a cart, and as such, a crowd of people were going to look. Namely to laugh.
Directions were being given by one of the Citi Guard.
'Sho which one of them are you?' lisped Baxter. 'One? Two? ...Three?'
'Oh, nO.' said the representative, whose eyes white, pupil-less eyes seemed to be able to look at you with out actually doing so.
'No, ThEY're thE 4 ElemEntal CreATors.'
'Elemental Creatorsh?'
The representative was looking around the city in awe. Looking as if absorbing the atmosphere.
'YEs,' he said absent-mindedly. 'ThE CreaToRs thAt MAdE tHe 4 eleMeNTs thAT SuStaiN LifE: eaRth, FIre, huMouR and wATEr.' He stopped to look at the cobbled road.
'But you ARE a Creator, aren't you?' quizzed Baxter, resting against a wall that belonged to a house.
'Yes, YeS.' The representative seemed to ponder this. 'By YoUR unDerstaNding oF Us, I Am CreaTor 28,959,713,007.'
This time Baxter thought.
'What did you Create?'
'IrRiTatinG pROblems aND ObligAtOry siDeKICks. TheY R 1 and The sAme REally.' The golden strand of hair fell across the Creator's face but was quickly brushed back up behind the ear.
At that moment a flushing sound was heard - behind the wall - above Baxter's head.
His eyes turned to the area to which the sound belonged.
The sound headed along the wall and connected to a pipe leading down next to Baxter.
Water rapidly gushed out onto his foot.
Unfortunately, brains react faster than bodies, and realisation hit Baxter.
'Oh Sh-' A deposit plopped out from the pipe onto his foot.
'Eweugh!-' Baxter cringed. '-A number three!' He leaned over and carefully picked up a dead goldfish by the tail between his thumb and forefinger.
The small carp was quickly tossed to one side, then Baxter scambled to wipe his hands on the bottom of his jacket.
'Shall we keep walking?!' Baxter urged the Creator.
28959713007, in the mean time, had been turning a brick over and over in his hands in amazement.
'Oh!' he cried, remembering his penultimate sentence. 'That rEMinDs mE...' The representative threw his arms up into the air, wiggled them a bit, then gave his golden strand a little tug.
'What on Shurf did you do that for?!'
'I wAS swITchiNg oF my CreAtivitY. I cOulD hAVe doNe It witHoUt thE Hand geStures bUt U huMaNs sEem 2 neeD SigNals 2 Know sOmeThINg's haPpening. PoiNtLEss iF U ASk Me.'
Of course the Creator's right. Christians feel some need to clasp their hands together and shut their eyes to talk to God through prayer.
But if you were Him, would YOU want your creations' faces to go into a position that you designed to do when sleeping?
'I HaD 2 uSE mY CreATiOn 2 preVEnt U FrOM runnIng AwaY.'
'That explainsh a lot,' sighed Baxter 'but not why you shpeak and look like THAT. The Creators I met looked normal.'
The representative looked sullen.
'I couLd sAy thE saME aBoUT U' he said flatly. He quickly brightened up. 'ThE EleMenTal CreATors wEre maKing U THINK thAT They werE iN HuMAn form iN a plaCe whERe WhonOva CONvenTions Don'T apPlY.
'But 4 mY apPeaRanCe hERE, thEsE Human FEaturEs nEedEd 2 B coNsTRuCted, And THe onLy reFeREnce We HAd waS tHe... OriGINal blUE-PrINt, So 2 SpeaK.
'As 4 thE VoIce, iT wiLl B noRmal anY mINute— Now.
'There we go. Hmmm... it took thirty minutes for me to get used to vocal chords. I'll have to make a note of tha-' The representative paused. 'Hey what's THAT?'
He rushed over in excitement to a place where a discarded 1 cit coin lay. It was picked up.
'You should all know' stated Baxter.
'First of all, We had to try and fit enough relevant information into 10 per cent of a human brain.
'And secondly, We know about objects' MEANINGS but not the labels that people give them or what the base items We Created were used for, or turned into.'
Baxter thought.
'I'm not even going to TRY and undershtand that!' was the exclamation. 'But what'sh your name?'
'Name?'
'Well I'm not calling you Twenty-eight Et Cetera.'
'AH!' the Creator beamed and looked around for inspiration. He rushed across the road.
'How about this?' he said, pointing at a window, while Baxter dodged the cart traffic and made his way across.
Baxter looked into the window, following the finger, it was a rather unique store...
'Erm... no.. No you don't want to be called THAT... How about..' Baxter moved his eyes away from the object on display but it had brought back memories and unfortunately brought on inspiration.
'How about Robin'?'
'Robin'?'
'Well, you're the first Creator I've met who has been wearing clothesh.'
