Deus Ex Machina Chapter 5

Anatolius sat in the balcony of the rooms Zolteotl had given the competitors, he looked sad and bored, stuff had not gone how he wanted them to but more important than that, he couldn’t have stressless fun.

Kelso returned to the room Anatolius was in.

Kelso: This labyrinth couldn’t be more cruel, Stone and Sphinx are paired up for this next round.

Ana: Yeah, I’m starting to get real stressed here too, not even freaking beer pong can be simple in this hellhole.

Kelso: It’s strange how the tense atmosphere has even made objects like those two cutthroat.

Ana: Zol makes everyone and everything feel equal I guess

There was silence

Ana: I think I’m gonna give up for next round

Kelso looked at him surprised

Kelso: Wow really? I never thought I would hear that from you.

Anatolius didn’t have enough energy for a confident witty response to her surprise: I’m tired of playing against those two, they had this feeling to them, you know?

Kelso: Over confident?

Ana: Well yeah, at the beginning but, in our last two games, did you see how they didn’t miss a single time? But there was just nothing to their shots, like it was just something that happened, not something that they did, they were like… cold?

I don’t know I felt like they were just a complete opposite of like what living stuff does you feel me? “anti human” is how I would call it.

Kelso was confused and trying to make sense of what he said but she got distracted by Anatolius chuckling

Ana: I bet you also never thought I would speak like a true poet huh babe?

Having a conversation was human and thus lifted Anatolius’ spirit.

Kelso smiled a little bit because he didn’t look as sad as before.

That’s the theme of today it seems, “I never thought this could happen”

Silence lingered

Kelso: I’m sorry for screaming at you earlier, I think I got too invested into the game, I really wanted to see those two fail.

Maybe giving up is the better option in the end, the conditions for your loss weren’t that grave.

Ana: Yeah, they’re strangely specific too, you see what I mean with their strange vibe?

Kelso: Yes. Now that you mentioned strange feelings, remember how they said that this was a calculated risk, but then proceeded to explain how not even he understood himself?

I kept thinking about it and it sounds incoherent, how could he know the outcome of their actions if they don’t even know what actions they’ll do?

Ana: I think they were just playing some mind games, just to really make me confused and sad.

Kelso: I think there is a little more to it, if I remember correctly sphinx had mentioned that those two did something similar in the puzzle room

Ana: Oo I wanna know the tea

Kelso: Sphinx said that while he was paired against them they were confident and calm about their puzzle solving skills but at the very end the yellow one started to behave irregularly, acting against the green one’s wishes, It seems that those two are separate beings but the green one acts as if they were united.

Ana: That could explain the edgy “I don’t understand ‘myself’ “ comment

Kelso: And also, when the yellow one refused to shake your hand.

Ana: Oh shit

Anatolius had a slight shimmer of determination in his eye

Kelso said in a more serious tone: I believe that their “stone cold” manners are just a facade, and something that can be overcomed.

Anatolius started thinking

Ana: Do you think I could win the next match?

Kelso, now a lot more serious than before: Maybe you could, the first step would be to find a weakness in them and the second is something you need to change about yourself.

Ana looked at Kelso confused, what could possibly be wrong with him?

Kelso: Now is your time to change, I can tell that part of why you were sad is that stuff didn’t go as you wanted it too, you have to stop that, you have to stop being selfish, if their antihuman vibe is not what you expected and it’s bothering you than accept that as something that may happen, don’t expect to win everything, we don’t deserve to win everything!

So are you going to give up because you “don’t deserve to be beat by unexpectedness” or are you going to accept your previous loss and rise up as a new human!

Kelso had always wanted to say something like this to Anatolius but his playful,

sarcastic side always made him deaf to anything anyone said, with his broken ego, this was the perfect moment to make him listen.

For The first time Anatolius had fully listened to every word the Vima said and thought deeply about them.

She was right, his loss against Maestrale and the two previous matches weren’t planned to be against him, he just lost, he wasn’t entitled to any victory at all, the game was never stressless because no matter what he would always do anything to win, anything for him to be at the top.

There was a third and final silence where Anatolius stood up and looked at Kelso, now with a truly calm face, he followed Kelso’s advice.

Kelso smiled back and said: That spark of joy in your eyes is back, but now I can tell it’s real.

Anatolius could have made a joke about the spark comment, something among the lines of “ is the spark radiant like the sun” but instead he kept quiet he was thankful with her and joking at this time would be disrespectful.

Anatolius: I’m going to keep playing and trying to win, not because I want to prove that I’m better than them, but to prove that I’ve changed, and if I lose then fuck it! I’ll just accept it.

Kelso smiled and stretched out her hand

Anatolius shook her hand and thank her

As they were doing that another so called divine intervention happened, the sky cleared in one spot and rays of sunshine fell upon the ping pong table, Anatolius knew what he should do and he started heading it’s way.