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Time for a little encounter

Posted on Mon Dec 31st, 2018 @ 1:47pm by Commander Rita Paris

Mission: Escaped Pantheons
Location: Worldship, Green Gryphon Tavern
Timeline: 2395, docked with the Worldship


Chronos (/ˈkroʊnɒs/; Greek: Χρόνος, "time", pronounced [kʰrónos], also transliterated as Khronos or Latinised as Chronus) is the personification of time in pre-Socratic philosophy and later literature. Chronos governed linear, chronological time, contrasted with the other Greek word for time, kairos, meaning the indeterminate moment that is right for something to occur.

Taking a break before they pursued the summoning stone ceremony that was her current assignment, Rita Paris was mildly annoyed. While Sonak took readings to compare the data, she decided to take a break in what passed for a bar in the mighty Worldship, inside a spatial anomaly that was run by a greater being whose loose energies were leaking over into their vibrational frequency of existence and loosing gods upon the universe, Rita Paris was nursing a glass of honey mead when an old man slid onto the stool next to her. Eyeing him in her peripheral vision, the old man appeared to be wearing a ball cap of some sort, a liveried tabard over his chest and a kilt about his waist.

Silently, she hoped he wouldn’t talk to her, as she was Not In The Mood. Which meant, given Rita’s luck, he was the chatty sort.

Turning toward her, he smiled benignly.

“”Don’t be that way, Rita. We should talk, you and I,” the old man intoned, causing the blonde bombshell to narrow her eyes and take another sip of her drink, studiously ignoring the old man.

“Oh, come on now, you must be just a little curious as to how I know who you are?” the old man chuckled, shaking his head.

“Not really,” came the laconic reply.

“You? Rita Paris? The bold adventurer from another universe entirely? Years spent as pure energy, shot through time and space and reconstituted a lifetime after she'd left off? Why, you are the living definition of ‘kairos’. The girl who’s always in the right place at the right time!” the old man elaborated, even as what looked like a glass of milk was set on the bar before him. “You’re an explorer. Curiosity drives you, along with proving your daddy wrong and showing the universe that you’re good enough and smart enough and that doggone it, people like you.”

“Is there a point to this?” the irritated executive sighed. “Whatever you want, get to the sales pitch, pal. Frankly, I’ve had a hell of a day and I am not really looking to get swept up in any of your godlike bullshit plans and schemes.”

Taken aback, the old man frowned. “Well, you certainly have changed. What happened to ‘Be better’? Strange new life and civilizations? The Rita Paris I knew-“

“That’s just it, you DON’T know me!” Paris whirled on the old man, pointing a finger in his face. “You cosmic types assume all of this familiarity and come up with things about us that are supposed to endear you to us, but really it’s just intrusive and rude and unnerving, and it doesn’t make you seem cool or clever or amazing. Instead it just makes you come off like some smug jerk in a bar that’s guessing my bra size with his buddies before he tries out his pickup lines.”

The old man’s eyes had grown wide, and he focused on the finger in his face until Rita withdrew it and calmly turned back to her drink. Coughing a bit to himself, he remained silent for a moment, then took a sip of his milk. Savoring the flavor, he swallowed, then tried again.

“I’m Chronos, Rita Paris. I’m the God of Time. Given who you are and the adventures you have had, did you really think I wouldn’t know all about you?” he asked quietly.

Taking a sip of her mead, the ancient astronaut did not turn to address the speaker, instead stared straight ahead, even as her hand subtly settled onto her lap, casually sliding over her thigh to within drawing distance of her phaser. “So does that mean you’ve come to catch up with me?”

A hearty laugh was her reply. “Oh, Rita… really? After you defied me for all of these years, you think I want what I’m owed? Come to claim my due? No no no, my dear sweet earthling, I have no desire whatsoever to balance those books. You were always in the right place at the right time. Haven’t you ever noticed? You are one of my special children. The ones who move events along because they were there, changing the course of history and bringing about the history that needs to unfold. Haven’t you ever wondered why these fantastic things happen to you?”

While Sonak had a number of theories, Rita had personally subscribed to the concept that she was simultaneously the luckiest and unluckiest woman alive. But some extraplanar barfly trying to take credit for it was irritating her more than usual. The fact that she was even in a bar at the center of the universe was because she was already aggravated in the first place, and now this old bum trying to take credit for her life just pissed her off. Yet another old white guy trying to tell her that her successes were his doing.

“Well hoody hoo to you, pal. Sure, everything I’ve ever done, all of the stunts I’ve pulled and all of the accidents I’ve survived, I can thank you for, huh?” Rita expressed all of this in a tone that anyone who knew her would recognize as a dangerous sign, but Chronos took it as encouragement.

“Yes! Yes, exactly!” he exulted, right before a glass of mead splashed into his face, as Rita Paris first threw her drink at him, immediately following it with a fist to the face, followed by another and another.

“You’re the one, huh? You did all of this to me, huh? You wanna take credit for all the shit I’ve been through in my life, do ya?” As the excitable executive threw punch after punch, eventually the old man collapsed to the floor, holding up one hand defensively. Breathing heavily, Rita Paris loomed over him.

“Go ahead. Try to take credit for my life and my actions some more,” Paris growled. Clearly Chronos had chosen the wrong day to try to gaslight the USS Hera’s first officer, because she was quite visibly not in the mood to deal with it. ”Whatever game you’re trying to run here, I’m not interested. Whatever sly little innuendo you wanted to play your hand at, I ain’t interested. So since we’ve established our relationship and now you know who I REALLY am, you wanna keep popping off at the mouth, so I can see if gods can lose teeth?”

Scrabbling across the floor to get away from the crazy woman, Chronos, retreated until he could get to his feet, then he made a beeline for the exit as Rita Paris returned to down the rest of her drink and depart, to reconnect with Sonak and get on with their assignment. She noticed that she was given a wide berth, and no one bothered her. Which was precisely how she wanted to make her exit.

Meanwhile, at a table in the corner, the Greek god of timing and the Hindu god of compassion, tenderness, and love exchanged coins.

“I must admit, I am surprised. Usually she is much more a creature of my values,” Krishna admitted.

“Just have to catch her at the wrong time, in the wrong place, and say the wrong thing,” explained Kairos.


A minor god, yes... but he certainly had a knack for being in the right place at the right time.

 

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