THE MOMENT
"Receipts?" Ozone asked with genuine confusion. He tilted his head at Quinn as he tried to process the unusual request. It'd been a quiet day in his shop and he was glad to hear the front bell jingle. Quinn wasn't at the top of his mind, and her appearance came as a complete surprise. They'd never been close friends, and she likely needed his help, which came with its own worries. But, asking for receipts only made her visit that much stranger.
"A ledger, or any records at all..?" Quinn asked. "I can't ask any of the Courts, for obvious reasons. So, I thought there was a chance you had something."
Ozone glanced out the windows to check for any incoming patrons and there was no one. Then, he reached under his counter to press a button. The shop walls, ceiling and floor turned solid white. Most of the display cases around the shop disintegrated into white powder and vanished, leaving only Quinn and Ozone in a sealed white room with a wooden counter between them.
"This is getting interesting all of a sudden," Ozone chuckled with a nod. "You're the second person asking for records of the Pineapple Cup. Unfortunately, Sharp Development, confiscated my books as soon as I showed them what they wanted to see," he shrugged with a sly smirk. He was now open for business.
"Uhuh," Quinn nodded and returned the smile. "A merchant of your reputation isn't just going to have one copy. So, what's the deal?" she asked.
"Asking you for money or nanos feels like a waste..." Ozone said. "...from YOU, I want information, it seems like a fair trade."
"What do you want to know?" Quinn asked.
"I want to know how you work," Ozone grinned. "I know how Tim sees the world. Dora, Dirge, Sprocket, Eury, I've gotten some insight into how they process time. So, I want to ask you the same thing," he leaned forward on the counter earnestly.
"You're not just a Muerte, you're Vanilla Quinn of the Void Court, and arguably Time incarnate. So, how do you conceive time?"
"Sure, that's easy to explain," Quinn nodded.
"There is no future, there is no past, these are an illusion. Time is one eternal perfect moment frozen in glass, and if you could look at it from the outside, you'd be able to know everything that can, has, and will happen," she said.
"I see timelines from the outside. How each moment fits together and what repercussions any change has. Kind of like a diorama linked together with threads might be a way to imagine it. Does that help?" she asked. Ozone nodded as he pulled out a thick green binder from under the counter and offered it to her. The cover read: [Pineapple Cup '24]
"That's what I really wanted to know. But, if you're feeling generous, I'm also curious what all the fuss is about."
"I don't know for sure yet," Quinn shrugged. "The Celestial Courts blacked out the Pineapple Cup and declared it forbidden, so I can't exactly peek back in the past like I want to. But, right now, it looks like there's a team missing that no one can remember."
"Magi-knights, Gravewatch, Honeybees..." Ozone began counting the teams on his fingers, then reached the seventh team he could name. "Conquistadors....." the eighth finger on his second hand wiggled as he tried to pluck the name from his mind. ".... Conquistadors... well I'll be," he laughed. "I'll have to check my copy."
"I'll bring the ledger back as soon as I can!" Quinn promised, but Ozone shook his head with a chuckle.
"I'm not telling you to keep it; but, don't rush on my account," he pulled out another green labeled binder and set on his side of the counter as the white walls faded and the displays reformed. Their business was done and he had something he wanted to look into.
"Like I said, I'll just check my copy."