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Avery almost didn’t take his lunch break. Feeding The Eye all day long meant that it never fed off of him, so he had no real need to eat. But there’s just something about going to the park and Watching someone you can see. There’s a lovely moment when they realize that the Eyes on them are not normal eyes.
Today he had settled on a rather attractive man painting under the large Cornelian Cherry. He Saw the swish of his long black hair in the breeze, the rare sunlight glinting off of it. He Heard the off-pitch humming of some pop song. He Smelled the dizzying scent of turpentine drifting from the wet canvas.
Avery knew why he had chosen him. As little as he liked to admit it, he reminded him of someone. And he knew exactly who.
And in that moment of hope and weakness, he Looked through the man’s own eyes.
The park was laid out in oil paint, green and brown and grey smudges. It all blended together in a way that was almost ugly, but was somehow the most beautiful painting Avery had ever seen. Granted, he hadn’t seen many, but he could tell that this was truly a work worthy of Beholding.
That was all Avery saw for a moment.
Then he noticed that almost everything on the canvas was just slightly blurred. There was a single point where the image in paint sharpened, as clear as life against the barely distinct objects surrounding it.
It wasn’t as if Avery’s own eyes were physically looking at the man. He was Sensing through the other patrons of the park. The implication of what he Saw on that canvas should have been impossible.
It was him.
It was him, but not even simply as he appeared in the present moment.
Two green sigils- twin eyes- splayed in front of his Real Eyes, smaller versions of the one across his chest.
Avery looked up from the book that he had Definitely Been Reading, shifting his physical eyes to where he knew the man sat.
The man was already looking at him.
Avery sent him a bashful smile with a duck of his head.
The man didn’t roll his eyes with a tiny smirk.
The man gave him a small wave with the hand holding a brush, a light chuckle bursting out through his upturned lips.
The disappointment crept in like a panther.
And then the world changed.
The sun blinked into an eye. Into The Eye.
It Stared into everything.
And Avery was part of that everything.
It Saw every doubt, every love, every pain, every desire, every madness, every fear he had ever felt.
The comfort of being Known crashed over him like a tidal wave, bringing him to his knees as he began to cry.
The park around Avery shifted, Becoming something that could be terrifying.
But it wasn't his.
He knew it wasn't.
He knew where to go, though.
He pushed himself up from the decaying grasses, tears still dripping from his chin from more eyes than he should have had.
He turned his gaze up towards The Tower on the horizon. However far away it looked, it would only take a few minutes to walk the distance.
That was where he was to be.
He smiled at the comfort of Knowing that before setting off.