Scar merely narrowed his eyes as the man across from him so casually admitted to starting this whole time loop business in the first place. He wasn't too surprised by the information, after all.

The simple fact that he had always referred to outsiders as a 'you' instead of 'we' made it plainly obvious that he wasn't one. So, the fact that he could keep his memories when everyone else couldn't, as well as revive seemingly infinitely while outsiders couldn't, made his identity obvious. Still, it was good to get complete confirmation of his suspicions,

"You started the loop, hmm? Does that mean you also have the ability to end it and free us all?"

The man calling himself Mayfly raised an eyebrow in surprise, pausing mid drink and placing the beer back down onto the table. He wiped his mouth and let out a soft chuckle.

"You don't seem too surprised by the fact that I could even start a time loop in the first place. Most people would be freaking out or thinking that I'm crazy for suggesting such a thing. But you... Man, you just act like its nothing. I'm a little disappointed."

"You are far from the strangest thing I have seen to date. I mean you are getting invaded by an army of ghost pirates every night, so why would I not believe you? Plus, you have no idea what I can do."

Mayfly looked at him strangely, a mixture of apprehension, anxiety and mainly morbid curiosity evident in his eyes. Eventually he just let out another chuckle and took another swig of his drink.

"Fair enough, still disappointing though."

"Perhaps, but you still haven't answered my question. Can you stop it."

Mayfly glared at him, finishing the drink in a few more gulps before slamming the empty glass down with an irritated groan.

"Yes, I can. But before you ask, No. I will not. I don't care what you do to me, or how much of a hell you make my infinite life. You will never make me drop this loop, so don't even bother trying."

Scar narrowed his eyes in irritation, glaring at this singular man who acted as an impossible obstacle to him. He was a Celestial, probably one of the most powerful beings on this planet at the current moment, yet here was a man who was not even transcendent, standing up to him as if that title meant nothing.

Because in here... it really did. He might not have been able to resurrect Scar because of his power, but he had trapped him in the perfect prison.

And yet, as he watched the man in front of him ordering another drink, his irritation slowly melted away. The more he looked at him, the more he noticed details he had overlooked when he simply saw him as a drunkard.

Scar noticed his sunken eyes, not just from a lack of sleep, but from something heavy inside of him dragging them back into his skull. His eyelids hung low, unable to raise more than half, and no matter how much he joked and laughed, there was rarely a hint of anything but misery in his eyes.

More than that, he noticed the slight hunch in his back. It was the type that came not with depression, but with exhaustion. The exhaustion of holding something on your shoulders for longer than could possibly be deemed reasonable, and then continuing on with it anyways.

This drunkard, this Mayfly, had the weight of lives on his shoulders. A weight that Scar knew all too well, even if he had strange feelings about his past as Seth. He narrowed his eyes once more at Mayfly, watching his every move and emotion, as he spoke softly.

"You didn't chose this day on a whim, did you? You started it on this day to save these people."

Mayfly scoffed, staring at the table instead of looking at Scar, "I wish. Nah, I wasn't so selfless at the start.

I started it to save my own life. I wasn't thinking about others when I did it."

He thanked the waiter as they brought over a few fresh drinks, one of which Mayfly immediately gulped down before moving onto the second. Only once he was half way through the second, did he finally talk again.

His gaze remained distant and his voice emotionlessly low as he recounted that faithful day.

"It probably went the same for you, I bet. Everything was fine, until the voice spoke in my head. Then everything started to change. I was here when it happened, and when the people in this very room turned into monsters."

He nodded towards the kind old man standing behind the bar, idly chatting as he cleaned some glasses, "John, the owner. He turned into some kind of horrific, undead abomination. Putrid rotting skin hanging off of him in folds. He grew twice his twice and could unhinge his jaw to eat a man whole. I know that because I watched him do it."

He then glanced over his shoulder and pointed with his thumb towards someone sitting a few booths over. "Steve there, He became some kind of snake man. Started to bite people, fill them with the most wretched venom I have ever seen. It must have been painful alongside fatal... I can still hear the screams."

Mayfly recounted the day, pointing out each and every person that mutated. Not just into aberrations, but also the one's who gained beneficial mutations. With each one he named, he also named how they died.

Scar didn't interrupt or rush him, just patiently listened. Although he was in a bit of a rush, and had quickly lost his patience with the looping days after the first few times, he knew the dreadful memories that day brought up, as well as the days that followed.

Even now, after regrowing his arm and becoming a new man, he still work up some nights clutching his arm. A dreadful pain coursing through him from where it had once been severed, as cold sweat ran down his back like a river.

He didn't know all the details of them, but on a few occassions he had caught Astra having similar nightmares of the things she had been through. In fact, if there existed someone who didn't have nightmares about at least some of the things they had been through, he would doubt that person's sanity.

Everyone's experiences in the beginning were just awful, it wasn't a case of better or worse. It was just different.

So Scar let the man recount his tale, listening to every detail. Eventually he stopped listing people and moved onto himself, but not before taking another drink or three.

"I survived by sheer luck. Managed to sneak out the back while John was eating one of my drinking buddies. Not that the outside was much better. Pets eating their owners, or owners killing their pets. Children killing their parents, partners dying in each others arms.

It was just awful... I never wanted to see it again. But when something finally noticed me, I couldn't do much to defend myself.

The uh... voice, whatever it was, it said my power was [Checkpoint], I could set a time in the last 24 hours as a checkpoint, then turn back time to that checkpoint and relive the day from there. So that's what I did, just before I died. I picked this morning.

Of course... It was only later that I realised that it only effected a certain area. But that didn't matter to me the first few loops.

I went through the day, waiting for all hell to break loose as I tried to remember everything that happened, so that I could escape while everyone else died, like a true fucking coward."

"Only it never happened." Scar finally spoke, watching Mayfly closely. The time travelling drunkard nodded, sighing heavily before he continued with his recount.

"Yeah, It never happened. As long as I never remove the checkpoint, it restarts on its own so I just... let it repeat. I didn't know if skipping the whole monster apocalypse thing was a fluke or not, so I let the loop continue.

At least until I was ready to face it head on when it did arrive.

Then the first outsiders came and told me about the world outside. I let them stay, along with anyone else who came along. I kept the loop going after that so it could be a sanctuary in the middle of all this... horror and doom."

"I can't help but notice that in your initial story, you didn't mention ghost pirates at all."

Mayfly chuckled darkly, finishing off another drink as his words began to slur.

"Yeah well... Guess not everyone liked my idea. They raid us every night, all for their captain. He never set foot in the loop himself, so he doesn't get reset. But his crew does. I bring them back to life every night, so they can kill everyone I care about.

But I can't stop the loop, because I can't stop them when I do. I... I don't want to be a coward anymore, but there's nothing I can do. They turned my sanctuary into a fucking slaughterhouse.

The most I can do is give them a day of peace, and a night they will never remember. So, I'll carry the burden of those memories for them, although this memory killer certainly helps with that."

He laughed darkly again, picking up another beer and starting to gulp it down. An action that Scar finally saw was filled with desperation and misery.

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