1.5 Time

"When I was alive, I believed--as you do--that time was at least as real and solid as myself, and probably more so. I said 'one o'clock' as though I could see it, and 'Monday' as though I could find it on the map; and I let myself be hurried along from minute to minute, day to day, year to year, as though I were actually moving from one place to another. Like everyone else, I lived in a house bricked up with seconds and minutes, weekends and New Year's Days, and I never went outside until I died, because there was no other door. Now I know that I could have walked through the walls."

The Last Unicorn, Peter S. Beagle

The conceptual nature of Time -- as an entity, as a sphere -- should be a warning to others about the real capability of the Cult of Ecstasy... but of course no one cares, they see a bunch of stoners and ravers, societal dropouts with no ambition who are useless at anything except throwing some pretty good parties. When Lucas came to them, they had to disavow him of certain notions he'd gotten into his head -- thanks to his father, great and infallible Son of Ether that he was -- about what they were and were not capable of. It was worth the uphill battle (in Kezia's opinion, herding cats is a better use of time than any attempt at inter-tradition working) to see the way his eyes lit up when he finally understood. The things he could do with the human body if he could only slow it down -- or speed it up. She's proud of him like an older sister even though she knows full well they've got nothing to do with it, that it's his own brilliance that's allowed him to progress so swiftly; they only had to show him the door.

( i'm in the basement, you're in the sky. i'm in the basement baby, drop on by. )