1 Prologue

"Boucher-12, what do you see?" Krammer-06 asked through the static in a disconnected earpod that laid on the tile floor, "Boucher-12, do you copy? Over."

Bare wandering feet, frolicked around like they were used to in the olden days when it was acceptable, but now sheltered in shoes because it was rude or unsafe; the feet tossed around in the imaginary grassland known as the past, where butterflies still flew and trees still grew to reach the sky near such pretty blue with cotton clouds above.

Those days were long gone and so well over, but not forgotten to the possessor of these shoeless feet, for in his mind the summers still existed and school was still applicable to tots; now those days were long gone due to the future being so uncanny and wretched.

"Cordoroy Boucher, take the set-off or we'll make you!" The earpod hissed on the tile still, limp as ever with a dash of spite tiring out of the bud as it died.

Despite what the feet thought they could remember, it was the set that made the simulation more of a reality to this dreaming man, Cordoroy Boucher, or Boucher-12, allegedly; a man that had seen beauty before ugliness, and the being who craved the same flavor of life again that wasn't the white walls of any home or business his tired feet had stepped through; so to be in a realm he could see again at last, though it was not real, the familiarity was there in its purest form to this man, "It's beautiful…" He said innocently to the world he starved himself for until this moment, "I thought it was gone…"

"It is," Krammer-06 told him without the earpod or the distance because of the white suited presence of himself, "We thought you'd gone rouge, but I'm grateful you are all here. "

He told him with a bittersweet smile that would never last long, thus the reason the man never gathered laugh lines his entire forty years on this planet, "I can see it was a success, the past is back. "

"Yes, and I've never been happier!" Cordoroy blurted, taking the visual set from his eyes slowly, "I just wish it was really back... " he said with the same tone Krammer would carry in the back of his throat, knowing moments come and go like the past to the future today.

Krammer-06 took from his pocket disinfecting wipes and a ragged cloth to cleanse the item, "What setting did you get?" He asked without looking up at him so that his concentration would rely on the lenses cleanliness, "I got France the last time I wore these. Of course the pair I wore were the original, you didn't get to smell or taste anything then. "

Cordoroy sat himself on a stool that was too high for him sure, but his arrogance wouldn't let him be shorter than no one, "I saw a prairie. A beautiful one, too. " He replied, wondering how long the process would take to remove germs on the device. Eventually he asked in confidence, "Are those still around?"

Krammer-06 flashed a curious eye as his lips began to tingle with sentences he wanted to be said, but decided to smile instead, "Gone." He answered with his hands pulsing around the device, "All gone, I'm sad to say."

Alas, it was to be expected, and therefore nothing lost or gained according to 2025 Cordoroy; the very man who'd wrestle with his nineteen year old self if he could, just to prove this needed to be let go.

Somehow after this thought, Cordoroy bottled it up with the choice to mimic his boss with the same useless smile, "Shame." He said quickly so the moment would pass.

Krammer-06 sighed at the device, "I think these will be better off getting steamed, germs are invisible assassins on these anymore."

He held the device limply with a frown about to leave until Cordoroy unthinkingly flew to the door, "Yes?" Krammer-06 questioned with no trace of surprise, but mere boredom, in fact.

Cordoroy glances at the device with starvation in his eyes because he knows this is probably the only chance he'll ever get at the past again, "Maybe I could take them there?" He asked nearly out of breathe from his swoop, "My morgue is right next to it, and I have bodies to examine down there anyway!-it'll be no trouble. "

Krammer-06 tilted his head slightly, "Why?"

The scientist asked his morgue director cautiously as if the man was plotting murder, "What did you see in these, that you want to see so badly?"

Seconds began to tick away on the clock until Cordoroy stepped aside from the door, "My apologies, professor… '

"The past is a drug, even I would be addicted if it wasn't my profession to bring it back through these. " He explained in full honesty, "Exactly why I allow non-seers to view the life left behind, so they may never see it again. " Krammer-06 finished, placing his hand on the doorknob.

"It was a butterfly!" Cordoroy exclaimed.

Though the past was gone, one thing returned that day: the utter look of shock stretched along the old man's face that made his eyes widen and his jaw hang open, "A what?"

Cordoroy repeated, "A butterfly. " He answered.

Feeling limber and weak as if time caught up to Krammer-06, he sat on a stool hoping his questions to be answered, "What kind? Was it graceful? Beautiful?"

Cordoroy smiled widely, "Blue, it wasn't alone because there was a whole group. They were all absolutely gorgeous in the ferns, too."

"And graceful?" Krammer-06 asked in a childish way, "Were they graceful?"

Cordoroy nodded, "They danced in the wind without getting knocked away, sir."

Krammer-06 copied the morgue director with a smile, "Alright, you've amused me, " He sighed happily, "You may take these to the steam room, only if you promise me one thing." The old man wagered the eager younger man, "If you promise not to wear them on the way. "

Cordoroy didn't want to promise because his compulsive behavior was nipping him tirelessly, "Alright."

Of course, he put them on, it was as if the device was just made for him; a perfect window of the past that was lost away due to the device's creator. Man.

And yet, not an ounce of concern sparked his interest, therefore he shrugged it off without worry because the prairie was back.

Hopefully, it wouldn't be lost again either, asking as the device rested on his face as he sits in his morgue eagerly waiting for the butterflies to return.