บท 1: Culmination
"W-where am I"
"what's happening"
"HELP"
"It's so dark"
"Why won't it stop"
For as far as the boundaries of reality existed, all was white.
There was not ground, nor sky, nor any other known form of matter: only the white void and the many stars within
Within this void, was a sparse collection of dots... or stars? A sparse collection of small stars.
Some frantic housing multitudes of color, while others were muted and sluggish.
"wh-where is everyone"
"MOM . . . DAD!"
"Why won't it stop? WHY WON'T IT STOP!"
"I KILL YOU. EVERYONE YOU KNOW, EVERYONE YOU LOVE."
"James where are you!"
Perhaps 'stars' was an exaggeration, these were closer to balls of light or maybe dense clouds of gas.
As time moved slowly. . . quickly?
It's difficult to tell when your only point of reference are random void balls slowly drifting toward each other.
Anyways, the balls. . . the clouds began to gather ever so slowly.
"Where is he"
"why is it so cold."
"Is someone there?"
Time continued, and the clouds started rotating around a single point in the massless void.
It was another cloud about twice the size of the average. It was neither bright nor dim. If one were to watch it for a while, one would get the impression of befuddlement.
Soon a couple of clouds collided with each other.
"WHAT WAS THAT?"
"WHO ARE YOU?"
"where'd you go?"
During these collisions most seemed to simply bounce off one another. While others were consumed.
"WHERE IS-huh. YOU, ILL KILL YOU!"
"W-what NO Wait!"
One would grow, while the other shrank. But only in small margins.
As the clouds gathered further toward the center and bumped amongst each other only the truly insignificant clouds were consumed.
"why Why WHY WONT YOU STOP SCREAMING!"
"it hurts"
"How many of you are there?"
Eventually, one made it to the center and bounced.
However unlike before, when it came back down it . . . rolled? wiggled? It remained connected. Somewhat melding to the larger entity.
"It's warm?"
"Did something just touch me? everything feels so distant, I can't tell. Is this some kind of dream?"
Soon another cloud came, bounced, then settled.
Coincidentally something else interesting occurred. Far off into the void, a single black dot could be seen.
"What, W-what's happening, WHY!"
"There it is again. It feels like putting on an angry shirt. Is that good or bad?"
Then another got on and made itself comfortable. Once the mass was fully stable, a new black dot could be seen amongst the infinite void.
"Where am I? Who are you?"
"I can't breathe, WHY CAN'T I BREATHE?"
One by one, colorful or melancholic, big or small, the clouds began piling onto each other.
Each bearing its own corresponding dot in the void, turning it into an inverse night sky. After a while the central cloud was no longer visible, causing its new appearance to resemble a patchwork ball.
"I'LL KILL YOU"
"It's so dark."
"Why won't it stop!"
As the new cloud grew it reached tens of times its original size.
To compensate the black dots grew as well revealing the truth behind their harmless form... they were cracks. Cracks in the very fabric of this small and empty reality, growing just as steadily as the cloud. Perhaps even more so.
"What's Happening!"
"S-something is coming"
"What do you mean something's coming, I can't see anything?"
At some point, the cloud began to writhe. As if sensing the instability.
The cloud grew as swarms came upon it, and so did the cracks. It got to the point where no matter where you looked you would see the black lines tearing the void asunder.
It grew and grew until-
"huh"
"What's that!"
It shattered.
Now,
Only the dark remained.
----------------------------
[Conditions met]
[beginning installation]
[Initiatating: 01110010 01100101 01110111 01100001 01110010 01100100 00100000 01100110 01101111 01110010 00100000 01110010 01100101 01100010 01101001 01110010 01110100 01101000 ]
"Huh, trees?"
'Where am I? The last I remember they put me on the gallows and then. . . Then nothing.'
All that could be seen were trees. The only location being hinted too would be a forest.
Observing this the skeleton attempted to stand.
"Wait. A SKELETON!"
Startled, it failed ascension and remained on the ground.
It was then that It noticed its voice resembled a cacophony of horse whispers.
"Was I always a skeleton? No, don't be foolish. That's not important. How am I moving? And should I be concerned?"
'So cold' 'Yes'
'I don't know' 'Possibly'
Suddenly the whispers unsynchronized, becoming less than helpful.
Now successfully standing, it took a look at itself. It was dirty, no, completely filthy. There were cracks all over and a couple of phalanges were missing, as well as the lower half of its left arm.
"We aren't looking too good"
'Correct' 'How'd you know' 'it hurts' 'No it doesn't' 'Can we fix it?' 'So green, I miss trees.'
"How would we fix it"
'Bones' 'yoga?' 'Bones' 'pharmacist' 'glue?' 'cleric' 'WHERE WOULD WE GET ANY OF THAT!'
"Bones, maybe? Yoga, probably not. I don't see a pharmacy so not those two. And I don't know how to make glue. So wi-"
'WAIT, WHY aren't you all freaking out. Where are we? Who are we? WHAT ARE WE!'
"Good question. I was so excited to see again, that I forgot to question our mentality. Are we alright?"
'Yes' 'no' 'IT BURNS'
'Right' 'aye'
'Not even the lord knows'
"See we're fine. Now how to get bones."
'KILL' 'Hunt' 'go grave robbing?' 'YOU'RE ALL INSANE!' 'fish' 'sleep'
"So now that the conflicting thoughts are out of the way, I say we wonder until we find something to hunt, fish, grave rob, sleep in, or all of the above."
'Right' 'Aye' 'so tired' 'I agree' 'HELP ME' 'We should get a move on'
And so the worn skeleton traversed the forest in hopes of something to plunder.
With uneven and stiff movements, progress was slow and unrewarding.
It did manage to find something similar to a squirrel. However, its size was twice the norm, housing speed at least quadruple the expected.
Safe to say they were outmatched and quickly lost the bugger. Not to mention the skeleton could hardly stay upright on the forest's uneven ground.
"Yeah, we're not catching that."
'TRY HARDER' 'Now what'
'it's hopeless' 'Fish?'
'Fish? Fish with what!'
'Toes?' 'We need a rifle.'
"Well, that's not helpful."
'You're not helpful'
So it continued to wander.
"This body is strange. And this latency is quite annoying."
'Latency?' 'Delay.'
'Energy' 'This place has so much energy.'
"Now that you mention it this place does feel ... Dense."
Looking around, the area was flush with vegetation, none of which it recognized. It understood they were trees, grass, and flowers, however, it recognized not a single one of their species.
Then there was the energy swirling around the air as if in streams.
'Those are langued flowers.'
"Hm, you know them?"
'IT helps you sleep if you sniff them.'
'Four eyes' 'Bobolyne' 'Can we sniff'
'Can we sleep?' 'What if one eats it'
"Perhaps we should take some. But where to keep it?"
'Why' 'How' 'Skull.' 'This is a waste of time'
"The skull is a good idea. As for why, perhaps we could make something of them?"
And so it started picking flowers and stuffed them up its skull or the various cracks in its body.
During this process, it found out that it can smell, although only faintly. The same went for touch. The only things missing were pain and taste, which was strange considering how closely connected smell is to taste.
'Hey, listen'
...
...
'There's nothin-' 'Shhhhh'
The faint sound of crushed leaves echoed in the distance.
'Two moderately armored men 70 pace's north' ' What, really let's go talk to them.'
' no, we need to hide' 'We should plunder their wares.'
' Why would we do that, we're beautiful as is!'
"What's that over there?"
'Shit we need to move!'
"Some kind of plant beast?"
Around 40 feet away two men in rough leather amour noticed the flower-logged skeleton.
One was the same height as the skeleton, bearing an average build, while the other was stout and bulky to the point that the skeleton thought it might just be a buff midget.
'HUNT NOW' 'KILL them' 'Wait, they might be friendly' 'No one is ever friendly'
"Hey Jack, I think it's dead."
"What do you mean"
"I mean, it's way too thin to be a beast, not to mention it hasn't so much as twitched since we got here"
"Maybe it's a trap, might as well wack it to make sure"
"Just wait until we're closer before coming to conclusions."
Hearing the stout one's observations, the skeleton remained unmoving.
As the men moved closer they saw the withered skeleton, intertwined with flowers, standing in a small somewhat clear area.
Broken and battered, yet standing.
"Woah, this thing's creepy"
The stout one immediately gave the other a bruised thigh.
"Ow, what was that for!"
"Have you no respect for the dead, hold your tongue!"
"Aghh... anyway why is this here and not in a grave? And what's with the flowers, they look freshly plucked"
Another hit followed.
"Don't touch, it's likely some kind of memorial. The village girls usually come out here to play, I wouldn't put it past them to respect their ancestors unlike you."
"Fine, fine, just stop hitting me!"
'We should strike while their guard is down' 'We should stay, maybe they'll leave.' ' But we need the bones!' 'No we are bones, if they touch us we'll snap!"
"Did you hear something"
"Whispers of the dead... we should leave"
"What, Why!"
"I may respect the ancestors, however, I'm not brave enough to await their arrival." The stout one- 'Drawf!' Or the drawf should the whispers be believed, began backing away quickly.
"Arrival? Like the story's- huh, Wait for me!"
Just as they came they left.
'We live, good.' Quick follow them, they might have bones' 'No its too-
[Inializing complete]
[Hello (Name here), and congratulations on being the first (species here) to have reincarnated. As a reward for this momentous occasion, your (deity here) has given you the opportunity to be a champion among champions.]
[Do you accept (system beta 0.28)]
[Yes] [No]
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