One fateful day in the magical land Before Cities, a mysterious man falls from the sky. He awakens with no knowledge of his past, and quickly learns that he is far from ordinary. Granted otherworldly powers and seemingly cursed by The Brand that ado...
Is this death? The beginning of my end? How can nothing be around when nothing is something? Is it possible that nothing is something in itself, and this is it? I persist outside of the past and the future. I am misplaced among a vast sea of stars. I don't know what to think or what to feel. I am hollow. I am numb. No longer can I observe the beauty of life; light cannot breach the shade that veils me—forever existing without uncertainty, desire, or dread to shackle me. I am a deafening silence.
Something is coming. A heavy door closes shut further away. Whatever is in here is afraid of something and comes to hide from whatever it is. Frantic movement, the shredding of metal, then pleading to a familiar deity. A deep, grating voice demanding to know where the intruder is. The figure replies that they are not an intruder but a friend. The second does not believe them and demands that they join it. The figure pleads with the voice, saying they only want to leave. Neither would respond further, and a struggle began. The sound of fear. Horrible mind-bending terror. The figure is fighting for their life against an unknown assailant. They are losing badly, and their screams echo through the chamber. Suddenly, the assailant stops and seems to be in immense pain. The figure takes the opportunity to run away but knocks into something on its way out, and loud horns blare from all directions. Before I know it, I am falling. It does not seem like death. At least not the end that I was expecting. There is no peace, no finality—just an unending stream of confusion.
I find myself in a similar situation, though this time, I feel more like myself. I'm floating in an abyss of an inky black void. I can't see anything, but I reach out and feel smooth, thin walls that are trapping me in place. Suddenly, a bright green light illuminates the space around me. A previously invisible door slides open and dumps a grotesque substance and me out on the floor. The thick liquid drops off of me and into a drain in the middle of the room. The walls and floor here are all made of metal, and I can hear the hum of something loud from far away. What is this place?
I look back and see I was previously in a large glass tube. Five of these containers line the wall of this room, and from the outside looking in, you can see an odd orb floating within. The look of the sphere is unlike anything I have ever seen.
A Black Hole?
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Condensed inside a thin, greenish-white ring of light, its center distorts the space around it into a chaotic vortex. Its surface is constantly changing and shifting as if it is alive.
Besides the tubes, a few desks, chairs, and blank papers surround the room. A large metal door blocks the exit to this place and is absent of handles or knobs. No matter what I try, it seems there is no way to open it. To the right, torn from the wall, is a metal panel behind which are various switches and buttons. I walk over and curiously press one of the buttons labeled "Take Form," hoping to receive a brochure or something to help me find a way out of there.
As I reach out and press the button, a blaring siren fills the room. The tube liquid starts to boil and froth, and one of the orbs moves erratically. I backed away from it and hit another button, causing the fluid to recede into the tubes. The orb begins to lull down, and the room returns to normal. I stray from that side of the panel and flip a random switch labeled "Emergency Exit." Now that I think about it, it would have been a better one to start with.
