Enter a strange and amazing new world you've never seen before, but you most likely already live inside. Follow Theodore, a lonely kid who has to Travel through the 7 Layers of Space in order to find a brick and probably save the universe. Unfortuna...
In case you've never tried it, falling in absolute blackness is a remarkable sensation. If you fall for long enough, you start to question whether or not you're moving at all, and if so, in what direction. Even the wind starts to feel like a lie.
Theodore had not yet fallen long enough for that sensation to kick in, so he busied himself by screaming.
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"AHHHHHHHHoooooooooHHhhHH AhhhHHhHHHHHHHH!" he screamed. Even though his mouth was busy screaming, his brain was quite content with the refrain, "Why did you do that why did you do that why did you do that you're going to die why did you do that?" He'd left The Buddy Bot and Terrycloth Green to jump off the side of a strange island into a black abyss in order to follow his friend who had abandoned him. While it felt right in the moment, he was having some doubts.
He collided with Isobel's flying chair like a particularly ambitious pile of bricks slamming into a deeply unreceptive sidewalk. He might have remained unconscious for a good while longer if she hadn't kept screaming his name. She'd been descending at a much more reasoned pace when she'd heard him, turned her chair about, and sought him out. The inertia from the impact sent them spinning for a while longer, but after a few hurried switches pulled and some aggressive banging, Isobel was able to stabilize the flying chair and set it back to whatever destination she had in mind, now with a sweaty Theodore limp in her lap, lit be two little fluorescent lights that jutted out of either side of her headrest.
The blackness carried on, but was suddenly interrupted by a growing speck of red they were moving towards. It grew rapidly below them, signaling their hasty approach. Isobel's craft slowed and gently lowered down. She shrugged Theodore off and stared down at him, her eyes little flames of rage.
"You shouldn't have followed me down here! What's wrong with you, Theodore?"
"For starters, I'm learning I'm not very good at not jumping off of things. Though in fairness it's mostly been working out," he said, rubbing his aching ribs. "Also: I should be yelling at you. What the heck was that?"
"Theodore, I told you. I have something to do. It's got nothing to do with you. You could have killed yourself following me."
"You're my friend, Isobel. I knew you wouldn't let me get hurt."
"I'm not your friend, ok! I'm just another stupid kid who got stuck at that stupid House! We were stuck together, so I let you tag along! Now I have better things to do, so leave me alone!" she yelled.
Theodore looked up into the blackness, feeling the sting in his heart. "I know you better than that, Isobel. We're more than friends. You're my family."
She paused to stare at him, her face a mask of rage. "I'm going to find my family, Theodore. My mother. You wouldn't understand, you never even had one!" Tears formed in Theodore's eyes at the harsh slight. He bit them back, and Isobel turned away.
"I'm taking the lens. Don't follow me." She looked down, re-directing her attention to the big red floor, and began to sing softly.
He'd never heard Isobel sing, nor had he seen a Power Pattern come to life other than his own. He was again overwhelmed. "Iz...your voice is so beautiful..." But as he said it, she was gone, slipping down and through to another Layer of Space, leaving him behind.
"This floor is a door," he said in wonder, holding his hand against the surface they'd landed on. He lay on the door alone, staring upward, tears drying on his face. He could still hear the subtle melody of Isobel's song, it rang through his head:
"Birds and beasts are
All that you are,
Walk with me
Oh dinosaur..."
She'd forced that last word, 'dinosaur' into a charming rhyme with 'are,' as if she had a quiet pirate's accent. He smiled despite all of mean-ness that preceded it.
"How many of these doors are there?" he asked no one in particular.
This was the first time he'd needed to use a door but didn't know where it was going. He searched around for a clue, or maybe even an inscription, like on the first door to Gup, but this door was enormous compared to the others he'd passed through. It was also, at least based on his current perspective, horizontal. He'd nearly given up when his hands finally passed over a subtle carving on the furthest edge. He paused to peer over and his stomach lurched at the gaping blackness. He passed his hands over the deeply-gouged letters. In all caps, it read
THEN
He traced them with his index finger and was rewarded with a splinter.
"Dang!" he stuck the finger into his mouth and removed the sliver with his teeth, idly sucking away at the pain.
He sat quietly, not knowing what to do, but somehow not panicking this time. Isobel's song danced through his head, and he remembered sneaking into the dank basement with of the House with her, and his terror at the pile of gigantic bones he'd seen.
"Birds and beasts...are all you are..." he sang quietly and pulled out his notebook. He sucked at his finger while he let his mind drift between the melody and his memories.
The process of creating the Power Patterns was becoming more and more natural to him, he felt his mind slip into the state of simple creation with the ease of taking a step, it in turn reminded him of walking while he'd been in Sock. He let go and watched a new pattern of beasts and birds and flame emerge, colored lightly with the blood on his finger.
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"Walk with me...oh dino...sarrr," he leaned into the pirate's voice of it, and then he saw his picture come to life. His drawing filled with color, a cold wind blew, and the floor that was also a door glowed briefly as he sank through, once again falling and pulled apart and put back together to be deposited in another new world.
Just like that, Theodore fell into Then, the land of birds and dinosaurs.
***
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