A head-splitting headache. Incomprehensible images flash in my mind's eye: infinitely long spaces of impossible shapes, and nameless colors, somewhere beyond all time and logic... And beings made not of flesh, but incomprehensible strange matter, as if every centimeter of their abominable bodies was sapient, resembling no living creature from any worlds that I have visited.
Amalgamations of pinkish transparent pieces in a ball with one long tail ended in many branches. The balls were also covered by many more smaller tails, each branching into half a dozen more tails. And inside and at the center those incredibly tall beings, an eye.
They flickered in and out of existence, moving through invisible directions to my eyes, and simply looking at them hurt so much I felt as if I was dying, as if my brain was frying itself. Soon, however, geometry rearranged itself, the colors changed to a perceivable brightness, time started flowing forward again, and the creatures shapeshifted into humanoid figures of average stature.
*
A human girl. Long brown hair, slim figure, spots on her face, and nut-brown eyes, she walked beside me casually, wearing a cute dress of rabbit skin.
We were both walking towards the Voting Tower, walking across the field of warped stones, a place that looked like an ocean turned into stone during a storm, where rock curved and dived into itself until where the eyes could see, and on every centimeter of the stone complex petroglyphs had been carved representing everything that ever was or would be.
"Is that really good?", she asked, curious.
"Oh, it's the best!", I said, biting into the handful of blueberries I carried. "Definitely one of the best things we've done."
"Let me try it, then", she said, opening her hand, and making some cranberries appear on it out of thin air. She bit into one, held her chin thoughtfully for a moment, and then beamed with a wide smile: "Yep, it's definitely good! I like this sensation of tasting happiness, and the satisfaction that comes after this eating thing."
"Right? And fruits aren't everything, meat, eggs, breads… I haven't found a single edible thing I disliked, honestly!", I said, stepping into the vertical scarp of the voting Tower, and starting to ascend it.
"Greedy~~"
"The correct term is omnivore", I said, raising my index finger. "Plus, that's what we're here for, right? So, tell me, what do you enjoy the most?"
"Being with you!"
"Ouch!", I held my chest tight with one hand, making an exaggerated expression. "I will realize your wish, no matter what!", I told her, offering her my hand.
"That's what you're here for, isn't it?", she laughed, intertwining her fingers with mine.
Immediately, a tree of emerald leaves sprouted from the vertical wall of the voting Tower, and I decorated it with shining stars, and put a crown of worlds around her head. Under the light of the stars, and the crystal leaves, we sat down, and the wall of the Voting tower bellow became a field of blue and pink grass, and in the middle of it, a pond, the water of which all fell down to the sea of stone bellow.
"Being with you is not so different from eating tasty food. I feel full. I don't think I can wish for anything else", I said, brushing her hair with my fingers.
"I know what you mean. No creature, element, world or anything that constitutes it can match the pleasure that is to be with you. This thing we created… is our masterpiece", she said, leaning her head against my shoulder, and touching her chest, where the cleavage of her dress exposed one mark not so different from those sculpted in stone all around us, but this one in the shape of a beating heart.
"I feel like I willed myself into existence precisely to feel this. This tingly feeling I have whenever I think about you is what propels my creativity", I agreed, having an identical mark in my chest.
"The others don't feel like this, though."
"They take pleasure from their position, still."
"They get bored easily too. I fear what can happen if they keep scaling up their creations. Will there be a point where nothing could ever fulfill their existence?"
"Hey, we're only limited by ourselves. It's not like there's a limit to our power here. Plus, they're being guided by a creative person. Speaking of which, the voting must be beginning son", I got up from the vertical multicolored grass, and wings sprouted from my back, forearms, and calves, and the two of us started to ascend again, this time flying upward.
"Yeah, Badger has good ideas, but I don't know, he's a bit wacky sometimes", she said, instead of creating wings, simply making her legs stretch all the way to the ground, and then grow as tall as the Voting Tower.
"Haha! Yeah, creating [ ͝ٵ¿¢݈Ţݦ@▼] was pretty funny though. What a wacky dude. I believe in him however", I said, and in no time, we reached the top of the Voting Tower.
There, billions of us congregated, each wearing extravagant fur and leather clothes, body paint, shells, and bones adornments, and passing the time however they thought fit: some rearranged their entire bodies, morphing into a myriad of other creatures or things; some created the most marvelous sculptures, and breathed life into them, before sending, creating entirely new animals and monsters to play with. We all, however, gathered around a large pool of black, still water at the center of the top of the Voting Tower.
All of us, but one.
Badger, a figure wearing a cloak that hid every centimeter of its body stood alone in a corner of the tower, facing the pool and all of us at the same time, and behind him, beings of all sorts wore chains in their necks, tied to white pillars of stone, and there were pillows, and fountains of colorful intoxicating beverages, and many luxuries.
"Welcome… To the creation pool."