I had a dream.
I dreamt of a little girl on strings, at a table with a bunch of marionettes, at the other side of that table was a demon.
I watched as the demon switched herself with another puppet as she blended into the shadows and reappeared in the rafters.
I watched as they were served, I watched as they hurt themselves, I watched as the little girl realized the strings on everything, including her.
I watched as she did not see the demon attempting to control her actions.
The demon got frustrated, and destroyed the dolls, just as the little girl looked back down,
She blinked again, and the demon took away all of the puppets, leaving only them in the room.
As the demon, whom had shrouded herself in the shadows of the room, decreased the size of the table, I started to mutter, then speak, then yell at the little girl to wake up.
And just as the demon was about to touch her. The little one managed to inadvertently snap her strings, and was awoken.
As the real dreamer of this place left for the waking world, the demon was left to glare at me as I was forced to do the same.
- - - -
I snap out of my mind scape and, back into the real world, I now know to be more careful with my mental energy, I will take it slow.
As the energy slinks into place, filling in the empty space of my brain.
As my brain takes form, every wrinkle, every partition, small veins connect with parts my skull, forming two small clumps just inside my skull.
When this happens, I feel as if I have another brain, layered over my brain…
It feels odd.
As the cyan seeps down the inner part of my spine it slowly gains a green hue, and creeps out through the nerves of my senses of touch, and pain. It feels like I have phantom pins and needles slowly growing in volume.
And as the energy spreads through my nerves, they turn a vibrant purple.
My mental concentration almost slips again, at the constant phantom itches, as the nerves start to operate.
Oddly enough, the nerves that connect my organs and my spine are not purple, but an ebony black.
As nerve fibers end, the the pins and needles and itching do not stop, in fact, they get a bit worse.
'It's most likely the lack of skin.' Yellow states smarmily.
I ignore them as I focus on making the skin.
I am left for a moment with no idea how exactly to do that…
But as I ponder on how, from the endings of the nerves, and a few of the muscles, pool together to create a thin layer of maroon flesh.
Then another, and another, sooner rather than later, fifteen incredibly thin layers of skin have built into a pale maroon all over my body.
As my skin builds, so too, does the flesh of my nose and ears.
My tongue had already been completed with the muscle connections, but the nerve's connection adds my sense of taste.
And as all of these senses complete, it's as if I have never truely 'felt' before.
My reality had already been numbed from the mana form, but it seems as if now my senses have been doubled.
And by god it hurts…
The overwhelming pain shoots my concentration, and I am left breathing heavily, feeling for the first time, like I am real.
It's also the first time my hunger has felt to debilitating in a while.
On top of that, the previously ignorable pain of the cold, stops being ignorable, so I shuffle closer to the heat emitting from the time somewhere in front of me.
'I Don't have the capacity to handle the newly increased pain of all of our new nerves waking up all at once and the hunger, so, let's make some lunch.'
- - - -
I take a step back from from the process of connecting my energies, and take a deep breath, if the smell of the meat was divine before, it's now practically all encompassing.
I try to move like I would usually towards the torso, only for the phantom nerves to start freaking out form the motions.
'This is the first time in this life I've had to deal with something like this…'
I try to move again, at an achingly slow pace, so as to not overwhelm myself with the pain.
It takes me a few moments to find the torso, let it cool a little, crack it open, and gulp it down.
The blood makes it taste gross, but gnawing hunger is a great seasoning, and it also quenches my thirst a bit.
It sorta tastes like a mixture of what I vaguely remember crab tasting like, with a subtle aftertaste of, what might be pork?
The texture is practically nonexistent, but it goes down mostly easily.
There are small bits of uncomfortablely hard stuff, that might be the organs? Well, it does taste odd, but still eat until I'm full, and as I eat I feel some of my ki regenerating, and in turn my mana regenerates as well, so that's nice.
'The after taste is a bit funky…'
my body begins the process of digestion far quicker than it normally would, although it isn't painful like it was last time, it kind of feels like I have a stomach full of soda, just a constant slight bubbling, maybe this is a byproduct of eating that heart, or maybe the food is being digested so quickly from my connections? I don't know…
Although the speed at which I am digesting is a bit concerning, I decide to just shrug and accept it as something that's happening, as there are far more concerning things that need my attention.
Like getting out of here, and back home.
'And a shower… I smell like bloody shit' I think to myself
Hopefully that will be before the pixie stick hits…
But, still something's nagging at me, I feel like something was wrong, not with the connections, but something else…
But for now, until I know what exactly I need to fix, I need to to focus on getting out of here.
That means having to find that orb…
'It's a shame we can't like, echo locate with magic, or something… ki sensing can only locate life signatures, and emotions…' Magenta said mournfully.
"Hmm… we have not the reserves to send out a burst, that also sends back locational data… though the idea itself holds merit, we simply do not have the material to do accomplish such a thing…' Purple analyzed
I tune out the conversation as cyan adds on an analysis of his own, and decide to wait for my nerves to stop screaming in agony so much before standing up.
- - - -
After a while, my phantom nerves stop sending pain signals, and I sigh in relief at the lack of pins and needles.
As I stand on unsteady feet, I remember the compass in my pouch, and take it out to at least know the general area of the orb.
As I take it out, I notice that even in the absolute darkness, the two points, one purple, the other grey, are still completely visible, emanating a slight glow.
The purple glow is pointing to my left, so I turn to it until I'm facing the direction of the orb, and take a few steps.
Before I am once again blinded by the sudden light of a glowing purple orb!
…
'It… was right here? The. Whole.. TIME!?' I mentally scream out in frustration.
'We could have done all of that…. With LIGHT?' One of the others yell out in that same frustration.
I stomp over and pick up the orb, not even caring that my eyes are stinging from the pain of the sudden brightness.
Besides that, the board was in my face again.
It took me a moment to be able to see it, since the light still had my eyes screaming at me…
[DING]
Duck.]
Blinking for a moment, orb in hand, I feel a shiver go up my spine, at the slight sound of marble hitting the stone floor, practically on top of me.
as that enters my mind, I take the advice of the system and duck.
The air of the location my head was just in screamed as it was cut by what sounded like an impossibly fast blade.
I whip my head around to see what I'm facing, expecting to see another of those puppets.
But I am faced with, something…
It looks a bit like the dolls, but it has crab claws instead of hands, it looks, stretched out, like it once was shorter, it now is far taller.
On top of this, it's is not covered in cracks, there is not a single crack anywhere one it.
But it has eyes.
Unsettlingly Human eyes…
Eyes that hold nothing in there depths but a resounding, terrifying, joy.
- - - -
Life's been kicking my ass recently, sorry this is so late.
Comment if you want.
And yea, that's a Mandela Catalog reference…
Have you figured out that I have a fear of things that pretend to be human yet?
Thanks for reading!