004 × Welcome To Where We Are

The page turns through
Then stops at last
It's Creator, he's writing something

Well that's enough
My first two days 'ere
chaotic, weren't they?
that anomalie was a little infuriating, though
I can't even keep track of time here,
goes so fast, doesn't it?

I mean you should know

Guess I'll keep journaling stuff
Even though what I just wrote was
enough for three chapters of a novel
Good thing I'm not the main character of one of those

Am I right?

A shadow walks through the intricacies of the building
gears clanking, the sound of raining paint
Their aura contracts everything around them
infectious black spreading across half their face
They open their mouth with a hint of anger

Rip. Rip. Rip.
That's all that is
One tear there, one here
Potato, patata—what's the damn difference
Your fucking lazy, bitchless ass thinks we can just handle anomalies on our own?!
I don't like going to fate
just to ask for more capture crystal
half the time he doesn't even have any because they take too long to grow!
Another turns back—Creator, in his changed attire
spinning on his seat, voice suddenly bright
Oh my lil vessel, you that scared of anomalies?
Creator mocks, smirking
Surprise, surprise—you're the one who runs to Fate for help
when one of those show up
Vessel fails to respond

Like creator, like creation they say

Creator walks out, almost ignoring Vessel

Vessel grabs Creator by the shoulder
blurting out words as menacing as he can
Hey, we are your and your sister's creations still
But don't expect us to handle your mistakes for eternity
We can barely handle one

Now think about what might be coming up ahead

Oh, looks like someone is angry
Leaning over Vessel's shoulder I almost fall
But balancing myself I wave my hand in the air
Almost like I'm giving my vision of the future
Hey, I'm working on somethin', kay? Either
Whatever it is, I'll confront it
Or it'll come to us, conveniently
And that's definitely not foreshadowing, is it?

I walk past him

Ignorance is bliss, after all
Walking out the lone singular doorframe
In the eternity of the Black Place
Vision zooms out trying to take
whole of the complex structure
A giant one at that
Floating in the sky
Vessel can't help but comment on its
I've seen you make a load of random shit
Myself included, but this you can't

I shake my hands, shrugging in response
I didn't, but a special someone did
Continuing to add
At least, that's what Fate told me

Welcome to where we are, I guess

I keep walking
And walking
And walking

And eventually arrive in...
Doodlevile, it's awfully quiet, isn't it?
The little town for all our original characters
I wonder where everybody wen-
There they are

In the distance we see
Construction of a... stage?
Weird enough
I walk over to investigate
Which—that's a lot of OCs, there's like five of them at least
Then someone noticing, turns around and oh, it's Bloxy
Hey Vessel, I've been searching for you
So lemme guess, you went to Creator's
And hello Mister Creator, and by the way
He turns around to behold
We've been working on the stage
For the Endless Weekend
He turns around locking eyes with Vessel
And Vessel's gonna s-

Vessel cutting him off snaps in anger
Lashing out almost

Alright let me clear that I'm not
For fuck's sake, not gonna sing
Blox what the fuck, you wake me up in the damn morning
Oru whatever you call it if time exists
Following me all fuckin' day bitching to convince me to sing
for the festival

His eyes wide and veins pop out of his head
Creator materialises a bucket of popcorn for his entertainment

And before he goes berserk
No, to be honest I never said no to him, does that mean he was following me all day because I was ignoring him
The actual fuc-

As I snap out of my thoughts Bloxy's gone

Creator stops to remark
Hey come on it was just getting interesting
Vessel still standing there
As if he just had some sort of dumb epiphany

By the way he ran off
Creator adds

Creator asks as he approaches the stage
Leaving Vessel in his trance behind
Oi, uh... Quaezar? Ya know where Cia is?
Quaezar, pulling himself from his work, replies
I... don't actually know, in fact probably
know—she just went off somewhere
without telling us, leaving us in the middle of, well, everything

Meanwhile—

In faint vision two figures appear
One is Creatia
Walking forward, leading the way
And the other, draconic one

That's where...
Yup, definitely here
Creatia goes from questioning
To confirmation

As they approach the edge of a cliff
Going down hundreds of kilometres
And at the bottom, a sea of changing shapes and colours
So, Skaelia? We gonna go the non-cool way
And I fly down there
Or we gonna...?

Creatia asks Skaelia
Waiting for a response

Sure thing, madam
Her body contorts softly
Her head becomes more scalish
Growing wings
Spreading
She responds
Excuse me but

Cut to

Dragon form go brrrrrrrrr!
Skaelia yells as she carries Creatia
Riding on her back
Straight down the cliff

Hours pass
Days, years, maybe
Who knows?

Flying over the endless expanses
They notice something
Skaelia flinches as she realises
The hills have a pattern
They go in a circle
And after each circle
there is a deep cavern
Every circle gets higher
Higher than the last one

Uhhh... Miss?
I think the cliffs are getting steeper
Skae asks as I am far too focused on
Drawing a map
What, the Black Place?
No way that it's just...
As my hand keeps drawing
I can clearly see
The map, going in a circle
Every layer getting exponentially higher
That island at the bottom?
That's
What we knew
Of the Black Place

And it's all symmetrical
Meaning that if there's something on the bottom
There's something on the to-
Skaelia interrupts Creatia's
rambling as she exclaims
Miss! It's... We're upside-down!
We're on the top

And then

A shadow creeps in the distance
At the top of the world
A person?
Like infinitely
Stretching strands of nothing
Bound to the ground
Ink and imagination
Pulsating in their veins

Like a creation of the ineffable

The mouth
Like jagged crystals
Made of left-out agony
Opens to bestow

ƃuᴉʇunoɔ puɐ ʇsɐd suoǝ uoᴉllᴉq uoᴉllᴉɯ ɐ

ǝsᴉƃolodɐ ʇ,uop ᴉ ɹǝʍod uǝʞɐʇ
ǝuᴉɯ oʇ ʇuǝɯuᴉɐʇɹǝʇuǝ ɐ 'sʇǝddnd
puᴉɥǝq ʇɟǝl ɹǝʌǝɹoɟ uoᴉʇɐǝɹɔ ɐ

t h i s i s i n t h e i r m i n d s

Continue
005 × Call Us The Bad Guys, Damn It

Previously
003 × Chug Along We're Almost There