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There wasn’t much light to grace your senses as you open your eyes, though you assume it was for the better—a dreadful headache plagued you for as long as you could remember being conscious; admittedly, not very long, but you’d rather experience this horrible phenomena in as little of a timeframe as you could will.
Where was this? It was familiar, yet foreign at the same time. Chilling was the loamy soil underneath, the verdant blades of grass shifting in tandem at the faintest of breezes blowing through the forest you currently found yourself sprawled on the floor of. Righting yourself proved to be somewhat of a challenge, your limbs weak and joints stiff. After some moments of attempting to work off the strain, you lift yourself a meager handful of inches off the ground, noticing that the foliage underneath was long dead and gone, a perfect silhouette of your form in the visage of topsoil. Just how long had you been lying there?
Many memories were hard to recall. Scratch that— all memories seemed to have escaped your recollection. Certain combinations of shapes and colors would come to mind, a name for them all on the tip of your tongue, vanishing before you could come up with anything substantial. It was frustrating, and certainly not helping the incessant pounding inside of your wooden cranium.
You continued to work your way upwards, shaking free of a loose runner that had found its way across your legs and held you down all this time. Moving to stand was as difficult as you’d imagined, the first few tries having you fall right back onto your knees after only a second or two of uptime, but progression was showing. Gradually, you grew better and stronger, the whole ordeal only taking about a couple minutes of your time to surpass, you finally (yet shakily) standing on your own two feet after only just a few more attempts. The dim world around you was certainly more favorably viewed from up here, rather than at a meager ant’s point of view.
In the beginning, your gait carried a hearty limp, the first cluster of steps (if you could even call them that) having you nearly tumbling back to square one with each shuffle. You propped yourself against a nearby tree with one arm, taking a quick break before setting off again.
In time, you graduated to more of a toddler’s stage of locomotion as opposed to the lame, drunken mule you found yourself unintentionally role-playing as previously. Things were looking up from a physical standpoint, which you were eternally grateful for, but… you really wished you knew just exactly where you were. Each twist and turn offered no solution, a dim, green maze that seemed to go on forever, the layout of trees almost leading you to believe you were just going in circles, if it weren’t for the lack of any more you-shaped patches in the dirt.
Eventually, flits of fireflies began to dot the scenery. Sparse, at first, but increasing in population as you continued down your path. They didn’t seem afraid of you as you reached out in front of yourself, some of them opting to land on your finely-crafted fingertips. The sight of it was mesmerizing, rooting you in place for many moments before a sound snapped you back into reality. Distant, but audible—someone (or some thing ) was speaking just ahead. You found yourself quite eager to meet another soul, despite the danger the situation might possess. You’d like some answers, for starters: where was this? Who are you? Are there more of you? Is there somewhere to stay nearby? Et cetera…
Journeying forward, many of the fireflies followed. They gathered around you, some trailing behind while others marched onward, acting as somewhat of a beacon. You followed them, as they seemed to know exactly what you sought, anyhow, them fluttering right into the direction of the sound.
Rounding a few more loops, something glinted in the distance—a multicolored, flickering little thing—catching your attention. Upon inspecting it, however, it vanished into nothingness, leaving you to shrug it off as a trick of your own mind. Another bend, curiously, caused the object to reappear, and every subsequent attempt to train your eyes on the glimmering thing had it darting away from your sight, relocating to somewhere new. Surely it was an odd hallucination, or perhaps an interestingly-behaving floater. No, wait; you didn’t possess floaters. Did you…?
It became hard to discern the evasive light from the fireflies, their numbers becoming exponential at this point. It was a game of sorts, to you, increasing in difficulty as you succeeded in locating each of the shiny thing’s new hiding spots. Your legs began to move on autopilot some time ago as you rerouted your focus into being entirely fixated on this one, meager little activity. You never really did notice that some of these fireflies were never fireflies at all.
At some point, you completely lost the flitting, chromatic light source in the cluster of bugs, peering hard into the treeline to scope it out. Gradually, other multicolored entities began to fill the corners of your vision. You halted in your tracks, stopping to investigate them all—some large, some small, some near, some far—but they all behaved the exact same, escaping direct contact with your eyes and appearing elsewhere. You tried to trick them, staring in one spot for a while and then quickly darting over, but they were already tapped in, much faster than you. You tutted, considering admitting being bested.
Abruptly, you remembered what you were initially chasing—a sound, a voice , distant in these infinite woods, another soul to interact with. Training your senses, you couldn’t pick up on it anymore, try as you might. There’s a fearful chill that strikes you. No, that can’t be it … not like this. You journey forward on your own accord, following the (now quite innumerable and distracting) lights, hoping that they will continue to lead you towards your sought sovereign. Anything will do, really, as long as it’s away from these damnable—
Another form nearly crashes into yours as you turn your thousandth bend, rendering your face full of the other’s attire. You rub at your own visage out of reflex, the accident not causing you any pain or discomfort, regardless. You glance at the stranger, an explanation ready on your tongue (not an apology, no. It wasn’t anyone’s fault, but especially not yours), but your mind runs blank and your form cold at the sight presented before you: a mess of tatters, pale and molded green in nature, airborne some feet off the ground, with the limbs of many dangling below in a ragdoll-ish nature. Peering above the collar were a set of large, lopsided opalescent eyes, curiously inspecting you up and down. Surrounding the being were a myriad of those same glittering lights from before, flowing in and out and around the murky fabrics. Pinpointing them proved just as difficult, every single one of them elusive as they were colorful; though, with such a closer proximity to this strange phenomena of hues, you could spot from the sides of your vision that all of them appeared to be even more eyes belonging to the creature, ever moving and unblinking. You felt small, frail, even terrorized under all of their scrutinizing gazes. Countless, overabundant, omnipresent eyes…
“ Red! ” It crows, the sound almost deafening as it bounced around forever inside of your head. The fireflies scattered, some even dropping out of shock, or perhaps due to the sheer volume of the outcry. You clutched the sides of your skull, the pounding headache from before rearing in full force again. “I never thought I would ever see you again!”
Bafflingly, there were a multitude of sources whenever it spoke. The message was always the same across them, but there wasn’t any one solid voice attached to it. They seemed to all come from the same one entity before you, yes, but it sounded as if there were six of it, maybe more, maybe less, speaking all at once, some maybe lagging just a fragment of a second or so behind, or greater than. Some spoke at full volume, while others could be heard whispering the same exact message or otherwise using inside voices. Indignantly, you wished all of them would.
You weren’t quite sure who the individual was referring to. “Red”? You weren’t “Red”, you didn’t know any “Red”s. You were Yellow, taking a quick glance at yourself to make certain that was still the case. Your attire was yellow. Your hair was yellow…
You took a swift glance around your shoulder, in case you’d been snuck up on by a scarlet-colored assailant of sorts, but there were nothing but multicolored eyes and scattering fireflies. You furrow your brow at the being before you, questioning. What were the odds that, with all of its proudly-displayed hundreds of eyes, not a single one of them wasn’t colorblind?
Upon opening your mouth to speak, you find the query stuck in your throat. No matter how hard you willed it, words escaped you in a way you didn’t prefer, dying on your tongue and leaving the air blank. You fruitlessly claw around your own gullet, searching for any abnormality, but there were none to be found. You feel like you should be able to speak. Something is wrong.
The robed creature lowers itself down to your level, leaning in a bit too close for comfort as it continued to inspect you. It was a rather large entity—about three times your size, you noticed, as it loosely held itself up in front of you with a set of its dangling arms, invading your personal space. Peering at the lip of its collar, you noticed another set of wicked, violet talons that seemed to hold the fabric steady around the being’s anomalous form. Just what all was in there, you wonder…?
“It’s been so long ,” it croons, now less excitable than before, the sound of its voice(s) no longer as deafening as they were previously. Drumming its long, slender fingers across the earth, it gives you another—…this was way past a once-over. This was about a 16th-over, at this point. “Where have you been, all this time? So much time passed, so much has changed…”
It sounded almost upset, the way it trailed off. You wrack your brain for any sort of clue as to who this was and why it knew you (albeit by a name unfamiliar), but every slight instance of a familiar memory was promptly lost and shut out the moment it came to you. You were beginning to feel bad for it, somewhat, it fawning over you like a lost relative and you unable to offer anything in return. Maybe you could slowly get to know it, at your own pace, and perhaps make up for supposed lost time. It’s not like you had any other plans, presently… maybe ever , what with your amnesiac state.
It shifts slightly, angling the pressure onto its other set of free arms. “You know,” it began, still in a reasonable tone, “I had always sort of thought of you as the opposition, for the longest .”
Well. You two seemed to be off to a fantastic start already.
“But…” it trails, steady on its palms, unsure of how to continue. The creature twitches, momentarily, in various areas, the movements so minute you could hardly make them out. Its expression (or, what little it had) began to grow somewhat manic. A twinge of fear struck your gut.
Suddenly, it snatches your form with two free hands, bounding high into the air and giving you a whirl. The experience was somewhat nauseating, though the other didn’t seem the least bit affected and was entirely oblivious. “I’m just so happy to see you again!” It belts, a cacophony of sounds pelting your skull again; you’re certain that, if you had lunch to lose, it would have vacated by now. “We had so much fun together! We played so many games, even if no one else wanted to! You always helped me pick through ideas for campaigns, and you’d play through so many of my one-shots—!” It halted its near-murderous tilt-a-whirl, opting to simply hold you above itself instead. Its eyes shone with a brilliant jubilation, completely enamored with your existence before it.
“You’re not busy right now, are you?” It questioned, genuine intent in its tone. “Even though the rest of the gang doesn’t come over anymore, I never stopped writing down new ideas, just in case. I’m very excited to have you look through them, if you’d like.” It wasn’t spoken, but the downright pleading for you to come along was obvious in its gaze. Left to your own devices, all you’d continue to do was wander aimlessly down an infinite path to nowhere for hours on end. You had a fair assumption that this was not all some horrible trick, a well-crafted trap into having your limbs pulled apart one-by-one by each of those gangly arms, with as much passion and affection as this creature was oozing every time it spoke so lovingly to you. You weighed your options, considering each one an equal amount before settling and offering a loose shrug to your captor. Why not?
A wild grin you’d never seen before graces its features, countless blades for teeth lining the inside of its maw, and you briefly wonder if you’ve just signed the worst deal of your life—missed the fine print, congrats! You’ve just agreed to being eaten !
Alas, the ragged being only grips you closer, cackling into the dark oaks out of pure maniacal joy. It flies off, belly-up with you in tow, tatters fluttering in the wind as it seamlessly avoids the local flora through even the tightest nooks, keeping its eyes (at least, the main perceivable two) trained on you while the wind pelts your eyes and mats your hair. “I’m really glad! ” It relents, keeping a firm grip so as not to lose you to the gale. “You get to see how I remodeled the place and everything! I’ve got a library’s worth of things for you to look through; it’ll take you months to get through it all! We can play some, too, if you want, so all that reading doesn’t get boring .” It pulls you in closer, really hammering in its next offer. “You can stay over for as long as you need to finish! Please, it would be my treat!”
You had a little bit of a sneaking suspicion that there wasn’t much of a choice for you in the matter. Well… not anymore, now that you’ve essentially signed yourself over; but, in all honesty, there was a much greater feeling within that told you that, hey, this was okay. Everything was going to be okay.