Sunflower—Into the Fountain (EG_002)

[hengest]

...down and down, quickly at first, and then more slowly. Looking up, you see the circle of the fountain shrinking above you, the strange sky of Bottleton now reduced to a circle. You are falling, but now obviously towards any sudden stop, so the tension of the fall quickly dissipates.

The space around you is black, but not the black of night. It seems promising in a way. But you have never done anything like this before.

The apparitions are still around you, falling or flying at various rates, sometimes overtaking you and sometimes falling behind. It seemed that they disappeared upon entering, but it seems now that they only disappeared from your view.

As you turn in the "space" through which you are falling, you can see the colorful thing far below, but growing now in your field of vision. It is throbbing in a dancelike manner. 

[The Semi-Retired Gamer]

...gaze around in awe as my descent slows a bit.

<thinking> THIS is unlike anything I've ever seen or heard of. The apparitions are not disappearing but continuing on in this darkness.

I gaze at the approaching colorful thing below and try to think of something, anything to do.

<thinking> If I can't prevent myself from falling, I am going to hit that colorful area below.

I look around again in hopes of noticing anything that may help me but there's nothing to see.

<thinking> I did slow a bit so maybe...

In desperation, I extend my arms out from my sides and wave them up and down in a [futile?] attempt to slow my fall even more.

[hengest]

You find that flapping your arms gives you a sense of doing something, but you aren't sure that it's accomplishing anything. Maybe it is. The lack of reference points in here is messing with your sense of how far you have to go and how fast you're falling.

As you turn and see the colorful thing again, you notice it is quite a lot larger and feel that you are coming up on it a bit faster than expected.

Trying to get and keep your bearings, you note a few of the apparitions around you. It seems that you and they are beginning to drift apart "horizontally" (across a plane at right angles to your fall, roughly). One of them, a woman, catches your eye, looks below, then back at you. She extends her hand. She cannot reach you, you estimate, but you might still be able to reach out for her before she "drifts" away.

In any case, you are both likely on a collision course for the colorful thing, which is now coming up really quickly.

[Do you try to make contact or no? Or whatever else]

[The Semi-Retired Gamer]

<thinking> Oh...something is happening but I'm not sure if this arm flapping is actually slowing me down or not.

I notice the colorful thing still approaching at what might be a faster than expected speed.

<thinking> That woman is reaching for me. Maybe she can help me.

I reach out quickly to grab her hand.

[hengest]

You reach out and barely make contact. She feels semi-substantial. As your hands pass through each other, meeting with some resistance, she looks at you strangely then looks resigned. It is hard to be sure of the exact expression on her face, as you are not used to looking at people who are transparent.

That said, if one or both of you had as your goal not getting separated, it seems to work. There is enough traction to keep you from parting as the colorful object zooms closer to you. The other apparitions you can see are quickly pulled away from you, as if spreading out to cover more of the colorful object. Which is just about upon you...

Uncertain what you expect, you splash into the soft jellylike surface of the object, sink down a bit, and bob back up. The substance, multicolored but with colors unmixing, in patches large and tiny, runs off you at various rates. You seem not to be in immediate danger and look for the female apparition. She is nearby still, although the color appears to be leaking onto her person in places. She is staring at her arms, from which the color is sheeting in places as it bleeds into her in others.

Your feet feel free. All around you is an unbroken explance of the substance, all above you is black "sky," and below you, perhaps, is nothing?

Before you can do or even think anything, a set of fist-sized blobs rise up out of the mass. A few of them move to float before your face, and a few hesitate but then do the same to your "companion."

Yours change their shape rapidly and mute their colors, taking the forms of a kind of mushroom, what looks like a monument of standing stones, and a spade crossed with a sword. You think.

[The Semi-Retired Gamer]

I laugh for just a moment up0on landing and realizing that I didn't get smashed into bits.

"We made it!" I exclaim to the woman as I watch the color interact with her body.

<thinking> I wonder WHERE exactly this place is at and WHY it is here. Is there more of this stuff farther down below this spot?

I gaze in wonderment at the shapes forming in front of myself and the woman.

I hold my hands up in an attempt to show no harm is intended and say, "Can you hear me?" and I also say to the woman, "How about you?".

I do not make any sudden movements as I wait for an answer.

[hengest]

The sky seems nearby now and somehow expectant.

As you speak to her, she cringes as if she was not expecting to hear speech. Your own voice sounds harsh in your ears, as if you have not heard it in a while. Perhaps you were falling for longer than you thought. She recovered and replies, but her voice is faint, a cracked whisper. You cannot quite hear what she means to say. You can see her features better now, as the colors seem into her and fade to regular coloring in a few places. She is not as transparent as she was while you were falling.

She speaks again and you can understand, although her voice still sounds distant. "I was called. Did you come of your own will?"

The object-shapes before you are floating towards your face and then back again, as if to get your attention. You see that she has her own, which appear to be a kind of building with a high spire, a hand with forefinger and thumb in a pincer grip, and a kind of pulsating sphere.

The woman, who now has nut-brown hair and looks about ten years older than you, looks over your objects as well.

[The Semi-Retired Gamer]

"Called? From where?" I ask as I take in everything happening around us.

Before she can reply I continue with, "Did any of these others come with you?", as I point at various apparitions around us.

"I really should introduce myself. I'm Ethan Greyback. I'm from Westford. I came to Bottleton to get out of my small part of the world.", pausing momentarily to look at the forming shapes and the appritions again.

"To keep it short. I was investigating the recent strangeness in Bottleton for some friends. I came upon this...pull...or calling as you named it. I followed it and the only way to keep on going was to come down here to this...place.", I explained as I continued to look in her direction.

"What's your name? What can you tell me about being called here?", I ask as I stand there waiting for a reply.

[hengest]

The apparitions were separated from you two enough that you cannot see any of them. During your "re-entry," they all slipped away from you during the last leg. You may assume they "landed" as you did, but you can see no one else from where you float. Your trying to take her hand kept you two together so that you are now only a few feet apart. Surely, had you not done so, you would be utterly alone here.

"Bottleton? I have heard of it, but...in any case, my name was...Alla. But I think very soon now that will not matter." The colored substance continues to seep into her, although parts of her are still as transparent as they were. Her clothing seems to be part of her for this purpose, a simple tunic, from what you can tell.

"The others?" She looks around, seeing no one. "I know the others you mean, but...I don't really know them. I think we were all called separately. I saw how solid you looked and I was a little afraid. That's why I reached out. But if you weren't called..." She pauses and looks at you, seeing how the substance is not soaking into you as it is into her. "If you weren't called here...then you don't know anything? We have to choose and help the new things to come about. Are you able?"

[The Semi-Retired Gamer]

I listen to her words with earnest interest and think for a few moments.

"No, I don't know any more than what I've told you," Pausing briefly before continuing, "and I don't have any idea of what to do but if I'm able3 to help then I will.".

I look around for a moment and then is ask, "So, what's the plan?".

[hengest]

Alla looks present and absent at the same time, looking towards you and looking at the objects before her as well.

"Plan? I don't know...I think we have to choose. I'm sorry if I got in your way. I started to have regrets on the way here. But not anymore."

She gestures with her left hand, which is transparent, colorful, and fleshlike in various places. "I think these are our choices. There were no instructions, but I think we have to choose now." She laughs a little. "I wonder what yours mean."

[The Semi-Retired Gamer]

"Hmmm...that just might be what we need to do.", I respond looking at the shapes in front of both of us.

"I'm going to try touching this thing."

I slowly, tentatively reach out with my hand to touch the shapes that were gathering in front of me.

[hengest]

Which one?

[The Semi-Retired Gamer]

[In case I'm not getting you, I will cover my bases.]

I reach out with my left hand and try to touch the shape in front of me; in the area that could be considered the chest.

[hengest]

[Miscommunication; ref's fault. Rectify now. What was meant was this, from above:]

Yours change their shape rapidly and mute their colors, taking the forms of a kind of mushroom, what looks like a monument of standing stones, and a spade crossed with a sword. You think.

[Those shapes are still bobbing in the air in front of you. If you want to touch one, go for it.]


Alla is paying less attention to you already as she studies intently the bobbing shapes in front of her.

[The Semi-Retired Gamer]

I reach out slowly to touch the mushroom shape.

[hengest]

Alla watches you reach for the mushroom, and touches the high spire herself. She gives a startled look, and you might have drawn your hand back, but your muscles were already making your fingers grasp the mushroom. You yourself are startled by the sensation.

The untouched blobjects tremble and fall back into the general blob mass. All the local colorful fluid vanishes into the objects you and Alla have grasped. You find yourselves floating in the middle of nothing for a moment. The mushroom and spire shapes seem uncertain for a moment and then draw towards each other with a sudden movement. They merge and vanish. You have a touch of trouble tracking what happens next, but as you will remember a few minutes from now, you and Alla find yourselves atop a high hill overlooking a fresh and green country, but with no sky. It feels nothing like Bottleton.

As you try to get your bearings, you notice there are no landscape features other than the hills fading into plains. Suddenly, the ground shudders before you. Some material--not earth, but more of the colorful substance that surrounded you not long ago--rises out of it, while a proper dome of sky begins to stretch out over this landscape. The colorful substance rapidly forms the skeleton of a large and wall-less grouping of gigantic mushroom shapes and structures with tall spires. The speed of this process almost makes your head spin. As you look over at Alla, you see that she is entranced and less dumbfounded than you. Her body seems almost to be pulsing in time with the creative act you see before you.

The new shapes fade to regular (?) colors: there are gigantic mushrooms that appear to be made of wood, interspersed with structures that look like they were built to pierce the sky, but with varying degrees of success.

The ground shudders violently now, and there is a series of aftershocks that fade slowly...although you still think you can feel a kind of hum under your feet. The ground directly under you gives way, slowly, and you instinctively step aside. Looking back, a large pit has opened with unworn stairs of red marble leading down under the ground in the direction opposite the mushrooms and pointy structures.

Looking back, you see a large set of gates at the edge of the "city" that has just grown up before you. As you and Alla watch, the gates open inward and a clear voice calls "Make way! Make way for the King and Queen!"

[The Semi-Retired Gamer]

I look up in the direction of the voice calling out to make way. I look at Alla with a confused expression as I ask, "King? Queen? Of what place? Where in the world are we?".

I scramble to my feet and help Alla up as well.

"Shall we take the stairs?", I enquire of Alla.

I wait for an answer but not too long. If necessary, I will start down the stairs and try to get her to come with me.

[hengest]

Alla ignores you, staring fixedly at the now-open gates. A modestly but regally-dressed pair ride out at the head of what must be a hunting party.

You freeze where you are, as it is unmistakable, even a little ways away. The king looks exactly like you and the queen is so much like Alla, whom you have just met, that if they changed clothes, you could never tell which was which. They ride out a little ways and turn to their right (your left), headed for a wood you now see is not too far off.

Alla looks after them. The party issues from the gates, which then close behind them.

The city is still before you. The staircase leading down into the earth is still behind you. The woods are off in the direction to which the hunting party is heading.

You have your sword and your clothing. Alla now looks normal, an unremarkable peasant woman, apparently with nothing on her but her clothing.

[The Semi-Retired Gamer]

I star in amazement at what I have seen pass near us.

After a few moments I look at Alla and hold my arms up in an expression of questioning as I ask, "Any ideas what we just saw? I know the royal pair leading that looked like US but do you have any clue as to who they are?".

I look down at my body and then look at Alla again as I wait for an answer.

"Surely there has to be some sort of explanation?" I state as I wait for either an answer from Alla or for some idea to come into my head.

[hengest]

She turns to look at you and exhales after holding her breath while watching them ride away. "I don't really know. I don't know how it works. I'm sorry. I thought we would turn into ghosts or something like that. After I lost everyone and this was on offer, I thought if it was real, I would be a different person after. But I guess I'm the same. You look the same, too. At least the same as you did when we were coming here." She looks around. "I even feel hungry. But if you mean those two, the king and the queen..." She pauses. "I was a simple woman. I know I have a noble face, but...I wasn't brought up like that. So I don't know anything from books. But...I think this place used us. It called us. To make a new country. If you know what I mean. All this. This wasn't here before, right? I can hardly remember it now, but it was like some kind of colorful lake. Now..." she gestures at the landscape and structures. "It's all here. So them...I assume they're like us because we made the choices. I don't know if they're really like us, but I saw it, too. They looked just like you and me."

She looks deflated. "But I'm not really sure what to do now."

[The Semi-Retired Gamer]

"I understand what you're saying", pausing before continuing, "I didn't realize it before, but I think I was called. It was just done in a more subtle manner."

I pause to collect my thoughts.

"Back in Bottleton I entered a room and when I tried to backtrack there was some sort of force pushing against me, so I just kept going further ahead instead of trying to overcome the resistance. We ARE here - wherever this place is - so we might as well see about getting something to eat or getting a room for rest. Maybe someone here can tell us what exactly is going on?".

I pause to look at the structures for a bit before continuing.

"Are you ready? Do you have any other ideas?" I ask before taking a step toward the town before us.

[hengest]

Alla meets your gaze for a moment even as she begins to walk toward the town. "I don't think they will have a lot of news for us here. But, as you say, we can ask." Half leading you, half wandering on her own, Alla...

(new thread)

[The Semi-Retired Gamer]

I follow Alla [to the link this time  ].