Post by Nightwisher on Jan 23, 2019 23:48:40 GMT -5
To All Those Who Come Here
A Paradox House Story
A Paradox House Story
None of us ever wanted this to become what it is. The fact is, we were young and we didn’t understand what it was to be a Creator. We didn’t understand why the rules were the way that they were. We didn’t know how limited our limitless powers were and just what happened when we mixed them together. I don’t know if given the chance, with the knowledge we now have, that we would repeat what we have done. I like to think that we would all be stronger than that. But emotions are unpredictable, and emotions that defy all logic make it impossible to truly justify any actions done because of them. It also makes it harder to regret those actions. But I do, I regret it all. Forgiveness is too much to ask for, I know, but maybe you’ll find a way to stop what happened and put an end to the cycle or at least find a way to make the best of the situation that we created.
I do feel that I owe you an explanation. I know that it won’t fix anything, but at the very least it could give you an idea of why we did what we did and teach others in the future to never repeat our mistakes.
It all started at the Academy. That wasn’t what it was actually called, but it’s a good enough word to get across what it was. Whenever a Creator was discovered, they were taken to the Academy to learn how to control their powers. The Council of Creators, those who know everything there is to know about anything a Creator could do, were charged with teaching us. And we were all so willing to learn…
I should explain. A Creator is a creature, (I say creature because it can be literally anything at all from any world or dimension) that has the powers to create life, worlds, universes, and even other dimensions. Whatever world you come from, it was made by a Creator. You’ll never know what a Creator’s true form is, though, because they have the ability to look like anything they want. A cloak, if you will. Even other Creators don’t know the true forms of their counterparts.
There were seven of us in our year. Pipique, she liked to take on the form of a doe; Ary, he preferred the look of a small wall of flames; Rothille, who cloaked themselves as a bottle of Sprite (they thought it was funny); Ajol, he dressed as a maiden with a dark veil over his face; Dazu, he, like Ary, preferred the elements and appeared as a small tornado of sorts; Oulfer, she looked like a white fox; and me, Xezor, I cloaked myself as a male from Earth with a pale complexion, green eyes, and brown hair. Like Ajol, I preferred the look of someone different from my pronouns. These were all merely preferences of course, despite everything, we never did reveal our true selves.
Our years at the Academy were full of learning everything that we could. There had been no class more willing to learn than our own. More than that, there truly was no limit to our powers, or so we thought. We could create miniature solar systems in the palms of our hands, entire universes in small rooms, and life just at a blink. It was as simple as breathing. It’s impossible to explain just how the powers felt, how invincible we thought we were…
Through our time together we had become incredibly close friends. Some of us lovers. It is not unprecedented for Creators to have relationships, but for a larger group, especially one as large as ours, to be as close as we were. That was unheard of. The trouble started the week of our graduation. We were in the common area, practicing for our final exams, for lack of a better term. The Creator’s final exam consisted of each Creator making their own dimension that they would watch over for the rest of time.
“I don’t want to practice anymore,” Pipique whined, flicking her ears and causing the star she’d just created in front of us to turn into a super nova. Oulfer swished her fluffy white tail, brushing her body against the deer-like Creators left front leg.
“Don’t be so bothersome, Pip.” She warned gently. The two of them had been the first to become lovers, Oulfer’s distaste for whining often putting Pipique’s bratty personality in check. Something we all appreciated.
“No, I agree. We already know everything. Why not just relax?” It was Dazu who spoke up, his voice sounding like a breeze of wind as he spun in place.
“Of course you would want a break now that it’s your turn.” Ary approached his own lover, slipping his flame-self inside of small tornado that was Dazu.
“Get out of me,” Dazu stopped his tornado, turning into nothing but a breeze until he was far enough away from Ary to reform. Ary was coughing and chuckling at the same time, his flames shrinking and growing with each breath.
“But it’s so much fun.” Ary cracked, an ember flying onto Ajol’s skirt. He brushed it off with a gentle glare at the flame wall.
“Why are we focusing on the exams when we should be focusing on the more important issue at hand?” Ajol spoke up, his annoyed tone clear. The room went quiet for a few moments.
“Aj, maybe this isn’t the best time.” Rothille said, the liquid inside their bottle bubbling along with their words.
“How could now be worse than any other time? Look, maybe I’m the only one who cares enough to keep all of us together. I mean, we all have each other,” Ajol pointed between the three couples, leaving me out of it. “But I refuse to leave Xezor alone. More than that, I don’t want to leave any of you. But I don’t know, maybe that’s just me.” Ajol crossed his arms, his tone turning from annoyed to accusatory. Naturally, among our group, this accusation sent everyone into an argument. Every voice trying to be louder than the next. And, as always, I stood back and watched. I probably shouldn’t have enjoyed these fights as much as I did, but they were always about how much none of them wanted to leave me, and how much they didn’t want to leave each other. It was rather common for two Creators to have dimensions that were linked so they could meet whenever. But never more than two. And here we were trying to find a way to link seven dimensions together. It was crazy… but we were all crazy about one another.
“I have an idea.” My words were drowned out by the arguing. I rolled my eyes, took a deep breath and yelled at the top of my lungs. “I have an idea!” Silence. All attention turned to me.
“Well go on,” Ajol insisted when I didn’t continue.
“A PD.” I responded as if it was the simplest answer of all time. PDs, or Pocket Dimensions, were used by Creators as practice. They were usually unstable or too small to be of any use for anything. No one answered me immediately.
“Well, I like it.” Rothille responded, their lid spinning to look at everyone else.
“Yeah, it’s great, except for the fact that we have to somehow create a Pocket Dimension big enough for all seven of us that is stable enough to contain all of our power.” Dazu responded. His winds had picked up as he grew nervous about the thought of a seven Creator PD. Before anyone else could jump in, I spoke up once more.
“Look, just let me make the design. I’ll tell you all what to do once I have it figured out. We’ll do it right before our exams so that it will be there before the Council can find it. Trust me on this. Okay? I know we can do it.” The air was filled with unspoken concerns.
“Alright, I’m in.” Oulfer said, to the surprise of everyone. She was the most levelheaded of the group, the least willing to break the rules. If she was in, everyone else would be too. I grinned, happier than I had been in a long while. I didn’t have to worry about never seeing them again.
“I’ll see you guys when I have everything worked out!” I promised, and with that, I returned to my room to make up the plans.
I put everything I had into the design. It had to be simple enough that it would be easy to keep stable, and strong enough to contain our abilities. It shouldn’t have been hard to make the Pocket Dimension large enough for all seven of us if we focused on the same size, which was easy really; as long as I was specific with the size. I had the design done in what felt like no time at all. But that wasn’t enough. I pulled everything the Creators had on Pocket Dimensions and spent the next… well, I guess the best word for it was days, but a day to a creator is very different than a day to anyone else…anyway, I spent that time studying. I didn’t see any of the others, but I wasn’t too worried about it because I knew we would be together for the rest of our existences. Not long before our exams, everyone met in the common area once more.
“Here you go.” I handed everyone their own copy of blueprints of the dimension. Everything they would need to know; the look of it, the size of it. As long as they stuck to this, it would be fine.
“Really? This is it?” Ary sparked.
“Yeah, why?” I asked, brow furrowed with concern. “Is something wrong?”
“No. It’s just… simple. I wasn’t expecting that. Especially from you.” I was well known among the group to always add a touch of what Pipique called “pizazz” to everything I created. I rolled my eyes.
“I don’t need to make everything grandiose.” I defended, though it was a more a joke defense.
“Sure you don’t.” Rothille bubbled back.
“Can we just get along with this please? I don’t want to get caught.” There was the Oulfer we all knew and loved. It seemed like, with the time she had to dwell on this, she’d gotten more nervous. A cool, calming breeze swept through the room. It ruffled her white fur and she seemed to relax a bit. I gave Dazu a thankful glance.
“Okay, everyone join hands and focus on the blueprints.” I ordered. By joining hands it channeled our power together so we wouldn’t make seven separate pocket dimensions. It was exhilarating, the power that we shared. Like being struck by a lightning storm a trillion times over. I could feel the Pocket Dimension being created around me. Forced into existence by our own imaginations. When it was done, the seven of us stood in the center of a room that had no doors or windows.
“It worked!” Pipique exclaimed, jumping up into the air, her four hooves landing with a crack against the wooden floor.
“I… can’t believe it,” Oulfer said, looking around the bare room. Ajol had already left the circle and was knocking on the white wall papered walls.
“It’s sturdy. There’s not even a tiny glitch in the seam.” He said, rather impressed. “Not even the best Creator could make a PD without even a small glitch.”
“Guess again, love.” Rothille bubbled from their place on the floor. “We are the best Creators. And you bet your bottom we did it.”
The seam of the dimension was where the entire creation comes together. Pocket Dimensions were notorious for having them, due to the instability of their nature. To have a Pocket Dimension without a glitch…well… unheard of.
“This seems a little too good to be true.” Dazu said twirling his way around the room to see if Ajol was actually telling the truth about the glitchless seam. “I mean, there’s no way we actually made this work… is there?”
Ary sighed, letting out a puff of smoke before he moved across the floor. “I hate to be on the Dazu’s side with this-,”
“Hey!” Dazu protested.
“But he’s right. This was our first try and creating a seven person PD. There’s no way this could have actually worked out. Is there?” Ary turned to me. Honestly, I was lost for words. It had worked, we were all in the Pocket Dimension that I had designed, created by all of us. It was more stable than some Creator’s first full dimensions, even. But clearly, it had worked.
“I know it’s hard to believe. Trust me, I’m not quite sure I’m ready to believe it myself. But we’re here. We made this.” I felt breathless. But I had to make sure that we did this correctly. It wasn’t quite over. “When you make your True Dimensions make sure that you come here right after. This PD is linked to us, but we need to link it to our dimensions so that we can all come back here after our True Dimensions are created. Understand?” Everyone nodded their agreement. “Okay. Let’s get back before the Council realizes anything’s happened. We can play this off as practice.”
It really seemed like we had created the exact thing we wanted. We believed that we were going to be together. At our exams, we each created our own dimensions which we would watch over until we got the strength to create a second dimension, then a third and so on and so forth. Naturally we passed with flying colors. No one had ever questioned our abilities for a normal dimension. We were the greatest Creators time had seen. The next part of the plan was trickier. Despite the fact that the PD that we had made was stable, linking our dimensions to it could easily tear it apart. We had to connect each dimension to key points of the PD, making sure that no one dimension was stronger than the balancing dimension on the other side. Oulfer and Pipique linked theirs to the left corners, Dazu and Ary to the right corners, Rothille and Ajol to the front and back, and I linked my dimension to the top center. Since my dimension was the heaviest, it would have to be weighed down by the others to keep the PD intact.
I can’t say if it was luck or skill, but it worked. The Pocket Dimension didn’t tear and we were fully linked to it, able to come and go as we pleased. We decorated the room, adding furniture, art, everything we wanted. Careful not to hurt the walls on the off chance it caused a tear or a glitch. We visited as often as we could spare. We were happy, for a long time. Then it happened.
All seven of us were in the pocket dimension, staring at it.
“Who was dumb enough to do this?” Ajol asked. He had been the first to arrive. His arms were crossed over his chest. He had even flipped his veil back to show off the pale skin of his female vessel. Something he only did when he was absolutely livid.
“What you think one of us did this?” Oulfer barked back, sweeping her tail against the floor. “We all knew better. Someone must have found the PD.”
“No one else can travel here. It’s linked only to us.” Embers flew from Ary as he spoke.
“And our dimensions.” Pipique responded, shifting her weight uncomfortably between her four hooves.
“But only Creators can travel through links. And only creators of the dimension can change anything.” Dazu interjected. His tornado was larger than normal, and spinning faster. It wasn’t dangerous to us, but it was still worrisome to see him so worked up.
“Maybe the PD isn’t as stable as we thought.” Rothille finally bubbled, their voice cutting in against everyone else’s. Everyone went silent.
“But… it wasn’t even glitched!” Pipique whined, lowering herself to the floor, where Oulfer was quick to comfort her.
“Maybe not,” I finally spoke up. “But… it is possible that it evolved on its own.”
“What?” Ajol said. “You can’t mean…”
“I thought they were a myth…” Dazu added on. I shook my head.
“Nothing is a myth. If it was written about that means it happened at least once. With all of our powers connected… I mean, I didn’t expect it to happen but I knew there was a chance.” I stepped forward, eyes glued on the thing that had appeared without our say so.
“And you didn’t tell us!”Ajol said, anger morphing his features.
“Calm down, Aj.” Rothille warned. “Xezor had more to lose than any of us did. Can you really blame her for not telling us that we could have created a Living Dimension?” Ajol opened his mouth to respond but then closed it again.
“No…”
“But what do we do about the door?” Oulfer asked. She was still on the floor, gently licking Pipique’s ears comfortingly.
“Well, if this is a Living Dimension, we can’t get rid of it without risking a major tear. We could open it.” I offered, looking around at everyone.
“But it’s on the seam.” Pipique whimpered.
“Do you have any better ideas?” I snapped, turning to face her. Pip flinched, not expecting my outburst. In fact, no one was. Ary slipped forward from his place next to Dazu.
“I’m going to have to agree with Xezor. We can’t just ignore the door. We need to know what’s on the other side of it.” And with that, a debate was had on whether or not we should leave the door alone or venture through it. In the end, it was unanimous.
“I’ll go through first.” I said. “It was my idea to create the PD, I knew the risks and I didn’t tell you. I should go first.” And another debate ensued, again ending unanimously. I would be the first to go.
I turned toward the door and took a deep breath. I reached forward, turned the nob and pulled. On the other side of the door was a hallway. I stepped out into it. The hallway itself was rather short, but it extended out on either side of the door. And it was empty, save for one other door. Once I was out in the hallway, everyone else followed.
“Okay, so who’s going to go through that door first?” Ajol asked, looking around at everyone.
“I don’t mind going again.” I offered. After all, there hadn’t been any danger yet and I had a feeling it was going to stay that way. Despite our fear, this was still our place. Before another debate could break out, I stepped forward and pushed the other door open, stepping through into simple room that had no doors or windows, similar to the one we had created. Though, this one was darker, with coal colored walls. I wrinkled my nose against the smell.
“It kind of smells like you in here.” Dazu breezed to Ary as everyone else entered the room.
“Thanks?” Ary responded. We started searching the room for any signs of glitches or tears when the door slammed shut.
“What the-,” before Rothille could finished their sentence, fire burst from the floor, surrounding us. Screams and orders shouted among us as we tried to stick together and find our way back to the door. Ary took control but despite being made of fire in this form, he could still be swept up into the flames and overrun. We pushed our way through the flames, making it back to the door and flung it open. Dazu hurried out, the flames nearly suffocating him completely, he was the priority to save. All of us shuffled out, coughing, burned…
“Oulfer!” Pipique’s voice called from inside the room. The white fox, gray now from the fire, jumped to her paws and was about to leap toward the door before any of the rest of us could react. We could see her. Pipique was cornered by the flames. And that was the last we saw. Before Oulfer could make it through the threshold of the door, it slammed shut, leaving Pipique alone with the flames.
“No!” I crawled to my feet, running forward, gripping the door handle with both hands as I tried to turn and pull…it wouldn’t budge. The other side of the door was quiet… too quiet, and the door handle was too cool for there to have been flames on the other side. We couldn’t hear Pipique anymore. Oulfer was at the door with me, digging at the crack underneath it.
“Pipique!” She called. “Hang on.” I’m not sure how long the two of us struggled with the door, but finally Ajol pulled me off of it, and Dazu swept in to push Oulfer away as well.
“What are you doing? We have to get her out!” Oulfer yowled trying to get back at the door.
“She’s gone!” Rothille yelled, their voice harsh. I wasn’t fighting against Ajol. I had fallen to my knees, unable to wrap my head around what had just happened.
We ushered ourselves back into the main room as a group. That place we knew, at least, was safe. It was our room, after all. We collected ourselves onto the floor in a huddle. Too desperate for each other’s comfort to leave to our own dimensions. Worst of all, we knew that Rothille was right. Pipique was gone. We could no longer feel her link to the Pocket Dimension.
I can’t tell you how long we were on that floor, silent, mourning. Eventually we agreed to go back into the hallway, see if we could open the door and retrieve Pipique’s body. Without any words, we collectively got to our feet and exited the main room. To our surprise, the hallway had grown longer on either side, and there was a second door. For now, we ignored the door and went to the first. It opened this time, but it revealed a different room completely. None of us were brave enough to step through, too scared for our own lives, and too scared to lose another companion. We sat in the hallway, mostly silent but from time to time someone would discuss the two doors and the rooms that lay behind them. We weren’t sure what to do, and eventually we did decide to investigate.
One by one our Pocket Dimension picked us off. First it was Ary, then Rothille, then Ajol… Every time one of us fell, the hallway grew longer and more and more doors appeared. After Dazu was taken from us a staircase appeared in the hallway, next to the main room’s door. The longer we stayed, and the more of us the Living Dimension devoured, the more it grew. With the power of the Creators, it had started to create its own Pocket Dimensions inside of itself, and it seemed that, unlike us, it could control every single one of them.
Oufler was taken from me, I can’t tell you how long ago it was. I’ve not left the main room since then. Too scared to face my creation, even more terrified that I may run into one of them…one of my friends that I so foolishly dragged with me because I was too selfish to live the rest of my existence without them. What’s worse is I know that once my power is added to that of this dimension, it will be able to connect itself with all other dimensions. It will be able to drag anyone it wants into this place. Despite that, I can’t bring myself to go back to my True. I can’t leave my friends. I will hold out for as long as possible but I don’t think I can do so forever.
To all those who come here… I’m sorry.
