[SI Quest] How To: World Destruction
Contrary to what some believe there are not infinite realities, at least in so far as we humans can understand "Infinity" with our limited perspectives. Still while not infinite the scope, the vast array of alternate worlds so far eclipses us that it might as well be truly infinite. From a single point, the origin of all things, is where these fissures between realities began. Spreading farther, branching wider, like the tendrils of a creeper vine growing ever longer and ever more limbs. Clones all, differences only cosmetic from the subtle to the obvious.
In many of these worlds there exists an Earth. And in most of those worlds it exists as world so alien to what we know that the distinction is meaningless. On some of those "Real Earths" humans exist, rarer still they thrive and live as more than bipedal and clever hairless apes. It was these worlds that a certain creature, perhaps creatures, turned their attention.
Earth Bet is one such Earth, so similar to the one you know yet so very different. Men and women gifted with extraordinary abilities, powerful and deadly, randomly chosen and left to their own devices. It is a world in constant conflict, a world without such convenient things Destiny and Fate, nor such romantic things as Determination and Souls. Earth Bet is a world on the brink of collapse, constant strife weakening it's own foundation as monstrosities appear to rip apart it's supports.
Here men with power beyond their grasp fight, some to fulfill their own desires others to restrain them to protect what they cherish. Good and evil hold no distinction, Heroes and Villains being just titles however fitting are not all encompassing.
Here monsters loom ready to strike, a Damocles sword above ready to fall. Alien abominations who stand as far above the champions of humanity as said champions stand above a termite. Monsters in the form of men who sow seeds of suffering for suffering's own sake. And saviors who commit evils in the name of good, weighing scales preciously to prevent a greater disaster.
This is not a world that should be revered, a world that does not even realize it stands so close to edge on the precipice of oblivion.
So what madness is it that gripped you to chose such a place to be born?
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When a person story starts is usually at the beginning. Be it from their earliest memory or even their very birth, there is somewhere they had began. Were we to start there we'd arrive in a maternity ward, a rather boring place in an understaffed and underfunded public hospital. Two newborns held in the arms of their exhausted mother, tall and thin but otherwise indistinct. Of these two children one sleeps peacefully, unaware of anything at all this is where her story began. Of the other however...
While this may be where your story starts it is not where it began.
It began in the dark. An Abyss, the void that exists outside of all things. It was an emptiness so deep as to smother, chasing away light and sound leaving only silence... and the dark. A sweet calming Nothingness. It is here that you began, an empty formless thing floating in the abyss. It was an existence that might not even be considered as an existence. That had not always been the case, there had once been a You before there was You, how they had arrived in the abyss a mystery, if you had even arrived at all and were not just a shard formed of the dark.
There was no thought or time in the abyss, an instant or an eternity being equal in length. In this nexus, from time immemorial you simply were, not a hollow nor a shadow, something even less material an illusion in the dark.
And then you "Were". No longer in the dark but a world of light and sound, thought and knowledge spontaneously generating with your physical form. Screams, sensations, emotions, panic, so very alien, so very terrifying for wretched little thing that was comforted in the embrace of the Dark and Silence. You were fully form, in mind if not in body, knowledge you'd never gathered filling your mind. No, it had already been filled and you'd never had a thought to access it.
But knowledge is not experience. The light blinds you, the cacophony grows your fear, and the sensations feel as if you are being ripped apart by your own cravings that you know not how to slate. And for a creature who had never once known the hands of time the following minutes of chaos lasted longer than any eternity. But eventually the chaos slowed, and the panic settled.
You found yourself wrapped up and unable to move, an oddly comforting sensation to most but for one whom had never before been corporeal it reminded you of the formless void. Warmth, something new yet so very soothing. Even the noises and sensations lessened though sadly did not die, thought itself fleeting. It was peaceful, like the dark.
You drift off in the arms of a faceless giant, held together with one who's presence brings contentment.
"What are their names?"
You feel a soft rumbling, "Hehe, we put so much thought into it remember? We prepared for a boy or a girl, but twins? That's certainly a surprise," You felt something gently rub against your scalp as the comforting embrace grew slightly tighter, "My precious little baby boy, you gave me such a scare, we might have only planned for one but that doesn't mean I wanted you to leave me and your precious big sister so soon after coming into the world."
"Honey..."
"It's fine, he's fine. He will
be fine," Again the pressure increase to uncomfortable levels but quickly lessened with a shushing sound, "This is a happy day, today we have not one but two bundles of joy. Our family just doubled in size."
"Sigh, I just hope we can afford it. We only just started making payments on the house and-"
"It'll be okay Dear, we'll find a way. We can sell my car, it might not be worth much but it's something. I'll find a new job, something I can do at home. A BA in English isn't quite as unmarketable as people think. Maybe I can be write a book, if nothing else I'll have the time to watch them."
You felt the comforting caress once again.
"My little Weaver,"
"Weaver?"
"Yes, after your cousin. I know it wasn't on the list but it fits well with his sister's and twins are supposed to have similar names right? We spent so much time on it I didn't want to just drop it because we were off by one. So now we have little Taylor and Weaver Hebert, rolls right off the tongue doesn't it?"
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Time passes, and you are soon brought home along with your sister. You are a quite child, a calm child, worryingly so. Several visits were paid back to the doctors who could find nothing physically wrong but the worrying didn't stop. You did not cry, why would you even wish to make such a sound, rather you groaned and whimpered if you truly needed anything. A rare occurrence given the attention you received meant that most issues were caught quickly. You didn't squirm about like a normal child, your motions always deliberate. Is it any wonder your parents worried so?
Your sister on the other hand was the opposite, a normal child who cried and squirmed about, often signaling your parents for you as your twin worked on much the same schedule as you.
Weeks and months passed, you watched, you waited, and you learned. You knew this world, you knew of it's fate, you knew it's people. You knew more about this world than you did yourself. You felt some anxiety at the knowledge of what was to come, of the place you had been born, but it felt so numb and dull like a feint echo of an emotion than the actual thing. Was this a result of the Dark?
Or perhaps it was the result of the shard you held inside you.
You sat on the floor in your little overalls, staring at your chubby little hands peering into them at the thing that lied just beneath the surface.
[X] The Shard of The Sequestered Royal Scholar
A seeker of knowledge and arcane truths they sought to unravel the very nature of existence. Once held in the highest esteem for the light they brought they were eventually abandoned, for to their power hungry King knowledge without use was pointless. Left to the Dark they continued seeking the enlightenment of Truth, their eyes only see the beauty of things yet discovered.
[X] The Shard of The Covetous Abomination
The disgusting creature that was caged in the dark, ever hungry for the essence of those who have what it cannot. Once freed it feeds upon all, taking it into it's own flesh what it lusts for, but never satisfied it yearns for more seeking grander prizes. Left to the Dark all detail was lapped away leaving only an empty husk to be filled, a gaping maw without end.
[X] The Shard of The Pale Clockwork Doll
A Heart of a Simulacrum who was cherished by her creature, she was a fragile thing of impossible machination kept pristine under his loving hands. Upon his death his treasures were stolen and the thieves seeing little use in her cast her and all knowledge of her to the dark. Left to disrepair she only seeks to return to her master.
[X] The Shard of The Queen of The Defiled Land
Through the looking glass lays another land of oddities, hosting warped beings devoured by madness and corrupted by the dark. No tales exist to tale of the origin of their cursed existance or the methods of their madness, perhaps there is none. The denizens of this horrid land follow only a single rule, to obey their dark Mother.
