Chapter Text
Falling.
Your body plummeting into the endless nothingness below you.
You’d think it was gravity, but gravity doesn’t exist here. Nothing truly exists in this domain.
The void around you. Nothing but sharp, shredding static and your body ripples with a harmony of glitches with it as each universe sings their collective disparities they’ve burdened themselves with.
You were created into this abyss, and you will forever live in this abyss. Alone. Just as the universe decided it would be from the beginning. And that was how it should be.
Sometimes having your body being torn across space and time is painful. Usually, you don't even react.
Plummeting for years turns your body into a statue, unable to move your limbs because you are made of stone.
But you know that it hurts. It hurts and it hurts and it hurts and it hurts until the end of time. It’s never-ending pain and it is what you deserve, because you are the villain.
You’ve forgotten what anything else feels like.
You see the echoes of lost and forgotten worlds and people.
You wonder if they can still remember the universe they came from. You wonder if they can remember anything at all.
You sure can’t. And you aren’t going to bother trying to.
Often, you stop and admire the discarded items and landscapes. An item catches your eye so you drift downwards through the nothingness to stop and check it out.
Sometimes, it’s a worn kitten plush, a collectible hand-me-down that was so adored by it's owner that it fell apart in their arms. There are holes in its skin from all of the contact points.
Other times, it’s an abandoned project, a decorated float with elaborate designs and patterns sculpted and painted on to look like a fish leaping out of the water, and a podium on top with a microphone - but a broken trailer underneath, towed and dumped in a scrapyard. You wonder how something with such beauty could be so easily discarded.
This time, you spot something glowing out of the corner of your eye. It looks like a headset. A musty, outdated VR headset. A happy tune is softly resonating from the inside.
It spikes your interest, but… it would never fit you, would it? With your abnormal, polygonal head and your lack of a second eye- it wasn't made for you.
Nevertheless, you grab it and align one of the lenses with your eye.
Inside is a world of vibrant color, walls and ceilings made of reds and yellows and blues coating every surface, bouncing off of each other in an overstimulating cacophony. Structures that look like building blocks tower to the ceiling of the big top tent.
You swish your head around and see a stage underneath your suspended form, beckoning, begging you to come and perform.
This world is quite the contrast from the consuming static of the void. The graphics are so realistic- you feel like you’re already part of the game.
You glide through the virtual air. This place reminds you of those fast-food indoor playgrounds: multi-colored tubes and tunnels and slides and platforms… This was probably made for younger children.
You discover a long hallway adorned in yellow and pink and red wallpaper. Each wooden door in the hallway has an odd face printed on a plastic sign. A chess piece… a ragdoll… a comedy mask on a ribbon. Cartoonish. Unrealistic. They’d fit right in the citizens of your hometown.
You stop at a sign where a lilac rabbit with bright yellow scleras and black hole pupils demands your attention silently. It feels like the inanimate face is trying to have a staring contest with you.
You don’t know why, but this guy already pisses you off.
But the irritation in your head is quickly replaced by a pit in your stomach when you turn your head and realize that every sign after the rabbit’s door has been crossed with a giant, red X.
You don't know what it means, but it can't be any good.
You're so caught in the moment you don’t even realize the sign next to you has turned into a 3d model and-
“Hey, there.”
AGGH-CKk
Static cuts through your model, your mesh warping diagonally and your vision flashing red for half a second before returning to normal. You crash to the ground as the error cuts through the euphoric aura of floating.
A glitch-- it always causes a migraine. Big or small, you’re never going to get used to them.
A flash of concern spreads across the character's face, but is quickly washed away by the same smile portrayed on his door. “Didn’t know Zooble wanted to try out the new graphics. Where’s your other eye, block head?”
“Wh- huh? My name isn’t Zooble. It’s Rob.”
You think you notice his smile reach his eyes. “Rock? That’s a nice name, you look like one.”
Not this again.
“My name is Rob.” You correct him.
“Rrrrrrrrrooble.” His smile grows wider.
Yeah, this guy pisses you off.
“Well, if you’re not Zooble… I'm grabbing Caine. We don’t need NPC’s roaming our halls. This ere' rodeo is only big enough for one sentient AI.”
You don’t understand what he’s talking about. The words jumble your brain... you lift a hand to stable your head.
The purple rabbit notices your disdain and extends a hand to help you up.
You hesitate.
Something is screaming at you not to trust him... to stop- like a red traffic light in a tornado flying at your windshield. However, you take the help anyway, extending your right hand to clasp his.
His rubbery, yellow glove squeezes against the sharp, polygonal edges of your right hand...
The same hand that isn’t holding the headset anymore.