Prologue: The End
Cities flash off and on like fireflies along coastlines – morse code:
⦿ Late Opening Era, worldwide
The earth ripples with light. Cities flash off and on like fireflies along coastlines – morse code: <HELP ME>.
Phantasmal beings erupt, unshackled from my underbelly – egregores, tulpas, gods, myths. They run wild once again, sweeping through my bodies like poltergeists.
I am plummeting. My billion bodies are falling away. In New York, where all of this started, I fall, toward the boroughs and the outer boroughs fall away. I am only a million now as I fall toward Manhattan, and as I fall Manhattan disintegrates. The neighborhoods fall away and I plummet toward the tip, toward my bodies waiting in the great tower.
…where now I am only my first body only, my voice – what was his name? I lie alone in the arms of my mother. Her blood drips down. She sings me a song. She speaks to me: “It’s OK. It had to happen this way.” She sings a lullaby about memory.
That’s it. I must remember!
With the will of the dying I propel myself outward.
My bodies return in dozens, then hundreds, thousands, millions. They hop into cockpits of planes that trace smoke across the sky: REMEMBER. They dig up boxes of old childhood photos. They play memory games on iPhones.
I must remember who or what I am. How I got here. I remember my mother, her eyes:
● Post-Opening Era, many years later, the Dreamworld
The grey-eyed girl looked up.
—So I was its…?
—In a manner of speaking. Yeah.
—That’s crazy.
—I agree.
—How did I become a mom?
—Shall I tell you the story?
—Yes.
—Meet me here later. I need to go mediate between the cleric archetype and one of the trickster gods.
—Again?
—I know, right?
—OK.
—OK, goodbye, little cookie!
—Wait.
—Yes?
—Will I be back to myself soon? I would like that very much.
—To be honest? I hope not. Your former self was dangerous as fuck.
—Hm. Can you…just tell me the beginning?
—All right, cuchurrumin, but only the beginning:
Thoughty-thought: to ease navigation and facilitate continuity of exp, how about adding a link to the next part in the end of each writing? you can edit post-publish!
"My billion bodies are falling away." - sounds like a whole self is fading away! throughout all time or how does time work in there?