Arrival

[letsplayamod]

The moment is a bit different for everyone. Perhaps you were just minding your own business somewhere, others may have been in more... dire circumstances. Regardless, you were approached by a figure you can't quite picture, and they offered you an accord; in exchange for aiding them in the healing of a world lost to chaos, you would be granted something almost unheard of. Godhood.

And each of you said yes, more or less.

A blurry hand, shifting and rippling, reaches out to you. You feel a glow of warmth, unlike anything you've known before. As soon as you think you can describe it, you wake up.

The room you're in is plainly furnished, but it's about the size of a small flat. Plenty of room to stretch your legs. Don't get too comfortable, however. On the bedside table each room has is a letter; handwritten, it's wrapped around a bronze key. The lettering could only be described as the platonic ideal of 'neat and precise'.

If you are reading this, than our deal has been made. You've awoken in a place that will surely feel strange, so I want you to take some time to acclimate. Meet with the others. Breathe. I shall be along shortly.

-A

Whatever that means becomes more apparent as you step out of your housing and behold the world around you. The building you were in, and every piece of architecture you happen across, is blatantly pre-modern. Yet, something about it is otherworldly. Stone and iron and glass as far as the eye can see.

But above you was where the real questions were. It wouldn't be right to say the sun was shining on you now, nor would it be right to say it's the dead of night. Instead, the sky is a hazy mixture of both, wrapped in suffocating storm clouds that are threatening rain. Everywhere you look, into the horizon, it's the same.

Welcome home. Take your time and explore. Nobody ever said godhood was easy.

Comments

[atu709]

I believe so-

[ She looks down at herself, searching for something, then pauses. ]

Oh, you mean the pallor. You know, surprisingly few people question that.

[rockymountaindie]

What the hell is wrong with 'em, you- you look like you're gonna drop dead a- any moment!

[ Or. Perhaps. That she already has. The skin around her eyes, everything... The only corpse he's been around for a prolonged period of time was done up with makeup and formaldehyde, but he's seen pictures. Oh, he certainly has seen pictures. ]

[atu709]

Relax! I've already died the once, it's... unlikely to happen again without outside intervention.

[rockymountaindie]

[ All at once, Alex goes cold, like his veins have been filled with ice. How convenient, cold, dark, empty, descending around him—

He gasps again. His hands are shaking. ]

You're- you've what? You- [ He's having a hard time forming words. ] Wha- what d'ya mean- intervene-?

[ If you see it, you intervene. If you intervene, you cheat the design. ]

[atu709]

Well, I'm saying that someone could kill me.

[ Oh, he seems upset by that. ]

Not that anyone here would... try to, I imagine? I'm afraid that you might be paler than I am, and I assume that between the two of us you have a currently beating heart.

[rockymountaindie]

Oh. O- oh, uh.

[ A beating heart. Right. He has one of those, doesn't he? As if to check, Alex raises a hand to his chest- no that's a terrible way to check, to his neck, to find a pulse. ]

Ye- yeah. Yeah. [ Stop being a freak, Alex. She's talking about normal thinks, like murder, despite being a fucking corpse. ] I- I just-

[ pivot. readjust. come on- ]

A-a- are you dead?

[atu709]

Yes and no? I died, but I'm not exactly still in my coffin, am I? I was supposed to wake up when a prince came around and kissed me, but... none of them ever managed it. And one day I just... woke up on my own.

[rockymountaindie]

[ This is. A lot to take in. Be humbled, Alex. Your story is at least not this. ]

A- a prince, like- s-some kinda fairy tale?

[atu709]

Exactly that, actually. I'm Snow White, or... one telling of her, anyway. And I expect that in meeting here, you are not of the Neverafter and we are beyond its borders.

[rockymountaindie]

[ Huge blink. Huge stare. At least this is getting him less pale and more confused? ]

Sn...ow White... Like... Like the Disney movie, with the...seven little guys, you're...her?

[atu709]

I don't know what that is, but yes. With the dwarves and all. And you must be from somewhere the stories actually get told instead of lived.

[ Disney... is that one of the Authors? Much to think about. ]

1/?

[rockymountaindie]

[ @ Mickey Mouse your motherfucking life ENDS-

Alex is clearly like. He is the woman doing math. He's doing SO much math. It's all in front of his face. ]

2/just wait

[rockymountaindie]

[ There would be nothing to gain from lying about something like this. And also, she clearly looks wildly not like...a normal person, considering she is a walking corpse. ]

3/let me cook

[rockymountaindie]

[ Weren't those fairy tales really grisly at one point? They were, right? ]

4/let him cook

[rockymountaindie]

[ Yeah, no, he remembers picking up a book in the library once when he was like...eight and Cinderella was all like "and then the stepmother cut one of her daughters' feet off" and he started crying. It was honestly really embarrassing. Ohhh, why does he have to remember that now. Yikes. ]

5/getting there

[rockymountaindie]

[ BACK ON TRACK ANYWAY. If he acknowledges this. It means that fictional things, they're real. Like, in some other...reality, they're real. If she's telling the truth, then there's this world out there where fucking Banjo-Kazooie are off having adventures and kicking Gruntilda's butt and that's just fine and normal and he has to go through his brand new second—

...third-

...WHATEVER chance at life just KNOWING that, and is that really something he's ready for today? ]

6/i would apologize if i were sorry

[rockymountaindie]

[ Like. Well. Was he ready for a premonition and an exploding plane and the FBI, no, but life, uh, found a way, so, like, fuck him, the world turns madly on, all the world's a stage and we are merely players- ]

7/8

[rockymountaindie]

[ ...this has gotten away from him.

he's just been standing here doing mental jumping jacks in front of zombie snow white.


if she's a zombie is she gonna eat hisgOD NO WE CANNOT GO DOWN THAT LANE OF LOGIC TOO, STOP IT- ]

8/8

[rockymountaindie]

[ After a full two minutes of hard thinking that completely overheats his stupid little brain, Alex, who has been absolutely doing that little thing he does where he's gesturing, hands spinning around his head as if it helps him think (it does not) and saying completely nothing, just claps his hands together in front of him and declares— ]

OKAY.

[



YEAH BUDDY? ]

I guess that's just- that's just how it works!

[ *Grimdark Fairy Tale Universe Has Been Adopted Into Alex's Worldview! ]

1/2

[atu709]

[ ... ]

2/2

[atu709]

[ ... ]

You know, it didn't occur to me that would be news to you, that's on me.

[rockymountaindie]

That is extremely news to me, but I- I'm adjusting! I'm with you now! So, like, you know there's stories.

[ this is the next part he needs to wrap his head around. fourth-walling. ]

[atu709]

I've met several different versions of myself and others by now, so... yes, it stands to reason that each version of the Neverafter is the same stories told over again. And you could be someone from the Neverafter who I'm unfamiliar with, but... they tend to be easy to spot and sort.

[rockymountaindie]

...Because you're all fairy tale people. Yeah. Yeah, I...think that'd be easy to sort out from...a guy like me.

But like, you know, that people're tellin' all these...versions of who you are and what you did, that just- that's just normal for you?

[ Now that his hamster brain is not running on overdrive trying to keep up with the thoughts, Alex seems...honestly rather engaged! And not absolutely fucking panicked, for once! ]

[atu709]

I know they exist, and I know they are stories being written by a force above us. It follows that where stories are written, there must be some manner of audience.