MindToggler
A depressed bible thumping psychonaut.
Part One
Your eyes slowly flutter open to a scene which your mind can hardly make sense of. It's as though you were floating through outer space, but all of the colors had been reversed. The endless abyss of waterless ocean that would have been a silky black is instead a milky white. All of the bright, shining stars seemed to look like random black spatters of paint against the creamy sky.
The planets were even laughable how little they compared to the ones in Earth's solar system. What would have been enormous, colorful, gas giants were nothing more than desolate rocks, their surfaces glazed over with ice and the few stolid species of vegetation. The only plants that grew about the planet on which your feet reside were tall, wispy fronds that were practically ethereal and looked to be nothing more than clouds of ink. And yet, you knew that in whatever wayside dimension you had been trapped in, these plants were the norm.
Well, exploration would have to wait: you needed to gather supplies for survival. The annoyingly long list slowly crept into your mind. Food. You could always give the plants a try? No? We'll come back to that one. Water. Ice means water right? Following the most human instinct you have, you prod the ice. Surprisingly, the ice seems to melt on contact, leaving a small puddle of a a pale, translucent purple fluid. It has about the viscosity of water, so it couldn't hurt to try. You dip your hands into the puddle and tentatively sip the liquid from your hands.
Three...two...one...hooray! You're still alive. The liquid is sweet, but has a bite to it that burns your throat and makes your chest tingle, not unlike alcohol. That's tolerable at least. Once you've satisfied your thirst with the "moon" shine, you begin to look for a shelter.
The planet you're currently on is no larger than a wrecking ball, in fact, your probably couldn't even fit three people on it. You're in luck! The gravity of the planet is extremely powerful and creates an elliptical field- you can walk around the entire surface without falling off. There is a planet of similar proportions only about fifteen feet away. If the gravity of the latter planet was composed the same as your current planet, you could easily jump between the two.
The question was, did the gravity extend far enough out so that if you jumped you would neither fall nor float away- depending on the dimensions gravitational figuration? Perhaps a test was in order. But of course! You pull the key shaped Absinthe spoon from your pocket and wing it at the other planet. Much to your relief, it leaves your planet's gravity, floats aimlessly forwards for a few moments, and then is pulled onto the other planet in a clockwise parabola.
Alright, your turn! After taking a few steps back, you sprint forward and take a flying leap. You first exit your planet's gravity well, float forwards for a few feet, and then are pulled down in an arc similar to the flight path of your spoon. You land flat on your stomach with a substantial impact, knocking the wind out of you.
Instinctively, you look up and see a large, flat landscape of continental proportions which was previously unable to be seen whilst on the other planet. As if it were an enormous floating mountain, it simply stood there looking rather stately. It was not an actual planet, more like just a chunk of one that may have been blown off. The underside on which nothing grew was comprised of some sort of soil and had a slope down to a point at which it sloped the other way. In all, it looked a giant iceberg that wasn't really made of ice. The front edge of the smooth area looked as though somebody had neglected to finish drawing it in, and gave way to a desolate cliff-face. But the icing on the cake was the enormous black and white tree that covered most of the surface. It was barely legible, but a sign stood above a doorway set into the tree that read "The Great Astral Library."
Part Two
For the first time in a long while, you hear your own voice and it sounds strange to you.
"The Great Astral Library?...All this to find a friggin' library?!" As unbelievable as it was to you, there it was. But the problem was, with the land mass's iceberg-like shape, its gravity field must have been all sorts of wonky. Plus, it was about a hundred feet farther than the other planet had been. The only way you'd be able to make it across was a risky cannonball aimed towards the tree.
"Well, cowabunga then..." You begin to sprint around the planet to build up momentum and once you've reached the side facing the tree, you make a flying leap out into the void. Again, you find yourself floating in an awkward diagonal path towards the canopy of the tree. Without warning, the gravity lurches you forward towards the broad trunk. With your arms and legs helplessly spread out, you collide with the tree and slide down onto a large branch. Your vision blurs to white for a second, but shaking your head like a dog seems to snap you back to your senses. The branches were spread generously far apart, but you could easily make your way down due to their girth. Almost as if playing leap frog, you begin to hop down the branches, trying to keep moving so as not to have your motion catch up to you and...
Slip. Your heel skids off of one of the final branches and sends you careening forwards towards the ground. Having been only about ten feet up, you bend your knees, swing your arms, and hope for the best. Your legs hit the ground lopsided, sending you rolling sideways up to the doors of the library. You lay in a rumpled heap for a second, groaning.
"Every fucking time..." Your nerves are wracked as you shakily heave yourself upwards into a standing position. Your vision pulses and your head throbs, your limbs going jelly-like for a moment. You catch yourself against the tree, only to feel your stomach bottom out. "Einstein was right, gravity's a bitch."
Groping your way to the doors, you look upwards to see the massive, hand-engraved panels in a foreign language. It didn't look like anything native to Earth. "I wasn't expecting English, but I hope everything isn't in this gibberish..." You push on the heavy doors which slowly give way, a deep rumble resounding as they separate. You step onto the beaten tile, legs still heavy and aching from the fall.
The interior is a labyrinth of tucked away stairs and shelves, all carved directly into the dark, beautifully grained wood. You could seemingly lose yourself for days in the musty corridors. In the spirit of the library, you trudged over to a shelf looking to see what type of literature it held. Luckily, a small black plaque on the shelf read "English section". But there was a problem with the shelves contents; There weren't any books. There were only odd little crystals, long, skinny, and with prismatic ends. You pick one up, it was thick enough to fit the hand, smooth and cold. The one you'd picked was a glossy jet black with faint white ripples. Engraved into one of the faces and embossed in gold was "When Rabbit Howls". You'd read the book before, but didn't quite remember it well, let alone know how to use the crystal. The only option was to hunt down a librarian amongst the plethora of shelves. If there even was one. "Book" in hand, you set off.
Playing it safe, you stick to the ground level and weave your way through to the center. Fortunately, there is an actual reception desk. Unfortunately, the librarian stationed there appeared to be an anthropomorphic deer. Nearly seven feet tall, and with dead white eyes. White moss grew from it's satin black antlers, and it's tightly pulled lips displayed a set of grisly, razor-edged teeth. It spoke, a gruff, low pitched voice slithering over slippery syllables and foreign words. The language was beautiful and chilling, but completely meaningless to an English speaker.
"Oh, I apologize, I'm not from around here. I see that you might understand English though, right?" You helplessly hold out the crystal engraved with English text. The deer nods and hands you what looks like a slug steeped in ink. It taps it's head near it's ear to symbolize that the item was meant to function as an earpiece. Skeptical, you press the object into your right ear. It wriggles about, and with a sharp jolt of pain as it taps into your ear drum, lays limp in the inner lobe of your ear.
A silky voice, deep as an abyss, resonates from the deer. In an indescribable phenomenon, the creature’s native language and English struggle for dominance in your head, eventually smoothly fusing. The resulting dialect is somehow understandable, but strange on the ear. "I see you've come from somewhere far away. I haven't heard English here for eons..."
"Trust me, I'm as confused about my being here as you are. So, uh, what's your deal? You know, the deer look, being the librarian?"
The deer simply chuckles. "I am what we call an Empty Skull. My brain is lost and gone, but my body remains intact because of how much knowledge I have retained. This library keeps me alive. As for the odd appearance, it is simply because you can't possibly fathom how I really look, so your mind is left to guess".
"Oh. Well, alright then. So, uh, how do you use the books exactly?" You eye the crystal, noticing that the English text now seemed strange to you.
He takes the crystal, running a bony finger over it. "You will have to say the title in the ancient Velsek tongue. Only then will the information be accessible to you." He hands it back, waiting for you to try.
With a crook of your head, the Velsek spelling seems to hover over the English script. You slowly say the words, your Velsek voice sounding odd out of your own mouth. "When Rabbit Howls..." The text within seems to fly through your mind, separate yet all at once in the same instant. You look up at the librarian with a stunned expression. "Holy shit, that was weird." Again, he chuckles.
"So, what's your name, anyway? Didn't quite catch it."
"Well, you never asked." His tone is humorous, but sarcastic. "My name is Mantovonne. And yours?"
You are about to answer, but stop. You have absolutely no idea what your name is. "Oh, uh, I guess I can't remember. Must've whacked my head before I woke up here..."
"Well, that's no problem. You can pick any name you want, now."
"Huh. I guess I can now." You look to the crystal in your hand. "Call me Rabbit."
Part Three
"Rabbit, huh? I've heard worse. So tell me, do you remember how you got here at all?" Mantovonne eyes you up and down, as if he were reading you. His colorless eyes are not helpful in comforting you.
"Unfortunately, not a thing. I woke up on a tiny little planet, hopped over to the next, and with about as much grace as drunken bull, made it here." Subconsciously, you check yourself for open wounds and sure enough, a small gash across your ribs smears crimson onto your fingertips. "Uh oh."
The deer sighs, shaking his head. "You squishy humans have such watery blood, it's no wonder the majority of you have perished.” He rustles around under the desk and retrieves a sewing kit, along with a tin of black gelatinous goop. “C'mere, I’ll patch it up.”
Cautiously you move towards him, and he gently grabs your arm to pull you closer. “What exactly is that goop you’ve got there? It looks a little sketchy…”
“It’s necroberry syrup. It’ll help the blood clot as well as catalyze the process of regrowing your skin. A wound this size will be completely healed in about a day. Now hold still, I’ve got to stitch the gash shut.” Up close, you can tell the needle is actually a sharpened bone. Mantovonne dips the needle into the necroberry syrup and quickly knits the wound shut. Once he trims the string, he applies a thin layer of syrup over the entire gash and drops your shirt back down. “That’ll be good as new come tomorrow.”
“Err, thanks. So, how come I was able to breathe the air out there? We are in some kind of bizzarro outer space, right?”
“Not exactly. I can see how you’d think that with the mini planets and starry sky, but this is not the equivalent of the “outer space” from where you heil. Uncreatively, this is the Empty Place populated by Empty Skulls. Shocker.”
Your eyes slowly flutter open to a scene which your mind can hardly make sense of. It's as though you were floating through outer space, but all of the colors had been reversed. The endless abyss of waterless ocean that would have been a silky black is instead a milky white. All of the bright, shining stars seemed to look like random black spatters of paint against the creamy sky.
The planets were even laughable how little they compared to the ones in Earth's solar system. What would have been enormous, colorful, gas giants were nothing more than desolate rocks, their surfaces glazed over with ice and the few stolid species of vegetation. The only plants that grew about the planet on which your feet reside were tall, wispy fronds that were practically ethereal and looked to be nothing more than clouds of ink. And yet, you knew that in whatever wayside dimension you had been trapped in, these plants were the norm.
Well, exploration would have to wait: you needed to gather supplies for survival. The annoyingly long list slowly crept into your mind. Food. You could always give the plants a try? No? We'll come back to that one. Water. Ice means water right? Following the most human instinct you have, you prod the ice. Surprisingly, the ice seems to melt on contact, leaving a small puddle of a a pale, translucent purple fluid. It has about the viscosity of water, so it couldn't hurt to try. You dip your hands into the puddle and tentatively sip the liquid from your hands.
Three...two...one...hooray! You're still alive. The liquid is sweet, but has a bite to it that burns your throat and makes your chest tingle, not unlike alcohol. That's tolerable at least. Once you've satisfied your thirst with the "moon" shine, you begin to look for a shelter.
The planet you're currently on is no larger than a wrecking ball, in fact, your probably couldn't even fit three people on it. You're in luck! The gravity of the planet is extremely powerful and creates an elliptical field- you can walk around the entire surface without falling off. There is a planet of similar proportions only about fifteen feet away. If the gravity of the latter planet was composed the same as your current planet, you could easily jump between the two.
The question was, did the gravity extend far enough out so that if you jumped you would neither fall nor float away- depending on the dimensions gravitational figuration? Perhaps a test was in order. But of course! You pull the key shaped Absinthe spoon from your pocket and wing it at the other planet. Much to your relief, it leaves your planet's gravity, floats aimlessly forwards for a few moments, and then is pulled onto the other planet in a clockwise parabola.
Alright, your turn! After taking a few steps back, you sprint forward and take a flying leap. You first exit your planet's gravity well, float forwards for a few feet, and then are pulled down in an arc similar to the flight path of your spoon. You land flat on your stomach with a substantial impact, knocking the wind out of you.
Instinctively, you look up and see a large, flat landscape of continental proportions which was previously unable to be seen whilst on the other planet. As if it were an enormous floating mountain, it simply stood there looking rather stately. It was not an actual planet, more like just a chunk of one that may have been blown off. The underside on which nothing grew was comprised of some sort of soil and had a slope down to a point at which it sloped the other way. In all, it looked a giant iceberg that wasn't really made of ice. The front edge of the smooth area looked as though somebody had neglected to finish drawing it in, and gave way to a desolate cliff-face. But the icing on the cake was the enormous black and white tree that covered most of the surface. It was barely legible, but a sign stood above a doorway set into the tree that read "The Great Astral Library."
Part Two
For the first time in a long while, you hear your own voice and it sounds strange to you.
"The Great Astral Library?...All this to find a friggin' library?!" As unbelievable as it was to you, there it was. But the problem was, with the land mass's iceberg-like shape, its gravity field must have been all sorts of wonky. Plus, it was about a hundred feet farther than the other planet had been. The only way you'd be able to make it across was a risky cannonball aimed towards the tree.
"Well, cowabunga then..." You begin to sprint around the planet to build up momentum and once you've reached the side facing the tree, you make a flying leap out into the void. Again, you find yourself floating in an awkward diagonal path towards the canopy of the tree. Without warning, the gravity lurches you forward towards the broad trunk. With your arms and legs helplessly spread out, you collide with the tree and slide down onto a large branch. Your vision blurs to white for a second, but shaking your head like a dog seems to snap you back to your senses. The branches were spread generously far apart, but you could easily make your way down due to their girth. Almost as if playing leap frog, you begin to hop down the branches, trying to keep moving so as not to have your motion catch up to you and...
Slip. Your heel skids off of one of the final branches and sends you careening forwards towards the ground. Having been only about ten feet up, you bend your knees, swing your arms, and hope for the best. Your legs hit the ground lopsided, sending you rolling sideways up to the doors of the library. You lay in a rumpled heap for a second, groaning.
"Every fucking time..." Your nerves are wracked as you shakily heave yourself upwards into a standing position. Your vision pulses and your head throbs, your limbs going jelly-like for a moment. You catch yourself against the tree, only to feel your stomach bottom out. "Einstein was right, gravity's a bitch."
Groping your way to the doors, you look upwards to see the massive, hand-engraved panels in a foreign language. It didn't look like anything native to Earth. "I wasn't expecting English, but I hope everything isn't in this gibberish..." You push on the heavy doors which slowly give way, a deep rumble resounding as they separate. You step onto the beaten tile, legs still heavy and aching from the fall.
The interior is a labyrinth of tucked away stairs and shelves, all carved directly into the dark, beautifully grained wood. You could seemingly lose yourself for days in the musty corridors. In the spirit of the library, you trudged over to a shelf looking to see what type of literature it held. Luckily, a small black plaque on the shelf read "English section". But there was a problem with the shelves contents; There weren't any books. There were only odd little crystals, long, skinny, and with prismatic ends. You pick one up, it was thick enough to fit the hand, smooth and cold. The one you'd picked was a glossy jet black with faint white ripples. Engraved into one of the faces and embossed in gold was "When Rabbit Howls". You'd read the book before, but didn't quite remember it well, let alone know how to use the crystal. The only option was to hunt down a librarian amongst the plethora of shelves. If there even was one. "Book" in hand, you set off.
Playing it safe, you stick to the ground level and weave your way through to the center. Fortunately, there is an actual reception desk. Unfortunately, the librarian stationed there appeared to be an anthropomorphic deer. Nearly seven feet tall, and with dead white eyes. White moss grew from it's satin black antlers, and it's tightly pulled lips displayed a set of grisly, razor-edged teeth. It spoke, a gruff, low pitched voice slithering over slippery syllables and foreign words. The language was beautiful and chilling, but completely meaningless to an English speaker.
"Oh, I apologize, I'm not from around here. I see that you might understand English though, right?" You helplessly hold out the crystal engraved with English text. The deer nods and hands you what looks like a slug steeped in ink. It taps it's head near it's ear to symbolize that the item was meant to function as an earpiece. Skeptical, you press the object into your right ear. It wriggles about, and with a sharp jolt of pain as it taps into your ear drum, lays limp in the inner lobe of your ear.
A silky voice, deep as an abyss, resonates from the deer. In an indescribable phenomenon, the creature’s native language and English struggle for dominance in your head, eventually smoothly fusing. The resulting dialect is somehow understandable, but strange on the ear. "I see you've come from somewhere far away. I haven't heard English here for eons..."
"Trust me, I'm as confused about my being here as you are. So, uh, what's your deal? You know, the deer look, being the librarian?"
The deer simply chuckles. "I am what we call an Empty Skull. My brain is lost and gone, but my body remains intact because of how much knowledge I have retained. This library keeps me alive. As for the odd appearance, it is simply because you can't possibly fathom how I really look, so your mind is left to guess".
"Oh. Well, alright then. So, uh, how do you use the books exactly?" You eye the crystal, noticing that the English text now seemed strange to you.
He takes the crystal, running a bony finger over it. "You will have to say the title in the ancient Velsek tongue. Only then will the information be accessible to you." He hands it back, waiting for you to try.
With a crook of your head, the Velsek spelling seems to hover over the English script. You slowly say the words, your Velsek voice sounding odd out of your own mouth. "When Rabbit Howls..." The text within seems to fly through your mind, separate yet all at once in the same instant. You look up at the librarian with a stunned expression. "Holy shit, that was weird." Again, he chuckles.
"So, what's your name, anyway? Didn't quite catch it."
"Well, you never asked." His tone is humorous, but sarcastic. "My name is Mantovonne. And yours?"
You are about to answer, but stop. You have absolutely no idea what your name is. "Oh, uh, I guess I can't remember. Must've whacked my head before I woke up here..."
"Well, that's no problem. You can pick any name you want, now."
"Huh. I guess I can now." You look to the crystal in your hand. "Call me Rabbit."
Part Three
"Rabbit, huh? I've heard worse. So tell me, do you remember how you got here at all?" Mantovonne eyes you up and down, as if he were reading you. His colorless eyes are not helpful in comforting you.
"Unfortunately, not a thing. I woke up on a tiny little planet, hopped over to the next, and with about as much grace as drunken bull, made it here." Subconsciously, you check yourself for open wounds and sure enough, a small gash across your ribs smears crimson onto your fingertips. "Uh oh."
The deer sighs, shaking his head. "You squishy humans have such watery blood, it's no wonder the majority of you have perished.” He rustles around under the desk and retrieves a sewing kit, along with a tin of black gelatinous goop. “C'mere, I’ll patch it up.”
Cautiously you move towards him, and he gently grabs your arm to pull you closer. “What exactly is that goop you’ve got there? It looks a little sketchy…”
“It’s necroberry syrup. It’ll help the blood clot as well as catalyze the process of regrowing your skin. A wound this size will be completely healed in about a day. Now hold still, I’ve got to stitch the gash shut.” Up close, you can tell the needle is actually a sharpened bone. Mantovonne dips the needle into the necroberry syrup and quickly knits the wound shut. Once he trims the string, he applies a thin layer of syrup over the entire gash and drops your shirt back down. “That’ll be good as new come tomorrow.”
“Err, thanks. So, how come I was able to breathe the air out there? We are in some kind of bizzarro outer space, right?”
“Not exactly. I can see how you’d think that with the mini planets and starry sky, but this is not the equivalent of the “outer space” from where you heil. Uncreatively, this is the Empty Place populated by Empty Skulls. Shocker.”
