I like to see myself as a Narrator. Commentating, keeping an invisible Audience in the loop. To a degree, I am. But when I wake from my Dreams, I go back to being nothing. No advanced knowledge, no “Cosmic Understanding,” just… me. I gave up trying to convey that to my Creations a while ago. In reality, I am just a musician, a castaway from society, not by anyone’s malice or disgust, but by sheer lack of noticing. So I Escape. I retreat into my Stories and songs and Dreams. It was just Escapism. Until my Dreams started Creating things of their own.
It started with an EP. Technically it was just one track that just… inspired the rest. They didn’t sound like anything I’d ever made before or since… but that’s because I didn’t make it. I didn’t know that yet. Eventually, I began to Dream of someone, someone who looked familiar. As I Dreamt of them more and more, I heard music being constructed. Songs that sounded like what “I” had made all those years back. So I investigated. Somehow this subconscious character I’d made had begun to build out a world to live in for themself. Their name was tWoE. I’d somehow made them from aspects of my own Creativity that I didn’t know were there. They couldn’t see me yet. They didn’t even know I was Watching. And then He saw me. A lesser God.
I don’t know anything. That much was obvious then and remains obvious eternally. But the God, Helicon, brought a new kind of Understanding to me. He said I had a Story to live through. That everyone, everything does, but mine in particular is one that may Affect him, so He’s taken a liking to it. He told me how Everything works. Well… not Everything. Nothing Mortal can handle that much. But I was given a brief Cosmic history. Unfortunately it is Information I cannot easily Tell. Bits and Pieces are allowed, but a unified Narrative is strictly Forbidden. He also gave me one important piece of information. tWoE’s world was unstable. A Creation made by someone who is still actively being Created is far too many layers of Abstraction. The rules of Reality become flimsy, and with very little disruption, can be fully Broken. It would have to be struck down.
I was sent back to my own Plane of Existence with a mission: Kill tWoE’s world. But I didn’t want to kill the only Creation I’d ever Dreamt that felt like it truly was Something. So I made a Copy. A poor Imitation of tWoE, of their world, of their life. I struck down the original world, hoping and praying that my plan had somehow worked. That through Hope and Dreaming and maybe even sheer Will, I could allow tWoE to exist despite their world’s demise. I returned to my Copy only to find them dull, empty, and lost. It hadn’t worked. This was not the same person. This tWoE was so desperate to stop feeling like something was wrong that they would rather live in a constant high than Exist. Their Story wouldn’t begin until after they died, anyway. And then it happened. They died. And everything changed again.
I began getting interference on my social media pages. It was small, even friendly at first. It felt like banter, if I’m being honest. An account that claimed to be tWoE was harassing me. But that shouldn’t be possible. tWoE was someone I had Dreamed into Reality, and not even at my level. And yet, against all odds, it was them. I was elated to discover that tWoE had returned. My tWoE. The one who had built themself. But they were furious with me. They claimed I had stolen from them, that I was selfish, that I had destroyed their world… and they were right. A world created by someone who doesn’t know they built it is full of holes and can hardly support itself already. The world they had Built was unstable, and I came in and nearly killed it. They had every right to hate me. I tried to explain myself but they were gone too fast. They stole back the EP they had made through me and retreated to the After.
Immediately, I was pulled from playing a God to meeting with one once more. This one was different, though. Where Helicon had been shapeless, Structureless almost, this God, Yahlthei, began berating me for Striking Down a world I didn’t Create. I didn’t know that in trying to destroy tWoE’s world, I had inadvertently doomed it to a hellish descent into Limbo, rather than the After, where all Things go when they End, as all Things Must. I finally Understood. Only the one who Builds a world can Destroy it. I had prevented the process of Cremation, and now the world was freezing over, and it risked spilling Concepts into the After. I had to fix this. Yahlthei granted me a passageway between the after, my home, and tWoE’s world, and I left.
I happened upon tWoE attempting to Hijack their Copy’s Narrative in an attempt to get my attention. I quickly swept them up and headed away. Still furious, they begged for Answers. I know where their Narrative is going. I wish I could give them any help. But if they learn anything about what’s coming, they won’t go through with it. I left them on their decaying world, with nothing but Hope that they can find the Answers for themself and incite Cremation.
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