Interlude: A Ceramic Beast's First Dream

[China]

This dream takes place following the events of THIS post.

Afrátos opened his eyes and found that the branch he had fallen asleep on had bloomed hundreds of large, comfortable flowers of innumerable varieties, upon which he now lay as if they were a huge, fluffy bed. In the morning sunlight there was no trace of the previous night’s fog, and—peering over the edge of the flower-bed—the golem could see all the way down to the lush, green forest floor, far below, where numerous small and plump foods waddled or hopped along, looking very fatty and meaty and tender. To his right, the forest carried on and on and on, whilst to his left were beautiful, open fields as far as the eye could see, with those ugly human buildings little more than a speck on the horizon… though even they seemed cheerier and friendlier from here, somehow.

Maybe it was because the large wall that had surrounded them seemed to have vanished whilst he slept, or that they were painted in much brighter, cheerier colours now? He couldn’t imagine why the yum-yums would completely renovate their entire town whilst he napped, but he wasn’t about to question it. Two-legs were weird, and it was too nice a day to waste ruminating on their many oddities. The sky was light blue and cloudless, and the sun shone down upon him brightly.

“Good morning, China!” boomed the sun happily, in its deep and manly voice, and Afrátos noticed that it had a mouth and eyes a lot like his, though in its case those teeth and eyes were yellow; the exact same shade as its face.

“No-no, Sun. Name-name not China any-no more. Me called-called 'Afrátos' now. New master give-give nice new-fresh name when take me as pet-pet.” the Ceramic Beast informed the clueless celestial body, not even pausing to wonder why it was that a giant ball of fire in the sky was speaking to him. Normally, he would have been petrified, but everything was just so nice today that he couldn’t imagine anything bad happening.

“Oh no, China! Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten!” the sun wailed sadly, suddenly looking terribly upset, “Don’t you remember what happened last night? Take a look at yourself and that might bring things back to you!”

Doing as he was instructed, Afrátos peered down at his body, then gasped in horror as the previous night’s memories suddenly filled his head to bursting. He had one missing hand, and everything beneath his waist was gone as well. Dane. That was what had happened… that Fast Person… no, that Fast Thing, had attacked him, breaking him to pieces like it was nothing, his fleshy, food-like face betraying not a hint of emotion the entire time. It was so terrible. So scary!

“I’m sorry you have to remember that, China, but it’s very important that you do...” the sun’s voice broke as it spoke, so heavy was it with emotion as it looked down upon the Ceramic Beast, curled up in a little ball and shivering with fright, “you have to understand that you can’t rely on masters.”

“What? No-no. Master much friendly-nice. Master try help-help!” unfurling the grotesque remnant of his once pristine, porcelain form, Afrátos looked up at the sun once again.

“Yes. She tried to help, China. But she failed. Your first master hated you and cast you out, then your second master proved to be weaker than her friend… after the first one, you realised that you couldn’t rely on other people, and spent the next two-hundred-odd years alone, managing to eke out a living in a world dominated by humanity… then, after coming here to the Omniverse, you let down your guard. You allowed this new girl to command your loyalty… only for her to fail you as well. There’s nothing wrong with having allies, but you must never rely on them. Can you understand that, China?”

The golem shook his head and spoke petulantly, “Not-not China!”

“There, there, China. I know he can be a bit rude about it, but Sun means well… it really would be for your own good to stop placing your trust in others. If you want to survive in a big, wide world like the Omniverse, you must learn to take care of yourself.” the Ceramic Beast heard a second voice now, this one sounding croaky and old, as a wooden, branch-like hand patted him on his shoulder reassuringly. Afrátos looked across the length of the arm back to the tree’s trunk, where he saw another visage a lot like his own, though its teeth were blunted and square, rather than being real fangs like Afrátos’ and the sun’s. Just as with the sun, though, the tree’s eyes and teeth were the exact same hue as the bark around them, so were rather difficult to make out. Ordinarily, a tree with teeth would have been very frightening indeed… but for some reason he had the strangest feeling that he could trust this one.

“Me can’t!” he whimpered sadly, “Tried take-take care self back-back in other place before flashy-bright light! It not-never work so me have go hide-hide in forest away-far from foods to keep-stay safe!”

“Ah! Now, don’t you worry your pretty, little head about that, China!” boomed the sun, suddenly grinning again, now sounding awfully jovial, “Don’t you remember Omni’s introduction?”

“Ommy?” the Beast cocked his head to one side curiously. The tree sighed.

“Omni is the white person who brought you here, China. The white person in the black place. Do you remember that?”

“Oh! Yes-yes! Me remember Omni much-lots now-now, yes!” the golem straightened up suddenly, nodding enthusiastically and feeling extremely pleased with himself, glad to show his magnificent mind’s awe-inspiring recollective properties to these two wise and venerable beings.

“That’s wonderful, China.” the tree said sagely, “Now, can you remember what Omni said to you?”

“Said…? Uh. No-no, me-me not think-remember him say-say anything.” Afrátos shook his head, shoulders slumping as he realised that he had forgotten something after all.

“Don’t be sad, China!” the sun laughed, “It’s no big deal! In fact, we have our good friend Moo- Omni right here! So you can have it all explained to you again right now!”

Suddenly, from beyond the horizon, arose a pockmarked white sphere with features very similar to the other two—with its teeth being the same, blunt shape was those of the tree—though this one didn’t appear to have any eyes at all… of course, as with Afrátos’ own face, that could easily have just meant that its eyes were closed for the time being. It did resemble the food-shaped light’s face quite strongly, though, and that was enough to convince Afrátos, “Omni! It you!”

“Yes, China, it is I, M- Omni!” Afrátos didn’t remember Omni sounding female, but this soft, high-pitched, musical voice definitely belonged to a woman, “I have come here to tell you all sorts of useful things that you didn’t know before even though Om- I mean, I already told you them once…! And maybe some other stuff too, I guess. First, as you are a Prime, China, you can use Omnilium to summon things! But… you probably don’t need to. Based on what happened last night, little dude, I’d say that your subconscious mind is surely much more efficient than your conscious one. Like, radically more efficient. I really can't overstate the difference here. Anyway, it seems to me that you’ll probably just keep generating new abilities as you amass Omnilium, so-”

“You’re losing him, Omni. Use simpler words.” croaked the tree, patting the head of the extremely confused golem, “And you just try to listen as carefully as you can, alright China?”

“Oh, yes-yes, Tree, me listen-hear. Promise.” the Ceramic Beast shuffled about awkwardly, feeling strangely embarrassed to be looking foolish in front of these people.

“Ahem. Right. Sorry.” apologised Omni, “As I was saying, China, this place is called the Omniverse. Can you say ‘Omniverse’, Cina? And can you actually remember it this time?”

“Omniverse.” Afrátos nodded several times for emphasis, “Yes, me-me remember!”

“That’s excellent, China. Now, while you are in the Omniverse, you will be able to get stronger—even though you couldn't back in your original world—because you are a Prime. That makes you very special. So if you suddenly find yourself able to to something new, like last night when you found out you could fly, don’t panic. All that means is that you are getting stronger. It is a good thing. Understand?”

Again, the nodding, “Yes-yes! Weird-strange thing happening is good-good! Mean I get-get more scary!”

“Oh yes,” the tree rubbed the top of Afrátos’ head as it congratulated him, “now you’re starting to understand it, China.”

“You sure are! Good job, China!” agreed the sun.

“Next thing!” Omni piped up, “In order to get stronger, you have to keep me entertained, China! Do you know what that means? No hiding in a little forest like you did back on your world! And no avoiding combat either! While you’re here, be braver, alright? You don’t need to worry about dying, because I, Omni, will bring you back to life in the Nex- uh, in the ‘white place’, if you do, alright...? Did you get any of that?”

“Omni bring-get me alive again after-after die-death if me not-not scaredy coward?”

“Yes!” Omni positively squealed with joy, and from somewhere—though Afrátos couldn’t quite pinpoint the location for some odd reason—applause resounded. The sun seemed to shine a little brighter and a few more flowers bloomed as he watched, whilst birds trilled cheerfully, “So now you don’t need to be so pathe- cautious. You can feel free to take more risks that you wisely would have avoided in your old life, now that I, Omni, am here to bring you back after you die. It's very important that you keep that in mind… so, to start us off... you should really go get something to eat.”

At that exact moment, the golem’s stomach grumbled loudly and a spasm of pain emanated from it. He groaned, clutching his gut and ‘thinking’ to himself, “Ow-ow, hungry not-not feel nice-good, must quick-fast find something eat.”

He moved to begin climbing down the tree to where he had seen all those plump, delicious foods just shortly before—forgetting in his hunger that he could fly—but was interrupted before he could by the deep voice of the sun, “Just one last thing before you go, China!”

“Yes-yes, Sun?” he slowed down a lot and peered back over his shoulder, but did still keep making his way gradually across the branch towards the tree trunk.

“You’ve got to remember not to let your past slow you down!” the celestial body cheered.

“He’s right, you know, China.” droned the tree.

“Oh, definitely.” piped in Omni cheerily.

“You may have gotten attached to your second master, but she still failed you in the end, little one…! If you want to ever be able to get strong enough to stay safe- No. If you want to get strong enough to hunt all the yummy food you could ever eat... the only way is for you to keep moving forwards! Clinging to your past will only hold you back, China!”

“Oh!? How-how move forward, then-then?” the Ceramic Beast answered, the promise of lots of food for the rest of his life arresting his attention utterly, stopping him in his tracks.

“It’s very simple, China.” the tree told him croakily, “All you must do is abandon your ties to that fairy… admit to yourself that she failed you… realise that you owe her nothing and that even if the opportunity were to arise again in the future, serving her would only prevent you from getting stronger. She would keep you from reaching your full potential… so you must not ever become her pet again.”

“Oh-oh… okay… yes… me-me do that for sake of get much-many foods… yes-yes.” the golem nodded hesitantly. He felt strange doing so. He didn’t like it. Being around his new master was nice… but if not being around her would make him scarier and get him lots of food… what choice did he have? If he were to start acting all sentimental then he’d be no better off than those two-legs with their silly, pointless conversations and their waiting-to-eat even with lots of lovely food lying everywhere… no, he was much smarter than the stupid foods… he wouldn’t let any pointless rules and restrictions get in the way of his feasting… even if avoiding rules meant avoiding master too, that would be a price he would just have to pay.

“That’s excellent, China,” Omni said in her pretty, singsong way, “now we have just one last thing to ask, before you go off to hunt… to begin your long life of plentiful food...”

“What is your name!?” all three spoke in perfect synchronicity, raising their voices as they did, so that their question seemed to shake the entire forest, or perhaps even the whole world, the words shattering the area’s tranquillity like roaring thunder. The golem winced and squeaked with fright, whilst countless birds squawked and took to the skies and innumerable four-legs squealed and fled on the forest floor.

“N-name i-is...” the Ceramic Beast thought hard about this for what seemed to be an age, the pain in his gut growing all the while, rushing him with its insistence on feeding. He knew what the three of them wanted him to say, of course, and he knew that what they wanted was the best outcome for himself as well… but he also knew that the second master wouldn’t want him to abandon the name she had given him… at last, he made his decision, “me-me name… is-is… China.”

“Ahh...” the speakers sighed contentedly in chorus, and smiled at him. At their grateful expressions, an unexpected feeling of satisfaction seemed to well up within him from nowhere, all of a sudden, and he was filled with certainty that he had made the right choice.

“Well done, China! Very well done!” the sun boomed, its light growing swiftly to fill the entire sky, then the entire world, as Omni, the tree, and everything else around the golem vanished. Even with his hands wrapped over his face and his eyes jammed shut, he could still see that light. Somehow, it managed to make even the smells and sounds of the forest disappear from around him, “And now, it is time for you to wake up, little one!”

“Wake u-?”