04-04-2018, 01:37 AM
There is only blackness.
Luci screams, a long blood-curdling moan of despair. Her wail echos back mockingly.
Down in the darkest and deadest parts of Luci’s subconscious, where nobody can hear her, she screams until her throat is raw and cracking. The fearless gangster sniffles. She is crouched tightly in the fetal position, naked and cold. And dying.
Cautiously, with a shaking hand, Luci presses against her abdomen. She winces, and draws the hand back immediately. Although she cannot see in the darkness, she can feel the warm sticky wetness, and smell the metallic tang of her own blood. How long will it take, in this timeless abyss at the bottom of the Astral Realm, to die? How long before her last drop finally falls?
Ignoring the jolt of pain in her abdomen, Luci reaches her hand up above her head. She hits a rough stone ceiling almost instantly, and a wave of claustrophobia shakes her to the core, causing her to retch.
“Oh fuck,” she gasps pitifully, clutching her throbbing stomach.
‘Oh fuck,’ echoes back the waiting dark.
Luci sits against the rough stone wall until her head stops swimming, hugging her knees. She thinks. After some time, Luci tries to whistle, but cannot bring her cracked lips together, and her mouth is as dry as a desert.
She lets out a guttural bark of frustration, and listens carefully for the response.
‘Ah!’ confirms the void, the voice echoing into nothingness.
Luci sits in the dark for a long time, her eyes narrowed, burying down her primal nihilistic instincts begging her to end it all.
“Go,” Luci whispers finally.
‘Go,’ the void mocks softly.
Luci falls forward on her hands and knees, her abdomen sending a jolt of pain throughout her body. She sticks a hand out in front of her, tracing the rough stone walls of her pison. The stone is sharp enough to leave tiny cuts and scrapes on her hands, but the wounds heal instantly, leaving nothing but a sting. Eventually her hand finds only open space, and her fears are confirmed; it’s a tunnel, less than two feet high, maybe two feet wide.
Luci begins to crawl.
The tunnel curves steeply upwards. Still Luci crawls.
The stone is sharp, cutting into Luci’s legs and arms, the wounds healing as she goes. Still she crawls, dragging her protesting body inexorably up.
Her abdomen throbs, the pain at times overwhelming her and forcing her to stop. So Luci stops. Then she crawls again.
The crushing, suffocating darkness threatens strip her sanity down to is last screaming exposed nerve. Still, Luci crawls.
Above it all, drowning out all of her bodies other protests, is the thirst.
The maddening thirst that only those a second from death have known. A fire that starts in the chest and radiates outwards, vowing to burn it’s host to cinders as it explodes.
This verse may stretch her time, but Luci has entered the Astral Realm as she left Coruscant; on the brink of death, willing to give anything for one last sip of life giving water.
***
The years pass in darkness and pain, and still Luci crawls.
***
There is a new pain, familiar yet unfamiliar.
The creature in the tunnel cringes, rubbing its eyes. It burns, but the creature not flinch away. It remembers the pain.
It is light.
Like dim moonlight, filtered through a scanner darkly, but it burns the creature’s sensitive eyes like an Imperial flashbang.
The creature crawls on its arms, dragging it’s legs behind it with a trail of blood leaking from it’s abdomen.
The tunnel stops slanting upwards, straightening out. At the very end, the pale silvery light swirls, casting strange shadows on the walls.
For so long the creature has known only darkness, only pain, and above it all the burning thirst.
It crawls towards the light.
It’s eyes sting as it gets closer, but the creature only drags itself steadily further. As it gets closer, its sees the swirling light is coming from a pool in the floor of the tunnel.
The thirst burns.
The creature leans its head over the brim of the pool to drink, but then it catches sight of it's reflection.
A pale, scared girl with haunted eyes.
***
Luci pulls back from the brim of the pool. Her thirst screams at her, throbbing in every fiber, but she does not succumb.
She leans over the edge of the pool, and begins to cry.
She thinks of blood in the streets Tier Five, and a red tear drop falls into the pool.
She thinks of the artificial sunsets of Coruscant, and an orange tear drop falls into the pool.
She thinks of the laughter of the Deathblades, and a yellow tear drop falls into the pool.
She thinks of the forests of the Knife Ears, and a green tear drop falls into the pool.
She thinks of the determination of the Hufflepunks, and a blue tear drop falls into the pool.
She thinks of everyone she loves, and a violet tear drop falls into the pool.
And she thinks of everything that she’s lost, and she does not lose hope, and a gold tear drop falls into the pool.
After several ragged, agonizing breathes, the colors start to swirl. Slowly at first, then gaining speed, the teardrops whip around each other in a psychedelic frenzy. They meld, blend, and start to stretch.
A bubble of shimmering OM rises slowly from the pool and hovers over Luci. Inside it is a spraycan, rotating in it’s prismatic prism. Luci reaches out a trembling hand and pops the bubble, and the spraycan falls to the ground with a rattle.
Luci does not retrieve the can, but continues staring into the pool for a very long time.
She thinks of the Astral Realm, of the beauty of dreams from all the Omniverse woven into one glimmering tapestry, and a shining silver tear drop falls into the pool.
Luci watches it sink like a stone into the pool. She waits.
After a moment, a brightly glowing silver key floats up to the surface of the pool, and Luci snatches it.
She grabs her trusty magic spraycan, shaking it, making the little metal ball inside clink against the can, trying not to rush herself. With an aerosol hiss Luci paints the shaky outline of a door in light blue spray paint, with a blue handle and keyhole, above the pool.
Panting, Luci pushes the glowing silver key into the painted keyhole, and the outline of the door starts to glow a very bright blue.
Luci spends a moment sobbing tears of relief, and then she turns the handle and crawls out the door into a bright blue sky.
***
Luci is falling. The wind whips her hair, the sun warms her skin, the clouds tickle her face. She cannot see the ground below her, and still she falls, leaving a trail of blood on her wake.
Luci is very weak now.
She cannot keep her eyes open.
***
Luci screams, a long blood-curdling moan of despair. Her wail echos back mockingly.
Down in the darkest and deadest parts of Luci’s subconscious, where nobody can hear her, she screams until her throat is raw and cracking. The fearless gangster sniffles. She is crouched tightly in the fetal position, naked and cold. And dying.
Cautiously, with a shaking hand, Luci presses against her abdomen. She winces, and draws the hand back immediately. Although she cannot see in the darkness, she can feel the warm sticky wetness, and smell the metallic tang of her own blood. How long will it take, in this timeless abyss at the bottom of the Astral Realm, to die? How long before her last drop finally falls?
Ignoring the jolt of pain in her abdomen, Luci reaches her hand up above her head. She hits a rough stone ceiling almost instantly, and a wave of claustrophobia shakes her to the core, causing her to retch.
“Oh fuck,” she gasps pitifully, clutching her throbbing stomach.
‘Oh fuck,’ echoes back the waiting dark.
Luci sits against the rough stone wall until her head stops swimming, hugging her knees. She thinks. After some time, Luci tries to whistle, but cannot bring her cracked lips together, and her mouth is as dry as a desert.
She lets out a guttural bark of frustration, and listens carefully for the response.
‘Ah!’ confirms the void, the voice echoing into nothingness.
Luci sits in the dark for a long time, her eyes narrowed, burying down her primal nihilistic instincts begging her to end it all.
“Go,” Luci whispers finally.
‘Go,’ the void mocks softly.
Luci falls forward on her hands and knees, her abdomen sending a jolt of pain throughout her body. She sticks a hand out in front of her, tracing the rough stone walls of her pison. The stone is sharp enough to leave tiny cuts and scrapes on her hands, but the wounds heal instantly, leaving nothing but a sting. Eventually her hand finds only open space, and her fears are confirmed; it’s a tunnel, less than two feet high, maybe two feet wide.
Luci begins to crawl.
The tunnel curves steeply upwards. Still Luci crawls.
The stone is sharp, cutting into Luci’s legs and arms, the wounds healing as she goes. Still she crawls, dragging her protesting body inexorably up.
Her abdomen throbs, the pain at times overwhelming her and forcing her to stop. So Luci stops. Then she crawls again.
The crushing, suffocating darkness threatens strip her sanity down to is last screaming exposed nerve. Still, Luci crawls.
Above it all, drowning out all of her bodies other protests, is the thirst.
The maddening thirst that only those a second from death have known. A fire that starts in the chest and radiates outwards, vowing to burn it’s host to cinders as it explodes.
This verse may stretch her time, but Luci has entered the Astral Realm as she left Coruscant; on the brink of death, willing to give anything for one last sip of life giving water.
***
The years pass in darkness and pain, and still Luci crawls.
***
There is a new pain, familiar yet unfamiliar.
The creature in the tunnel cringes, rubbing its eyes. It burns, but the creature not flinch away. It remembers the pain.
It is light.
Like dim moonlight, filtered through a scanner darkly, but it burns the creature’s sensitive eyes like an Imperial flashbang.
The creature crawls on its arms, dragging it’s legs behind it with a trail of blood leaking from it’s abdomen.
The tunnel stops slanting upwards, straightening out. At the very end, the pale silvery light swirls, casting strange shadows on the walls.
For so long the creature has known only darkness, only pain, and above it all the burning thirst.
It crawls towards the light.
It’s eyes sting as it gets closer, but the creature only drags itself steadily further. As it gets closer, its sees the swirling light is coming from a pool in the floor of the tunnel.
The thirst burns.
The creature leans its head over the brim of the pool to drink, but then it catches sight of it's reflection.
A pale, scared girl with haunted eyes.
***
Luci pulls back from the brim of the pool. Her thirst screams at her, throbbing in every fiber, but she does not succumb.
She leans over the edge of the pool, and begins to cry.
She thinks of blood in the streets Tier Five, and a red tear drop falls into the pool.
She thinks of the artificial sunsets of Coruscant, and an orange tear drop falls into the pool.
She thinks of the laughter of the Deathblades, and a yellow tear drop falls into the pool.
She thinks of the forests of the Knife Ears, and a green tear drop falls into the pool.
She thinks of the determination of the Hufflepunks, and a blue tear drop falls into the pool.
She thinks of everyone she loves, and a violet tear drop falls into the pool.
And she thinks of everything that she’s lost, and she does not lose hope, and a gold tear drop falls into the pool.
After several ragged, agonizing breathes, the colors start to swirl. Slowly at first, then gaining speed, the teardrops whip around each other in a psychedelic frenzy. They meld, blend, and start to stretch.
A bubble of shimmering OM rises slowly from the pool and hovers over Luci. Inside it is a spraycan, rotating in it’s prismatic prism. Luci reaches out a trembling hand and pops the bubble, and the spraycan falls to the ground with a rattle.
Luci does not retrieve the can, but continues staring into the pool for a very long time.
She thinks of the Astral Realm, of the beauty of dreams from all the Omniverse woven into one glimmering tapestry, and a shining silver tear drop falls into the pool.
Luci watches it sink like a stone into the pool. She waits.
After a moment, a brightly glowing silver key floats up to the surface of the pool, and Luci snatches it.
She grabs her trusty magic spraycan, shaking it, making the little metal ball inside clink against the can, trying not to rush herself. With an aerosol hiss Luci paints the shaky outline of a door in light blue spray paint, with a blue handle and keyhole, above the pool.
Panting, Luci pushes the glowing silver key into the painted keyhole, and the outline of the door starts to glow a very bright blue.
Luci spends a moment sobbing tears of relief, and then she turns the handle and crawls out the door into a bright blue sky.
***
Luci is falling. The wind whips her hair, the sun warms her skin, the clouds tickle her face. She cannot see the ground below her, and still she falls, leaving a trail of blood on her wake.
Luci is very weak now.
She cannot keep her eyes open.
***
![[Image: V4Dvvfy.gif]](https://i.imgur.com/V4Dvvfy.gif)