The Ghost and the Fountain

[Dark Link]

Nothing. There was nothing but darkness as far as the senses could tell.....a place completely void of any life and matter. It was in the middle of this vast emptiness that something appeared....a chaotic cloud of arcane energies, surrounding a small orange sphere. It was a life.....weak, barely existing, like a flame that had just been lit and could be extinguished by the slightest breath. But it was there and even its tiny and insignificant presence stood out within the featureless vacuum.

The life form awoke....though the being itself could hardly tell the difference. Whether it slept or not, all it could see was vast emptiness. In the sheer absence of anything, it felt completely perplexed and clueless. Who was he? What was he? Where was he? All those questions and more went through its mind, but no answer would come. And with nothing to help it find out what they are, it could do nothing but continue to be discombobulated. The effort of thinking about this tired it out fairly quickly, so without even realising it, the life form began to rest once more.

There was no telling how much time passed as the being interchangeably slept and woke up. Hours, days, weeks.....there was no way to tell. Yet, however long it may have been, the powers surrounding the creature began to move. As if being drawn by a magnetic force, the energy began to gather where the small flame-like orb was. As more and more of it was focused in one place, it covered the sphere and an increasingly solid figure appeared in its place. It was during this process that an image appeared in the life form's mind.

Standing near a wall was a small and simple wooden cradle. The room it was in was dark, but the moonlight that was shining through the nearby window provided illumination, revealing the contents of the bassinet. Lying in it was a very young child; the infant slept peacefully as its head rested on the side, revealing small pointy ears. The life form could not understand what anything it was seeing was, particularly the baby. Who was it? What was it? Where was it? There was no response to any of this. However, the creature on the bed seemed small, fragile and helpless......the same way the being watching it felt at that moment.

Once again, the figure continued to ponder and slumber on and off as time continued to flow. Months, years, eons.....within that empty pocket of space, it made little difference. But things did continue to change. The life form was no longer only attracting the mystical powers surrounding it. Seemingly out of nowhere, bits and pieces of rainbow-coloured material appeared and began to converge at that same point. As an increasing amount was concentrated there, the figure solidified further and began to gain mass; furthermore, its appearance ceased to be black and nearly featureless and progressively became more and more detailed. As this was happening, another vision appeared inside the being's head.

In stark contrast to the previous scene, this one took place during a bright day. Standing on top of a high tower was a little girl, her blonde hair neatly gathered into bunches and her blue dress adorned with images of red hibiscus flowers. Leaning on the fence in front of her and with one of her large eyes wide open, she eagerly scanned the horizon while the seagulls flying above continued to sing their song. Once again, the life form could not make heads or tails of anything within the vision, especially the child. Who was it? What was it? Where was it? Once more, no solution to any of those presented itself. But there was one difference from before that the being was able to discern. While this creature was also somewhat small, fragile and helpless, it also seemed somewhat curious and eager to learn more about the world around it......once again, mirroring the emotions that were pervading its observer.

The pattern of thinking and dozing went on for a short while longer....but then, things changed. As the life form woke up again one time, something unexpected had appeared within the void....a blinding white light. Piercing its sight like a sharp object, the being felt a burning and painful sensation. Instinctively, it closed its eyes and raised its hands to protect itself from the harsh and unforgiving illumination. As its vision began to adapt to the new conditions, the life form was beginning to realise the difference between sleeping and being awake. When it was awake, its senses responded to outside influences. But no sooner did this bit of knowledge sink it that it began to observe its hands......yes, it had hands and complete control of them. It didn't know what they were or what the articles of clothing on them were....but it did remember the creatures in its visions having similar appendages. These were larger, stronger and were covered in leather and fabric, however.

The being turned its attention to the source of the disturbance. Situated some distance away from it was.....a figure. A different, white figure with a black silhouette marking its humanoid shape. Aside from a large grin on its face, it remained entirely featureless. The life form did not know who or what it was, but nevertheless felt compelled to examine it closer. It started walking towards the other individual......when it realised that it was actually moving and on its own accord. Glancing downwards, it saw a pair of legs. Again, it knew nothing of what they were or what the articles of clothing on them were...but it recalled once more that the creatures it saw in its mind also had legs. But its own were different in a similar fashion to his arms; they were longer, more muscular and completely covered.

Focusing once again on the only other thing within this vacuum of space, it continued to make steps towards the figure. It didn't know how it knew how to walk, but it did and it kept doing it until it finally reached its destination. It was facing the featureless existence opposite of it when a voice resonated throughout the darkness. For its part, the life form remained confused, incapable of comprehending the meaning of the other's words. Then the creature, that called itself Omni, presented something....a shining orb, covered in all the colours of the rainbow. While most of the explanation went over the perplexed being's head, it was at least able to comprehend that what the god-like entity was showing it was the substance it called Omnilium. Of course, that alone didn't really help it understand anything else about it, but at least it was a start.

But before this newfound knowledge could sink in, Omni vanished just as rapidly as he had appeared. He wasn't the only thing to vanish either; the void disappeared along with him....or, rather, it was the life form that disappeared from the void. It found itself in a different place. Instead of being surrounded by black, it was surrounded by white. Thanks to the earlier experience, the change didn't affect is as negatively as it did before and it was able to adjust to the new scenery quite rapidly. That was when it noticed a difference from where it was before....there was an object there...a fountain. Like everything before, the being had never seen anything like it; however, this time, it had the option to examine the object. Reaching out with one of its hands, it touched the edge of the structure. The surface under its fingers felt rough and cool. Having never experienced such a sensation before, it continued to stroke the surface until doing so started to feel unpleasant. That was when it leaned forward to look at the substance that was gathering inside the fountain....and for the first time, the life form was able to see its own appearance within the water's surface.

The reflection that was staring back at it with a slightly confused face was that of a boy in his late teens. Though he had the same gentle skin and pointy ears as the creatures he saw in his visions, everything else about him couldn't have been more different. His body was much taller, wider and stronger. The clothing on him was also a rather complex set compared to the simple dress the little girl from his dream wore; brown belts covered a black tunic, which covered a bronze-coloured chain shirt, which in turn covered a regular beige shirt. Black fingerless gloves and leather bracers protected his arms while a dark and long cap covered his head. Most striking of all were his red eyes, situated under his dark eyebrows and locks of grey hair; combined with his rather pale complexion, they gave him a rather unhealthy and sinister look.

Turning to his side, the boy also saw that he had a shield and a holster with a one-handed sword strapped to his back. Naturally, he did not know what those things were...though he didn't particularly care at that very moment. He was completely mesmerised by the fact that the image he was seeing was imitating his every move, so he kept staring at the reflection. However, as his sights continued to remain fixed on the clear liquid in front of him, the young adult started to feel a painful sensation in his head. He touched his forehead. The longer he continued to observe the water, the worse his condition became. The pain threatened to overwhelm him when he was interrupted by a seemingly distant voice: "Hey, is that one of those Camelot freaks?"

Rapidly turning around, the boy finally noticed another difference from the empty vacuum he resided in before......he wasn't alone. As the pain in his head subsided, he saw that white entities were standing at various points around the fountain. At first, he thought they were like Omni....but upon closer inspection, the white on them was coming from the armour they wore from head to toe. Carrying blaster rifles in their hands, their helmets with equally black eye sections were turned towards him. Blankly staring at them for a few moments, the young warrior approached the nearest one and extended his arm. At first, this alarmed the soldiers and they raised their firearms to defend themselves......but they calmed down a bit when the grey-haired stranger merely touched the protective gear of the nearest one. Unlike the fountain, the surface of this felt smooth, though still somewhat cool to the touch.

The person who's armour he was touching did not react kindly to this odd behaviour, saying: "Hey, stop that!" But since the boy did not understand what those words meant, he continued examining the gear. The soldier had enough: "I said stop it!" This time, he punctuated his words by clenching one of his fists and aiming a blow at the teenager's gut. The warrior in black found himself clutching his stomach as he once again felt a painful sensation, albeit different from the one he experienced earlier. The other soldiers aimed at him at their sights, ready for a hostile response....but no such thing occurred. Once the pain ceased, the boy simply straightened out and looked at them with a somewhat confused expression. The experience did help him start to learn what the word "stop" meant, though. He continued to stand there for a few moments when another, similar voice came from elsewhere: "Uhhh...hey, kid...."

Turning around once more, the teenager saw two people standing near the fountain. But although it was another of the white troopers that addressed him, it was the person next to him that caught the boy's attention. It was a girl roughly his age with long red hair and emerald eyes. He noted that she was a creature similar to him, though her ears were round. She wore a silver suit that was quite skin tight and revealed her figure.......which he noticed was shaped somewhat differently from his own. The young male decided to approach them. Learning his lesson the first time, he did not try touching the suit. Instead, he slowly circled around them, observing the Ghost operative from every angle. Whether or not she was unnerved by this, the human girl did not show it; her expression remained just as stone cold as before.

The commander audibly sighed, getting tired of this charade. His men had a job to do and this....freakshow was holding them up. The leader of the company addressed the grey-haired warrior again: "Listen, buddy....we only came here for her." He motioned towards the person next to him as he said this. This prompted the black clad swordsman to look at the young woman again. He began to ponder......was it a "her"? Is that why its figure was different from his?

Prime ignored his thoughtful stupor and added: "If you're looking for Camelot, it's that way." With this, he stretched out his arm and pointed with his index finger towards the east. The boy looked in the direction that was indicated. Though he saw nothing and understood nothing that the trooper was telling him, he still felt....strangely drawn to going that way. But he did not do so immediately. Facing the other two, he blinked and stared at them for a while longer, further compounding the awkward silence.

OOC: I hate to make OOC comments, but since I haven't put up a Personality section on my roster yet and we're already RPing together, I figured it would be wise to mention a few details about Dark Link:

• As you can probably guess from the text, he knows almost nothing. He's basically like an infant, having to learn a lot of things from scratch. He does know how to fight, though, even if he has no idea why. So if combat breaks out, he isn't going to just stand there and take potshots.
  
• He's an emotional cripple....and I mean that literally. Unless something triggers a memory or a vision, he is almost incapable of showing strong emotions. This isn't to say he doesn't have them, just that they aren't particularly strong and that he will express them in a very subdued manner (i.e. a slight smile rather than a wide grin).
  
• He's a mute, i.e. he doesn't talk. Obviously, though, he does think, so any mind-reading and such should work....even if it won't reveal much. =P