Chapter 0: Beginnings
You awaken.
The world is a tube.
Not the entire world, but your world, certainly. It's pretty big and you can swim around and stuff. There's some stuff going on outside the tube, but after worrying about that and being absolutely terrified of everything that moves for a good long while, you eventually realize that none of it matters because it's on the other side of the tube and you're on this side of the tube, and nothing ever goes in or out.
You amuse yourself by making shadows and chasing them.
You eventually get bored of this and turn your attention back to the outside. There's a couple creatures walking around with rectangular pads and long pointy things that they keep scratching against the rectangles occasionally, inspecting tubes that look a lot like yours. Most of them have tiny shadowy creatures in them that look a lot like you.
One of the outside creatures stops and peers at you with strange eyes behind transparent circle-thingies. You peer back at it. It taps on the tube, which makes a very not good sound. You try to communicate your feelings about this by swimming around in circles frantically. It seems to work, because the creature stops the tapping.
You seem to have gotten the second creature's attention as well. They appear to be making noises by moving their meatflaps. After observing for a while you realize that meatflapnoises beget more meatflapnoises, and this appears to be how these creatures communicate. Neat!
You try doing the same, but you don't appear to have a meatflap. Odd. Come to think of it, your body isn't anything like theirs either. They have four appendages, and you have... one tail. How very odd. Also, they're moving around on two appendages instead of swimming in a tube with a tail.
These creatures are really weird.
You eventually get bored of them and start swimming around in circles again.
A great deal of time passes and you grow very, very bored. There is only so much shadowchasing you can do, after all. Also, nothing interesting ever happens outside your tube except that the creatures come by occasionally to scratch on their rectangles. They always come shortly after it gets bright, and it gets much darker a little time after they leave. Besides that, nothing.
You've given up on trying to communicate with them. They don't seem to even notice that's what you're trying to do.
Is it just your imagination, or is the tube smaller now? You're pretty sure the tube's smaller. Also, your body itches occasionally in weird spots and feels really sore. You try wiggling and you find that your tail is also smaller, and now you have four bumps on your body.
Strange.
...Huh.
Wait, does this mean you're going to look like those other creatures soon? Is that how this works?
You worry about this for a long while, but ultimately decide that it wouldn't be that bad. At least then you'd have a meatflap and could figure out how to communicate to tell them how bored you are all the time and how much it sucks that your tube keeps shrinking.
You amuse yourself by imagining what it will be like once you can walk around in the outside instead of sitting in a tube.
Come to think of it, where do the other creatures go when they aren't here? Curious.
Okay, this is really getting out of hand. Your tube is really small now. Like,
really small. You can barely turn around in the thing! Also, you definitely have four full appendages now, and no tail. Two hindlegs and two forelegs. You have a bit more control over the forelegs, but...
It really sucks that you can barely move them.
And you still don't look anything like the outside creatures. In fact, you don't look like any of the other tube creatures either.
You start to worry again.
And now there's five of the outside creatures instead of just two. The one in the middle is making lots of meatflapnoises and the other ones are just listening. Occasionally the bigger of the two you're more familiar with communicates back.
What are they saying? You try to listen.
"Fuhtanvim. Sykhevelahd! E lyh'd pameaja ed'c bnuknaccehk cu famm! E fyhd oui tejand ymm avvundc du cditoehk drec uha."
"Oac cen. Fryd ypuid dra udranc?"
"Vmicr dras? E tuh'd lyna. Rufajan oui tecbuca uv dras. Drao ynah'd fundr so desa."
"Ihtancduut."
Who knows?
Good news: you have a meatflap now! Bad news: you tried using it to make meatflapnoises and it seemed to be getting the smaller creature's attention at first (it even made noises back!), but the only thing that happened is the bigger creature yelled at it and then you got a painful shock. You tried again and again, but you just got more painful shocks each time.
Eventually you gave up. Apparently you aren't allowed to make meatflapnoises, which you reckon is very unfair, considering they make them all the time.
Also, all the other tubes are empty now.
Some time later in the darker time (it gets dark when none of the other creatures are around for a while) the smaller creature enters and makes it light again, much earlier than you are used to. Odd. That's never happened before.
It comes up to your tube and taps on it. Not very loudly.
You observe it for a while, and then tap back.
It makes a very loud screeching meatflapnoise and falls backward. This confuses you.
It gets back up and cautiously approaches, then makes meatflapnoises again.
Oh, is it finally trying to communicate with you after all this time?
You are frustrated, and angry. And a part of you wants to make frustrated angry noises at it to make it understand this fact.
You, however, have learned your lesson. You don't want to be shocked again, and so you refrain from making meatflapnoises. Not even so much as a growl, even though you really want to.
To your continued frustration, the creature persists.
Wow, this is getting annoying. It just keeps making the same noises over and over again while pointing to itself.
"Yhhy. E ys Yhhy. Y H H Y."
You continue to ignore it. Eventually it gives up and leaves.
BAD. VERY BAD. VERY NOT GOOD.
There are loud noises and flashing lights. Very
very loud, repetitive noises. You are utterly terrified, but there is nothing you can do. Nothing like this has ever happened, ever. It's so bad you can't help but make noises yourself.
You don't get shocked this time, but it definitely doesn't help any.
It just keeps going!
Someone make it stop!
It won't stop. It just keeps going.
BRAWWR. BRAWWR. BRAWWR. BRAWWR.
It's the worst, most horrible noise you've ever heard and it
WONT STOP! And now you hear what sounds like meatflapnoises coming from everywhere at once, except garbled and far-away sounding.
And just when you thought things couldn't get any worse, there's an even louder crashing sound accompanied by everything shaking and rumbling and--
OH NO VERY BAD!
You fall.
You've never fallen before. A pure, primal terror that you've never known before grips you. Your tube hits the ground and
shatters into lots of tiny pieces and OWW PAIN OWW BAD.
There is a shard of the tube stuck in your side. You can't reach it to grasp it with your forelegs, but with some effort you manage to do so with your mouth. You yank it out.
It hurts still, but now its a different hurt that isn't so bad in some ways, but in others is much worse.
...And now not only are you bleeding and outside your tube, but the noise is even louder! And you feel dizzy and--
You vomit up a big mass of green goop, and then
breathe for the first time. It feels weird. Air goes inside and outside your body. Much colder and lighter than whatever it was in the tube.
It takes some getting used to, but before too long you manage to completely forget about it.
Also frustrating: you can't swim anymore. In fact, you're stuck to the ground, no matter how hard you try. You feel so immensely
heavy.
You try to stand up on your hindlegs like you've seen the other creatures do, but it's way harder than it looks. You wobble and fall to the ground again and again.
Eventually you give up. That just doesn't work. You manage to move around, but you have to rest on all four legs to do so. This way is much easier. Instinctive, even.
You suppose it's not that bad. Aside from the horrible badnoise, it's much better than being stuck in the tube without being able to move.
You turn your attention to the outside.
It's completely unrecognizable. Where previously it was all sleek lines and shiny surfaces, now it's all broken piles of rubble.
You inspect the rubble. Instinctually, you even try tasting some of it. It tastes very bad. You spit it out, and then decide to never do this again.
A flickering light several paces away draws your attention, and you move closer to it. As you get closer, it feels warmer and warmer and it gets even brighter until--
OW PAIN OW BAD!
You recoil from it immediately. That was very not good, and now your snout hurts. You resolve to never touch hot-flickering-lights-that-burn with your snout ever again.
Ugh. Everything is so horrible now. You wish you could just go back to swimming, carefree and not hurting, back in the tube. Those were much easier times.
Something else in the rubble catches your eye. There are five shiny stones inside what looks like a box. They look very different from anything you've ever seen before. They shift colors as you examine them, and they glow with a strange, eerie light.
Having learned your lesson from the fire (you decide that's what you call hot-flickering-lights-that-burn), you approach much more cautiously this time. In fact...
You pick up a more ordinary rock with your graspers and toss it at the shiny rocks.
Nothing happens.
You edge closer and make meatflapnoises at them, then hastily retreat.
Nothing happens.
Very,
very cautiously you edge closer. They don't feel warmer like the fire.
You try touching one with a grasper, and--
You are immediately overwhelmed by thoughts and visions of a new form. You see yourself in your mind's eye: larger, stronger, more powerful.
Woah. You recoil and back away. What was that?!
Full of curiosity and wonder, you edge closer and touch it again. The sensation isn't as overwhelming this time, but it's still there.
Power. Such power is contained in these stones. And that power calls to you.
You reach out to touch the others, one after another, and more visions in your mind unfold.
Which form do you choose?
[] Stalker
[] Coeurl
[] Demidragon
[] Ahriman
[] Flan
Seperately, if you choose Flan, determine your element:
[] Ice
[] Fire
[] Lightning
[] Water
[] Earth
[] AIr
Note: Each form is roughly commensurate in power, with different tradeoffs. Your choice should entirely depend on what style of play you want.
