《Deepwave Atoll》


 Ch.1: Suddenly, Creation

    Wind flowed, just as water did. But so did glaciers and glass. If observed on the right timescales, anything, really, flowed; one could say that the world is a place of flowing, of motion.


    In this one, however, unlike our own, dear reader, there was so much more aflow.


    Fates snaked and danced across the lives and deaths of all beings, their past, present and future confined within one and the same.


    Streams of pure potential brought forth people and creatures that would perform deeds truly heroic or vile, only to eventually pass into memory, then tale, then legend.


    Great webs of probability rippled across all that was known, conducting a great orchestra of fortune and misfortune.


    And the moment has now come for this orchestra to reach a crescendo.


    Amidst the dying throes of a massive typhoon, the kind the world sees every few centuries at worst, ghostly threads, many million score of fates start yarnballing into a dense knot, sucking in power and potential like a nation-sized drain, forcing patterns of interlocking lives set over eons long past out of alignment for hundreds of leagues.


    Mana; tool, workpiece and crafter in one, the ethereal force grounding all others, joins in the dance, forever altering itself, and the world with it.


    The heavens bent to the will of these untamed forces, and the ocean rose up high above, the "mundane" laws shattering under the strain.


    Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.


    The world, however, was still, as if on the lookout for the final piece to this puzzle.


    And the piece clicked.


    Of course, it wasn''t an ordinary "click"that sounded out. It was the sound of "the world as we know it" ending, the collective dying scream of subjective realities.


    One cannot imagine the sheer amounts of improbability that clicked into place that day, the amounts needed to create- not rearrange the matter of, but to trulycreate a being.


    A being that, not quite unlike a sperm whale or a pot of petunias, is now rapidly approaching the ocean surface, together with the water masses suspended in the air just a moment ago, mainly due to the return of gravity to the area.


    Now, the union of such fundamental powers should rightfully create a being to mirror their potency, a being to strike, maybe fear, maybe awe, but definitely strong emotions into the hearts of people, a being that, upon impacting the sea, should create a sound that would make the thundering shock of an erupting volcano think twice about picking a fight with it.


    However, the miniscule shard of turquoise crystal goes under the waves with an overshadowed bloop.


    Not a "boom", not a"crash", not even a"sploosh". Just... "bloop".


    As it languidly tumbles toward the seafloor, something within it stirs. A "something" slowly turning into "someone". A being just barely aware of various indistinctsomethingsandsomewhats around it, not yet accustomed with things like colour, shape, texture and pitch, or even its very senses.


    As the rocky sand ends its fall, it can only wonder about one of thesomethings having unexplainably changed, but its wonder does not last for long, not out of a sudden stroke of understanding, but out of a creeping feeling of... of what?


    The creature feels like it isending, but ending is final, this isn''t, and it is notdisappearing as it is instinctively certain it would both remain during and come back from whatever it was that was happening.


    It soon found itself asleep. Dreamless, of course. Those only come with experiences.

 Ch.2: Taking Root

    I do not know for how long the currents have dragged me across the floor. And to be completely honest, I did not really know anything for the longest time. Somewhere between when I... became me? Started? Anyway, sometime between my beginnings and now, I must have come to a greater sense of things. I merely remember a fuzzy feeling of existence, just barely aware, I could not even remotely have gauged any measure of time.


    clink


    Ow. The currents must have bumped me against a rock. A rock that was gray, and felt smooth. I could hear the sound my body made against it.


    Where did these words come from, those things to describe other things? Were they just there one moment or did I get them from somewhere?


    I am alone.


    How do I know that I am alone?


    Being alone implies that there is an alternative, something other than being alone. Being with others. But I never met any others like me, so how would I know that there even was anything that made being alone special?


    I know this rock just now wasn''t someone. It just was. It didn''t talk. It didn''t react. It was just an... object.


    But those things up there, those fishes, apparently, what are they? They are not like me, they have fins and gills and mouths. But do they think? They certainly react, they react to just about anything, always darting away from any disturbance, but are they like me? Could their "reactions" just be me wishing some random movements were a sign of life?


    What are you, fishes?! What makes you so different from corals, from rocks and me?! What are fishes?!


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse" border="1">


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    <td style="width: 50%">Would you like to purchase (Identify: Level 1)?</td>


    <td style="width: 50%">Cost: 1 DP</td>


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    ... who are you? Are you a someone? Please, please tell me you understand me.


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    <td style="width: 50%">Would you like to purchase (Identify: Level 1)?</td>


    <td style="width: 50%">Cost: 1 DP</td>


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    What are you still talking about, I just asked you something! What are you, you can clearly talk, so out with it, who are you?!


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    <td style="width: 50%">Would you like to purchase (Identify: Level 1)?</td>


    <td style="width: 50%">Cost: 1 DP</td>


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    ... is there really anyone there? Hello?


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    <td style="width: 50%">Would you like to purchase (Identify: Level 1)?</td>


    <td style="width: 50%">Cost: 1 DP</td>


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    Seems like I am still alone. Still, thanks for the diversion, Not-someone. Do I even have whatever... DP are? Yes, I would like to purchase.


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    <td style="width: 50%">Cost: 1 DP</td>


    <td style="width: 50%">Your DP: 3</td>


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    <td style="width: 50%">Continue?</td>


    <td style="width: 50%"> </td>


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    This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    Convenient. Yes.


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    <td style="width: 97.6525%">Identify: Level 1 acquired!</td>


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    Thanks, Not-someone. Now, fishes, what are you?


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    <td style="width: 97.6525%">Please select a target.</td>


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    Oh. Right. Things have unspoken rules, apparently. Let me just add this to my pile of things I apparently do not know about.


    Why am I so upset? It''s not news to me that I do not know a lot, but I was never so... frustrated? about it. Was I too busy thinking or am I just now able to feel this way?


    Anyways, let''s leave that pile be. Identify... a target... what about the rock over there?


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    <td style="width: 50%; text-align: center">Basalt Rock</td>


    <td style="width: 50%; text-align: center">Inanimate Object</td>


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    <td style="width: 97.6525%; text-align: center">An outcrop of Basalt.</td>


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    And that coral?


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    <td style="width: 50%; text-align: center">Sunrise Coral</td>


    <td style="width: 50%; text-align: center">Inanimate Object</td>


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    <td style="width: 97.6525%; text-align: center">A reef coral with a reddish-orange hue. Hosts Sunrise Coral polyps.</td>


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    Well, not very illuminating, but a start. But the question is, what does it have to say about those fishes? That one. Dead ahead.


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    <td style="width: 50%; text-align: center">Clownfish</td>


    <td style="width: 50%; text-align: center">Minor Sea Creature, Common</td>


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    <td style="width: 50%; text-align: center">Rank: F+</td>


    <td style="width: 50%; text-align: center">Level: 3</td>


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    <td style="width: 97.6525%; text-align: center">A Clownfish. Commonly found in reefs.</td>


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    So it is a Creature, but it doesn''t say a lot more. Still, this means that I am not the only non-object around here.


    That said... Identify? Can I Identify myself?


    As it turns out, casting whatever Identify is on yourself places solidly among the less good ideas, if feeling like having your outsides turned into your insides is any indication.


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    <td style="width: 50%; text-align: center">---</td>


    <td style="width: 50%; text-align: center">Miniscule ???, ???</td>


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    <td style="width: 50%; text-align: center">Rank: F</td>


    <td style="width: 50%; text-align: center">Level: 2</td>


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    <td style="width: 97.6525%; text-align: center">What am I?</td>


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    With whatever F-Rank and Miniscule mean, that Clownfish now looks a lot more imposing.


    But if the fish readout is anything to go by, then wherever I am right now is absolutely teeming with life! So many things moving about, snaking, stalking, whizzing and floating!


    Even if only a few of them are alive, then I am still surrounded by life. Maybe not by others, but at least by not-objects.


    But maybe it is not meant to be. I can feel the current picking up again. Soon, I will just be some speck clinking against rocks again. And I may never see anything like this again. For all I know, all that is out there could just as well be a lifeless desert.


    I want to stay here. I have to stay here.


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    <td style="width: 97.6525%">Would you like to set your Anchor Point here?</td>


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    If this is any reaction to what I just said, then yes. Yes yes yes.


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    <td style="width: 97.6525%">Anchor Point set. Water Affinity acquired.</td>


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    Feeling yourself suddenly standing strong against the water really reminds you that you are not really like the others. Others, those are the things with mouths and fins and eyes, with flesh and bones.


    I, I will always be different. I will always be some odd crystal, the colour teal just springs to mind, bound to a rock in the sea. But I swear, however weird my existence becomes, I will find someone or even something to bridge that gap. To understand me.