[APP] Ataraxion
Dec. 3rd, 2012 07:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
spacevixenP L A Y E R I N F O R M A T I O N
Your Name: Freya
OOC Journal:aesthetics
Under 18? If yes, what is your age?: N/A
Email + IM: freya[at]honey-vanity[dot]org & hassle free harmony
Characters Played at Ataraxion: N/A
C H A R A C T E R I N F O R M A T I O N
Name: Aranea Serket
Canon: Homestuck
Original or Alternate Universe: Original
Canon Point: Before the last installment of her exposition booth
Number: 008
Setting: Convenient Wiki Link!
History: We don't know much about Aranea's life prior to her entering her version of SGRUB in the A1 universe. She was a Cerulean blooded troll (moderately high caste) living on a planet called Beforus. In contrast to it's descendant planet, Beforus was relatively peaceful and not mentioned much other than that. What we do know is that she was not terribly popular amongst other trolls due to her tendency to ramble, but she was clearly tolerable enough to be considered a valid player for their session. Their session lasted the longest of any in canon, an equivalent of 6 and a half years. She retained her closest relationship with her friend Meenah (who is notably the troublemaker of the party) as the two both felt like outcasts of sorts, and it is mentioned that in her explorations of the different planets she was involved in a flushed fling with Porrim, one that she is hesitant to talk about.
Due to Lord English's presence, their session was eventually rendered a failed one. Due to their lack of success in the long and arduous journey, Aranea seeks out Echidna, the denizen of the land usually given to Space players. (It is unknown why Aranea, a Light player, is the one to do this.) With Echidna's advice and blessing, she receives the Quills needed to initiate the Scratch and reset their universe in order to create a healthy, successful session. However, after taking advice from the Horrorterrors, Meenah kills their entire group, successfully sending them off into the Dream Bubbles that her descendant from another universe helped create. (Wibbly-wobbly, timey-whimey stuff.) Because of this, they were not reset with their universe and instead continued to exist in an afterlife where they were able to watch the creation of a new world and universe if they wanted. Aranea, of course, was one of those that did.
Aranea spent billions of sweeps observing and exploring the dream bubbles, to the point that she states time no longer has any meaning to her. During that time, she saw the creation of Alternia and the more violent troll culture that grew there. Her alternate self (Marquise Spinneret Mindfang) ended up being quite a cool lady, one that Aranea admits, in a way, allowed her to live a dream she didn't feel she could realize in her own existence. Due to her diligent watching and knack for philosophical inquiry, Aranea gained a deep understanding of not only the new culture that developed from hers, but also the mechanics of the game that they failed. She expands her role as the Sylph of Light in this way. When she turns her attention towards her colleagues, she also does her best to gather useful information about/from them as well. Unfortunately, all that she learns from her former teammates revolves mostly around their various romantic and interpersonal complications.
She eventually makes her presence known to the other sessions; first by appearing in a black void that Jake ends up in after knocking himself out, and secondly to Terezi in one of her own dream bubble reminiscing. She is able to shed some light (pun intended) on Terezi's current state of emotional distress, as well as where the game could possibly lead her. She also admits to being a voyeur of Terezi's entire civilization and game session. Convenient, no?
Aranea is able to meet up with Jake a second time in his dream bubblefied house, consequently walking in on argument between Jake and his invisible dream!version of Dirk, shouting about boners. She is still cordial about the whole thing, however. She once again introduces herself and gives Jake a basic understanding of where he is and what is going on. She spends quite a while talking about her own role in the game as well as her inherent psychic abilities, which led her to being able to pick up on his flushed attraction towards her. After spending a bit more time talking about her own shortcomings as far as her group goes, she leads him out of his house and into a new dream bubble containing the beta session trolls and kids, as well as Meenah (who was causing trouble as always.) Snatching away Meenah's trident and threatening to sell it, she takes away Meenah's poking privileges. What are friends for?
Despite the fact that Aranea had already spent a seemingly endless expanse of time in the bubbles, Meenah had only just arrived. (Time-whimey again.) Trying to put them all on the same page, and mostly because Meenah's own tale of how she killed everyone was told in probably the least-stylistic manner as possible, Aranea quickly rushes over the ancestors (or the A1 session trolls' alternate selves) in a way that doesn't please her at all. Despite her annoyance with being cut short, Aranea gives enough detail laced with sarcasm about Meenah's alternate self, Her Imperious Condescension, to cause Meenah to go full-tilt fangirl mode. What she was not intending, however, was Jake to go ballistic with rage in a mistaken identity for the sea witch that takes over Earth in Dirk's time. In an attempt to save her friend from being beaten to a bloody pulp, which is only moderately successful, Aranea hits Jake on the head with a trident, consequently waking him up and out of the dream bubble. Moments later Dirk's dreamself enters the bubble and leaves with Roxy. Aranea uses her psychic abilities to wake his other self up, allowing the Dirk to bring the other players together to enter the Medium.
A short while later, Lord English began wrecking havoc on the dream bubbles, somewhat chaotically destroying them. Aranea comes up with a plan, contrary to Meenah's less systematic and forceful one, of finding the other half of Lord English's soul, Calliope, as the key to stopping the tyrant. Despite this claim, she spends the rest of her time at an exposition booth that she set up, reminiscent of a kissing booth with a wooden stand and desk. The twist, however, is that she rambles on and pays other people to listen to her. Meenah is pretty much the only one who indulges her, which mainly consists of Aranea explaining their colleagues to someone who already knows about them. She ends up loosing quite a bit of money on the stand.
Personality: Aranea is a troll from Beforus, a planet that preceded Alternia in a separate universe. She is one of the first twelve trolls to play the game SGRUB and subsequently destroy their universe and create a new one. Being of Cerulean blood, she is on the mid-high end of the caste system, though in her world, this doesn't bring the same challenges and obligations as it does to her genetic counterpart. Her appearance makes her seem almost exotic with the spider motif, and homey with her more modest attire. She is generally friendly and congenial to those she meets, even in the strangest of circumstances. This has not changed since she died, and in some ways, her death has allowed her to expand her knowledge of the universe and how things work. And she would be more than happy to tell you about it.
She is known for being overly wordy, having acquired the nickname "Windfang" from her closest friend, and it is both a skill and a fault that she is aware of. Though she has a penchant for elaborate storytelling (and noticeably despises awful storytelling with a passion) and unsolved mysteries, she admits that she has a tendency to turn conversations back around to herself. She is not necessarily self-centered, just eager to talk. If anything, Aranea is one of the more empathetic trolls, and not just because she is physically able to feel the emotions coming off other people. She cares about them, too, but that doesn't make her immune from her own quick judgements and somewhat snippy remarks at another's expense (though it's usually shared as a joke between friends).
Having spent the billions and billions of sweeps in the afterlife, she has spent a large portion of her time watching the new troll planet come to be. Because of this, Aranea is quite well-versed in Alternian culture and the history of her species, as well as her own genetic descendants and alternate self. This version, known as Mindfang, is an idealized version that she wished she could emulate in her own time. Mindfang was confident to the point of arrogance, and a rebel with a cause and a knack for causing trouble. She found that self-assuredness appealing as well as her adventurous heart. Aranea, on the other hand, had a hard time making friends, perhaps handicapped by her ability to tell when someone was not responding to her well, and was not nearly so outgoing. Instead she chose to watch and learn, and it has served her well enough. She becomes a self-appointed Martin Freeman and offers exposition to anyone who will listen. Unfortunately, no one really cares and she ends up having to pay people to listen to her. It's a wonderful spiral into debt.
As friendly and honest as she is, Aranea is prone to anger and can easily get frustrated by her overly troublesome colleagues. She is not opposed to violence, either, when it serves a purpose, but is more likely to talk someone back into their place first. Most of the time, however, she is polite and almost refined. Her efforts to take charge of situations have not typically ended in success, but she attempts them nonetheless. It is for the betterment of the whole, after all, and she is equally content being a passive component of a winning solution. At the end of the day, all she wants is a willing ear.
Abilities, Weaknesses and Power Limitations:
Her healing abilities could easily be lessened to being not as effective, and her mind control capabilities are already limited as they are. They could be tightened further, though for the most part we only see her waking people up and putting them to sleep, given the sorts of things Mindfang was able to do with the same abilities, it does have the potential to cause some trouble. I would not play her as having any sort of immortality in this game.
Inventory: She doesn't have any note-worthy items that need to arrive with her. What money she had was lost on her (poor) investment in her exposition booth. Maybe her glasses and her sufferer necklace? That would be nice.
Appearance: Aranea is a troll, first and foremost, which gives her skin a grey hue with two mismatched horns with a candy-corn pattern on her head. Her hair is short and black, curling just under her chin, and because she is dead, her eyes glow a blank white. While all her teeth are sharp, as is common with their species, she has two prominent fangs, something akin to a vampire, that tend to jut out from between her lips. She paints her lips and lines her eyes with the same color of blue that matches her blood and is always seen wearing white, cat-eyed glasses. Her face is oval-shaped, coming to a pointed chin. Aranea is shown to being on the curvier side of the alpha trolls, if at least by her sprite which highlights a noticeable bust and dip down towards her waistline. She appears to have somewhat drooping shoulders and a visible widow's peak. She likes to wear a long-sleeved, thigh-length dress that's ripped in a spider-webby pattern at the bottom. A black belt keeps this close to her person, with her symbol painted on the bust. White stockings that go to her knees and bright red shoes bring her a bit of a librarian feel, her sliver sufferer necklace is the last to her ensamble. When she is in her God Tier outfit, she wears a long bright orange gown with a darker orange hood. Two blue butterfly-esque wings sprout from her back as well.
Age: She was 9 Beforus Solar Sweeps when she died, which is the human equivalent of about 19 years-old. She has, however, been dead for billions and billions of years.
AU Clarification: N/A
S A M P L E S
Log Sample: There were a surprising amount of benefits to being dead, she had come to find out. She had the time, after all, and that in itself was definitely on the list. To some extent she wondered if this was some great secret that must be kept from the living in order to successfully continue the species, but the rational side of her well understood that they were the lucky ones; not many got to continue on in this manner. Dream bubbles were really quite spectacular creations. But that was another train of thought that would easily keep her mind occupied for a few hours of her often seemingly endless afterlife.
Aranea sat quietly between two different worlds, one slowly bleeding into the other. She found it almost macabre in its appeal as one reality tried to devour the other unsuccessfully, instead creating a disjointed bridge from one memory into another. There was a beauty in that too. She had tried on numerous occasions to capture it on paper but only felt wanting at the end. It was a work in progress.
Bending her legs, Aranea rested her elbows on her knees and her chin in the palms of her hands. A slight pout caused her bottom lip to protrude, but thankfully there was no one around to witness her obvious failure; her search had not been going as she wished. Of course she knew it was a long shot to begin with, something of an enticing mystery that she wanted to unravel simply for the sake of being the one to do it, but the urgency of the situation grew and grew with each moment. She could only stall with her Exposition Booth for so long. (She was reluctant to retire it even when she promised she would. It had been such a labor of love!)
Aranea sighed deeply. "Have I already wasted too much time?" she asked to no one in particular. Aranea was used to speaking when no one was listening, but really voicing her thoughts helped her sort them out. "I suppose that Meenah was really the only one who benefited from my last financial pitfall, and it unfortunately had nothing to do with what I had originally intended, but…" She chewed on her bottom lip. "Perhaps it was my own doubt that kept me reluctant to start from the first place?"
Meenah, of course, had went off on her own quest as soon as she made an appearance, which was no surprise to Aranea. How successful that would be was yet to be seen, but Aranea had originally thought her idea was near flawless. Search for the other half of the Cherub's soul in an attempt to stop him from obliterating everything that kept them as something that exists. Aranea did like existing.
It was only after embarking on her journey that she quickly realized there was little or no method to her wanderings. She needed to compile proper evidence first, follow clues like any good sleuth would, along with dramatically narrating her own actions. It amused her, at least. Unfortunately, her own attempts to confront her colleagues were as time-consuming and barren as her friend's had been; they were completely devoid of information, having spent most of their afterlife idling away.
"I guess I can't really fault them for that, as I have my own way of doing the same thing. Yet watching the unfolding of a new civilization doesn't really feel it is at the same level of significance as believing oneself is another species all together or insulting people in an incomprehensible gibberish…" It really just left her right back where she started. She sighed again. "Well, it's obvious that sitting around here moping won't get me any closer to completing the task that has been laid ahead of me. Motivation can be difficult to garner sometimes." But it was what she had to do until a clearer path was shown to her.
And yet, she sat motionless for another few moments. Planning what she should be doing was always much easier than executing it.
Comms Sample: The a8ility for reality to shift itself 8efore my own eyes never ceases to amaze me. The infinite poss8ilities are just that in every sense of the word; infinite, and just when I 8egan to 8elieve I had a comforta8le understanding of my surroundings I am, again, witnessing something that can only 8e descri8ed as truly remarka8le. Of course the lingering sense of confusion and a 8it of sea-sickness hasn't worn off yet, 8ut it doesn't stop the equally endless series of questions that come to mind.
I am sure that this is not the first ominous text post expressing honest 8efuddlement at ones predicament, and I am no special case. I do hope some of my own inquiries won't remain unanswered for long, though. The realization and acceptance of a shifted existence, while making it easier to psychologically remain sound in new and strange situations, really does not lead to a deeper understanding. The strains from one universe to the next will remain intact 8ut forever hidden.
Perhaps it is the will of the individual, or in this case a large collective, that causes time and space to mutate from possi8ility to actuality? The definition of what is "real" is 8eing challenged every day.
8ut I digress. I did do a 8it of tactical reconnaissance after finding my footing again. I admit that my success rate is rather em8arrassing at this point. Which 8rings me to my current situation........
I'm afraid I'm a 8it lost. There doesn't seem to 8e any sort of map or introductory course in the proper operations of this la8yrith of sorts. Normally I enjoy a good puzzle, 8ut my head is still spinning. I would appreciate at least a hint, as I'm fairly confident I've 8een walking in circles, or at least ela8orate squiggles that keep leading me to the same 8eginning spot.
Your Name: Freya
OOC Journal:
aestheticsUnder 18? If yes, what is your age?: N/A
Email + IM: freya[at]honey-vanity[dot]org & hassle free harmony
Characters Played at Ataraxion: N/A
C H A R A C T E R I N F O R M A T I O N
Name: Aranea Serket
Canon: Homestuck
Original or Alternate Universe: Original
Canon Point: Before the last installment of her exposition booth
Number: 008
Setting: Convenient Wiki Link!
History: We don't know much about Aranea's life prior to her entering her version of SGRUB in the A1 universe. She was a Cerulean blooded troll (moderately high caste) living on a planet called Beforus. In contrast to it's descendant planet, Beforus was relatively peaceful and not mentioned much other than that. What we do know is that she was not terribly popular amongst other trolls due to her tendency to ramble, but she was clearly tolerable enough to be considered a valid player for their session. Their session lasted the longest of any in canon, an equivalent of 6 and a half years. She retained her closest relationship with her friend Meenah (who is notably the troublemaker of the party) as the two both felt like outcasts of sorts, and it is mentioned that in her explorations of the different planets she was involved in a flushed fling with Porrim, one that she is hesitant to talk about.
Due to Lord English's presence, their session was eventually rendered a failed one. Due to their lack of success in the long and arduous journey, Aranea seeks out Echidna, the denizen of the land usually given to Space players. (It is unknown why Aranea, a Light player, is the one to do this.) With Echidna's advice and blessing, she receives the Quills needed to initiate the Scratch and reset their universe in order to create a healthy, successful session. However, after taking advice from the Horrorterrors, Meenah kills their entire group, successfully sending them off into the Dream Bubbles that her descendant from another universe helped create. (Wibbly-wobbly, timey-whimey stuff.) Because of this, they were not reset with their universe and instead continued to exist in an afterlife where they were able to watch the creation of a new world and universe if they wanted. Aranea, of course, was one of those that did.
Aranea spent billions of sweeps observing and exploring the dream bubbles, to the point that she states time no longer has any meaning to her. During that time, she saw the creation of Alternia and the more violent troll culture that grew there. Her alternate self (Marquise Spinneret Mindfang) ended up being quite a cool lady, one that Aranea admits, in a way, allowed her to live a dream she didn't feel she could realize in her own existence. Due to her diligent watching and knack for philosophical inquiry, Aranea gained a deep understanding of not only the new culture that developed from hers, but also the mechanics of the game that they failed. She expands her role as the Sylph of Light in this way. When she turns her attention towards her colleagues, she also does her best to gather useful information about/from them as well. Unfortunately, all that she learns from her former teammates revolves mostly around their various romantic and interpersonal complications.
She eventually makes her presence known to the other sessions; first by appearing in a black void that Jake ends up in after knocking himself out, and secondly to Terezi in one of her own dream bubble reminiscing. She is able to shed some light (pun intended) on Terezi's current state of emotional distress, as well as where the game could possibly lead her. She also admits to being a voyeur of Terezi's entire civilization and game session. Convenient, no?
Aranea is able to meet up with Jake a second time in his dream bubblefied house, consequently walking in on argument between Jake and his invisible dream!version of Dirk, shouting about boners. She is still cordial about the whole thing, however. She once again introduces herself and gives Jake a basic understanding of where he is and what is going on. She spends quite a while talking about her own role in the game as well as her inherent psychic abilities, which led her to being able to pick up on his flushed attraction towards her. After spending a bit more time talking about her own shortcomings as far as her group goes, she leads him out of his house and into a new dream bubble containing the beta session trolls and kids, as well as Meenah (who was causing trouble as always.) Snatching away Meenah's trident and threatening to sell it, she takes away Meenah's poking privileges. What are friends for?
Despite the fact that Aranea had already spent a seemingly endless expanse of time in the bubbles, Meenah had only just arrived. (Time-whimey again.) Trying to put them all on the same page, and mostly because Meenah's own tale of how she killed everyone was told in probably the least-stylistic manner as possible, Aranea quickly rushes over the ancestors (or the A1 session trolls' alternate selves) in a way that doesn't please her at all. Despite her annoyance with being cut short, Aranea gives enough detail laced with sarcasm about Meenah's alternate self, Her Imperious Condescension, to cause Meenah to go full-tilt fangirl mode. What she was not intending, however, was Jake to go ballistic with rage in a mistaken identity for the sea witch that takes over Earth in Dirk's time. In an attempt to save her friend from being beaten to a bloody pulp, which is only moderately successful, Aranea hits Jake on the head with a trident, consequently waking him up and out of the dream bubble. Moments later Dirk's dreamself enters the bubble and leaves with Roxy. Aranea uses her psychic abilities to wake his other self up, allowing the Dirk to bring the other players together to enter the Medium.
A short while later, Lord English began wrecking havoc on the dream bubbles, somewhat chaotically destroying them. Aranea comes up with a plan, contrary to Meenah's less systematic and forceful one, of finding the other half of Lord English's soul, Calliope, as the key to stopping the tyrant. Despite this claim, she spends the rest of her time at an exposition booth that she set up, reminiscent of a kissing booth with a wooden stand and desk. The twist, however, is that she rambles on and pays other people to listen to her. Meenah is pretty much the only one who indulges her, which mainly consists of Aranea explaining their colleagues to someone who already knows about them. She ends up loosing quite a bit of money on the stand.
Personality: Aranea is a troll from Beforus, a planet that preceded Alternia in a separate universe. She is one of the first twelve trolls to play the game SGRUB and subsequently destroy their universe and create a new one. Being of Cerulean blood, she is on the mid-high end of the caste system, though in her world, this doesn't bring the same challenges and obligations as it does to her genetic counterpart. Her appearance makes her seem almost exotic with the spider motif, and homey with her more modest attire. She is generally friendly and congenial to those she meets, even in the strangest of circumstances. This has not changed since she died, and in some ways, her death has allowed her to expand her knowledge of the universe and how things work. And she would be more than happy to tell you about it.
She is known for being overly wordy, having acquired the nickname "Windfang" from her closest friend, and it is both a skill and a fault that she is aware of. Though she has a penchant for elaborate storytelling (and noticeably despises awful storytelling with a passion) and unsolved mysteries, she admits that she has a tendency to turn conversations back around to herself. She is not necessarily self-centered, just eager to talk. If anything, Aranea is one of the more empathetic trolls, and not just because she is physically able to feel the emotions coming off other people. She cares about them, too, but that doesn't make her immune from her own quick judgements and somewhat snippy remarks at another's expense (though it's usually shared as a joke between friends).
Having spent the billions and billions of sweeps in the afterlife, she has spent a large portion of her time watching the new troll planet come to be. Because of this, Aranea is quite well-versed in Alternian culture and the history of her species, as well as her own genetic descendants and alternate self. This version, known as Mindfang, is an idealized version that she wished she could emulate in her own time. Mindfang was confident to the point of arrogance, and a rebel with a cause and a knack for causing trouble. She found that self-assuredness appealing as well as her adventurous heart. Aranea, on the other hand, had a hard time making friends, perhaps handicapped by her ability to tell when someone was not responding to her well, and was not nearly so outgoing. Instead she chose to watch and learn, and it has served her well enough. She becomes a self-appointed Martin Freeman and offers exposition to anyone who will listen. Unfortunately, no one really cares and she ends up having to pay people to listen to her. It's a wonderful spiral into debt.
As friendly and honest as she is, Aranea is prone to anger and can easily get frustrated by her overly troublesome colleagues. She is not opposed to violence, either, when it serves a purpose, but is more likely to talk someone back into their place first. Most of the time, however, she is polite and almost refined. Her efforts to take charge of situations have not typically ended in success, but she attempts them nonetheless. It is for the betterment of the whole, after all, and she is equally content being a passive component of a winning solution. At the end of the day, all she wants is a willing ear.
Abilities, Weaknesses and Power Limitations:
Mind Control
Like her descendant of another universe, Vriska, as well as her post-scratch version self, Mindfang, Aranea also has the ability to control the actions of others. Though hers in particular have not been shown as in depth as the other two, we have seen her being able to wake those up just as Vriska has put them to sleep. In the former two as well, when in control of someone else, the abilities of that controlled person are also at their disposal. Perhaps a latent subability is that of sensing emotions and a sort of mind-reading. Though it's not explicit, she is able to feel Jake's attraction to her, and before then when someone was finding her to be annoying or troublesome. Aranea herself stated that her abilities are weaker on other species. Other than that, it is never stated why another troll may be immune to these abilities, although some are.
Sylph of Light
Her ascension to God Tier gave Aranea full mastery of the powers as the Sylph of Light player in her session. According to her in her conversation with Terezi, she helps people see things, both physically and metaphorically. Consequently, she offered to heal Terezi's blindness, but was declined. An innate power that belongs to all God Tier players is that of immortality. Note that it is not invincibility: her death results in dying in a just or heroic way, but otherwise she would regenerate.
Her healing abilities could easily be lessened to being not as effective, and her mind control capabilities are already limited as they are. They could be tightened further, though for the most part we only see her waking people up and putting them to sleep, given the sorts of things Mindfang was able to do with the same abilities, it does have the potential to cause some trouble. I would not play her as having any sort of immortality in this game.
Inventory: She doesn't have any note-worthy items that need to arrive with her. What money she had was lost on her (poor) investment in her exposition booth. Maybe her glasses and her sufferer necklace? That would be nice.
Appearance: Aranea is a troll, first and foremost, which gives her skin a grey hue with two mismatched horns with a candy-corn pattern on her head. Her hair is short and black, curling just under her chin, and because she is dead, her eyes glow a blank white. While all her teeth are sharp, as is common with their species, she has two prominent fangs, something akin to a vampire, that tend to jut out from between her lips. She paints her lips and lines her eyes with the same color of blue that matches her blood and is always seen wearing white, cat-eyed glasses. Her face is oval-shaped, coming to a pointed chin. Aranea is shown to being on the curvier side of the alpha trolls, if at least by her sprite which highlights a noticeable bust and dip down towards her waistline. She appears to have somewhat drooping shoulders and a visible widow's peak. She likes to wear a long-sleeved, thigh-length dress that's ripped in a spider-webby pattern at the bottom. A black belt keeps this close to her person, with her symbol painted on the bust. White stockings that go to her knees and bright red shoes bring her a bit of a librarian feel, her sliver sufferer necklace is the last to her ensamble. When she is in her God Tier outfit, she wears a long bright orange gown with a darker orange hood. Two blue butterfly-esque wings sprout from her back as well.
Age: She was 9 Beforus Solar Sweeps when she died, which is the human equivalent of about 19 years-old. She has, however, been dead for billions and billions of years.
AU Clarification: N/A
S A M P L E S
Log Sample: There were a surprising amount of benefits to being dead, she had come to find out. She had the time, after all, and that in itself was definitely on the list. To some extent she wondered if this was some great secret that must be kept from the living in order to successfully continue the species, but the rational side of her well understood that they were the lucky ones; not many got to continue on in this manner. Dream bubbles were really quite spectacular creations. But that was another train of thought that would easily keep her mind occupied for a few hours of her often seemingly endless afterlife.
Aranea sat quietly between two different worlds, one slowly bleeding into the other. She found it almost macabre in its appeal as one reality tried to devour the other unsuccessfully, instead creating a disjointed bridge from one memory into another. There was a beauty in that too. She had tried on numerous occasions to capture it on paper but only felt wanting at the end. It was a work in progress.
Bending her legs, Aranea rested her elbows on her knees and her chin in the palms of her hands. A slight pout caused her bottom lip to protrude, but thankfully there was no one around to witness her obvious failure; her search had not been going as she wished. Of course she knew it was a long shot to begin with, something of an enticing mystery that she wanted to unravel simply for the sake of being the one to do it, but the urgency of the situation grew and grew with each moment. She could only stall with her Exposition Booth for so long. (She was reluctant to retire it even when she promised she would. It had been such a labor of love!)
Aranea sighed deeply. "Have I already wasted too much time?" she asked to no one in particular. Aranea was used to speaking when no one was listening, but really voicing her thoughts helped her sort them out. "I suppose that Meenah was really the only one who benefited from my last financial pitfall, and it unfortunately had nothing to do with what I had originally intended, but…" She chewed on her bottom lip. "Perhaps it was my own doubt that kept me reluctant to start from the first place?"
Meenah, of course, had went off on her own quest as soon as she made an appearance, which was no surprise to Aranea. How successful that would be was yet to be seen, but Aranea had originally thought her idea was near flawless. Search for the other half of the Cherub's soul in an attempt to stop him from obliterating everything that kept them as something that exists. Aranea did like existing.
It was only after embarking on her journey that she quickly realized there was little or no method to her wanderings. She needed to compile proper evidence first, follow clues like any good sleuth would, along with dramatically narrating her own actions. It amused her, at least. Unfortunately, her own attempts to confront her colleagues were as time-consuming and barren as her friend's had been; they were completely devoid of information, having spent most of their afterlife idling away.
"I guess I can't really fault them for that, as I have my own way of doing the same thing. Yet watching the unfolding of a new civilization doesn't really feel it is at the same level of significance as believing oneself is another species all together or insulting people in an incomprehensible gibberish…" It really just left her right back where she started. She sighed again. "Well, it's obvious that sitting around here moping won't get me any closer to completing the task that has been laid ahead of me. Motivation can be difficult to garner sometimes." But it was what she had to do until a clearer path was shown to her.
And yet, she sat motionless for another few moments. Planning what she should be doing was always much easier than executing it.
Comms Sample: The a8ility for reality to shift itself 8efore my own eyes never ceases to amaze me. The infinite poss8ilities are just that in every sense of the word; infinite, and just when I 8egan to 8elieve I had a comforta8le understanding of my surroundings I am, again, witnessing something that can only 8e descri8ed as truly remarka8le. Of course the lingering sense of confusion and a 8it of sea-sickness hasn't worn off yet, 8ut it doesn't stop the equally endless series of questions that come to mind.
I am sure that this is not the first ominous text post expressing honest 8efuddlement at ones predicament, and I am no special case. I do hope some of my own inquiries won't remain unanswered for long, though. The realization and acceptance of a shifted existence, while making it easier to psychologically remain sound in new and strange situations, really does not lead to a deeper understanding. The strains from one universe to the next will remain intact 8ut forever hidden.
Perhaps it is the will of the individual, or in this case a large collective, that causes time and space to mutate from possi8ility to actuality? The definition of what is "real" is 8eing challenged every day.
8ut I digress. I did do a 8it of tactical reconnaissance after finding my footing again. I admit that my success rate is rather em8arrassing at this point. Which 8rings me to my current situation........
I'm afraid I'm a 8it lost. There doesn't seem to 8e any sort of map or introductory course in the proper operations of this la8yrith of sorts. Normally I enjoy a good puzzle, 8ut my head is still spinning. I would appreciate at least a hint, as I'm fairly confident I've 8een walking in circles, or at least ela8orate squiggles that keep leading me to the same 8eginning spot.