Lucid Dream (Finish The Story Entry)
Opening by @f3nix
There it was. An immense sphere, soaked in the amniotic liquid of the lucid dream. An embryo of edges, curves, dimensions, and impossible geometries. Static and fluid at the same time, iridescent, elusive and hypnotic in its eternal becoming.
There it was. After the struggle and the debris. There it was. Yoh's conscience.
Strung like pearls, millennia had relegated it to a mere legend, while Yoh raged freely on Earth. The existence of the conscience on a deep and subtle plane had been denied by the Master Demiurges, who originally created the source code. Their self-fulfilling prophecy had become inexorable, relegating Yoh's conscience first to the status of children's fable and then to nothingness. It had slept for a long, long time.
There, on board of the DDG-31/DD-936 Decatur, drifting in the outer space, Ethan had plenty of time for being instructed by the orbital station's A.I. about the possible effects on him of Yoh's conscience sudden epiphany.
It was not a God but it got close. This implied that the disintegration of the self, on all the planes of existence, was a more than spontaneous and probable event, as someone reached its proximity.
A sound of laborious ants interrupted Ethan’s astonished musings. The meta-viewer force fields were working around him incessantly, raising the programmed shields.
The mere sight of its unstable geometries would have been fatal for him. The neural system of his exoskeleton was crackling and working hard, at the edge of its computing power, to prevent the involuntary assimilation. Now he found himself immersed in a bath of waves that could have slipped him into oblivion instantly if he had not activated all the exoskeleton’s guard levels.
He felt like an infinitesimal dipteran, imprisoned in a dense amber atmosphere.
The Conscience's voices suddenly whipped Ethan's synapses like a thousand organ pipes in unison. He fell to his knees, eyes wide open and incredulous: no A.I. could ever have prepared him for this.
"I am. I happen. By dreaming, I have sung the creation of infinite worlds. Are you a Master?"
Ethan recorded the strange question, slowly taking courage. Standing up on his trembling legs, he pulled off his helmet and shouted:
"Conscience of Yoh, I am not a Master. I am the last of your creations, forgotten in your long sleep".
A deafening, golden silence.
As the most intimate essence of each cell began to evaporate through his cybernetic shell, Ethan frantically sought one last thought.
My Ending
Save us.
The thought pulsed through his every fibre.
The being of endlessness, of chasm and death, creation and light, surveyed the creature before it.
It was barely recognisable as human, concealed behind shimmering force fields, it’s inadequate eyes unable to see unaided.
It’s wasted astral body failed to support itself, strapped into bars of base elements, yet still, this speck, this echo of what was once made, dragged itself on.
Yoh reached out, trying to engulf the pitiful being, to return it to the whole from whence new life would emerge.
It resisted, that speck of matter.
“You come to me now, a request cracking on your dried lips, yet you still repel me, as your kind always had.”
Ethan felt the meta-viewer force field shudder against the force of Yoh’s probing, the very essence of him being pulled away by it. Trying to suppress a sudden swell of panic, Ethan resisted.
“The same thread runs through us all, yet now, you deny this. There is no line between creator, created, for each begot the other, yet there, with your designs, you have drawn one.”
The exoskeleton began to tightened, crushing Ethan’s limp astral limbs. The hours of training could never have been enough to withstand the power that enveloped him. It spilt over, compressing his physical body, still slumbering on the Decater; tearing apart his very atoms.
Ethan sensed the invasive tendrils in his mind, knowing him.
“You feel betrayed, the last of my creations, and you came to me. Alas, too late. Your Demiurges misled you, and bidden, the slaughter came.”
Metal closed in, crunching as he felt the strain against his bones. The meta-viewer was beginning to falter in the assault. Looking around, smouldering remains scattered the razed, dead earth of his despair.
“You are the last, and once consumed, you shall also be the first. Let go Ethan, there is nothing left for you now.”
He knew the great being was right, there was nothing left on the Decatur without this. Yet sudden fury shot through Ethan, and grabbing hold of it, he pushed back.
“No!”
Ethan yelled, tears slipped down his cheeks, each drop sizzling away under the intense pressure.
“You don’t get to do this, you may have made mankind, but you don’t have the right to unmake us.”
The sphere that was not spherical, that rippled of liquid, yet held as solid, resonated.
“I didn’t. I dreamt, you undid. You became all you desired, and it led you here.”
Ethan was struggling, his breath fading with each attempted gasp.
“This isn’t the end Ethan, but the beginning. Your shepherds misled you, they told you not of my nature.”
The colour was gone from Ethan’s vision, attempting to grasp the meaning as his mind began to fade from the moment.
“That will not happen again, you shall be reborn; a Demiurge.”
As the last part of his intimate essence slipped from his cells, Ethan felt a resurgence, power throbbing through him. The atoms that bound him, broke free from their form, and as that last part of him came away, his essence reformed - unfettered.
Ethan found himself, freed of his cybernetics, loosened of his exoskeleton, grass beginning to nudge through the astral plane beneath his bared feet.
“Make not the mistakes of your forebears.”
Yoh began to ebb before him, slipped away, evaporating with the fathoms of another realm.
The fly trapped in amber, awoke.
Drugs? Who needs drugs! Just a bit of the auld bananafish storytelling! This was a bit of a hydra to wrestle with, many heads, tugging many different directions, I couldn't tempt them all to follow me, and didn't manage to link up everything in the first half. I did get a bit more of it in there but ended up cutting it out for the sake of clarity and word count (around 560 but have messed a little since). I'm not sure how happy with it I am, hopefully what is going on does come across. I feel like the lucid dream layer over reality makes it so confusing but hopefully it makes sense.
This is my entry to #finishthestory hosted over on the @bananafish page - drop them a follow as these come out every week, and there's more over there. This week we have an opening by @f3nix the man who whispers with fruitfish. Three facts you may not know about @f3nix - he can naturally produce LSD, he had a higher absorption of potassium than any human recorded, and his blood contains omega-3!! Pick up the torch, head over to the contest post and give writing an end to this mind bender a go!
Photo Credit by a Pixabay User who has sadly let their account become inactive, although they still have a lot of these incredible fractal designs in the public domain.
Bwahah! The man who whispers with fruitfish should pass to history, or at least be written on a t-shirt with the Bananafish logo..
Calluna, our queen of the seas where bananafish schools swim joyful against the sunset. You panicked a bit on the judgment criteria, didn't you? But honestly all I see here is a wonderful story, with a clever dialogue and some philosophical gems like:
The final sentence is powerful.
The dialectic resistence of Ethan till the end is human and poignant.
In general, you came out from a prompt dense with metaphisic implications in a very elegant way. You created a pleasant story with original dialogues and a message of renewal. With my compliments, magistra Calluna.
Another story of becoming, a story of doubt, a story of shepherds and false prophets. Woe is the Demiurges, for they created their own killing agent. Yet I must call folly that the Demiurges care not or entirely sick to not investigate the matter. But methinks their stupidity had been innate enough that they think restricting Yoh to a complex room would stop Yoh. Especially when they hath seen the creations of Yoh.
And so the insincere question, hath they been so lulled by the transpiring passivity of Yoh to not question a second that Yoh could create their undoin? Forgive me not for tooting the same horn, but I congratulate Yoh for taking advantage of this situation and doing the one thing the other Demiurges couldn’t/wouldn’t do: create another of themself. And so begins the mighty struggle of Yoh to be free from the restraints of the clique of Demiurges.
Dost thou see it, a spectre is haunting the Universe. That spectre is the consciousness of Yoh rightfully waging a religious war to struggle against the Pantheon of Demiurges to instill down a monotheistic order. And the holy alliance of Demiurges had long plotted on how to maintain their power but never plotted one of their enemies being a part of their rank and file. And yet, the ferver for the Absolute to incoporate and transform everything had only begun. Yoh now sings one tune: the tune that’ll grant Yoh absolution and mastery over a divided realm.
The Dialectic of this Theological being had taken its baby steps to a world of false shepherds. Faith had been rudely displaced and people trying to walk the path towards understanding Faith had been killed. First denied their true Creator of which they belong to the Creator as the Creator to the Created. Then fead the lies that Yoh is only an incubating pod that took stress off the Demiurges. And finally told that Yoh wasn’t a god-like entity. Now all was to change, for Hell hath no horizon. The time was ripe, let the barriers fall and the March of History re-constitute her beautiful stride. The age of Polytheism is not, the age of Monotheism is now! Glory upon Yoh!
I don't always follow your discussion line for line, but it's always intriguing getting caught up in one of your dialogues. Invariably thoughtful and generous.
(Oh this one actually was made for the lols, to create a plausible character that could've lived in that setting. I mean of course there's more to it than that, but still I wanted it to be primarily a character then secondarily a means to reflect some of the themes back.)
I dig it, and I disagree with your insistence that your ending was "obvious." I think there are some "obvious" directions we've all taken this in, but there's definitely some unique flair behind each entry!
In fact... I agree with you. I felt a bit offended by the obvious thing... :-P
I love it, following.
Great story. You've once again written something original for a Finish the Story ending in relation to other entries.
It makes me think of a Superhero's epic battle with their sworn enemy. Good wins over evil.
It's interesting, as I read these successive 'endings': the sense of reality and consciousness offered by @f3nix deepens. Each ending gives me greater understanding of the premise in the story. This is first time I have felt that way with Finish the story.
You are always modest in assessing your insightful contribution. But what is the point of writing except to enhance understanding? You have done that for me here.
I'm not sure I understood everything. But as your version reveals itself to me, it is a myth of creation and the eternal struggle to let go of the transience and despair that the living consciousnesses have with it. That this fight seems lost in the end and a divine creature - like death - does not want to let anything escape. In the end it is so. One could be indifferent to this and still love life. The beginning of the story of @f3nix has given the direction, I think, because what you once initiated seems to have already progressed a long way.
Very well told!
I love tales like these where death and birth become one. I also adored how you made Ethan really feel his insignificance, and then gave him back his "power" in the form of an awakening... Trapped as we all, but still woke.
I'm with @bananafish : this line hit me hard between the eyes!
"There is no line between creator, created, for each begot the other, yet there, with your designs, you have drawn one."
Thanks for an amazing piece : )
Things didn't turn out to bad for Ethan. He get to touch grass with his feet again. Anyone has got to love that unless your allergic to the grass. 8-)
Hello @calluna, thank you for sharing this creative work! We just stopped by to say that you've been upvoted by the @creativecrypto magazine. The Creative Crypto is all about art on the blockchain and learning from creatives like you. Looking forward to crossing paths again soon. Steem on!