In the beginning, there was less of nothing and more of a lack of something. A something which would make life. . . life. There was nothing particularly new, exciting, or fun at all. All which existed was Them, and even They didn’t know who, or what they were. All They knew is that their existence revolved around nothing, and nothing was boring.
As they floated around in the big nothingness of what They’d begun to call ‘space’ (for it was nothing but a bunch of empty space for Them to move in at this point) they couldn’t help but feel conscious of how long they’d been doing literally nothing. Rippling what could be considered their limbs, they rotated them self, staring once again into the big black of space. Just about then They pondered exactly how long they’d been doing nothing. As they searched their memory, they began to realize that, they couldn’t exactly tell how long it had been, for there was no way to tell. There was no way to tell what perhaps what They would now call time.
They resolved to fix this issue, create a way of telling how long they’d been doing something. It would be new, exciting, fun! Excited, They began to think of ways they could track this time thing. A tingle went through their expansive form. The light which made up Them dimmed, then abruptly flashed. Suddenly, a shrill, panicked sound broke through their thoughts.
Startled, They frantically shifted their being so that they might move away from this sound. Glancing around for the source, their gaze landed on a thing. It was small, pink, loud, and sort of ugly. They were bewildered. There had been nothing for so long now, surely they wouldn’t have missed this other being?
The sound was quieting, and fast. They wrapped a limb around the small squishy thing. It was cooling fast, and amazingly, changing colors! The pink dulled, becoming an even uglier grey. Suddenly, the sound stopped. They cocked their head to the side, unsure of what was happening.
After a few moments, They began to panic.
NO. It had been so quiet up until now, surely it couldn’t go back to being the same boring quiet as it had been?! Cradling the thing in their arms, they frantically shook it, trying to get it to startle, to cry, to anything. The only thing they achieved was the discovery that the small thing had gone stiff. Dejected, sad, and so much more alone then they had been before, They let the new thing float along, silent, still, cold, lacking anything exciting that it may have held just moments before.
‘Death’ They thought, ‘I will call this new experience death. The sorrow of loss... .the dread of being alone, and the abrupt end of excitement. I wish this thing had not died. I do not wish for this thing to die, ever.’ Their form dimmed, quivered, and yet again brightened.
Suddenly, as fast as it had begun, and as fast as it had ended, the sound began yet again. Frantically, they once again cradled it. This time, the sound carried on longer than the last. But just as before, the thing dulled, and died. ‘Think, think,’ They thought, ‘why is it dying?’
They felt the thing, studied it. They observed the proceeding cycle of wailing and silence. They noticed that the thing felt different before it would die. It felt warm, then suddenly, it would go cold. The thing would hiccup as if to draw something in, but fail to draw anything in.
‘Warm. It needs to be warm. I need warmth for my thing,’ They thought. ‘How do I even get warmth?’ And suddenly, behold, there was light. Startled, They flinched away from the big ball of something until they realized that it radiated warmth. Suddenly, they began to understand. ‘I didn’t want my thing to die, and it stopped being dead. I wanted warmth for my thing, and suddenly the light appeared. Perhaps whatever I wish for will appear? Perhaps this thing can tell time for me?’
The thing began to wail again. Suddenly, They moved closer to the big warm thing. They didn’t notice exactly how warm it was until the thing in their limbs began to turn an ugly red color. The wailing stopped once more, the thing had heated up a considerate amount before dying this time. ‘Perhaps it’s too warm? Too close?’ They thought, confused, as they began drifting farther away.
Back and forth, noisy, and silent, They repeated this process over and over until the thing no longer changed colors. The thing still wasn’t making noise all the time. They wanted it to though. Thinking back on their observations, They resolved to fix the hiccuping first.
It took at least a hundred more deaths, and a second ball of light to fix the hiccuping. They’d tried filling the little thing -‘No, child. My child.’ - with everything They had already created. It had gotten messy when They’d filled the child too much. It took a thousand more to discover that the child needed more than just air to survive.
As a result of the child’s needs, They resolved to create a place in which They could have all that the child needed to keep wailing. As they wished for more and more things, the space the two of them resided in filled more and more. The first few big balls of boiling soil and metal hadn’t worked out well. A few drew in too many gasses from the big light balls, suffocating the child in Their care. A few, after cooling, had too much liquid on them, acting just like space had on the child.
Finally, after many different big balls of soil and many big balls of brightness (for They had learned the hard way that too many around one ball didn’t end out well) they’d done it. Not too much, not too little, not too close to the warmth, or too far away. It was perfect. They’d created an outside layer of gasses and ozone to keep the air in and filter out the extreme heat and light that the Big Shiny Thing gave off. The next they wished for, after frowning at the roughness on their feet, was something soft to walk on, and shade to stay under. Expectantly, They waited.
Nothing happened. Confused, They tried again. Nothing. They frowned. Concentrating hard, they imagined the softness beneath them, the give, the squish, the tickle it would give the child to make it laugh one day. They imagined that it would be efficient, creating more of the air which gave Their child life, and keeping the soil beneath it in place, while drawing its energy from the soil and the Bright Thing. Suddenly, the ground was covered in lush purple soft. They grinned, proud of them self. They set the child down and began to explore.
It wasn’t much. Solid stone rose up nearby to create a black mountain range, snow covering its peaks. Water ran down into the valley They had set down the child to create a large lake. The sphere of earth contained lava-spewing volcanoes to keep it just as warm from below as The Big Bright did from above. The only color besides the brown, black, white and red was the deep purple from the soft stuff They’d made. As with everything they’d made, They would have to name it so that they could keep track of what to wish for in case They’d messed it up in some way. There was starting to be an overwhelming amount of things now in their formally empty space.
They wished they could have a way to keep track of everything they made. Perhaps a system or something? They weren’t completely sure. As their surroundings darkened, They realized just how long it had been since they’d set the child down. Worried, they rushed back.
When they arrived, they froze. When they’d set the child down they were sure there was only one.
Now there were two.
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