SHOUM’S PLACE, JARGO TOWER, JARGOLAMIS

JANUAE

After spending the previous day explaining to her my condition in more detail, the woman-child Reverent Shoum has agreed to work with me to help me figure out how to control this jaunting. Though as an outseer and dimension walker her focus is more on seeing into and traversing into other dimensions, she believes she may be able to lend those abilities to finding a remedy for my situation.

She steps over to a corner of her living space where two oval shaped disks are suspended half a meter off the ground, not by any supports or wires, they appear to be levitating. Each disk is roughly a meter tall, two shoulder widths apart from each other, and the sides facing each other appear to be emitting some type of glow that distorts the space between.

SHOUM

So this is the device I use to dimension walk when I need to. I have a theory that I might be able to attune this thing to send someone to a different location, rather than a different dimension. I mean, when you think about it, each specific point in space-time is actually it’s own dimension, right? So with that idea it would be just a matter of figuring out how to focus it to those coordinates, essentially to those microdimensional points.

JANUAE

I suppose it sounds like a viable theory.

SHOUM

Of course it does. It may not seem like it to look at me, but I’ve been doing this a long time. Okaaaay… there. Now let’s have you go on a test run. Come over here. I need you to put this on.

JANUAE

What is that?

SHOUM

It’s a vest.

JANUAE

Yes, I’m aware it’s a vest. What does it do?

SHOUM

Sheesh, Januae… you have no sense of humor, you know that? So this is what attunes you to this dimension. See these glowing bands? These are charged with the resonance of this particular dimension so you can return here from whatever dimension you happen to be visiting. Just fix our current location in your mind and it will bring you back here. Now hold your arms out. Good. Okay, now kneel down so I can adjust the straps…

JANUAE

Ow! Easy…

SHOUM

Oh come on, Januae, quit being a child. I may look like a child, but you’re behaving like one.

JANUAE

That’s a tender spot. It’s where I had been stabbed-

SHOUM

You probably got stabbed for being such a baby. Just soldier up and let me tighten this. Alright. You should be set.

(mockingly)

Or is it too tight for you?

JANUAE

(unconvincingly)

No, it’s fine.

SHOUM

Alright. Now step onto the dais between the plates. I’ll send you off to another dimension, then come back when you’re ready. Go ahead already. Step in between the plates.

JANUAE

Wait… how long does the charge on this vest last?

SHOUM

It holds the charge indefinitely until you come back. Bringing you back to this dimension expends the charge.

JANUAE

Then what?

SHOUM

I adjust the resonance of the plates then we try it again until we get it to do what we want it to do.

JANUAE

How long do you suppose that might take?

SHOUM

Geez Januae, you’re an Aeon Priest. You know how research works. I don’t know… it takes as long as it takes. The vest takes nearly a full day to recharge so we’ll only be able to do this once a day. Now quit stalling and let’s get you to Tontrix.

JANUAE

Tontrix?

SHOUM

That’s where you’re going. Ready?

JANUAE

Actually I’d like to know about-

SHOUM

Good. Safe travels.

Narration

JANUAE

Reverent Shoum directs me to step on a plunger in front of the plates between which I stand. In moments, a tingling sensation sweeps over me. Soon it escalates into the sensation of having every millimeter of the surface of my skin penetrated by tiny needles that feel as if they are steadily growing thicker and going deeper into my flesh. A powerful wave of nausea overtakes me as I swear every single particle of my body is being separated from one another. I feel like screaming but there is no throat from which to yell. I am certain I am about to dissolve into nothingness when all the sensations I’m experiencing begin to reverse. This is in no way similar to the experience of jaunting.

As my body seems to reassemble and the intense prickling vibration abates, I find myself standing outside the Jargo Tower. It appears I’ve done nothing but teleport out of Shoum’s abode and into the city. Such a highly unpleasant experience just to step outside. I immediately expel the contents of my stomach.

I decide to make my way back into the tower so I can save the vest’s charge, when I take pause. As I gaze up at the tower, I see not the sculpture of the terror bird that sits atop Jargo Tower, but the slicer beetle that Luigo Tower displays. I am across the valley, in Luigolamis.

What truly stops me in my tracks is what I see around me. I am amidst the bustle of a metropolis, such as one would experience in its twin city, Jargolamis, but everyone is moving in reverse. I look to a fountain in a plaza and the water falls upward and inward into the center of the fount. Birds can be seen lifting off the low rooftops backwards, flying through the air tail first. My head begins to spin and I once again heave up what little has remained in my stomach.

I take a few breaths to try to ground myself, keeping my eyes closed, and bring to mind Reverent Shoum’s place, the unwashed dishes strewn about the surface tops, the gadgets in disarray around her work area, the large plates I had regretfully chosen to stand between. The harsh tingling sensation returns, but the sense of my body dissipating does not. I keep my eyes tightly shut the entire time.

SHOUM

Geez, I could have taken a pee break that lasted longer. That was a waste of a charge. Come here so we can get you out of that thing.

JANUAE

That was… highly unpleasant.

SHOUM

Please. I do it all the time. I figured with all that jaunting you do you’re probably used to that. Then again, not everyone handles dimension walking as well as others. So tell me what you saw.

JANUAE

Give me a moment. I need to sit down. Water, please…

SHOUM pours him some water and he drinks it feverishly.

JANUAE

Thank you. It was- I felt like every particle of my body was being pulled apart. Then everything was in reverse. In Jargolamis. It was dizzying.

SHOUM

(chuckles)

Ah. Yes. That’s a dimension where everything runs in reverse. That’s the last place I went. I go there sometimes hoping to find a way to jump start my aging process. It sure would be nice to be able to wear one of those Gallum-Leakry style dresses someday. It’s not the same on a little girl’s body though, know what I mean?

JANUAE

(absently, numbly)

Uh huh.

SHOUM

Well, let’s try this again tomorrow. The vest is spent. Go sleep off the effects and come back tomorrow when you get your wits about you.

JANUAE

I don’t know if I can go through that again…

SHOUM

Januae, are you serious? Get a grip. If you want to figure out how to control your jaunting, you’re just going to have to gird your loins and gut through it. Get some rest, come back tomorrow. You’ll get used to it, trust me.

JANUAE

I don’t suppose-

SHOUM

No, you can’t stay here. Sorry. Off you go.

THE NEXT DAY

JANUAE

With no shins to spend, I found a small alcove between a couple of buildings in which to sleep. My belly growled as I tried to get comfortable, now devoid of the one meal I had had with Reverent Shoum. Exhaustion from my dimension walking invariably overrode my hunger pangs and I passed out for several hours.

I wake several hours after sunrise and commence to searching for food. I simply cannot lower myself to begging for handouts from strangers, so I take to rifling through the refuse containers alongside various buildings. My taste buds had become quite accustomed to the dregs of what can be considered edible during my time of enslavement, so I am able to get some pretty questionable foods down. Searching for food turns out not to be a very quick endeavor, as I look up to the sky and see the sun is approaching ebb. Enough time has passed for that vest to have completely charged.

According to Reverent Shoum it will take a few more trips through the dimension walking device to get it calibrated to my personal signature. Once she is able to do that, she believes I will be able to teleport to any location I have previously visited by simply calling it to mind. For now it is calibrated to places she has visited. Or I should say, other dimensions she’s visited.

After donning the vest and having the straps cinched I stand between the plates, not without a sense of dread. Shoum steps on the plunger and I am once again met with the sensation of millions of needles sinking into me, though the feeling of my body being rent into countless separate particles is not as prevalent.

The limited dimension called Tontrix, where I was to originally be sent, is very surreal indeed. I stand on a spongy purple colored surface. The surface undulates into small hills and valleys. Within the valleys a liquid appears to periodically rise, then seep back into the ground, if you can call it that.

As I gaze around this strange place, a very large glob of the same liquid that I see rise and fall in these gaps plummets from above, from a wide open orange sky. There is nothing above from which it appears to have fallen, no ceiling, no clouds, no overhang.

The glob lands on the spongy purple ground, spreads out along the surface, then slowly seeps toward me. I look to move away but there are pits on all sides filled with similar liquids. The ooze moves around my feet and very gently wraps itself around them, then gradually ascends my legs. It is not unpleasant, I admit, if not a bit disconcerting. I don’t feel threatened at all. I remain still as it continues to glide over the rest of my body, though as it covers my face I begin to panic with the idea of being suffocated. It seems to sense this and parts away from my face, allowing me to breathe freely.

I simply remain in this relaxing state, with this liquid-based creature? continuing to glide over me. Then I see something that makes my blood turn instantly cold. It is as if the fabric of the space a short distance away is being torn open, ripped like a dull knife through a cloak. A jagged crest juts through the tear, followed by a serrated mandible. I recognize the specific curve of the horns as well… the shatarak! The realm crasher somehow detected my presence here!

The liquid creature gushes off my body with surprising speed and splashes down into one of the pits beside me. Once I am able to pull my logical mind out of the haze of terror, I squeeze my eyes shut as tightly as I can and begin verbally describing the Reverent’s place. I desperately call the mental picture into my struggling mind’s eye as best I can. Then the tingling begins and I plead for the gradual process to hasten more than its usual rate. Once the tingling subsides and I can sense the smells and sounds and temperature of the home of the Reverent, I collapse onto the floor of her work area. I lay and tremble as the middle age woman in the little girl’s body rushes over to me, quickly loosens the buckles and straps of the discharged vest, and wraps her small arms around me in an attempt to comfort me.