(text-colour:navy)[A scattered past, a distorted dream, come together in sickly harmony. Nothing makes sense, but maybe it shouldn't.
At least, that's what I convince myself for the Grand Scheme.
But the thoughts are insistent, persistent enough,
enough to make me consider
There's more to the world then this glittering glass
An urgent pull calling me hither.
What will I find when I reach the outside?
I decide now's the time, I reach forward from this prison of mine.]
[[//Enter the world.//]] or [[Return to the Commune->Starting Page + Warnings]]
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X=")[**(text-colour:#099268)[The God of Ink]**]
(text-colour:#2f9e44)[I found myself in an empty realm, void of all but space. Dwelling too deep, I'm falling fast, tumbling into the gravity well.
With quick thinking, I grab my only possession, the thing I'd call my ace.
It wasn't much, an ordinary pen, but for some reason I hold it dear,
for even without memories, I know well enough not to doubt instinct
at least, if not instinct, then at the moment, fear.
A penstroke later, the void opens. White spills from the center.
Black ichor spills in a landslide of inky bile
I seize my chance. I choose to] [[enter]].
[[Yet there is another, I see in the veil. A world of color. Do I dare to prevail?->Tales of Shimmering Kalaidoscopes]] (text-colour:cyan)[(text-style:"sway")[Welcome, dear traveler. It seems you have stepped inside a place that you... truly didn't want to end up in. This a world of memories and discord, violence and love, sacrifice and bravery outside the realm of reality.]]
(text-colour:cyan)[I am the Lorekeeper, collector and overseer of these memories.The costs of memories become dust in the wind with the passage of time. The memories of many coalescing into one depend on the actions of others. To delve into the worlds of others, one must be willing to walk in their shoes. I shall warn you however, there are troubling tales afoot. If you ever rattled, you may always return to the] (text-colour:yellow)[Commune],(text-colour:cyan)[ which are options given at the beginning of each memory.]
(text-colour:cyan)[Fret not, traveler. Your journey starts [[here->Tale of Wakening Snow]] Or, if you would rather, continue here on a different [[route->Tales of Shimmering Kalaidoscopes]].]
[(live: 10s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[(text-colour:navy)[You know, I was always wondered what compelled others to dwell into someone else's life. To be so curious into the inner machinations of someone's daily commute or emotional state. What drives you, reader? What drives to these depths? Surely, you came for a reason?
I think... I'll offer you another option. If you want, you can travel ][[here->Tale of the Unknown Traveler]]](stop:)]
(text-colour:cyan)[Do not be afraid, dear traveler. Go forward without despair. ]](align:"=><=")+(box:"X=")["Watercolor"
]
(text-colour:#a61e4d)[My grief, washed away]
(text-colour:#5f3dc4)[In an acrylic solution]
(text-colour:#0b7285)[Of pain]
(text-colour:#2b8a3e)[Forever stained upon the pure pastel emotions]
(text-colour:#e67700)[Which no brush could ever touch]
(text-colour:#f08c00)[Lest they suffer the same ]
(text-colour:#d9480f)[As I]
[[Delirious, I trudge on to paint a mark on the world.]]
[[I stay behind with my will behind me.]]
[[Return to the Commune->Starting Page + Warnings]]
(align:"=><=")+(box:"XXX=======")[''(text-colour:orange)[Setting Foot']']
(text-colour:orange)[You've never seen what Hell actually looked like. But when you ever died, you were sure this was what it would be.
The path through the buried road is harsh and arid, acrid with the smell of ozone and rust among the ruins. Bugs scattered and crawled over the remains of what was once a thriving land. You knew no home, but then again, what *was* home anyway?
It didn't matter to you in the long run. Home was abstract, intangible. In this cryptic world, home had long become a foreign construct. For now, your biggest obstacle was finding a place you could call shelter and weather out the blaze. You witness a cave in the distance. You sighed, but beggers couldn't be choosers. Wouldn't be the first time you slept on a stone floor.]
[[Enter the Cave]]
[[Return to the Commune->Starting Page + Warnings]]
(text-colour:grey)[The Cave is nothing of worth as you enter. The hard slate of rock beneath your feet was a welcome relief from the terrible heat of the gravel outside, but that wasn't saying much when every which way was a terrible path to walk. You disappear into the inky black, huddling against the side.
Another day, you told yourself. Another day would set you free.
Sleep did not come easy for you. Instead, it was fleeting, distant, much like the memories you once held dear. Not like it mattered in the long run]. (text-colour:white)[(text-style:"italic","fade-in-out")[After all, what was one memory in a sea of many others, drifting in a canvas of time?]]
(text-colour:grey)[It was all the same for you. It didn't mean much in the long run. You were nothing in the grand scheme of the universe, a drop in the ocean of infinity.
You startle as a sound throttles you up into standing. There's someone in the cave with you... recognizeable, and at the same time not.] (text-colour:#fd7e14)["Who are you?" you ask.]
(text-colour:#fab005)["I should be asking the same of you," came the response. "What is this world?"]
(text-colour:#fd7e14)["Wish I could tell you... But I don't have the answer myself."]
(text-colour:#868e96)[It was a lie. We both knew it. Something brought us, a horrible truth that tied us together. But neither of us were willing to admit it.]
[(live:10s)[(t8n: "dissolve")[(text-colour:#868e96)[Could you really forget something when you were two sides of the] [[same coin?]]](stop:)]](align:"=><=")+(box:"X=")[(text-style:"blink")[(text-colour:yellow)[''Glint'']]]
(text-colour:purple)[A waking darkness
Opened my eyes
To something they
Could not comprehend
When light begins to shadow
The mind of someone
Seeking the truth
Is it called a lie?
In my dizzied stupor, I've looked up and saw long forgotten snow,
but its color was brown and gritty, not the snow that I know.]
[(live:5s)[(t8n: "dissolve")[I see a figure ahead, tossed about in rags, tattered and shorn.
They spot me spotting them, their gaze peering through my soul. Despite feeling forlorn, I decided to tread on.]
[["Who are you?"->Enter the Cave]](stop:)]]
(text-style:"buoy")[(text-colour:red)[(align:"=><=")+(box:"X=")[''Streak'']]]
(text-colour:red)[A canvas of blood right at my fingertips, drying into the crust of
the Earth around us. I've found a place to leave my mark, to march on with due course. To stop would be wasteful, to end my journey meaningless.
The colors of you may have washed away, but the brushstroke of possibility will always be there.]
[(live:5s)[(t8n: "dissolve")[(text-colour:orange)[An easel of pain took root where you once stood, desecated woodwork binding into what was once your flesh. Your bones turned to stone, your skin to sand.
I turn and see I am no longer home. Instead, I have fallen into a desolate land. Was this land trying to mock my ][[grief?->Tale of the Unknown Traveler]]](stop:)]](align:"=><=")+(box:"X=")[''(text-colour:magenta)[Feathering]'']
(text-colour:purple)[Erroneous in my setbacks
I lay with thoughts unfolden
With nothing but echoes calling
I felt the coils come, rolling
If my fortitude had left me
It left with no surprise
I caved to its authority
My own indeterminable demise]
[[I fall to the void, to a universe of one. But fate had other plans for me when I thought I had none->Tale of Wakening Snow]]
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X=")[
(text-style:"bold","sway")[(text-colour:purple)[#''Specula Memoria'']]]
[[Next Page->Starting Page + Warnings]] (enchant:?passage,(text-colour:(hsl:255,0.7767,0.5961,0.85)))Longing in the fortuitous dark
Pining for the one I have
If love is what caused this sweet disaster
There was no other choice to be had
In my endless search of conquest
To unearth the seed of love
I've come to find the roots have festered
Shriveled, scattered, in the dust with all the rest
[(live:10s)[(t8n: "dissolve")[The End...?](stop:)]]