The Gateway
Jan. 25th, 2012 03:11 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lunarkeysWhen I originally thought about having a muse, I figured it worked like this:
- I create a character and occupation, then let them go off on adventures.
- Said character returns and informs me about said adventures.
- I write about the experience as a story, and (hopefully) captivate interested readers.
With this in mind, I ventured forth and created Luna, a gorgeous woman fascinated by fantasy and exploration, though generally shy and withdrawn. I imagined her looking over her books in her personal library, scribbling notes during a history lecture, or otherwise coming up with brilliant observations and concepts I could use in my own writing.
Then I let her loose.
The first thing I realized when she returned that Luna did not think. Luna did.
She had ventured forth, passed through a portal, and entered a medieval world of humanoids. She had proceeded to learn their languages, schmooze her way through their politics until she was at the top, and then unify a warring world under a single peaceful banner. After she had passed on from that life, she had built a trading empire on one of the largest orbital platforms in the universe, sold that, then gone on to adventure along with a guild of explorers, discovering new life upon planets until she had been killed in combat holding off troops from invading and stealing their discoveries.
Also, she was anything but shy and reserved. She was talkative and friendly and could - and did - go on for hours about her adventures. By the time she was done talking, I had been informed that the universe - or at least the one she lived in - was so infinitely vast that she would need millions of lives to experience even a fraction of that. But that was no problem to her - she, after all, was simply a potent figment of my imagination, and thus could live entire lives in the span of the time it took me to blink - or pause her 'reality' entirely so that she could talk to me whenever I needed to ask her something. Curious, I asked where she went once she perished in one of her lives, and thus, I learned about the Gateway.
The Gateway is a floating platform in the midst of space. It is completely flat and does not orbit any planet - it seems to ignore the usual laws of physics as we know it. Much of the platform is a blank white slate, though the ground occasionally warps and changes colors at random times and places, and the texture might change from tile to stone, to ice or plastic or any number of other solids - though those who transverse the landscape always are able to make their way across.
Their destination, however, is the citadel, a towering black structure made of what appears to be obsidian that stretches infinitely high into space - Luna has reported that it's only as tall as you can imagine it. Upon opening the enormous doors, the adventurer is blown inside by the chaotic winds endlessly blowing across the landscape outdoors.
The citadel itself is the resting spot for adventurers - people who, like Luna, have traveled to worlds and lived out entire lives. Upon perishing, they return to the chaotic landscape and make their way back to the citadel, where they rest until the appeal of adventure draws them back out. The place is built in a donut-like shape around an enormous elevator in the center, a machine that warps its passengers to their varied destinations in an instant. The elevator is a curious device, as the only button there is the one for 'Go'. One click of the button, and the doors re-open at whatever destination you might have been thinking of - any number of the private suites, perhaps, in order to get a good few nights of rest, or a restaurant flush with the foodstuffs you might have found on the last world you visited. There are entertainment venues, hangout spots, and businesses emulated from thousands of worlds - virtually anything you might be able to think of.
When the spirit of adventure overwhelms the desire to rest, however, the adventurer makes their way outside and lets the chaotic winds blow them to the edge of the Gateway - and with one good gust, they are thrown from the platform into the abyss of space until they find themselves awakening upon a new world, as a new species...and ready to begin their next adventure.
- I create a character and occupation, then let them go off on adventures.
- Said character returns and informs me about said adventures.
- I write about the experience as a story, and (hopefully) captivate interested readers.
With this in mind, I ventured forth and created Luna, a gorgeous woman fascinated by fantasy and exploration, though generally shy and withdrawn. I imagined her looking over her books in her personal library, scribbling notes during a history lecture, or otherwise coming up with brilliant observations and concepts I could use in my own writing.
Then I let her loose.
The first thing I realized when she returned that Luna did not think. Luna did.
She had ventured forth, passed through a portal, and entered a medieval world of humanoids. She had proceeded to learn their languages, schmooze her way through their politics until she was at the top, and then unify a warring world under a single peaceful banner. After she had passed on from that life, she had built a trading empire on one of the largest orbital platforms in the universe, sold that, then gone on to adventure along with a guild of explorers, discovering new life upon planets until she had been killed in combat holding off troops from invading and stealing their discoveries.
Also, she was anything but shy and reserved. She was talkative and friendly and could - and did - go on for hours about her adventures. By the time she was done talking, I had been informed that the universe - or at least the one she lived in - was so infinitely vast that she would need millions of lives to experience even a fraction of that. But that was no problem to her - she, after all, was simply a potent figment of my imagination, and thus could live entire lives in the span of the time it took me to blink - or pause her 'reality' entirely so that she could talk to me whenever I needed to ask her something. Curious, I asked where she went once she perished in one of her lives, and thus, I learned about the Gateway.
The Gateway is a floating platform in the midst of space. It is completely flat and does not orbit any planet - it seems to ignore the usual laws of physics as we know it. Much of the platform is a blank white slate, though the ground occasionally warps and changes colors at random times and places, and the texture might change from tile to stone, to ice or plastic or any number of other solids - though those who transverse the landscape always are able to make their way across.
Their destination, however, is the citadel, a towering black structure made of what appears to be obsidian that stretches infinitely high into space - Luna has reported that it's only as tall as you can imagine it. Upon opening the enormous doors, the adventurer is blown inside by the chaotic winds endlessly blowing across the landscape outdoors.
The citadel itself is the resting spot for adventurers - people who, like Luna, have traveled to worlds and lived out entire lives. Upon perishing, they return to the chaotic landscape and make their way back to the citadel, where they rest until the appeal of adventure draws them back out. The place is built in a donut-like shape around an enormous elevator in the center, a machine that warps its passengers to their varied destinations in an instant. The elevator is a curious device, as the only button there is the one for 'Go'. One click of the button, and the doors re-open at whatever destination you might have been thinking of - any number of the private suites, perhaps, in order to get a good few nights of rest, or a restaurant flush with the foodstuffs you might have found on the last world you visited. There are entertainment venues, hangout spots, and businesses emulated from thousands of worlds - virtually anything you might be able to think of.
When the spirit of adventure overwhelms the desire to rest, however, the adventurer makes their way outside and lets the chaotic winds blow them to the edge of the Gateway - and with one good gust, they are thrown from the platform into the abyss of space until they find themselves awakening upon a new world, as a new species...and ready to begin their next adventure.
