Suddenly the sphere vacuumed to my body and I was alone with the forge hammer of my heartbeat slamming through my skull. Every second my lungs screamed out, frozen, unable to breathe. But there, suddenly, in the distance, there was a light, a single distant spot through which I felt the possibility of safety, and a moment of peace after the hellish past hour of my life.

The sudden upwell of hope seeming to almost propel me forward, lurching into flight toward the dot, though direction was meaningless in an absence of space or time.

It was also in this moment I began to feel the ‘limited’ effects that were being dampened by the blessing. It felt like I was suspended in air, thick with hornets I couldn’t see or hear, just feel the hum of all those wings vibrating the air in my lungs, the reverberation being carried to the rest of my body through my bones.

After what felt like 10-15 minutes of flying the dot finally seemed to actually be growing closer, but of course it was at this point that Douglas’ “blessing” began to fail. The pitch of the hum had been gradually increasing as the flight had continued but it was at this point that it had an impact, It was like the void had been asleep but suppenly it awoke. The hum rose as the void ate through whaterver defenses I had.

With a sudden, flash and accompany spike in the hum the void for once was lit as my bag vanished. I noticed instantly as i’d chosen the only true method of flight, which involved holding my bag straps and making jetpack noises, while somewhat childish as a means of passing the time, there was literally nothing else to do...

The straps disappeared from my hands, replaced by a swirling puff of blue hued smoke and as I whirled around saw all the items hanging in the air, the four Oxfam books and coin along with my notebook.

They then disappeared as well, each in it’s own puff of smoke but with a variety of hues, next to go were the badges on my hoodie, the key and accompanying ring from the loop of my trousers. Then my hoodie and shoes went to be quickly followed by my shirt, trousers and socks. Lastly my phone + headphones, wallet and underwear poofed and hanging there in my birthday suit all I could think was…

“Wonder what colour I’ll be?”

Poof.

………………..

OVERSEER ACTIVATED…

Dimensional anomaly detected…

Querying?...

Partially corrupted matter detected…

Stabilising…

Matter too badly damaged for complete stabilisation requires restructuring?...

Approval…

Restructuring beginning…

1 item set of 5 found to be of similar composition but too damaged to fully restructure, fusing…

Fusing success…

Familiar class item created...

1 item stabilised…

Item 2 contains only meaning, matter too badly damaged to recalculate form…

Consolidate as skill…

Skill consolidated success…

2 items stabilised…

Item 3 contains only meaning, matter too badly damaged to recalculate form…

Consolidate as skill…

Greater meaning detected…

Consolidate as trait…

Trait consolidated success…

3 items stabilised

Item 4 contains only meaning, matter too badly damaged to recalculate form…

Consolidate as skill…

Greater meaning detected…

Consolidate as trait…

Trait consolidated success…

4 items stabilised…

Item 5 contains only meaning, but of a nature similar to item 3…

Fuse as trait…

Trait fused success…

5 items stabilised…

Item 6 contains only meaning, matter too badly damaged to recalculate form…

Consolidate as skill…

Skill consolidated success…

6 items stabilised…

Item 7 contains only meaning, matter too badly damaged to recalculate form…

Consolidate as skill…

Greater meaning detected…

Consolidate as trait…

Trait consolidated success…

7 items stabilised…

Item 8 contains both meaning and an elemental affinity, matter too badly damaged to recalculate form…

Consolidate as skill…

Consolidate as middling affinity…

Skill consolidated success…

Affinity consolidated success…

8 items stabilised…

Item 9 contains matter stable enough to recalculate form…

Crest of the Druid consolidated success…

9 items stabilised…

Item 10 contains matter stable enough to recalculate form…

Loner’s Companion consolidated success…

10 items stabilised…

Item 11 contains matter stable enough to recalculate form…

Greater meaning detected…

Consolidate as artefact…

Artefact consolidated success…

11 items stabilised…

12 item set of 4 contains matter stable enough to recalculate form…

Greater meaning detected…

Consolidate as artefact…

Artefact consolidated 1/4

Artefact consolidated 2/4

Artefact consolidated 3/4

Artefact Greater consolidated 3.2/4

Artefact Greater consolidated 3.4/4

Artefact Greater consolidated 3.6/4

Artefact Greater consolidated 3.8/4

Artefact Greater consolidated 4/4

Artefact consolidated success…

12 items stabilised…

Item 13 contains matter stable enough to recalculate form…

Higher meaning detected…

Consolidate as RELIC…

RELIC consolidated 0.00000000001/1

RELIC consolidated 0.00000000002/1

RELIC consolidated 0.00000000003/1

RELIC consolidated 0.00000000004/1

RELIC consolidated 0.00000000005/1

RELIC consolidated 0.00000000006/1

RELIC consolidated 0.00000000007/1

WARNING PRESENCE OF ENEMY CLASS {DOUGLAS} DETECTED…

INTERDIMENSIONAL SYSTEM ALERT ENEMY CLASS {DOUGLAS} HAS BREACHED BORDER OF UNIVERSE: 23723101-580 …

SYSTEM ALERT CANCELLED PRESENCE DISPERSED…

DIMENSIONAL ANOMALY SEALED…

Skill consolidated 1/1…

Skill consolidated success…

13 items stabilised…

ATTENTION PRESENCE OF USTABLE ORGANISM DETECTED…

Unstable organism contains matter stable enough to recalculate form…

Recalculating form…

PROCESS CANCELLED VOID CONTAMINATION DETECTED…

Forced stabilisation activated…

Possibility of data corruption?...

Approval…

Core trait required…

Resonance detected between [Unknown Blessing], items 9 & Set 12 item 4/4…

Attempting fusion…

Fusion success…

Core trait creation…

Core trait {[Sleeping Giant]} created…

Forced stabilisation success…

Recalculating form…

Further resonance detected…

Remnant meaning from Set 12 item 4/4 detected…

Greater meaning detected…

Consolidate as trait…

Trait consolidated success…

Remnant meaning from Set 12 item 4/4 detected…

Greater meaning detected…

Resonance with Item 10 designated Loner’s Companion detected...

Attempting fusion…

Fusion success…

Bloodline resonance detected with item 8…

Consolidate as bloodline profession?...

Approval…

Bloodline consolidated success…

Recalculating form success…

Unstable organism stabilised success…

All anomaly’s integrated …

OVERSEER deactivating …

………………..

“FUCKING JESUS CHRIST!!!” My eyes shot open only to slam shut as the sun daggered my eyes and pain that consumed my brain like a white rum hangover, like i'd been torn apart, atom by atom then reassembled with Ikea instructions. Oh, wait, I was. The idea of opening my eyes did not appeal to me, the glowing spots on the inside of my eyelids implying a continued brightness I was not willing to deal with again, so I tried to feel around to make sure everything was in place.

Life however was cruel to me today and the true reality of the situation couldn’t have sunk in sooner with the simple act of touching my hands to my chest, feeling a certain lack of a t-shirt along with the presence of significantly too much chest hair.

Feeling around i noticed my fingers lacking significantly sensitivity and were bending weird as if someone splinted the last joint of my fingers which would explain the sensitivity if the nerves were damaged. Mustering the courage and rolling over so the sun couldn’t give me anymore illegal eye surgery, I cracked first the left, then right eye open, and gazed at down my closest companion, my muse, my once beautiful right hand, and now…

Five long yellow claws emerged from amongst a thick coat of partially translucent brown fur. The transformed hand lay against a background of black sand and as I rolled over I looked around searching for something to latch onto, having never before been so completely alienated by my own body since puberty ballooned me out 50 pounds.

Searching around in a daze I appeared to be on a beach that lined the interior of some kind of cove or inlet. The horizon eerily mimicked the expanse of the island in the void, the black revolting faux liquid of Douglas’ flesh ocean having been replaced by crystal blue waters. Even then, the sight still causing an involuntary shudder to run through my new, equally disturbing (but in a very different way) body and decided to see what form the landscape took in a more landward direction.

So, turning around, getting further body dissonance that lead to a wave of nausea, I pressed my ‘hands’ into the sand. Standing up on two equally hairy and five clawed feet, I took some comfort noting that, based on my shadow's silhouette at least, it was a humanoid figure.

The impression that I got from the vista before me was of a jungle paradise that inclined gradually up to a mid-sized central mountain that was oddly barren after about a fifth of the way up the slope. Based on the colour of the sand though that was probably because it was a volcano.

The black colouation of the beach sand was most likely as a result of basalt erosion which meant that there had to be a volcano nearby and the lack of vegetation was likely a result of gasses from the mouth and surrounding structures like fumaroles and parasitic cones, as well as the chemical compostion of the soil.

I felt my breathing calm as I focused on something I knew. Geography. 2 and most of the way through a 3rdyear of my degree in the subject i hoped i knew something about natural formations. The process of identifying the volcano also made me feel like i had finally had some control of the situation. Though some factors were hinky the basalt was a sign of a shield volcano but the shape of the cone was more reminiscent of a composite volcanoe?

Anyway, I was a large furry humanoid creature alone on a random beach, by a random volcano, on a random planet, in a random universe and what I needed most right now was more information. With a sigh knowing I was probably going to regret this I looked, to the light flickering on the edge of my vision, this time appearing as a simple exclamation mark.