Luuko moved along the strings of consciousnesses, searching for the familiar feeling of Drade’s.

She had lazed out for most of the day and only remembered she needed to practice just hours before, leaping into Felix’s body to attempt the possession. It didn’t go well.

Now, it was almost morning, and she had failed even the most basic of instructions. Well, she wasn’t really sure if it was even possible to do what Drade had asked of her. Drade’s other instructions were to invade his body specifically, which was supposed to be easy, since apparently ‘I(Drade) have full control of my soul at all times’ and thus could easily relinquish control if she invaded his body.

She’d been looking at the thousands of nearby sleeping souls, trying to find the very unique thread that represented Drade’s soul, for about two minutes, searching the threads-the security cameras looking for him. It was quite obvious once she found the right one. Every thread invoked a different feeling. Sara’s string invoked the feeling of a red leaf, Felix’s string was one of electric water, Faio’s string felt like a fake plant, and finally, Drade’s was unmistakable the instant she passed over it. When she looked into his camera, his thread...she felt insignificant, and his soul resonated a warning, one that threatened her if she ever tried to enter. The few times she saw his sister’s soul, it had the same warning, but it smelled of fresh grass, like an open field. She wasn’t sure how she smelled it instead of feeling it, herself.

Eldritch stuff was weird.

This time though, his string was inviting. She still felt like she was stepping into a void devoid of life, sure, but the void told her that she should stop by to say hello. She’d always been too scared to peer deeper into Drade’s strand, but now, she was lured in by it and thought to herself, ‘what’s the worst that could happen.’

Never say that when Drade’s related.

Just before she entered his body, she noticed something unique. Unlike other souls, Drade’s soul looked like an ordinary object, opaque and solid. A black sphere, specifically. Had Luuko not known it was Drade’s soul, she would instantly be terrified of the unnaturalness of it.

To possess him, she needed to envelop his soul and essentially hijack his body. So, she began to make her amorphous soul melt atop the sphere and cover it entirely. Once she did, she tried to gain awareness of Drade’s body.

It didn’t work because his soul was the body.

Suddenly, the black sphere burst into spikes, cutting through her gooey soul like nothing.

In a panic, Luuko tried to retreat, all of her soul-goo falling back onto the line of magic that connected Drade’s ‘soul’ to her own and trying to move back to her body.

The soul she’d tried to insubordinate would have none of that, and the spikes suddenly grew, writhing and moving like tentacles. She’d attempted to invade the soul of an eldritch being, and that was a very dangerous choice. The tentacles ravenously chased her soul down, absorbing all of her soul-goo they touched, then converged onto the thread.

Luuko thought her soul could move quickly along the thread between her body and others, moving along it fast enough to make ten trips from her soul to another in just a few seconds. But Drade’s soul made her look like an amateur, and not just that, exploited her ability to connect to the souls of the sleeping. In what appeared to be an instant, the seemingly malevolent soul’s appendages melded into her thread, then corrupted it, hijacking her power. Luuko tried to return to her body, moving along Drade’s thread to her brain. She then tried to wake up, scared at what would come next.

She couldn’t.

She couldn’t create any threads to bind herself to her body because there already were threads.

In the time it had taken her to move from Drade’s body to her own, his soul severed every strand and made its own in her body. It felt like she had suddenly begun a quarrel with an incomprehensible, terrifying creature, who made her own power seem worthless. It made her feel insignificant. Of course, on the surface, that was indeed the very nature of the person she’d just tried to possess. The threads in her body turned into a tentacle, then lashed out and absorbed the remnants of her soul.

Drade and Luuko woke up with an incredible headache. On one hand, they felt like they were high on a sense of true power. On the other, they felt insignificant and terrified. All those feelings were reasonable, of course.

Luuko tried to fall asleep, but for some reason, she struggled to do that. It felt like she was trying to wake up but couldn’t muster the effort to do so. Which made no sense because that was the inverse of her current predicament.

They sat up, and Luuko looked around ‘herself.’ She was...on a couch. Well, somehow, she’d still successfully possessed Drade’s body, or was it even one? She wasn’t sure.

Some girl was sleeping on the ground in a sleeping bag. She heard the sound of talking from behind the nearby wall.

She felt like she’d just got poked. She turned her head lethargically to her sides, only to see nothing. Suddenly, as if she had thought it herself, that wasn’t exactly as planned. I got a little carried away there.

What didn’t go to plan, anyway? Oh, right, almost everything.

No, I think most of it was about right. Some implicit feelings simultaneously told her that the plan was to attack the brick wall known as Drade’s soul, then to be hijacked and swap bodies.

No, that’s a lie, me, you should know this of all...things...Luuko realized that she was arguing with herself quite strangely and sent implicit feelings of such to herself.

...Wait, what did...‘Drade’ tell you about the plan? Conflicting implicit feelings she couldn’t quite comprehend hit her.

I was supposed to easily move along Drade’s thread, then I would control his body, and somehow we would swap bodies. Images of how she imagined it would go flashed through her mind. She’d find his line, trapeze across it, then see Drade’s soul, and once she took its place, it would somehow move back across the line to her body and control it. Some fear was mixed in with those images.

Hate to break it to you, but this mostly what was supposed to happen. I’m Drade.

What? Drade felt an immediate burst of emotions like fear, confusion, uncertainty, and a glimmer of whimsical delight come from Luuko.

We were supposed to control my body independent of each other, but instead, our souls/minds...fused, which I didn’t even know was possible. Luuko instantly learned everything Drade knew about their souls’ interaction. Part of that instant understanding was the thought that Drade could separate their minds a little through nothing more than a few minutes of sleep.

Oh please do! Luuko thought. It wasn’t necessarily an unpleasant experience to have entire monologues through implications and feelings alone. Still, it was certainly an uncomfortable one, especially when Luuko realized that the fabric of her very being was at the whims of Drade’s soul, which was essentially a living titanium wall.

Numerous implied emotions passed through Luuko’s mind and into Drade’s: hope, insignificance, excitement, uncomfortably, surreality, and other trace emotions. Then, another moved back to Luuko, the same one she always felt before she cried. A tear fell down the left side of their face. There weren’t any emotions or thoughts to accompany the tear, just the implication it was of catharsis.

Luuko’s emotions quickly morphed into confusion, concern, and some slight sense of disgust as she changed the subject. Are you ok!?

Yes! Feel more!

You’re making no sense! Of course, that was a lie, Luuko could tell exactly what Drade meant, and he wanted emotion.

So that’s what it feels like to lie to yourself...

Pal, I’m not you.

Sure, but I still felt you lied.

Fine, but mind giving me a more explicit explanation about your creepy demand?

Do you feel any of my emotions?

A little, it’s a bit difficult to tell.

Exactly! I can feel your emotions like they are my own! Implicit explanation shut Luuko’s next question up, telling her that meant that his feelings were just so much weaker than her own.

Wait, that’s all you feel after being possessed?! Where’s the confusion, the bewilderment, the surreality?! When she focused on Drade’s emotions, at the forefront was intrigue and...jealousy? Behind them, she felt the feelings she was looking for. It wasn’t that they were repressed or nonexistent, but that they were dulled. But something was repressed, deep down. She had almost dug to his heart-

Wait... Drade’s thought was too vague, and all it carried was the implicit feeling of nothing. So, Luuko hesitated before she stopped, resulting in her finding what she’d been looking for, what was dulling and holding back drade’s emotions.

The instant she touched it, she realized it wasn’t something she should have ever come near. It was something everyone eventually found in their head. Nihilism. It corrupted every thought she had and coated her emotion and feeling in a sour, dull, and unsatisfying outline.

Something began to speak in their head, taking control of all their thoughts and emotions. Something...foreign.

What is the point of hope, if only to fade in infinity, what is the point of fear, if only to fade in infinity, what is the point of pain, if only to fade into infinity, what is the point of taste, if only to fade into infinity, what is the point of learning, if only to fade into infinity, what is the point of friends, if only to fade in infinity, what is the point of smiling, if only to fade into infinity, what is the point of sleeping, if only to fade into infinity, what is the point of infinity, if only to exist?

The thought process looped back, and Luuko and Drade felt the dullness fade away. Then, it returned as quickly as it left, making the two second guess each feeling and want they had. It was a little quieter and gave them room to think, at least.

Well, this sucks, was about all Luuko had to say about the ‘feeling.’ It made her feel like everything she thought and experienced was pointless and insignificant, no matter what.

It was annoying, simply put.

Grrrr, Drade simply growled at Luuko in a normally uncharacteristic show of annoyance.

Sorry about that, why don’t we split now?

The implication of acceptance was Drade’s response.

Drade/Luuko laid back onto the couch, and drade began instructing Luuko on how to separate, just think nothing, and we can fall asleep to start.

Luuko did as he said, thinking as little as possible, Luuko’s affinity for it putting them to sleep quickly.

When they fell asleep, both of them were tithed to the dream realm of threads. Drade’s soul easily ejected Luuko’s, entirely in control. Then, Luuko took some time to check on her body...which wasn’t asleep?! No matter where she checked, none of the strings they made led to the body she had the most affinity for.

She returned to Drade’s soul and wrapped around it, as Drade had instructed. Then, they woke up.

Drade! Where in The Gates of Chaos is my body!? She would have screamed at the top of her lungs, but talking loudly wasn’t really possible when it came to mental communication.

I checked too, I have no idea either. The procedure worked as intended, with the two no longer sharing subtext and implications, just explicit communication.

Well, at least their minds were private again.

Drauko(as I shall humorously name their body) began pacing through the room nervously.

Ok! So, in that case, how do we fix this? I can’t get back!

Calm down. Figure out why this is happening first.

Ok, Luuko, calm down...calm down...Drauko started breathing, calming herself. Breathe In, 1, 2, 3, 4 Keep in, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. Let out, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.

Luuko waited before conversing with Drade again. Ok...so, I normally connect to sleeping bodies with souls in the nearby area, and I don’t know much more about it.

So that means one of two things, you either aren’t asleep, or your body is either deceased or otherwise removed from our vicinity.

Please don’t even think that to me! Luuko whimpered, scared at the prospect of somehow dying in her attempt to better herself. Despite Luuko’s attempts to calm down, Drauko’s heart rate had increased dramatically, and some of their limbs had started to shake nervously.

Drade decided to rule out the other options, for both their sakes, as not only could he physically feel Luuko’s fear, but he was terrified that his toying with souls may have put a friend’s blood being on his hands.

Drade was so panicked he didn’t realize he’d called Luuko a friend and that sharing his fear with someone else had repelled the ever-present void in his heart...and let another closer in.

So, having only one thing to consider, he told her what he thought. There’s only one good explanation for this, Luuko, and that’s that somehow, your body is still awake.

...What’s that mean?

You’re moving autonomously.