I never was one to believe in a divine entity. At least, I don’t think I was. My life was merely a sequence of events where I am confused, and merely die, with the third time obviously not being the charm that I would get my answers. Now? Now all I’ve got are more questions! Yet, I am getting ahead of myself. Where was I?
I was half expecting to become the man who I believe murdered the girl in the red hood, whom I was possessing for reasons beyond my control. Perhaps due to how she murdered whoever I was after killing a girl in a white dress. Yeah, my life has been pretty A, Rubbish and B, Nutters. I am not sure if I even have a real name, or an identity. I guess Nari works for now, even if the name is weird as all hall. Although, is that even a male’s name? I dunno, but if it is not, I guess it would fit who I ended up possessing this time.
I woke up by the sounds of a little girl calling out for her “Nana” Which I recollected being some nickname for an aunt, grandma, great aunt, or something of the like. So, being very calm for someone who probably died in a body that was not their own, I maneuvered my body to get out of something I believed to be a bed. Well, I think bed was generous, lot of rags is a more accurate description.
I decided to ignore the voice for a bit, and look at my surroundings, only for the scenery to hit my like a bag of bricks, I was in the same city where I had originally died, or been shot, or whatever the bugger happened when I was there! And as I expected, it was still frigid as something could be without technically being “freezing”. I jumped a little, only to become aware that I had yet another new body. Not for the man, but of some sort of old lady who was wearing some raggedy scraps that would look identical to another pair I had seen on an identical body if blood was added. I was the old lady who had been killed for her potatoes! And good god, did she feel like an old piece of meat if it had a metal skeleton with half broken joints. I was hoping that some sort of plane would crash into me to prevent me from needing to move around in this figure, only to be interrupted by another familiar face, the girl in a white dress.
Except, she was different in some way, it was subtle like a trainwreck to see that she had rainbow colored hair that was literally flowing in the wind. As she looked up to me and ask if something was wrong, I saw it change colors into a light green! I was about to ask her what the hell was wrong with her, only for the world to seemingly pause itself.
I was flabbergasted by the notion of everything around me pausing, but that was nothing compared to the next event that I encountered. “Cut, cut, cut! Oi, matie, what’re you getting at here?” Said a voice that sounded like a woman imitating a boy of eleven. I searched around for the source of the voice, feeling like a forklift all the while, only to hear the voice shout, “Look on your left wrist, you dolt!” I then recalled how I placed that electronic wristband there back in the Garage, and how it followed me when I possessed the woman in the red hood, although I’d assumed she’d taken it.
As I lifted the wrist mounted touch screen based device to my face, I saw a very unusual sight. It was a creature that looked like a slightly more humanoid raccoon-like creature who was red, only for me to recall the proper animal it looked like, a Red Panda. Well, one about four feet tall, with longer arms and no visible feet of legs, seeing as how it was in a chair. It was also a very odd common name, since it is not related to a panda by much, but whatever. That alone would be weird enough, along with being plain old adorable as much as I hate to admit it, only for me to notice how it was wearing a tiny bowler hat and holding a cane. It was the first thing that I could recall seeing and thinking that it was “cute”.
“Don’t you start gawking at me, you old bag! You nearly screwed yourself and this entire zone over. Seriously, didn’t you read my letter? I mean, I set up a messenger for you to contact, and she told you everything. The least you could do is humor me and try to follow the rules!” The Red Panda shouted through the screen, as if I nearly set the planet on fire. “What are you talking about? You pissy ball of fluff! If I understand this right, you are the one who did all of this and- Okay, you know what? Explain this to me, because I didn’t get the memo!” I shouted in a voice that sounded, well, stupid. Seeing as how my vocabulary is not similar to an old woman’s.
“Um… What? Look, we sent Y’vonne out to tell you your duties. You said you understood-” He stopped mid sentence as I began to shout at him. “Who the hell is Y’vonne?! I’ve only met four people, this old lady, that little girl in a white dress, the woman in a red hood, who I ended up becoming before I met some man with the base body of a gorilla-” “Hold it, hold it, hold it! Who are you?” It asked, with one eyebrow tilted upward. “I don’t even know! I woke up in a Garage, had a note saying my name was Nari, and I had to-” I was interrupted by the Red Panda, who seemed to understand my situation as of now. “Wait, Nari?! How the hell are…” He looked down at his feet, but based on his hand movements, I assumed it was at a list of notes, or perhaps a tablet computer. “Oh! Oh! Oh no! We messed up, we really, really did! Gosh Darn Time Travel! You are the turd in the punch bowl that is OMNI!” Screamed the Red Panda, who was frantically looking around something I believed to be a desk.
“Okay, um, short version! You are a chosen test subject for an information gathering group that I, The Doctor, am leading! I have recruited two others, Y’vonne and Max, who I planned to pair up with you, Nari, in order to explore the mysteries of the OMNI, the land you are currently in, only recall, and will probably always be in. It is a place of disarray and discord, where pretty much everything that could exists, has existed at some point in time, or will exist! However, the land must also have some semblance of order to it, namely it must make sense in terms of continuity.”
“Since you have already been killed, entered your natural and unrefined state of looking for a body, when you had no spare, you have been traveling across time in search for one. You ended up going after the ones that were the most familiar to you, the only two you ever physically touched. And because you did that, we need to make sure it still does happen, and make sense all the time, and- This is why I hate time manipulation! It is more than a bag of worms, it is an entire boatload of them, where they multiply even if you set them on fire!”
“Okay, so… Doctor Red Pan-” “It is just The Doctor, or Doctor, minus the “The”.” It interrupted, sneering a bit “Right… I basically messed up because someone didn’t follow your order, this Y’vonne, and unless I do everything you tell me, this magical land of the “OMNI” will be destroyed.” “Pretty much, yeah.” It interjected, sounding a bit too calm given this situation. “Okay, so what do I do?” I asked with a sigh of both frustration and relief. “Well, I guess I’ll need to pull some strings with these two, and actually assign them “Characters”. Er- I’ll tell you about that later!” It paused for a second to check its surroundings, looking at what I assumed to be screens. “But I will need you to to go out to where you found this old lady, kill yourself with a dagger that I’ll spawn for you. Then your essence will be loose, and you can possess Rainbow Brite over there. Go to the corner you saw, and I’ll tell Red Hood what to do, and then, you will need to take control of her, have her go into you, kill the original Nari body, using Red Hood’s body and pistol. And then, using Y’vonne’s body, commit suicide with the same firearm.”
I spoke for clarification sake, “So I basically need to use my ability to possess people after I die, or pass out, or think I am dead, or whatever. To control the old lady I am possessing, later the little girl, and finally Y’vonne… again?” “Yeah, more or less!” Shouted The Doctor, as he was rummaging about a very dark looking room. “And everything else, about who Max and Y’vonne are, how this world works, how time and space, everything else you’ll tell me after this job is done?” I questioned The Doctor as he was scribbling something down onto a clipboard with the help of a crayon.
“E-Yuppers! Now, I have the ability to alter your Field Of Vision(FOV) so that some instructions on what to do and say in order to, well, not screw the pooch! This is very messy- Oh, and since you’re probably wondering what is going on. This is a place that exists outside of OMNI, more of a pocket dimension where I merely placed your body temporarily. So, yeah! Don’t mess this up, because I might become a Rabbit who is working at a meatpacking plant that reverts hamburgers back into cows, for all I know. While you could become a some sort of sphere made entirely of genetails.” The Doctor exposited before my wristband turned black, time resumed, and to the upper right of my FOV was now filled with text that gave me exact quotes to say to the girl with the rainbow hair.
“Nana, you okay?” The girl said, shifting back from the still figure she was mere seconds ago. “I’m fine deary, just a bit dizzy from getting up too fast.” I said while reading the dialog in the corner of my eyes. “I think there is somewhere we can get some food, follow me.” I said while still getting used to my voice, and moving around in this new body. “Super doodles” The little girl, whose name I did not know, said while bobbing her body and tilting her head, with hair that glowed red.
I will spare the details of our walk, seeing as how it was mostly just walking along concrete corridors, and avoiding areas my FOV said to be “Danger Zones”. Although, seeing the lack of corpses in the nearby area, I assume that it meant that, rather than some scavengers from… Whatever caused this! After about ten minutes, I recognized the location, looked around, and saw two things, a knife, and some potatoes.
A timer appeared in my FOV, along with the words, “Action When 0:00!” There were only 30 seconds on the clock, and I began to get everything in place while the girl asked, “Nana, whatcha doing?” “It-It’s a long story Kiddo, just sit down and sing your song.” I said, breaking character, and hoping the universe, or OMNI as that Red Panda called it, can take one at my expense. I did not look back at her, but I could almost sense her eyes looking over me with bewilderment. And, just as everything was in place, I took the knife, and jammed it into my body, same spot as where I’d found it back- Wait a blasted second, I am a freaking Time Traveller!
I laid there, waiting until I saw my face, or the face of a white haired young man, and have him lift me up. And then, I croaked! What? Just because the universe is on the brink of destruction, it doesn’t mean I can’t mess around! Besides, I wanted out of there to the point I did not even look at my own face. Yeah, maybe it is not “nice” but I don’t give a rat’s ass about being proper at a time like this. It’s bad enough I need to record my thoughts for these things before I can, I dunno, leap into the next vessel? Regardless, I saw a light, and hoped I would feel less stiff in that child’s body.
Fun Facts: This was actually where I decided that I wanted to do this series for an entire year, even if it meant that I would need to create some lore, and actually, gasp, try to explain it! Granted, the whole old woman dynamic was a leftover idea from my dream, hence why I randomly had potatoes. But, just as a tip, both “Nana” and this little girl have a reason to exist. In fact, the majority of characters will. At least up to Cycle 12. But for now, I just wanted to introduce some ideas before my massive exposition dump for Cycle 6, which I had to rewrite thrice to get ti to sound decent!