Late January - Nostalgia

The shine in my vision grows, and I accelerate towards it. Faster and faster, the pressure of darkness lessening, exchanging for the g-force of my involuntary race toward the light. A palette of blue and dull teal streaks speed past my fish-eyed view. The diluted shine gets brighter as I threaten to rocket through the curtain before the light, the water’s surface. I breach it with the sound of a violent splash, sucking the air into my lungs as all goes white. The sound of the waves quickly fades with my breath. Silence, frozen in that whiteness. The pull and squeeze of the last ten seconds wash away. 

The loading screen idents pop into my vision.

Grey logos, banners of kingdoms and communities, filled their negative space with water. I spent twenty-two seconds in the void, the longest wait that I can recall, though the queue wasn’t unexpected. Development continued in the years since I last set foot in this world. Keeping pace with the constant leaps in tech was no longer a priority, a hobby, or much of a reality.

Twenty-two banal seconds alone in anticipation. The sound returned, and I felt my lungs thirst for air. Simulated warmth fell off my body as it woke. Roots untangled in front of me with a wet sop, and behind them was the cloudless sky, disturbed only by three seagulls racing to the blue beyond. It was a scene that played out every time one emerged from their pod in this location.

The sun beat into my eyes. I passed my hand over my face, bent my fingers inward, and turned my wrist. The harsh light faded to a gentle brightness as the activated light filter tamed the sun. A heads-up display animated over my view, numbers and bars, numerous notifications, and my name: 

Delta. 

Muscle memory, one might call it, guided me as I blinked through several menus to turn the HUD framing my vision off. It was nice to find the navigations and arrive at the option to turn off the HUD so quickly. I recalled frustration with finding the setting in the past, which has aged to ironic fondness for the unintuitive. The HUD faded.

Liquid drained out of my fibrous cocoon of thick threads dotted with minerals of grey and purple. I pulled myself upright, pushing through a diminishing disorientation till I found my balance. A salty taste in my mouth came and went just fast. Pods containing speakers such as me were submerged in brackish water, sediment, and salt mixing within to soothe the quartz in our bodies, or so the people of this world would say. My pod was one of many tens in the salty pond secured underneath by a thick seaweed chord. I stepped onto a shore of reeds and sand, the soft warm grains massaged my feet as I tested my legs, dashing to a cliff’s edge. The crisp allure of ocean waves charmed my every sense, emerald waters sculpting rounded slopes into the tangerine limestone face below. A shimmering town of marble echoed with ferry bells. High mast ships shepherded by the singing wind inched through the far haze in a perfect composition, with the ancient nature altogether forming the prodigious beauty of SiltSea.

A pulsing vibration prodded my left thigh. I rested my hand against the area and ceased it. More pressing interests than what this signal meant to communicate called me. I hurried down a paved road into the marble port. An emblem faded over my view, three islands topped with flag standards in unison height, the seal of the Jasteran Commonwealth. Text imposed on top of the emblem, accompanied by the low blow of wind:

Alupac, Capital of The Wandering Atoll

Dock workers ferried boats into wooden holds extending from a golden shore near the limestone rock face. A crowded tropical river fed into the boundless ocean. The Jasterans labor in perpetual peace along a seaside free of the brine and the fishiness and only the charming breeze that traces my skin in soothing repetition. But the sights and sensations quickly sate my thirst for novelty. The deeper urge sets in. Action. 

I ran across the docks, hopping between wooden planks and landings till I came to the water’s edge. I moved my palm outward and quickly blinked twice. Thick wood ribbon strands and bark scraps wrapping the length of my forearm fizzled into existence in a burst of down and bubbles, my Zoologoist’s gauntlet. Atop it was a cylindrical perch. A fishing line with a metal hook and bobber fed out of an opening near my wrist. 

I pressed the hook between my thumb and forefinger. The metal produced a light that jumped to my palm, splitting into a translucent, rectangular grid sheet. Each cell contained foodstuffs and lures. With my pinky, I select the cell in the furthest left corner, a hot orange ball, “ultra bait”. My touch produces a slider for selecting the quantity I would use, from one to 999. I dragged the slider to 15. The orange lump of protein pops onto the hook. I prod its satisfying sponginess and rub my fingers against the slimy residue it left behind.

I threw my wrist back, then flung it forward. The line extended from the gauntlet, bellowing out into the air. The hook splashed through the surface. With a slight squeeze of my right fist, I pulled the slack taught. I breathed deep. It wouldn’t be long now.

The bobber shook, its outline extruded in a colorful pop to draw my eye. I clenched my fist and pulled the vibrating line tight causing it to radiate a blue light. My vision swirled, zooming along the line towards the bobber. The world melted, then bubbles reformed it, and suddenly I’m under the water, but not subject to its rules. I turn my filter off as it is no help in the new dark. Sunlight diffuses through the water above, illuminating the glass stage I stand upon.

Floating on the other end of this arena was a shark, scarred and ravenous. It was two meters long with an almost joyous look in its massive glowing pupils.  The skin along its side broke to reveal crystalline minerals embedded underneath. This was the perfect opponent to shake the rust. 

I spoke to the quartz. Seafoam and feathers spun beside my left arm, forming a long staff with a curved blade at its end. The bubbles blew outward, and my scythe was in my hand.