Repair wizard start.

Build detecting…

Ego damage identified.

Repairing…

Ego restart.

Like a flipped switch I was again conscious. Around me, I was again surrounded by the familiar empty void. A void I was starting to associate with safety, so far it hadn’t tried to kill me. Some more pessimistic side adding a yet to that thought. My efforts had left me apparently no worse off but I was not going to try that again. Who knows what later side effects there might be for this constant loss of consciousness it didn’t do anything for my pride.

I was slowly coming to better understand myself. Clearly, there wasn’t much happening around but I list of personality traits were becoming apparent. I still would rather refer to them as traits rather than flaws. I was stubborn, prideful, curious and oddly at this point calm. Considering I had just almost killed myself in my stupidity I was hoping I could put it down to resilience but that would have to wait for more evidence. This was an opportunity to take stock any look round.

The void was still there, still empty and black. Safe but already boring. The bar that had caused all these problems had undergone another change it was now from end to end solid. It's length stretching out both left and right to my perspective and a new diffuse bar connecting me to it at a right angle. I looked at it in a kind of stunned awe. It had an undefinable presence against the void somehow more real than anything around it. I had a moment of realisation at this point it wasn’t a bar.

Immediately I was engaged in how could I test my new theory. I needed to move to compare. I set about setting my focus to the left to the solid bar so I moved at a steady pace parallel to it. Then the tricky part now I was moving I needed to split my focus one part of me controlling my movement while another turned behind me to watch what was happening. With a slight moment of dizzying vertigo, it happened. It was disconcerting my focus was now split from my perception.

However, it was quickly overwhelmed by a feeling of success. I had proved it the bar was not something for me to study. It wasn’t a bar at all but rather a trail. One left by me as I moved forward behind me was created a solid trail of energy that seemed to leave a permanent presence on the void. To test this further I changed my direction to start me circling the original bar. My attempts at changing my direction while still moving resulting in sudden shifts in the vector. But this was enough the trail following me made the same sharp changes in vector around the bar.

Continuing to play like this resulted in improvement in my ability to control my movement the sudden change in vector being transformed into smooth curves. I spent some time exploring this learning something more about myself in the process. I thought I was a bit of an artist and released into a vast empty black canvas with possibly the boldest paint ever created I was going to make the most of it. I could suggest that what followed was some outpouring of an amazing intrinsic artistic talent and at the time I could not have been more proud. You would find better art produced by the most challenged young sapiens. In my defence, I didn’t have much for reference. Trying to make an artistic representation of the void without knowing what expressionism is. Is well, kinda hard. But moving on sometime later. I stopped.

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I stopped as I had a realisation. My movements are creating this energy. Where this energy is I cannot be as experience had shown. What would happen when all the void is filled? When there isn’t space for movement would I be trapped in that last piece of the void at the end? Trapped forever. While I was thinking I had stopped but something was changing there was a pressure building around me. My panic sense was tingling. Around me was forming a mist, a fog made of the energy normally in my trail. It wasn’t building quickly otherwise it must surely have affected me before this. But this is a problem, if nothing changed I may be looking at my own death. Action must be taken but what? Well first some tidying must be in order all my artistic expression now wasting what may be a limited void and I was going eke out every last bit of space. Just in case. I moved around the outside of each curve carefully filling each space between them and through them. If nothing else an effective way to improve how I thought in three dimensions.

Once I was done I was left with a lumpy cylinder most of my drawing having been spaced around the original bar. I need more information while keeping my options open. Making a decision I started making a long steady continuous movement around its equator. My reasoning being I will eventually have created a solid plane to divide the void. If I never come to an edge and proved the void as infinite, excellent. However, If I did discover what at this point it might be the end of the universe. I would be free to begin spiralling back in towards the centre and make the most out of the limited space to extending my existence.

***

Sometime later, bored. It had been timeless, it could have been moments or even an epoch since I made my decision but at this point, I couldn’t see the cylinder at the centre of my newly created flat world. But my patience seemed to naturally be without limit. Having made the decision with a clear idea of what I wanted to achieve my body had gone into a fugue state. The part of me with just enough consciousness to control my path remained aware while the rest of me just stopped losing any perception of time.

Something had changed as suddenly all of me was forced into awareness. I was no longer moving and was still. Already there was a build-up of that troublesome energy that had caused so many problems. But my attention had been set on what had stopped me something in the void. It was me another me. It was not me but some other individual of whatever I was. The realisation was shocking after thinking I was alone just me the void and fatal energy. But I was being distracted by new feels welling up within me the fear sense was also making it self-known. The gathered energy around me was what gave me the clue as to what had triggered these feelings.

Two, there was now two of use and if there are two why not more. One divided by one was one. One-hundred percent. Everything. All the void was mine. One divided by two was half. Half of the void was no longer mine. It was rage a feeling I had never felt before how dare they take from me. How dare they take my time. My existence from me. But what could I do I had not found a way to affect the void around me. They, them, other was protected by that fatal mist of energy that surrounded them as much as me. Leaving me unable to ram or interact with them directly.

That energy as it had been all along was the key. If I couldn’t destroy them I will trap them. Moving closer I started tightly encircling them building up a thick shell of energy around them. I thought if they can’t move they can’t claim that other part of the void that was so rightfully mine. But it was clear nothing ever goes completely to plan. As I closed the last part of the shell around them it happened they disappeared. The void around them seemed to flex twist and with a pop, the other disappeared. And was replaced with a notice.

System notice: Failed seed banished. Good work, keep hunting.