Kahli sat there in the strange, boxy room and stared at the strange end of her body that seemed to smooth out into almost a tail before ending in her big left foot. What in Theseosus' name had happened to her, anyway? She stared at the constantly morphing patterns on the wallpaper, mesmerizing as they were, as if they might give to her some answer of clarity.

"Well, well, well. Welcome!" shouted a chipper voice in an accent that sounded to her wholly alien and unreal. It almost seemed like it was coming through a pinhole, instead of a mouth. The whole thing was very strange. Very strange indeed.

Even stranger when the eyeball zoomed right up into Kahli's face. It was huge, and pulsating, and every once and a while it almos seemed two dimensional. When it looked directly at Kahli, everything seemed to be especially vibrant - that is to say, it was like all of a sudden the contrast between light and color was extreme, and it almost was bleeding into Kahli's vision. At least Kahli had vision again - it was nice to be able to see and perceive, even if what she was indeed seeing and perceiving was far removed from anything she'd beheld in her more normal life on Nomachiato.

That's one thing that was abundantly clear to Kahli, something that was clear to her without asking, clear to her almost innately, clear by instinct alone in fact. However, probably the biggest thing that was glaringly indicative of the fact that Kahli was not where she so often was, and that was to say, the planet Nomachiato, was the smell and the feel of the air. Everything smelled... strangely sweeter, and much more airy. It was a difficult thing to place, but at the same time, Kahli had a strage tingling in the back of her mind that told her that she'd been here before. Regardless of all that, one thought echoed in her mind. She was not in Nomachiato any more.

So, where was she? She wasn't certain. She wasn't certain at all.

"Okay, okay, I see... See you've got yourself a system now, that's quite nice, yes... Systemic abilities in a low level entity, very interesting... Yes, note I'm calling you an entity, that's the only word we have for constructs such as yourself here. Please know I don't mean to be offensive, it is indeed the only accurate terminology."

"Okay?" said Kahli. She wasn't sure why she was supposed to be offended by the word entity. It seemed fairly innocuous, that much was certain. Okay, well, maybe it made her feel a bit like an alien. But did this strange, floating eye creature not somewhat seem alien? Was alien-ness even a detractor in a place like this? Maybe feeling like an alien would make Kahli fit in more with... wherever she was. "By the way, how do I go back?"

"Go back?" asked the voice incredulously.

"Yes, back to Nomachiato," replied Kahli.

"No... machiato?" The eyeball sounded confused.

"Yes, yes, my home planet."

"Planet?"

Kahli was getting frustrated. This thing didn't even know what a planet was? How was it even speaking to her in her language? "Look, I'm just a little confused. The crux of the matter is, I don't know where I am, and I'd like to go back from whence I came, ideally sooner rather than later. I just got through a particularly nasty argument with myself and, frankly, I'm feeling emotionally exhausted. I don't know if I'm up for whatever is going on here."

The eye closed itself and laugh, laugh, laughed - floating and spinning around a few times to add emphasis, and even did a flip. "Oh, me, what a humorous aside. You can't be serious?"

"Dead serious," replied Kahli.

"DEAD! Hah! Now isn't that a funny word. Dead. Oh, wow, what a joke. Dead indeed, Kahli, dead indeed."

"Funny? What's funny about being serious? I'm not here to be made a joke of, let me tell you what," replied Kahli with frustration. "I don't know why you're treating me in such a way. First, you apologize for calling me an 'entity' for whatever reason, and then moments later you're laughing at me for, what, being confused? Why, I'll have you know that tauman beings get confused all the time! Maybe you, with your, with your strange alien intelligence, haven't had that experience, but I can assure you it is part and parcel of life itself! Which, now that I think of it, I assume you think is some sort of a joke as well?"

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And indeed, the eyeball creagture just kept on laughing, harder and harder. It was truly getting a bit laborious, and if the thing had had lungs, it probablhy would've had to stop in order to catch its breath. Luckily or otherwise, that was very much not the case, and by whatever mechanism it spoke and laughed, it was able to continue in its guffaws without pause for, seemingly, ad infinitum, until eventually in an act of ultimate mercy the thing stopped its cackling and once again addressed Kahli with some little modicumb of respect and rapport.

"Sorry, sorry, I don't get so many life forms as low of a level as you coming through here. Nine times out of ten, entities like you get stopped up before you can get this far for... some reason or another. Sometimes it's something serious, like trauma. Sometimes, it's something as simple as being a little extra gassy before entering the Threshold. And, other times - in fact, most of time - it's a combination of all kinds of inconsequential things that, tied together, end up becoming, among other things, quite consequential indeed. And before you get in a stitch about that comment, and my others, as I can see you're clearly on the verge of doing, I want to clarify that I am not used to seeing entities with systems of a lower level than, and this is the bottom, about three hundred. And you're in the double digits? I mean, honestly, I'm impressed. Genuinely. You ought to be proud of yourself. It's not so many people that can face themselves like you did and conquer it without a lot more experience. I'd clap if I had hands."

Kahli stayed silent. She felt, in this moment, like anything she said to the eyeball would be turned against her.

"Ooh, silent treatment? I get it. I can be an abrasive character. Regardless, welcome! It's... great... to have you here! Don't worry, your stay won't be all that long. Well, to clarify, it can seem like several eons if you get lucky, but it won't last long in your surface perceptive experience, as it were. Maybe that's what you meant with all the Nomachiato talk earlier. But, yes, this will all pass by in the blink of an eye, or, at worst, several blinks of an eye. Heh, get it?" The eyeball blinked a bunch of times. "Sorry, just a little joke I like to run through the first time I take someone to the Far End. I love doing it. We all have our things that keep us going, right? Really though, pay me no mind. I'm just being silly. Now then, I've finished observing you, so, with that...where would you like to go?"

Kahli blinked a few times. "Um, what?"

"Where do you want to go, Kahli? You've got the entirety of the Far End at your disposal. There are high level system users that are unable to reach this state, regardless of their level. People have built huge structures to reach this state before, and yet, here you are. So, why? Why are you here, and what do you want?" The eyeball zoomed up to her and focused again, making everything go high contrast. Its voice became dreadfully deep. "It is my duty to say that I must remind you due to the Far End and Tertiary Dwellers Traveller's Act of 394.w93949-9, you are allowed full access to any portion of the Far End for the full duration of your stay as long as you accept that we are not liable for any psychic damage you may take as a result of goings on in this or any other applicable realms. As this is a purely mental realm, this is the only kind of damage you can take. We can't kill you, but we can mess up your head. Do you understand?"

Kahli thought about this. "Um. Not really?"

"Excellent, nobody does their first time. The important thing, Kahli, is that I told you the boilerplate. Since I told you the boilerplate, it ensures I won't get in any trouble for what happens next. That being said, if anything happens after our little chat that you don't necessarily jive with, just please keep in mind that it is out of my eyelashes, okay? I'm just doing my best here."

Kahli nodded slowly, unsure of what she was agreeing to but at the same time feeling completely certain that there was no other way - every word from the eyeball felt like more of a threat than it did anything else to her.

"Great, great, I'm so glad we have an understanding here. It's really wonderful that we're so on the same page. Marvelous. Consider my day made. That said, where do you want to go? Do you seriously not know? Are you going to make me read you the other boilerplate?"

Kahli shrugged, and the voice groaned.

"Ugh, fine. So, just to be transparent, if you don't choose where you go in the Far End, you'll end up diverting that choice over to your shadow self, and or selves, as available. They'll make a decision based on their intrinsic knowledge of the collective nonconsciousness and, as soon as we finish up here, you'll end up where they take you. Sound good?"

Kahli nodded slowly. Once again, she felt obligated to agree.

"Excellent. Alrighty, then, have fun!"

Before Kahli could respond, one of the walls with constantly morphing wallpaper grew a doorway. Truly, it grew as if it were an appendage on an organism. Then, the door swung open, revealing a colorful, coiling assortment of fractals. Kahli knew no what to do, but the truth was, there was nothing for her to do - as she sat there, her body quickly zoomed forth into the doorway, and her vision was quickly met by a bright flash of white.