Weightlessness. It felt floating on water but without the wet and all of the confusion from a mind trying to process that.  Justin tried to look around but there was nothing to see. No lights, no landscapes, no nightmarish hellscapes or dreamlike futuristic cities. There was only the deepest black that they had ever seen. If one were to describe this black, they might say that it was what void looked like. Not a lack of light, but a plane where light never existed to begin with. Floating in this self titled void plane was practically indescribable. Mostly because it was something that Justin had never experienced before, let alone tried to put into words for the first time. If he were to try though? Absolutely weird would be fitting.

It wasnt really... bad though? Peaceful in a way that pushed against the wall of dread that they had set up in their mind out of fear of going to a new place like a metaphorical ocean hitting a metaphorical seaside cliff with metaphorical waves.

"I don't really like the thought of something messing with my head." It had been a thought that Justin had just thought, but when he thought it the words came out into the space around him. He could hear his thoughts not like how he normally heard it. It wasn't a voice in his head but more of a voice that echoed around him. It echoed far out into the nothingness of the void."I don't really like this new thought speaking thing either. I wonder what other new tricks are in store for... where exactly?" The responding silence was deafening, and it made Justin nervous. "Mhmm. Yep. Don't like this place. So why am I here then, hm?" Multiple things from various types of source material that Justin had read over his life painted vivid pictures that weren't exactly helpful when herealized that none of them applied to the situation at hand. It was rather annoying. 

 Scratch that, it was very annoying. Like ooh yeah, the void. The mysterious blacker than black. A place that makes perfect sense to absolutely everybody. Except not though. Was like like a dream void, or the void kind of void where like It's an actual plane of nothing that goes on for eternity? Or perhaps this is what it was like to be concious while his body was unconcious? Like part of Justins brain was off but not the right part so somehow he was still conscious and able to think.

"Oh! Or a coma. Could be a coma, yeah." So many possibilities, so much time. Luckily it was good time to think. Not a good place for anything else though. "Well, huh. Well shit. I think my best guess was that either this is a lucid dream that I have no control over or..."

Justin didnt want it to be the other guess. That guess was a dark path and he didn't want to tread down it.

"Ya know. Maybe this is a sign that going to an alien and completely unknown world was a bad idea after all. Huh. Probably should have guessed that before I threw all my crap through it." The thought of it made Justin sigh, not that apparently he could sigh as it just came out as another sound around them. Seriously though, the whole speaking thoughts and other noises out loud thing was just, why though? It's awful. Still, it was enough of a distraction to not think to hard about his situation and panic about it. The panic could come later. Right now, Justin needed something to keep themselves at least kind of sane after all that had happened.

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So Justin talked. He talked to himself about anything they could think of. From his life and how he thought the door would maybe change that, to his past with all the hardships and mental pitfalls that he had suffered through. He talked about his hopes and fears about what the future could grant him or take away. Would it be that of adventure and self discovery, or of a grimdark world where slavery is everywhere, rascism and bigotry is rampent, and the world itself is on the verge of another war? Maybe his old world was a thousand times better comparitively. That would suck.

Justin's eyes started to hurt. It was a kind of rapidly poking and crawling pain that traveled up from their spine, through their head and straight to their eyes. Basically, it hurt quite a bit. Sudden too. Right out of nowhere. Like suddenly hitting your funny bone without realizing you did until it was too late, but worse.  But Justin didn't stop talking, because his words were the only thing about himself that didn't feel like dread welling up because of the pain or the feeling of the pain as it was happening. Or the confusion about why the pain was suddenly happening. 

As much as as the author of this story or I the Narrator would like to put a comical spin on things like for what is happening now, sometimes that is simply impossible. To put comedy to suffering would be to give the suffering less weight, less passion. All you can really do in these situations is hope for the best and try not to die.

Which is exactly what Justin started to do when the darkness got darker, the pain got worse, his talking became pained cries, and before his conciousness finally slipped away into the dark again.

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Justin awoke to what sounded like a cry of victory from a birdlike creature. He opened his eyes and saw a wide and slowly darkening blue sky that looked rather, normal. It was rather dissapointing sight, not a flying dragon or cloud in sight. Justin gave it a solid 3/10. It would have a higher ranking because they weren't in the void looking place anymore, but he hurt all over in places that Justin didn't even know could hurt. Especially the eyes. Justin could hardly move them without feeling like he just won an international eye rolling competition. "Ow ow ow owww. Ohhh everything hurts. Eugh. Guess I won against that void place too. Suck it. Ow." Even talking hurt, although that did create the thought that the void place had just been a dream and that all the talking he had done might have been out loud while he was asleep the whole time. It was a good thought, one that helped explain why his voice had a much higher pitch and sounded... different.

Chirrrp!

"What a loud bird, what the hell. Ow." 

...

Wait. Bird? Oh no.

Justine froze in place, not that they could move much to begin with. The bird thing sounded near. Very near. Dangerously near. "Oh. Oh no. Come on me, get up. Up. Oww. Shit." Justin clenched his teeth and prepared for what he thought was going to hurt. Sadly, he was right. Just sitting up hurt.

Actually that was just sugercoating it. It hurt a hell of alot.