I awakened in the dust, with no idea where I was, and no memory of where I had been. I saw a passing caravan in the distance, so I decided to approach the people for assistance. One stranger near the end of the procession noticed me, and stopped to speak.

“...Hey, you still have your antennas!”

“...My antennas?”

“We’re almost in range of a broadcast node; you need to snap them off now! Here, I’ll do it for you—”

“Oh, uh...thank you. I think?”

“It’s alright; it’s for everyone’s safety. Do you want to hold onto them?”

“...Uh, sure...but...why’d you break them off in the first place?? What’s going on?”

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“You don’t know?? Hasn’t anyone ever told you about the Worm Feeders?”

“Worm…Feeders…?”

“Okay, listen: the Nebula signals are different outside the Ordered World. And if you keep on receiving them for long enough, they’ll eventually rewrite your brain and force you to...”

“...Force you to what?”

“…”

“…What is it?? Why are you staring...?”

“It’s...your head. I just noticed...the top is missing…”

“It is?? Oh, I guess it is…”

“And there’s nothing inside…!”

“Oh...well, that’s...concerning…”

“How can you...I mean, where is your brain?? How do you function???”

“I dunno.”

“I guess you can’t know...not without a brain…”

“...H-hey, I still know some things. A lot of things, actually! Like my name.”

“Your name?”

“Meissen!”

“Oh, Meissen...I’m Doccia. It’s nice to meet you. I’ve never met anyone without a brain before...”

“Well, as far as I know, I’ve never met anyone with a brain, so...I guess we’re starting out even?”

“Heh! I guess we are at that~.”