Astral Escape Ch.1

My eyes slide open and I see my ceiling, the sight that I wake to every morning a map spraypainted over easily made plastic, a map of home something that I will finally get to see after so long. Today’s the day come on let's get this show on the road and so I pull off my ever-fading soft wool blanket and get up to see the sunrise. And as I rise I see the ball of flaming iron nails screaming into sight signaling that it’s time to start my day.

So I stumble into my shower to the side of my room, an egg of blackened plastic filled to the brim with pipes. I approach the screen and wonder Hmm what shampoo should I use today Aero so my hair could float at my will, or maybe the Ursula package for some TENTACLE HAIR BABY, eh that will take too long I’ll go for Aero it matches my outfit. So I press the button at the top and silver flames leap from the pipes and envelope the room with burning light. And I step out completely clean not a speck of dirt nor a mussed hair with hair that floats ethereally, Oh so much better than a regular shower I’m done so quick plus no need to wait to condition your hair I love it, it’s just so cool

I giggle as I head to the armory my bare feet slapping the floors of my home. I step into the circular room filled to the brim with artifacts made and found, with an eternally spinning rack on the bottom holding all the clothes and glass cases above holding special artifacts. I sigh So many things that would drive people mad in this room and I'm walking away from all of it. I see an old binder, tomes of runes, weapons made in ages past, and a selection of crowns, robes, and capes enough to bedazzled any emperor. Amidst the chaos, I grab a single right-handed diamond-encrusted glove to guide me where I need to go, shifting mercury stiletto heels as tall as my hands covered in menacing runes granting me the power of moonwalk. I grab my favorite crown from my collection an elegant and simple piece madeup of spirit silver with a band that slowly rises to a dangerously sharp tip that holds the spirits of dozens of ancient kings and queens. And finally, a robe made by an idiotic and sadistic vizier composed of strips of the minds of close-minded people shielding my Perspective from spirits, it encloses me completely in tightening and loosening bands wide and thin that refuse any Perspective but their own. I slip them on and walk to my final breakfast here on this side, my stiletto heels click-clacking on the plastic floors of my home away from home.

I grab some cereal and milk from the fridge toss them into a bowl and sit down at the table in front of the window. Through the window, I can see the artificial sun that I forged from infinite iron nails and the infinite expanse of thought blooming with all the colors of the human soul.

“This is really it, the last day I Tara the great emotionsmith will ever spend in my beautiful prison. I’ve earned it I’ve spent years figuring out the rules of this topsy-turvey world I’ve journeyed farther and learned more than anyone could have ever expected me to. And yet I am still so afraid of what comes next, it’s been so long I’ve done so much and I’m just supposed to what, walk back into an ordinary life as if nothing happened!” I speak into the void.

But it must be done so I stand up, gather my strength, and smile at my reflection.

"It's go time. Better get off this tin can while I can muster the motivation to do so." I say to my own face in the glass.

And so I walk straight into the glass and shatter it, letting go of the weight of my home so that it will fall into the star I forged from my blood, and ingenuity. I step on gouts of mercury as I walk to my destination, but before I do I gaze upon my prison, my home, my paradise. I search for spots of blue wonder amongst the putrid greens, dim pinks, and searing reds, that form the landscape each blooming, and dying in tandem with the thoughts of the masses. Ugh, it hurts to see so much yet know so little of what happens on the other side of the glass. I see the reds of war yet do not know if war with the Estrati erupted as was predicted in my time or if the war is occurring centuries in the future between participants I don’t even know. For all I know the red could be conjured by the fight between ant colonies, human thought is not the only thought out there. An ant’s dreams are just as real as a human's as colorful and true as any dream you or I might forge.

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But the thing about the Astral you know, the thing we go through to get pretty much anywhere in a reasonable amount of time, is that it’s not a simple road or some tunnel we use to quantum leap no it is a quiet peaceful expanse as large as our own universe, that is oh so beautiful and oh so empty. I then turn off my boots and take the time to just float.

“You know if I didn’t know that the infinite expanse means that I would never be found or rescued I think I could spend eternity here watching the entire universe think in tune with me,” I remark while miming myself holding a star born of a unified belief.

As I start to spin I chuckle ignorance truly is bliss, I muse quite literally in my case your truths dictate your Perspective, I wonder could I have been rescued If I held the common belief, the perspective of those who don’t see the possibility in the plane that collectively holds all thoughts that will ever happen.

“Why could I even get research that would explode the heads of scientists centuries prior while ordering groceries online!” I exclaim waving my hands around in frustration

You see a while ago we figured out that the Astral plane is structured through expectation so if you step through a portal and all prior evidence suggests that you would come out the other side you WILL come out the other side. And I guess what I expected when I thought of the place in between the stars and the realm of pure thought I thought of a world of color that blooms with every idea that is ever made. I should be grateful that my prison is so beautiful that I can gaze upon families embracing holiday cheer, parades held in honor of peace, doctors defeating death, and battles fought for freedom. But why allow it all? Oh well, I’ll figure out the truth soon, wait I see a bit of blue over there. I arrest my movement with a whisper of certainty and use my diamond encrusted glove to conjure a tether to the coordinates and continue my spacewalk. I’ll need Wonder for my next step or well my last I guess. I’m going to have to pass through War to get there but it should be fine.

I push through the blooms of war and hear the clangs of swords, the yells of debates, and the quiet of explosions in a vacuum. My steps are steady, no more swimming for me I’ve grown and seen so much in here but it all comes to this. I tear up as I think of all I’ve accomplished, the research I spent years on, the adventures through the infinite expanse, and the conversations with people with such different perspectives from mine. I think I’ll miss the Astral plane just a bit but above all else, I’m glad that my perspective is mine and that I see Wonder rather than a road from A to B.

But as I hear the gleeful laughter of children and eyes glistening with tears from the tops of mountains I know that I’ve arrived. And so I pull my carefully constructed portal out of a pocket, I pull out the long-lost familiar site of airport, terminals and all ending with a portal of gleaming white plastic and silver metal. Something so ordinary that I used it for my daily commute now the thing that will bring me home although admittedly it is inscribed with enough runes to drown a city I laugh.

“It’s so silly that I still use these, English would work perfectly fine if I had the Belief, but I guess I never thought of English as magical enough.” I giggle.

Oh, the quirks of magic so much stronger for those willing to laugh at the absurdity of it all. There was a phrase coined a long time ago that comes to mind.

I say to the world on the other side “You should fear the insane, they know naught of what is impossible”

And with that last thought given to the infinite expanse I step through the portal.

Ta-Ta and goodbye Astral Plane!