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THE CHRONICLES OF FINALGAMER Swim Through My Mind

"His answer trickled through my head Like water through a sieve." The White Knight, Through the Looking Glass

To awaken in mid-air was a whole new experience to the raptor, and one he did not wish to repeat again, were it not for the strange feeling of weightlessness that accompanied it. He expected from seeing the stars and galaxies themselves, gently glittering in every direction around him, that he was in space. Even if he could somehow breathe. Looking down below, he realised he was perhaps not so high as that. Clouds beneath him appeared to be solid white, packed like marshmallows. He had the strangest sensation of being asleep with his eyes open, the same experience one gets within a dream where the edges of one's perception are bordered by clouds. Images flickering in and out of focus, random memories and imaginings colliding into grandiose triptychs of either heavenly bliss or nightmarish fears. He could not even speak, not knowing what to even say, but eventually he tried to. For some reason, only bubbles came out of his throat, the raptor slowly stared into the perfect spheres his voice had become trapped in, his gaze wide and convex within them. Then he realised. He was under water. Somehow. Yet his lungs had not even realised any absence of oxygen, managing to breathe as if he were a fish. Trying to swim upwards by instinct, he broke the surface only to see the stars much clearer than before, the pitch blackness between them almost weighing down upon him with their infinite presence. Gazing across the world he was within, he saw a large red planet with a diagonal ring eclipsing the sun to his left, and a strange black hole to his right, a thin sliver of silver light gently undulating from its centre. He imagined it was a thread for an interdimensional balloon shaped like a black hole, briefly fluttering in the absence of wind, gazing along the silver stream to see who held the end of it. It came towards him.

The water he was in was the silver itself, some sort of stationary aquatic tunnel that constantly flowed and shined across the galaxy, reaching to another world far far away from here. A world he could not even see within the black abyss of space. Below him was the Earth itself, or at least he thought it was. A beautiful world where he saw patches of blue and green from inbetween clouds and the gigantic bubbles they spewed. Small coral-filled asteroids purely of water and a little bit of rock floated above the world, constantly smooth, so smooth to not even have any imperfections, except for the small splash of grey that burst out from one. It skipped back and forth, leaping back and forth from bubble to bubble, seemingly trying to build momentum to itself. It eventually stopped and turned towards James. Something began to reach out to him, a voice swimming into his head like a fish through the coral. A voice that spoke of intelligence and unwavering duty. Are you one of the Hive? "Wh-what?" As much as he failed to speak in the water, it was mirrored within his mind. Are you one of my enemies, creature? He assumed it was the grey creature from afar and shouted through the spatial waves: "No! I dunno what this Hive is! I'm lost!" Come to me. We can discuss matters further face to face. "How...how do I reach there?" Leap from the water, high above yourself and into this bubble. "What?! ...I-I can't do that!" With that understanding, the grey creature leapt forwards with furious power towards the raptor, splashing into the hanging river. A dolphin, bottlenosed with grey smooth unblemished skin and four strange little marks like stars upon its head, spoke with a clear male voice somehow into James' mind. I have seen your kind before, far back in the history of my ancestors. Why are you here? "I...I'm from..." You are not from around here...I do not even need the Asterite to tell me this. "Uhhhhh you got that right...who are you?" I am Ecco. Has my foe taken your pod too? "Um....n-no, I...listen I got lost and I kinda ended up here, I'm travelling from...other worlds. Trying to get back home." Then you are part of another stream, not the one that I search for. "But where AM I?" My world, within the Sky Tides, the hanging waters some may call them. "So...I..." You have many questions. Do not be concerned. This is not your story after all. "Well...not even my own world...how are you-" That is not for you to know. You have your own story. It lies far from here. You have your own song to finish. "My song? Wh-what the hell are you on about!?" I cannot say more. I am sorry to be so rude, but my mission lies far ahead of you. How can I help you? "No I...I think I'm not staying long. This place is really...really confusing." Then I must warn you of the waves, and also your future. Look. One is coming now. From the dull sounds of the water, James could hear what Ecco meant, a slowly rising roar, of a surging beast that channelled itself through the astronomical aqua pura, the dolphin immediately racing ahead to not be thrown from it. James did his best to swim through the tunnels of strangely supportive marine life, where even fish seemed to swim merrily ignorant of what fate befell them should they ever go downwards. James however was hit by a wave that threw him from the water, high above it, splashing with a half-spin as he cried out and desperately tried to get back into the water, only to miss and hurtle towards the land. His scream was swallowed within the thin atmosphere, shattering the peace outside of the river. Falling through the thinner atmospheres of the planet, he dreamed of the sea, and wished to be closer to it, somewhere upon it, somewhere dry. A lakeshore perhaps. As his mind turned woozy from fear and lack of oxygen outside of the water, the echoes of Ecco slowly began to dissipate, the last voice he would hear before blackening out within his mental convalescence of the sea. I see your future...your future... "Future...?" Your song is tainted, stranger. Redemption....shall strengthen the harmony of your song...but without it...you will find naught but silence. With nothing but these words left to him, his mind took him elsewhere to somewhere anew. Not a sea coast...but of a silent lakeshore. Somewhere that he would never wish to be.