Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Nilum]

(Formerly: Vagrant)

You sit on a street corner as rain falls from the sky. Each drop that falls makes a hard impact and a heavy sound. The cacophony of thousands is almost deafening.

You don't know how long you've been here. You can barely remember your name, how old you are, or what you did to deserve this fate. Your pockets are empty and your clothes -- little more than rags -- are completely soaked.

You sit as hundreds pass you by, their gaze always evasive. Closing your eyes, you wish things were different.

"Hey pal. Listen. I'm going to give you a chance to change."
You aren't sure where the voice is coming from.
"You did this to yourself. This is your fate. But it doesn't have to stay like this."
You struggle to open your eyes once more. Solidified rheum holds them shut.
"Tell me. What do you wish you were?"

Opening your mouth, you let out a hoarse voice and answer his question.
>...

[SirAaronIII]

> ...a musical llama from the future

[Digital Hellhound]

>...the person asking the question

[Nilum]

"...a musical llama from the future," you utter.
"So be it."

And so the voice departs. Nothing else changes. You can still hear the rain, plummeting from the sky. You try to open your eyes once more and struggle against the overpowering sensation to sacrifice yourself to sleep. As your eyelids lift, your vision is bombarded with colors and bright lights. The sound of rain ceases. You feel different, like a changed man. There's something off, though -- your peripheral vision seems a tad more encompassing, and upon opening your mouth to speak you find you can only produce musical notes. You try to examine your surroundings. You're completely overwhelmed. Thousands of people skittering by in the blink of an eye, a vast field stretches out in front of you, and to your left a tanned man wearing a sleek monofabric robe holds a strange metal stick in his hand. He drives it into you, and involuntarily, you cry out in song.

"'Tis a llama that sings, not speaks nor thinks
That gathers a crowd, and pleases them proud..."

You continue for quite some time. There is much applause. Perhaps life as a musical llama is an improvement, you think.
But the voice echos in your head once again.

"This future is highly improbable and as such, inherently unstable. If I allow this to proceed I'm afraid I risk compromising this entire section of the multiverse. Having demonstrated my abilities to you, I will ask that you choose something else."

You contemplate his words. It sounds as if he wants you to choose something that is less unfeasible. Thinking long and hard, you decide to become...
>...

[Digital Hellhound]

>...a forger of worlds in the distant future, a craftsman who deals in tailored realities and pocket universes

[BunnyBob77]

A magical Llama-king who lives underground.

[Nilum]

You hesitate for a moment, torn between two possibilities. Your obsession with llamas is rather frightening, really. A magical Llama-king holds a certain appeal, encompassed in absurdity. On the other hand, a forger of worlds is hardly 'more' probable. You decide upon the latter.

"Make me a worldforger. A crafter who weaves the fabric of reality," you think, after some pause.
"You would wish upon yourself godhood?"
"Yes."

And so it was. You don't notice the utter loss of sensation, the sudden blindness, the absolute silence. You come to, head resting on a soft pillow, staring at a perfectly flat, matte white ceiling. Your white sheets and blankets, white sleeping robe and white walls are disorienting. Standing up, you note that there is no color within sight, save your slightly pink skin, freer of blemishes than you recall.

You head for the doorway, apparently no more than a frame set in the wall. Outside your constricted room, you're greeted by absolutely nothing. Looking back, the room you just left is nowhere to be found. Surrounded by white void in every direction, you're overtaken by an incredible feeling of nausea. What are you standing on? Where are you? A feminine voice suddenly penetrates your mind. It's almost as if she's right beside you, speaking into your ear.

"Sir, it's about time to get started. Our client expects a prototype by tomorrow, ready for criticism."
Your head spins.

>...

[Digital Hellhound]

>Ask voice to remind you about the specifics of the client's request

[Nilum]

"Um, could you please remind me exactly what our client wanted, again?" you ask hesitantly.
"You're hopeless. I can't believe you're his replacement. What did they see in you? Listen up. You can access our records through gesture delta-twelve. It'll have the specifics of all contracts you've been assigned."

Gesutre delta...twelve? You have no idea what that's supposed to mean. You fumble a bit and awkwardly try to shape your left hand into a D, with little success. The voice in your ear chuckles.

"Oh boy. You really don't know the first thing about this craft, do you? There is no 'gesture delta-twelve'. Just focus on bringing the records up, then... put your thoughts into concrete shape and form."

Your assistant's vague explanation is rather difficult to wrap your head around, but you give it a shot, and in a moment you're holding a flat tablet. There are three options -- records, prefabs, and export. You press records and a single document is brought up. It reads:

ASSIGNMENT LEVEL: POCKET ROOM
DESCRIPTION:
100m³
One wooden chair sits in the middle of a vast room filled with books. There should be no sound, but beyond this, regular physics should be replicated to the utmost. The books should be stacked upon each other in precariously balanced towers.

"Kinda boring, right? Anyway. I've highlighted a 100m³ area and selected it as the active workspace. Now hurry up -- you're running at 1/100 universal time right now so you only have 14 minutes until it's due."

In front of you is a large, glowing green cube. You presume whatever exists inside of it will be packaged up into a 'pocket reality' once exported. Neat, but you don't have time to mess around. You can call forth objects from your head if you concentrate enough -- what matters now is making a reality that adequately reflects your employer's given description. It's pretty vague, so you suppose a lot of the details are left up to you.

What do you do first?
>...

TIME LEFT: 14 MINUTES, 24 SECONDS

[Hubris Incalculable]

Concentrate on making 10m tall walls of books of various content and color, but of uniform size, all leatherbound, into a maze, the walls each 1 m apart, and leaving a 5m² space in the middle, in which you should place a large wingback chair, covered in red leather. In the centre of the chair's back, you should emboss and gild the image of an open book.

[Arkinnian]

As a side note, there should be a comprehensive section of books detailing famous llamas around the multiverse--particularly Chief Sollum Neverbleat.

[Trapezohedron]

As a side note, there should be a comprehensive section of books detailing famous llamas around the multiverse--particularly Chief Sollum Neverbleat.

And magma.

Concentrate on making 10m tall walls of books of various content and color, but of uniform size, all leatherbound, into a maze, the walls each 1 m apart, and leaving a 5m² space in the middle, in which you should place a large wingback chair, covered in red leather. In the centre of the chair's back, you should emboss and gild the image of an open book.

Also include a glowing crystal sculpture of the client.

[Hubris Incalculable]

Ah- one other point- Have intricate chandeliers hang from the ceiling on forty metre chains, light by undying candles.

[Nilum]

You step into the green cube. It resists at first, with jelly-like elasticity, but after some struggle it accepts you in. Once inside, you notice that the walls of the cube have become opaque. The area you're in now, perfectly 100m³, is completely closed off from that odd dream-like space you were in before. You don't really understand it, but 14 minutes is not a lot of time. You start by trying to summon up a single large column of leatherbound books.

...it does not go as well as you hoped. You visualized the structure in your head, but when you tried to pull it into reality the result was more than a little flawed. The proportions of the book superstructure are completely off. You pull a single book from the column, expecting the entire tower to come crashing down, but nothing happens. You open the book and start to flip through the pages. They're all completely blank.

It doesn't really matter, though, you suppose. The client didn't request that the books actually have any content. Still, it seems like there's no gravity in this world yet. Or friction, for that matter. You note that your interactions with this reality are... off. When you try to hold an object in your hand, it feels incorporeal. You get the feeling you don't exist as a physical being here, but as a 'designer'. You are in complete control of this space, but physical laws don't seem to apply to you.

You snap out of your deep thought and realize you need to replicate 'regular physics to the utmost'. There's surely an easier way than constructing everything from scratch. Bringing up your tablet-menu, you select the 'prefab' option and find that it offers not only a wide assortment of buildings and structures and items, but indeed, basic preset physical laws. So you select 'reality' and load it. The column of books that until now had been levitating immediately clatter to the floor. You wish them away and they disappear.

Starting again, you imagine a column of books, but vaster in expanse than before. For a moment, your mind contemplates a labyrinthine structure of significant complexity, composed entirely of books. You struggle to hold the image in your head, but try to force it into existence nonetheless.

In a moment you're surrounded by books on all sides, stacked five times your height. You start to wander through the maze you've created. The books all look identical, save for their colors. The voice in your ear comes back.

"Huh. That's not bad. Just set a chair down in the center and we can call it a day."

...you'd comply if you knew where the center was. Your fruitless wandering wastes some time, until the voice comes back again.

"Um. Just fly, why don't you?"

Oh, yeah. This world bends to your will, so surely you'd be able to fly, right? You concentrate. Nothing happens. You try again. You hold the image of you soaring through a blue sky in your head, above the clouds and far above the ground. You start to pull it in to this reality when you realize you risk ruining everything you've created so far. Careless thought seems like it could cause some serious problems. For a moment, your head flashes to a rapidly rising pool of magma. You decide against summoning it, since, well, you're surrounded by most-likely flammable books on all sides.

Trying to fly again, this time you imagine yourself. You focus on the image of yourself floating, nothing else. You commit this thought to reality, and before you know it, you're soaring. You fly high, maybe 20, 30 meters, and find a large opening at the center of the maze. You bring yourself down to the ground, landing softly on your feet. Next, --

"5 minutes left. Get to it."

-- well, next, is a chair. Something sophisticated. You summon a smooth wingback chair, clad in red leather. You're suddenly struck by how strong this place smells - a smell of old paper and books. Like a library from your youth. You pause for a moment and gaze upon your creation -- it's simple, but it fulfills most of the criteria the client set forth.

You set about adding some extra details. You briefly consider adding a sculpture of the client, but lacking any idea of what he looks like, you decide to relent. You emboss an image of an open book on the back of the chair, and glance around once more. It occurs to you that there is no light, no light at all. How are you even seeing? You're baffled. You quickly dream up some chandeliers and attach them to the ceiling. Vast, forty meter chains hold them steady, and the light they produce -- wait, light now?. -- bathes the room in a warm orange glow.

"Time's almost up. If there's anything else you need to do, I suggest you do it now."
>...
TIME LEFT: 1 MINUTE, 12 SECONDS

[Trapezohedron]

> Summon an intricate blue glowing crystal sculpture of a naked female angel, bathing, akin to those sculptures you used to find in chapels, and put it in the eastern corner of the room.

> Change the room's borders into gold, and the floor and ceiling into white marble. Change the wall into red, polished mahogany paneling.

> Put abstract paintings on the walls, and most importantly, put a fractal painting of a fractal painting of a fractal painting...