Beyond Reailty, Not Science. (Invite Only)

[Not]

John Knot stood in the middle of white. He had thought to map out the place, but it seems that one cannot map out nothingness. He had been walking along in the whiteness for so long that he was almost certain that he was not heading in a strait direction. He would not be surprised if his path had slowly began to curve as it does when one walks with their eyes closed, and that he had been walking in one giant circle. He adjusted the collar of his lab coat and pressed on.

It would seem that he was walking in a circle but one that was much larger than he had first hypothesized, for the white suddenly gave way to grey, which suddenly gave way to stone. He looked around at all of the stone pillars and walls, and upward towards the stone floor and a feeling of déjà came over him. He realized he had been here before. It had been some time ago or at least a relatively long time ago, considering that there had been at least 20 different places he had been in-between then and now. None the less he was certain that this was the second time that he had come upon this place.

He looked over to a pillar which was jutting out of the floor and running quite close to the wall. It looked to be good for sitting and so John decided that now was a good time for sitting. He walked over to the wall and walked up it. His perspective adjusting so that right was up, left was down, forward was right, and backwards was wrong. It was quite a strange thing though not quite as strange for John for this was his second trip through the land of stone nothing.

He looked around and wondered what he was going to do since all he saw and had seen was a whole lot of nothing. He found himself daydreaming and thinking back to the days before he had left the farm, and then shifted to his time at The Facility. He had been given a chance that not many got. He took that chance and now he was here beyond reality, with nothing around and nobody to talk to- well, at least as far as he knew- he just sat there and did nothing.

[River Wilhelm]

Little bit of advice: Double-space your paragraphs. It makes it easier to read.

It had been worrying him since he landed here. Most of his things were replaceable: clothes, food, dignity. Yet, his timewatch wasn't. It was technology created by his father, and before he could ask anything about it, his life had turned upside-down. It started as little things, such as his GPS being in slight error, or the time being off, but now he was certain that somewhere in his travels, his watch had perhaps become damaged, or maybe it was flawed from the start. However, as he could do nothing about it, he decided to press on and continue his journey.

He found himself in Alerar now, tracking another temporal anomaly. This region seemed to have a lot of faint signals, and the largest one... was impossible to locate. It was so large that it simply showed up all over the country. Was this planet doing some sort of temporal research as well? Maybe it had something to do with the man he was after. The man who, after devastating his planet and creating an environment unsuitable for life or even time travel, fled for this world for reasons unknown to River. He didn't even know his name or what he looked like, but he had a time traveling device. If he could find his trail of temporal anomalies, eventually he'd catch up to him. That's what he thought, at least. It was the only thing he had to go on.

It was a small hilly dwarf town named in a language that River couldn't pronounce. Despite learning the language through his watch, it didn't augment his speech or accent, so he still came off as an outsider to these people. The temporal anomaly was at the base of a mountain near the town, so he was resting up before his trip. The residents didn't pay him much mind, but it was not common for humans to venture this far into Alerar. River was constantly on alert for any attempted robbery or worse, as his only means of defense was using his timewatch to go into the near future. However, ever time he did that, it strained the watch itself. He hoped to use the device as little as possible for as long as it'll hold out.

The next morning, River set out and climbed hill after hill, finally getting to the spot he was looking for. There was no grass growing on the ground, and it had some rocks half-buried. Judging by the erosion, this was some sort of camp site. It had a nice view overlooking the lower hills he had come from, and beyond it the mountain really started to get steep. When River gets to sites of temporal anomaly, his watch coordinates the signal and turns it into data. In this case, something happened here roughly 2 years ago. The watch was a symbiotic device, so he saw most of this information in his head, which made the watch's maintenance all the more dire.

After turning a few dials, the watch started giving off electrical sounds, after which River's form faded to white and the next thing he knew, he was... surrounded by white? Suddenly, he felt a sharp pain in his head and pressed his hand to his forehead. Something went wrong. He looked at his watch and it could not give him any data about time or place. A chill ran down his spine. Had it finally happened? Did the watch malfunction and instead of sending him through time... send him to another dimension? He slowly sat down, trying to reign in his emotions. He tinkered with the watch some more but after half an hour, he realized that it was futile. At first, he thought he was in shock, but hope hadn't faded from him yet. He had already traveled so far, it wasn't over yet!

The first thing he noticed about his new lifeless wasteland was that he no longer needed to breathe. Even though it was usually an unconscious event, he could hold his breath for as long as he liked. The next thing was that without a horizon, he could see a lot farther than on land. The first glimmer of hope was that it was not all a sea of white, since in the distance he could spot something more. It took him a while to get there, but it looked like he was now in a lake of gray stone. The texture was nonexistent; it was smooth like crystal, yet it had depth and felt like a rock. Not only that, but when he touched it, he felt nauseous as his perspective changed. He felt like he was standing on the side of a wall, but not falling. There was no smell, no sound, either, yet he could hear his own voice. His own sounds seem to echo far away. He put his foot on the rock, then the other, and he was on the ground again, yet from his previous perspective, he was now on the wall. It was very strange. He looked around and saw more twists and turns, so his immediate conclusion was that this.. space.. had no sense of up or down. Yet, he was grounded as if gravity had an effect on him. Was he creating his own gravitational field that reacted to this nothingness? Was he a mass in field of weightlessness? He had to admit, his intrigue was trumping his despair for now. As a scientist, everything here was very interesting.

Maybe this was a blessing in disguise. If he was here, then maybe the man he was looking for suffered the same fate. He didn't need to breathe, but his body functioned. He had all the time in the world. He could not only get the answers he needed, but replace the malfunctioning parts in his timewatch from the other man's and get out of here. He continued traversing this strange new land.

[Not]

His whole life had been about getting somewhere. Even before his work at The Facility the choices John had made had been about getting somewhere. Living on the farm, he felt like he had just been walking in circles and getting nowhere in life. He had made the choice to go study and work at The Facility because he felt like it would get him somewhere. He wouldn’t be an invisible blip in the great story of existence. Now he was here, about as far as anyone could be from anything and he still found himself walking in circles. It was about as nowhere as anyone could be and it made him feel like nothing.

He slammed his hand down hard on the stone. It hurt like hell. He had expected it to. It gave him a distraction from his current situation so he welcomed the feeling and it was gone all too soon. In fact it was practically over before it even started. It was strange that the feeling should just disappear like that. What was stranger still was that he never actually remembered coming into contact with the stone. He remembered feeling the pain at the exact point that he felt like he would have come into contact with the stone, but didn’t remember ever actually hitting the stone. It was an absurd thought that confounded him to no end.

He stood up to ponder it. The hard stone was making his bottom sore and his legs also needed a good stretch so standing was a nice change to sitting. He walked in a small circle as the wheels turned in his head. He circled around for some time though despite the increased blood flow he found no insight into the strangeness. He only found himself walking in circles and getting nowhere once again.

[River Wilhelm]

Footsteps. Like waves of sound pouring into his ears, they were unmistakeably real. A chill ran down River's spine. After all this time, had he finally reached his goal? Was the man who ruined his life here? Almost within reach! Taking off his shoes to prevent being detected himself, he navigated his way through the stone labyrinth. He walked up, down, left, and right, all towards the direction of the footsteps. When he felt that he was close, he cautiously looked around the corner and saw that he was not alone.

His breathing had become deep, and the world was in slow motion. Each action by this person resonated within River. It had to be him! The appearance seemed like it could fit. Yet, what should River do now? After all the frantic searching, he felt like the moment had been built up beyond his ability to realize his expectations. If he was truly trapped in this place like him, would he resist? How would River extract the information he needed? Who was the man he was staring at, anyway? He didn't recognize him as one of the scientists he worked well, and to his knowledge there were no other temporal research facilities. So young too, when all of the other researchers were well over the hill. However, he was not about to be deceived by a mere appearance.

All he had to do was capture him, right? He would never expect River to sneak up on him. However, as he nervously turned the corner, his socks slipped on the smooth stone floor and he fell to one knee, alerting his would-be captive. Deciding to salvage whatever was left of his dignity, River got up and glared at the man.

"I have only two things to ask you: Who are you, and what have you done to my world?!"