[ The last thing you remember is a flash of light. ... Your Gem activating. You heard it. But why are you so sore...? ]
[ Trying to move at all feels like a monumental task, right now. Your body feels heavy, foreign to you. Too big, heavy in places you aren’t familiar with. Structures shifted in ways you don’t know, not yet - but you know it feels off. ]
[ It takes effort to crack open your eyes. More to blink bleariness away, to try and see the world clearly - but you find at least some of your vision obstructed. What is that? Your face feels strange - what is this??? ]
[ You manage to drag up a hand to try and prod at or move the obstruction. ... That can’t be your hand. Your hand isn’t — You don’t have huge claws. Or... Or pawpads. Or striped, orange and black fur... ]
[ You were playing a game. ]
[ A terrified gasp wrenches itself from your lungs as you force yourself upright, scrambling backwards from the realization. This is wrong. This is all wrong, this is SO wrong, this— I—-! ]
[ I shouldn’t BE here—-! ]
[ Okay, Steven. It’s — you’re gonna be fine. You’ve... you’ve been through weirder things, right? This is just, a little more of that, is all! You... you’ll be fine. It’s - it’s fine. It has to be fine. It will be! Right??? ]
[ ... You choke back a sob you didn’t know was coming. No, damnit, knock that off! At least try to get up first. And you do. You try, and you keep trying, but you can’t seem to keep your footing for more than a few seconds before your legs give out underneath you. But at least those few seconds afford you a bit more clarity as to where you are, exactly - ]
[ A cliff. High, high above the city of Lion’s Arch, with no easy way down, especially not when you have so little spacial awareness over your own body. Okay. Okay! Surely that can’t be so bad. You just need a bubble is all, a bubble should let you get down safely, right? ]
[ Only when you try... Nothing happens. ]
[ Maybe it’s a fluke. You try again. Still nothing. And again, and again, and —
Where’s my Gem??? ]
[ Panic grips you all over again as your hand moves instinctively to your gut, to your stomach, the center of your being... And you find it where it always has been, but it feels wrong. It feels wrong, and cold, and as you press at it, it almost seems to flicker in and out of existance. ]
[ You didn’t want this. You didn’t want any of this, I didn’t want any of this, I just wanted some space, I just- I just—! ]
[ He can’t help the sobs that start to spill out, now. The charr - now the boy, as well - curls up in a tight ball atop the cliff where he sat trapped, arms coming up to cover his face, his snout, to muffle himself. ]
[ I don’t want to be alone. I don’t want to be alone. Please— I can’t do this— I WANT MY FAMILY— ]
————
[ A world away, a laptop sits alone in a greenhouse, powered down and going cold. The door is locked. And no one knows that Steven Quartz-DeMayo Universe has gone missing. ]
