hear the song that was sundered

had another dream! much more disturbing than the last on multiple levels, as you’ll soon find out if you read this. can’t even class it as a nightmare bc i didn’t wake up upset, but it’s pretty……..not good, scoob.

warnings for: dehumanization, animal abuse, blood/gore, torture, cannibalism(kind of? depends on your pov i guess)

warnings for: body horror & unreality

It’s four in the morning just outside the fast food joint you work at, the full moon glowing a bit too brightly in the sky. A few metres away a garbage truck lifts the metal bin. You see nothing but a few stray napkins fall, yet you hear shattering glass. The bin is set down with aching slowness. A loud crunch echoes, all four wheels bent unnaturally. That’s the second time this week. The manager’s going to be pissed. Something slow and glinting a suspicious red oozes out from under the bin. The driver waves when he notices you.

The last parents have herded their children away from the slide and the jungle gym. You are alone on the playground as the sun sets, swinging gently and ignoring the marks the chains holding you up are branding into your skin. Underfoot, the sand turns to glass. The rubber of your shoes starts to melt, and you pretend not to notice the scent of charred meat, or the figure now swinging beside you. The fire pit across the park is now a well, bucket and crank and all, overflowing and cooling the glass with long hisses and rising steam. Your companion giggles. You do not look over.

All the lights inside the city bus are working fine, but the shadows are missing. The very back is hoarding them, entrenched in darkness so thick it’s impossible to know if there’s really a wall or if it leads somewhere else. Thorny vines wind their way out of the dark, twining around passengers’ ankles. A man grimaces when one digs into his shiny dress shoes. The smell of rotten apples is overpowering. Someone stands to exit and the vines let them go, but not alone.

A small, cramped bookstore has a mirror along one wall. The shelves are so close together that two people can barely stand back to back between them without touching. Thin purple smoke escapes from the pages as you flick through your selection. Two to the left, black sludge drips from the binding of another. You happen to look up, glancing through the gap where the book in your hand used to be, and catch the eye of your reflection. It winks. You did not. There is breath on the back of your neck.

You walk circles around a mall bigger than it has any right to be. Mid afternoon on a weeknight means that most people are still at work, but that says nothing about the ones that aren’t people. By now it’s as easy as pie to avoid their eyes. The stores rearrange themselves around you, and the third time you pass the underwater exhibit you decide to take the hint. An electric eel nearly as long as you are tall swims beside you in the waist deep water and you step politely aside to let it pass.

The fact that Oscar didn’t tell them where they were going meant it had to be either ridiculously stupid or unbelievably amazing. Maybe both at once, knowing Oscar. Their band of deviants had been running around together for over a decade, and Oscar never failed to provide entertainment when it was his turn to lead them. Today, he’d once again snuck the group into the science museum and taken them down various deserted pathways and dark corridors.

“In here,” Oscar said, grinning not a little maniacally and shoving a crate out of his path. The teen dropped to his knees and didn’t hesitate to crawl through the rusted grate he’d revealed. The gang of adventurers followed him easily, having had enough experience with similar scenarios to know the drill. Ryan ruffled his blond hair to rid it of a cobweb and, being the last person through, dragged the crate back where it was, throwing the cramped room into darkness. Pressed shoulder to shoulder, they stood and waiting for Oscar to reveal whatever it was he was going to reveal. As their eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness, Jenn glared at Patrick, who apparently hadn’t noticed he was standing on her foot.

A hollow echo filled the room, and the group looked over to find Oscar, his smug smirk lit faintly by the glowing object beside him. The thing looked like an antique, old and finely crafted. It was about the size of two end tables pushed together, and had swirling designs painted across it. Soft blues and greens emanated from it. The areas that weren’t touched by the lights were the long opening at the bottom, which was similar to a ball dispenser of an arcade game, and the nine, randomly sized holes that dotted its face.

“What’s that?” Maya asked quietly, her words ringing through the silence.

Oscar grinned, bouncing on his toes. “I don’t know!” he answered, much more boisterously.

“Okay,” Ryan said, and opened his mouth to continue, even as Jenn shoved Patrick, finally dislodging his foot. “What-” The dark haired boy fell against Ryan, and the blond cut himself off, stumbling and barely keeping himself from slamming into Maya on his other side.

“Something cool!” Oscar enthused, seemingly not noticing the near domino incident, but his amused look said something different. “It teaches you about space, and it’s fun!” He aimed the last bit mostly towards Patrick, who was not the biggest fan of most teaching methods. “I don’t want to spoil it, so I’ll just say that it’s like a cross between an omni theatre and a holodeck.”

“What about space?” Jenn asked curiously.

“The planets!” exclaimed Oscar. “Stars, galaxies, black holes, maybe even the big bang! All kinds of shit.”

“Let’s go, then!” Patrick prodded impatiently. Oscar grinned and did a little twirl to get himself to the other end of the box. He grabbed Patrick’s wrist and tugged him over.

“Hand here,” Oscar ordered, pointing to a particularly bright green corner. Squinting, Patrick was pretty sure he could make out a handprint and obediently fit his hand over it. A loud clang sounded and a fairly large ball dropped down into the holding area of the contraption. It glowed dimly gold and had flickering yellowish rings around it. The rings didn’t seem to be connected to the ball, and when Patrick picked it up and rolled it around in his hands, parts of the rings disappeared and reappeared as he covered and uncovered what they all guessed were ‘holodeck’ emitters.

“Is that Saturn?” Maya asked, intrigued.

“Yeah, I think so,” Patrick answered with wide eyes.

“Now you find which hole it fits into, and you push it through,” Oscar instructed, tapping the box. Patrick crouched and tried to fit the ball through a hold that turned out to be just a bit too small. He shifted and tried another, and this time the ball fit perfectly. The expected sound of the ball hitting the inside didn’t come, but after a few seconds, the contraption started clanking loudly. Patrick stood up and took a few steps back, watching it intently.

Horizontally through the middle of the box, a faint line became noticeable and then more pronounced, the newly formed top and bottom halves pulling apart. The movement revealed a foreboding abyss. Peering into the darkness, the group saw nothing more than seemingly endless black. Everyone glanced at the grinning Oscar in question.

“It’s a slide,” Oscar answered without being asked. “It’s fun, seriously.” Patrick looked at the tunnel dubiously, but then shrugged and walked up to it.

“Anything else I should know before I-?” Patrick gestured to the opening to get his meaning across. Oscar grabbed his chin in an exaggerated thinking pose for a few seconds before shaking his head. His grin told Patrick something else entirely, but the brunette just rolled his eyes. He gripped the top of the box and sat in the entrance like it was any other slide. Glancing back at the others, he found them watching, torn between concern and curiosity. Patrick faced front again and released his hold on the edge, scooting forward to gain a bit of momentum. He heard the panels click shut behind him, and then he was speeding down the slide much faster than he was sure was safe.

The slide was smooth all the way down, with no rivets like normal slides had. Patrick didn’t know if friction was working how it was supposed to because of his ever-increasing speed and the lack of static that playground slides were always full of. There weren’t and quick turns or bumps. It felt like it was delivering him somewhere, like he was a package marked ‘urgent.’

The solid bottom abruptly ended and the brunette yelped, flailing his arms around, but there was nothing to grab hold of. Only a few moments of freefall went by, long enough for him to get the shock of his life but not long enough for him to start to panic, and then some kind of resistance began to slow him down. It happened gradually, but soon he was floating in place. There still wasn’t any light, and he couldn’t even see his hand when he waved it in front of his face.

He’d never seen anything like this- it was so… void. None of his senses had anything to latch onto, and that probably would’ve gotten to him pretty quickly, but then a chuckle came out of nowhere. Patrick dropped his hand to his side and glanced around. That laugh had sounded as if it’d come from everywhere at once. Another chuckle, and this time it was much more distinct, as if it’d come from only a few feet in front of him, and he squinted into the darkness in an attempt to spot whoever it was.

“Forgive me,” the laugh’s owner said, their tone still tinged with amusement. “I am ELI- Educating, Lively Intelligence. I will be your guide while you’re here.”

“Awesome,” Patrick replied, nodding as if this entire situation was something that happened everyday. “Is there any way I could… see you?”

“I suppose,” the voice answered thoughtfully. “Do you have a particular image in mind?” Patrick’s mouth opened and closed a few times, not knowing what to say.

“Someone easy on the eyes,” he settled on after a long few seconds. There was a short pause, and then a surprisingly realistic hologram faded smoothly into existence a yard or so away. Patrick stared at the man for a moment and then whistled lowly. “You’re good.” ELI blinked bright amber eyes and smiled.

“Thank you,” he answered. Patrick was unused to feeling short around others, so the height of the newly visible program gave him pause, as did the wide shoulders. The guy could be a linebacker. Maybe that was where ELI got the look. Just because Patrick didn’t recognize him didn’t mean anything- he knew next to nothing about sports. The hologram’s skin was so dark it seemed to blend in with the background of the place, and Patrick struggled to keep track of his outline. “Shall we begin?”

“Yeah, of course,” Patrick replied quickly with a smile. ELI didn’t move, but a vaguely orange object approached then rapidly. The closer it got, the bigger it became. Once it got close enough for him to see the rings, Patrick knew what it was. The planet rushed towards them and, in another second, they were both standing on the far edge of the outer ring. Not really standing, though, because Patrick still felt like he was floating. Looking up, he thought he might’ve see where the plant ended and the darkness around it began, but there was no way to be sure- it was way too big.

“Saturn’s rings are mostly made up of ice chunks,” ELI informed in a surprisingly casual voice. Teachers were usually at least somewhat formal when they spoke, but ELI was talking like he’d just observed the fact himself. “There are also pieces of rock, but ice is much more common.” Patrick paid closer attention the the lumps floating past him, crouching and tilting his head at a hunk of ice that matched said noggin in size. A few other pieces around him looked to be bigger than his entire person, which had him wondering… “The largest of the ice pieces is around the size of a mini-van,” ELI answered without having to be asked. Patrick stared at him.

“How-” Patrick barely got the first word out before ELI answered that, too.

“I’m programmed to sense any question you may have and answer them promptly and efficiently,” ELI informed. “Some of your species are shy and do not ask question when they have them. I was designed to work around such traits.” Patrick frowned, but he supposed ELI had a point. “The smallest, however, is around the size of your thumbnail.” Patrick blinked, glad he’d had practice following swift changes in conversation, or ELI would’ve left him in the dust.

“Though the rings are quite wide,” ELI continued as Patrick registered a barely-there sensation of sinking. When he glanced down, he found that he was moving deeper into the dense middle of the ring. “-almost one million kilometres in diameter,” The thought of, I wonder how many Earths that’d fit, flitted through his mind and was gone again so quickly he only absently registered it, “they’re only about one kilometer thick.” ELI met his eye. “78.48 Earths could fit, lined up from pole to pole, across this ring.” Patrick nodded, barely remembering wondering about that first place.

A piece of ice about the size of a basketball passed through Patrick’s middle, and he finally realized that it wasn’t just the ground he couldn’t feel- it was everything. Curiously, he reached out to a golf ball sized chunk. He expected his hand to pass right through, but it didn’t. The brunette grabbed the chunk, but his fingers didn’t even have the chance to curl around it before he released it with a pained cry.

“If you concentrate, you can touch the things around you,” ELI confirmed, moving closer. Patrick loosened his grip on his wrist as the pain faded suddenly. There wasn’t even a mark on his palm. “However, whatever you touch will feel just as it does in reality.” ELI’s hand hovered over Patrick’s, and after a moment of concentrating on the teen’s part, ELI’s hand brushed his own. It felt real. “Space is cold,” ELI said as he examined Patrick’s hand like he’d never seen one in person before. “Cold can burn. But injuries here are not permanent, and you will always heal quickly.”

“Good to know,” Patrick said quietly. ELI moved away abruptly, and the scenery shifted. The planet rushed towards them once again, and Patrick was surrounded by what seemed like thin air, though if he looked down he could see a blurry, lightly colored spot.

“The surface of Saturn is a mixture of different gases, none of which are visible to the human eye,” ELI explained. With an overly dramatic wave of his hand, they were enveloped by immense streaks of color. Patrick’s eyes couldn’t track them with how fast they were whizzing by. “Winds can reach around 1100 miles per hour,” ELI said, possibly in answer to Patrick’s passing thought, possibly just another fact on his list of things to impart.

Despite that incredible speed, the clouds of gas were so long that he could at least see their colors before they were gone. Yellow, blue, pink, and red flew past. Though the blue was almost overwhelming, flashes of each caught the brunette’s eye as they rushed by. The gases suddenly slowed to a crawl, though without an extravagant hand motion from ELI this time.

“The different gases are visible to your eye with the added coloring. Hydrogen, which makes up most of the planet, is blue. Helium is yellow, methane is red, and ammonia is pink,” the hologram continued, and then glanced down as if just noticing the expanse of the planet beneath him.

“Below us there is a molecular Hydrogen layer, as well as a liquid metallic Hydrogen layer, and a solid core.” Patrick looked down, then, and though he didn’t know what exactly all that meant, he saw the colors, the glowing layers under him, the stars now dotting the darkness beyond the planet he was learning about now. It was cool, just as Oscar’d said, but humbling, too.

There was a long pause before ELI continued, and when he did, it was in a softer tone. No doubt he’d caught Patrick’s train of thought.“While the atmosphere is quite cold,  at about -190 degrees Fahrenheit, the surface can reach up to 21,140.” The teen wondered at that, tried to imagine that kind of heat, and failed. The closest he’d ever felt was 102 on a hot summer day, or 350 leaking out of a stove.

“Saturn radiates more heat into space than it receives from the sun,” ELI said, sounding almost distracted as he looked out at the cosmos. Somehow, Patrick doubted that he was, but the brunette certainly would’ve understood such a thing if he were. The teen followed the program’s gaze and saw red waves of heat rolling away from the planet, far above the two of them, and he realized then that he wasn’t standing on the planet, but in it. “It’s also less dense than water.”

Considering this, Patrick wondered what would happen if he… The brunette saw a concerned look on ELI’s face, the hologram opening his mouth, no doubt to advise against Patrick’s little experiment, just as he focused a little too hard on the gases around him and fell. It wasn’t like before, where he slowed almost immediately. No, now, he was plummeting, and all he could see were the gases as he passed through them and he couldn’t stop thinking about them, so he couldn’t stop falling and hell yeah he was panicking– But then, ELI appeared directly in front of him. The teen caught the hologram’s eyes, held them, and thought very hard about how bright they are. Not a second later, he came to a jarring stop.

“You weigh seven more pounds on Saturn than you do on Earth,” ELI said slowly as Patrick calmed his racing heart. So maybe he didn’t exactly enjoy falling to what felt like his death even if he knew that it wasn’t. Sue him. “A day here is about eleven hours, and the planet’s shape is oblate because of its quick rotation.” The hologram’s smooth, deep voice and simply stated facts had Patrick’s shaky hands stilling, and he took a few deep breaths before he opened eyes he didn’t remember closing.

Glancing over at ELI found him staring off into the stars as peacefully as any number of people Patrick knew would relax against a grassy hill and watch the clouds float by. His eyes traced the hologram’s profile for perhaps a bit longer than necessary, and then he turned to stargaze as well.

After a long, lazy time had passed, ELI turned to look at him. Patrick blinked over at him, lids a little heavy and overall a bit lethargic. It was rare that he had time to just be at ease, what with school, work, friends, family… The closest he got was sleep, but that didn’t really measure up. There was just something about laying back and watching the stars without any chance of being interrupted. Well, other than ELI, of course, but the hologram seemed to enjoy it as well.

They both stood, though Patrick only vaguely remembered them sitting in the first place, and ELI took a step back. As he did, Saturn faded away. Patrick felt like he was being pushed upwards (way better than falling, let him tell you), and with neither him nor ELI appearing to move against the endless expanse of stars around them, it was an odd sensation. Looking up as if he might see where they were headed, Patrick saw nothing but stars against a black backdrop. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed ELI glance up as well, and then there was a glowing ring of light directly above his head. Not a halo, but almost as if one had been turned on its side. The brunette raised a brow, and the hologram’s smile seemed to turn the slightest bit sad as he answered Patrick’s unspoken query.

“The exit,” ELI explained.

“Already?” Patrick asked, a little blue, now, himself.

“Each time you come, the number of sites you learn from increases,” ELI assured, and Patrick nodded, content with knowing he could return

“I’ll see you next time, then,” Patrick said, grinning. He twisted his head to look back up at the not-halo, but saw that it was no longer above him. Looking down, he found it at about hip level. Patrick grabbed the edge of what he supposed was another slide and prepared to haul himself into it, but stopped at the last moment, turning to look back at ELI. “But hey, if you don’t mind me asking, how does all this-” He cut himself off as he saw no sign of the hologram. “-work?” Rolling his eyes and huffing amusedly, Patrick pulled himself through the portal.

Immediately finding himself standing on slightly unstable legs, directly behind the object Oscar originally showed the group, Patrick spun on his heel to find his friends all staring at him with wide eyes. All except Oscar, of course, who was smirking insufferably. Shaking his head, Patrick caught himself on the wall as he almost tipped over.

“Well?” Jenn prodded when he didn’t say anything fast enough.

“Made a new friend who taught me about Saturn,” Patrick answered, smirking at his friends’ reactions to his vague answer. He walked over, less wobbly now, to Oscar and clapped him on the shoulder. Patrick gave him a secretive smile, to the annoyance of everyone else. “You were right. That was pretty cool.”