Lotus In a Nebula...

Submitted into Contest #99 in response to: End your story with somebody stepping out into the sunshine.... view prompt

2 comments

Science Fiction Fiction Friendship

He recognized this place before. He felt it. The expansion in his consciousness, his mind reaching out into the empty space like radar under the ocean. He found it quite odd, after the gaps before his next sequence of dreams, the timeless skip before he woke up, and even just resting his eyes, did he find it all so familiar. The emptiness. There was no relation of the body, no heaviness of his eyes, nor the quieting of the stream of thoughts into silence. He was in the emptiness, yet he was fully aware, awake, and filled with curiosity as to how he ended up there. 

What he didn't realize was that the moment he stepped into that emptiness, in that place lacking in everything suitable for anything, that he finally gave it the first three things it left itself a blank canvas for. The first was oxygen. Timothy took a gulp of the freshest air he inhaled in his entire existence. Clear, no trace of debris, pollution, no fresh scent of pine, dirt, or manure. Just nothing except the element. The second thing was gravity. He found himself floating in the ocean of nothing until he decided he needed grounding. He found his feet walking on an invisible sidewalk instantaneously. “Am I dreaming?” he found himself saying, and the third force appeared: sound.

No. He couldn't be dreaming. He’s had weird dreams before, but none like this. There was no sensation of flickering images, nor movies of weirdness passing his consciousness by before he’d awaken to a belligerent alarm. No, he could feel his sneakers contact with a nonexistent surface. He felt air rush into his mouth and exit back into the nothingness. He pinched himself, even looked at his fingers. There was pain, and his fingers, all ten of them were accounted for. He started to walk. He noticed the air in the space. It was neither hot nor cold, odd. Mostly it would be leaning to one side, never in the exact middle. There wasn't any wind either, no sound except for his steps and breathing. He could hear a bump in his chest.

He introduced the fourth object into this space: temperature. He felt a slight chill down his body. He could see steaming breath rise to the sky-less sky. If there was any. There was only nothing. He felt like he was walking right, but even he didn't know whether there was any dimension in this space, whether there was any north, south, east, or west. Not to mention, it was just dark. Not cavernous dark, or night sky dark, just a complete absence of light. It appeared as soon as the thought occurred in his mind.

He covered his eyes as the blinding light scoured the entire expanse. Warmness, spontaneity, and power entered the expanse. He uncovered his eyes to see it then. A swirl. A swirl of blinking lights which he realized were stars, clouds, and portals being black holes and nebulas, clusters of rocks, and pristine meteorites of beautiful jewels. He stared awed at it. It happened again. The swirl of creation spun fast and fast, as it did so, the galaxies expanded past Tim’s vision. He turned, direction and light appeared in this world for the first time.

He watched as the swirling continued, slowing until it faded into an eerie silence. Tim walked in the confines of this new space, this new galaxy of stars, gas giants, and clusters of elements he had no idea where to start identifying them as. In the distance, a green dot caught his eye. With a thought, he stood in front of the bright star, smiling as its emerald glow glitter across this new place. He reached his hand out toward it, felt the heat, yet it didn't hurt him. He could hold a piece of it in his hand, he thought, he might as well be holding a ball of water, flowing, warm. With a thought, yet again, he did and the ball of energy swam in his hand. He bounced it in between his hands, watching as it went from flowing energy to solid, bouncy balls, thinking of it scattering and watching as it became true. Dandelions of energy floated off into space.

“Funny,” he thought to himself. “It was almost as if…”

It clicked for him. With a thought, a flower appeared in his field of vision. A white lotus, and odd earthy plant appearing in the confines of space. It was stone solid, unwavering, not submitting under the gravity-less bounds of space. Until Tim willed it to. It floated away further and further away from him, until it was a dot, then gone. “No. Way.” a grin spread across his face.  His heart started to hammer away, electrified blood circulating throughout his body, making him move, making him laugh, making him float away in glee. He flew across the universe, slowly at first, passing nearby stars until he was blitzing past them at an unfathomable speed. 

He passed, tornadoes of crimson portals, magnetars of violet energy pulling in forces, pulsars spinning rapidly in rainbow succession. He finally stopped in front of a wide lush nebula. The clouds of dust spread with an array of colors, ionized gases colliding, collecting together as Tim’s wonder turned into a thought, and with that thought, a new form came to be. The glowing center collapsed in on itself, a disc of materials forming. Dust, gas, elements started to clump together until a supergiant of heated gas. In an instant, elements changed, formed, into new ones, colliding and molding together. The massive orb flowed with ethereal waters, dark rocks rose and fell as mountains took shape, while rising collections of clouds rose over the sphere. 

Tim smiled. He was looking at a planet. It was dark though, lifeless. He needed to see closer, to see it more clearly. A ball of light appeared and the planet lit up with life. A gesture of his hand and water flowed across the surface covering mountains, rising in colossal waves. When the water finally settled, out of the oceans, mountains arose, and with the lush green forests appeared. Towering canopies were taller than skyscrapers, sprinkled with leaves larger than houses, down below in the forest, roots spread out and nestled deep within the earth. Tim smelled the wet dirt as he stepped on the new world. 

He waved a hand and bundles of flowers crawled up trees, luminescent petals staking with slim vines going upwards.  A thought later, and Tim was staring down at an ocean. He kneeled down at the warm water on a white sandy beach and collected a cusp of water in his hand. He stared into it, admiring the uncountable amounts of molecules, and atoms, quarks, and strings inside. He didn't know how long he stared at it, but when he came back to his senses, a collection of bacteria were forming in his hands. With a soft blow, he spread the microbes across the planet. Then he waited. He sat, cross-legged on the beach, looking up at the glittering moon. It seemed so small. He raised his hand, pinching the colossal rock, making it smaller. He widened his fingers and it grew to enormous size like the moon was ready to kiss the lips of his planet. He toned it down just a little bit before he diverted his attention elsewhere.

Something was crawling out of the water. In his wandering daze of thoughts, one took shape. A wet, featureless lizard-like thing came towards him. He was startled. It appeared without eyes, nose, only gills and fins for appendages. He let out his hands and it met them. He stared at the thing. He must have been dreaming. Right? The creature rose levitating in his hands as an orb of light wrapped around it, hyper-evolution happening before Tim’s very eyes. A small mammal, cocoa fur with large orb-like eyes stared up at its creator. It was so..soft. It twitched and twirled in Tim’s hand. It crawled up his arm, then rested on his shoulder as he rubbed a finger on its forehead.it started to chirp. I was pleased with his affection towards it. 

Tim didn't need to turn, as out of the water, hundreds all the way to thousands of other featureless creatures crawled out of the water, wrapped in orbs of light, hyper evolving into creatures blurring in Tim’s mind, then out into reality. His reality. squirrel-like creatures scurried off into the forest, as bird-like creatures took to the skies. Giants for felines sprinted into foliage, insects scurried off to trees, back in the ocean, colossal fish met the surface, then dived back into the infinite expanse of the sea. It was like Tim could barely control it, control the flow of thoughts ramming out of his head and into this world. Walking flowers towered around canopies, leaves floated on the wind, even transparent specters floated faintly in the sea.

Tim and his new furry friend watched as the planet flourished. He hovered over Volcanoes and with a blink of his eyes, fleets of rain clouds scattered the planet in water. Tim looked over at his furry friend whose eyes glowed with glittering wonder. The creature was in awe at him as much as he was at this creation of his. “I think I’ll call you to wonder. How would you like that?” Wonder chirped in agreement. Tim smiled at the fact that Wonder understood him. Wonder…

He was back on that sandy beach, faster than he could think himself to be there. His hands were in the sand, feeling the energy surge out of him and out of the sand, something stirred. Small, like a bug, growing until a large hunk reached out of the sand. That hunk stretched, growing into a hand…

Tim grabbed it, then laughed as out of the sand, another hand appeared. Then another, one after that one. Four hands grabbed at his arms, forming as he pulled them out. The nighttime glowed in energy as out of the ground, two humanoids appeared. A tall, bulked figure rose, gasping for air, as its partner a smaller, more rounded humanoid lurched forward toward its creator. Black beady eyes grew, changing shape and color until golden eyes stared at him. Lavender skin changed to crystalline green, bald scalp flowing with shimmering light for hair. The two humanoids stared at him, opening their orifices to speak, but nothing came out. Tim snapped his fingers and words appeared out of their mouths for the first time in their existence.

“Hi.” surprisingly was the word. Tim gazed at the two of them. The green humanoids smiled at him. He caressed their faces. Soft...just as he imagined. Their hair felt like electricity itself, only softer, harmless to him. “Welcome,” he uttered the words.

After them, the planet spread in their numbers. They bred, hunted, built, to them millennia but to Tim only moments, with only a thought, an entire history of their race multiplying, histories forcing like metal cooling, and an entire advanced civilization looking up at him. Cities of floating vehicles, buildings as tall as their neighboring canopies. Pieces of forests were farmland now, patches of the empty forest now roads, forever changing, constantly moving. The once green humanoids were clad in shining platinum armor, staves, lances, swords, and rifles not of Tim’s world, but so far ahead in the future hung across their warriors' bodies.

Somehow, someway, they found a way to blend nature with technology, canopies of forests and gardens lining the tops of rooftops, people walking beside sentient plants, tree branches extending an arm out, giving fruit to laughing children. He descended into a garden and a mass of people wrapped around him. Awe, excitement, and a sense of family was thought and they knew who he was. So much so, they led him to the center of their lavish city, to the tallest building, high enough that it went up to the clouds. Guardsmen bowed before him, while holograms appeared showing leaders of other civilizations across the planet bowing before him. Tim blushed. He didn't expect so many. He didn't expect in the center of a throne room to be a seat just for him, empty, waiting for its ruler. 

....

All it took was a thought of a door, and when he walked through, it looked as if he left the boy's bathroom of his high school. A speedster blurred past him as a hall monitor gave chase. Tim grinned as he continued walking towards his locker, were waiting for him, his friends looked up from their conversation at him. “There he is,” Lucas said. “What the hell took you so long man?”

Tim shrugged at him as he went into his locker and slid on his hat. 'What I’d miss?’

“We are discussing,” Lucas said. “Who in our class has the best power. It's me obviously, right?”

“No dumbass,” the chrome-skinned superhuman Jennifer remarked. “It's Cardinal in the seventh period. Her black hole abilities beat your energy blasts any day.”

“What about Jason Quantum? His electrokinesis is pretty good,” Macy said. Jennifer stared at her with silver eyes. “Didn't I just say black holes? She can make black. Holes.”

“What about anybody that can go into different dimensions?” time jumped in. “The only person who seems able to do that is Professor Hex in Chemistry.”

“Supposedly,” Lucas replied. “Supposedly? Did you not see that guy pull out a sword from a portal the other day?” Jennifer argued with them.

Tim stood on the sides as he watched his friends go back and forth. For superhumans, they still were argumentative, never having time to just admire how odd it was that they were in a school filled with superhumans, each kid having the potential to destabilize a nation or even destroy a planet. “Okay, how about the worst power?” Macy asked. 

“Oh that’s easy, it's Tim's,” Jennifer joked. Tim grinned, flipping her the bird. “Am I lying? Pulls anything out of his pockets. What kind of power is that?”

“Says the girl who's a walking metal dildo,” Lucas said. Jennifer got in his face. A grimace appeared. “Listen to the lightning bug. I’ll rip you in half faster than you can say your catchphrase.”

“Ooo! I’m so scared,” Lucas, green hair shimmered in neon energy. “Well don't sleep on Tim here. Or should we say Pocket?” Macy nudged him. “His power is way better than sticky snot.”

“You mean acidic snot,” Lucas added.

“No sticky snot. Reese Gecko has a sticky snot.”

“Really. I thought it was acid.” 

“That’s even grosser.”

The bell rang, and the end of the school day was upon them. The group walked down the hall forever arguing as Tim thought to himself. To them, he was Pocket, a superhuman with the ability to pull anything out of his pocket, a simple, yet menial superpower that didn't get him much attention. Apart of him wanted to tell them the truth though. That it was more than that. That whenever he wanted, he could slip into another dimension, molding it to his choice and with its creatures and other living organisms. Time and the laws of physics were at his whim and weaponry could be created with just a thought. Yes, he couldn't control his home reality, but he learned that reality is often easy to manipulate.

He let himself grin as he walked outside where the sunshine glimmered between his eyes, making him oblivious to the fact that Macy, who secretly had a crush on him, saw the small spark of energy in his eyes. There was more to Tim than others thought, that was for sure, and she didn't need her telepathic powers to see that. But he was Pocket here, a three-point-zero student and one of the quiet ones in their group. Tim knew better. To his world of Shogo Shago, he was known as a creator, the creator. He was not only an omnipotent being, but in his favored world, he was a king. The God-King Eon.

June 25, 2021 01:02

You must sign up or log in to submit a comment.

2 comments

01:20 Jul 01, 2021

Lennox, I like your story. I could not stop reading it - because I had to know who this person was - creating all of these worldly things. A tip I would try to use variations on certain words like "Canopies" you could use "Shelter" instead - not repeating the word through the story. It was a little long - maybe the part where you introduce Tim's classmates - could come into the story sooner - to round it out.

Reply

21:48 Jul 05, 2021

Thanks Shawna, I really appreciate the feedback!

Reply

Show 0 replies
Show 1 reply
RBE | We made a writing app for you (photo) | 2023-02

We made a writing app for you

Yes, you! Write. Format. Export for ebook and print. 100% free, always.