I know I'm in the middle of writing something else but sometimes I can't help myself. I've been tinkering with the idea for a story for a while now and I thought I'd knock out a trial intro. This is far from the final copy and I'm using this more for storage space than as a platform. I don't have a clever title or anything... or anything, just a few quickly scribbled paragraphs.
CHAPTER !: AN INTRODUCTION
You know when those new age hippies pass you that leaflet saying that "we are all connected, we are all one," they're only a little wrong. It's more like "we are all 23." I know it's kind of hard to see from your perspective but you aren't really those singular ants running pointless and aimless through the colony, separate and alone. You're more like the leg on the ant, running pointless and aimless.
In the beginning people didn't really have that big of an edge down there on Earth. People are, well, squishy and in the animal kingdom squishy generally means tasty. You aren't very fast, sharp or sturdy and without any real hide or coat to speak of something had to be done. So, that's where and when we came to be (this is where I would bow had I a physical body at the moment). I guess you could call us the Archetypes. The moniker certainly suits our egos and after all, that really is all we are, egos ( "concentrated personality types" works too, if you want to get all nit picky). We're like a spectrum of the very base of what you all are.
Now, why am I telling you all of this? Well ladies and gentlemen, I've made a decision. I'm out. You see, I'm number 12. I'm the exact median of a being. I'm neither horrendous nor spectacular in any way, shape or form. I know what you're thinking, "But don't we need sheep-er, average Joes out there?" Why yes, reader, you are very correct. Maybe I should clarify the grand system of things before I go further into my own puny motives.
CHAPTER 2: BACKPEDALING AND BIPEDAL BASTARDIZATIONS
I don't know how to say this in a manner that isn't completely and utterly insulting, so I'll just put it out there and hope you stay with me out of sheer morbid curiosity. We up here didn't really expect you guys to last very long. Yeah... I mean, you're so squishy! I don't mean to shatter the mystique of us cosmic beings but we barely keep it together ourselves without the added hazard of being solely constructed out of easily accessible meat.
When a new person is conceived an Archetype antes up a piece of themselves to fill the vessel being at birth. With its first breath that screaming, pink knot of squeals and snot is inhaling more than just oxygen, it's devouring its self. We used to be able to divide ourselves up equally and fully but with all the wear and tear of stretching out across billions of vessels at once, we're now forced to leave tiny fragments up here simply to know where to reorient to coalesce back into ourselves.
Here's where I come in. When we first began to strain I noticed something. I was recognizing my utter mediocrity in vessels not my own.
Back at Conception we knew that there wouldn't be only 23 vessels to occupy forever (see, we had at least middling expectations for your survival... You're still there, right?) so we made sure that each physical body had its own internal production mechanism in place to fill in the gaps left behind by the incomplete personality. Your bodies have remarkable capacity for adaptation, it's how you've gotten to the billions you are today, but also to the dilemma I'm about to describe as well. You were never meant to have so much empty space left over as you do today. There's not enough filler to keep up the high highs or low lows in a being and the top of the bell curve is getting crowded. Do you see what I did? I'm not needed! You're creating you're own utter averages simply through your rampant, insistent procreation.
COMMENTS
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WallFlower
21:32 Feb 23 2011
I'd keep reading. You should post more.
It dimly reminds me of Palahniuk, you know, explaining to people that they're just...well, what they are. Squishy and well a 'finite resource' of sorts.
I'm having this problem lately, writing something and moving on to something else before finishing.
I'm commend you for having the guts to post your original work here publicly. Not saying it's not worthy, but that I'm always terrified of greedy eyes, and over eager copy and paste fingers.