⛆ XENIAL ⛫ at ECHO SHORE ⛆

[SHIVERS]

You respond to the voice.


You can't make out what you said, exactly.
But you hope it came through.




"...WELL, I... 
I must say, it's incredible to actually speak with you!
Though, 
I'm sure it's hard to tell, 
but your ah... voices are overlapping.

Fairly difficult to understand,
but, 
there's no reason to be embarrassed about that.

If nothing else, 
it seems like you can hear me!"



"Give them time. 
These things take a while to learn."



"Right, of course.

Erm... let's see...



Out of what I could parse:

...Hello!
I am not a program, 
sorry to say,
but I can introduce myself soon!
You are definitely coming through better, overlap and er... volume, aside.
And you are most certainly not dead,
you're alive for the first time, if you can believe it!"



The other voice is firmer, but just as kind.

"You have a lot to adjust to,
but you should have some degree of knowledge when it comes to existing. 
You probably have a lot of questions, though.
Not everything will come easily.
You'll have people you can ask at most points during this experience."


"Exactly, the two of us will be here for anything you might need.
Well... as best we're able to, at least."





You try to look at who's speaking to you.



Your eye opens.

Blindingly bright light floods in.





"Careful, now!
Yes, I'm sure that would sting, 
taking in that much light all at once.
You are entirely an eyeball, after all; try to take it slow.

...No shame meant, of course!
Jimmie here spawned in as a tiny metal ball when he first showed up."

"You'll see for yourself that I didn't stay that way, though."
He sounds a little embarrassed, but just as amused.








You open your eye
 
slower, this time
 
and find yourself looking through two sets of glass.





One from a tube that you're currently floating in,
the other not far past it; a translucent wall of some durable material.



Through that, you can see who those voices belong to:

a kangaroo OBJ with a football helmet for a head is sitting directly in front,
one claw placed up at their snout in thought as the other holds some sort of thin device;
while a large, feline construct stands a few feet to the side, 
glancing away as if to give you a little privacy.



The walls are colorful, 
made of green and silver stone.

There's not much else that you can spot,
other than two round devices at the top corners of the room;
cameras, you assume.







"...It looks as though you have..."
The OBJs tiny glowing eyes shrink in a squint. 
"...a fully-formed cornea, lens, and I think I even spot a retina in the back.
Or at least approximations of such.
Fascinating..."



"Careful. 
It's easy to make a new catalyst feel self conscious, 
from experience."

That snaps them back to focus.
"Oh, you're absolutely correct.
Pardon me for staring!"





The OBJ pulls up their device, 
unfurling it into a screen of some fashion.

"Now, I'd very much love to talk with you at length,
but before we do that:
I'm sure being a floating eyeball with no way to locomote can't be all that comfortable.

Luckily for you, 
you do have the power to alter your body almost any way you'd like it to!
For now, at least. 
That will wear off rather quickly, I'm afraid!



Now, 
given you could technically make yourself into... anything,
even things that wouldn't be ideal given the environment outside of that cylinder you're in,
I thought I'd help you along with some species diagrams."





The OBJ holds up their screen to the glass,
allowing you to watch as a slideshow plays.
Each slide contains a named diagram of some species,
the slides very gradually cycling through.

It's a lot of information, 
but you do your best to take them in one at a time.


"You are welcome to make any changes,
but try not to be too ambitious with what you choose.
There isn't a lot of extra space in that tube, 
and you'll want to breathe oxygen or otherwise not need to breathe.

...I'm not sure if you can choose that yourself, actually."

The OBJ glances worryingly between you, the construct, and the wall.

"...Give it your best shot, I suppose!"









The OBJ looks down, 
claw to their snout again.

"...let's see...
Oh!"

They glance back up.

"Pronouns and a name, as well, if you'd like!
Unless you'd prefer to wait, of course."




Their helmet turns back towards the construct, 
whispering.
"...Jimmie am I forgetting anything you'd like to add? "

"...pick something that can fit through doors."

"Right!
That's fairly important!"

"Aside from that, follow your metaphorical heart. 
It's a serious decision, 
but whatever you pick, we have resources to help you acclimate to it."






You focus on the diagrams,
keeping mental note of all the species listed as they go by.

- Amerveille
- Barebones
- Batissons
- Beatfoxes
- Botleys
- Chorosy
- Combers
- Concepts
- Corvice
- Dopples
- Elementals
- Flexins
- Gesabotts
- Lukos
- Karacels
- Masques
- Mothlies
- OBJs
- Pinitelles
- Pockitts
- Replixes
- Ruffnecks
- Selected
- Shrouds
- Skippers
- Snuglins
- Tantamounts
- Trillvettes
- Volare
- Zwadeims



But you're sure there may be others you're forgetting.

Or, perhaps, you could shape your own look, disregarding species.
Or, maybe a hybrid-





It's a lot to think over.