Thread: No Escape from Reality (Me and Moon)

The day's exhaustion seemed to fade away as Even slid into the plastic coffin, cushioned foam molding around his slim frame, welcoming him into a warm and comforting embrace with the promise of leaving reality far behind. The VR pod's lid clicked shut above him, soft blue lights coming on in the dark. He laid his head against the foam slab pillow and robotic tendrils snaked out, adhering themselves to the crown of his skull as the glowing readouts began to tick along with his heartbeat. A flickering countdown was projected on the coffin's lid above- 3.. 2.. ............. Geometric shapes of hardened light filled the void, creating walls and ceilings and a floor beneath his feet- Or, beneath where his feet might've been. There was no him now, only a viewpoint looking out through the virtual space, the invisible and intangible ghost of a person. His ghost walked along the road as it assembled itself before him, fragments of light flying up from the void each time he lifts his foot above empty air. Windows flicker open, byroads snaking out from the main path to reach them. They show brave ships with sails in tatters fighting against raging oceans, dour vigilantes smoking under the chiaroscuro of a flicking street lamp in a dark city, grim and dusty worlds where the sun has burnt out. Those worlds he was bored with. Even's ghost found it's way to a new door in the void, opening into a field of green littered with lumiscent white flours. It snapped shut behind him as he crossed, the empty space and the roads of light vanishing, his own ghostly presence beginning to take a thin, murky sort of corporeality. A lady, resplendent in flowing robes of white, asked him what he wanted to be. Butterflies with blue-flame wings rose up from the flowers in blinding pillars, leaving behind his answers A battered and bloodied sword, an old book bound in dusty leather, a cloak that seemed to twist into ghostliness at it's edges, and a harp of silver engraved at it's peak with a woman's face. He reached for the harp and the rest vanished away, but the butterflies alighted once more and became people as they touched the ground. Some were men, others women, still others impossibly between. Every shade of skin, every face, every feature imaginable was represented among them, and his ghost stole the best of each to wrap around itself. Now he had skin of porcelain contrasted against fiery red hair that curled around his shoulders, entangled with petals and blooms. His lips were soft, colorful, full-bodied, hiding a smile of pearly teeth and a soft pink tongue, his nose a pert, feminine thing, his eyes brightly green. He wrapped himself in a slender, willowy frame, devoid of muscle and flaring at the hips, descending into sleek legs that stretched for blissful miles. Now came the clothes, brought to him on the wings of songbirds. He threw aside the armor of knights and the bright colors of the realm, finding the shameful, perverse little joys that tried to escape the casual glance- Shamelessly pink lingerie of woven lace and translucent fabric, and a black-frilled garter belt that wrapped those long legs in silken pantyhose. A fishnet bodystocking, in pink, left his lithe body more revealed then not, and with a final touch that sent shivers down his spine, Even pierced his nipples with diamond studs and his ears with spiraling baubles of jade. The Lady In White opened a door to the world beyond for him, and he chose a new name, stepping through as Yvette. ............. The maze's twisting walls pressed down upon him as he ran, bare feet splashing through stagnant puddles, over cold, rough stones and squelching mud. The corridors seemed to grow tighter around him with every corner Yvette turned, every intersection that forced a hasty guess. His elbows scraped against the walls as he ran now, and not for the first time Yvette regretted giving in and choosing the momentary titillation, the forbidden thrill of dressing himself as a woman- The fishnets and stockings now hung in tatters around his bruised and bitten frame. The corridor flared out suddenly, into a paved pavillion lined with wilted mangrove trees and centered around a marble fountain, stone mermaids frozen in play atop a coral reef. Eight more paths radiated out in all the cardinal directions and Yvette froze in indecision- And the thunderous sound of hooves crashing against stone swelled behind him, growing closer by the second. Panic making his heart threaten to pulverize his ribs with it's beating, Yvette took off running down the south-western passage, failing to note the thorny vines that curled along the ground. His foot caught and the slender trap went tumbling over, briars tearing his flimsy apparel away and leaving deep scratches across his tender skin.