Chapter Text
Once Upon A Time.
Many stories begin that way, hundreds and hundreds of tales across the universe have begun with those four words.
Once upon a time.
Once upon a time, there was a vampire. She was old, but not yet as unfathomably old as you might think. She was still counting.
Once upon a time, this vampire had a family. A partner. A daughter.
Once upon a time, she stopped having those things.
Once upon a time, she held a stake in her hand. Having decided what she must do.
Once upon a time, she looked back only to see her daughter gone.
Once upon a time, she had everything.
Once upon a time, she had lost it all.
Once upon a time, a vampire was lonely.
And once upon a time, a vampire sought to end her existence.
But there is another Once Upon A Time here.
Once upon a time, there was a man.
He was good and he was true.
Once upon a time, there was a man with curly red hair who was a scientist, although what he worked with might have been mistaken for magic.
This scientist was just another mortal to the vampire.
He knew himself fully and truly. Knew his parents, knew his sister, knew his cat, and knew his bird.
Once upon a time, this mortal knew his place in the universe,
And this mortal helped to discover demons.
Or at least, what he would call demons.
This mortal tapped into a force in the universe. A force that the vampire, in all her years and all her frantic studies had never encountered.
And this vampire had the uncanny ability to run into stories, into things she needed to know.
And she did.
Once upon a time, there was a scientist. This scientist hid her sharp teeth and ability to turn into a cat. This scientist was not mortal.
Once upon a time, this scientist wanted to pretend to be normal, to have something of a life before she lost it all again and again.
Once upon a time, this scientist found out that something new was happening at a facility, something Weird.
And once upon a time, she wondered if it could kill her.
Once upon a time, a mortal, a bright and smart moral, with curly red hair and a strong sense of justice was assigned to a project dealing with supernatural elements.
And once upon a time, this scientist, and his lab partner, a woman who never smiled or showed her teeth, cracked open a hole in the fabric of the universe.
Two things happened.
One. The vampire saw into something else. Saw into roiling rainbows. Saw into the eyes of something just as Immortal and just as Other as her. Saw into, not for the last time or the first, into The Void.
It was weird, it was powerful, and it looked past her.
It looked to her lab partner.
The void closed before it could reach out its squamous and boiling arms. The tear in space knit shut before it tore his mind to shreds. The chasm into prismal and twisting unreality sealed before the planet was dissolved into screaming mad rainbows.
The scientist with curly red hair was stopped in place.
Like whoever ...was... ...reading... ...paused... ...between... ...words.
Something in the words of his Story
tore.
Shredded.
Changed.
And the vampire, as she looked over her shoulder, for the first time in her too-long life realized something.
Something important.
She is in a story.
And she is the Main Character.
Two. The mortal scientist saw in that moment, everything. Forwards and backwards. All of time and all of creation in a single moment.
But mortal minds aren’t exactly equipped to know these things. To know anything of that size.
So the mortal didn’t.
As soon as the void closed, the mortal forgot it all.
At least, consciously.
And fell backwards in a dead faint, into the vampire’s arms.
The vampire was tired.
She had learned a lot, so much here in this lab.
But the Demon through that void hadn’t spared her a glance.
And the vampire knew it would not gift her the ending she desires.
So she lays her mortal lab partner down, gently, and forces herself to shrug off any affection she may have held for him.
He was bright, and he was smart, and he made for a very lovely friend.
But he is mortal, and she is not.
And it was time for her to move on.
Once upon a time, a vampire met a brilliant scientist and together they discovered demons.
Once upon a time, a vampire met a man and intertwined their stories.
Once upon a time, a vampire stole a ship and headed out to see new stars.
Once upon a time, a scientist woke up alone in his lab.
He does not recall what he saw, and his lab partner was gone.
But he knows one thing.
He stands up on shaking legs, with a headache sharp enough to have the world spinning, and writes down one word.
SUCCESS.
Because he knew he had finally succeeded.
Once upon a time, a curly-haired scientist discovered demons.
Once upon a time, this man Changed.
Apotheosis.
The scientist wasn’t the same after
He learned more, held more experiments in an almost manic frenzy.
Some deep part of him longed to open another tear.
He knew things before they happened. Closed his eyes, focused, and dealt out prophecies like wine.
The scientist grew famous. He collected grants and gifts, degrees, and awards.
Once upon a time, there was a scientist who was renowned for his talent and ability.
Once upon a time there a scientist called on by hundreds to save them, sought out for his scientific ability indistinguishable from magic, and for his gift of prophecy telling them what to do to avoid certain death.
Once upon a time, a scientist was called by the government. He was to bestow his gift upon more people. He was to create an order of those blessed by the outer gods.
Once upon a time, a scientist reached too far.
With rainbows in his eyes, he called forth a monster.
And from between the worlds it came.
Millions died in his hubris before the beast was slain.
Once upon a time, a scientist watched in reverse his sins manifest. Watched from the center of a ruined iridescent crater his own demon wreak havoc on his world.
Once upon a time, a scientist who almost destroyed his world stole a ship and headed out towards new stars.
Once upon a time, a scientist fled.
Fleeing through the stars is one thing. Running from your hubris with rainbows trailing from your engine is another.
The scientist knew he was being chased. The world-ender knew he was being hunted.
The radios branded him a witch, and the witch knew that's what he had become.
It isn’t hard to track a ship, especially one wreathed in rainbows.
And as artillery fire rained down, the witch didn't want to die.
The witch refused.
And remembered.
Once upon a time, there was a demon-bringer, a world-ender, a witch. And this witch fled from certain death.
Once upon a time, a vampire and a scientist cracked open the universe.
Once upon a time, a curly-haired scientist’s story changed.
Once upon a time, a witch didn't want to die, and this witch knew how to change his tale.
And so the witch calls.
Screams to the demon he knows, to the thing that looked at him. “I don't want to die, I don't want to die.”
His mind begins to tear. Twisting and splintering as Yog-Sothoth reaches forward and through. Yog-sothoth, who is his rainbows, who is his knowledge, who is his demon, tears but a finger into the reality of the witch.
And those chasing find squamous, fleshy things around them, oozing through pipes, killing and maiming as their ships dissolve into metal foam and the void. leaks. in.
No mortal mind can comprehend an entity ripping through it into reality, and so the witch’s mind shatters.
Drips and drops of memory boiling like grasshoppers wings as his ship shakes and rattles as rainbows short the engine and stall the thrusters, languages learned and faces known, fading to nothing but decaying radiation as the ship enters the orbit of a nearby planet. And as the witch forgets everything he has ever been, the door closes.
Once upon a time, there was a man. This man found himself in a starship, thrusters shaking and stalling, and in rapidly fading muscle memory, manages to land it without an explosion.
Once upon a time, a man without a single memory stepped out of a starship of which he no longer recalled, with the rainbows woven into his irises quickly blinking away.
Once upon a time, a man found himself on a new planet, in a new life.
Once upon a time, this memory-less man blinked, in what he would have once known to call a prophetic vision, and saw himself mixing vials next to someone in a bed, and realized, oh, he must be a doctor.
Once upon a time, a man walked into a town, burned and bruised from crashing, and introduced himself as a doctor.
(Once upon a time, there was a vampire.
Once upon a time, this vampire made a new family.
Once upon a time, galaxies away, a vampire thinks of an old old lab partner.)
Once upon a time, there was a doctor.
This doctor did not recall where he was from. But that didn't matter.
What did matter, was that he was a doctor.
And he was here, on this planet, to help people.
God they say, God brought him here. Their town doctor had recently died, so his coming was a miracle from God himself.
The doctor believes them.
Once upon a time, there was a doctor who fell asleep in an inn graciously offered.
That night, the doctor had a dream.
An interesting, horrible dream. A face that felt like a friend standing over him, and detailed metallic organs.
The dream was long, and the doctor memorized design after design. Every organ but heart. Skin, eyes, nerves, bones, stomachs, and lungs. Everything from tendons to eardrums, perfect metal replacements, perfect metal copies.
And when the doctor awoke, he knew how to create anything. How to remake any organ in metal and brass.
And the doctor knew what he was to do.
Once upon a time, there was a doctor who was renowned for his talent and ability.
Once upon a time, there was a doctor called on by hundreds to save them, sought out for his medical ability indistinguishable from magic, and his miraculous metal organs that saved them from certain death.
Once upon a time, a doctor was called by the daughter of the head priest. She begged him to save her father.
Once upon a time, a doctor was too generous.
With terror in his eyes, the doctor was branded a monster.
And from the world he was banished.
For his generosity he was to be slain.
Once upon a time, a doctor was told his sins. Hid in his home as the priest and his mob kicked in his door.
Once upon a time, a doctor was dragged into the ship from whence he came.
Once upon a time, a doctor was banished.
Falling through the stars is one thing, but dying in the stars from your sins is another.
His radios were quiet. The witch knew he was alone, that there is no one coming, that he was alone out there, and he was (once again) a witch.
There was no one looking for his ship.
There was no one looking for a wayward witch.
And as the voids chill crept in, the witch did not want to die.
But floating in space in a ship with failing life support is a hopeless situation.
Once upon a time, there was a sinner, a heretic, a witch. And this witch faced certain death.
Once upon a time, a witch brought forth yog-sothoth.
Once upon a time, a curly-haired scientist’s story changed.
Once upon a time, a witch didn't want to die, and this witch’s tale did not end here.
And so the witch calls.
Cries into the comms of his broken ship, into the void that surrounds him. “I don't want to die, I don't want to die.”
Once upon a time, a vampire said no he will not die, I will not lose my son, and changed one 19 year old from a rundown backwater asteroid's story .
Once upon a time, a vampire found her daughter.
Once upon a time, a vampire made herself a new family.
Once upon a time, a vampire's thoughts strayed back to a lab partner of long ago.
Once upon a time a vampire’s thoughts went back, far far back to a man she had smiled with, laughed with, and done science with.
Once upon a time, a vampire decided, now that she knows how to gift immortality, she wants an assistant.
Once upon a time, a vampire heard a frantic, and familiar voice beg for life through the comms of a broken and dying starship.
Once upon a time, a vampire listened.
Once upon a time a vampire’s daughter plucked a small rainbow stained starship from the void, and let her mother inside.
Once upon a time, a vampire replaced a frozen and familiar man’s body with metallic organs.
And once upon a time, she welcomed her assistant aboard.