Chapter Text
At first, this big, all-encompassing nothingness was comfortable. He knew nothing else, had not even been able to know anything before it at all, couldn’t tell for how long he had known it, but that didn’t matter. It was just there, warm and vast, and let him understand he was safe.And yet, it didn’t seem right. This became apparent once something broke through that nothingness, a voice he couldn’t quite understand. He didn’t even know why he realized it was supposed to be a “voice”. It was far away, but every moment added more clarity to its words, seemed closer and closer to him, wherever he truly was.
...ly? C..n… ou… hea… e? Ol…y?
Oh no… t… an…ther… ail…re… …lease…
Slowly, the darkness around him appeared to become lighter. Something was there, in the same direction the voice was coming from, but he was unable to tell what it was. Perhaps nothing was really there after all, just the same nothingness that had surrounded him the entire time.
He hoped this was the case.
The warmth began to dwindle.
He didn’t want this, nothing of it, found it impossible to imagine this safe little world around him was about to crumble apart and disappear, but something told him this was about to happen. He knew the nothingness was not going to be there for much longer, was going to be replaced by something that he couldn’t fathom. He just knew and was entirely unable to do anything about it.
He felt a new sensation all of a sudden, one different from warmth or cold or that other new thing he had just begun to experience as the thought of his world disappearing had manifested in his mind. He was being pulled forward while more snippets of this unknown voice flew all around him.
Ol…y? …lly! Plea…e… ...ay som….ing…
The light grew stronger, the voice louder, the pull ever faster. He desperately wanted to do something against it, but it was impossible; whatever force was behind this was determined to destroy the only thing he had ever had, the only thing he had ever known. The sounds and light became unbearable as they continued to assault him and when he tried to beg for mercy, he realized he had no voice on his own, could not cry out like that other one was calling out for him.
He had no chance but to surrender to his fate.
The voice stopped and from one moment to the next, everything fell into silence once more.
However, the light was still there, so blindingly bright that it made it impossible for him to see, just like the previous darkness had. Unfortunately though, it was nowhere near as comfortable. It hurt.
As his vision slowly adjusted to the new surroundings, it became clear that the source of brightness was a big lamp right above him, shining directly into his eyes that he somehow knew he had. The longer he stared into it, the less bright it seemed to be until, finally, he was able to make out things other than this light. Suddenly, there were colors and shapes, none of which he had ever seen before, but several of which he could still understand and name immediately – brown, wooden walls, lined with triangles in red, blue and many other colors, pieces of paper below and around him.
It was all so familiar and yet so wondrous.
A different kind of shape peeked into his field of view – a big, round head adorned with green spots and two beady eyes that stared at him while sporting a concerned frown.
“Olly…?”
What did this word mean? He felt like he had heard it before, but had no concept for it in his mind, unlike he did for all those things around him.
Carefully, he tried to move what he was starting to realize was his body, several weird appendages through which a sensation ran he found hard to describe and he only knew he was able to do something with them, unlike he had been within that infinite nothingness where only his mind had existed.
Once he did, the frown on that weird being looking at him changed ever so slightly while it repeated the previous words, but now in a voice so low it was practically inaudible. If only the voice that had brought him here had been that way…
“Olly…”
With a sigh, the frown began to turn into a smile as he continued to move one hand to bring it before his eyes to see his own body for the very first time. Something about it seemed weird.
Wasn’t it different from the things around him or was he just not wholly accustomed to all of it yet?
“Hah… I’m so glad it finally worked…”
The other creature picked him up and lifted him until he stood on his own two feet. Looking down at them, he found them to be nothing more but a pair of triangles and the new sensation of having a body made it difficult to adjust to them well enough to be able to stand by himself. His whole body, his entire self, felt incredibly heavy.
“Welcome to this world, Olly.”
For the first time, he really looked at this other being that held him in its hands and repeated this one phrase it had been saying so many times without explaining what it meant. Hearing the sound of his own voice, realizing that he even had a voice, almost made him shiver. It seemed so wrong.
“...O…lly…?”
The green-spotted creature nodded with a bright smile.
“That’s your name – you’re Olly, the origami king! Or… do you not like it…?”
“I… I don’t know…”
Somewhere deep in the back of his mind he found knowledge about what it meant to have a name, but it felt so weird being given one by a creature he had just moments ago not even thought would even exist. This entire world had never meant to exist.
He wanted to go back to his warm, safe nothingness where it was only him.
Looking around, Olly realized how different this other, bigger being was from himself. It was flat – so flat, in fact, that the light from the lamp above them seemed to almost shine through its hand that as far as he understood was made of paper. Olly himself, meanwhile, was much thicker in comparison even though he seemed to be made from paper as well, although vastly differently textured. The person holding him had thick black outlines that were vividly colored in, wrapped in a frame of white, blank paper all around him, while his own paper was colored completely and all the things he could currently see – arms and legs – were of different hues. He seemed closer to the sheets that were strewn all around the room than to this flat being. Of course, the fact that his paper was folded in different places instead of being just one big, flat shape, did not escape him either.
And yet, even though he understood this, he hardly knew what was going on.
The green being carefully let go of him, sighed once more and leaned back in his chair, smiling brightly at the creature he called “Olly”.
“I’m sorry”, it laughed, “this is all probably quite a lot to unpack for you right now. But believe me, I’m so incredibly glad that you’re here and you’re alive… By the way, I’m the Origami Craftsman. Kind of a lame name in comparison, I know, but… that’s just how it is, I guess. Or you can call me Dad, if you want!”
This “Origami Craftsman” began to laugh some more, but what was supposed to be so funny about all of this completely escaped Olly and instead, he wondered what it would even feel like to laugh at all. Unfortunately, he felt no incentive to do so.
“...dad?”
With another laugh, the Origami Craftsman told him not to worry about it too much for now and as such, Olly decided to leave the issue as it was, as it didn’t really feel right to use this strangely short word – but then again, what did even feel right as of now…
His body was heavy and he wobbled around as he tried to turn and have a better look at his surroundings now that he wasn’t just lying flat on his back anymore, enough so that the Craftsman had to support him so that he wouldn’t fall.
“We’ll work on that”, the latter commented cheerfully.
On the walls around him Olly found not only simple shapes lined up, but also many different creatures that reminded him of his own arms and legs, as they were similarly angular and uniformly imbued instead of sporting several different blocks of print. In fact, there was something strangely familiar about them that went beyond just the shapes and folds he appeared to share with them and unlike the flat Craftsman holding him, who had been nothing but an enigma until now, they were warm and welcoming despite their lack of actual faces, almost like the nothingness he had just so recently lost.
He pointed at one of them.
“Is that…”
“Yep”, the Craftsman nodded, “it’s origami, just like you.”
“...but why isn’t it moving…?”
Olly looked at the long-eared creature sitting on top of a small shelf again to make sure he hadn’t missed anything, but he was indeed right, it wouldn’t move. None of the other origami things throughout the room did, even though Olly himself could. It was just so weird.
“Well… that’s because these are just normal origami figures I made, but you, Olly, you’re special. You were made through the Fold of Life, which gave you a heart and soul and mind – it’s why you can move and talk and all of that and I’m so glad. In fact… as far as I know you’re one of the very few successful attempts at the Fold of Life in history! Isn’t that amazing?”
Slowly, Olly began to understand. While there was a striking difference between himself and the one who had apparently made him, that didn’t mean that all the other things the Craftsman had made were the same, either. Just as they sported different shapes and colors, they were also either inanimate like those atop the shelves or were in possession of a strange entity called “life” that was apparently within Olly himself, as were “a heart and soul and mind” – whatever those really were. He may not be able to understand the entirety of it yet, but perhaps, he thought, he might soon, as his pool of knowledge grew with each moment he spent in this world full of lights and cold air.
But despite all of that, these origami creatures still felt rather familiar to him, seemed to look down at him, smile at him despite their lack of faces.
The Origami Craftsman, meanwhile, had a face but was little more than a stranger Olly didn’t quite know yet what to think of.
Perhaps prompted by Olly’s silence, the Craftsman suddenly jumped from his chair, announcing he wanted to show him something, began rummaging through his desk at first and then quickly moved to one of his cabinets after the first search had left him unsatisfied. After a bit of digging around and throwing around stuff that mainly seemed to consist of paper sheets and dusty boxes, he triumphantly presented a peculiar rectangle that he cleaned with his sleeve before showing it to Olly.
As Olly looked at it, he saw a creature within it, one that seemed to be origami as well and could even move just like he did. Hadn’t the Craftsman just said there were only few beings like him…?
Even more strangely, this being perfectly mimicked every movement Olly made. It raised an arm when Olly did, looked into the same direction as he would, moved at the exact same time he would. Sure, it looked kind of nice and graceful considering how rectangular its shapes were all in all, but he slowly began to feel mocked.
“This is a mirror, it lets you see your own reflection in it. Well, since it’s the first time you’re seeing yourself it must feel kind of weird, right…”
The Craftsman laughed again, very softly, while his smile never faded.
Olly watched the reflection more closely. So this was what he looked like…?
Many angular shapes in perfect proportions, brilliant colors that all fit together incredibly well and precise, sharp folds made for a complete package which at first seemed strange to imagine it was the body he inhabited when all he remembered before that was not even having a voice, but quite pleased him the longer he looked at it. Even the fact that one eye was hidden behind a big, yellow triangle, which might have seemed impractical at first, was obviously a calculated, distinct folding decision that gave Olly’s face just the right touch of asymmetry and appeal.
Perhaps this strange world wasn’t so bad after all if this was the way he was going to live in it.
However, the differences between himself and the origami craftsman became even clearer now that he could look between his own reflection and the man holding up the mirror for him and the longer he observed him, the stranger the absolute flatness of the Craftsman seemed. How was he able to even stand upright when he was this thin? Whatever the case, Olly couldn’t deny that he was starting to feel glad he wasn’t like that.
It must be really weird being this thin.
Putting the mirror aside, the Craftsman began to show Olly more of his surroundings, introducing him more closely to the world he was now stuck in.
In the process of this, it turned out that Olly was capable of hovering – an ability that apparently wasn’t normal for most beings, especially flat ones, and impressed the Craftsman so much he was rendered speechless the first moment Olly almost nonchalantly took flight. He couldn’t tell why the flat guy was making such a big thing about it, as it felt just natural to him, so natural that he hadn’t even really thought about it when his body had left the desk he had been standing on. This ability definitely came in handy, though, as standing and walking on his own two feet still felt weird and wobbly, somewhat ungraceful and not very fitting to the perfectly folded creature he had seen in the mirror earlier. Hovering was much more comfortable. In fact, it reminded him of the warm nothingness a little, as his body seemed similarly light as soon as it was airborne, but it was combined with a freedom of movement that was wholly new to him.
A short lesson in origami similarly held surprises: Olly was easily capable of folding whatever he wanted as long as he knew what that thing looked like, or at least had a vague concept of it in his head. The Craftsman was quick to call him “naturally gifted”, a “genius of origami” and continued to heap praise upon him as they cast aside the beginner instructions the Craftsman had chosen for him, just to find that the intermediate ones were just as easy to grasp and had them move on to an entire book full of big, complicated origami figures for experts. Or, well, they were supposed to be for experts, but Olly once more saw hardly anything complicated about them. If this was what the beings of this world thought was hard to do, then how much of a difference between those flat creatures and origami like himself really was there?
Furthermore, Olly discovered that he didn’t even have to use his triangular little handless arms to even make origami in the first place; just thinking about what kind of shape he wanted to have made the paper around him move on its own and fold itself into whatever he desired.
“Incredible”, the Craftsman whispered in awe as he stared at all the paper flying around the room while Olly tested the range of his abilities. He watched as several origami birds, cats, rabbits and more glid about the air to land on the desk that was littered with origami paper, eyes so big they almost came off his head.
“Wow… you truly are the origami king…”
Olly stopped as he heard this one word he didn’t quite know the meaning of yet, being sure he had heard it earlier already, with a similar lack of explanation. As he did so, the paper circling around the air stopped as well and slowly fluttered to the ground, while the origami figures he had already finished fell like bricks.
“What is a ‘king’...?”
The Origami Craftsman smiled and directed Olly’s attention to a different part of the room, closer to the middle that he hadn’t had the time to explore quite yet.
From one moment to the other, it became brighter than before as a light flashed on and shone down from above, bright enough that Olly instinctively tried to shield his small origami eyes.
This whole concept of “light” was really starting to become exhausting.
When his eyes had managed to adjust to the new brightness, the king cautiously approached what appeared to be a building set atop a table, towering over a small but nonetheless detailed origami landscape of houses and trees.
Expertly folded, it featured wonderful proportions and just the right amount of asymmetry to make it stand out without feeling unnatural – a brilliant display of origami expertise that was almost as flawless as the Fold of Life and Olly himself.
Olly stared at it, couldn’t divert his eyes from it for even just a second as the origami craftsman began to speak again. This building drew him in, called for him, even more so than any of the other origami creations around him.
It had been waiting for him the entire time.
“A king, you see, is supposed to rule over a country and its inhabitants, its people. He makes rules and laws and generally keeps everyone safe and happy, he represents and protects them. In return, the people will offer their loyalty and support and listen to the king’s orders… well, in short at least.”
The flat Craftsman laughed.
“And I suppose in your case it’s not really ruling over other people, but rather the concept of origami itself.”
The Craftsman paused for a moment to reach into the landscape around the big, green building to slightly rearrange one of the small houses, rotating it ever so slightly. A proud smile appeared on his face, warm and soft.
“The origami festival will be held in a few days from now. On that day, it is your turn to sit atop the castle and show the world the beauty of our craft – the sheer infinite possibilities of origami.”
Infinite possibilities…
Slowly, Olly began to understand. Whatever he imagined, he was able to create, which in essence meant the only limits his origami creations had were the limits of his own imagination and knowledge. The origami figures around them, while not having been created by Olly himself, seemed to acknowledge his status, granting him their loyalty as best as they could as lifeless yet folded beings. Thinking about it, it was almost sad that none of them had been bestowed with what the craftsman had described as the gift of life…
Why were they stuck in immovable bodies subjected to the possibility of outside forces messing with them? It seemed unfair.
Perhaps, as a “king”, it was Olly’s duty to protect these lifeless creatures from harm. Perhaps this was why he was supposed to teach the “world”, whatever that was, about origami.
The Craftsman gave him a light tap on the side, bringing Olly’s mind back to the reality in front of him.
“There’s more to it, but maybe it’s a bit much for today, so let’s stop here.”
A pause.
“Don’t worry about it… I know you’ll be doing great – your abilities are proof you’re more than capable of being a wonderful king.”
Olly watched the Origami Craftsman clean up his desk, only stopping to look at a certain piece of paper he had picked up in the process, but before Olly could approach him to see what was on it, he had already tucked it away again.
It was late, the Craftsman claimed, and certainly Olly must be exhausted. Perhaps he was, the origami king assumed, as even when hovering his body had begun to feel heavier than it had earlier. Something was definitely happening and he wasn’t entirely sure what it was, even with all that newfound knowledge circling around in his mind.
The flat being decided that perhaps it was better for Olly to stay inside the workshop for his first night on this Earth, surrounded by things that were origami just like him. He didn’t want his new masterpiece to be scared, he said. Similarly, he wondered whether he should keep on the lights, but Olly quickly assured him that he was going to be fine.
In truth, he was looking forward to the prospect of returning to comfortable darkness.
As intriguing this new world of his had been so far, it was also incredibly tiresome.
He just wanted to go back.
When the darkness had finally returned, Olly realized that it was still different from the great nothingness he had known before. It was still cold and full of weird smells and sounds and now that he truly listened, he was able to hear a certain… rushing in the background that never appeared to cease and he had no idea where it came from. It surrounded the entire room.
If only he could get the silence of his previous old darkness back…
At least the Origami Craftsman had been right in his assumption that the other origami creations around him made this experience a little more tolerable for Olly; knowing they were there and just as different from this flat, mushroom-like creature as he was himself, was at the very least a little comforting.
He had no idea how much time passed, but after a while Olly’s body became too heavy for him to hover anymore, forcing him down onto the desk that had been the cradle of his life. Soon, even the background noise faded away.
However, all of it – the light, the noise, the flat being – returned soon, making Olly definitively aware that there was no escape for him from this bright, cold world, no way to return to the warm comfort of nothing.
Maybe it was time to accept it and find a place in this world – as the king of origami.
If this was what he had been made for, then it was what he was going to become.
And while the Origami Craftsman spent his first minutes of the day down in his workshop slurping some steaming, dark liquid with a not exactly unpleasant smell from a big mug, Olly found himself once more drawn to this big building, this castle, as it was called, that he was meant to live in.
He imagined himself sitting atop the central tower, looking down on the small town to his feet. It may not have any definitive inhabitants, it seemed, but since all of it was made from origami, this must mean the town and trees themselves were practically his people, right?
Just like the helpless rabbits, birds and other origami figures throughout the room, he was going to protect them from harm.
When the craftsman once more began slight rearrangements of the trees and houses, it took Olly all of his discipline to not interfere, since perhaps as the creator of all of these folded things, this one flat creature should have at least a little bit of leeway.
And yet, Olly couldn’t help but closely observe his every move.
Were all those other flat beings that apparently existed also going to mess with the origami displayed at the festival once they had gathered?
Somehow, this thought was way more unpleasant to Olly than he had expected.
Perhaps the only true protection from all of this was to show them what origami was truly about, that it was more than just some form of entertainment for those beings. That origami, too, had “a heart and soul and mind”.
As the origami king, it was Olly’s duty. He had to protect his people, after all.
“I’m glad you like the castle”, the Craftsman mentioned after he had finished his hot drink, “and I hope you and your sister will have a lot of fun with it.”
Olly turned. Another word he didn’t know.
The Craftsman returned to his workbench and drew out one of the papers he had stacked away the previous evening, holding it out for Olly to see. It showed a bunch of folding instructions – no, more like folding concepts – and what the result was supposed to look like. A mostly yellow creature with big, happy eyes stared at Olly from the paper and he instantly knew this creature was meant to be similar to him. It had the same shapes, the same triangular arms and legs, a similar crown atop its head.
“This is Olivia”, the Craftsman explained, “the origami princess and thus, your younger sister. I didn’t want you to be all alone in your castle, you know.”
He smiled.
“As a big brother, it’s your duty above all else to take care of her and to protect her.”
Olly approached the sheet with the drawing, picked it up and looked at it closely once more. The longer he examined it, the more similarities he saw between himself and the princess, how the two of them were clearly meant to be together – there was even a small picture depicting them both side by side on the castle, radiating a happiness Olly hadn’t managed to feel in reality yet. Perhaps this meant he would once she was with him…
He looked up once again at his creator, who seemed to understand even without words and nodded.
“She’ll be made from the Fold of Life, just like you. We’ll work on her soon, but there are a few more preparations I want to take first. Or, well… I’ll work on her soon… sadly, we can’t do the Fold of Life together, you know, it’s way too complicated and dangerous.”
To prove his point, the Craftsman gave Olly a book to read while he worked on some more decorations for the festival.
The book was entirely centered around the ominous Fold of Life that had ripped Olly from his world of dark nothingness into these bright, cold surroundings, but that was also soon meant to give him company.
Apparently, he read, the Fold of Life was so complicated and dangerous that, while its usage was not officially forbidden, it was frowned upon due to the implications it carried along. Nobody should be able to create life just like that, despite all the training and preparation that went into it and should in theory ensure nobody just made a living origami creature on a whim. Still, it was ”ethically wrong”, the text stated. Despite that, however, most of the book was dedicated to detailing what went into the Fold of Life and how it could be achieved. All of this did not come without a warning, however, that even the slightest mistake while performing it could lead to devastating results: from simple lifeless failures to poor origami beings stuck in a state that was neither quite inanimate nor truly alive, to even the death of the Fold of Life’s user, as it might accidentally siphon their life energy away in an attempt to give it to the origami. One wrong fold could mean death, one single speck of dust on the paper could mean death, even the wrong thought during the process might lead to catastrophe.
All of this did indeed look very dangerous and daunting, but when Olly turned the page and arrived at the actual instructions, there was an almost deflating realization that they were just as easy to understand as any other folding plans. Perhaps the dangerous part was mostly whether one’s heart and soul were full enough with love for origami itself or weren’t committed enough to the responsibilities. From Olly’s perspective, this was not a problem either – as the origami king, the ruler over the craft as such, he practically embodied origami itself.
Once again, it seemed like the Origami Craftsman was completely underestimating his own creation.
And yet, with all of this in mind, Olly would lie if he didn’t admit that the Craftsman’s successful attempt at this technique was somewhat impressive. After all, he had said Olly had been the first surviving creation in a very long time, and even the book mentioned how positive results were so rare that historical records were practically nonexistent.
Well, now there was another entry to this extremely short list of successes and soon enough, there would be the next.
Olly could hardly wait to witness it for himself.
After he had finished reading, Olly was content to lend the Craftsman a hand in his preparations, easily making all the things he requested with just a wave of his papery arm. Just like the previous day, the flat mushroom man – a “Toad”, as Olly later learned – could do nothing but stare in awe and wonder.
As thanks for his assistance, the Craftsman let Olly design a pair of little thrones that were meant to go on top of the castle for himself and Olivia to sit on. Olly chose to have them look relatively simple so as to not overshadow their users, but wanted them to be unmistakable royal seats regardless. His solution were plain colors – purple for himself, which he had taken a bit of a liking to, and white for his sister because he didn’t know what she would like – and top parts mimicking the crowns he and Olivia wore. This way, it was easy to make out what they were and for whom they were meant to be, bringing all the attention to the royal siblings themselves.
When the Craftsman praised Olly for his fantastic designs, it almost seemed self-evident that the things he made were perfect. He was the origami king, after all.
“I guess I really shouldn’t be surprised that the things you make are as expertly folded as you are”, the Craftsman sighed happily while he pushed the two little thrones further back on the workbench to make space for the next project.
There was nothing left for Olly but to agree.
He turned once more to take another look at the castle, the image of himself and his sister ruling from its highest point becoming ever clearer in his mind. Soon, this was going to be a reality.
Soon there was going to be something in this cold, bright world that was finally worth having been ripped from the depths of his own private nothingness. Soon, hopefully, he wouldn’t have to miss it anymore.