Chapter Text
Its dark. A suffocating blackness enveloped them.
Oh right, there's a them. Who are they? They don't remember what dark even is, or what they look like or what their name is.
Its just... a void of nothing. What are they doing?
They stood there for a while. Wait stood? The feeling of something hard under their feet began to solidify out of nothing, the physical plane hovering just out of reach.
Their mind felt fractured. Empty. Like something had dug through and ripped out what made them... them.
They didn't remember their name.
The thought should have made them panic, but nothing happened. It was just a realization that floated past their consciousness like a leaf in a gently flowing river.
And then all of a sudden everything changed.
And violently.
The world slammed back into view, sights and sounds and smells overwhelming them compared to the silence and nothingness of the void they had seemed to be in.
The sudden change in scenery finally came into focus after a few moments. They found themselves slumped onto their knees, barely holding themselves up. Purple slacks came into view first. Their own probably. A red tie fell in front of their eyes next. And then their arms covered in pink sleeves. But their gaze caught on the sight of their hands. They weren't... skin.
They brought their hand up to their face, startled even, to see that this really was their hand. They flexed their fingers, marveling at the way everything moved and shifted with some strange shimmer of a color vaguely reminiscent of cyan. Or grey? They couldn't tell.
The most important observation here was that their hand was made of glass. There was water flowing through, circling as if it had some mind of its own. Seaweed or kelp floated a through from some unseen source. Like veins came some unwanted thought. The imagery made them shiver.
They looked past their hand to see what should have been a fall to their death but was instead the hard feeling that was holding them up. They reached down to feel it only to come in contact with the cool surface of glass. That didn't feel right though. This didn't look like glass.
They were pulled out of their reverie by a voice. A voice saying words they could not understand. The voice seemed to be coming from a red haired, horned individual.
They had large wings on their back, black, white, and bluish pink feathers shown in the sunlight. On a second glance the black feathers appeared to have white specks, looking very nearly like the stars in the night sky. The horns on their head were much the same, black and curling around their head in a crown like fashion. The horned one kept speaking, but they still couldn't understand. It sounded less like words to their ears and more like gibberish sounds mashing together in an unfamiliar tongue. Some words seemed to make sense though. It felt random as they popped out at them. Instead of trying too hard to understand words, they went back to taking in the horned ones appearance. The black and navy blue outfit was nothing like they'd seen before, with a feathery like shoulder accessory draped around their arms. A mask covered the rest of their immediately visible features, bar the eyes. Curious.
After a few more moments of just staring, a full sentence finally made itself known.
"Agni-? Aaaaaagni..." The horned one seemed to see something in their eyes as recognition as they continued speaking. "Ah there ya are.. I've been calling your name for a while now. My name's Star and welcome to the Lost Server."
Star held out their hand, either for a handshake or to help them up, they didn't bother figuring out. They instead ignored Star and brought up their COMM panel in what felt like a frenzy of confusion.
They stopped when they read the message.
_Agnii_ joined the game.
The name felt familiar but also very much not right that they... or rather Agni was filled with a sense of disconnect and utter wrong that they didn't know what to do with.
Something wasn't right. The world began to spin as they raced through their admittedly limited memories from waking up in the void like space. There's no reason for the wrong feeling. Absolutely none. Yet it was there.
The world abruptly stopped spinning when a voice cut through the spinning static. "Agni...? You alright there?"
Agni looked up again, not realizing they'd looked down. "I... yeah. Sorry." Their voice sounded strange to their ears. Everything felt off kilter. Their voice had a strange quality they didn't remember. Low tones fighting for dominance over higher ones. It sounded vaguely echo-y as if they were in a cave on the outskirts of an ocean. One of those pretty alcoves hidden from the rest of the world.
Star laughed. It was one of those sounds that reassured the listener. It calmed whatever nerves that Agni had frayed earlier for the moment at hand. "Yeah its pretty disorienting spawning in this place. Here, let me give you a tour of the main area."
Agni nodded and finally took Star's hand, standing up.
"This is the little monument we have of the Higher Species and this over here," Star spun and pointed backwards to the giant hunk of a building behind them. It had a copper frame with glass ceilings. It stretched higher than most things in the main area, making it seem like some type of center piece. "Is the museum! Xel's been working hard on it."
Agni stared up at the building, a feeling of vertigo overtaking their senses for a moment as they watched the building seemingly stretch higher and higher. "Xel builds a lot of this stuff, doesn't she?"
Star laughed, shifting her trident from hand to hand. The cyan coloring bringing some weird feeling of comfort with it. It was strange. Some things had reminded them of some forgotten memory, while others unnerved them to no end. It confused them. "Yeah, Xel's a good builder so often she's the one building the server wide stuff. You should see her base, its awesome. Shares it with Wolfie though. I heard he was going to try and come by later to meet you since he got held up."
Agni perked up at the thought of meeting someone else. While they had seen the main spawn area and had come to terms with the fact there were not just a few other people, but many other people, they hadn't quite registered they'd see them. "Oh okay."
Star looked back, having turned around to walk to the museum so she wasn't walking backwards. "You still nervous about other people?" And that was one thing that Agni appreciated about Star, especially getting to meet them first. She had a very straight to the point attitude about a lot. It was also pretty hard to get anything by her. Which made sense since she was the admin. Star just seemed really knowledgeable about a lot of the happenings here. Which... also made sense considering she was the admin. Agni didn't know why they found her presence so grounding after being thrown here with no memories of anything else.
Instead of answering, Agni just hummed. "So where exactly can I set up shop?"
If Star had any issue with the question going unanswered, she didn't show it. "Just anywhere really. You can go as far as you want, or stay as close as you want. All you really have to do is leave the main spawn area. We leave it protected in case mobs come through. Creepers are nasty to clean up after." Agni couldn't agree more. It was strange how their memory was working now. They'd gone from literally nothing when they spawned in, and now they had a general understanding of how the world worked again just from being reminded of certain shapes, colors, and sounds.
"First though, I haven't really gone over what the Higher Species are. Should probably do that." Star started walking towards the museum again. Agni took that as their cue to follow. They had definitely been a bit curious as to what these Higher Species were since nothing had come to mind from their broken memories the first time they were mentioned. It intrigued them, since things like creepers and zombies and different ores filled their mind when they saw them.
They passed under the vines that were draped around the entrance, the glowing bulbs of light catching their interest before a male monotone voice cut through. Glowberries: Found in Lush Caves, relatively new addition to the worlds. Provides light. They are safe to eat, however not worth it. A female voice followed. Its nice to decorate with though. Agni just subtly nodded their thanks to the voices. Its how that information had been filtered through since they gained consciousness here. It had been a bit... much when it was nonstop. Looking at the cherry trees had been a bit awful of an experience. Cherry trees brought up cherry leaves and cherry wood, which brought up every wood variant it could make, and then the cherry plateau had been brought up as had the biome's history and relative newness and cherry blossoms and- Yeah it was overwhelming. The voices had seemed to learn from that and filled in information slower and at a better pace to actually learn. Agni appreciated them.
"So just down this staircase is where we keep warps to each of the higher species monuments." Agni was startled back into paying attention at that. Right, they were going to learn about these higher species the voices had remained silent on. Agni was curious as to why the voices didn't seem to know anything about them. They knew a lot. Agni followed Star down the stairs.
The landing led to a surprisingly small hallway, what stood out the most was the several glassed off rooms. Further inspection gave up that there were doorways in the glass to enter the smaller rooms. There appeared to be eight in total. Agni turned to Star again as she began to speak. "There are eight higher species that we recognize. Or rather, are recognized. Its not just us who deem them higher. They include the Sniffer, the Vex, the Guardians, the Void, the Listeners, the Dragons, the Wardens, and-" Star faltered a moment, not for long though. "The Watchers."
Agni took the time to walk ahead past Star and look at all of them. They stood in front of the Sniffer's room. The monotone male's voice rung out. The Sniffer. Previously extinct for the past thousands of years. No one knows how they went extinct, however recently their leftover eggs have been found in known and recently discovered ruins. The species is making a comeback. Agni nodded again in thanks. Something drew them to turn around to look at the Vex's room next. The Vex. They operate as a hivemind, however they are not all in the same hive. Mischievous and conniving in nature. Do not make deals with them. They nodded and moved on.
They proceeded this way around the hall, taking their time to look at each room. The Void. There is only one and it exists everywhere and at all times that could exist. It knows of a pain like no other and cannot help but to inflict it on others. Agni felt drawn to the empty expanse of its room. Its story felt intriguing and Agni just wanted to know more. The Dragon. There are many but there is only one that they all come from. She is the Mother Dragon. Resides in the True End. The Watchers. They reside in the True End. Asist in world "updates" and changes. Keepers of Fate. You cannot hide from them to my knowledge. Agni turned around to the other side of the hall. The Warden. Creatures of solitude. Guardians of the Ancient Cities far below the surface of the world. Fighting them is futile, your only hope of survival is to run. Agni shivered a bit at the explanation. That wasn't terrifying at all, of course not... Agni moved on. The Listeners. Known enemies of the Watchers. They hear all. Agni paused a bit, confused at the limited knowledge on them before moving to the last room they'd yet to look at. The Guar-
The voice clammed up.
Agni stared on in confusion. The blues, cyans, oranges, and whites all looked familiar. It felt vaguely of home, but something felt wrong about it. The feeling of home wandered into some twisted feeling of dread that Agni didn't understand. Before it could get any worse, the monotone voice picked up again. The Guardians. A true Hive Mind system. Once you are apart of it, you will never leave. A Biomechanical creation of unknown origin. They reside in the Ocean, protecting their monuments in hope of finding and restoring the True Monument. Each monument holds three Elders, the heads of the monument. When one dies, a Guardian is promoted. Elders have the added ability of affecting every registered player in a world within a 50 block radius with Fatigue. Each and every Guardian, of Elder status or not, can communicate with each and every Guardian within seconds. No one can hide from them.
Agni faltered. The voice seemed to know immensely more about the Guardians than any other of the Higher Species. They didn't know what that meant.
They must have been staring for too long as Star spoke up. "You alright there?"
Agni shook themselves out of it. "Uh- yeah... Sorry." They turned back to the stairs and started up them, suddenly wanting nothing to do with the Higher Species and their warps. They could look later. Or never.
"Oh- You sure you don't want to go see their monuments?" And although Star probably had the most honest of intentions, something inside Agni violently flinched at the question even if Agni themselves didn't.
"Oh no no, no need Star. I can look later. I ought to get somewhere to sleep set up before sundown."
Star nodded. "Makes sense. I'll see you around then!"
Agni turned around just enough to see Star waving. They gave their own little wave before making their way up the rest of the stairs and promptly out of the museum.
It had been a few weeks since then. They never actually met Wolfie that day, regardless of what attempt was made on Wolfie's end. In that time however, they'd taken to fishing for their early game resources, raking in a bunch of different things, both good and bad. They'd accumulated a double chest full of enchanted books, however more doubles had been filled with fish and other mediocre hauls. Glass bottles, leather boots, string, and others were frequent pulls after fish. They'd upgraded their fishing rod a few times by now and it had gotten easier to sit in one place and just send the bobber out again and again and again. However this also meant that their precious minerals were lacking. They hadn't exactly gone mining much so they were running out of materials for armor and tools. Agni hemmed and hawwed for a few moment before just biting the bullet and pulling up their COMM screen again. They hadn't exactly looked at it since that first day. They saw a few messages from some people they didn't know dated earlier that morning.
_Agnii_: Anyone know a good place to mine?
Agni held their breath. They didn't actually know if anyone would respond to them. They only knew Star out of them all so it would be pretty understandable.
StarTheDrawer: I gottchu. You okay for a teleport right now?
Agni smiled.
_Agnii_: Yeah, all set!
And in a puff of purple particles, they were gone from their spot next to their chests. And instead, they were now overlooking a vast hole in the deepslate layer of the world. "What in the-"
Star laughed from beside them. "Yeah, this is one of Wolfie's world edit... things. You can take the ores he left here." And upon closer inspection, Agni noticed the floating ore veins... Floating. Ore veins. Not even the voices helped them on this one. That... Agni just stared at them. They looked at Star for explanation, but they just looked at Agni in confusion. Like Agni was the weird one.
After a moment more of just staring, something arguably weirder happened. Someone appeared in a purply cloud of smoke that just wouldn't dissipate. They could barely make out the features of the person... wolf? in the smoke. They had longer blue hair tied back in a flowery hair tie. It looked coil-y and definitely thick enough to support the scattered flowers that filled in the hair closer to his scalp. In fact Agni wanted to describe it more as frizzy, but not quite? Intentionally frizzy? On Hub World Earth, this hair type was frequently found in those of African descent. It is common for them to also have a darker complexion due to their origin. Ah, that. They guessed that made sense. Compared to Star at least. Then again Star was quite literally the only other example Agni could go off of considering they didn't exactly have skin. Fluffy blue and purple wolf ears adorned his head, with a matching tail flicking wildly in somewhat of a panic, or was it distress? Agni didn't know the tells of wolf hybrids just yet. They had a pastel blue sweater that faded to a pastel purple. He had pale blue jean shorts on as well with bright pink high top shoes. A flowery vine stretched around one of his arms. And then the voice followed.
"What the shit-" And then the voice cut out and both the person's ears and tail flicked in agitation. Before it cut in again, somewhat glitched? "Fucking- why?"
Agni just stood there as the person in front of them flickered in place, seemingly struggling to remain physical and not disappear. They looked over to Star, who had a concerned look on their face. She caught Agni looking at her and explained. "That's uh- That's Wolfie. The one I was talking about before. He tried to world hop to MCCI the other day and... something went wrong." Star paused. "I've been looking into how to fix it since. I've almost got it. He's not in any pain, nor is he in danger. We can talk to him via COMM while he's like this." Then she continued in a mutter. "I told him to stop trying to hop back until I fix this weird limbo."
Agni looked back to Wolfie, now knowing who he is just as he uttered. "Ah fuck it-" before fading back in a purple smoke. That was... interesting... to say the least. Looks like they ended up meeting Wolfie after all.
Agni looked back to Star in question. Star sighed. "Euh... It turns out our assisted world hop function is kinda... broken." Agni stared at them in confusion wondering what that could mean until the monotone voice spoke up again. Assisted World Hopping. Allows all registered players to hop to other worlds with assistance from the admined player permissions of both worlds involved. Usually done over small worlds to hub worlds such as Earth. The fact that this world's Assisted World Hopping is broken is... concerning. Most players require assistance in World Hopping which is why this feature exists. Huh... that could get bad fast. They assumed the broken feature is why Wolfie is currently... purple smoke-ified? Probably.
Star seemed to take their silence as some type of judgement and rushed to splutter out, "I promise I'm working on it, I just needed to make sure Wolfie isn't getting hurt by that happening. He's just- frustrated. He loves building here and hates that he can't seem to... connect properly." Agni nodded.
"I'll keep in mind to stay away from world hopping then."
After that Star warped away.
After a few hours of towering up to the floating ore veins and digging them away, Agni opened their COMM panel and hit their home button. They reappeared in front of their miniscule pile of chests in a field of nothing. They didn't really have a plan in mind either of what to build here. They'd accumulated a bunch of items already so they couldn't exactly leave anymore. Where they were is where they're staying now.
They picked a random chest and dumped out their haul, telling themselves that they'd deal with it later. Turning around, they looked out at their vast expanse of nothingness again. They'd set down their chests in a plains biome next to a smaller plateau, a river, and a jungle biome in the distance. They ambled over to the river with their few chests of fishing loot and stood on the sand, hands in their pockets.
The sun was finally out after days of cloudy or rainy skies. In fact, Agni didn't think the sun had been out this much at all since they joined the world. They looked up and closed their eyes against the beaming sun, smiling. This was nice. Relaxing if you will. They reflected a bit on the past few weeks.
It had been a while, yet they hadn't built anything yet. They'd been sleeping under the stars for the most part, not bothering to build shelter yet. They just hadn't had any ideas for what to build. They figured they just weren't very creative. Which begged the question, why couldn't they remember anything about who they were before? Star hadn't mentioned anything about anyone's memory files being broken... maybe that's just assumed since no one else can remember? Agni didn't want to believe that there was something wrong with them because they didn't think they could handle that right now. Besides, the voices had been helping plenty with restoring basic knowledge of how worlds like these worked. The only thing they somehow kept coming up with blanks of, was what they looked like. The voices never filled it in, and the water had never been reflective enough as the sun hadn't been out properly. The glass bottles never reflected anything either.
This was their chance.
Agni looked down, still keeping their eyes closed, until they imagined they were looking down at the water. Then they opened their eyes.
And then wanted to shut them again. This... wasn't what they had expected. At all. They brought their hands up to rub at their eyes only to come to a halt on smooth glass. It startled them so bad they dropped their hands and nearly fell to a crouch. That- that was real. How had they not touched their face before this? Had they really not?
They're face was not a face. It was a glass fish bowl. With an orange fish swimming around inside. When they went to look around, the fish moved, and with a startling realization, their sight matched what that fish would see. When they smiled, the fish opened their mouth in a vaguely smile shape. Almost like a capital D. When they frowned, the expression flipped. Their expression matched the fish's, yet their body language was done by the magic glass thing that they were.
What were they?