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The decision sits with your stomach like a month-old tuna and yogurt sandwich. Even with <span class="mu-r">RED</span>’s little plan, you can’t help but hesitate a bit as you reach out to take and shake Trier’s claw–he’s too calm, you think to yourself as you try not to let your uncertainty leak into your expression, too aloof.
Is Trier <span class="mu-i">really</span> as powerful as he makes himself out to be? Or is he just accustomed to not being challenged?
Your hand clasps around a rough, crack-covered appendage whose surface seems to hook and yank at your palm’s smooth flesh. It’s cold, whatever it is, like a twig left to rot in a freezer!
The hairs on your arm stand on-end as you feel a trickle of magic work its way through your pores. You really, <span class="mu-i">REALLY</span> hope it’s the latter!
<span class="mu-r">”Hokay, pard,”</span> Sighs the Satan living behind your psyche, <span class="mu-r">”Showtime…”</span>
You can hardly wait… steeling yourself for the handover, you grit your teeth as you feel your ‘self’ slip away like a candy wrapper in the wind…
And then?
<span class="mu-i">Nothing.</span>
Darkness intertwines with silence, wrapping you in oblivion like a noise-canceling spiderweb! It’s almost peaceful, seeing nothing… hearing nothing… <span class="mu-i">feeling</span> nothing…
For a time, at least.
Just when you think you’ve stopped thinking, a particularly odious one slips in uninvited:
What if this is it? What if <span class="mu-r">RED</span> leaves you here? What if this is the rest of your life? And your afterlife?
You’d feel chills if you could still feel. All you can do is drift in abject numbness, each moment maybe a minute… or a month!
Stupid <span class="mu-r">RED.</span> You bet <span class="mu-i">HE</span> doesn’t have to deal with this… he probably has a 24/7 feed hardwired into everything you do, the cad! Whatever happened to privacy!? Dignity!?
Spending a few moments testing if you can somehow manage to scratch your butt, you’re interrupted by a…
…<span class="mu-i">Something.</span>
You only notice it when it’s practically on top of you–not directly, of course–the presence lingers just outside of your perception like when someone’s peering over your shoulder at work… or standing a little too close on the bus!
Whatever the presence is, it’s weak… faint like a dollar store Walkie-Talkie!
The question is, do you acknowledge it? Is it some kind of plaything <span class="mu-r">RED</span> left lying around? A shard of your psyche? G-g-g-GHOSTS!?
What do?
>Wait for it to address you!
>Ask what it wants!
>Stay silent!
>Introduce yourself!
>Write-In!
