> You stare into the light without blinking, entranced by the luminescent abyss
The light blinds you, and you are infatuated with the way it is all-encompassing. You turn towards it, in awe of how it overwhelms your vision. You are just looking at bright white, with just the briefest glimpses of the sea in your peripheral vision. The feeling of warm water against your skin provides no context for where you are. The melodic chanting of the chained woman in stone is all you can hear.
Slowly, little by little, each of the senses fade. First, the white consumes the final fringes of your vision. Then the feeling of the currents in the water subside, leaving you feeling like you’re laying in stillness. Then, finally, the song of the woman in the water quiets into a distant whisper.
You’re somewhere else.
“I don’t think she can handle much more of this”, says a feminine voice in the distance. “We need to give her something more concrete, or she’s just going to be lost in this sea of metaphors. We need to ground her.”
“I agree. If we’re going to make her a permanent part of the sprawl, we’re going to have to reach a quorum with the Observers. Have you checked the portal?” asks a deep, masculine voice.
“The whole site’s been jacked since the last one thrashed the whole system. I don’t even know if they’re back in yet.”
“What’s the temporary url?”
“Cognizance dot observer slash observers slash portal.”
“Okay, logging in now… My password’s not working.”
“Didn’t you read the email? The whole thing’s fucked. We all have to start from scratch. They’ve literally got the code monkeys rewriting the thing from the ground up.”
“Well fuck.”
Your head throbs as they speak.
“Nobody’s logged in yet. We need to wait to see what the Observers think before we can call it, one way or another.”