MGAQ

“I... I am... I was... Angelina? No... that wasn’t mi...” Your mouth moves unbidden, almost as if someone aside from yourself attempted to move it, your eyes look down upon a naked form not your own, yet so very familiar. And yet for all this even as you think with a mind which runs at strange angles you cannot help but feel, lost.

Again you attempt to utter words, only this time you lose track of more than just the words, more than just the name. Suddenly the meat which was you loses… you. Within, outside, you cannot decipher which, but all you know is that you are the storm, you are the maelstrom of souls and every one of them clawing, angry, hungry, scared, and needing something, anything which could give them back even a moment of a semblance of life.

It is chaos.

It is you...

And from within you feel them all fight only the strongest reaches the top for one precious moment, an identity... you are... then you are lost once more as that strength is sapped, the weaker pull down the strong and all that is unholy writhes and screams within you for release.

For a moment you almost had a name, a self, a purpose... but you cannot maintain within the hordes which possess you. They are legion, and yet you are one. They boil over, strength now turning upon itself as the strongest drag each other from the surface, locking each other into brutal soul upon soul violence, throwing all that they are against each other, eroding identity into a slurry of shards of experience.

There was order forming from the mayhem.

A crystallization of souls as the experiences of each battered and broken down part tore itself apart to be on top. Soon only the most hardy, or the least noticed of souls would weather their way into still completion, each one broken, damaged by the competition to make it to the top, to be the one which surfaces from the morass to take back the last beautiful essence of life for themselves and reshape the vessel to be their prize.

In the end only two who were now you remained, or at least could be considered whole enough to be a person. The last wreckage of a person ripping itself out of the morass  as all that now crushed together to create the final jewel of soul congealed their essences as one, finding unification as they reached to hold themselves stable.

Just as the doctor ordered.

The prince frowned at the vacant look upon your face, the meat puppet which was your body insensate for several moments as the truth of your new existence dawned upon it, settling identity, and the very substance of soul, upon a final construct.

For you it had been a timeless eternity.

“Are you still functional?” He asked, an impatient tone colouring his question, his eyes focused upon you with a feral glare as the pupils elongated and split. “Shit... The bastard danged hopes in front of us and then gave us a fucking defective doll. fuck it. FUCK IT!” His hand collided with nearby metal.

Even now, as you finished the process of pulling yourself together you could practically taste the rage, the desperation within his voice. And notice the dent which he’d placed in solid steel as he shook his knuckles from the pain.

“I... I am Alice.” You speak, your lips letting spill the words as your eyes caught up, focusing now upon his handsome face. Handsome... yes, yes it was. For the first time you truly looked at him, capturing the details of him in your mind as a whole rather than the sum of parts.

Alabaster skin that was too light to be even albino combined with red eyes and what seemed to be almost catlike ears stick prominently from his head. Handsome? Some part of you snorts in a rude fashion which goes against what you know that you would do, no upon second look the prince was not merely handsome; he was objectively beautiful in a graceful catlike manner. His musculature was surprisingly thick and ropy, suggesting of heavy activity and slight scars. His attire was almost entirely frilly and formal in a way that you were sure was some kind of imitation of trends long, long gone.

Some part of you wondered if he’d kissed you awake.

“I am Alice.” You say again, this time more firmly. “And you shouldn’t be swearing like that.” You nodded to yourself, yes, you remember such rules when you were… you felt as if you should enforce them, your mind still swirling as the chaos settled.

Surprise crept across his face, then... you wanted to say... satisfaction maybe?

“So, it actually worked... you don’t seem like a warrior.” He spoke with narrowed eyes.

“I think some of me was, I don’t remember being particularly great at anything at all myself. Ourselves? But I feel like there are things I should know.”

“Did you take it? Did you take the essence?