Your eyes are open, though your vision remains dark save for the dancing flames of various colours around you. You've been sitting within this state for much of the day, taking a break to hang with your best bro and his boyfriend, though you don't feel you've made any progress. You told Cass what you had discovered of this state of magic, and she revealed that Dave had been practicing with his own form of it for months now, right underneath your nose. He'd told her not to tell, you don't blame either of them for that, but for you to have gone so long without noticing...
Your vision begins to lighten; you refocus. Looking down, you observe what you believe to be your soul, floating within you, or just in front. You turn it over in your hands, feeling a pressure around you, but not much else. It's orange in colour, of course, though at this point it more resembled brown. Wrapping loosely around it is a thin string, bright red, that leads away from you before disappearing at the end. Occasionally, you can feel it pulling. On one side, you could see an especially dark patch that seemed to be spreading like infection through a vein. It had been growing there for a while. You chose to disregard it for now.
Dismissing it, you look up and about the appartment. Cookie shines bright, a sort of oceanic green colour, and Two Tone a perhaps duller shade of magenta. You can see Cass's dark purple in the kitchen, Daves vibrant red within his room, and all around you was a soft burgundy. You'd come to understand this was HAL, inhabiting the house.
You begin to feel uneasy, and rememember what Crosy told you. Is that you, or someone else? How are you supposed to tell the difference? How can you tell the source of them, even if you can figure out that it's not you fueling your own emotions? Can you even trust yourself to feel anymore? Could you ever?
The structure is beginning to slip away from you again and you huff, frustrated, as you pull it back. Some powers this is turning out to be. You can look at some pretty lights whenever you choose, what are you supposed to do with that? Maybe not, maybe you're just supposed to sit here in confusion. But that doesn't sit right to you. Dave is able to turn back or forwards the clock of time relative to a specific item or small area, Rose has long been demonstrating her foresight, though before recently you had chalked that up to it being Rose. You could just ask her what you're meant to do, but that didn't seem within the spirit of the game.
Because, of course, it is a game. Or the remainder or precursor to one. It's all just a big joke to the universe, and you're meant to play along. It was just a shame the universe had thrown away the rules card. How were you supposed to know your objective, or even how to play?
You feel an ache throughout your body, beginning at your chest, and look down to see your fingers wrapped around your flame, near smothering it. You relax your hands, allowing it to brighten back up, and as the pressure releases, so does your hold. The illusion flickers out, and you're back to sitting on your bed. Internally, you swear, before opening your eyes again to bring it back up.