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Magus Devon of the Quantum Downs (#6001)

Owner: 0x0f27…3907

🍄Encounter from A Never-ending Dream🐍

When first growing her quantum Mushrooms, Magus Devon had no control over where they would take her or how far she could peer into other realms. Each trip into the beyond bore a huge mental burden on her, but her intrigue beckoned her to continue exploring and to learn all she could about the worlds beyond her own. But without any means of pinpointing which world she would perceive on her mushroom empowered journeys, she never learned enough to satisfy her curiosity before the effects of her enchanted fungi wore off.

She wished she could dial into the particular worlds that interested her the most. Then, she could study them and gain a greater understanding of how her world fits into the infinite planes surrounding it. She mastered her craft, utilizing the unique properties of the Quantum Downs, in order to grow the most potent quantum mushrooms imaginable. With these new mushrooms, she was certain she would experience the worlds of her choosing for a much longer period of time.

But to her surprise, once she tried these newly crafted shrooms she found herself trapped in a fractal maze of realities that branched off into infinite paths. There were no walls—there was no ground, just an endless horizon of colors leading into one another in every direction. Before she could even attempt to explore this space, she felt the unmistakable understanding that somehow she had already experienced all that this area had to see. No, that wasn’t quite right—she realized that her perception of spacetime had become so warped that the past and present merged into one instantaneous slice. The “moment” she decided to undertake the astronomically daunting task of traversing this realm, she had already done so for eons. No matter what she did, she would always return to where she had started. Space and time no longer had meaning—they were abstract concepts in this abyss. It simultaneously felt like a single second and millennia. She had learned everything she needed to understand how hopeless this situation was.

“I don’t know where I am. I don’t know what I am. I can’t escape here, but maybe I’ve always been here anyway…”

She spoke aloud into eternity, somewhat out of desperation, but mostly in resignation. She was beginning to doubt she ever had a life outside of this torment. A particular though had clouded over her mind and paralyzed her with agony - perhaps the "life" she assumed she was living this whole time was just imagined as a way of temporarily coping with the reality she was now forced to return to. Maybe she had always been here, and through madness fabricated an existence that was much simpler than this. Had it all been a lie?

“No, you’re wrong. Let me help you out of there...”

A voice responded to her, and instantly the fractals surrounding her collapsed into vibrantly colored shards like shattered glass. In its place was an ever expanding void of darkness, with a single green string rotating in the distance. Distance? She could perceive distance again—that green string was feasibly possible for her to reach. She may not know how far it was, or how long it’d take to reach it, but she had a firm understanding that it was indeed within her grasp to get closer to it. She felt her sense of time returning to her—and as she drew closer to the string, the emptiness engulfing her gradually began to take shape. Before she could react, the darkness had faded and she found herself in a small white room. Shadows cast from an unknown source gave definition to where its walls, ceiling, and floor connected. A fully functional wooden clock on the wall ticked away, distinctively conveying how long each second was from the last. She stopped for a moment to savor this experience. Her eyes traced across the parameter of the room as she confirmed her place inside of it.

“1.76 by 0.88 meters… What a small room… What a comfortable room...”

Boundaries had returned. Time had started. Never had she been more relieved to be entrapped in such a tightly cramped space. She sighed in relief and drew her attention back to the single floating green string, now rotating within arms length in front of her. She reached out slowly, and hesitantly grabbed onto it. Suddenly, a window carved out from one of the white walls. On the opposite end of it lay a familiar view; the Quantum Downs.

“...”

Although she should have been relieved to see it, she couldn’t help but feel disappointed. She had taken this trip for answers, and going back now would only leave her with more questions than when she started. She looked back down at the string in her hand. It had transformed into a snake. Although it began coiling and slithering up her arm, she felt no sense of danger and instead waited patiently for it to fully take shape. Its large white eyes, as empty as the room they stood in, peered back into hers. After realizing she was in no rush to escape, he finally broke the silence and spoke. He did not open his mouth to speak; his voice resonated from within Devon’s head:

“Do you not wish to return?”

“Not yet.”

“Why is that?”

“I want to know where I am.”

“Home. Technically, you never left. ”

Magus Devon closed her eyes for a moment to process the green snake’s words, only to find that whether her eyes were closed or not, she could still visibly see the entire room. She could feel her eyelids shut, but her vision was unaffected.

“I came here because I want to learn more about the world beyond my own. If I went back now, I’d probably just come back here again.”

“Oh? Despite how unpleasantly intense your experience was?”

“I want to learn more. I want to see more. Next time I may not be fortunate enough to encounter a friendly spirit like you to restore my sanity. Regardless, I know that it’s only a matter of time before I attempt again.”

“Interesting. I can’t fathom what would motivate you so hard to dive into this danger, but I will tell you that you’re heading in the wrong direction. To put it into a perspective you can understand: you meant to go to the room next door, but somehow went up the flight of stairs to the floor above. If you don’t know where you’re going, you’re certain to eventually lose yourself. I’ll be your guide back downstairs so you don’t find your way here again. I’d like to learn more about your world, and why someone like you would go to such lengths out of sheer curiosity. In return for helping you travel, I’d like you to help me find a place to call home.”

Devon cocked her head slightly to the side and silently stared at the green snake. His unblinking eyes stared back, and his forked tongue flickered at the air every few seconds. Seconds… audibly indicated by the ticking of the clock echoing in the small room. A measurement of time, which she had almost lost forever.

“Is it lonely here?”

“Hmm, that’s hard to say. Before you came, I’m not sure if you can say I existed, at least not in the sense you’d probably consider existing.”

It sounded nonsensical, but somehow Devon felt she understood exactly what he meant. Without an observer providing an alternate frame of reference, could one really confirm their own existence? Did space and time even exist until this snake called out to her?

“Do you have a name?”

“I do not.”

“You’ll need one to live with me. Everyone where I’m from has one. Well, almost everyone.”

“...”

This time the snake cocked his head curiously in response. Just like she did to him, he stared silently into her eyes and listened to the pleasant echo of the ticking clock. Magus Devon thought briefly about how she got here — her first visual outside of the fractal prison was a single rotating string in a sea of darkness. Gently, she lifted the snake up to place him atop her shoulder. She finally began walking towards the only window in the room, leading to the Quantum Downs. As she cracked it open, she looked at him and smirked.

“Let’s go home, Spinor. We have to rest up for the adventures ahead.”

Entered by: 0x0f27…3907 and preserved on chain (see transaction)

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