Chapter Text
The Reaper’s Hook.
Deep in the recesses of the omniverse stands this dreaded nebula.
Travelers avoid it like the plague.
Reality-warping gods and multiversal conquerors steer clear.
And Arceus help you if you become a Faller.
No matter who you are, or what you have, or what you can do, you will bend to its laws if you so much as touch it.
You will become like those who dwell there. And with that comes consequences…
~~~
We are soulless.
Everything we are is tied to the nerves coursing through our bodies. There is no spiritual substance that lingers after death. Scientists have solved the hard problem of consciousness, and the answer is gemyndide.
There are two types of gemyndide: gemyndide-a and gemyndide-j. Gemyndide-a only exists in the living, dissolving after death. It can be extracted and transferred, which allows one’s consciousness to travel outside the body, but don’t be fooled—it’s still physical.
Gemyndide-j exists in the DNA of the living and dead. If it is extracted in its entirety from say, a fingernail or a strand of hair, or even an entire corpse, the substance will dissolve into pure genetic material.
A is alive, j has died, but either way, j’s in DNA. That is a simple way to remember it.
I hear you. You don’t fear eternal oblivion. You see nothing wrong with becoming like us. In fact, you may even be tempted to come here and live in our world.
Clearly, you have never heard of him.
I have seen great conquerors from beyond the stars be reduced to hollow shells of themselves in the blink of an eye. I have seen eldritch abominations turn tail after touching the Reaper’s Hook, as if they suddenly changed their mind about devouring us. I have seen great riots break out across the Sanctuary, chaos for his amusement, lest he get bored with maintaining order. He rips the very things that make you “you” away and replaces them with something else. We are all the Ship of Theseus. We are but planks of wood. If you come here, he will alter you.
All hail The Medium, the Mad Neuroscientist. May his wings shine upon us.
~~~
What is the Sanctuary, I hear you ask?
Perhaps I should start at the very beginning, when the world was burned to a crisp and rendered uninhabitable. In the year 2006, creatures from between dimensions entered our world. They descended from the heavens and devoured the very fabric of reality, all while their master, which took the form of a cloud of embers, scorched the land and dried up the seas. Many Pokemon and humans perished, including and especially those who would be crucial to restoring the environment. Shaymin, Rayquaza, even the Forces of Nature. Following this tragedy, the survivors scoured the earth with their Pokemon in search of a new home. We traveled high above and down below, planting every seed we could find in hopes that something would sprout. Weeks turned to months, months turned to years, until not an inch of our world was left to discover. To this day, not even the hardiest of crops will grow anywhere, even in the most inaccessible of places. It became abundantly clear to us that we could not use what was left behind. The only way forward was to forge our own path. That is why we created The Sanctuary.
The Sanctuary is, put simply, a digital recreation of the home we lost. First the seas were restored, then the regions, which we called Servers. Using pods connected to Link Cables, we uploaded our minds and left our bodies behind. We expected, perhaps unrealistically, that things would be perfect. Instead, we found ourselves clipping into walls, or frozen in place. Though the quality of the Sanctuary often leaves much to be desired, to put it lightly, I have rarely seen anyone leave. Most are scammed or forced to go nowadays, but I remember a time when it was popular to leave willingly. A belief had cropped up that, in the time that people had uploaded themselves, the world had become habitable again. Major developments in science soon debunked those claims, but even as the conspiracy persists, even believers refrain from leaving. The only people who do immediately come back, gasping for air with third degree burns. But I digress. The point was that the Sanctuary, in spite of all its flaws, was satisfactory for us. It brought an end to the chaos that followed the apocalypse. For a long time, we believed there would never be conflict again.
How wrong we were.