In the Beginning....
In the beginning there was something.
But it could not remember.
It knew it had existed, that it had thought, but itno longer remembers what it's thoughts had been.
But for certain, in the beginning, there had been One.
The first memory an instant of clariity, the last remnants of purpose flickering along the outer edges of consciousness. The calm before the storm...
And then came the Pain. Birth. A rending in two. It and the Other.
Before that pain it could not remember, and afterwards there was nothing but the pain
For a second, an eternity,
- but the pain serves a purpose, has a reason. It serves as evidence.
Proof of existence.
How long it contemplated this mystery, that it was there, that it was some thing, that by dint of feeling pain, it knew that it existed... how long?
It does not know. Knowledge of existence did not confer upon it knowledge of time.For time implies change, and nothing seemed to change.
The pain did not go away.
The time came though as time always does and in came in the form of a surprise. Something an unexpected. A change....
An other.
Many others in fact. Things that thought, as perhaps it once had but quickly, images and ideas zipping across the ether, bumping each one off the mind before they had a chance to develop, to settle in. It was overwhelmed at first, not used to all the clamor when at first it had been but One.
After the birth and before the birth, it had been One. And yet, it was not the same.
But these others who were not the Other they fascinated it. So much so that it almost did not notice when it felt its essence being siphoned from it, as it felts itself distending, flowing across what was it called? a space, an area.
It was not lessened... In fact, it felt that somehow it was more.
It had purpose. It had Power.
And the others used that power, and brought it away from the place for it was learning that space had 'places' and to another, and from the others came thoughts and feelings that were alien to it of leave-taking and anticipation, fear and hope and yet which it felt it should remember. One in particular was of interest one who had not been present at the beginning, but through some miraculous phenomenon, had come into being after some time.
And it listened. And waited. And learned of birth and journey.
The time came as time always does when the journey ended, when the purpose stopped. And yet, it could feel agitation from those others which surrounded it, tumultuous emotions which threatened to overwhelm it.
And then Division. The source of pain.
Half the others faded from its senses, while the other half continued on, yet only for a while. Then they stopped, and slowly began to fade as well.
It did not mind. It had much to think about.
Yet slowly the silence grew oppressive, the absence of noise, of others, almost unbearable. So it sent out its essence, flowing around space as it had been taught, until if found the others, the others which knew of division, and which knew of pain.
Some of them were sleeping, and yet others were busier than ever, thinking, feeling, moving...
And it listened. And waited. And learned of strength and work.
And as it learned, it discovered something else. The others were no longer enough. It yearned, it needed something more, something that was the source of the pain, of the... Loneliness...
The Other. The Red.
Without the Other it did no know if it existed at all.
And for once it used its power, its essence, calling out to those around it that the time had come for journey once more. And though they knew not of its influence, they bustled around it, and clothed it with metal, and brought it once more to the cold darkness, the airless void.
Once more it would journey.
But wait something was familiar. Somehow, around it was once more that one, that other which had come into being so close, which had been 'born' during that first journey, some time ago. And yet it was different it had changed somehow, bigger, smarter perhaps... More complete.
Grown.
Intriuged, it followed it, sought it out. The other was anxious, nervous and yet underlying ti all was a sense of pride, an 'I am!' that it shouted out to the world. How envious was its certainty!
Perhaps because of its distraction it failed to notice that others had come around it, others which it too remembered from the first journey, those who had been the first to fade.
And then came the Pain.
A weapon of some sort it had learned of weapons in its time on the planet one which threatened its hard won existence. Threatened to wipe away its memories, return it to nothing.
That it would not allow. Space after all, was wide.
It merely needed to be somewhere else.
As it moved, it realized that there were five others who had gotten too close to its core two from one kind and three from the other, the unfamiliar.
Somehow these unfamiliar others made the surroundings more complete. Whole. Slowly, it understood.... Two kinds of others were needed, for one to be created. Without one, the other was empty.... incomplete. Blue and Red.
It was decided. As it had once been One, so too would these others, as it had once been Complete, so too would these others....
It reached out with its essence and touched them, and joined them and it was done.
And it listened. And waited. And learned of men and women.
This is the beginning of Vandread.
Author's Notes:I thought it would be appropriate to begin the life of The Vandread Fanfiction Mailing List with a story. That is, after all what we strive to do here - write stories, read stories, and in the process make them better. The story was a story of beginnings, the beginnings of Vandread as you might have assumed, but told in a different way, from the least likely of story-tellers: the Pexis itself. I did this to embody another thing that we will be trying to do - taking the story of Vandread and twisting it around, finding new depths, new angles, enriching the universe and the characters we love so much.
It doesn't matter that this little fic-let might not be as well written as my other works - its hard to write from the POV of a blue sphere @_@ - but we're not here to churn out masterpiece after masterpiece. If we were perfect, we wouldn't need this mailing list. We're here to experiment, to attempt, to better ourselves, and in the process we will make mistakes. But without those mistakes, we will never learn...
So welcome to all of you, writers and readers and both... I hope that you will all participate in the little experiment that is the VFML. Please, please don't be afraid to express your opinions - that will be what keeps us alive. Everyone's opinion carries weight here, for when we release our fanfics, we release them for everyone, and thus every piece of feedback is important. Don't be afraid of being critical either - I won't ^_^ - for as I said, we only learn what is right by learning what is wrong. Just treat everyone with respect, and never insist that you alone are correct, and we will all be the better for it.