The Fool

Darkness, pure darkness. Cold, pure cold. A sense of being nothing and everything at the same time. Death. A painless one. The cold and never changing grip of death. As Rain sunk deeper into the cold embrace, he felt touched by eternity.

However, there was something else. A presence that was so large it could almost be overlooked. It was so large that the presence itself seemed to make the space where it had not occupied the source of the wavering thought Rain had that somebody else was here.

Before he could determine which one was which, a voice spoke out. Running along the grooves of the pure emptiness he found himself in. It sounded almost robotic but serenely familiar. As if he was listening to his own mother speak to him from wherever she was now.

The voice droned in incoherent speech as it slowly coalesced into something that could be understood. It spoke to him with redeemed clarity.

"Ah, that was today wasn't it."

What was today? His death. How had the figure known about it. Before his thoughts could come to fruition, the voice changed. Suddenly dropping the nostalgic tone it once had in favor of a more demeaning and demented one. Yet it was still filled with a noble purpose.

"Welcome to your own mind. Your own desire. Welcome to Purgatory, Aspirer Rain."

With that, he was suddenly thrown out of the space at hurtling speeds. Sensing and seeing the world around him distort and dissipate as his senses became meddled. He was traveling through space and time it seemed. Not able to fully comprehend it of course, due to the flow of time drastically speeding up his mental and physical aging process as he darted across the void-like realm.

Rain opened his eyes with a hesitation. The bright light blinding him seemingly brighter than the void was dark. The first thing he felt was the dryness of his throat and the burning sensation that seemed to have been coming from his skin. Looking down at himself, he found his now lean and surprisingly tall figure covered in sand. A fine, almost ethereal teal sand. The azure reflection of the sky seeming to bounce off the surface of the ground creating a landscape that was hard to tell from the sky itself. The horizon line dipping into nonexistence as it blending with the rolling dunes and flat plains.

Rain realized with a start that he was laying on his back, looking straight into the sun. He had a rather confusing set of clothes on. He could feel that on the tops of his head, what was supposed to hide him from the envious gaze of the sun was an elegant black hat with a wide brim. It seemed close to the hat he had seen in a movie once. The one that Doc Holiday wore. Even stranger, he had on a grey long sleeve tshirt that was almost all the way covered with a robe-like suit. It hung over his newly grown shoulders with a sense of elegance. It matched in color with his hat and the pants he was wearing. He also had boots of a similar greyish color to his previous house. The last thing Rain noticed seemed completely out of place.

A watch. On his right wrist. It was similar to that of a smartwatch from where he had come from instead of a clockwatch that would have obviously fit the setting he found himself in. Then again, he wasn't even sure what setting he was in himself. Just then was Rain finally able to notice a most peculiar thing. Blood. There was blood on his arm in the form of a marking. A cryptic one but a marking nonetheless. It seemed as ancient as the bus he used to take to school every morning. The runes spiraling around each other to form the outline of something Rain recognized instantly.

Elegantly engraved into his arm in what seemed like dried blood, was a graceful black stallion on its hind legs. It seemed to stare at him with a slight jeer. As if it knew that it was better than him. The matte black steed belonged to none other than his favorite deck of cards he used to play with his mother. This specific one being the symbol of the joker.

As the realization washed over Rain that he simply wasn't just dreaming or experiencing some vision before the afterlife, at least he thought, he began searching the area for the one thing he desperately needed. Water. Rain took a closer look at the azure surface of the desert with some sprinkling of teal and a faint white throughout and came to a realization. Mirrors. This whole place is a desert of smashed mirrors. Why? Who would do such a thing and why would they? Had someone even done it? Was it natural? All these thoughts raced through the young boy's suddenly mature mind. In turn making his temples burn with stress.

Only able to distract him from the stunning and confusing scene was the even more confusing sight of his blinking watch settled gracefully into his wrist as if it wa s tailor made to fit to it. Opening what he assumed was the screen, he saw a mass of runes and letters. He began reading with an incredulous expression and unbridled curiosity in his young eyes.

'Name: Rain Lostsign

Alias: The Fool

Alignment: Aspirer

Description: Gullible- The desire in some is so great that they may become dulled in their senses. The Fool is gullible but also much smarter and in tune with desire than those who seek to be intelligent. The ones deemed to be fools are remembered in our history as the smartest ones of their time. Yet the fool is always one step behind it's burden, The Trickster.

Governing Law: [Attention Seeker]

Rain looked in confusion at the seemingly innocent description. He immediately realized however that the watch had had his real name on it. Not the one his mother used to enroll him in school in fear whoever she had coming after her would get to him.

He had a sinking feeling that this wouldn't be the only strange thing he would come upon in the future. Steeling his will and adjusting to the newfound strength in his adult legs, Rain set off on his initial quest. To find water.