Since I got started with building a world week before last, I've continued puttering on the story it was made to hold. Here's a snippet of what I have so far:
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The comforting velvet warmth of the familiar night was replaced with a void, and Kasi felt she'd gotten the short end of that particular stick. Surprise cooled into reluctant fear. It was just a dream. It had to be. But the void continued. It didn't fade or disappear. Nothing came out of the darkness. It just went on… forever.
"What happened? Where am I? What happened?" She was compelled to say the words out loud. She couldn't hear her words, except inside her own head, like when one shouts underwater. She could feel her mouth moving, though, and could feel the voice vibrating in her throat. It just seemed to go no further.
Fear was threatening to turn into panic. Kasi reached out for her Partner, feeling with both hands and mind. Myrna had to be nearby. She had to be. They wouldn't have been so cruel as to separate them, would they?
What they? Who? And why did it suddenly seem to make sense that she had been taken somewhere else?
It had to be dream.
Please be a dream.
Myrna's hand touched her own. Kasi might have cried out in relief, but she couldn't hear herself, so what did it matter if she did? She could feel the familiar shape of her Partner's hand in the dark, and even found the little scar on her wrist, from where she'd tried to be clever with the kitchen knife and gotten herself banned from dinner preparations. Kasi pulled her closer and felt the subconscious nudge of Myrna's willingness to merge. Kasi didn't hesitate at all. If ever there was a time to merge, it was now.
She opened herself to it, and felt the staticky warmth of Myrna's essence flowing over her skin and into her core.
:What happened?: The echo of her own thoughts was almost as much of a relief as it was an irritation.
:I don't know. How am I supposed to know? I think we're dreaming.:
There was a slight pause. Kasi could feel Myrna's thoughts zipping through their joined mind, as she imagined a bird might feel others in its own flock flying about it. Myrna was frightened, too, by the isolation of the void and the inability to see or to hear. But they had each other, and they were together now, so that was good.
Before either of them could start lobbing suggestions through their collective head space, sight and sound abruptly returned.
Kasi stood in a spacious and painfully clean white room. White walls, white ceiling, white floor. No visible doors. The grid pattern on the walls reminded her of cinder blocks, but that didn't really make much sense, not in a place this clean. Others were in the room, too. There was a boy with broad shoulders and somewhat shaggy brown hair in need of a trim, and beside him a frightened-looking female with waist-length hair and large brown eyes. Saif and his Partner, Renee. They were Kasi and Myr's roommates, and it was a relief to see them, even if they might all be in terrible danger.
Nearby, there was another pair - one Kasi recognized, but didn't know. A tall, thin young man with neat black hair and tanned skin, and beside him a redheaded male with mischievous eyes. Both of them looked as stunned at Kasi felt.
"What a trip," said the redhead, breaking the unpleasant silence with a tense grin. "Anybody got any ideas about what's supposed to happen next?" His eyes swept around the group and fastened on Kasi.
:How are we supposed to know?: Myrna's defensive retort made Kasi laugh to herself, but before she could answer aloud, another voice spoke. It was high and sort of… chimy. Like wind chimes, only making words. Definitely not a voice that belonged to any normal person.
"Next, you will participate in the Rebirth Games for the survival of your planet and your species."
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