Magenta Is The New Blue

Her eyes fluttered opened, much like a butterfly when it spreads its wings. She heard the echoing rumbling through the hallways but she couldn't quite pinpoint where she was at. She deduced it was at a hospital, but by the smell of things she was certain that she was in a morgue.

"The body is in there," someone said.

"Just the one?" another asked.

"Yes, sir," the first person replied. "Are you expecting more?"

"No," the other said. "Just by the sounds of the discovery it seemed there should be more."

She swung her feet off the slab and sat up; she had been dead a few times before. She didn't know what iteration she was at now.

"They found her in a cornfield," the first voice said. "Naked and covered in a substance."

"Well," she whispered. "Where did you bring me into now, Max?"

A Folded Comic

It was mid-morning when he stepped out of the diner. He had quenched the pangs in his stomach. A burger, some fries and a cola to wash it down. It was pure heaven to eat them, his taste-buds had tingled with delight.

"Excuse me, sir," a young lad said as he approached him.

"Yes," Max replied.

"Can I have your autograph?" the kid asked holding up a comic book and a sharpie.

Max looked at the comic book and a wave of nausea hit him. The cover depicted him with two guns blazing and he seemed to be flying through the air, firing at shadowy demons while a beautiful angelic woman hovered higher with a glowing katana in her hands.

He took the comic book from the kid and unfolded it and read the title, Your Moment of Max Cube! Below that read:

"Can The Professor Save Him Now... or Is Max A Lost Cause?"

Sweet Three, Four Sour, Echo

Max sat on the seat of the maglev; it was oddly comforting for him. A sense of being alive, being in a place where he knew he was safe, a feeling of being home. Which was a weird sensation for him to feel.

He scanned the newsheet feed, catching up on the news of the morning, events that had happened overnight while he slept. His mind actively searching for trigger words.

Trigger words, what is that supposed to mean?

He took his attention from the newsheet and glanced at the landscape as it zipped past like a blur, meshing together like one giant panting. It all seemed vaguely familiar, yet strange to him. Maybe, just maybe he...

"Tickets, please," the conductor asked, breaking Max from his train of thought.

Max lifted up his wrist and the conductor scanned it.

"Magenta," the conductor said.

"Huh?" Max asked.

"Pardon?" the conductor replied.

"Did you say 'magenta'?" Max questioned him.

The conductor looked at him strangely and finally stated, "I said you are welcome."

Coffee Breaking

Max leaned back on the park bench, enjoying the scenery; he watched an elderly couple stroll by him holding hands. The old fellow just nodded at him as they went on their way through the garden. There was a potpourri of aromas about him; a mixture of jasmine, honeysuckle, roses, even the smell of oranges as the warm breeze picked up some.

He could make out a group of young lads playing a game of stickball, as well.

Stickball, he thought again. Had he ever played it on the mean streets of...

Where was he from anyway?

He brought the disposable mug to his face and sipped from the coffee. He could tell by the LED countdown on the handle he had another five minutes left before the mug disintegrated. Becoming one with mother nature once again.

His watched chimed. An old Fatboy Slim song came on telling him it was time to go. He gulped the last of the black liquid and set the cup on the bench and walked away.

As the LED of the mug reached zero the mug simply dematerialized.

Gone into the static.

Express Elevator To Nirvana

The elevator doors opened with a slight little shh sound, which made Max chuckle out loud. The little girl who was standing beside him as she waited for the elevator as well. She was dressed in a school uniform, black slacks, white shirt and a bright orange plaid vest. She carried a lunch box that had a picture of an angel with a huge sword flying above the air.

"Morning Mr. Koob," she said. "It's suppose to be a beautiful day again."

"Is it now, Hira?" he questioned. He didn't know if he had met the child before and it was strange that he would know her name. Why do I know her name?

"Yes it is, Mr. Koob," Hira said as she stepped into the elevator. She pressed the button for the lobby. "Mom says it's all due to the atmospheric processors."

"Atmospheric processors," Max repeated.

The song playing in the elevator was an old Nirvana tune done in the style of elevator music; it seemed strange to hear 'All Apologies' playing with harps, flutes and cellos. Max knew this song was going to stick in his brain all day now.

"Wait a second, Hira. Did you just call me Koob?"

Living In The Now

Max stretched his arms. And took in a breath of a fresh clean air. And it was fresh, tasted minty for some reason.

"Morning, Neighbor," a fellow on the next balcony called over. Max glanced over and noticed the fellow was standing there in pajamas with a huge, blue bathrobe draped over him. He had a mug of coffee in his hands as well. "It looks like the start of a new day."
 

Nectar Of The Gods

The moons hovered in the morning sky, like little children close to a mother. Max strolled back from the balcony, grabbed a t-shirt off the floor and slipped it on; it was nice and new and smelled of spring. The coffee maker chimed again, letting him know his cup was ready for the taking.

He sauntered into the kitchenette and grabbed the mug of comfort, glancing at the clock on the wall which told him it was time to get going.

But where?

He didn't know but he had that urge in him. Something programmed in him? Maybe. He took a few sips from the coffee, the black liquid danced across his taste buds which nearly sent him to a point of orgasm. He took another sip from his coffee and yet again it tasted what heaven must taste like.

Not In Kansas

Max awoke in the pre-dawn morning, his eyes flickered open. His first compulsion was to reach for a cigarette by the night stand but there wasn't any there.

"Oh, that's right," he thought.

He threw the blanket off and sat up on the bed. His feet touching the cold wood floor, giving him the sensation that he was still alive, kicking and able to feel sensations like a cold floor.

He stood and stretched, his body making noises like a breakfast cereal once milk is poured. A cacophony of grunts, groans and other sounds emerging from the vocal cord.

"I'm still not getting too old for this shit," he muttered.

He walked to the balcony doors, drawing the curtain and then he stepped back in amazement. His eyes widened in wonder, much akin to a child looking at a Christmas gift that they thought they would never get but did.

He brought his right index finger to his mouth and bit down hard on it. It was an old trick he learned from a monk to see if he was still dreaming; the sensation of pain was real enough. He opened the balcony doors and stepped out into the cold February morning, glancing up at the sky seeing the moon so close that he thought he could touch it. Beyond the moon he could see three other planets as well.

"Well...." he simply said.

All Good Things...

Dan's eyes flickered open. He was covered in a cold sweat.
It was dark out and he glanced over at the alarm clock. 3:33am. His throat was dry and parched; he got up out of his bed and into the small bedroom/sitting room. The tent was hot like a furnace; his body produced a huge amount of heat and the closed flaps made it unbearable. Dan slept in a tent in the bachelor apartment, since a man shouldn't eat, sit, and sleep in the same room. And walls or barriers were needed for defining and keeping the mind focused and sharp, due to the changing environments.

Damn. It was a dream.

In the kitchen he poured water from a pitcher in the fridge. He stopped and took a couple of deep breaths to calm his nerves down a little. He was still going over the things in his minds. His skin had the feeling of a billion pins stabbing into them, like the dead weight of sleep... or were they pencils reanimating him back to this version?

No. No it wasn't - I transcended.

Was it a dream? He wasn't quite sure what the hell had happened, but it was an experience. He scrambled over to where he kept his journal and with pencil in hand began to furiously scribble down notes. He didn't bother on sharpening the pencil when it got dull, he reached over and grabbed a pen and continued to write down every little thing that his dream world had unveiled to him. It was a visionary quest, similar in nature to what the natives of North America have experienced in their sweat lodges. Whatever had happened he wanted to make a record of it before the tendrils of sleep reached out and comforted him again.

He put the pen down at 6:06am and looked over his transcript. 44 pages all jotted down like a madman's scribble. Satisfied, he decided to crawl back into bed and get at least another hour of sleep before heading over to the restaurant for coffee. Just before his head hit the pillow a cellphone rang. And Dan's eyes widened upon the realization that he hadn't bought one.

The Homecoming

Memories and realities seemed to merge for Dan. He sat down on a bench, he could hear, feel the sudden rush of wind as a subway was approaching.

"Dan," Suki said. "You might want to brace yourself."

Dan looked up as the subway pulled in. He could see Max in one car and Simon in another car. A cluster of other figures. They were all caught in some frozen 2-dimensional fight.

Between Here and There, Now and Then

He tapped the phone off and picked himself up from the ground; he felt like he was in a lucid dream. His mind swirling with images and afterthoughts that he couldn't place, what things were where. His body terraformed and his mind seemed to be sinking in the details of the phone call. A series of random waves from a voice. The Professor. Was it the Professor; a GMC come to life? Or had he always been there.

"I'm going mad," he muttered.

"Not really," Suki answered as she returned from a vending machine. She held out a chocolate bar like an offering. "You should eat."

"We eat here?" Dan said.

"We do," she replied with a smile. "You've been around the gaming table long enough to figure that out."

He had been reading psychology books about transcendation and scanning websites about the possibilities of opening doors to other worlds, other realities. That the currently real world he lived in was just a facade of imagery manipulated by his mind to offset his own desires of changes and remorse. He knew that he was either evolving or simply going mad. He preferred evolving since mad men were branded and exiled.

Dan opened the wrapper up and took a bite and it felt like heaven. His taste buds seemed to explode with flavour. Suki smiled.

"That's how I felt once I passed through into your reality," she noted. She sat down on a bench. "It's like being reborn, isn't it? Seeing worlds through fresh eyes and dimensions."

Still, something didn't feel right with Dan. It was like he was here but not here.

Reborned Askew

His brain was on fire and there was nothing he could do about it. He felt like his whole insides were being rearranged, like molecules in a transporter. Maybe this was why Dr. McCoy had refused to constantly be beamed aboard.

"Can't breath," he gasped, his voice raw and forced.

"Liar," Suki replied nonchalantly. "You spoke right there."

He was having difficulty breathing. In fact, he was sure he wasn't breathing at all. "This is strange."

"Tell me about it," Suki said as she helped him up.

She was about to say something when Dan's cellphone began to ring.

Fictionless Truths

Dan's vision had gone blurry, staticky. His vision was trying to focus in on his surroundings. The fluorescent lighting was stabbing through his eyes and into his brain. Pain was white and hot and with the ferocity of Wolverine's claws slashing through his brain.

"What's happening?" Dan asked. He looked at his hands and saw right through them. He could pick up billions of tiny pencils on his skin moving. He felt them drawing on him.

"You're readjusting," Suki said. "Your body is being terraformed to suit this reality."

"Terraformed?" Dan repeated. He sat up and received a mad head rush, vertigo grabbed a hold of him and slammed him down to the ground again.

"Take it easy, Dan," Suki told him. "It might take awhile."