The Foreword to ?SHOEBOX? - Printable Version

The Foreword to ?SHOEBOX? - Printable Version

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The Foreword to ?SHOEBOX? - bear - 11-11-2014

This is a work I've been plugging away at for a while. I'm gonna leave the foreword here for anyone interested.

<div style="text-align:center;][/align] I've been called a lot of names (I'm N, by the way. That quote is from me). Not always in a pejorative way, but most often in the sort of descriptive manner people use when they think they now understand what it is that you do. Not that many people have quite understood what it means to be someone like me. It's not that I'm so terribly unique that none of the sheep could possibly understand what goes on between my ears, but rather that my job isn't exactly the most comprehensible of things to explain. Especially not in this universe, where there seems to be an abundance of people who really do think there's some great deity out there that cares about them and created everything just for them.

Pfft. Morons. There's nothing like that in this shoebox, at least. But once you get outside, deities become less of a question of whether or not they exist and more a question of whether or not they want you to die slowly.

 It was with great trepidation that I first came to this Box and settled in for the long haul. Navigators like me tend not to settle down, after all. There's just too much to discover and map out. I mean, I've done my fair share, to be sure, but there's still more out there. Places I haven't been, things I haven't seen. Songs I haven't yet spun.

 Oh, I should explain, I guess, even if the idea might not translate so well onto a page. A Navigator is someone like me. A wanderer between worlds, in some sense. Like your astronauts, but... uh, better at it, I guess. You guys fling yourselves at celestial bodies physically, with rockets and jets and stuff, but my type, well, we use a different method. I suppose calling it 'magic' wouldn't be unfair but it does declare a certain amount of fancy to it that I just don't agree with. There's nothing whimsical about what I do. Not a thing at all.

 First off, it isn't just poof and off to the races to find a new Box and a new land. There's a system. I guess it's part of the reason I like to refer to realities as Shoeboxes (Boxes when I can't be assed). It's not usually possible to perceive the outer lines of the Box you're in, since it's so dark, but folks like me, well, we have good night-vision, I guess. The lines are clear, and we know where to aim ourselves to push through the boundaries. Problem is, it's boxes forever, and no matter how far I push, I never seem to run into a hard limit. Sometimes I even wonder if it's looping. But back to what I was saying, I guess, the direction you push in matters. Go one way, and you could end up eating strawberries off the naked back of a beautiful woman, in another direction, you might be the strawberries.

 It's one of the reasons I can't possibly explain just how little sense it makes. It'd be like explaining quantum physics to an eggbeater. I'd rather just say it's magic and suffer the whimsy.

 But whatever the case is, the point is that I traveled a lot before now. Made some strides in my field. Actually had something of a reputation in the worlds that knew about my kind a bit more openly. Not that you guys are closed-minded. You're just... well, yeah, you're closed-minded bigoted assholes.

 But then, I guess you'd have to be, lacking deities.

 So I figured I'd write this thing for you, and I know it isn't very much. Probably will get labeled as 'fictional' since you guys have no concept of what's real or what isn't, being as hopelessly misled by your understanding of reality as you are. Might as well just pretend it's not real anyway, just to give you some peace of mind that you're not really missing out. That these are just stories.

Fucking lunatics.