A/N: This chapter is dedicated to shyboywriter, who was my first reviewer! :D Thanks for reviewing, bro! But yeah, here's the second chapter in this story. I've been editing it for the past three days, and I think it's acceptable as a new chapter. Now, I'll be the first to say it; I'm awful at science. Physics? Failed it. Chemistry? Barely passed. Biology? Dropped out of that stupid class (sorry for you biology lovers; I couldn't stand that class XD). So, anything that I'm writing in this story that sounds even remotely scientific is almost always going to be wrong. I'm not good at incorporating real science in my writing, because... Well, I suck at science XD
And just to clarify from the last chapter, yes, the "dancing wisps" were just smoke remnants coming from Bahamut's nostrils when he slept. ...Hey, you can't blame me for trying to make "the realm" more mysterious than it actually is ^_^ I hope you enjoy this chapter. Don't forget to review :D
The eidolons resided in a mysterious realm. If one were to stare out into the distance, they would see nothing except the expanse of the area. There didn't seem to be any references of height, either; it was almost as if they were perpetually floating. If an eidolon wanted to move, they could move in any direction they pleased, be it up, down, backwards, forwards, or any other direction they could think of. (Some eidolons, namely Carbuncle, found it amusing to move along the circumference of an imaginary epicycle.)
The lighting was inconsistent, and seemed to change at the drop of a hat; bright one moment, pitch black the next. The eidolons never bothered with attempting to find the source of light, for the light seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere at the same time; another indicator, along with the lack of restrictions on movement, that their realm didn't abide by the Gaian laws of physics. Depending on the lighting, the color of the environment ranged from the purest, most blinding white to the deepest black. It was almost as if the eidolons were placed on a painting that consisted of a single color on the grayscale. Bland, boring, infinite. It was somewhat cliché for an immaterial world.
There were other objects of interest in the realm, though; one group of such objects were tenuous strands of colorful energy that flitted through the air every once in a while. Ramuh's guess was that they were forgotten memories lost in the annals of time, given physical appearances in the realm. (Ramuh believed that any legend, memory, or entity created from a legend or memory was given a physical appearance in the realm. He could not back up his belief, however.) He believed that the forgotten memories were attempting to find their way to a place where they could be remembered again. There were no other plausible ideas about the strands, so the other eidolons just went ahead and agreed with him. The only other conjecture was Ifrit's; he thought they were remnants of Bahamut's snorts, left out in the air for so long they'd rotted and changed colors. No one paid attention to him. Whenever Shiva heard Ifrit talking about the forgotten memories, she'd roll her eyes and swear that the first person who came up with his legend was drunk, crazy, or crazy drunk.
There were also physical illusions that materialized in the realm every now and then. All of the illusions could be mistaken for real, for they appeared at their feasibly acceptable sizes, could be touched and interacted with as if they were real, and made all the necessary actions (if they were illusions of living beings) that were accepted as normal among their kind. The only difference between the illusions and what they were representing was that the illusions weren't permanent; they disappeared after a brief period of time.
Some illusions took the form of Gaians, animatedly gesturing to unseen beings. Some showed up as monsters, both ancient and newly discovered, snarling and roaring and swiping menacingly while doing other such monster-like things. The most interesting illusions, however, were the ones that mimicked scenery. Broken castles, sandy deserts, dense forests, barren wastelands, calm lakes, mountain paths, quaint villages; there were too many types to count. These environmental illusions always provided the eidolons with scenery other than the dull, monochromatically-colored landscape. No one seemed to have an explanation as to why the illusions appeared; they were just a part of the realm.
The unique movement properties of the realm, as well as the illusions that appeared and the "forgotten memories" flashing in and out of existence made the realm a special place. A place unlike any other in the entire universe. Ramuh thought that the realm was the combined consciousness of every summoner who had ever lived, whose souls, instead of cycling through to the Iifa tree, went… Somewhere else to create the realm. He admitted that there were many holes in his hunch.
The eidolons had been discussing what to call the realm. Most of them simply referred to it as "here", since the vast majority of their time was spent wandering around in the unnamed expanse, and here would almost always indicate the realm. However, the eidolons quickly tired of the ordinary word. Alexander was also grounded in Gaia, so "here" to him could've meant two things. This led to the eidolons gathering in a conference to rename the realm.
"Big damn world of nothing," Ifrit tried.
After a couple of disapproving glares from the rest of the eidolons, he backed down.
"How about the Nexus?" Madeen suggested.
The eidolons looked at each other, and some of them seemed to like the name. The realm did in fact serve as a central linking point for the eidolons, as the definition of "Nexus" defined the word. Bahamut, however, spoke up against it. "The word 'Nexus' sounds like something that would appear in Garland's vocabulary. I say scrap it,"
Alexander, an eidolon that rarely ever spoke, began to laugh. Deep, throaty, and rocky, the laugh boomed from the massive castle-like eidolon. Bahamut narrowed his eyes and sighed. He knew what was coming. "Anything remotely resembling Garland's mindset upsets you, little dragon. Maybe because you were his temporary slave?"
"Quiet. It was not Garland who used the Invincible against me, it was Kuja. And I've heard from the others that you fell victim to the Invincible as well,"
Alexander stopped laughing. "That was after I kicked your scaly ass back to this place,"
"Whatever, no one gives a shit about you two. More names. Come on, chop chop!"
Bahamut and Alexander both faced Ifrit threateningly. "…What? I was joking! Can't you guys take a joke? The others want to get on with this discussion,"
"For once, he's right," Ramuh grudgingly admitted. Bahamut crossed his arms and quieted while Alexander stood motionless as usual.
"HOW ABOUT DOCKING STATION," Ark spoke up.
"How about no,"
Shiva sighed. "What Ifrit means to say is that not all of us are fashioned after machines, so 'docking station' seems a little impersonal to us,"
"NO DOCKING STATION?"
"No goddamn docking station,"
"Ifrit!" Shiva scolded.
"What!? I'm just voicing the opinions of the others!" Shiva sighed and closed her eyes. Ifrit's childishly crass nature never ceased to amaze her.
"How about 'Home'?" Phoenix offered.
All of the eidolons paused. It seemed to be a step up from "here" in terms of complexity, and it had a nice, soft edge to it. Ifrit, for once, was quiet. Fenrir was sitting motionlessly, with Titan right beside him, and it seemed like Titan liked the name. Phoenix preened her feathers calmly.
Ramuh clapped his hands. "Alright then! Does 'Home' sound good to you all? Any objections?"
"I'm a home," Alexander grumbled.
"Oh, for crying out loud," Shiva put her head in her hands.
Bahamut grimaced and began blowing smoke rings.
"Hey, how about you, Atomos? Whaddya think? Come up with a name for us?" Carbuncle playfully hopped towards the enormous eidolon, seemingly oblivious to the setback in creativity that was just experienced.
Atomos yawned.
Carbuncle pouted. "…Hey, this is important ya know! What, you bored?"
Atomos's mouth opened wider.
Shiva gasped. "That's it!" The other eidolons turned to her (except Atomos, that is) and silently encouraged her to relay her supposed epiphany. "We should call this place 'Boredom'!"
The eidolons looked unimpressed.
"No, I'm serious! Besides the illusions, all of us are bored out of our minds here. We love being summoned, correct? Anything to escape the boredom. And that's what this place is; boredom! Think of what this could lead to! If a Gaian somehow wanders into this place, although I have no idea how they would do such a thing, we could say…" Shiva bowed with a flourish, "Welcome, to Boredom."
Ifrit scoffed. "Only males bow, you stupid fairy,"
Shiva silenced him with a cold stare. "Sexist fucking pig," she spat.
"Uhh, I'm actually a ram, thank you very much,"
"I like it," Madeen said.
"WHAT?!" Ifrit gawped. "The name's lame as hell!"
"Yeah, you are pretty lame," Shiva declared.
"Yo, quit it with the stupidass word-play!"
And so it was decided that the realm of illusions, the realm of monochromatic colors, the realm of eidolons, would be named "Boredom". Ifrit complained until Bahamut scorched his rear.