Everything feels strange. Not only do I not know where I am, but I also don't know who or even what I am. My senses feel strange as if my previous senses, whatever those were, were completely replaced with new ones. At the same time, I feel extremely restricted as if my current form isn't capable of doing much. On top of all that, my memories are all over the place and there are so many of them, yet I feel as though there are huge gaps missing. I think 'strange' is an accurate description of my current circumstances, especially since I am not sure how these circumstances came to be, due to the previously mentioned memory issues.
As time passes I get more used to my senses. I start being able to see, but not very well. It's very dark and I only see purple in all directions and everything is blurry. It also seems like my memories are slowly falling back into place, yet it definitely seems like there are more memories than there should be. Some just don't seem to have a place where they belong. As my memories piece themselves back together I realize that I used to be a human, yet I don't know much about myself other than just general knowledge. This once again solidifies how strange my senses feel now, despite the fact that I seem to have some visual input. But by far the strangest thing is that the only thing I seem to remember completely is the Cradle series written by Will Wight. That seems to be a very weird thing for me to remember completely when everything else is in fragments or just completely missing.
Just as I'm thinking this a circle of light forms in a direction that I now think of as 'up'. As I look in that direction I see slightly more detail, but it is still hard to see through all the purple and blurriness. I notice a shape appear from the side, all I notice is a blur of black occluding the white light above. I then start to make out a face as what I realize is a man leans over the side of what I now realize must be a well. Because that face is none other than the face of Wei Shi fucking Lindon.
I spend a brief moment wondering what the hell is going on when the memories in my head that I only now realize are conflicting. One set of memories is telling me that I'm seeing a character from a book series, and the other set is just a clusterfuck of memories and impressions crammed together to make what would be a rudimentary consciousness, were it not for me 'absorbing' it for lack of a better term. From that part, I managed to piece together that it- I was a memory construct, whose purpose was to introduce people to the Dream Well, located in the Monarch Northstrider's pocket world named Ghostwater.
That's when I realized that I must be Dross and since Lindon is here looking at me in the well this must be during the events of the book Ghostwater. All these realizations happened so fast that I was surprised. That was not normal. But I couldn't dwell on that right now, I need to get Lindon's attention. Because if I don't then I will likely be stuck in here, and that means I will die when Ghostwater collapses from the damage done by the Bleeding Phoenix. I remembered Lindon not realizing that Dross was sentient until Dross mentioned Lindon specifically, since memory constructs can only speak pre-scripted lines. So I need to address Lindon specifically, but I imagine he would be alarmed if I somehow knew his name. Although it would definitely be the fastest way to get his attention, and would definitely make me interesting enough to investigate. He is too curious and desperate to be too alarmed to check closer. So.
"Hey there Lindon." I project towards Lindon. I'm not even sure how I speak, but I definitely know I can due to the previous function of this form. Luckily it seems to work since Lindon as expected looks alarmed and is looking directly at me. Evidently, there was some sort of indication that I made the sound. His alarm slowly transforms into confusion and curiosity as he continues to stare at me. I decide to break the brief silence again, "I'd appreciate it if you could get me out of this well before we talk more."
Lindon again looks surprised, as if he was thinking that my previous statement was somehow scripted. He briefly looks cautiously at me, but he uses a couple rods from a construct that he picks up from a shelf nearby to lift me up out of the water. From the description in the book, I remember that I must look like a cracked and rusted metal ball. As I finally get free from my watery prison I can finally see my surroundings and my savior. As I expected, he's a tall, broad-shouldered man in his late teens, with light skin and black hair and eyes. Hanging from his neck on a strip of fabric I see a palm-sized golden badge with a hammer on it hanging in front of his chest. He also looks to be very battered up from fighting Ekerinatoth of the Gold Dragons, a True Gold, while Lindon is only a Low Gold, two stages lower. Lindon is glaring at me, but I'm not sure if he's somehow mad at me or if that's only his infamous resting bitch face.
"Are you talking to me?" Lindon's voice betrays his complete disbelief.
"Who else would I be talking to?" I reply sarcastically. Sarcasm is always great for defusing a situation.
"What is your favorite flavor of pie?" Lindon's question would have been completely baffling to me given the situation had I not read the book and known he was doing this as a test.
Surprisingly this is a hard question for me to answer. Since I'm basically a sentient memory construct now if I actually give him my favorite flavor then how can I explain having actually tasted pie without getting into my whole 'I used to be a human' thing? Should I tell him? How could I tell him? I have to tell him something. Apparently, a simple question about my favorite flavor of pie is forcing me to decide how I want my future to go. If I want to go the route of canon Dross, then it would likely be best for me to be as honest with him as possible, since we would need mutual trust to literally fuse me onto his soul. And I do think that I want to go the route of canon Dross, since I think that is my best, and really only, option. Also since I know the plot, I know what I can expect and prepare accordingly.
I still need to decide how much to tell him, I definitely can't mention the being from another world thing. Although with him having met Suriel, he probably wouldn't be all that surprised. I may be able to get away with telling pretty much the whole truth, though I should definitely leave out the part about all this being a book series. I still need a way to explain how I knew his name, and potentially how I know the future since I definitely intend to influence and maybe change some stuff. For now, I can just say that I have a rudimentary connection to the ghostwater facility and overheard his name spoken. As for my future knowledge, I can wait until I hopefully merge with Lindon's spirit and get the drop of ghostwater mixed with the water from the dream well, spirit well and life well and either hope for some sort of connection to the Way, or just explain it as using predictions.
Decision made, I reply to his question honestly. "Well, I remember having eaten pie in the past, but I don't remember what it tasted like or what my favorite was. And as you can probably guess, a memory construct isn't really capable of eating anything, so I don't think I'll experience it again either."
Lindon briefly looks baffled at my answer, which was a funny expression to see on his stern face. His bafflement quickly turns into even more curiosity though. "You speak as if you were not always in this form, and that at some point you were capable of eating, but also that you don't have clear memories of it." It wasn't a question, but he still looked at me as if expecting an answer.
I decide to answer his unasked question with more honesty, mostly. "Well, yes. That's complicated. I remember being a human, but not much beyond that, other than that the world I lived in was not the same as this one. Other than that, I just remember being in this sphere at the bottom of the well with random fragments of memories that I assume were from the memory construct I now inhabit, and from some sort of connection I have formed to Ghostwater." I decided to leave out the whole 'Cradle is a book series, this can't be real' thing, and decided to lie about having some bond with Ghostwater to explain away some stuff that I shouldn't be able to know, and to give a good excuse to ask Lindon to inhabit the 'Eye of the Deep', one of the keys to Ghostwater. That's the first step to my path forward and most importantly my way out of this rusty metal ball.
Lindon just stared at me wide-eyed.