Disclaimer: This fanfic - particularly the first chapter - contains quite a bit more religious imagery than I originally thought it would.
If you hold strong religious convictions, I would urge you to pause here.
Pause, and consider whether or not you have the maturity to engage with alternative religious ideas which contradict your own religious beliefs.
Be honest with yourself. If the answer is "no," then this fic might not be for you.
Author's Notes: I wanted to call this fic "Kingdom Hearts Re:Imagined." I wanted it to be "simple and clean."
But then I threw away most of the canon worldbuilding and had to rederive a lot of KH's main ideas (things like "Darkness" and "Light" and "Princesses of Heart") from new worldbuilding inspired by quantum field theory, the single-electron universe hypothesis, the holographic universe hypothesis, Kabbalah, the ancient Greek idea of "Atomism," and the idea of "the Monad."
Unfortunately, I can't have Ansem actually formulate the actual Theory of Everything. The actual Theory of Everything doesn't exist yet. If it did, we wouldn't still be using the Standard Model of Physics. I, the author, can't explain dark matter / dark energy / quantum gravity, so how the hell could a character I'm writing do it?
But that's the general premise of the story - Ansem discovers literal Darkness.
We're still gonna follow Sora on his quest to prevent Reality from ending... but we're gonna get trippy with it.
Also, reading this on AO3 would be better than reading it here. The AO3 version has links to YouTube videos and Wikipedia articles about quantum physics. I'm posting under the same "ContraryMystic" username there as I am here.
"All hearts to be One. One heart to encompass All. Seize all hearts and consummate the Great Heart. Realize the destiny: the realm of Kingdom Hearts - the Great Darkness sealed within the Great Heart."
Kingdom Hearts
the
Darkness Itself
Chapter 1 - The Heart of All Things
Awaken.
Sora's eyes flew open, and there was Nothing – no light, no gravity, no motion. He was floating, suspended in a formless void.
"Buh," he sputtered. "What?"
Step forward.
He swiveled his head around wildly, looking for any possible frame of reference. But there was Nothing.
That voice, he thought. Is it coming from the same place that I hear my own thoughts? That can't be right...
The inertia of sleep was beginning to lose its hold on Sora's mind.
Confusion was beginning to give way to panic.
Wait. Breathe... Just breathe... Yeah, this is definitely just another one of those dreams.
It was the last week of summer vacation, and Sora had been having strange dreams throughout his entire break. He only ever remembered vague impressions - the feeling of falling head-first from a great height and plummeting into the sea - an image of his best friend Riku standing in the surf, calmly allowing himself to be subsumed under a massive wave as he beckoned for Sora to join him - nothing but fragmentary snapshots of half-forgotten memories. The only underlying constant that Sora could remember with any consistency was a feeling of certainty that some massive and unknowable presence was approaching from beyond the reaches of perception.
Did all of those dreams feel as real as this one? You'd think I'd remember more of them if they did...
Step forward.
Sora rolled his eyes, then looked up into the darkness as if he were addressing the sky. "And where the hell do you expect me to step if there's nothing to step on? Also, who the hell are you and why the hell are you talking to me?"
Pressure built under his feet, and though no source of light broke the surrounding darkness, suddenly he could see. He was standing near the edge of a platform - circular in shape, enormous in diameter, made of stained-glass. A sleeping girl with black hair and pale skin was depicted in -
"Hey, pause, hold on a sec... Is that Snow White? From the friggin' Disney movie? Why in the hell –"
Step forward.
Sora tentatively tested the glass with his foot. "Huh. Okay, cool," he said, taking a few steps away from the edge.
You will have to fight.
Sora looked back up toward the emptiness above. "Listen, whoever-you-are. You're not real. This is just a dream. And compared to the weird, trippy dreams - where I'm, like, flying over the ocean or whatever - this one seems like it's shaping up to be... I dunno. Boring? Lame? Annoying?"
You will have to fight.
He sighed. "Yeah. It's gonna be annoying."
You will have to fight.
"Fine. I give up. Why do I have to fight?"
There is a man named Ansem.
He mistakenly believes that Reality Itself is ending.
In his quest to prevent this, he is taking actions which themselves may lead to the end of Reality.
It is up to you to stop him.
Huh. That doesn't sound so bad. Go on a little adventure, save the world... Maybe it won't just be standing around in the dark talking to imaginary voices, maybe this dream still has potential.
This is not a dream.
The path that lies before you is not to be tread so lightly.
You are in danger. The ones you love are in danger. Reality Itself is in danger.
"Wait, what? You can hear my thoughts?"
I am your thoughts.
Sora smirked. I guess we think being meta is clever.
An ink-black shadow rose from the floor at the opposite edge of the stained-glass platform. It morphed into a human-like shape, appearing to be composed of impossibly solid emptiness - more of a 3-dimensional hole in the Fabric of Reality than an actual entity.
Two long, crooked antennae protruded from the top of its head and drooped far down its back. Oversized yellow eyes glowed with unnatural light. And overly long arms – which terminated in claws instead of fingers – gangled around frenetically at its sides.
Sora instinctively took a few steps back. His rear foot just barely caught the platform's edge. "What the hell is that?"
That is Me.
He raised his eyebrows. "Oh. Um, hello? Nice to meet you?"
The human-shaped shadow simply stared at him as its body and limbs continued to spasm.
It is incapable of communication.
"What?" Sora looked back up into the darkness. "Didn't you literally just say that you were the shadow?"
The shadow is a puppet.
You are a puppet, as well.
No individual puppet is Me, but I am all of the puppets.
There it is, thought Sora. Dream logic. Just a bunch of meaningless gibberish. I don't know what else I expected. No wonder I never remember these dumb dreams.
You asked Me who I am.
I am Kingdom Hearts.
Wow. That's not even a name, it's just a combination of two random words. This might be the dumbest dream I've ever had.
All is contained within Me, including your own thoughts, so you might as well say anything that comes to mind out loud. Doing so might help you to eventually remember some of what you learn here, in this place between places.
"You want me to say my thoughts out loud?" Sora looked back down at the shadow - it was still staring at him. "Okay. This is by far, hands down, the absolute stupidest dream that I've ever had."
The shadow bent forward until its hands touched the stained-glass.
"I'm probably gonna wake up any minute now, and then I'll forget all about you and your stupid cryptic bullshit."
On all fours, the shadow broke into a swift, lolloping gallop.
Adrenaline shot through Sora's veins. Holy shit! I don't have a – wait – "I don't have a weapon! How am I supposed to fight if I don't have a weapon?!"
The shadow had already crossed most of the distance between them.
"Am I supposed to, what, just punch it? Just punch a shadow? Because I don't think that's gonna work!"
The shadow's long arms rose, and instead of bringing them back down into the galloping motion, it outstretched its clawed hands, pushed off hard with its legs, and leapt straight toward Sora's face.
Sora lost his footing and tumbled backwards over the edge into the darkness.
Within moments, another stained-glass platform materialized under his feet.
Holy shit. He shuddered, then took a breath and steadied himself. Falling in a dream isn't supposed to feel like that...
He glanced down at the platform. Another image was depicted in the glass - a sleeping blonde girl wearing a blue dress.
"Sleeping Beauty this time, huh?" Sora tried to speak casually and ignore the knot in the pit of his stomach. "I haven't watched any of those old Disney movies in years. Is there a reason why -"
Who are you?
Sora closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. "I already asked you the same thing, and you didn't give me an answer."
I told you who I am.
I am Kingdom Hearts.
"Yeah, but that's not a real answer. You told me that name, and you said a bunch of cryptic gibberish about puppets. But that doesn't tell me anything about who you actually are."
Three weapons materialized in the air above the middle of the platform, suspended at waist height.
"Those would've been useful just a little bit earlier, don't you think?"
There was no response.
Sora frowned. "Is this what you think determines who I am? The weapon I choose?"
There are many choices ahead of you.
This is starting to move beyond annoying and into the realm of frustrating, thought Sora. Why haven't I woken up yet?
The last thing he remembered was lying down on the beach to rest while he waited for his friends to arrive.
Right, okay. That's probably fine. I guess no one's here yet or they would've woken me up, but they'll be here soon. I just have to wait. I might as well - Oh goddammit I'm gonna get sunburnt... Shit. Whatever. As long as I'm stuck here, I might as well play along.
Choose a weapon.
The three weapons gleamed defiantly against the backdrop of the darkness.
A sword – the golden cross-guard and pommel inlaid with an elaborately patterned silver filigree.
A shield – broad and sturdy, emblazoned with an emblem. Three circles in the shape of –
Is that Mickey Mouse? Sora was bewildered. Why is this dream so full of Disney stuff?
And a staff – wooden, mostly plain, but topped with a large, briolette-cut amethyst finial. It radiated an aura of magic.
Sora considered the weapons. Well, the shield would be boring, and probably also useless, and the big Mickey emblem makes it look goofy... That sword, though. That is a nice-ass lookin' sword. Coolest sword I've ever seen... but I play with fake wooden swords all the time in real life...
You know what? I can't play with magic in real life. That might be fun.
He walked forward and reached for the staff, but his fingers passed through it as if it were made of vapor, and all three weapons dissolved back into the darkness.
Your thoughts betray you.
You must make a true choice.
Sora let out a short yell in frustration. "This is ridiculous! I'm asleep on the beach right now, none of this is real, it literally doesn't matter!"
Your world will not be reinstated until you cooperate.
A flat pool of darkness swirled into existence on the stained-glass floor, the edge of the pool just inches from Sora's feet, and a pair of glowing yellow eyes peered up at him from the freshly opened abyss.
Sora clenched his jaw. "This is just a dream. I have nothing to be afraid of."
The glowing eyes rose, drawing the swirling pool up with them into an amorphous black glob, which congealed into a human-shaped shadow. Its body swayed sporadically, small spasms twitching its head and arms, as it stared directly into Sora's eyes from less than an arm's length away.
"Um," said Sora, fighting the urge to make a run for the edge and fling himself back into the void. "So, do the shadow things have a name?"
In some places, they are called Spectres.
In other places, they are called Qlippoth.
Here, they are called Heartless.
The Heartless took a single step and leaned forward. It was practically nose to nose with Sora, now - or it would've been, if it had a nose. Or any other facial features besides the eyes, for that matter.
And you're quite right. You do, in fact, have Nothing to be afraid of.
Should I be able to feel my heartbeat in a dream?
Unless I'm quite mistaken, I believe that I asked you to tell Me who you are.
Sora gritted his teeth. "I live on a small chain of islands."
The Heartless stepped back.
"There's this one little island - me and my friends have been hanging out there for years, we sorta took it over and unofficially named it Destiny Island. We've all got these fake swords made out of wood – I'm pretty good at the sword fighting, I can beat everybody except Riku. Sometimes some of our schoolmates come hang out with us there, but it's generally understood that that's our island, so everybody else stays away."
Probably because of how bad we whooped Axel and his gang, way back in the day.
A dull ache radiated from the recesses of Sora's memory.
The Heartless crouched into a leaping position.
"Yeah yeah, I get it, say it out loud," Sora said quickly. "Most of this past summer, we've been building a raft, pretending we're gonna sail away to a parallel universe or something. Riku and Wakka are a year older than the rest of us, and they graduated this year. This is our last summer together before they go off to vocational school on the mainland, so building the raft is kind of like a send-off since we're not gonna be able to do that kind of stuff anymore..." He paused. "Now that I think about it, I bet that's why all these dreams have been so weird. My mind's probably just making up a bunch of nonsense based on the parallel universe stuff."
The Heartless dematerialized back into the surrounding darkness, and the weapons once again materialized in the center of the platform.
Thank you. Now choose a weapon.
"I'm not trying to be an ass, but honestly, why should I?" asked Sora. "This isn't real."
Nothing is real.
"That's gotta be the most ridiculous -" Sora stopped himself, and took a breath. "Alright, whoever-you-are. I've already figured out the dream. I'm done listening, now. I'm just gonna sit down and -"
o-O-o
In the beginning, there was only the Light.
o-O-o
Oh my god it's gonna be more gibberish.
You asked Me who I am. I'm going to tell you.
This is important. You need to pay attention.
"You know what? Fine." Sora sat down on the platform and crossed his legs. "If it means waking up and getting out of here, I'll listen."
o-O-o
In the beginning, there was only the Light. You can think of the Light as being a single, perfect sphere suspended in an empty void.
The Light began to chase Itself, and thus formed the Ouroboros. In doing so, It created Time.
The Light is omnipresent - It occupies every possible point in Time simultaneously. This creates Space.
If the Light ever stops spinning around Itself and becomes motionless, then Time and Space will end, and that which some refer to as the Fabric of Reality will simply cease to exist.
o-O-o
Well, whatever this is, it definitely sounds religious.
I do not have the time to explain Particle Physics and Quantum Field Theory to you.
My story was patterned in the form of other recognizable stories, to make it easier to understand.
In some of those stories, He created the Light.
In a smaller number of stories, He set the Light in motion.
In My story, the Light simply exists. It was neither created nor set in motion.
"Wait," Sora said. "When you say the word he, are you talking about -"
He is a narrative device, an attempt at comprehending the incomprehensible.
Sora nodded. "Yeah, that sounds about right."
Religion had never really caught Sora's interest. He'd always been too caught up in the things that actually mattered - things like hanging out with his friends, and jousting with wooden swords, and navigating the social complexities of the school popularity hierarchy. But in the rare instances when he thought about religion, he assumed it was mostly just people trying to explain things that they didn't understand, and then went back to living his life. The world was too big to bother wasting time wondering why the world was here in the first place.
"So," he said, "I guess you're the light in this story, right? Does that mean you're G-"
The Light is the One Thing. It is the only thing that truly exists.
And I am not the Light.
I am the Darkness.
"What?" Sora was taken aback. "Isn't darkness supposed to be evil?" He thought for a moment. "And how could anything be the darkness, anyway? If the light is the only thing that exists, that has to mean that the darkness doesn't actually exist, right?"
Everything is composed of the Darkness.
The Darkness is given shape by being contained within the sphere of the Light.
Every subatomic particle, every object, every person, every universe, every god - all things are patterns inscribed in the Darkness by the motion of the Light as It spins around Itself.
That includes Me and you.
We are not the Light. We are shadows cast by the Light.
You now know who I am. Choose a weapon.
"Seriously?" Sora stood up. "You just implied that you're some type of god - and apparently there's more than one god and more than one universe - and I'm supposed to just accept that and move on without any questions? I'm supposed to just be a good little boy and obediently make this weird little symbolic choice that supposedly represents my values, just because you -"
If the emptiness of the void could be said to have anything resembling atmospheric pressure, Sora could feel it increasing on his skin.
"Um, hey, listen, I just mean, you know... Like, if you're a god, then why can't you just save the world yourself? I'm just some random nobody, what could you possibly even need me for?"
The pressure diminished.
The Light has no mind of Its own. It does not think. It does not decide to take actions.
It simply Is. It simply has Being. And It simply happens to move in the way that It happens to move.
Given that the Darkness does not have Being, it cannot exert any influence upon the Light's chain of causality.
Massive as I am, I still cannot directly control the motion of the Light or alter Its pattern. I cannot simply reweave the strands of Time from which I Myself am woven.
But I can send out a ripple. You are a pebble, and I am dropping you into a small stream in an attempt to alter the tides of the ocean.
"Huh. That... actually makes sense. Sort of. If you squint while you think about it." Sora walked toward the three gleaming weapons. "Okay. So, what am I saving the world from, again?"
The Heartless, and a man named Ansem. He considers himself wise.
Many have come close to describing My fundamental nature. Something called the Standard Model of Physics is a close description.
Ansem's description is still incorrect, but his theory is closer to the truth.
He does not understand that he has found the Light. He believes that he's found something which he's called an Aether Particle.
Other Realities have found similar things, and labeled them Fundamental Particles. But those other Realities were not magical in nature.
Ansem does not understand how his manipulations of the Light have affected the Darkness intertwined with It.
You must put a stop to his machinations.
This is kind of a lot, Sora thought. I've heard some of these ideas before, but I don't think I could put them together like this on my own, especially not in a dream... His heartbeat quickened. What if reality is actually ending, and I actually have to stop it?
What if this isn't a dream?
Everything is a dream, child.
It's all just a hologram projected by a single particle spinning around Itself.
But the choices you make are still of grave importance.
Choose a weapon.
Alright, let's be rational about this. Maybe this is just the wildest dream I've ever had... But maybe it's real. So let's take it seriously, just in case.
He looked at the weapons with fresh eyes.
If this is all true, and I really have to save the world, what option makes the most sense? The shield? Well... It's probably not necessarily useless, but I could defend myself just as easily with a sword. And I already know how to handle a wooden sword, so a real one would make sense if I actually have to fight. But magic... If I could actually use magic for real...
Yeah. Magic would give me options I don't already have. Magic would be actually useful.
He reached for the staff again, and a surge of power flowed into his hand when he grasped it. "Whoa... Awesome!"
The staff dissolved back into nothingness.
"Wait, I don't actually get to use it? That's lame."
Now is not the time.
The stained-glass platform shattered beneath Sora's feet.
But he didn't fall.
The shards of glass swirled around him until he was surrounded by a whirl of color, and suddenly he was standing on the beach of Destiny Island.
Light shocked his eyes, and he squinted. The waves lapping gently against the shore were practically deafening.
Tell Me more about yourself.
Sora's five best friends shimmered into existence around him in a semi-circle.
"What the hell -"
These are mental projections, representations of your own subconscious.
Answer their questions.
"Sora?" asked one of the girls, a chipper brunette who wore a yellow sundress. "What do you actually care about? Because sometimes it seems like you don't really care all that much about anything at all."
Sora sniffed indignantly. "I care about lots of stuff, Selphie. I care about my mom. And I care about you guys, you're like my family. You should know that."
"Everybody cares about their loved ones," said Selfie. "It sounds noble, but if you really think about it, isn't it kind of a little bit self-centered?"
Sora didn't know what to say.
"Is there anything else you care about?" she asked. "Anything outside of your own personal bubble?"
"Well... I've always been curious, always looking for answers. I guess I care about the truth. Or maybe I just care about being right..."
"Fascinating." She smiled, then faded away.
The others shifted position to fill the empty spot in the semi-circle.
One of the boys spoke up. "Yo, Sora!" The front of his shirt was unbuttoned, his hair was bleached by the sun, and a shit-eating grin was plastered on his face. "What are you afraid of?"
Sora scrunched up his nose. "Y'know, since we're here, I've always wanted to tell you to your face - You're a massive twat, Tidus."
Tidus snickered.
Sora looked up into the sky. Do we really have to do it this way? If you're an actual god, then shouldn't you already know me?
Answer their questions.
Tidus was still wearing that shit-eating grin.
Sora sighed. "I guess I'm afraid of people thinking I'm weird. Maybe I'm also afraid of losing my curiosity? You know, like actually not caring about anything anymore, instead of just acting like I don't care? And I'm definitely afraid of losing the people I care about... And I guess I'm afraid of death? That counts as losing too, right? It's basically losing everything. That would really suck."
"Dude, I just asked what you were afraid of. I didn't ask what you were afraid of losing."
"You -" Sora stopped himself. "I guess you're right. And I hate losing fights, too. Maybe that's what I'm really afraid of. Just losing in general."
"Typical."
Sora wasn't sad to see him disappear.
A slightly older boy with a bandana wrapped around his forehead shifted over into Tidus' spot. He tilted his head back, rested his hands behind his neck, and grinned broadly. "Ayy, Sora! What's happening, man?"
Sora grinned back. "Hey, Wakka."
"You know, you gotta have ambitions, man. You got any goals in life?"
Wakka was the chillest person Sora had ever met, and he'd been expecting an easier question from him.
"Well," Sora began, "I've never really thought about that before... I guess I'd like to see new places and meet new people, learn new things, get better at things I already do like fighting and competing..." He narrowed his eyes, and the corners of his mouth quirked up slightly. "Or are you asking me if I wanna be a doctor when I grow up? Make a lot of money? Help people? Why should I have any kind of big goal? Shouldn't I just be living? Just letting life unfold around me? Everything always ends up working itself out by itself, right?"
"Hmm..." Wakka looked off into the distance. "I'm not really Wakka, man, I'm just a shade. I wouldn't know. But I hope you're right."
And just like that, he was gone.
Three down, two to go... Just me and Riku and Kairi now, as usual.
It was their questions he'd been dreading the most.
As great as Wakka and Selphie were - And I guess Tidus is fine most of the time, too, Sora thought - the three of them were their own little group within the group. Sora didn't hold it against them. They'd already been friends with each other for a few years before they started hanging out with him and Riku and Kairi. It made sense that they'd be tighter friends with each other.
Well, thought Sora, I guess Riku and Wakka have been signing up for the same class schedules for a few years now... And Kairi and Selphie started hanging out a lot by themselves recently... And actually, Kairi and Wakka have been pretty tight since the beginning...
Kairi and Wakka were the reason the two groups had merged all those years ago, back when Kairi had first shown up on the islands.
There had been a huge meteor shower that night, and most of the people who lived on the islands had gathered on the beach of the largest island to watch. Kairi washed ashore out of nowhere in front of everybody, and suddenly none of the adults were interested in the meteor shower anymore. No one on the island was missing a child, no one on the mainland was looking for a young girl with short red hair, and she herself couldn't remember where she came from. All she remembered was her own name. Wakka's grandmother had taken her in and raised her.
But even before Kairi, there had been Riku, Sora's best friend in the entire world for more than a decade straight.
And right now, Riku was staring at him with a hard, unsympathetic expression.
"Sora. Get your head out of the clouds. We're in the middle of something."
That stung.
"Do you really think you're any different from everybody else?"
The question caught Sora off guard. "Well, yeah, kinda. It seems like most people don't pay much attention to anything that doesn't directly affect their own lives."
"Is that really what you think of other people?"
Sora opened his mouth to respond, but Riku was already gone.
Kairi approached him. Her face was pensive. "Sora, why don't you have any actual goals?"
"Wha- I do too have goals! Didn't you hear me tell Wakka that I -"
"How are you any different from anybody else if all your goals and ambitions are all about you? How are you any different from anybody else if everything you care about, all your hopes and dreams and fears, all revolve around your own self?"
Sora's breath caught in his throat.
Kairi fixed him with a serious look. "What do you value most of all, Sora? Above everything else?"
"I- I guess if I'm being brutally honest... I guess I value my own life above everything else. How would everything else matter if I wasn't there to experience it?" He paused. "But then, if it weren't for everything else, my own life would be empty and not worth living, wouldn't it? So... I dunno, it's complicated. I'm 17, how am I supposed to know?"
The world twisted, and Sora was back in the void, surrounded by Nothing.
So. This is who you are.
Yeah, you've got some problems, for sure. But, like, everybody's got problems, right? Nobody's perfect.
Overall, you seem like a pretty normal guy.
Sora's eyes went wide. "Whoa, that is not how you were talking before. That was, like, what I -" He paused, and furrowed his brow. "Um, that was like what I talk like."
I mean, yeah. I am you, like right now.
"Um, what?" said Sora, warily.
Dude, that was like the whole point, remember?
You know, the puppet thing?
"Yeah," Sora said, "But you kind of glossed over it. You had a lot less personality back then."
Fair enough.
But hey - I'm you, so I've got all your memories.
We've heard the word pantheism before.
"Yeah, I think that sounds familiar..."
I should've paid more attention in History of Religion class...
Yeah, you probably should've.
"Yeah alright, calm down. I knew it was some type of religious belief. Gimme a break."
God chuckled. Yeah, whatever dude.
But anyway, it's like, God is the universe, or like the universe is God, or something.
Ring any bells?
"I think so..."
Good enough.
"Dude, what the hell even is this?"
This whole thing? Like me and you talking to each other?
That's kind of been a process of, like, describing Myself to Myself so that I can, like, Know Myself or whatever.
Like, you know how the Oracle's little sign in the Matrix says Temet Nosce or whatever? Like Know Thyself? Something like that.
Sora burst out laughing. "Oh, goddammit all... I mean -"
Nah, I totally get it, man.
Shit sounds ridiculous.
But it is what it is.
"Jesus Christ -"
Maybe in another lifetime.
"Godda-" Sora stopped himself. "I mean... Shit, dude. I know you're, like, me right now - however the hell that works - but could you at least try to make some kind of sense, here?"
At this point in the process, I really don't understand it Myself.
And there wouldn't be time for the full explanation either way.
I bet it's probably got something to do with Me, like, focusing My attention more closely on you than on everything else, though.
But however it works, you're like a tiny god now. You know, like a Super Hero.
We're gonna be able to use magic! Cool, right?
"Wait, what? That's awesome!"
Good thing We chose the Staff, huh?
"Hell yeah, dude!"
But hey.
Like, We're about to wake up, and We're not gonna remember that We're Me.
We're gonna remember this as just another dream.
"Seriously? You spent all that time telling me everything and I'm just gonna forget all of it?!"
It was part of the process, had to be done."
Let's get started."
"Oh shit, wait a sec! I forgot! I was gonna say LET THERE BE Li-"
