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“Moon’s big.”
It loomed on the horizon, massive and pale and so bright that every nook and cranny in Boatem was bathed in brilliant silver light. It was a little larger than it had been the night before, and the night before that, and the night before that, all the way back to that very first day on the server when the moon was just the size that it had always been on every other world.
“Sure is,” Scar agreed. He was sitting in the grass with his head tilted back, his hat slightly crooked and hands folded in his lap.
Grian craned his neck back, looking straight up. Most of the stars were hidden behind the moon now, and the handful that remained in sight were washed out and faded from all the light.
“What do you think is going to happen?” Scar asked, hushed.
“I don’t know,” Grian said. He really, really wished he did. Was it the end of the world, or was it just an extremely elaborate prank? Would it end badly or would it all be okay? He didn’t know. None of them did. All anyone could do was cross their fingers and hope for the best.
Grian pretended he didn’t have to swallow back the thickness in his throat before he next spoke. “I guess, in the end… it’s all just part of the dream,” he said softly.
“The what now?” When Grian looked over at Scar, the listlessness and quiet fear was gone. Instead Scar was all sharp curiosity and keen eyes gazing back at him.
“Oh, uh, it’s… a story,” Grian said awkwardly. “I could try and tell you, but it’s been a while since I’ve heard it and I’ve forgotten parts.”
Scar leaned forward, chin in his hands and eyes bright, eager for a story, a curiosity, a distraction from the fate looming in the sky above them.
Grian looked down at his hands, then up at the sky, and then finally into Scar’s eyes again.
“Once upon a time,” he began slowly, softly, “there was a Player.”
“The player was you, he said, taking Scar’s hand, “and the player was me. Sometimes it thought itself human. Sometimes,” he smiled and flexed his wings, “it thought itself avian. Sometimes it thought itself everything at once, and sometimes it thought itself something that had never been seen before.”
“Sometimes the player dreamed that it was a miner, on the surface of a world that was flat, and infinite. The sun was a square of white. The days were short; there was much to do, and death was a temporary inconvenience.”
“The player dreamed of many things. It dreamed of lightness and of dark; it dreamed of night and it dreamed of day. Sometimes it dreamed it was other things, in other places. Sometimes it woke from one dream into another, and from that dream into a third.”
“Sometimes…” Grian faltered. “I’m sorry. I don’t remember what comes next. It’s… it’s very long. I can skip ahead?”
“Please,” Scar murmured. “It’s very good.”
“Alright.”
“Sometimes… the player believed that the universe had spoken to it. Sometimes the player believed that the universe had spoken to it through the sunlight that came through the shuffling leaves of the summer trees. Sometimes the player believed that the universe had spoken to it through the light from the winter night sky, from the speck of light in the corner of its eye that might be a star far, far away, hotter than anything it could ever know.”
“Sometimes the player believed that the universe had spoken to it through the code of the world. Letters on a page, ones and zeroes on a screen.”
“And the universe said I love you.”
“And the universe said you have played the game well.”
”And the universe said everything you need is within you.”
”And the universe said you are stronger than you know.”
”And the universe said you are the daylight.”
”And the universe said you are the night.”
“And the universe said the darkness you fight is within you.”
”And the universe said the light you seek is within you.”
“And the universe said you are not alone.”
”And the universe said you are not separate from every other thing.”
”And the universe said you are the universe tasting itself, talking to itself, reading its own code.”
“And the universe said I love you because you are love.”
”And the game was over, and the player woke up from the dream. And the player began a new dream. And the player dreamed again, dreamed better. And the player was the universe. And the player was love.”
Grian met Scar’s emerald eyes, wide and shining in the moonlight. “You are the player,” he whispered.
“Wake up.”
Grian closed his eyes and let his head tilt back, let his shoulders slump. He let out a huff of breath, and beside him he heard Scar do the same.
“We’re just dreaming, huh?” Scar said.
“I like to think so,” Grian breathed. He didn’t open his eyes. “It’s a nice thought, isn’t it? This is all just one dream of many, and each one will be better than the last.”
Scar hummed. His voice was rough from lack of sleep, and he had no song in mind, only aimless notes, but it wasn’t at all unpleasant to the ear. “I’d hate to think that you’re only a part of my dream though,” he said, and Grian didn’t have to look at him to know he was pouting.
“Who’s to say I’m part of your dream? Maybe I’m the one who made you up,” Grian teased. He cracked one eye open and sure enough, Scar was giving him that wide-eyed, trembling-lower-lipped look.
“But no,” Grian continued, “I like to think that we’re all dreaming together. After all, I’m not nearly brilliant enough to dream up someone like you,” he added with a sheepish smile and red-tinged cheeks.
Scar’s face flushed to match. “That would be nice, yeah. All of us working together to dream up the best dream the universe has ever seen?”
Grian giggled. “According to the story, I think that technically we’re the universe.”
Scar scoffed. “Grian, I know you like to be at the center of everything, but you are not actually the center of the universe. It’s a difficult concept for you to understand, I know.” He looked up at the moon again. Somehow, it didn’t seem quite as big anymore.
“All part of the dream,” he mused. “That doesn’t sound so bad.”
Scar sighed, smiled, and stood. He brushed the grass off his pants before offering a hand up to Grian and doing a little half-bow. “Well, man of my dreams,” he said with a wink and a saucy grin, “we should get out of here before the phantoms find us.”
“Whoever dreamed those up has something to answer for,” Grian muttered, but he was smiling as he let Scar pull him to his feet.
And the Players went away, hand in hand, to continue the long dream together.