Crystal Sky: Origins

Editor's note: this story contains scenes of non-consensual or reluctant sex.

*****

It all started when a rock fell from the sky and landed on Zoey's head. It had been a pretty nice day so far, she had finished her morning shift at the hospital, and was heading home for some sleep, the noon sun pounding hot against her head. It wasn't long, however, until she felt a more decisive pounding, as a small yellow rock cracked against her skull, sending the brunette crumpling to the floor. She groaned, motes dancing in her vision and her head pounding, as she peeled her chin away from the sidewalk. Around her, what few people were on the street adjacent to her dingy Queens apartment huddled worriedly.

"Are you okay? Miss?" an older man asked worriedly, reaching an arm down to help lift the girl back to her feet. Zoey blinked her fuzzy vision, trying to get it to clear despite the stars and birds circling her head. A...VHS tape? The little yellow rock that had plowed into her crown (though, on second look, seemed to be more of an opaque crystal than a regular rock) had landed on top of a VHS tape left in the alley. The VHS looked impossible pristine, considering it's locale on a dirty NY street. Without thinking, Zoey grabbed both VHS and crystal, before being hoisted back onto her legs, the shanks quivering beneath her like jelly. "Miss? I asked, are you okay?" the man repeated, trying to catch her attention, and look for concussion.

"Ah, uh, yeah!" Zoey managed to chirp through her pounding headache, her souvenirs of sudden head trauma clutched tightly in her grasp. The handful of onlookers tried their best to usher the girl toward a nearby bench to sit down, but she shook her head. "No, no, it's okay, my house is just a few down" she mentioned, motioning further down the street. The worried man supporting the girl with a shoulder didn't seem to like letting her go, but eventually relinquished, with a promise from Zoey to call an ambulance if she feels nauseous or dizzy. He seemed to notice the objects clutched so desperately in her hands, but didn't remark on them, other than to frown curiously at the rock that had knocked Zoey over.

Zoey rushed to her apartment building, and up the stairs, as fast as her headache would let her, and swung into her apartment. Her roommate Simon didn't react as she passed through the open door and past the living room, though Zoey was used to it by now. Simon was the kind of guy who kept to himself. Simon was a 20something, Zoey knew he came from a wealthy family, but not much more, Simon not willing to share anything about his past with her. Zoey barely knew him at all after 2 years of living together, but he seemed to have an entitled streak, and a bit of an anger issue. As a result, Zoey didn't really like the guy, but he paid his rent on time every month, so she lived with him. Where he got the money without working, Zoey didn't know.

Spiriting passed the lazy redhead, she shut her room door behind her before flopping onto the bed with a groan, letting the VHS and the crystal bounce against the mattress with her, before laying on her stomach to stare at the two against the soft pink bedding beneath. A crystal and a VHS tape, huh? Not a bad trade off for an already fading headache, and a bruise, she thought to herself, but how on earth was she going to watch this tape? She didn't have a VHS player, what was it, the 1980s? Though...she knew someone who might have a dinosaur like that. Simon, her roomate, she knew had a thing for out of date tech, judging from the LaserDisc player she saw him wheel out exactly once to watch Space Jam with, and the ColecoVision that occasionally let out the most obnoxious beeps from Simon's room.

Suddenly sure of what she was doing tonight, Re: The VHS tape, Zoey rolled over onto her back, clutching the pretty yellow crystal to her chest. She just had to pass time until Simon went to his room to do whatever he does in that dingy abyss, so she can dig through his side of the shared closet without reproach. Surely the man wouldn't even miss the VHS player...

----

I sighed as Zoey walked past me into her room, staring blankly at the TV screen without seeing, to avoid awkwardly looking her direction. I knew my relationship with Zoey was strained since I moved in, but I was in a really bad place at the time. Disowned by my family for sleeping around, I was forced to move from an estate in upstate New York to a dingy two room apartment in the city. With a roommate, it was no wonder I was so ready to jump down someone's throat!...But, well, I shouldn't make excuses. For the first time in a long time, I actually felt... kinda gross about my actions, how I treated her. But it's not like I can just TELL her that! And let her have any say in what I do in MY life? As if!

I sighed, as I felt that familiar guilt well up again, but I pushed it back down as I had done dozens of times in recent months, ever since Zoey started avoiding me full force. I sighed again as I lifted myself from my pity couch, to go play videogames or something in my room, though I knew I was probably just going to stare at a wall for an hour thinking in circles, and then go to sleep.

I flopped onto my bed, door shut and locked behind me, as I stare at the ceiling. I was...pissed, at my dad, I remember that most of all. I took a local heiress out to a burger stand after curfew, in my dad's car, without a license. Sure, there were plenty of mistakes, but to just throw me away entirely? What kind of dad does that? I wouldn't let myself think of all the dozens of times before then that I had challenged his authority, I already felt pretty down on myself, no need to start telling myself I deserve it. But so there I was, minor allowance, enough to live off of, but not much else, looking for the cheapest apartment I could.

What luck, then, to find a new place so cheap! A girl on craigslist had posted about her place, about how her old roommate ducked out, and was asking for someone to pick up her half of the lease. Jackpot! A cheap place, Co-Ed, with a girl to live with me? It was a dream come true! But, once we had met, I knew the dream wasn't built to last. Zoey was just so...boring. Compared to the socialites I had been raised among, Zoey seemed to only really care about her nursing job at the hospital. I lashed out, I needled her, I did anything I could to make her feel weak without outright hurting her. I thought that by making Zoey feel small and unimportant, I could better control my new place. It worked, Zoey seemed to stay out my way, but it still cut to my core with guilt, when I let myself think about it too much.

If only there was a way to make up for the way I treated Zoey when we met, but I knew that was a pipe dream. First impressions matter, after all. Or perhaps I just wouldn't let myself actually try.

----

*Thunk!* A door closed, and Zoey sat up with a soft smile on her face. Simon was finally out of the living room, time for operation "Steal my Roommates Garbage", an operation that proved to be so simple, it didn't really warrant naming. As Zoey opened the closet, the specter of media- formats past lay stacked up in the corner, a pillar of beige and tan boxes that likely played any number of weird movies printed onto weird discs or cartridges. Zoey never pretended to be a very techy person, unlike her roommate, but even she could recognize the blocky slot of a VHS player about 2 boxes down into the stack.

Nabbing it quickly and spiriting it back to her room, she hooked up the wires to the back of her computer monitor for a screen, before curiously flicking it on. Yep! It worked, showing the familiar empty blue screen of a VHS player waiting for a tape. Zoey grinned triumphantly, before grabbing the oddly new looking tape. For some reason, she hesitated, feeling an odd pressure on her as the tape drew closer, like the weight of the entire world sat on her shoulders... Zoey shook her head clear of the sensation, before sliding the unmarked tape inside.

The screen flickered, horizontal bars running up the screen, as grainy footage poured into view, of what looked like...a doctor's office? Or maybe a vet? Though, looking closer, seasoned nurse Zoey could see that it was a doctor's office in appearance only, like a TV set, missing a lot of the equipment standard to rooms like that, even back when this footage would have been new. Still, the shoddy set isn't what captured the bulk of Zoey's attention, her jaw dropping slightly. The woman in center focus was...green! That was the first thought to enter Zoey's head, before a flood of thoughts followed. Green skin? Blue hair? Nubby horns pressing from her forehead? A quivering stub of a tail wiggling excitedly behind her? She looked like something out of a fantasy game, some kind of goblin or kobold or something. The green woman seemed short, but developed, like someone had taken a highschooler and given them all the features of their adult self, without any of the height. Draped around her, she was wearing a lab coat that was way too long for her, dragging on the floor behind her somewhat, left unbuttoned around a black T-shirt and some slate boyshorts. Zoey caught herself, forcing her train of thought off the tracks. Ridiculous to assume this girl was some kind of...alien or whatever, it was clearly a makeup job...an impressive one, but just makeup. Still, it was odd that the production team would have so much budget for makeup, and so little for set. She doesn't have much time to mull this new theory over, however, before the bland orchestral opening of the 'show' faded to silence, and the green woman opened her mouth.

"Hi! And welcome to Dr. Kimmi's Noumenon Niche!...god, we should have worked on a better name." she said, speaking past the camera to whoever was filming this. Her eyes darted back to the camera, however, as she continued. "If you're seeing this, congratulations! You've found a Noumenon crystal that I dropped onto your sliver of existence!" she chirped, her voice high and squeaky to match her short height. Zoey rolled her eyes. Sliver of existence? Her gut told her this was just some campy kids show staring some alien monster named...Dr. Kimmi, was it?

"If you live on a magic rich plane of existence, please press 1 now. If you do not, please, press 2. If you are unsure, please, pause the video and think about it until you are sure, and then press the corresponding number." Dr. Kimmi explained to Zoey, smiling brightly. Zoey...blinked at the screen in confusion. Mana rich? Press 1 or 2? The VHS was bringing her headache back. What was she supposed to press, and how would that effect the show? It was a VHS tape, not some DVD special features menu. Besides, there weren't any numbers on the screen to click, even if she could. She stared blankly at the screen, those questions and more dancing around her head before Dr. Kimmi cleared her throat. "I'm, uh...I'm waiting?" she mentions softly to the screen. Zoey boggled further, completely at a loss. Did they film dead air, to give kids time to respond, like in Dora the explorer? But respond HOW? The VHS was maddening, and it had only been 5 minutes.

"..." came a soft mumbling from behind the camera. Whoever was filming Dr. Kimmi was telling her something.

"What?" Dr. Kimmi frowned. "No, no, I'm doing it like that thing you told me, about phones? They have those menus, where the golems tell you to hit certain buttons?"

"...?" the voice continued.

"I don't know!" Dr. Kimmi pouted. "They just need to hit a number! They got numbers near them somewhere, probably, right? You told me EVERYONE has a phone, phones have numbers on them..." she accuses the cameraman with narrowed eyes.

Zoey felt like she was watching a fever dream. Just...hit a button? She could do that, though she felt quite silly as she pulled out her phone. Maybe it wasn't so bad to play along, right? She was bored, and it wasn't like anyone could see her. Mana rich plane? Like...magic, in RPGs? She giggled softly to herself, and decisively hit "2", finger mushing against the touch-pad of her phone with a buzz of tactile feedback. Nope, no magic here, Zoey confirmed!

"Ah, excellent!" Dr. Kimmi exclaimed with a smile. "See, Becky, she had a phone!" the good doctor said smugly past her camera. Zoey blinked. Had she just...timed her button press perfectly to the end of the response period, or were the people on the screen...reacting to her? No, that was simply ridiculous.

"Okay, uh, option 2, okay..." Dr. Kimmi seemed to pull a stack of papers out of her coat lining, holding it in front of herself, and beginning to read. "Greetings, pitiful human! Congratulations! Your world, which was probably really boring and lame, is going to totally kick ass soon!" the alien chirped. "And it all starts with you!" she looked up from the paper, and awkwardly pointed at the camera like the world's least talented idol girl. Was she reading from the script? This tape was made comically poorly on a technical level, which only made Zoey more nervous. If the production was so bad, why were the visual effects so...real?

"The crystal in your hands is a Noumenon crystal, as I mentioned, and it's one of millions that are currently forming in your atmosphere, thanks to the crystal lattice I spread there. As the crystals clump together, they eventually gain too much mass, outweigh their natural buoyancy, fall out of orbit, and crash into your dirtball of a planet! How exciting!" Dr. Kimmi explains. "If you don't know what an atmosphere, buoyancy, or mass is, please deliver this crystal to the nearest town sage or wise elder, and try not to eat the tape, it is NOT food, and I don't even know how you're watching it," Dr. Kimmi continues.

"...Okay, with all the dummies out of the room, now we can get to business. The Noumenon Crystal, henceforth called an N-Crys, is the tool we will need to make your life much more interesting." Dr. Kimmi explained. "It's not the clearest concept to explain in English, but I'll do my best." she apologized, "Typically when used, it helps those effected become their truest self, rather than the self as told by people's perceptions around them." the alien does her best to explain. "Mine doesn't do that. Sorry, but this isn't some 'become your inner self' bullshit, so if you're here looking for that, move along. Rather, my personal brand of N-Crys, the kind currently rapidly forming in your atmosphere, ready to drop all over the world, shuffles through all realities, and finds the You that you and I would personally like the most. It sorts alternate selves by rebellious intent, negative emotions such as anger or sadness, and even things like number of enemies, and finds the most compliant, submissive, and ADORABLE version of that person who you, and me, are certain to like a whole lot better than their prior selves, satisfaction guaranteed. Once that job is done, it causes that person to become that version of themselves in your own dimension, and, what's more, the enchantment on the crystal is retroactive. They not only become this idealized self, they always WERE this self, as far as everyone but you and they are aware."

Zoey blinked at the crystal in her hands, before gently setting it onto the bed. She, of course, didn't take this weird 'doctor' at her word, but still...it wouldn't hurt to let the crystal be for now...just in case. Dr. Kimmi grinned wider. "Look, I'm gonna level with you, I'm not gonna pretend that this isn't purely selfish. I think your boring rock of a planet sucks, so I set to change it. You don't have to play along, but...someone will. The rocks will keep falling, tapes will keep appearing, and not everyone is gonna have the chutzpa or whatever to resist this kind of power," she says, as if speaking directly to Zoey. "The world WILL change. Don't you want to be on the wave when it happens, not under it? Don't you know someone that would be so much happier, and make YOU so much happier, if they were...a different Them?" Dr. Kimmi lets that hang for a moment, before continuing. "To use the crystal, hold it in your hand, and smash it against your target like you're pressing it into them. It should be harmless, but, just in case, avoid the eyes, alright? When you're done, please flip to side B. I'll be waiting, Zoey." Dr. Kimmi signed off, the screen flickering, and turning that no input blue once again.

Zoey's confusion turned to outright panic. Okay, what the fuck? This Dr. Kimmi person knew her name, how in the hell...? She stared at the blue screen for a moment, mind running at a mile a minute, before hitting the eject key, staring at the VHS sticking out of the box like a tongue out of a mouth. Was this real? Was this really real? The world felt like it was crumbling beneath the girl, nothing in her life preparing her from the shattered world view. Monsters and aliens and crystals and magic? So much of the stuff she had written off suddenly felt very real, very present, and very, very scary. She could feel a panic attack welling in her chest, and quickly focused on her breathing. What had Dr. Kimmi said? Be ON the wave, not under it? Zoey's eyes stare at the crystal, as more of Kimmi's words spring readily to her mind. Compliant. Submissive. 'Don't you know someone that would be so much happier...' Zoey suddenly stood, unsure where the motivation flooding her was coming from. The world was crumbling beneath her, but she would stay on top of the wave, she refused to be crushed beneath the weight of history. She picked up the N-Crys again, feeling its weight in her hands. If this 'Dr. Kimmi' was telling the truth...she knew exactly who to use this crystal on, and she knew she had nothing more to lose.

----

Having laid under my sheets for an hour now, I felt no better. Going from staring at the wall to staring at the ceiling wasn't any sort of upgrade, all it did was make me feel lazy, for going to bed before the sun had even set over that hot NY summer's day. I was just rolling back out of bed to go grab a book or something, when I heard a knock on my door. That was decidedly odd, because either Zoey had decided to give me the time of day, or we had robbers in the house. Either way, I felt enough self-loathing to unlock the bolt on my door, and swung it open.

"Hey, Simon" Zoey said brightly, setting off alarm bells in my mind. She was...happy to talk to me, which, while nice, wasn't something Zoey had ever been before.

"Hey, Zoey...?" I responded, eyebrow raised curiously. The whole situation was suspicious, and it only got me more nervous when I realized Zoey was holding something behind her back. Did she have a...gun or something? Had she finally decided to get rid of her roommate the old fashioned way?

"I just wanted to say...I don't really like you," Zoey continued, as a creepy grin grew onto her face like the earth splitting up to swallow me. I just stood there, at a loss for words as she continued, my brow furrowing but my tongue far too tied to manage a retort. "You're a pompous, self-important, sexist piece of shit, and you deserve this," she said, though there was no anger on her voice. It almost sounded like she was trying to convince herself.

"Wait a minute, look, Zoey..." I started, taking a step back from her, into the wall of my bedroom. I was cornered, and unsure if I could physically overpower Zoey, what with her active lifestyle, and my...not active one. "Look, I get it, we don't get along, and I'm sorry, alright? We're just...I think we're just from different worlds. I come from money, and you're just normal, and..." I tried to explain my thoughts, about how we're just incompatible, but my tongue wouldn't move right. A shadow of anger finally passed over her face, cutting through the nervous expression I noted as she entered.

"That's what you think, huh? You're better than me, cuz your blood is blue? GOD, this is exactly how it went when I met you. You haven't changed at all. Goodbye, Simon." Zoey took one powerful step forward, like the windup to a pitch, her arm blurring towards my chest. My arms moved up to stop her, but too late, I felt something shatter against my clothes. Had Zoey broken a bottle against me? Why didn't it hurt? I raised my fists to fight back, but a sudden wave of wooziness washed over me, my legs threatening to give out beneath me, my arms suddenly too heavy to hold up in fisticuffs.