The loud hum and noise of the train station almost deafened you. This wasn't the first time, but your ears still couldn't get used to the sounds. You really need to get some protection.

Popping your headphones on, you weave around the lines of humans standing around waiting to finally get their ticket to somewhere else other than here. You clutched your little ticket in your pocket.

The bag on your shoulder really doesn't make this much easier. Also, the long scarf was choking you, so you tie it around the bag's strap to make some space.

As you're approaching your terminal, you notice that the train is leaving in two minutes.

"Oh, shit."

You speed up.

Finally, peace and quiet. And the quiet clanking of the train. You sit on one of the many empty seat rows. Carefully drawn slurs and reproduction organs, lazily repainted walls and doors of the car and the smoked stained seats and floor soothe your nerves.

Well, it's not exactly quiet, it's actually quite loud. Concerningly loud.

You hear grinding of the wheels on the track. The train is turning on a straight path, it seems.

You sit calmly on your seat, while a couple other people are banging on the door to get out.

"Damn, that's a tight roll."

You almost fall off the seat, before being crushed by the roof of the car.

Goddammit. You actually liked that body.

You wake up from the pain.

It fades away instantly, like after a bad dream.

Maybe it was a dream, you don't even know at this point.

The only thing that you know for sure, is that you're...

"In this fucking place again."

White walls surrounding you, complete silence consuming you, and a little bit of a scent of rust makes you wonder how is it that nothing's changed since you were here last time.

You're lying in a bed, tucked tightly, despite being fully clothed in your favourite flannel shirt and dad jeans. Dying from the heat, quickly get out and sit on the edge.

You hear some bizarre sound coming from somewhere upstairs. Like a yell. Or a loud yawn.

Then, steps. Slow, heavy, lazy steps on the floor upstairs. And after a bit of that, a familiar figure appears.

In a flight attendant suit that's a little undersized, and what looks like a wizard hat a tall, orange-haired man appears, making his way down the stairs. He smiles upon seeing you.

"Dusky!" He says, coming closer to you, with his arms armed for a tactical hug.

"Stop calling me that," you mumble, rolling your eyes for comedic effect. This is a family show, after all.

The man puts his arms down and sits on the end of your bed.

"Aren't you happy to see me?"

"We-e-ell..."

You think for a moment.

Are you?

Well, you just died, so you guess it's kind of better than it could be.

"Not really," you finally finish, crossing your arms and feeling like a huge tsundere.

He looks sad for a moment, and instantly gets back into his cheer-y mood. He didn't see you in a while, and you're pretty sure you're the only person he sees anyway, so it's understandable.

"Fine, then!... Hm." He starts the sentence, and stops there. "Do you... want to go now?"

"Wait."

You turn fully to him, almost ready to get up from the bed.

"You're gonna give me that briefing about hazardous materials and species and all that again, aren't you?"

"It's a part of the thing, Dusky," he tries justifying it once again.

His face looks like he doesn't want to, though.

With a sigh of defeat, you get up.

Your limbs ache; neck feels like it was crushed.

All fingers are numb, spine's twisted, all nerves except those stopped working altogether.

You say the only thing you can in this situation.

"Ouch."

“Yeah, that’ll go away in a minute,” the man says, rising up.

“How do you know?”

“Had this happen to me a couple of times.” He catches up and looks down on you. “Let’s go.“

“Do I really gotta go?”

“Well… It’s either this, or you die for good.”

“I never know with what crazy shit you come up this time, though. Last time it was what, mermaids? I still have nightmares.”

“Damn good-looking mermaids, I’ve been to that place. But I’m fairly certain that you’ll like what comes up next, Dusky. It’s completely harmless.”

“Then it’s already good in my book.”

He pats you on the shoulder.

“Also, no swearing.”

What.

“Aren’t I like about a thousand years old at this point?”

He rolls his eyes.

“More like several thousands.”

You two are still walking on what looks like thin air, pure nothing, but it still holds you up pretty well. There are no additional features on the walls, literally nothing is surrounding you, except the staircase behind you, the bed, and the corner to the “Boring” room, which you clearly see, despite everything being pure white.

“Then what’s the problem?”

“You gotta get used to it. The next place doesn’t really have swearing as a concept.”

“Alright.” You pause. “Then it’s a 9.”

“Also no smoking.”

“Didn’t like it that much anyway.”

“And no sexual stuff.” He glances at you knowingly. You shiver.

“I guess I could live with tha…“ Wait… “…Wait. How do they reproduce, again?”

“This is none of your business, Dusk.”

“I told you to stop calling me that.” You try piercing him with your gaze, but he doesn’t even twitch. You don’t have enough experience.

“Stop calling you by your real name? And what do you intend I call you? Any of the other million?”

“Well… Yes?”

“Fine, Dusk.”

“Hey.”

“Come on, one of them has gotta be Dusk. You don’t get to choose.”

“Ugh.”

You turn the corner.

There’s the familiar room. The “Boring Room”, how you call it. Here you get a briefing of the situation, sometimes a cup of tea, and then finally go to your destination.

A big whiteboard, a small glass coffee table and a white sofa, and the teleport room.

The usual movements. You take your place at the sofa, and your mentor takes the marker.

“So, Dusk. This is a pretty important milestone for you. The body you are in right now was your last. After this short trip, which you should consider more of a vacation, I will give you the all honours you’ve deserved.”

“What. Am I done? Really?”

Oh shit. You’re pumped about this.

“Now-now, don’t be so impatient. You’ll know when the time comes.”

“Aw.”

“So, he’s a quick rundown on all the stuff, in case you forgot.”

“Which I didn’t.”

“Look, I don’t like this either, but I have to do it. So shut up and let’s get this over with.”

You’re a part of a species that is able to control space and time itself, travel through it, change forms, and get along with pretty much every species in the Universe, due to your innate abilities. But you gotta train first, so at birth you get a teacher who will guide you through the smallest part of your life of about 10,000 years.

You are considered the loneliest species in the Universe, since you never actually see any of your kind for thousands of years.

So here’s your mentor, Solaris. A great fellow, but he’s not actually the same species as you. You don’t really know what he is, but he’s been a lot more fun than guys of your kind, if his stories are to be believed. And well, you believe him. He’s the only family you have, after all.

This “training” includes going into a world you’re designated to, and learning everything you can through the lifespan of a human, in this case. If you die not of old age (which happens more often than you want to admit), you’ll have to pay the fee of living in some place different to test out your skills of fitting in and using your experience collected through past lives. Pretty fun.

“So, this is the plan.”, Solaris draws the last piece of the horrible mess of scribbles on the whiteboard he usually calls a “plan”.

“Ponies, really?”

“Well, um…” He glances at the whiteboard again. “It’s complicated.”

You raise an eyebrow.

“You’re serious about this, aren’t you?”

"Look, I'm not the one choosing."
"But this is just stupid. Can't I go back to the mermaids?"
"Sorry, no, but what you can do is just stay somewhere and relax. There are no catastrophes, no revolutions, no villains to kill."

Well, that sounds more like your kind of place.
"Hm. Alright, I guess I'll try it."
You stand up.
Solaris was right; your limbs stopped aching like crazy, now you just don't feel them.
With numb legs you proceed to The Room. The place where magic happens, or just "very complicated whimmy-whammy", as Solaris likes to say.
The Room is just the same white room as any else in here, but with a glass chamber taking up half of it.
The other half houses just one panel with wiring and the Big Red Button. Nothing special.
You go into the chamber, the glass door seals behind you. Solaris is already prepared to operate The Button.
He shouts something at you through the glass.
"ARE YOU READY?"
You nod.
He disappears in the wiring under the button.
"Hm."
You've never even thought of this – what happens if you touch the glass while it's vanishing into nothing when you teleport?

You feel like it's gonna fuck something up, so you decide not to do that.
Your legs hurt. You wanna go home. Like, you're tired of all this shit. Want to just sit and relax. Maybe make some coffee. Or a cup of good old tea. Maybe some cookies, maybe with chocolate.
You hear a click. The room starts spinning, twisting, turning, stretching and finally collapses into nothing. The last thing you saw was Solaris saluting to you.

Everything went white.

Author's Note

Phew. Finally.