"I see them! All of my friends! I see the lights and the stars! The firmament above the sky! They don't linger, they travel all around, meeting new people!"
"Day seven hundred of watching the stars every night, I've come to the conclusion that I've always been alone, there will never be anyone that actually follows me other than fear as far as excuses go."
"Am I the only one here? Vacant spaces, one after the other, this whole realm is useless. I see a face, a statue, more water, some seemingly infinite structures in the sky, and...and here it is? Is this what I've been looking for? My whole life, a meaning, and more than a meaning, peace. No music no people talking. No cars or noises of the city. Not even a living village or a small house in the countryside. Nothing. I was looking for nothing. Barely anything. Not a crow, not a bird, not a cat. Finally there is nothing in front of me, nobody's screaming or crying or chanting. It's over."
"Someone is here. Day fifty of being alone in Paradise, and I've heard people walking and talking, this is horrifying. I don't know how they ascended until here but they did. This is making me so angry I could kill them."
"Day fifty-seven. They came back. I've killed them and they made it back, to be honest they look just as confused as I am. If I...I kill them again..."
"I asked, they explained to me the whole thing, how they've made it into hell and beyond, met some strange beings and eventually ascended back here. We've formulated many theories over the days, and we all became advocate of the idea that this world functions between multiple realms, which are all connected, and anybody can go anywhere at any time. The trick is to find the correct "doors" or "realmlinks" to travel safely."
"Day one hundred and two in Paradise, I've made contact with a different species, they call themselves the Outer Gods. They are giant ghosts of some kind, hovering all around the Lifeline. The Lifeline is the gathering of all realms; for while we could imagine them one above the other, this is false. They are lined up, in a straight line. And we move around by living, dying. Not entering a realm correctly is the called "the hard way", aka dying. The Outer Gods told me they wanted to make the Lifeline a circle, for the correct vision of this world implies the mresence of a circle. With time, we spoke and I said to them: "if there are four realms, and we go through them by horrible pains, then we could just name it the Thorned Circle." They loved the idea I pitched and made it into a logic of life, that every human should go to every realm four times, leading to sixteen life experiences. And so every arc of life of every human should be of sixteen lifetimes of pain until the circle repeats itself."
"One day, a woman came to me, she didn't appear to be like the others. She was not searching for a way out, she had that look on her face telling me she knew already what to do and what to say. She said her name was Yael, that she didn't want humans to live like this. They should go from Earth to Heaven. While I didn't care that much, I thought it would be optimal for us to agree on some terms and move on from that. I told her about the four and the sixteen, that I wanted this world to make sense. But she didn't listen, she said it was bullshit. We had a quick physical contact and there I knew, I felt pain, she was my mortal enemy, my polar opposite. Yael had a natural place in the logic of this world, she could inflict direct pain on those who had wronged the Order of God. She knew also, but left me there and came back to her own dimension. I fought for Paradise and she was simply placed there by fate or God. Well, I wasn't going to just let her do this. I've asked the Outer Gods to completely enclose Paradise, to shut it down, and they did. Yael couldn't get back to me, but her brand could. And so I knew I would spend the rest of my life in this fear that this woman could show up indirectly and kill me in a simple touch."
"She is a sister, she has a whole family, but until they have a physical contact, they cannot harm me. I wonder if everything here in the Lifeline works under the concept of intent. I did touch Yael's hand but I didn't die, there was a bit of pain but it was manageable. She assessed the situation at the time, no more no less. But if the intent is to kill, I won't survive it. Her brother, Ismael, is a tough one and keeps surviving every insane possible scenario, if he manages to come here, I won't make it. I'm not equipped to fight that thing. The main inconvenient of living in bliss here is that I don't know how to fight, except for a few abilities here and there, I am not capable of taking down that crashing wave."
"He's dead, Ismael is dead, today. Not that it changes anything but it is progress. He was assigned a personal assistant angel."
"There was an ascension, I was there to taunt him, this is how I get to Yael without actually having to face her. I had his friends killed with my black angels, took Capucine and went back home. This is so exciting. I can just influence the game from where I stand, I can loweer or turn up the heat of the intensity of the play whenever I want. Ismael may die and continue living, but he will never beat me at my own game, for I make the rules."