A Butterfly

Last week, you voted on what this person would see first. The votes are in, and the result? Something we perceive as beautiful!

The first thing this person, let us call him or her Person for now, saw was a butterfly. Bright, striking blue wings fluttering delicately through the air. A small, fragile butterfly. Innocent, beautiful. Once an ugly larva, now a majestic creature of beauty. At the sight, Person immediately froze.

The brilliant blue butterfly brushed Person's arm, and the first sound in this new world was made: a scream. Shrill, piercing, deafening, chilling. Person screamed as the wing of the butterfly touched his or her skin, and the butterfly fluttered away, unaware of the terror it has just caused. Person's heart raced, full of awe, wonder, uncertainty! With nothing to compare the butterfly to, no past experience or lessons passed down for generations, Person could not know what may come of contact with the bright, shimmering creature.

A mix of fear and curiosity now filled Person. A decision was to be made: to follow the butterfly and learn more, despite the danger sensed by the creature's sheer beauty and brilliance, or to turn in the opposite direction to the even more unknown. The realisation that he or she knew nothing, had no experience or knowledge by which to be guided, was a frightening one for a human. All Person could rely on was instinct, on heart. And so Person closed their eyes for a moment, out of instinct, and asked his or her heart for guidance.

Dear heart, what should Person do? You decide! Comment this blog or send an email to: ethraen [at] gmail [dot] com!

The Person

Hello and welcome to the first post of a new, reader-decided series! Here's how it'll work:

Each Sunday, I will post a new installment of the series, based on reader input received since the last post. Since this is entirely new, the way readers submit their input might change. For now, there will be a poll at the end for readers to vote in (more on voting below), and any reader is welcome to submit their ideas, plot twists, etc. to ethraen [at] gmail [dot] com.

Right now (and this may change in the future when I do some coding), voting can be done by either posting your vote in a comment or emailing your vote to ethraen [at] gmail [dot] com.

I hope that's enough explanation. Let's get onto the story! Enjoy!

This tale is about a place neither near nor far. It is about a person neither alike nor different. There is nothing strange about this tale except that it is very strange. The world in this tale was not unlike yours, but it was nothing like yours.

The world was dark. Pure darkness. Not a thing to be seen nor sound to hear. Existence didn't, well, exist. This is how things had always been, as far as anyone could remember, though there was no one around to remember.

And then, one night, or perhaps one day or afternoon or morning or maybe even during golden hour, things changed. Suddenly. Out of the nothingness, there came to be a somethingness. And in that somethingness was a person. A plain person, like unseasoned meat, and extraordinary, like an explosion of flavour in your mouth. The taste buds scream in boredom and elation.

And when this person came into existence, this person brought an entire world of somethingness along, raping and pillaging the nothing that once filled all of space and time. Pure darkness went out of existence, became extinct. Everywhere you looked, there was something.

The person slowly opened their eyes and looked at this new world.

Vote away! What does the person see first? (You can be more specific than the options given) Something we normally perceive as:
A. Beautiful
B. Scary
C. Boring
D. Other


Vote away and see you with an update tomorrow!