ImpSyndrome

I'm amazed at how quickly this one was finished, especially after how long Chapter 3.5 took. Anyway, here's the first of the hArtist entries, where Maxwell has an interesting encounter with the mental projection of our very own Kitty Kross.

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While exploring the corridors of the Nexus one day, I came across something odd: a door that looked different from the others. Where most of the doors to the "Mental Scopes", as I've come to call the rooms that each person's mind projects into the Nexus, appear as simple white-washed doors with a simple brass nameplate stamped onto them, the odd door out looked like something out of the Dark Ages: a tall oaken gate with not a speck of paint on its unfinished surface stood a few feet larger - in both of its frontal dimensions - than its blank counterparts, and the name "Kitana Evangeline Kross" was emblazoned on what appeared to be a gilded nameplate. Intrigued by the unique nature of the door, I cautiously pulled the portal open by the iron handle that hung at waist-level on the right side of the massive and heavy door. A bright light shone forth from inside the room, forcing me to shield my eyes; still wary of the Scope's contents but still infinitely curious, I wandered inside, completely unprepared for the strange new realm that awaited me.

The light that had drawn me into the Scope was actually a simulated sun, shining high above in its noon-time position above me. The large oaken door I had opened to reach the Scope, which had slammed shut behind me as I entered, had led me into the middle of an expansive ring of dirt and sand, with twelve-foot-high cobblestone walls enclosing the arena on all sides. Overlooking the circular space was a lone tower, where a balcony looked out over the arena; though the brilliant sunlight impaired my vision somewhat, I was able to make out the figure of a single person leaning over the edge of said balcony, apparently watching me. I considered trying to call out to this person, but my thoughts were interrupted when I heard someone running towards me. I turned just in time to see a muscular warrior, at least a foot taller than myself, clad in luminous steel and wielding a massive stone mace, rushing me head-on with his weapon held high in his left hand, a battle-cry rising from his throat and filling the air around us. With all the strength I could muster, I pushed off the dirt and leaped to one side as the heavy weapon slammed into the ground, turning the ground I had just been standing on to dust and sending sand into the air around the gladiator. With the precious time bought by the apparent difficulty had by the warrior in lifting his weapon again, I checked the battleground and searched for others, making sure that no one else could try to sneak up on me.

I returned my attention to my opponent as he wrenched his mace from the ground and faced me again; he hefted his weapon over his shoulder and charged at me once more, his every step causing the ground to tremble beneath his powerful legs. I backed up to the rounded wall of the arena and waited for my overwhelming adversary to cross the distance between us; as he closed in and swung his weapon, I rolled to the side again, and his weapon slammed into the cobbled stone, spraying chunks of polished rock and hardened mortar everywhere. Intent on freeing his weapon from its new resting place in the wall, the warrior focused his power on trying to rip it free, giving me a perfect opening; I ran forward and jumped as I approached, striking out at the barbarian's head with the strongest roundhouse kick I could muster. As the gladiator turned his head towards me, the front of my foot made solid contact with his face, breaking his nose and sending him sprawling onto the ground. Ignoring the searing pain I had incurred in my foot when I had kicked the man, I ran up to him as he laid in the dirt, clutching his bleeding nose with one hand and groaning, and jumped onto his armored torso. I grabbed his head and brought it close to mine, snarling with anger and frustration.

"Why did you attack me," I dared the downed man, desperately trying to keep the rush of adrenaline from fueling my rage. "I don't even know where I am; couldn't you have just told me to leave?!"

Straining his voice through the pain of his broken nose, he replied, "This is my job as...one of the royal guards...of Lady Kitana Evangeline...Those who would threaten my lady...are not welcome here..."

"What on earth were you thinking, you fool of a man," I shouted in his face. "You can see that I'm unarmed; you're not protecting anyone, you're just jumping any person that comes through that door!! A single blow from that earthen mace could kill a man!! What motives have you to attack anyone that enters this room?!"

My rage took over at that point, and I was about to beat the warrior's head against the ground in an attempt to knock some sense into him, but I was stopped when I heard a woman's voice call to me, begging me not to strike him again. I turned in the direction of the tower to see a young woman with long golden hair, dressed in a gown of an icy blue that shone in the sunlight, standing in a doorway adjacent to the one I had used to come to the arena, which had apparently just opened up out of what had appeared to be the solid stone base of the tower. She was accompanied by four men wearing similar armor to the barbarian I was standing over, each of them wielding an identical steel longsword. With their weapons drawn and pointed at me, I felt I had no other choice but to drop the defeated warrior's head and back away from him. As he leaned against the wall, trying to manage his broken nose, I looked up to the window, where I had seen the spectator before being attacked; noting that the watcher was no longer present there, I could only guess that the woman standing at the base of the tower was the person at the balcony.

"You were watching from that window," I asked her, gesturing to the tower above. "Couldn't you have just shouted down from there?"

"Yes, I was," she answered, "and yes, I could have done that, but I do not make a habit of looking down on others, in any sense of the phrase. I may be regarded as a princess here, but I am not so haughty to belittle another person."

"So you settle for making your allies beat them to death while you watch from afar? That seems VERY humane," I said, my response dripping with sarcasm.

"Kurt over there," the lady replied, pointing to the warrior with the broken nose, who was now preoccupied with removing his stone mace from the wall where it was stuck, "was instructed to challenge any man who came to this place in search of me, not to kill random innocents. Unfortunately, he is somewhat...overzealous in his duties; he may have mistaken you for another of my suitors."

"I'm sorry...a suitor? Forgive me, but my intent for entering this place was not to seek your hand. I was simply curious about that door of yours, and when I walked through it, your 'Kurt' leaped upon me with his mace in hand."

"Well, you did look up to the tower balcony; it is possible that he believed you were searching for me specifically. Perhaps he only meant to frighten you as he took a swing or two at you, but I suppose he was afraid that he might appear to be slacking if he did not take you seriously."

"Oh, believe you me, he took me VERY seriously...So, now that we've settled that bit of nonsense, I have a few things to ask you."

"You're not the only one with questions to ask, my violent young friend," she said, motioning for her guards to sheath their weapons and stepping into the arena. "First of all, who are you? I've never met a man who could topple Kurt with a single blow, especially unarmed."

"My name is Maxwell," I replied, thankful that I did not appear to need to fight off the rest of her guards after defeating one of their own. "And you are?"

"The lady of this castle, of course...as Kurt probably told you. My name is-"

"Kitana Evangeline Kross, I know. I read the name off the gold plaque on the outside of your door...which brings me to my next question: how did you change the appearance of that door in the Nexus? I've tried it with mine, but it never seems to work."

"Oh...So you know about the hallways, then," the princess pondered quietly, as if she didn't want her allies to overhear. "I believe we should talk inside. Please, come with me, Maxwell; if we are to discuss the hallways, we should speak in private."

At her subsequent request, Kitana's guard broke ranks, rushing to their broken comrade Kurt, whose bleeding had finally stopped. I suddenly felt sorry for the man; as angry as I was at his reckless attack, I wondered if I had been too hard on him. Regardless, my attention returned to my hostess as she turned back to the tower from whence she had descended waiting for me to follow. I obediently matched her step and shadowed her as she entered the stone archway that had, for all I knew, appeared in the tower at her command. As soon as I was inside, I felt a rush of wind as an air current swept by me before being snuffed out; I turned hard on one heel to see that the doorway I had just passed through had vanished just as quickly as it had opened, as if the stone had never been missing. I spun back around, about to ask how such a thing was possible, but my hostess was already ascending the staircase inside the tower, which presumably led to the balcony from which she had previously been watching me. Not wanting to be left behind, I quickly rushed up the stairs and rejoined Kitana, climbing the staircase until reaching a somewhat slim version of the door I had used to enter her Mental Scope. The princess paused for a moment before reaching out to the door and lightly tapping it with three fingers; almost immediately, the door slowly opened inward, granting us access to what appeared to be the lady's social chambers.

The room was ovular in shape, with the balcony overlooking the arena taking up the left half of the room. The wall on the opposite cylindrical wall had no balcony; built into it was a large recess used as a library, sporting six shelves packed end to end with books of all kinds. A velvet-cushioned chair and matching ottoman, with a tall iron hook wearing a lantern standing overhead, rested near the bookshelves; this was most likely Kitana's study. The lady voiced a request, presumably to the Nexus itself, for the addition of another seat to the room, and another chair appeared across from the velvet one; she sat down in the lavishly-decorated study chair, while I followed suit and sat down in the one she had just conjured up.

As I took my seat, I got my first good look at Kitana up close. A gilded circlet rested on her forehead, set with a perfectly-rounded sapphire in its center that perfectly matched the hue of her eyes, its golden band partly hidden behind her flowing blonde hair. A pendant of three gemstones, the center one larger than its two counterparts, hung around her neck; try as I might, I could not identify the stones set into the golden slots of the pendant. The sunlight shining through the balcony reflected from their surfaces, creating a beautiful abstract mosaic on the ceiling that shifted and tilted with every breath she took. The gemstones weren't the only things reflecting the sunlight, either; as I looked down from the ceiling, I noticed that bright-yellow gold trim lined her dress, adding a subtle hint of royal dignity to it.

"So," the lady asked me plainly, recapturing my attention, "you know about those hallways and the doors along them...Then do you understand the nature of this place? I mean, do you understand where you are and who you are?"

"Of course," I returned, "this is a Mental Scope, the projection of a human mind, within the Nexus, the collective unconscious described by Prof. Carl Jung. And I, Maxwell, am the mental personification of my physical self. This place is not real; it is only a world of dreams, thoughts, and memories."

"This 'Nexus' may be made of thoughts and memories, but it's very real; it exists within the mind of every person on the planet. If this place was not real, we couldn't have this conversation, could we? No, we'd have to meet in person...if this place was an illusion. But I'm here, and you're here as well; that's proof enough that we exist, that the Nexus exists."

"...It seems I still have quite a bit to learn about the Nexus," I mused, shocked that she was so learned about the ways of our realm. "I had no idea you were so wise in the ways of our mental plane, Lady Kitana."

"Please, just call me Kitty," she replied with a smile. "I may act like a lady for my friends out there, but I'm really a very simple woman at heart."

"I see...Well, Kitty, how did you come upon all this knowledge? How long have you been active in the Nexus?"

"Oh, most all of my life. It wasn't until several years ago that I began experimenting with this room; since then, I've learned that these...Mental Scopes - wasn't that what you called them? - can open up into entire worlds within the Nexus. That's how I made my room into my castle: my fortress, safe within my mind."

"That's another thing I was meaning to ask you: the stone archway you walked through to meet me. Did you create that opening in the tower's base?"

"Yes," she answered nonplussed, "and I returned it to its original state after you followed me so no one would bother us. All those men down there...They're nice, of course, and they treat me well, but sometimes I wish for more...something less like devotion and more closely resembling affection."

"I understand what you mean," I replied, thoughts of Ophelia rushing through my head at the sound of my own words. "Who are all those men, anyway? Kurt, and those guards...Are they other people within the Nexus, or do they reside here?"

"They were created here," Kitty answered, "by my own two hands. See, for a while, this room was empty of life, except for me...I got lonely, to be honest. Wishing for a companion, I created them with the powers of the Nexus and made myself into their queen; they've served me ever since. Still, I think I'm looking for something else...A partner, perhaps..."

For the first time, I questioned the methods by which I had created Ophelia; knowing that this woman had made her servants and guardians without any sort of sacrifice, I had to wonder if there was some other way I could have completed the ritual.

"Of course, they're not real humans," Kitty continued, breaking my concentration. "They're only images conjured up by my mind...They're about as real as a person can be, but...If I wanted a real flesh-and-blood companion, well...actually, it's impossible, now that I think of it. That requires much more than just thoughts..."

"It requires a sacrifice," I said, finishing her sentence, "of one's own body...to create a new life. That is the law of the human nature, as it is for all living things; something cannot be made from nothing."

"Exactly," she responded, smiling. "You're more intelligent than you give yourself credit for, Max; you may not know the same things about the Nexus as I do, but you are still wise beyond your years."

"...Thanks, I'll...I'll try to remember that, I suppose."

"So, Max, how long have you been here? In the Nexus, that is."

"Ah, let's see...I suppose it's been about six months now; I only recently opened my eyes to this realm. I learned how to manipulate my Mental Scope within a month or so, and I've only recently begun exploring other Scopes, like this one."

"How did you find me here, anyway? Was this your destination by choice?"

"No, I didn't plan to come here originally, but when I noticed how different your door was from all the others, curiosity got the best of me, and I wandered in here...I do apologize if I caused you any trouble, but I was afraid for my life."

"I understand, but you don't need to be; there's a safeguard in place that protects all human life from total destruction. Even if Kurt had struck you, I doubt you would've died anyway."

"Oh, I...I see...Well, I suppose I owe Kurt down there an apology for breaking his nose, then."

Kitty chuckled lightly at this, responding, "I'll be sure to let him know that there are no hard feelings."

"I'd appreciate that, thanks. I was lucky today, but I'd hate to be on Kurt's bad side; he has a mighty swing."

"Only when he needs to, though. So, what is the Nexus like, outside of the Scopes? You know, the hallways and such...Are they all the same?"

"Yes, until today, I believed that all the doors in the Nexus' maze of corridors looked identical. Wait...You mean you haven't ever been out in the Nexus?"

"I prefer the solitude of my castle over the vast unknown of the Nexus; while it's not the most exciting way of life, it's where I feel more comfortable."

"I suppose we differ in that regard," I responded. Trying not to sound spiteful of her opinion, I added, "I have learned much from the Mental Scope provided to me, but I believe the real secrets of the Nexus lie in the corridors somewhere. By exploring as much of the Nexus as I can, I hope to find a center to this strange place some day."

Kitty smiled and said, "I understand your feelings, but don't get lost in your mad quest for truth; remember, just because something exists, that doesn't mean it needs a reason to."

Sensing that our conversation was over, I stood up from my chair, turning to the exit to leave, but before I reached the open doorway leading to the staircase, I turned back to Kitty and asked, "By the way...How DID you make the door look the way it does in the Nexus? I never did get an answer from you, did I?"

"No, you didn't," Kitty said slowly as she closed the distance between us. "But if you want me to tell you...I need to ask you for something in return...as a favor, that is..."

Wondering why she wanted a favor all of a sudden when she had volunteered her previous information so freely, I asked, "Well, what kind of favor would you ask of me?"

The lady blushed as she approached me cautiously, and she waved her hand to the balcony; a stone wall rose up from the edge of the overlook and shut us in, letting only a few slivers of light in from between the cracks in the mortar. Not understanding what was going on, I asked her what her intention was, but she wouldn't say anything until we were touching toes.

"It's...nothing serious or anything," she said anxiously. "If you want me to tell you about the door, I just want you to...to kiss me."

"I beg your pardon? We just met; what exactly do you mean-"

"In real life, I have a boyfriend; he's a great guy, and he treats me well. But the person you see here isn't the same as the person I am physically; even with all these people around me, those guards who swear their loyalty to me, the champions who would fight for me...I still get rather lonely here, by myself, with no one to keep me company...That's why...I just want to know if we ought to be friends."

"And to that end, you want me to kiss you? That seems like a bit of a stretch..."

As much as I wanted to argue the point, I could see that my argument was not going to win out over her request. Besides, I could empathize with her, to a degree; she was alone, just like I was before I created Ophelia, and in a world as vast and confusing as the Nexus, she needed someone who she could trust, some pillar of strength that she could lean upon if she needed to. That empathy was the reason that I eventually stopped trying to avoid her, quashed my inhibitions, leaned forward and brought my lips to hers, gently kissing her for a few seconds before backing away. Kitty shut her eyes quietly, enjoying the emotions she was experiencing, before waving her hand and allowing the stone wall to recede, restoring her balcony to its original state.

"All you need to do to change the door," she said slowly, after a few awkward seconds. "is manipulate it while standing outside of the room. Just remember that the door will change inside the room if it changes in the hallway; I had to learn that the hard way."

I nodded and voiced my thanks for her advice, but before I turned to the staircase to leave, she called me back, saying, "Max...Thank you...I'm glad we met...and I hope we can be friends."

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Hope you all enjoyed reading the first of the hArtist entries; more to come soon!! Major kudos to Kitty, for allowing me to use her mental persona and for helping me make this part of the story as awesome as it is. Up next on the list is Quad, who brings the sexy duo of Valerie and Marishka into the Nexus.

Here's the list of participants again, for anyone who doesn't remember what order we're going in.

--UsakosKitty featuring: herself - COMPLETE!!
--QuadManXXX featuring: Valerie and Marishka - COMING SOON
--Gnomduploom featuring: Rene
--UsakoMan featuring: himself
--Steveman featuring: Steve and Yumi
--Dark-Kuja featuring: Janette and Jenny
--Chaosflare featuring: Chaos
--Dead-Dolls featuring: Melissa
--Ultamisia featuring: Aurlena
--Jezebel1669 featuring: Divebomb and Slice
--RandomReduX featuring: Tara
--XANA150 featuring: Brian/Xana and Brianna
--SpaceCoyote featuring: Levistus and Elyria
--Thebenja featuring: himself
--jenniforth featuring: herself
--thetruehentaiaddict featuring: Maria
--wicked13joker featuring: himself

This one took me WAY too long, but I finally finished it. Here it is, the moment you've all been waiting for: the hArtists-exclusive Chapter 3.5 of Tales from the Nexus!!

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((The following entry is meant only for the eyes of those who would follow my footsteps; only they may be privy to the details which will be included herein, for this entry documents one of the more sensitive encounters I have experienced in the Nexus to date.))

Day 4: Hour 5

I deliberately took my time dimming the lights in the Room; although I was all too eager to test my lover's virgin flesh, I was not entirely sure of how I ought to go about it. After all, I was new to the process of intercourse as well; it would be as much an experiment for me as it would for her. This made me extremely nervous; I wasn't entirely sure if I was even prepared for it. The only thing that kept me from backing out of it was my determination to fulfill my promise to Ophelia: to teach her anything she wished to learn to the best of my own ability. Not ready to break my promise, I brought the Room's lighting to a minimum, then locked the door with a wave of my hand to ensure that we would not be disturbed. My preparations complete, I turned back to Ophelia, whose outline I could barely recognize in the pale light, and I slowly approached her, unsure if I ought to even make the first move. Thankfully, I did not find much need to think about it; once I had closed the distance, she took pre-emptive motions, pulling me in close by my shoulders and pressing her lips firmly to mine. As she pried my lips apart, her tongue began exploring my mouth, mixing her own saliva with mine. The sensation was strange and exciting at the same time, so I tried returning the favor; as I did, she pushed her tongue against mine, creating an oddly-sensual rubbing that caught me by surprise. Amazed at how dominant she was, I broke free of her grip just long enough to catch my breath and admire how daring she had been.

As Ophelia closed the gap between us again, she grabbed the lower trim of my shirt and pulled it up and over my head, dropping it to one side as she examined my bare skin. As she ran her silky-smooth hands over my naked torso, she gave me a look that radiated a longing for similar affection, as if she could not survive without it. Driven by some hidden impulse, I followed her example, slowly and gently lifting her shirt over her head, exposing her upper body but for the bra around her chest. Of course, she would be wearing one; of all the blasted devices on the planet, the one barring our progress would HAVE to be the only one I could not disarm. Thankfully, Ophelia was willing to take care of that problem for me; in a matter of seconds, she unfastened the strap and discarded the garment, exposing her well-developed breasts. I slowly ran one hand over her chest, admiring their firmness and observing as she initially flinched at my touch, as I stepped around behind her, asking one last time if she was prepared to go through this. Once she voiced her determination, I gently began to massage her whole upper body from the shoulders down. Every so often, I would hear her whimper softly, but not in protest; I believed that she was simply unaccustomed to such stimulation, and I hoped that it was some indication that she was enjoying it as much as I was. My hands slowly wandered down to her waist, and she flinched for a second as my fingers approached the lip of her jeans; I tried to pull away, afraid that I was moving too quickly, but my assumption was dashed when she grabbed my right wrist and planted it firmly between her legs, breathlessly pleading me not to stop.

Obliging Ophelia's request, I undid the fly on her skin-tight jeans and carefully reached one hand down between the rough denim and her panties. As I massaged her crotch through her panties, she started squirming a bit, but she bit her lower lip to keep silent and held my forearm firmly in place. This continued for another thirty seconds, until her body became tense and she let out a loud, erotic moan that echoed around the dimly-lit Room. Knowing that she was close to her climax, I stopped for a moment and gave her a moment to catch her breath, putting one hand on her shoulder to steady her. A few seconds later, I slipped my hand into her panties and ran my middle and index fingers along the rim of her opening; she cried out again as she lost control of her body, the stimulation being apparently more than she could handle. It took only a few strokes to bring her to a powerful orgasm; her whole body became tense, then shook in a violent spasm as she reached the point of climax. As the effects of the over-stimulation wore upon her, her knees buckled, and she sank to the floor; I allowed her to lean back against me as she slowly dropped to her knees, my one hand still buried beneath her clothes. Once she had come to rest on the ground, I removed my hand from her body, noting that some kind of bodily fluid had been ejected from her vagina at the point of orgasm; my fingers were coated with the stuff, so I summoned a cloth from the Room's expanse and wiped them clean.

Knowing that Ophelia was probably drenched in her own juices as well, I knelt down beside her, sat her down on the floor, and proceeded to delicately assist her in removing her jeans. Surprisingly, it did not take so much effort to take them off; I imagined that it had likely been more trouble for her to fit into them than it was to get out of them again. I hesitated slightly when I reached to pull down her underwear, but when I reminded myself that my hand had been in those panties not sixty seconds earlier, I shook off my anxieties and pulled them to her ankles. As I had thought, her genital area was damp with the same fluid that had covered my fingers, so I used the handkerchief to dry her off. I ought to have thought about the situation a bit more, though; as I moved the kerchief closer to her opening, Ophelia shivered and let out a low moan, prompting me to recoil slightly. Once she calmed down, I leaned in closer and steadied my hand, focusing to avoid a similar reaction, but before I could start wiping her off again, she slowly stood up and, once she had regained her balance, pulled me to my feet with one hand. Once I was standing up, she deftly undid the buckle of my belt, opened up the fly of my pants, and gave me another lust-filled stare that I immediately interpreted as an indication of her desire to move past the foreplay.

As Ophelia stepped out of the undergarments at her feet and kicked them aside, I removed my jeans and my briefs in one quick movement, tossing them into a far corner of the room. Ophelia took a seat on the floor again and laid back, spreading her legs apart and staring at me with a very expectant expression on her face; guessing that she wanted me to take the lead role, I knelt down, edging towards her apprehensively. Once I was close enough, I reached down to my hardened member and propped its head against Ophelia's opening; I heard her gasp, but she didn't move, so I assumed that she was simply reacting to the physical stimulation. Once she relaxed somewhat, I put my arms around her legs, took a deep breath, and pushed my hips forward; inch by inch, my penis slid into her, its entry aided slightly by the moistened walls of her vagina.

A shout left Ophelia's mouth as I penetrated her, which confounded me; she seemed to be in pain, but she did not attempt to resist further penetration. I stopped for a moment to give her some breathing room, but that was not what she had in mind; once she noticed my hesitation, she crossed her legs behind me and pulled me further forward, until our thighs met and my shaft was completely buried in her. I felt something moist slide past my penis; I looked down to see what it was, assuming that she was secreting more of that viscous humour she had released during her previous orgasm. When I recalled her previous fit, however, realizing that she had been shaking and moaning with pleasure, I understood that I had just broken her hymen, and that the liquid now slowly trickling down her crotch was blood. The idea that I had caused Ophelia pain and drawn blood from her weighed heavily upon me initially, but the idea that she would be upset with me for it could not have been farther from the truth; she softly called my name, making my heart skip once, gently reached up to my face, taking my head in her hands and drawing me close to hers, and kissed me softly. At that moment, I understood that she knew how painful it would be to lose her virginity and that she had chosen to commit her body to me regardless of that pain. That knowledge made it easier for me to move past my inner conflict and finish what I had started.

Once Ophelia loosened the leg-lock she had put on me earlier, I slowly drew myself out of her, my hands anchored on the ground on either side of her, until half the length of my lower member was exposed. My lover voiced some impatience and advised me to improve my pace; I was still overcautious about causing her further harm, but in light of her request, I did as she instructed. I painstakingly forced myself into a slow but steady rhythm, noticing that my movements seemed to go more smoothly with every consecutive thrust; I supposed that it was something like a molding effect, as if I had to widen her opening before I could enter it easily. After settling on a steady rhythm of movement, my thought process began to shift in accordance with my state of arousal; instead of observing my interactions with Ophelia and analyzing them in turn, I simply went through the motions, letting myself get lost in the newfound physical stimulation I was experiencing. Sweat began to form on our naked skin as the friction of each thrust poured more and more heat into our bodies; the both of us began to moan softly, overwhelmed by a powerful sensation of ecstacy.

In another two or three minutes, I felt the walls of Ophelia's vagina tighten, wrapping around my manhood and squeezing it from all sides; I lost my breath for a moment, not expecting such a strong surge of stimulation all at once. Judging by the sudden tightness and by the way her moans had become much more audible, I guessed that she was close to her climax. In truth, I was also on the brink of orgasm myself; I knew it wouldn't even be thirty seconds before I reach my own breaking point. As Ophelia arched her back, she started turning onto her side; taking that as an opprotunity to change her position, I put both hands on her left leg and lifted over my shoulder. Once I had steadied her against my chest, I took hold of her hefted leg for leverage and brought my hips back up to hers again; instead of resuming a slow and gradual rhythm of movement, however, I opted to pick up the pace and use more of my brute strength, resulting in a moderately fast and strong series of thrusts. At that rate, it took less than fifteen seconds for Ophelia to reach her orgasm, and I followed shortly thereafter. I felt my entire body become tense as Ophelia cried out in pleasure, and I felt her body shake violently with the force of her climax. I held her hips up to mine as I expelled my virgin seed into her, trying to catch my breath; after the initial burst, I let off a few more shots of my semen before finally running dry and pulling myself free of her. Exhausted, I let myself drop to the floor next to Ophelia, facing towards her while I strained for fresh air. Totally in love with her, I edged forward and hugged her close, wrapping my legs around hers as she accepted my love and returned it with a gentle yet passionate kiss.

Pulling away from me, Ophelia breathlessly whispered, "That was...amazing...I want more..." I chuckled at her proposal; knowing that I was not up for another round with her right away, I politely refused, saying, "Forgive me, my love, but...a man has limits where a woman does not...I'll not have the stamina for another go tonight; unfortunately, I don't think I'll be able to do much with you until tomorrow. Let's save the second round for tomorrow; it'll give us something to look forward to."

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Right, and now I can start on the artist chapters, starting with UsakosKitty. Once I chat with her about what she will and won't allow, I'll start writing right away.

In the meantime, here's the list of hArtists who I need to do chapters for. I'm going to try and do them in this order.

--UsakosKitty featuring: herself - IN PROGRESS!!
--QuadManXXX featuring: Valerie and Marishka
--Gnomduploom featuring: Rene
--UsakoMan featuring: himself
--Steveman featuring: Steve and Yumi
--Dark-Kuja featuring: Janette and Jenny
--Chaosflare featuring: Chaos
--Dead-Dolls featuring: Melissa
--Ultamisia featuring: Aurlena
--Jezebel1669 featuring: Divebomb and Slice
--SpaceCoyote featuring: Levistus and Elyria
--Thebenja featuring: himself
--jenniforth featuring: herself
--thetruehentaiaddict featuring: Maria

Another entry from "Tales of the Nexus". A few more discoveries about what powers the collective unconscious grants the narrator, and Ophelia's sex drive becomes active. Also, the Narrator's name is revealed!!

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Day 1: Hour 2

My next day in the Nexus marked the first full day I had to spend with my goddess, Ophelia. As I had pledged to do the day before, I spent much less time on her studies; her learning curve had risen so sharply that I doubted I would need to continue teaching her for much longer. Once her studies for the day were concluded, we went out into the Nexus for a stroll to test the unconscious plane's powers as I had the day before. Upon becoming considerably lost, I focused my thoughts upon the door with our names upon it, and the Room that laid beyond it, and called on the Nexus to guide us there. As if heeding my demand, a surge of power wrapped around us, and a split-second later, we had arrived back at the room.

Knowing that I could warp myself back to the threshold of my Room, I asked Ophelia to wait for me in the Room while I experimented with the Nexus. She did as she was told, and I began walking the halls again; I turned down a few corners, and once I was sure that I was lost, I checked the name on the nearest door and memorized it. Again, I made a few more turns, making sure that I had put enough distance between myself and the door I had focused on, and this time, I called upon the Nexus to guide me back to the door I had just seen. A split-second and a strange falling sensation later, I arrived directly in front of the door I had just memorized. That proved my conjecture correct: that the Nexus could bring me to any other Room I chose, including my own, so long as I knew the name of one of its primary residents. Once I had established that much, I returned to my own Room and kept Ophelia company for a while longer. Nothing else of great significance happened that day, but I was content with the day's progress.

Day 4: Hour 3

Over the past few days (which were not documented, for lack of progress in the understanding of the Nexus or its vast powers), Ophelia had made the Nexus her servant; not only has the Second Floor of our Blank Room become ruled by her intriguing sense of feng-shui, but her wardrobe has also expanded with speed unparalleled. Today, she wore a navy-blue V-neck T-shirt and a rather snug pair of blue jeans when I found myself in the Nexus; although I had compared her to a child only days before, I found myself looking at her in an entirely new light, as if she had been transformed into a fully-grown woman in the four days I had spent tutoring her.

I spent most of our lesson on this day lecturing her about the human anatomy, emphasizing on the brain and its numerous functions. I admired her dedication to her studies fiercely; regardless of the topic at hand, she took to it with grace, even if it was beyond her understanding at first. She had showed great interest in the functionalistic view of human psychology in the past, so I was not surprised when she expressed her excitement about the subject.

After two hours, I concluded my teachings for the day; as I returned my tools and diagrams to the void of the Nexus, Ophelia asked me, "Are we finished already?"

"Yes, for today, I have nothing more to teach you, my dear," I informed her politely, clearing the Room of the last bits of material.

"Oh," she responded quietly, and she bowed her head, almost as if she had been expecting something.

"Were you hoping to review something else today, Ophelia," I asked her, puzzled at her sudden shyness, but she refused to open up to me. Hoping that she was not already beginning to grow apart from me, I knelt down beside her and assured her, "You need not be embarassed to ask me anything; remember, I am here to teach you anything you wish to know."

At first, Ophelia was hesitant, but eventually, she responded, "Well...you see...yesterday, I felt very...strange...I was hoping that you could help me determine what it was..."

"Of course," I happily replied, smiling warmly to her, "there is no shame in asking me that. Where did this strange feeling originate from?"

"Well...that's why it's embarassing...I felt this warm feeling...down there," she responded reluctantly, and she held one hand to her stomach, pointing straight down. "I felt light-headed and warm...and I...I think I felt...empty...like I was lacking something..."

Almost immediately, I knew what she was talking about, although why she was unable to inhibit such feelings was beyond me. Knowing that I had to approach this subject delicately, I sat my goddess down and tried to think about how to explain her predicament to her. Although I knew a direct approach would be rather difficult for her to absorb, it would be the easiest way to explain it to her to avoid confusion. Taking a deep breath, I told her exactly what was happening in her body: that she was being influenced by her natural hormones, which were creating within her a need to experience some sexual activity. It was just as difficult for me to explain it and keep a straight face as it was for her to listen and not grow angry at me, but when I was finished speaking, she reacted maturely, taking in the information I had presented to her in a respectful fashion. When she asked me how the problem could be rectified, I nearly lost my composure; after all, one of the reasons I had created Ophelia (the least prominent reason, but a reason nonetheless) was to use her body for my own experience. Now that she had brought the subject to light, however, I found it difficult to imagine proliferating with her on a physical level; I had grown close to her, and I cared for her like a father would for his daughter.

"Well," I said slowly, "there are several ways to appease these urges...I wish I were more confident, that I might discuss this further, but...unfortunately, I don't think I, with all my knowledge, can teach you about your body; you'll need to learn by experience, on your own."

The artificial woman bowed her head slightly before looking straight into my eyes and, forgetting inhibition, calmly saying, "If I need to learn by experience, then...I want to experience this with you. You have already taught me so much; I want to learn this from you as well, Maxwell."

At the moment she said my name, I looked into the eyes of my goddess and saw her, not as my student or as my creation, but as a woman: a human in body and in essence, having the same conflicts and emotions as any other person I had ever associated myself with. As she stood up and approached me, I thought of the way she had addressed me; she spoke to me as one person would another, not as a child would a parent or as a servant would its master. She had spoken to me on a first-name basis and crossed the bridge I had subconsciously been trying to create ever since she was born: she and I were on the same level, just two lonely people who needed each other as much as they needed the air they breathed. As far as I was concerned, she was no longer my goddess, my student, or my child: she was my dearest friend, my lover within my mind.

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Here's the list so far of hArtists who want to be included in the Nexus story. Their characters will, for the most part, be encountered by the Narrator and Ophelia in the order they're listed in below.

--UsakosKitty featuring: herself
--QuadManXXX featuring: Valerie and Marishka
--Gnomduploom featuring: Rene
--UsakoMan featuring: himself
--Steveman featuring: Steve and Yumi
--Dark-Kuja featuring: Janette and Jenny
--Chaosflare featuring: Chaos
--Dead-Dolls featuring: Melissa
--Ultamisia featuring: Aurlena
--Jezebel1669 featuring: Divebomb and Slice
--SpaceCoyote featuring: Levistus and Elyria
--Thebenja featuring: himself
--jenniforth featuring: herself
--thetruehentaiaddict featuring: Maria

Almost there!! Here's why I'm not starting your individual chapters yet: the next important scene between the Narrator and Ophelia is a sexually-graphic one. Therefore, for the sake of kicking off this big project, I'm going to lead into it with an explicit look at the first day Ophelia and her creator get it on, a fun little side-chapter that my other galleries will probably never see. Once I finish having my fun creating that scene (which will probably be called Chapter Three-and-a-Half or some such nonsense), it'll finally be time to start working with all of your awesome characters.

Shoot, this should've been here last night...Sorry about that, guys. Anyway, albeit several hours late, here's the second chapter of "Tales from the Nexus".

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((I have decided to start tracking each significant day I spend in the Nexus in order to show how quickly certain events occur. I will begin recording my exploits from the moment Ophelia was born, which I shall refer to as Day 0. I would like to remind those who have decided to follow my story that the Nexus is an unreal dimension, occurring only within the human mind; thus, it does not conform to the normal laws of space and time. In other words, if I was only really inside the Nexus for eight hours, I could actually experience as few as four hours of time or as many as sixty.))

Day 0: Hour 6

As I had expected of her, Ophelia knew how to behave like an adult from the moment of her birth, but she lacked the skills of literacy and speech. Actually, this is what I had been hoping for; now I was both her creator and her mentor. I spent the next few hours teaching my pupil the basic foundations of the English language, both written and spoken. Progress was slow at first, and I often became frustrated at the tedious chore, but in reality, I was enjoying every second I spent with her, regardless of how it was spent. She had the body of a woman my age, but she acted just like a young child during her studies; she would smile when I praised her and grow depressed when I had to correct her. She is simply adorable; I have failed to find any other word with which to describe her.

After six hours of study, I concluded Ophelia's lesson and allowed the both of us some rest. I had expected slow but steady progress throughout, but when she finally began to grasp some of the basic concepts I had taught her, she began to catch on very quickly; I had not expected her learning curve to jump so sharply. I began to wonder if, perhaps, she actually already knew how to read and write, how to speak and understand; it occurred to me that she might have had the knowledge all along, buried deep within her artificial mind, and my interaction with her had brought it to the surface. The thought occurred to me that she might really be much more intelligent than she seemed, and, though I was skeptical at the prospect, I dared to believe that, given time, she would grow even more quickly than I believed possible.

Immediately after Ophelia's first lesson was finished, I took a short walk outside my Room to stretch my legs. After a few minutes, I was ready to resume teaching my artificial counterpart, but I stopped at the door when I noticed the nameplate fastened to the outside of the door. I expected my name to be printed there, and it was, but so was Ophelia's. Upon further inspection, I found that the nameplate was stamped with a great number of other names as well: the names of all the characters I had ever created of my imagination. This made a lot of sense, but it also posed a very important question: why had I never encountered any of those characters in the Nexus before? I decided that question could wait; I made a mental note to find the answer once I finished passing my knowledge on to my artificial goddess.

Day 0: Hour 8

I resumed Ophelia's lessons, this time to teach her about basic mathematics. To my utter shock, she picked up each of the concepts I put before her almost instantly, and she became quite eager to learn more than I was ready to show her. I began to believe that she inherited my mathematical skills upon her genesis; in an hour and a half, she advanced from addition and subtraction up to and beyond basic algebra. Her abilities were, and still are, almost frightening; I had to wonder what else she was capable of.

In any case, I decided that I had taught Ophelia enough for the day, so I allowed her some free time to do whatever she pleased. Pleased with the speed at which she was learning from me, I decided that I needed not devote so much time to her lessons; two or three hours, spaced apart by several minutes, seemed appropriate for the material she was learning. A few minutes later, I began to feel my consciousness fade from the Nexus, meaning that my physical self was preparing to awaken. I looked back at my student, who seemed sad that I had to return to my fully-conscious existence. In an attempt to ease her depression, I slowly walked up to her and kissed her lightly on the cheek. She went red in the face, but she managed to smile all the same; my one anxiety relieved, I let myself float back to reality.

Day 0: Hour 10

When I had awoken, it was still late at night; I had only been asleep for four hours, and no sunlight parted the midnight blackness yet. Normally, insomnia would have set in, and I would drink some water and lay in bed, tossing and turning as I sought peaceful rest. Thankfully, though, sleep found me again rather quickly, and soon I found myself back in the Nexus, my body lightly dropping into the center of my Room. Ophelia was waiting for me; the moment I was fully aware, she leapt upon me and wrapped me in her arms, clinging to me like a child to its mother. She tugged on my arm, trying to drag me towards the door; I instantly knew that she was tired of the Room and wanted to be outside. Holding her hand so not to lose her in the maze of corridors, I opened the door and stepped out into the Nexus with her.

The first thing I immediately noticed as I closed the door to my Room was that the doors around me had been rearranged, per usual; all the nameplates showed new names, and I noticed that some of them had multiple names, some bearing more than a dozen. Once again, I had to wonder why none of the people listed on my door were ever around; hoping that my random outing with my goddess would help me get closer to the answers, I led her around the Nexus, turning corners whenever it struck our fancy. We were in the hallways for an hour and a half before Ophelia grew tired and, to my surprise, spoke to me, addressing me and asking if we would return to our Room soon. For a moment, I was speechless; my man-made goddess, who had not even known how to use her voice not ten hours ago, was speaking perfect English, as if simply walking around had caused an invisible key to turn in a lock in her mind and tap into her ability to speak. I was so happy for her breakthrough that I would not refuse her request, and we immediately began retracing our steps.

We were not long on our merry way when Ophelia and I realized that we were hopelessly lost; the Nexus had shifted multiple times since we had left our Room, and now there was no way of telling which way to go to get back. This was an obvious problem, for more than the obvious reasons; most prevalent were the effects that the stress of being lost were bound to have on the both of us. Not knowing what else to do, I turned to the power of the Nexus, hoping that I could somehow force it to align itself long enough for us to return to our Room. With the image of the Room clear in my mind, I summoned the Nexus' powers to me; I was unsure of what happened next, but a split-second later, Ophelia and I found ourselves standing just outside the door to our Room.

Once back in the safety of our Room, Ophelia caught my ear once more, asking that she have her own living space. Without thinking, I pulled a second ceiling out from the far wall and created a staircase in the center of the Room that led directly above it; calling it the Second Floor, I announced that, as a reward for being such a great student, I would make the Second Floor her territory, giving her the ability to change it as she saw fit. She immediately asked me how she could change it, and that caught me off-guard; I had no idea if she could tap into the powers of the Nexus as I could, since she was created within the Nexus and did not have a Room of her own. Challenging her, I created a soccer ball in the middle of the First Floor and politely commanded her to make it disappear again, if she could. My artificial goddess pointed two fingers at the ball, ordered it to vanish, and waved her hand; as if it were an illusion, the ball dissolved into thin air, leaving not a trace behind. That feat confirmed that she was just as able to use the Nexus as I was, and I explained to her that she could make the Second Floor her living space by using the Nexus' power in similar ways. Ophelia immediately went to work, customizing that Second Floor, as I pulled a bed out of the space in one corner of the First Floor and laid down on it, letting out a sigh. The day had been quite eventful, and my mind was weary; I hoped that I would awaken to reality soon and allow both myself and my goddess a short reprieve.

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Here's the list so far of hArtists who want to be included in the Nexus story.

--UsakosKitty featuring: herself
--QuadManXXX featuring: Valerie and Marishka
--Gnomduploom featuring: Rene
--UsakoMan featuring: himself
--Steveman featuring: Steve and Yumi
--Dark-Kuja featuring: Janette and Jenny
--Chaosflare featuring: Chaos
--Dead-Dolls featuring: Melissa
--Ultamisia featuring: Aurlena
--SpaceCoyote featuring: Levistus and Elyria
--Thebenja featuring: himself
--jenniforth featuring: herself

The way I've been writing so far, I'll probably start with the hArtist parts after the third or fourth chapter, depending on how much I write into one chapter. Please, be patient with me; I'm almost done setting up for this thing.

First of all, I'm not going to keep this story exclusive to hA like I thought I would; what fun would it be with such a limited audience, right? I WILL keep some of the chapters exclusive to this site, though: namely, those that involve my fellow hArtists and their characters. So, the main story chapters will be posted globally, but the narrator's interactions with any hArtists or their characters will remain strictly on this site.

Now, without any further jargon, I give you the complete first chapter of "Tales from the Nexus".

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Carl Jung, a famous psychologist, believed that mankind is bound together in an unconscious world, which he logically named the "collective unconscious". This unreal space, according to his theory, is the plane upon which all human minds are bonded; by exploring the collective unconscious, it is possible to gain knowledge from the minds of others, regardless of the real distance between them, by experiencing them in that unconscious space. Personally, I believe that Jung's beliefs were not that far from the truth. The plane mentioned in his theories has appeared to me as an impossibly complex labyrinth of endless blank corridors; I have spent hours at a time (or so it has seemed, for it exists outside the limits of normal space and time) wandering these hallways, opening each of the thousands of doors that line their walls and exploring the "Blank Rooms" inside. Every door is marked with someone's name, and each Room I have seen has differed from the one before it; some have been larger than others, some have sported rich decorations where others have been left bare, and some have been crowded with masses of people while others have seemed utterly devoid of life. No matter how many times I have tried to stay in one spot, I have always found myself in the Room bearing my own name whenever I have drifted off into this beautiful, desolate place; it is for this reason that I am sure this world, this "Nexus", must be the collective unconscious Jung spoke of.

What Jung didn't explain in his conjecture was the Nexus' tendency to change, as if it is alive and evolving. I have found, over the course of many visits to the Nexus, that my Room is never adjacent to the same neighbor Rooms; the names I find printed on the doors nearest to my own always show different names. The Rooms themselves also change, just as rapidly as the Nexus on which they are built; on the rare occasion that I find a Room I have visited before, I almost always find it altered in some way. Even my own Room has undergone some transformation; upon every new visit, I find that my own blank space has expanded somewhat. At first glance, I believed that my own Room would expand as I explored more of the Nexus, but when it continued to grow in size without further adventuring into the empty hallways, I understood that it was not my experience that shaped the Room but my own imagination. With that in mind, I realized that the Rooms in the Nexus are not gateways to other human minds; they are the representations of the mind of their owners, much like a person's clothes reflect some part of their personality. Understanding the true nature of the Nexus helped me to make a very important discovery: that the way my Room is constructed is limited only by my own imagination, as if it were softened clay in a sculpter's hands.

The ability to change my Room at will did not come easily, but with time and practice, I found that I was capable of changing the size of the space, the paint on the walls, the lights on the ceiling, and even the decor with which I eventually filled my personal void. With the power to change my own Room came the potential to have a real effect in others, but as quickly as the idea came to me, I dispelled it; changing another Room meant modifying another real person's mentality, and that could have resulted in devastating damage in the physical world. Knowing better than to test the boundaries of the mental plane, I began spending a great deal of my time in the Nexus cooped up in my Room, constantly shifting the walls and moving or removing furniture. I even found it possible to change my own image; I found it extremely entertaining for a short time to transform myself into various creatures, my morphing limited only by the thoughts that constantly flowed through my head. No matter how many times I redecorated or shape-shifted, though, I would not be happy with the result, as another idea would soon strike my fancy and force me to change everything again. After much frustration, I returned to my normal human form; being inhuman was fun, but it took great pains to continuously rearrange the bones and muscles in my body to support my altered shapes. I also stripped the Room of decoration and left the walls white; if I ever felt the urge to accomodate for a guest, I could always change the scenery at that point.

The thought of having a guest in my Room made me realize that I was desperately lonely in the Nexus; I had all the time in the world (in theory, anyway), but I had no one with whom to share it. Soon I found myself craving for companionship, pining for human contact with vigor I never thought myself capable of. Not knowing how to locate my friends and allies on the Nexus, outside of pure chance, I reasoned that the best alternative would be to create a new consciousness, one that would take human shape, and I would form it from my very thoughts with the help of the Nexus' limitless powers. Of course, this was a daunting task, and at first, progress was slow; after all, I could not simply summon another human being within my mind out of nothing but air. I wondered about some of the characters I had created for the sake of writing, but it did not take long for me to push those thoughts aside; thinking about it, I realized that those characters and I might not get along too well, and I knew that I wanted to make my artificial life form into someone I would not simply grow bored with and cast aside. Then, an idea struck me as I pondered over the creation of Adam and Eve, the first human beings made by God in the Christian Bible; I got the idea when I remembered how one of Adam's bones was buried in the ground, and Eve subsequently grew from it. That gave me a crazy idea: what if I could create an Eve of my own by using some part of my own body to mold her into existence?

So, in a desperate attempt to remedy my longing for human contact, I began experimenting to re-create the birth of Eve. In order to make her properly, I had to be sure she was constructed in the image of a woman; after all, what I desired was a human companion, not just a pet or familiar. Additionally, I wanted her to be able to act on her own; though I once thought of her being like a "golem", a mere mockery of a human without emotion or cognitive thought, I wanted her to be as human as I was, able to think and feel of her own volition. Finally, as I endeavored to create her real image, some perverse desire from the dark recesses of my mind coerced me into crafting her after the goddess Aphrodite: a lady of supreme beauty, one who could satisfy my animal desires on levels I might never visit in real life. Once I had finally set my creation's image in stone and cleared the Room of unnecessary furnishings, I began my procedure by offering up a part of my own body. The creation of my companion would require a plentiful sample of skin, muscle, and blood; thankfully, the time I spent experimenting with altering my body gave me the ability to make such a sacrifice without too much pain or hassle. Though it cost me several days, I was able to use my shape-shifting abilities to remove suitable samples of blood, muscle, and skin from my body without causing myself excessive harm. Laying those ingredients on the floor, I put the vivid image of my companion into my mind and summoned upon my discarded flesh and blood the powers of the Nexus. A blinding white light shot forward from the center of the room, forcing me to shield my eyes, as the tissue and humour I had laid on the ground began to contort and reshape itself, as if it had a mind of its own, into a completely new form. After a minute or so, the artificial flare subsided, and I lowered the hand that had guarded my eyes. Standing where my sacrifice had been made was my goddess, my "Eve", a glorious testament to the power of the Nexus. She opened her shining emerald-green eyes, tossed her long black hair lightly, and shifted the weight of her slender-yet-bountiful figure, looking around as she took in her surroundings. I walked forward, in utter awe of what I had created, raised my arms, and gently felt the smooth, pale skin of her shoulders with the lightest touch, as if I needed to make sure she was real.

"Ophelia," I said, breathlessly, as her eyes met my own. "You shall be called...'Ophelia'...my goddess."

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Here's the list so far of hArtists who want to be included in the Nexus story.

--UsakosKitty featuring: herself
--QuadManXXX featuring: Valerie and Marishka
--Gnomduploom featuring: Rene
--UsakoMan featuring: himself
--Steveman featuring: Steve and Yumi
--Dark-Kuja featuring: Janette and Jenny
--Chaosflare featuring: Chaos
--Dead-Dolls featuring: Melissa
--Ultamisia featuring: Aurlena
--SpaceCoyote featuring: Levistus and Elyria

I need a few more chapters to develop the story and build up the characters of the narrator and Ophelia, but once I get the general structure set up, I can start working with your individual characters. Just give me time; I won't let this fall by the wayside.

And now, I present to you, my kind readers, a preview from the first chapter of my brand-spankin'-new, hArtists-exclusive story: Tales from the Nexus.

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Carl Jung, a famous psychologist, believed that mankind is bound together in an unconscious world, which he logically named the "collective unconscious". This unreal space, according to his theory, is the plane upon which all human minds are bonded; by exploring the collective unconscious, it is possible to gain knowledge from the minds of others, regardless of the real distance between them, by experiencing them in that unconscious space. Personally, I believe that Jung's beliefs were not that far from the truth. The plane mentioned in his theories has appeared to me as an impossibly complex labyrinth of endless blank corridors; I have spent hours at a time (or so it has seemed, for it exists outside the limits of normal space and time) wandering these hallways, opening each of the thousands of doors that line their walls and exploring the "Blank Rooms" inside. Every door is marked with someone's name, and each Room I have seen has differed from the one before it; some have been larger than others, some have sported rich decorations where others have been left bare, and some have been crowded with masses of people while others have seemed utterly devoid of life. No matter how many times I have tried to stay in one spot, I have always found myself in the Room bearing my own name whenever I have drifted off into this beautiful, desolate place; it is for this reason that I am sure this world, this "Nexus", must be the collective unconscious Jung spoke of.

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My ideas about this story may create opprotunities for my mental self to go to unique places and meet people in a non-canon environment. Let me know if you want to know more!!