Existence is a canvas we are given to paint as we see fit.
Unknown - Unknown
Qualia: The subjective content of conscious experience. Each qualia is unique and represents the individuality of every being, the singular source of existence with which all creatures are endowed.
Book IV - Genesis - 999 Unknown Author
"The world as you know it is but an illusion, preventing your consciousness from evolving into something greater. The awakening of the qualia allows every individual to awaken their unique self within. These are not superhuman gifts; it is merely the awakening of what you already are. You called to us. And We have answered.
We are a people you will come to know as the Tohotsi. We guide the sub-species to evolve along the one and only path of existence.
Accept your awakening and rise to the summit of existence, or refuse and sink into the void of insignificance."
These words, presumably translated from an ancient tongue, were heard by the entire population of Earth at the exact same moment, regardless of location or circumstance.
Atlas was sitting on a bench at Bircson University when the message reached him. There wasn't much special about him. He wasn't ugly, but he wasn't gorgeous either. He wasn't stupid, but he wasn't brilliant. He wasn't short, but he wasn't a giant. In short, Atlas was average.
The very definition of average.
An existence that wasn't sad, but lacked any grand importance. But Atlas didn't even seem to notice; he was happy with what he had. Sure, sometimes everything felt a bit boring, but that was it, no flashes of brilliance, no calling to greatness. He wanted nothing and would have nothing. This was the life that he, Atlas, had accepted to lead.
Suddenly, in the middle of the day, with the sun at its zenith during the radiant Barcs summer, Atlas felt an immense fatigue swallow him whole. It emanated from his head: a blinding pain that seemed to originate from a plane completely untethered to reality. The pain spread through his entire body like a lightning strike, leaving his defenses no time to react.
The suffering was brief, but it was the most intense he had ever experienced. Like a brutal wake-up call, Atlas felt a lucidity he had never known before. But this feeling lasted only a fraction of a second before the crushing fatigue returned, dragging him down into a deep sleep, right there on the very bench where he had been sitting moments prior.
It was a dreamless sleep.
When Atlas finally opened his eyes, time seemed suspended. The bench he was sitting on, just seconds ago in his own reality, was now cracked and covered in a thick layer of dust. Vegetation had reclaimed the area, weaving through the gaping fissures of the old university buildings. For Atlas, time had stood still, but the world told a different story: it was as if... an incalculable number of years had passed.
His first instinct was to scan his surroundings: no one. Everything was arranged exactly as it had been the moment he fell asleep, but every object looked ancient, crumbling, and weathered by an indefinable age.
He then examined his own body. He was emaciated, though he had never been heavily built, the difference wasn't staggering. However, his brown hair, once mid-length, had grown so long it now brushed his ankles.
What he couldn't see, however, was the spark, faint, perhaps, but undeniably real, deep within his eyes. His azure pupils reflected something more... something different. An imperceptible glow to anyone not paying close attention.
Without knowing it, Atlas had transcended his human consciousness. His qualia, meanwhile, had begun its long evolution.